Dallas Spends Millions on Consulting Fees And Plans, But What do Taxpayers Get in Return? 

When you start doing the math it really adds up.

The Dallas City Council authorized almost half a million dollars last month for legislative consultants. Another $306,704 was recently funneled to TDA Consulting Inc., to gather community input and draft a revised version of the city’s Comprehensive Housing Policy, and $100,000 to Community Equity Strategies, a different set of experts who are tasked with implementing 11 housing equity strategies. 

Included in the contract is more than $27,000 for food and supplies for community engagement events.

We went to one of those events and there were 11 people in attendance, four of whom claimed a Dallas address. We know what happens when you assume, but it’s likely a lot of sandwiches got thrown in the trash that night. 

California-based Matrix Consulting Strategies was paid $109,500 in 2020 and $133,870 last year to tell city leaders what’s wrong with the Development Services Department. At the meeting in which those results were reviewed, Dallas Builders Association Executive Officer Phil Crone pointed out that everyone with a vested interest in the department and its permitting debacle already knew what was wrong. They just want it fixed. 

“In the big picture, it didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know already,” Crone said of the Matrix report. “However, I like some of the organizational recommendations. Specifically, they identified the silos that exist between the Planning Department and Development Services and the need to bring certain things like plan review for conservation districts under the department that actually does plan reviews.”  

How Much Does The City of Dallas Spend on Consulting Fees?

We reached out to every Dallas City Council member and Mayor Eric Johnson and did not get a clear answer about how much is spent annually on consulting fees because frankly, it’s not a clear-cut matter. 

“I look forward to your findings,” District 10 Councilman Adam McGough wrote in response to a request for comment on the city’s consulting contracts. “I ask these questions often.” 

We reached out to Dallas Budget Director Janette Weedon, asking how much the city spends on consulting fees per year. At press time, we had not received a response, but we’ll update this story when more information is made available.

From our own research, we can tell that there’s about $4 million in the current budget for everything from payroll and timekeeping consultants to pavement management consultants. In fact, the word “consult” comes up 19 times in the 2023 Dallas city budget. 

Many of the references aren’t tied to a dollar amount. For example, a strategic priority might be identified as “dam inspection, consultation, rehabilitation, and erosion studies for various dams.” 

In response to our open records requests for the scope of work and consulting fees for the Racial Equity Plan, we were told the city has no documents that meet that criteria. 

What Does The City do With Consulting Studies?

Mayor Pro Tem and District 1 Councilman Chad West said the city generally benefits from consulting studies and reports that review city processes, staffing, and systems, and compares them to best-class cities. 

One example is the Development Services’ Permit Office, where most staff members have been “ingrained” in the system for years, West said. 

“No staff member wants to point fingers at each other or at other departments regarding inefficiencies and problems,” West said. “Having an independent third party to dig in and understand underlying problems and lay them out has been essential in helping us, the policymakers, know where we need to apply resources.” 

The Development Services report was agreed upon prior to the hire of department Director Andrew Espinoza in June. 

Espinoza, who serves as the department director and chief building official, was already implementing sweeping changes above and beyond what the consultant recommended when the report was presented to the city council earlier this month. He said that while he already had a pretty good idea of what corrective measures were needed, he appreciated the guidance of professional consultants. 

“As a department head, I think I know where I want to steer the ship,” Espinoza told CandysDirt.com in October. “Having a professional consultant as a co-captain is very helpful. He’s engaged with other captains and can help navigate busy waters.”

District 13 Councilwoman Gay Donnell Willis said hiring consultants, “at least to me, starts with a demonstrated need in better serving residents.”

“Then, following through with a proper scope and procurement process to identify the best fit (expertise, cost, value, timing, and various other factors specific to the objective),” Willis wrote in an email to CandysDirt.com. “So, any given year could vary.  Keep in mind that there are many studies, assessments, etc. that are conducted in-house.”

The councilwoman added that consultants ideally guide sound policymaking.

 “As in the private sector, consultants are usually hired for a few reasons: subject-matter expertise, objectivity, or dedicated and focused attention, as staff has their plate full serving Dallas residents with their own jobs and has to manage that productivity,” Willis said. “With all that is involved in creating a plan, such as qualitative and quantitative research, planning and executing community engagement, and synthesizing data, turning to experts is not uncommon in private and public sectors.”

Consultants Can Offer Expertise in Visionary Plans 

Another good example of when it’s time to call in the experts is the housing policy, West explained. 

“The city’s housing department is composed of many talented individuals who are skilled in processing applications, issuing and managing [requests for proposals] and contracts, and applying rules to programs,” he said. “But city staff members, from what I understand, do not have experience in drafting visionary plans and goals for workforce and market-rate housing as compared to other cities across the country.”

The Washington, D.C.-based consultants assigned to the Comprehensive Housing Policy are performing tangible work that can be used to guide policy.

Michele Williams of Community Equity Strategies issued this “draft framework” on the city’s revised housing policy in a Nov. 9 email to those who have participated in public workshops. 

Liaisons, Lobbyists, And Legislative Contracts 

The common practice of municipalities hiring in-house government liaisons or legislative lobbyists is widely accepted as one of the costs of doing business, akin to paying fees to the Texas Municipal League or National League of Cities in exchange for services provided to member cities. 

District 12 Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn said she supports hiring legislative lobbyists with varying areas of expertise and knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of certain types of law, such as water rights.

“Water law is the most complicated part of the law,” she said. “When the city is working on legislation to acquire, maintain and protect our water rights, do you think I am qualified to go down and advocate for that? No one on the council has that experience. We have one legislative consultant who does nothing but water lobbying. That’s why you do 20-, 30-, and 50-year planning to ensure the city has water. All the consultants have their own roles.”

A Texas Tribune report in March 2021 referenced the argument for lobbying limits as a “conservative rallying point, focused for public argument’s sake on whether taxpayers want local governments lobbying to increase state spending that’s funded by those same taxpayers.”

“Local officials have argued, with some success, so far, that their lobbyists are keeping an eye on state lawmakers on behalf of those voters,” the report states. “And that the voters would boot them if they didn’t like it.”

Mendelsohn acknowledged that some people believe municipalities should oppose taxpayer-funded lobbyists. 

“I’m a representative of my residents, and anyone I hire is representative of the issue I want them to talk about,” she said. “If I spend all my time in Austin, how am I representing my residents? I can only be in one place at one time. What would be wasteful is if we’re hiring them as staff. What we’re paying as a contract rate is probably a quarter of what we’d pay to hire them [as full-time employees]. What would they do on the off-legislative years?”

Here’s a look at the legislative lobbying contracts unanimously approved by the Dallas City Council Oct. 26. There was no discussion about the contracts during the meeting. 

The contracts span from November 2022 to September 2023 and include the following, for a total of $485,375:

• Burkland Consulting, state legislative services, $50,000
• Campos Consulting, state legislative services, $60,000
• Kwame Walker & Associates, state legislative services, $70,000
• Paul Schlesinger, federal legislative services,  $74,375
• Randy C. Cain, state legislative services, $71,000
• Capital Edge Strategies, federal legislative services, $160,000

Additional Comments

Two Dallas City Council members responded to CandysDirt.com Friday afternoon after this story was published.

A District 2 council assistant told us that Councilman Jesse Moreno was at a conference and would respond to our questions when he returns.

District 11 Councilwoman Jaynie Schultz forwarded our questions to Dallas Public Information Officer Page Jones Clark, who issued the following statement:

“There are a number of reasons consultants are employed by local governments. Consultants are brought on for their expertise to advise how to best execute needed changes; they allow the City to ramp up for an acute need and subsequently ramp back down quickly without the year-round expenses of a full-time employee. As you noted, this is a very common practice among governmental entities. Local municipalities will often team up on a shared consultant need for cost savings.

Regarding legislative consultants, these are people who help us identify and leverage millions of dollars in federal and state funding for city projects, as well as on policy directives the City Council has voted on for the benefit of our residents.  What we spend on those services comes back exponentially. The legislative process can be complex and intensive, making it essential to have knowledgeable advisers who can effectively negotiate the rapidly-changing legislative environment. Certainly, local officials are the best advocates for the residents of Dallas. However, the dynamic day-to-day local needs do not recede while the Legislature is in session.”

Recommended Reading

Want to see what consultants are actually hired to do? These are some of the documents we received from our open records request: