Power struggle between Dallas mayor and manager is silly noise

UPDATE 9:22 p.m., Dec. 11, 2023: After this editorial went to press Monday, City Manager T.C. Broadnax provided the following statement — “I appreciate the work of the Community Bond Task Force and of course the feedback I have received from the City Council. This input has been and will continue to be essential to shaping the City Council’s final decisions regarding 2024 bond package.”

There’s a little kerfuffle at Dallas City Hall between the mayor and city manager that most voters aren’t paying attention to, but that they should.

The reason is that it could affect how many of our streets get fixed, how many parks we build or repair, and how much bond money gets spread to other needs, from the arts to housing.

The struggle is an outgrowth of a simmering rivalry between Mayor Eric Johnson and City Manager T.C. Broadnax that neither man has managed in a way that’s best for the city.

The specific problem here boils down to how the City Council will consider competing recommendations on a planned $1.1 billion bond program that will go to voters next year.

One plan comes from Broadnax’s staff. A second plan comes from a Community Bond Task Force appointed by the City Council and supported by Johnson.

The details of what’s in which proposal are important because they allocate funds differently. The city manager’s plan, for example, would put much more money into street reconstruction and resurfacing. The task force’s plan would put much more into parks, a priority for the mayor.

Broadnax has made it clear that he’s not too interested in being guided by the task force’s recommendations.

“I give all deference to the task force, but y’all pay large sums of money for the people that actually do this work and guide you based on things that you’ve already ground into how we approach it,” he said.

His reaction is unfortunate, because it disparages serious work from serious people and it suggests the staff’s perspective is the first and last word. It isn’t.

But then Johnson, who didn’t attend the council briefing for health reasons, missed a chance to build consensus and instead fired back in a sharply worded memo to Broadnax on Friday, insisting that any bond considerations begin with the task force’s recommendations.

Bond proposals are “absolutely not the decision of the city manager or city staff,” Johnson wrote. “I would also note that while you initially proposed creating a task force, you did not create it.”

If this seems like a tempest in a teapot, it mostly is. But it’s important because the egos at play here are getting in the way of the work that needs to be done to bring forward a consensus proposal for voters.

The bond task force included some of the smartest people in the city working hard to craft a serious proposal. The city’s staff also includes smart people who know where the city has needs.

We have to believe that the City Council is able to look past the little power struggle and instead focus on both proposals and then draft referendums that balance the best parts of both plans.

And we have to believe that voters are smart enough to say yes to good referendums and no thanks to proposals that go too far or that don’t go far enough.

The rest is noise.

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