Omnibusted

City of Dallas staff and attorneys are proposing edits to and repeals of a long list of ordinances that they say are outdated, unenforceable, or redundant, and they want City Council members to sign off as soon as next month.

The “Omnibus Ordinance Review” was intended to “just do amendments that were things that were either outdated or preempted,” Executive Assistant City Attorney Casey Burgess told City Council Quality of Life Committee members on Monday. “Not to do anything that was, say, like a policy change that we would need to bring to you guys.”

Except, some of the changes read very much like policy matters that ordinarily would call for more robust input.

That includes a recommendation to repeal an ordinance that makes it illegal to possess a shopping cart anywhere other than the premises of the retail establishment that owns the cart.

North Dallas City Council Member Gay Donnell Willis flagged that one, noting “anyone who observes city streets can see that we’ve got shopping carts in use far from where they are designated to be used.”

Willis questioned why that ordinance was listed as “not enforced” and “outdated as a nuisance ordinance.”

Abandoned shopping carts are not uncommon in Downtown Dallas and Downtown Dallas, Inc.’s Clean Team disposes of hundreds of them every year (129 so far this year).

Separately, committee Chair Paul E. Ridley asked if City officials had gathered any input from utility companies on a proposal to repeal a law that bans posting notices or posters on poles in the public right-of-way or on public property.

“I think before we delete that, we need to consult them,” Ridley said. “We don’t want people posting political and commercial signs on every utility pole in our city, of which there are tens of thousands in the public right of way. So, I would like to have some input from them and us take a closer look at that ordinance and whether it’s worth preserving.”

Ridley, a long-time attorney, asked for a broader look at all the ordinances that were categorized as being repealed because they were unenforced because of prosecutorial discretion, which could change in the future.

By Friday, City staff had repealed the plan to repeal the shopping cart ordinance, noting that Dallas police do, in fact, enforce the ordinance, according to this memo. 

Regarding the ordinance on utility pole postings, the same memo says staff is “actively working to reconcile the enforcement status and will provide further updates as more information becomes available.”

The matter is expected to come to the full City Council for more discussion soon.

*A programming note: I will be on vacation next weekend. The newsletter will return on Sunday, June 8.

📖 Table of Contents

• 📰 Highlights From Last Week's Meetings

• 📝 Memos of Interest

• 🤝 Meetings of Interest: May 27 - 30

  • Tuesday, May 27

    • Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee

    • Government Performance and Financial Management Committee

    • DART Committee-of-the-Whole

    • Park & Recreation Board

    • DART Board of Directors

  • Wednesday, May 28

    • Ad Hoc City Council Canvassing Committee

    • Dallas City Council Meeting

📰 Highlights From Last Week’s Meetings of Interest

• The City of Dallas may take out a $1 billion loan to help fund construction of a new convention center expected to transform the southwest area of Downtown, KERA reports from last week’s City Council briefing.

• The City of Dallas is far below industry standards in how much it spends annually on building maintenance, The Dallas Morning News reports on a facilities briefing to City Council last week.

📝 Memos of Interest

• Through the end of March, General Fund revenues are projected to be $3.5 million under budget, while expenditures are projected to be $4.6 million over budget, according to the latest Budget Accountability Report (including above chart).

• Explore the 90 City technology projects in the pipeline with a total budgeted cost of $182 million in this month’s Technology Accountability Report.

• City Council members are expected to select top candidates this week for the newly created Inspector General position, approved by voters last November to report directly to City Council. Finalists will be interviewed in person during the June 11 City Council meeting. Read more.

• The DallasNow online planning and permitting system, launched on May 5, now has 8,434 public accounts, according to this memo. City officials are addressing “transitional challenges” including “plan review migrations and customer volume and support.”

• Here’s the complete City Manager memo packet for Friday, May 23, 2025

🤝 Meetings of Interest: May 27 - 30

Tuesday, May 27

City Council Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee, 9 a.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

• Nonprofit Housing Forward has declared an “effective end” to street homelessness in Downtown Dallas, after housing 257 formerly homeless people from the core since last summer, according to this briefing. That means no one is living and sleeping outside; multidisciplinary response teams can immediately activate pathways for people off the streets; and diversion and rehousing from shelters can prevent future street homelessness. Read more from last week’s annual State of Homelessness event, where it was also announced that overall homelessness in Dallas and Collin counties continues to fall.

Government Performance and Financial Management Committee, 1 p.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

• Committee members will discuss increasing the property tax exemption from $153,400 to $175,000 for homeowners who are disabled or over age 65. The City Council is expected to vote on the matter on June 11. Read more.

• The average residential Atmos bill will increase by nearly $8/month starting next month under a proposed settlement agreement for City Council consideration on Wednesday, according to this briefing.

• Here’s an update on City-owned (and formerly owned) properties up for potential sale or redevelopments, including a few points of interest in Downtown.

• Committee members may also discuss the latest on a previously released audit of the disastrous purchase of a building at 7800 Stemmons Freeway once intended to be a “one-stop shop” for permitting. City officials have accepted four of six audit recommendations, according to this memo.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Committee-of-the-Whole, 2 p.m., DART Conference Room C - 1st Floor, 1401 Pacific Ave., Dallas

• DART is reporting a 16% drop in crime so far this fiscal year as compared to the same time last year. Read more.

Dallas Park & Recreation Board Special Called Meeting, 2 p.m., 6FN Conference Room, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

• The Board (on which I serve) is meeting to discuss two items in closed session, including a park that Dallas Morning News editorial columnist Robert Wilonsky recently wrote about here.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Board of Directors, 6 p.m., Board Room, 1401 Pacific Ave., Dallas

• Board members will consider a resolution to authorize DART to call public hearings to receive comments on potential service and fare changes to be implemented in 2026. Read more about the potential “worst-case scenario” changes here.

• Board members are also expected to vote on a framework for agreements with service area cities for the agency to contribute to certain Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones (also known as “TIFs”). Read more.

Wednesday, May 28

Ad Hoc City Council Canvassing Committee, 8:30 a.m., Room 5ES, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

• This committee meets again to review the recount results of the District 6 City Council election. A recount funded by the second-place finisher did not change the result, WFAA reports. Laura Cadena still won.

Dallas City Council, 9 a.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

• Item 2 is a vote on new Atmos rates to take effect on June 1. The City Manager recommends a settlement amount that would increase the average residential bill by nearly $8/month. That’s less than what Atmos originally wanted.

• Item 11 is a 12-year $5 billion lease agreement with Southwest Airlines at Dallas Love Field beginning Oct. 1, 2028. The deal is expected to include a major airport expansion and enhancements over the next 10 years.

• Item 12 is a resolution to allow for submission of an application to the Texas Department of Transportation for a loan and repayable reimbursement grant totaling $90 million to fund transit-oriented related costs for the new Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

• Item 13 is a $519,755 Construction Manager at Risk Agreement with joint venture Beck Azteca for pre-construction and construction services for the renovation and reconstruction of Dallas Memorial Auditorium. This is also known as “Component Three” of the Downtown convention center redevelopment.

• Item 24 is adoption of the Dallas Bike Plan Update. Read the update here.

• Item 35 is a 10-year nearly $14 million tax abatement for a $445 million residential and commercial development of eight six-story buildings surrounding Cityplace Tower. Read more about the project.

• Item 49 is consideration of six appointments to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) board. A City Council committee last week recommended reappointing Randall Bryant, Patrick Kennedy, Michele Wong Krause, and Enrique MacGregor, and appointing new nominees Roy Lopez, a government affairs and community relations executive, and Maurice West, a Paul Quinn College administrator. Lopez and West would replace Flora Hernandez and D’Andrala Alexander.

• Item 51 is closed session deliberation regarding a demand letter about Dallas Police Officer Darron Burks, who was killed in the line of duty last year.

• Item 52 is closed session discussion of candidates for the newly created Inspector General position, which was approved by voters last year to report directly to City Council members.

• Item 53 is acceptance of the Ad Hoc City Council Canvassing Committee’s report on the Dallas City Council District 6 race. Laura Cadena won, which was confirmed by a recount requested by one of her opponents.

• Item 54 is approval of an additional $413,000 to pay Dallas County to conduct runoff elections in two City Council races on Saturday, June 7.

• PH1 is a public hearing on the City budget that will take effect on October 1.

• PH2 is a public hearing on the City’s proposed Consolidated Plan Budget for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant funds.

🗣️ Quote of Interest

Did I miss anything? Do you have any questions? Just want to talk about meetings and memos and other fun stuff? Hit me up.