The next election for Dallas mayor and city council is not until November 2027.
Yet by seeking voter approval for a controversial $443 million public safety bond package this November 3, current Dallas leaders are essentially asking voters, “do you still trust us?”
If the answer is “no,” plans for a new Dallas police academy that was first promised decades ago will once again be thrown into question.
City Council members were presented last week with the option to present voters with a bond package more than double the size of what they ultimately approved. City staff recommended two other propositions, one for $500 million in Pension Obligation Bonds to be put toward the Dallas Police & Fire Pension System and the other for $17 million for a new fleet maintenance facility.
Council members scrapped those other two propositions, but debated for hours on how and whether to ask voters for the remaining $443 million before approving it by 11-4 vote.
Most of the package is earmarked for a new Dallas Police Law Enforcement Training Center at the University of North Texas at Dallas ($82 million) and a separate Public Safety Training Complex at Dallas Executive Airport ($149 million).
Another $150 million is slated for a new Dallas Police property room, evidentiary vehicle storage facility, and crime lab, with $22 million budgeted to replace a 73-year-old Downtown fire station, just south of City Hall.
The remaining $40 million is the source of the most friction. That is because it would fund moving the City’s 911 and Emergency Operations Center (EOC) out of the City Hall basement to a new location outside of Downtown, something officials have long contemplated.
This is where the looming debate over the future of City Hall, the building, intersects with the bond proposal. Those who are ardently opposed to relocating City Hall see the 911/EOC move as the first step toward abandoning the building altogether.
Far North Dallas Council Member Cara Mendelsohn has for months vowed to campaign against the bond for that reason, if it included the 911/EOC move. She and other council members argued for separating that piece of the package to its own ballot item, so that voters could say “yes” to the police academy and training facility, and still say “no” to the 911/EOC move.
Those efforts failed. And now, voters get one button to push.
Say yes, and the academy finally gets built, along with a new 911 center and EOC that may or may not be the first step in a full exit from our 48-year-old City Hall.
Say no, and a promise Dallas has been making to our cops since at least the 1990s could be delayed indefinitely again.
Either way, November 3 doubles as an early read on how much credibility City Hall, the institution, has left heading into 2027.
Let’s keep this conversation going on the Meetings of Interest Community page here.