Dallas Council Moves Forward With $310.5M For Parks, $61M For Housing in May 4 Bond Election
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A May 4 Dallas bond election is imminent, and Dallas City Council members unofficially agreed Wednesday to designate about $310.5 million for parks and $61 million for housing.
The Dallas City Council was operating as a “Committee of the Whole” during Wednesday’s meeting and took straw votes on the bond allocations, therefore no binding decisions were made. The proposal they ultimately voted on, brought forward by Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins and read into the record by District 12 Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn, was approved in a 9-6 vote.
Elected officials voting in favor of the proposal included Atkins, Mendelsohn, Mayor Eric Johnson, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn King Arnold, District 2 Councilman Jesse Moreno, District 3 Councilman Zarin Gracey, District 6 Councilman Omar Narvaez, District 10 Councilman Kathy Stewart, and District 14 Councilman Paul Ridley.
Those voting against the proposal included District 1 Councilman Chad West, District 5 Councilman Jaime Resendez, District 7 Councilman Adam Bazaldua, District 9 Councilwoman Paula Blackmon, District 11 Councilwoman Jaynie Schultz, and District 13 Councilwoman Gay Donnell Willis,
A series of town hall meetings will be scheduled in April.
In a staff memorandum issued Friday, a variety of bond allocations were proposed by council members but none of those got off the ground during a lengthy meeting Wednesday.
“It’s very clear that no one is going to walk away 100 percent happy,” Bazaldua said. “I think it’s important to make sure that compromises have been felt across the board. Across the board is not just within the allocation buckets but also in individual council members’ priorities.”
A total of $75 million in “discretionary funds” has been allocated to the mayor and all 14 council members to distribute as they choose within their respective districts. Mendelsohn confirmed to CandysDirt.com late Wednesday that “the full $5M for D12 will go to parks and has been submitted to the bond office.”
Watch the Jan. 31 special-called Dallas City Council bond meeting here.
Housing Could Get $61M in Bond Funds
Councilman West said he was disappointed housing didn’t get a larger piece of the pie but noted that the allocations for economic development and homelessness could also help with providing local shelter.
“Some of the other categories, I foresee us being able to use toward housing,” he said, referencing a plan to advocate for a mixed-use housing project on top of a library in District 1. “Economic development dollars and also the homelessness category, when you add all those up, we do get closer to $150 [million] or even more toward housing.”
In the unofficially approved proposal, about $43.5 million was pledged to libraries, $29.2 million to economic development, and $8.5 million to homelessness.
Interim Director of Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization Cynthia Rogers-Ellickson said if the bond is approved by voters in May, staff plans to funnel those funds to projects in the three Southern Dallas “target areas” identified in Dallas Housing Policy 2033.
“The housing bond that’s now here is for infrastructure that is tied to development projects,” Ellickson said. “We’ve never had that separated before. We’ve always worked out of Economic Development’s bond … to do both activities — construction and development of units as well as infrastructure. This is just separating out the infrastructure piece from economic development activity.”
Parks Could Get $310.5M in Bond Funds
Councilwoman Stewart, one of the newest elected officials, said she was a passionate supporter of parks. She said she attended a Park and Recreation Board meeting this week and was impressed with the time volunteer public servants put into the project list.
“It wasn’t easy,” she said. “These people roll up their sleeves and they go around and around. They do it well and they do it with respect … I’m thinking about all of the work that went into these numbers and how difficult it has been.”
Councilman Gracey expressed concern that if parks funding were to dip below $300 million, proposed cuts by the Park and Recreation Department appeared punitive and were unacceptable to long-neglected areas of Southern Dallas. Gracey emphasized a proposed reduction of funding for a project at Glendale Park.
“I think that’s absolutely unacceptable and it’s absolutely not equitable,” he said. “For me to be sitting up here this morning trying to go around lobbying, using political capital for $4 million for a park in Southern Dallas people have been asking for since 1980 is absolutely unacceptable.”
Park and Recreation Director John Jenkins said his staff and the parks advisory board were forced to make cuts based on different funding scenarios, not knowing where the council would land on funding. The department has faced heat from skate park advocates, fans of Old City Park, and White Rock Lake dredging supporters, all of whom stand to get less than they’ve asked for in the bond.
“I would never be punitive toward any of you all or any community,” Jenkins said. “That’s not who I am.”
Mendelsohn’s Proposal And Talking Points
Mendelsohn, who ultimately supported Atkins’ proposal, stated for the record that she prefers a November election rather than May and didn’t think the city should use its entire $1.25 billion bond capacity. She also repeatedly questioned why more funding wasn’t going toward information technology in light of a cyberattack that temporarily halted operations last year.
“The bigger risk we have is to not invest in IT,” Mendelsohn said, repeating a statement from Chief Information Officer Bill Zielinski. “Every other thing we do does not matter if IT fails. If you guys haven’t learned that yet, if you do not include money for IT, when it goes down, it is your fault.”
City officials said they were cautious about allocating a small amount in bond dollars because their hands are tied for future expenditures if it’s not approved. The proposal ultimately approved included $5 million for Information Technology.
Mendelsohn said she supported the Atkins plan because of strong numbers for streets, parks, and public safety.
“I think we get closer to what was originally envisioned by our bond task force by saying housing at $61 million,” she said. “Again, we have more than a dozen ways to fund affordable housing in this city and taking out debt to do it is just a bad fiscal policy in my opinion.”
The proposal contained nothing for upgrades at the deteriorating Dallas City Hall. City Manager T.C. Broadnax said council members could continue submitting amendments until a binding vote on the ballot is taken later this month. A May election must be called by Feb. 14.
“At the end of the day, y’all have complete control over every proposition and every dollar,” Broadnax told the council.
