The City of Dallas has so many plans.
Plans for biking, parks, transportation, housing, land use, the environment, arts and culture, and more.
Do we possibly need yet another plan to tie them all together?
A City Council discussion last week on how best to evaluate five officials who report directly to them turned to the need for an umbrella plan. The term “strategic plan” was invoked more than two dozen times, including when the city manager reminded her bosses what she said during her job interview nearly two years ago.
“I said that without a strategic plan, it is very difficult for a city manager to truly understand what is [a] priority,” Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said. “Without it, we end up with 100 different priorities, and those priorities change every single day.”
Tolbert said council members need to drive the formulation of such a plan.
“All these plans that exist. There’s still no umbrella that ties everything together,” she said.
Council member Jesse Moreno said he believes there is a need, but he finds it hard to see how they would complete one when they struggled to get City Council members to even participate in interviews to develop performance evaluation metrics.
This discussion seemed to illustrate the question former mayor Ron Kirk has been asking as he and two other former mayors push for change: “Who’s in charge?”
The real question isn’t whether Dallas needs another plan. It’s who is responsible for writing one and seeing it through.
Under our current system, the answer is all 15 members of the City Council, which in practice means no one.
That’s not a knock on the people in those seats. Fourteen of them are elected to fight for their districts, and they do. But a citywide plan requires someone whose job is to put the whole city first, set priorities, and answer for them.
Notably, two of the five jobs council members spent last week trying to grade, city manager and city attorney, are the ones Kirk, Tom Leppert, and Mike Rawlings want to put under the next mayor’s purview.
That’s the heart of the “stronger mayor” proposal they’re collecting petition signatures on. It would give the mayor the power to hire and fire both, and the responsibility to propose the budget, all with council oversight by a two-thirds vote.
In other words, the next mayor could potentially run on a plan in the November 2027 election, and voters would know exactly whom to credit or blame for executing it. The city manager would have far less to guess about which of 15 sets of priorities matter most on any given day.
The changes wouldn’t take effect until after Mayor Eric Johnson leaves office, so this isn’t a referendum on anyone currently at the horseshoe. The question is whether the job description makes sense.
Tolbert said it herself: “This can’t be the city manager’s strategic plan.”
Voters may decide in May whether it should be the next mayor’s when he or she takes office in December 2027.
For more on this and other hot topics, join me over on the new Meetings of Interest Community Page. I’ll be posting updates, videos, GIFs, and more throughout the week. It’s like a Facebook page, but (hopefully) without all the personal attacks and misinformation.
📖 Table of Contents
🗞️ ICYMI: Highlights From Last Week
A new Dallas police property room is one of five public safety projects that voters would fund if they approve City of Dallas Proposition A on November 3. Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux and Council member Gay Donnell Willis recently toured the current crumbling facility with CBS 11 (video above). Read more.
The Perot Museum of Nature and Science announced a $185 million expansion plan, including an outdoor science center, NBC 5 reports. The City Plan Commission approved the development plans last week.
Saks Global sought $126 million from the City to help renovate the flagship Downtown Neiman Marcus store, which has since closed, The Dallas Morning News reports. The deal appears to have stalled after Saks Global filed for bankruptcy in January.
New Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) CEO Nathaniel Ford starts tomorrow, The Dallas Morning News reports.
🔢 Number of Interest
$804,229.46
City costs for police, fire, emergency management, and public works related to the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention last month, mostly for on-duty staff already in departmental budgets. Staff is “continuing to work” on available invoice and cost recovery options, according to this memo.
🤝 Meetings of Interest: October 26 - 30, 2026
Monday, October 26
🏘️ City Council Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee, 9 a.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
Briefing: State of Homelessness, Part 1
Staff will brief members on strategies, costs, assets, metrics, and gaps in the City’s homelessness response system. Homelessness in Dallas and Collin counties has declined each year for the past five years, thanks to much-improved coordination among 150-plus government and nonprofit service providers. Staff will ask for direction on options that include 100 more emergency shelter beds at The Bridge, a 75- to 150-unit temporary housing community on city land, and a shelter for young adults. Of the $19 million voters approved for homelessness facilities in 2024, the city has committed only $4.3 million.
2.51 MB • PDF File
Committee members will also review a quarterly update from the city’s two housing development corporations, new rules for endorsing affordable-housing tax credit applications, and the first three pieces of the Dallas Is Home housing plan.
🤑 City Council Committee on Finance, 1 p.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
Office of the City Auditor Fiscal Year 2027 Proposed Audit Work Plan
Interim auditor Rory Galter proposes 12 new audits for the current fiscal year. They include Flock cameras (requested by Council member Laura Cadena), software licensing and court staffing (both requested by Council member Chad West), and park contract oversight (requested by Council Members Maxie Johnson, Bill Roth, and Cara Mendelsohn). Unfinished work also carries over, including 911 response times, DPD crime statistics reported to the FBI, and fire department staffing. The plan adds up to 24,470 hours of work for an office with 18,000 hours available.
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Committee members may discuss the final costs of the RNC midterm convention noted above.
Committee members will also hear the Employees’ Retirement Fund’s rebuttal to the City Auditor’s critical July memo and review the debt program, final ARPA spending, a new retirement-contribution option for employees, and the routine budget, procurement, and technology reports.
Tuesday, October 27
👮🏻♀️ Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Board Special Committee on Safety and Security, 3 p.m., DART Conference Room C - 1st Floor, DART HQ, 1401 Pacific Ave., Dallas, TX 75202; Watch live here
Briefing: Potential Light Rail System Security Initiatives - Part 2
It could cost more than $288 million to gate all 66 DART light rail stations. That’s an estimated $161.5 million in station work, $43.7 million for the gates and software, and the rest in design, permits, and reserves. It aligns with the $290 to $300 million figure interim CEO David Leininger floated at City Hall last week, when he said, “It’s certainly something that the DART system can afford.” A potential schedule to make the security enhancements, which staff calls “ambitious,” would test four to six gates in December 2028 and roll out across the system through 2031. Meanwhile, Board members will weigh putting an officer or security guard on every train ($9.5 million to $14.2 million a year) and rewriting the agency’s code of conduct to require riders to have a “bona fide destination” and get off at the end of the line.
5.64 MB • PDF File
🚌 DART Committee-of-the-Whole, 4 p.m., and Board of Directors, 6 p.m., Board Room, DART HQ, 1401 Pacific Ave., Dallas, TX 75202; Watch live here
DART Board members will consider hiring Stacy Witbeck/Clark for about $1 million in pre-construction work on overhauling the underground Cityplace station. The project includes leveling the platform for boarding and updating finishes and security. The plan also calls for five or six fare gates on the mezzanine, the first concrete step toward the closed system DART is pricing at $288 million. A construction contract is expected to come to the board in May or June 2027, according to this briefing (DART is a GoldHam Group client).
Board members will consider a two-year renewal with the company behind the See Say app used for reporting non-emergency incidents. The renewed deal would be for up to $427,985.
Wednesday, October 28
🗣️ Dallas City Council Meeting, 9 a.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
Item 7 allocates $7.53 million in city arts contracts to 69 nonprofits, up $361,590 from last year, as recommended by the Arts and Culture Advisory Commissioners. Allocated General Fund dollars would drop by nearly $1 million, and hotel taxes cover the difference. Four groups are new to the list. The Commissioners recommend trims for 15 others, with nonprofit Big Thought taking the largest proposed cut at $32,664. Read more about the groups recommended for funding.
Item 9 formally accepts a $14.6 million increase in regional transportation funding for the Klyde Warren Park expansion, bringing it to $44.6 million of the roughly $100 million total cost.
Item 13 sets new deadlines for the Klyde Warren Park expansion. The new deck over Woodall Rodgers is expected to finish by 2029, and the park on top would open by the end of 2031. The park’s foundation must invest at least $22.5 million in the project.
Item 19 authorizes the City to pay DART $2.8 million to run the Dallas Streetcar for another year. That’s $2.5 million from the city’s streetcar fund and $300,000 of the General Mobility Program money DART is sending back to the city. The city owns the six-stop, 2.45-mile line from Union Station to Bishop Arts, which was built with $81 million in state and federal grants and still charges $1. A study of other funding options is due in early 2027.
Item 20 authorizes hiring AECOM for $1.1 million to plan and do early design work on connecting the streetcar’s northern end near the Omni Dallas Hotel to the McKinney Avenue Trolley that runs through Uptown and into Downtown. Most of the cost, $982,102, comes from a federal housing department grant for Downtown planning, with the City on the hook for $114,685. The engineering work is expected to run from November 2026 to November 2028.
Item 25 adopts this “Sponsorship Toolkit,” which puts naming rights for the new police training center at UNT Dallas up for sale. Levels range from $50 million for the whole campus and $30 million for the physical training pavilion to $1,000 for a spot on the donor recognition wall. The item also moves $17.5 million from the W.W. Caruth Foundation and QuikTrip into the project. QuikTrip’s $10 million must be spent by May 30, 2027.
Item 26 authorizes an allocation of $20 million for construction on the police training center: $17.5 million in donations and $2.5 million in 2024 bond money. That brings Swinerton Builders’ contract to $49 million. The full construction price, called the guaranteed maximum price, will rise from $148.2 million to $158.6 million, though this vote commits money only for the first slice. The City estimates the project’s total at $227 million, with construction running through the middle of 2028.
Item 49 adopts a legislative wish list for the 90th Texas Legislature, which convenes in January. Council member Adam Bazaldua deferred the item on Oct. 14.
Item 50 adopts a federal legislative program for the 120th Congress. Bazaldua also deferred this on Oct. 14.
Item 51 hires Halff Associates for up to $3.6 million to design the long-planned conversion of McKinney and Cole avenues in Uptown from one-way to two-way streets, including moving the trolley tracks. The city ended a previous agreement with Kimley-Horn in August after the two sides couldn’t agree on scope and fees for a third contract change. Design would run January to August 2027, with construction from October 2027 to October 2029.
Item 52 accepts a $10 million state grant from the governor’s office to build the new police training center at UNT Dallas. It’s the second $10 million grant from this state program. Council members accepted the first in March 2024.
Item 53 accepts another $5 million state grant for the police training center.
Item 54 accepts $10,000 from an anonymous donor to buy service pins recognizing police officers and firefighters for years of service. Council members voted to cut that amount for pins during current-year budget amendments.
Item 56 will appoint the next City Auditor. The finalists are interim auditor Rory Galter, who has held the job since August at $180,000 a year, and John Provan. Finance Committee members sent both names forward last week. The resolution still has blanks for the name, salary, and start date. City code requires an appointment by Nov. 27.
Item 57 would name interim Inspector General Baron Eliason to a full two-year term. He has held the post on an interim basis since September 2025 at $150,000 a year, and the salary for the permanent role is still blank. Voters created the office by approving a November 2024 charter amendment, and the appointment requires a majority of the full council. If Items 56 and 57 both pass, four of the five council-appointed jobs would have permanent occupants, leaving only the city attorney filled on an interim basis.
Z6 allows Dallas ISD to build a new elementary school at Cortland Avenue, between Bombay Avenue and Anson Road. City planners and the Plan Commission both recommend approval.
Z8 allows for a vehicle storage lot for towed and repossessed cars on C.F. Hawn Freeway in Council member Lorie Blair’s district. The site already serves that purpose, about 400 feet from a manufactured home community, closer than the 500-foot buffer City Code requires. City staff called the request an attempt to “circumvent” that rule, and the Plan Commission recommended denial 13-0 in April. The owner is appealing to the council.
PH1 is a public hearing and vote on honorary “Dr. Curtis W. Wallace” street sign toppers on Roseland Avenue between Washington Avenue and McCoy Street. Wallace was pastor of Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church for 30 years and led construction of its subsidized senior housing complex. City rules allow ceremonial street names only two years after the honoree has died, and Wallace is living, so the signs will need a three-quarters vote to waive the rule.
PH2 is the third attempt to vote on renaming North Harwood Street between Woodall Rodgers and Harry Hines to “Exchange Place,” for the Texas Stock Exchange’s new headquarters. Council member Jesse Moreno has held it under advisement twice because it was clear the 12 votes needed for approval were not there. Harwood was named in 1872 for early civic leader Alexander Harwood and is protected as a historic street name, so the change needs a three-quarters vote to waive that rule.
🗣️ Quote of Interest
Without a strategic plan, it is very difficult for a city manager to truly understand what is [a] priority. Without it, we end up with 100 different priorities, and those priorities change every single day.
A note to readers: Meetings of Interest is an independent newsletter curated and authored by The GoldHam Group Managing Partner Scott Goldstein and edited by GoldHam Managing Partners Sam Goldstein and Vana Hammond. The content, perspectives, or commentary presented herein reflect the views of the author alone and do not necessarily represent the views, policies, or positions of any other organization, institution, or individual, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Any affiliations are for identification purposes only and do not imply endorsement.
Thanks for reading.
Have a great week.
Best,
Scott Goldstein
Managing Partner
The GoldHam Group
Sam Goldstein, Scott Goldstein, and Vana Hammond are co-founders of The GoldHam Group, a southern Dallas-based boutique communications, events, and public affairs firm.
