Dallas, TX
Dallas charter amendment plan is a progressive mess
We’ve worried for some time that our Dallas City Council is becoming disconnected from the people of this city. Now the evidence is in, and it’s damning.
Most of the 15 proposed charter amendments the council is scheduled to debate today demonstrate that too much of the council is out of touch with what residents want this city focused on and what they think of the job the city council is doing setting policy for Dallas.
The charter review process presented the council with a golden opportunity to look seriously at the function of local government and to recommend to voters reforms that could increase efficiency, lower cost, raise voter participation and improve Dallas’ standing as a city on the rise.
Instead, the amendments on the table largely serve to give the council more power, more money and less accountability while also indulging progressive pieties.
The first proposed charter amendment on the council’s agenda is a rambling “preamble” to the charter that promises Dallas’ commitment to “justice and equity for all residents.” Modeled on a New York statement and dripping with language ripped from a cultural studies seminar, the proposed preamble is not the inclusive statement its authors intend it to be.
From the holier-than-thou land acknowledgement that disregards the complex local history of indigenous tribes, to the commitment to relieve systemic inequities, to the assurance of providing “trauma-informed child and youth educators” and “trauma-informed health and mental health care,” the statement makes promises it cannot keep while emphasizing racial and class divisions.
Even as we wrote this editorial, there was a behind-the-scenes scramble to soften the excited undergraduate tone, but the effect appears to be the same.
From there, it’s on to the money, for the council naturally. Some council members want a big raise, from $60,000 a year to $125,000. No one doubts that serving on the City Council is hard work. But it’s also a volunteer role, or at least it was intended to be.
The people who formed Dallas’ strong-manager government did so to avoid creating the sort of professional political class that has corrupted so many American cities. The current council appears to want to reverse the intentions of those who created Dallas as we know it — a place with a government that has proved surprisingly resistant to the sort of endemic corruption that plagues cities with highly paid council members and aldermen. (Chicago pays its aldermen six figures, and need we say more?)
Some council members argue they deserve the money, and they work for it. But a council member is not supposed to be a miniature city manager, resolving code complaints or negotiating zoning deals. We’ve reached a point where some council members carry two phones — one is just for constituents trying to hop the line for service that comes too slow from City Hall.
It can’t be that way. The council must set policy, and the bureaucracy must implement it while handling the day-to-day concerns of residents. The role of the council has become distorted in practice, requiring more time from council members. The answer is not to reward the distortion, but to restore the appropriate balance between what city management does and what council members do.
Meanwhile, council members want to answer to voters less often, switching the charter from four two-year terms to two four-year terms. There is some value in this debate. So few eligible voters cast ballots in municipal elections that we might get more participation with fewer terms.
But debate is the key word here. We would be more inclined to support two four-year terms if the council agreed to hard term limits. Once a person has served eight years on council, they shouldn’t be able to run again for that council seat or for any other council seat other than mayor. There are examples of people doing eight years on council, then sitting out a term or so and running again, pushing out fresh voices with new ideas.
The next substantial item the council wants to try to force on voters is the diminishment of citizenship in local government. Voters already rejected this idea the last time it was raised. The planned amendment would eliminate the provision that members of the city’s charter-required boards and commissions be registered voters, qualified voters or qualified taxpaying citizens.
All residents of Dallas deserve to be heard. But boards and commissions are invested with important powers that affect the governance of the city. Such a power is appropriately reserved to citizens. Citizenship has been a cornerstone of democratic governance since the creation of representative government. Dallas voters made their support for that principle clear in 2021, when many members of this council were serving.
Some council members would also like to make it easier to govern by referendum by extending the time period from 60 to 120 days to collect the required signatures for a referendum and to reduce from 10% to 5% the total number of registered voter signatures needed to call a referendum.
Referendums are usually bad ways to govern. Government works best when elected representatives consider policy carefully, weigh pros and cons, and work through compromises. Referendums more commonly empower populist sentiments, or throw so much sand into the gears of government that nothing gets done while a referendum is debated and voted on.
Another bad amendment would reduce the mayor’s power to appoint committee members, giving the council veto power over mayoral appointments. The mayor is the sole person elected by the entire city and committee appointments are one of the few charter powers the mayor enjoys. It should remain vested in the mayor.
With so many bad amendments, we are left with little room to focus on good amendments that got left on the cutting room floor. First among these was a plan to put the office of inspector general in the city charter to provide greater independence and more oversight to prevent fraud.
As the council begins debate today, this looks like a do-over. The amendments on the floor are, by and large, either divisive statements of activism or self-serving sops to the council itself.
There are good ideas out there, but what the council has decided to debate is largely bad. It’s time to begin again and get it right. Or if these are our only choices, do nothing and do less harm.
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Dusty May on leaving Michigan for the Dallas Mavericks
New Dallas Mavericks head coach Dusty May sat down with FOX 4’s Mike Doocy to discuss why he left the University of Michigan for an NBA job, how his wife and family have supported his journey, his expectations for transforming the Mavs into a championship contender, and more.
DALLAS – North Texans are eager to learn all about the Dallas Mavericks’ new head coach, Dusty May, and his plan for the team.
Dallas Mavs Coach Dusty May
What we know:
May is fresh off a national title win with the Michigan Wolverines.
In his two season in Ann Arbor, May guided the Wolverines to a 64-13 record.
In his prior stint as the head coach at Florida Atlantic University, May guided the Owls to a Final Four in 2023 and multiple NCAA tournament berths.
May comes in as the replacement for Jason Kidd, who the Mavericks parted ways with in late May.
He’s the first big hire under Masai Ujiri, who was hired as the team’s new President of Basketball Operations in early May.
This will be May’s first stint as an NBA head coach.
What they’re saying:
In an interview with Mike Doocy, the 49-year-old coach said he thinks the Mavericks could become real championship contenders sooner rather than later.
He highlighted Kyrie Irving’s return, the potential of Max Christie, and, of course, the skills of star rookie Cooper Flag.
“I think it’s just his mindset, his tenacity, his ability to play every single position at a high level and play both sides of the ball. The fact that he’s always won. He hasn’t always been on the most talented teams, so he’s a competitor that’s up for the challenge. I could literally go on all day about the positive attributes that Cooper has,” he said.
In terms of adjusting from college basketball to the NBA, May said he’s excited about the coaching staff he’s putting together.
He plans to rely on the veterans on the team and in the office as he starts his professional basketball career.
The Source: Information in this article comes from an interview with Dallas Mavericks head coach Dusty May.
Dallas, TX
Texas took this Dallas couple’s newborn baby for 3 weeks. A judge says their rights were violated
A Travis County judge ruled the state’s child welfare agency violated the constitutional rights of a Dallas couple whose newborn daughter was temporarily taken into state custody for week after a hospital visit three years ago.
Temecia and Rodney Jackson sued the Department of Family and Protective Services, the agency that houses Child Protective Services, last year. The parents say the department put them on the Central Registry — a public abuse and neglect database — without a clear way to appeal and get themselves removed.
Travis County District Judge Catherine Mauzy ruled late last month two sections of the state administrative code used in the Jacksons’ case impair or interfere with the family’s constitutional due process rights.
One section states DFPS can label an investigation into alleged abuse as “unable to determine,” which means investigators could not rule out abuse or neglect, but the subject of investigation isn’t completely cleared of wrongdoing.
The Jacksons argued the Central Registry process and the “unable to determine” label didn’t give the parents an opportunity to appeal the determinations and defend themselves.
“That is a denial of procedural due process,” said Charelle Lett with the ACLU of Texas, which is helping represent the Jacksons in court. “And this court agreed that the Jacksons are entitled to that, and so is every other Texan that comes through this system.”
KERA News reached out to DFPS for comment and will update this story with any response.
CPS took baby Mila into custody after Baylor Scott and White Doctor Anand Bhatt reported the Jacksons for alleged medical neglect in 2023. Bhatt diagnosed 3-day-old Mila with jaundice during a routine postpartum checkup and believed she needed treatment in the hospital.
The Jacksons opted to pursue an alternative treatment plan at home with their midwife to avoid being separated from Mila. Texas law gives parents the right to consent to their child’s health care.
Bhatt named a different woman as Mila’s mother, according to the lawsuit. That woman’s name, criminal and family history were later written on the affidavit authorities used to take Mila into CPS custody. DFPS corrected the mistake days later but said CPS would still keep Mila.
At the time, DFPS found “reason to believe” there was medical neglect in Mila’s home — a label indicating abuse or neglect has likely occurred — and, without notice, put the Jacksons on the department’s Central Registry for perpetrators of abuse or neglect.
DFPS said the Texas Family Code requires the department to make these kinds of findings, according to court records. The parents requested an administrative review of those findings and provided DFPS with records to make their appeal, according to the suit.
DFPS ultimately dismissed the case and returned Mila to her parents after three weeks in CPS custody. The label on their case was changed to “unable to determine” nearly a year later, after an informal review by a DFPS specialist.
That removed the Jacksons’ case from the Central Registry. According to the suit, DFPS did not rule out the allegations because there was “significant concern for risk.”
But the Jacksons sued, arguing the DFPS process gives them no options to entirely clear their name from the department’s systems.
Temecia Jackson told KERA News last year that following Mila’s return, the family resettled in Dallas with Mila and their two older sons to get away from the traumatic memories of Mila being taken from their DeSoto home.
In their suit, Rodney Jackson says he felt his reputation has been jeopardized by the DFPS investigation, and he’s uncomfortable volunteering in the community or coaching his kids’ sports teams.
DFPS says its rules are consistent with what state law requires for child safety, and the Jacksons already used the existing process to successfully challenge their “reason to believe” finding. DFPS argued the Jacksons have already been removed from the registry, their case records are not public, and state law does not allow the family to get agency decisions changed or erased.
And DFPS says the family’s alleged reputational harms are hypothetical.
Unless the state appeals, Lett said, Mauzy’s ruling brings an end to the Jacksons’ case. While the future for the Jacksons and their case is uncertain, Lett called the decision a win for all parents.
“We are not trying to keep the DFPS from taking children out of dangerous situations,” Lett said. “There is value to what they do, but they could do it in a way that does not infringe on people’s rights.”
Toluwani Osibamowo is KERA’s law and justice reporter. Got a tip? Email Toluwani at tosibamowo@kera.org.
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DALLAS – The U.S. has a big opportunity on its hands in the World Cup Round of 16 against Belgium.
You can watch the live stream of the crowd at FIFA Fan Festival Dallas in the video player above.
USA vs. Belgium watch party at FIFA Fan Festival Dallas
What we know:
Many fans have already gathered in Fair Park to watch tonight’s U.S. vs. Belgium match.
Past watch parties for U.S. games have drawn massive crowds as fans of the Red, White and Blue hope to see their team advance to the World Cup quarterfinals.
The U.S. is playing Belgium, who knocked the USMNT out of the 2014 World Cup in the Round of 16.
If the USA gets a little revenge, they would play Spain in the quarterfinals on Friday, July 10, in Los Angeles.
The Source: Information in this story comes from FIFA Fan Festival Dallas.
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