The Dallas City Council has a $1.1 billion bond to spend. And it's facing disconnects on what voters should be asked to spend that money on.
At the same time, advocates are calling on the council for more housing opportunities, funding for arts centers — and an increased investment in parks and recreation spaces.
And it was clear during Wednesday's marathon meeting that council members, city staff and the city's 15-person appointed bond task force's have different priorities.
The Community Bond Task Force’s delivered a bond recommendation that prioritized streets and parking — allocating over half of the city’s capacity to the two categories.
But Dallas city staff’s recommendation is to prioritize streets and housing — while lowering the amount of funds parks and recreation centers would get.
Council members questioned how each group got to their allocations — and why their initial bond considerations had not been factored into the final product.
Dallas housing, parks and arts advocates packed council chambers to speak about the bond recommendations. Most speakers called on council members to prioritize more affordable housing — over the parks and recreation.
Proponents of more greenspaces in the city say parks lead to more economic development and equity across the city — an idea that some council members have questioned.
“A city will be remembered by the policies of which it embraces,” Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn King Arnold said at the meeting. “The outcome of this bond should reflect who we are as a city and what our messages have been.”
Some council members said there should be a clear distinction between what the city needs — and what it wants. And those needs should be guided by the city’s racial equity pledge adopted late last year.
‘Can’t just knock the number down’
The two bond allocation recommendations have two distinct differences. The task force’s recommendation allocates over $300 million to the city’s parks and recreation centers and city staff’s recommendation prioritizes funding for streets — just over $500 million.
Assistant City Manager Robert Perez said another difference between the bond task force’s recommendations and the city’s — other than the allocation dollars — is where that money is being spent.
“We really tried to give some weight to the equity, but at the same time we tried to ensure the disparity between the districts wasn’t so great,” Perez said.
Arun Agarwal, who is the chair of the CBTF, said during the meeting that in the 2017 bond package the city allocated over $500 million to streets — but has only used around $400 million of it. So, the task force decided to allocate around that amount.
But city officials told council members on Wednesday that those funds have are slated to be used for 2017 bond packages within the next few years.
“I think that’s an important point of clarification that you can’t just knock the number down because some of the money hasn’t been spent,” District 13 Council Member Gay Donnell Willis said. “Especially in this marketplace.”
During the meeting Perez said that city staff initial told council members $100 million a year was needed to maintain the city's streets — but that figure is actually closer to $266 million.
Some council members expressed their concern over the large parks allocation recommended by the task force. But others — like District 2 Council Member Jesse Moreno and District 11 Council Member Kathy Stewart — both said during the meeting they either agreed with the task force recommendation or wanted more.
Agarwal was appointed to run the task force by Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson — and serves as the president of the city’s park and recreation board. Along with Agarwal, five other park board members also served on the bond task force or one of its subcommittees.
As part of his reelection campaign, Johnson pushed for Dallas to be a leader in green spaces around the nation and has claimed parks are the best investment of taxpayer money.
Johnson was absent from Wednesday's meeting due to medical reasons, according to a memo submitted to the city secretary's office.
‘The message we’re sending’
Housing advocates showed up in force to continue calling for $200 million to help spur the building and preservation of affordable housing, and another $35 million for homeless housing and shelter facilities.
That’s well above the $25 million the city’s bond task force allocated. Even after city staff upped the recommendation for housing to $70 million, advocates told council members it is insufficient.
“We must include at least $200 million dollars in the bond package for housing. Anything less would put a Band-Aid on a bleeding wound,” said Diane Ragsdale, a former council member and retired leader of the Innercity Community Development Corporation in South Dallas.
Recent studies have found Dallas has a shortage of over 33,000 affordable rental units, which will more than double by the end of the decade. The city is also short about 60,000 for-sale homes that middle-income earners like teachers and bus drivers can afford.
“A park’s great, arts are awesome, but none of that has any value when people are struggling to find a place to live,” Gerardo Venegas said.
Other speakers pointed to the council’s pledge to pursue racial equity through it’s new housing plan, called Dallas Housing Policy 2033, and pointing to bond funding as a key to making that plan possible. The bond package is a statement of values, said Sharla Myers, CEO of the Community Council of Greater Dallas.
“The message we’re sending whether we mean it or not is that we either don’t believe affordable housing is a problem in Dallas, or we don’t care,” Myers said.
While speakers were clear about exactly what they thought should get more funding, council members mostly had questions about the logic of recommendations presented by both the task force and the staff. But some also expressed concern over what they say is a massive parks allocation.
“I love parks, I just want to go ahead and start there,” Bazaldua said. “But I also really want to be able to afford to live in this city.”
Bazaldua said at the end of the meeting that he hopes to see more funding for the city’s arts and cultural centers, more housing — a minimum of $150 million in allocations — and to see a decrease in the parks funding.
District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn questioned whether the city should put bond funds into permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless people instead of finding ways to increase federal funding for these programs.
Mendelsohn also questioned why the city’s bond measures don’t prioritize accessibility. It’s been three decades since the Americans with Disabilities Act passed, and yet many city facilities aren’t accessible to people who use wheelchairs or have other mobility issues.
“I think its time for us to make sure that we actually are an inclusive city, we talk about it all the time here,” Mendelsohn said. “Projects should have had an equity score, those points should have been added…these are the people’s buildings and they cant even get into them.”
‘Take the ride’
At the end of hours of discussion over the two proposals, council members said they needed guidance on what to do next.
“There was a lot of discussion and a lot of feedback, but I don’t know what we do…with that feedback,” Blackmon said.
And council members raised concerns about the looming bond proposition election.
For council members to ask Dallas voters to decide on the billion-dollar bond proposal in May, they need to call the election in February.
Some council members say a November election would be a better option — and would give them time to discuss the bond more.
“I strongly urge council members to vocalize support for a November election,” Mendelsohn said. “Clearly, this bond needs some additional refinement.”
Mendelsohn said city hall is facing many fiscal responsibilities — but the most important was addressing the unfunded liability in the city’s pension systems.
“We cannot lose any officers and I think all of you know we are having a very difficult time meeting our recruiting goals,” Mendelsohn said. “We could be facing a public safety crisis with just the appearance of a lack of serious consideration for the pension, prior to issuing additional debt.”
Blackmon also agrees with having a November election — citing not wanting to rush the consideration of the bond allocations.
City Manager T.C. Broadnax told the council that if he doesn’t hear differently, staff will take their recommendation as the foundation for future discussions.
But some council members were not in agreement with Broadnax’s assumption.
“I don’t agree that that’s the number that we start with. I didn’t hear that from everyone,” Council Member Kathy Stewart said. “I think we’ve got too much in streets and not enough in parks…I didn’t hear that we were all comfortable with [$225 million] for parks.”
“You are correct,” Broadnax said. “But I didn’t hear everyone was comfortable with the task force recommendation…when it comes to finality of it…ultimately that’s the council decision.”
Broadnax explained the recommendation is just a starting point for future discussions and that those numbers can either go up or down depending on what happens during those council talks.
Broadnax says there is no set date for the next bond briefing but it could be in early January. In the meantime, council members will reach out to city staff to finalize their recommendations and meet again in early 2024 to decide what to ask Dallas voters to issue debt for.
“I know that we got our task for us,” Blackmon said. “I do think that this is important work that our constituents and the residents expect us to do and we signed up for it. We bought the ticket — take the ride.”
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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