Public Safety, Cybersecurity, Housing Addressed in First Dallas City Council Budget Workshop
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Public safety is the No. 1 priority for Dallas residents, but a four-hour, 118-slide budget presentation Tuesday did little to assuage concerns about the city’s police and fire pension fund, which is about $3 billion short and a primary reason why it’s difficult to recruit and retain officers.
About $1.7 billion is budgeted for transportation and infrastructure in the proposed 2023-24 budget, the largest priority area allocation, followed by about $1.2 billion for public safety. About $52.4 million is proposed for housing and homelessness solutions.
City Manager T.C. Broadnax is recommending a $4.63 million budget. By comparison, last year’s adopted budget was $4.51 billion. The city manager is recommending an 8.1 percent general fund increase over last year’s adopted budget.
The budget includes a property tax rate reduction from 74.58 cents per $100 assessed valuation to 73.93 cents per $100 assessed valuation. That didn’t sit well with District 12 Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn.
“I am disappointed with the proposed tax rate that it’s not more significant of a decrease,” she said. “Every year that I’ve served we have had large increases in our tax revenue, especially coming from our existing property taxpayers. Rapid growth of the city budget is problematic and is outpacing the growth of our residents’ income.”
Property taxes have increased by $371 million for existing property taxpayers in the past four years, Mendelsohn added.
Budget town hall meetings will be held through Aug. 24, and council members will likely make amendments to the proposal before adoption in late September.
The city manager’s recommended budget is available for review online.
Chief Financial Officer Jack Ireland and Budget & Management Services Director Janette Weedon presented a lengthy presentation during an Aug. 8 City Council workshop.
The presentation shows that outgoing expenses will exceed revenue beginning in 2025, a prediction that raised red flags for several council members.
“Our goal is to always deliver a balanced budget to the City Council,” Weedon said. “When we go through budget development for next year, we look at our revenues again. We look at expenses, and we adjust accordingly.”
Housing And Homelessness Solutions
District 1 Councilman Chad West suggested looking for ways the city can generate more revenue without the burden falling on the individual taxpayer — such as allowing for more housing density.
Broadnax said the council has set forth a policy for the city to increase density with multifamily housing through the Public Facility Corporation and other partnerships.
“I would hope that you have seen an increase in the level of projects and number of units over the last several years,” he said. “I do believe there’s still probably room to grow there but it helps us focus on the central thing the council has focused on the last several years: economic development, new tax base, and creating opportunities … to utilize land that is not being utilized.”
On the topic of homeless solutions, officials said that through a partnership with Housing Forward, the city aims to house 6,000 homeless individuals by 2025.
City leaders have also touted a $1.7 million addition to a minor home repair program for senior citizens.
Nine code enforcement positions and $1.4 million are budgeted for a new short-term rental registration and inspection program. The controller’s office will continue to monitor the collection of hotel occupancy taxes, Ireland said.
West asked for a breakdown of the total costs anticipated for short-term rental regulation and enforcement before the budget is passed.
Public Safety
David Elliston, president of the Dallas Police Retired Officers Association, pleaded with the council Tuesday to address the funding shortage in the pension system.
“There are approximately 5,000 retirees and their beneficiaries who are dependent upon this plan,” he said. “Unless they worked elsewhere in addition to working for the city, they do not qualify for Social Security.”
In 2017, the city, pension system, and state legislature changed the pension plan from a 4 percent annual adjustment to an ad-hoc cost of living adjustment that can only be paid once the plan reaches 70 percent funding, Elliston said. That milestone won’t be reached for another 50 years, he added.
“Police and fire have not received a cost of living adjustment since 2016,” he said. “Our pensions are quickly eroding away.”
He asked that the city not move forward with a general obligation bond until a plan is in place to fix the pension system.
Retired Dallas Police Officer Larry Eddington echoed those sentiments.
“Right now we are short about 600-plus officers in Dallas,” he said. “That’s a tremendous number, lost because the pension literally got attacked. Our pensions should be backed up with pension obligation bonds. It is necessary right now.”
Ireland said Tuesday the city plans to hire 290 police officers and 100 firefighters. A significant amount of overtime has been budgeted in recent years “because we can’t meet our minimum staffing level,” the CFO explained.
“We need to continue to fund overtime to fill the seats and then we need to get new recruits into place, get them through the training, and get them into the stations before we can start reducing the overtime,” Ireland said. “This year is kind of a double hit. It is funding the overtime to meet the minimum staffing requirements and it’s funding the new positions to build up the staffing level.”
Cybersecurity
The city announced last week that employee data was likely breached during a May ransomware attack.
“While the investigation is ongoing, it has been determined that an unauthorized third party accessed certain servers and downloaded some data from the servers between April 7, 2023, and May 4, 2023, city officials said in an Aug. 3 press release.
“On June 14, 2023, and in the weeks following, the investigation determined that files potentially containing sensitive information of certain individuals were accessed by the unauthorized third party, including full name, home address, Social Security number, date of birth, insurance information, clinical information, claims information, diagnosis, and other identifiers.”
On Tuesday, The Dallas Morning News reported that hackers with Royal Ransomware gained access to the personal information of more than 26,000 people.
City officials have remained tight-lipped on how they’re addressing the matter, citing security concerns, but they noted in Tuesday’s budget workshop that measures are being taken to prevent future attacks.
Chief Information Officer Bill Zielinski told reporters during a webinar last week that $9.7 million is specifically targeted for cybersecurity in the 2024 budget and $10.5 million has been flagged for such purposes in the FY25 budget.
The next budget workshop is scheduled Aug. 16.
