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- Meetings of Interest: Sunday, September 17, 2023
Meetings of Interest: Sunday, September 17, 2023
Meetings of Interest: ⚖️ Top City Lawyer
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Good evening:
A Dallas City Council committee last week voted unanimously to recommend skipping a national search in favor of appointing Interim City Attorney Tammy L. Palomino to the post permanently.
The position of city attorney is arguably the second most important staff position behind the city manager. It is one of just four positions that report directly to the City Council.
The person in the post runs a 160-person law firm, one of the largest municipal legal departments in the country. Attorneys in the office handle the majority of lawsuits against the city. They draft thousands of contracts, ordinances, and resolutions every year.
They provide legal counsel to elected and appointed officials and employees. And they prosecute all cases before the municipal court, Class C misdemeanors.
The office also oversees the Inspector General Division. Created in 2021, it is "an independent investigative authority that assumes the primary responsibility of identifying, investigating, and resolving ethical issues within the city," according to its website.
For a position as important as this one, City Council members would usually favor a national search. That is where things appeared to be headed earlier this year, when Palomino was appointed interim after Chris Caso retired.
But Palomino has been a steady hand. She is also tough -- and her bosses seem to respect her even more for it.
“She’s been doing the job for the last six months and, in my opinion, she’s doing a real good job,” Tennell Atkins, the Ad Hoc Administrative Affairs committee chair and mayor pro tem,
. “We, the committee as a whole, made the recommendation. We have to see how the rest of the council feels, though.”
Palomino has spent the last 20 years working in the City Attorney's Office, rising from a community prosecutor to chief of the municipal regulatory section in 2014. In 2020, she was named first assistant, the office's number 2.
A vote on her appointment is
.
📝 Memos of Interest:
-- The
that I shared last week are now incorporated into City Manager T.C. Broadnax's proposed budget that the City Council will vote on this Wednesday. This memo summarizes the approval process, which includes another public hearing to receive comments on the property tax rate, and the opportunity for council members to make more amendments before adopting the budget. Three additional proposed amendments have been submitted by Council members Chad West, Adam Bazaldua and Gay Donnell Willis.
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-- City Chief Financial Officer Jack Ireland is answering questions about what further tax rate reductions would mean in future year budgets
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-- As part of the budget approval, the City Council will also consider a long list of fee and rate hikes, and a few reductions.
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-- The City continues to step up efforts to combat "street charity," such as unauthorized mass feedings in Downtown that leave behind litter and food that our DDI Clean Team then cleans up. Two hundred new signs that read, "Say No To Street Charity -- Be The Solution," will be installed at 51 locations across the City.
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-- Check out all the latest City Hall memos
and
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Meetings of Interest
Monday, September 18
🎭 Council Quality of Life, Arts, and Culture Committee, 9 a.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
-- City staff suggests forming a community task force to evaluate needs for The Kalita Humphreys Theater,
. Mayor Eric L. Johnson has said he wants the council committee to explore establishing an independent, non-profit entity that can take the lead in restoring and managing the theater.
-- The committee will discuss upcoming state and federal legislative priorities.
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🚇 Council Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, 1 p.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
-- DDI is working with Downtown City Council members Paul Ridley and Jesse Moreno, as well as City staff to advance plans for the Downtown Dallas Streetcar Central Link. The line would connect the existing McKinney Avenue Trolley and the Dallas Streetcar that runs from the edge of Downtown to Oak Cliff. A City Council briefing is scheduled for October 18.
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-- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be part of an update on the nearly $600 million in federal and locally-funded floodway levee system improvements. See above and
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-- Electric scooter ridership is trending down since the shared dockless vehicle program restarted in Dallas in late May,
, which includes the above graph. City transportation officials attribute the declining numbers to summer heat. They report daily 311 service requests are also sharply down. The briefing includes several proposed program rule changes, but not to increase the number of scooters allowed.
-- A $250,000 pilot program to provide free Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) services for K-12 students will launch in January.
how the City plans to allocate passes to transit-dependent students.
-- The City Council may vote before the end of the year on the much-anticipated On-Street Parking and Curb Management Policy.
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-- City parking enforcement is facing technology and staffing challenges, as
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-- The Dallas Bike Plan is expected to be briefed to City Council in October and presented for adoption in November.
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-- The Regional Transportation Council recently approved seeking millions in federal funds for deck caps at Klyde Warren Park, the I-30 Canyon south of Downtown (see above), and Southern Gateway Deck Park near the Dallas Zoo. The RTC also approved nearly $31 million to advance those projects and one in McKinney.
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Tuesday, September 19
🏘 Council Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee, 9 a.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
-- This update on the City's "Good Neighbor Agreement" with The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center in Downtown includes highlights of the work DDI does in partnership with the City.
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-- The City is pitching a pilot that would provide 152 Transitional Housing units and 48 Permanent Supportive Housing units in a partnership with Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF).
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-- The Office of Homeless Solutions summarizes feedback gathered during recent community listening sessions
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-- The City Council is expected to vote on September 27 to accept $10 million from Dallas County as part of a joint agreement to provide supportive housing and services to homeless, unsheltered, or unstably housed populations at or below 30 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI). Projects will be jointly agreed upon by the City and County.
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🏦 Council Government Performance and Financial Management Committee, 1 p.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
-- A recent City audit of how the City Controller manages the list of hotels and short-term rentals and whether they pay the Hotel Occupancy Tax
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-- The City Council on September 27 will be asked to authorize the issuance and sale of $172 million in bonds for the Downtown convention center redevelopment and $51 million for Fair Park improvement projects. These will be the first bonds to be issued tied to last November's Proposition A ballot initiative.
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💵
Ad Hoc Committee on Pensions, 3 p.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
-- This new committee will be briefed on a report and recommendations from the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System Study Group. That presentation is not yet posted online.
Wednesday, September 20
9 a.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
-- The big items of the day are all tied to passage of the fiscal 2024 budget, including a final public hearing, an ordinance setting a new property tax rate, and the potential for additional budget amendments, as mentioned above.
-- Also on the agenda is an
. This briefing was originally scheduled for earlier this month.
Thursday, September 21
🗺
City Plan Commission, 9 a.m. Briefing, 12 p.m. Public Hearing, Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
🏞
Park and Recreation Board, 10 a.m., 6FN, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
-- The Board will be briefed on a proposed $2 ticket surcharge for Fair Park events that
The Dallas Morning News
editorial board
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-- Also on the agenda is an annual update from Fair Park First, the nonprofit that manages Fair Park, and an update on revitalization plans for the Cotton Bowl (rendering above).
Quote of the Week
Dallas City Council member Jesse Moreno, on the Downtown convention center redevelopment. The City Council voted 12-1 to award a project manager contract to Inspire Dallas, LLC, led by Matthews Southwest.
“I look forward to seeing this project evolve with housing, transportation, and of course parks.”
Did we miss anything? Do you have any questions? Just want to talk about meetings?
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Were you forwarded this newsletter?
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Have a great week.
Best,
Scott GoldsteinChief of External Affairs& Government RelationsDowntown Dallas, Inc.
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