A ROAD MAP FOR RENEWAL

The Dallas Morning News

Sunday, April 18, 2004

Page 19W

The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board asked a few Dallas leaders to read an executive summary of the Booz Allen Hamilton report and then to share their on-the-spot thoughts during a roundtable discussion about the reports conclusions and the future of Dallas. The following is edited and excerpted from that conversation. To read the full transcript, go online to DallasNews.com/tippingpoint.
VIEWPOINTS
who appointed a task force on housing. We were able then to really look at some of the strategies, some of the things that really needed to change. What happened out of that was a new head of the Housing Department, who comes from the private sector and who has a better understanding of how to do business as opposed to being just a political bureaucrat. The whole process is a lot better. Thats great news: one example of one department that was not transparent but now, I think, has been fixed. But there are a lot of other departments within city government that I think are where the Housing Department was a few years ago. Walt Humann: I find people try to characterize business and government as different kinds of entities. What you have to do is have leadership, be persistent and have a good spirit. Also, the private sector has to be there. We cannot come in here, pound on the table and expect them (City Hall) to solve every one of our problems. Andres Ruzo: I agree with what Walt is saying. Again, this is a multicultural city. I think that is something we have got to embrace and get the best potential out of it. I think we havent been completely transparent in realizing that is a strength for us. I think we can do more in terms of recognizing that people of color are part of the city. We constantly look at the statistics and what will happen in the next 20 years. Fifty percent of Texas is going to be Hispanic. Its a hardworking community linked to the budget. I think that bureaus, organizations or city agencies that are performing should be rewarded for performing, and those that arent should be penalized for lack of performance. KAW: Do you have a perception of whether thats happening here now? Phillip Jones: I can tell you one thing that has been somewhat frustrating to me in terms of dealing with City Hall. Im never sure of where to go. Sometimes, its to the city manager; sometimes, its to the mayors office. Looking at your report, I think you have some valid recommendations for changing the structure. Is this structure really appropriate for a city the size of Dallas, with the number of employees and city population we have? KAW: Does Dallas need a strategic plan? Jon Edmonds: Absolutely. KAW: Why and how would you start that process? Jon Edmonds: I think we have to consider structure first. I come from Indianapolis, which has a strong-mayor system, so its been frustrating for me to be in Dallas, where there is no accountability. I cant pinpoint who is in charge, where the accountability is, where the buck stops. I think Dallas needs to consider either changing our structure to go to a strong-mayor city, or if were not going to do that, then certainly the city manager has to be not only a manager but a leader. Without one of those two changes, a strategic plan really does little good, because youre still going to have the problem about who is accountable and how you bring accountability to every area of government. Andres Ruzo: I definitely think we need a strategic plan that is cohesive. We need to look at this like a business, because basically its like having a huge corporation. Laura Miller: I agree with Jon; there is a disconnect. If you dont have the visionary promoting the strategic plan with all the stakeholders, and you have a piece of paper that says this is the strategic plan, and you have a mayor who really is just a mouthpiece and doesnt run the show but ran with a vision, theres a disconnect there. Thats my biggest frustration. I believe so strongly that the No. 1 way to move Dallas forward in lightning speed is to change the form of government to a strong mayor. I would be happy to do it so it would be effective when I leave. But if that could happen, it would be the greatest contribution that any of us could make to the city. JM: Lets move onto the issue of crime. A Dallas Morning News survey last year found public safety is the single most important quality-of-life issue. Yet this same report talks about how the police chief, city manager, mayor and council all have some responsibilities for public safety but that accountability is still an issue. Jon Edmonds: I come from a differhave to strengthen the capacity of community-based development corporations. In some instances, they will create a market in some neighborhoods. In other instances, they will prove up the market in a neighborhood. At that time, based on my experience, the private sector will come in and start partnering with the nonprofit sector to do even more housing. On the heels of housing come a lot of other things the return of services in the neighborhood, economic development and all of that. Laura Miller: House builders felt very unwelcome in City Hall for a long time. Tens of millions of federal dollars would go into the Housing Department, and you wouldnt see houses come out the other end. For years, we ruined neighborhoods by going in and ripping down substandard housing in areas like South Dallas and then never putting a house back on the lot. You can walk down streets in South Dallas where every other house is gone. How does that neighborhood ever be anything else but totally demoralized? So our goal is to do the infill of not only 5,000 lots in the South Dallas area that need a house but also the thousands of acres of vacant land all through Pleasant Grove and Oak Cliff that need houses on them. JM: I want to go around the table and see if we can come up with something a little more tangible in terms of aligning accountability and responsibility within city government. Laura Miller: I think Jon Edmonds said it best: We need to go to a strongmayor form of government, and we need to get a visionary city manager. I think it would be a whole lot more efficient. If we dont go that route, I just think we are going to continue to have a lack of accountability. KAW: How do you account for cities like San Jose and Phoenix? They have a strong-city manager form of government and a weak-mayor form of government, and according to this report, they test out pretty well on performance standards. Jon Edmonds: I would stand behind what I have already said. I would bet you that if you go to Phoenix right now, the city manager is a leader and a visionary. I would bet that, because that is the only way it can work. Its either a strong mayor or a city manager who is a leader and a visionary. KAW: How do you think we as a community ought to measure our success? How do we know if Dallas is on the right track? Walt Humann: I measure success partly by the attitude of the people, the spirit of working together to solve common problems. I know the focus of this discussion has been on the City Council and how were organized, city manager or not. But it all comes back to leadership. And its not just the governmental sector. The nonprofit and the private sector were all part of the team. Theres just so much the governmental sector should and could do. So I advocate a stronger spirit of connectiveness. Not just within the city but within the region. Jon Edmonds: I think it ends up in the small stuff. I would say it ends up in safe streets, a thriving local economy and good schools. I think that if you measure those three things, it ends up in being something that we call front porch. You see people start showing up on their front porch, sitting out and playing with their kids. Phillip Jones: I would add a thriving downtown. Any city has a thriving core. The people in North Dallas would want to visit because of the restaurants, the shops, the hotels and the attractions in that urban core. That is important for the whole community. Laura Miller: We keep taxing and taxing homeowners, who are bearing more and more of the burden. And yet what are they getting for their money? The same old thing. They still get their trash picked up. They still have X number of officers on the street. The potholes still are there. So what are they getting for it? The only way to change that dynamic radically is to get downtown vibrant, to have the Trinity River established and to become a huge magnet for tourists, conventioneers and businesses to come from around the world. We are on the way to getting there. When that dynamic changes and we get new money in our city, all of these other things will be a whole lot easier to do. We are at the tipping point of getting there, and thats why it excites me to get up every single morning to go to work. Walt Humann: I would just like to put in a plug for public transportation. Its the glue that holds the community together. I hope its going to knock the socks off a lot of people to see what happens ultimately with Fair Park and the connection with downtown. Im leaving this meeting pumped up. Lets get going. Andres Ruzo: I would like to add that I really believe its not only the mayors issue. Everybody has to pull together. Im a Peruvian by birth and a Dallasite by choice. The Trinity River definitely will be something that will put us on to the next level. Its incumbent on the public and private sectors to drive us in that direction. We need strong leadership.

Jon Edmonds
President/CEO, Foundation for Community Empowerment Dallas biggest challenge: The centralization of corporate decision-makers outside of Dallas, a weak local government structure and a struggling public school system

Phillip Jones
President/CEO, Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau Dallas biggest challenge: Education, transportation, renewal of the urban core and creating a thriving downtown

that has some issues that need to be addressed. Phillip Jones: One of the things I think is used very effectively on the state and federal levels is an inspector general. If youre talking about accountability, you have an inspector general who is appointed and has the autonomy to go out and do reviews and audits without political reprisal. I think that also adds an element of accountability to the process. I can assure you that when I (was in Louisiana and) got a call from the inspector generals office, I was concerned. I returned that call immediately, because it meant there was a problem somewhere in my department that had to be fixed. Then what happened is that the budget committee received a copy of the audit report. If there was a problem somewhere in my department, it had better be fixed if I wanted to get my budget for the following year, or there would be penalties assigned. Accountability should be linked to performance, and performance should be

ent perspective on this. We have a crime problem, but I think crime problems are tied to the feeling of relevance and neighborhoods. More than not, I will point to this. Fort Worth is having a horrendous gang problem right now. They are talking about adding to their budget millions of dollars to bring on enforcement. Then I look at South Dallas, Fair Park where weve been working and other areas of Dallas our gang problem is not exaggerated the same way. I think the deal is there have been organizations working with gangs in Dallas for a few years now, that weve been supporting, which really kind of have changed the mindset and broken down that force and that momentum. So I think investment and focus has to be more at street level than at an enforcement level. I think we have to consider how we change peoples thinking and how we give them new hope in their life. How we change their direction to become positive contributors and not negatives. How we make community relevant to them. Laura Miller: We dont have any accountability system for the Police Department, which I think is a problem. Just like we deal with code enforcement, the Police Department traditionally has been kind of hands-off because we never cut police officers in our budget cycle. So there really hasnt been any kind of performance evaluation, because we never have to make decisions about laying off police officers. I believe that right now for a thousand reasons there are some police officers who arent pulling their weight. We desperately need a new police chief who is strong and a great leader and can rally the troops and set some very stiff performance benchmarks. Weve got a problem. The City Council is prepared to raise property taxes, which we did not do last year, if and only if it goes to hiring more officers. The reason weve been doing an efficiency study is we wanted to know how we spend our money in this department do we need more officers, and if so, how many, and what are they going to do? KAW: Crime is certainly an important issue. Let me toss two other issues on the table. One has to do with the citys transitional population and the lack of affordable and suitable homes to retain the middle class. The other is a talent deficit. The city must compete for talent in a region that has far fewer higher education graduates than it has jobs. What can the city do about each of those? Jon Edmonds: I think were about 30,000 units short of workforce housing in Dallas. The reality, I think, is that we

Walt Humann
Chairman and CEO, WJH Corp. Dallas biggest challenge: Uniting people and organizations to implement actions to solve Dallas critical problems

Keven Ann Willey

Vice President Editorial Page Editor

Jim Mitchell
Editorial Board member and editorial writer

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1. On average, what percentage of Dallas police officers answer crime calls

on any given day? 13% 37% 43% 77%

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English skills? 100,000 54,000 36,000 16,000

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wields the most power in the city of Dallas? The mayor The city manager The City Council All three equally

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