City Hall Roundup: Blackmon’s Budget Priorities, Downtown Crime Drops
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Summer break is winding down for Dallas City Council members, and a tough budget session lies ahead for City Hall.
As previously reported, a series of budget town halls are scheduled across town so residents and stakeholders can meet with officials and express their views on how the city should prioritize spending. Some hard choices might have to be made, with staff projecting as much as a $36.5 million deficit for FY 2025-2026 just last month.
CandysDirt.com reached out to every city council member to ask about their thoughts on how to tackle the anticipated budget shortfall. Save for one, the council members (or one of their staff) either did not respond, said they couldn’t comment by our publishing deadline, or declined to comment ahead of the budget town halls and staff’s introduction of a budget proposal on August 12.
I suppose even elected officials deserve some vacation time, and it’s important to note that a handful of council members are freshmen who might understandably be reluctant to step out in front of a potentially contentious budget process at City Hall.
Anyway, here’s what Council Member Paula Blackmon (District 9) had to say about the deficit. We’ve also got some promising news coming out of downtown:
Blackmon’s Budget Balancing Act
Council Member Blackmon was elected back in May to her fourth consecutive term representing District 9, which includes neighborhoods around White Rock Lake like Lakewood, Lochwood, and Northeast Dallas.
She told CandysDirt.com that her funding priorities included public safety, infrastructure improvements, more property tax relief, and maintaining funding for quality of life expenditures.
Acknowledging that the budget will lead to some hard choices, she cautioned against eliminating “essential city services.”
“We as a city must look holistically at our revenue and expenditures and come up with innovative ways to close the gap,” Blackmon said. “Leveraging city assets to bring in additional revenue and analyzing fees to ensure cost recovery for services can assist with this. Finding ways to trim excess and better leverage potential revenue sources while maintaining strong core services is essential for our vibrant and growing city.”
Among the things she doesn’t want to see suffer cuts are parks, arts and culture programs, and libraries. She also said she is going to fight to keep Skillman Southwestern Branch Library open, which she described as a vital resource for area residents.
Crafting a budget is always a balancing act, and it’s all the more difficult when there’s a significant discrepancy between revenue and spending. While town halls have yet to be held, the city’s latest community survey was pretty clear: the most important city services in need of improvement are public safety and infrastructure maintenance. Blackmon seems to agree.
While she campaigned against the HERO amendments to the city charter and more recently voted to grow the Dallas Police Department at a more modest pace than some of her colleagues would prefer, she said she got the message from Dallas voters after two of the amendments passed.
“Our top priority should be public safety, and voters reinforced this by mandating that 50% of all new revenue be allocated to uniformed officers and their pensions,” she wrote in an op-ed published by The Dallas Morning News last November. “While public safety has always been a focus for this council, and violent crime is on the decline, residents feel more can be done. We must dedicate more resources to protecting private property, whether it’s packages stolen off porches, car break-ins, or slow police response times. Residents must feel safe in their homes and neighborhoods, and it’s our duty to ensure that.”
She reiterated this stance on public safety in her statement to CandysDirt.com, pointing to measures the city council has taken to bolster DPD and stating she was dedicated to achieving a “sizable public safety budget.”
“I encourage residents to attend the upcoming town halls and look forward to incorporating their feedback into our budget decisions,” she said. “Together, we can navigate these challenges and work towards a more financially stable future for our city.”
There are budget town halls scheduled in District 9 on August 21 (virtual) and August 28 (in-person). For details on the meetings and a full revised schedule for the whole city, click here.
Police Clock Sharp Drop in Downtown Crime
City data indicates that crime in the central business district is down more than 25% this year compared to the same period in 2024.
Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux posted about the decrease on social media earlier this week.
The news was welcomed by stakeholders like Downtown Dallas Inc. president and CEO Jennifer Scripps following scrutiny over rising crime in the city center over the past few years.
“So we weren’t surprised, but we’re certainly not declaring victory either,” she told CBS Texas News.
Violent crime and property crime reportedly fell by 23% and 26%, respectively. Scripps credited an increase in the number of officers operating downtown and a comprehensive safety plan developed by Boston Consulting Group.
The significant drop in crime will likely be highlighted at the next downtown public safety meeting scheduled for August 14. Comeaux, City Manager Kimberly Tolbert, and Council Members Jesse Moreno (District 2) and Paul Ridley (District 14) are slated to attend the meeting, which will be held at J. Erik Jonsson Central Library from 6 to 7 p.m.
While things might be looking rosier downtown, nearby Deep Ellum has been jumping bad. The neighborhood’s seen a sharp increase in criminal activity over the summer, so much so that some landlords are calling for a temporary shutdown of the entertainment district, according to KERA News.
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need to kill the DEI activities. how much are we spending on DEI items
Dude, what are you talking about? What does anything in this article have to do with DEI? Can you even name a DEI program?