As indicated by Mayor Rawlings in his memorandum dated September 12, 2014, at

the end of select City Council briefing meetings, you will provide a CuSP Progress
Report with updates on Culture, Systems and People at the City of Dallas. The
report will be a short 15-minute update, and we as the City Council will only listen.
Questions are to be presented off-line. The purpose of your CuSP Progress Reports
is, in part, to furnish a verbal memo on change within the City.

As you will provide your first CuSP Progress Report this Wednesday, September 17,
I would like to take this opportunity to share on-going concerns within the
organizational sub-entity labeled as Trinity Watershed Management, Public Works
& Transportation, Communication & Information Services (Trinity &
Transportation Departments) on the City of Dallas org-chart.

Unforced Errors Causing Harm. The Trinity & Transportation Departments are
experiencing an increasing acute cessation of function. Although public and Council
intervention has been able to partially mitigate and, in limited cases, reverse
disastrous results, without such intervention the expected outcomes are too
frequently unacceptable. The severe paralysis within the Trinity & Transportation
Departments is resulting in unforced errors that are harming our City.

Previous Mistakes. Since my time on the Council, a series of failures and bad
judgments, including the failure to exercise due diligence and routine background
checks, led to poor hiring and retention in the CIS department of the Trinity &
Transportation Departments. Recently, the failure by the Trinity & Transportation
Departments to exercise the necessary due diligence contributed to the City
entering into a long-term contract with a convicted animal abuser to operate the
Trinity Horse Park, a $15M taxpayer approved facility.

Recently, oversight of the standing wave feature on the Trinity River is being
transferred from the Trinity & Transportation Departments to the Parks
Department. Also, a lack of oversight by the Trinity & Transportation Departments
resulted in a contractor draining an environmentally sensitive pond, digging a 20-
acre pit, and clear cutting 300 trees within the Trinity forest.

Houston Street Viaduct Mistake. In the past two weeks, I learned of the Houston
Street Viaduct mistake within Trinity & Transportation Departments. Since March
2013, the Houston Street Viaduct has been closed for construction of Phase I of the
Downtown Dallas-Oak Cliff Streetcar Project and repairs to the Houston Street
Viaduct. Since the closure, vehicular access between downtown Dallas and Oak Cliff
has been difficult and the Jefferson Bridge has absorbed the load.

The Houston Street Viaduct was scheduled to reopen in September 2014; however,
the Trinity & Transportation Departments failed to complete the necessary bridge
repairs within the 18-month closure period. The consequences are six more months
of lost time and productivity to downtown and Oak Cliff commuters. To date, no
satisfactory explanation has been provided to explain the mistake. In this instance,
intervention reduced the necessary repairs from the originally proposed 12 months
to six months.

Streetcar Project Mistake. In the past week, I learned of the Streetcar Project
mistake within the Trinity & Transportation Departments. Phase II ($10M - Union
Station to the Omni Dallas Convention Center Hotel) and Phase III ($21M
Methodist Hospital to the Bishop Arts District) of the Streetcar Project were to be
completed by spring 2015, according to the April 2013 Transportation Committee
briefing. The completion was subsequently adjusted to fall 2015.

The plan to design and build Phases II & III was to exercise an option to have the
design-builder, HDR/Stacy-Witbeck/Carcon, of Phase I (Union Station to Methodist
Hospital) design-build Phases II & III as the design-builder would already be
mobilized and familiar with the project. As you know, I was informed that Trinity &
Transportation elected to allow any option with HDR/Stacy-Witbeck/Carcon to
lapse due to a difference in pricing of approximately $1M. The design-builder is
now demobilizing as completion of Phase I is imminent.

The Trinity & Transportation Departments did not bring the potential pricing issue
with the HDR/Stacy-Witbeck/Carcon option to Council. At the April 2014
Transportation Committee briefing, the Trinity & Transportation Departments
informed Council that the most pressing issue with the Streetcar Project was
approval of the exterior paint color and interior fabric pattern. The Trinity &
Transportation Departments have not adequately briefed the Council on this matter.

Further, prior to Council intervention, the Trinity & Transportation Departments
did not act with sufficient urgency to locate a new designer and builder for Phases II
& III the designs of which are still incomplete despite construction being
originally scheduled to begin next month following the completion of Phase I.

I want to emphasize that the Streetcar Project can still be completed on
schedule by fall 2015 and I understand that you, as our City Manager, are
committed to making this happen.