World War II aircraft sit parked in front of the Dallas Executive Airport terminal building. (DMN Staff Photo)
Two southern Dallas-related news stories on yesterday’s DMN Metro cover illustrate how one decades-old sketchy effort that uses public dollars undercuts taxpayer trust in a completely separate, and decent, idea to help the south half of our city.
The legitimate idea, under the headline “Council panel backs incentives for Commemorative Air Force,” involves using public funds to support this group’s relocation to Executive Airport.
It’s a lot of money — and it’s important the City Council follow through on linking phased-in funding to CAF commitments. But Executive Airport and the surrounding area need the economic jump-start that the project offers. (Likewise, residents deserve detailed, written explanations of how often the noisy planes will be flying; council members have pledged to get that info and review it with residents.)
The biggest threat to the CAF funding — and other good ideas that come along in southern Dallas — isn’t concerns about noise. It’s lack of public trust due to stuff like this, another headline on the Tuesday Metro page: “City audit questions [South Dallas/Fair Park] trust fund.”
This is the same program that has been pounded for three decades with similar audits for specious spending and waste. Again, it has gotten a tongue-lashing from the Dallas city auditor. The problem is that a tongue-lashing likely will be the end of it.
Consider the eery similarities between Tuesday’s story and the DMN news article on the 2011 audit. Seriously, they are almost word for word the same issues and “answers.”
In both audits/stories, the fund “continues to experience difficulties in managing grant and loan programs.” And in both, the city assured us that the audit raised “mostly procedural issues that had been resolved.”
Go back farther in the clips and you’ll see rerun after rerun of this “problem-but-problem solved” conversation. The DMN archives contain DOZENS of stories about questionable actions — and some cases of downright misuse — since the trust fund’s 1989 inception.
Some of the transgressions would actually be entertaining — if it weren’t our tax dollars at stake. So rather than look back, let me try to persuade you to put pressure on City Hall to consider a solution.
Our editorial page last broached this solution after the troubling 2011 audit, in a piece entitled in the print paper: “Magical Money Fountain: Fair Park fund requires independent oversight.”
Crickets. Not long after we moved on to other southern Dallas issues and let this one alone. But that’s about to change.
(Quick aside: The South Dallas Fair Park trust fund, which as best I can tell generally gets close to $1 million each budget year, is not without its successes. For instance, this year it was part of a coalition that funded a health clinic in South Dallas and provided a loan to the popular Two Podners Bar-B-Que across from Fair Park.)
But no one could make a persuasive argument that this trust fund is getting the most bang for the buck — and that’s what taxpayers are owed. It’s no surprise that some of the comments on my Monday post related to capital in underserved communities referenced the South Dallas Fair Park trust fund as Exhibit No. 1 for why things don’t work in southern Dallas.
I plan to propose an editorial calling for the council to consider a radical restart of this fund, possibly as part of its next discussion about the Mayor’s Fair Park Task Force plan, which is currently in the hands of the parks department
Let’s push past all the politics of how this fund came to be in the first place, the historical significance of it and who is trying to appease whom by quietly keeping it in the general fund budget each year.
Instead, let’s find a way to do it better. One possibility, which we presented way back in the first year of the Bridging Dallas’ North-South Gap project, is to create a development corporation connected to, but not reliant on, City Hall. The public-private umbrella organization would leverage federal and state funds, plus various pipelines of municipal money, to create big wins in southern Dallas.
The World Wide Web seems to have no record of that editorial. So I’ve pasted it on the jump of this post. Certainly, the players have changed (and note that this was so long ago that we were still using honorifics on second reference!) and some of the details need tweaking. We pinned our enthusiasm at the time on then-Mayor Tom Leppert’s southern Dallas task force getting behind the idea. That never happened.
But it’s still the best way forward. Or at least a good starting point.
The Next Big Step: Southern Dallas needs a true development corporation
Publication Date: June 22, 2008
Decade upon decade, southern Dallas has typified opportunity squandered. Empty storefronts, undeveloped land and decaying housing stock offer stark testimony to an economic engine in need of an overhaul.
Most previous city leaders didn’t live there and appeared content to allow these neighborhoods to languish. On their watch, the north-south divide only widened.
Happily, do-little increasingly has become old think. A new class of leaders is sparking fresh discussions about revitalizing the southern half, recognizing that this city’s economic future is tied to progress in southern Dallas.
So, where to begin?
Mayor Tom Leppert and the City Council have taken a significant first step by creating a task force for southern Dallas. District 8 council member Tennell Atkins, tapped to lead this effort, has no shortage of ideas about what could be accomplished with enough money, staff, resources and time.
Clearly, all are in limited supply at City Hall. Council members and budgets already are stretched thin.
The city alone cannot redevelop southern Dallas – or afford to. This steep challenge requires the best public and private thinking, as well as dedicated funding sources.
Mr. Leppert and Mr. Atkins have the right aspirations, as do many of the nonprofit and grass-roots efforts that are improving these neighborhoods one vacant lot at a time. But to reach the overarching goal of closing the north-south gap, Dallas must think bigger.
Full-time, long-term advocates
For southern Dallas to realize its potential, these neighborhoods must have their own agency with power and permanence. They need a staff of full-time advocates – from fiscal advisers to planners to developers and land brokers to lobbyists – who think only of best practices.
Creating a development corporation that is connected to – but not reliant on – City Hall would offer the best chance for success. This public-private umbrella organization would aggressively pursue federal and state funds, leverage expertise, recruit and retain businesses and respond to neighborhoods’ needs.
This agency would have a singular focus: closing the deal in southern Dallas.
Current city departments must split their attention north and south. Fourteen single-member-district council reps make sure of it. The city’s Office of EconomicDevelopment does some excellent work, but it has nowhere near the resources to do all that needs to be done.
The current Southern Dallas Development Corp. does good work, too, but its charge is limited to managing state and federal loan programs for small businesses. That worthy function should continue as part of the new agency. Think of a Southern Dallas Development Corp. on steroids, working with everyone from mom-and-pop shops to multinational companies.
Public-private agencies of this type have helped spur urban renewal in other cities. In Portland, Ore., a quasi-independent development commission with a staff of 190 and a budget that exceeds $200 million, has revitalized neighborhoods and guided development. It brought community leaders and business heavyweights into the fold, capitalizing on their knowledge and separating development decisions from the political horse-trading endemic to city halls everywhere.
Portland’s agency is funded by a mix of grants, tax-increment financing and income from asset management. A southern Dallas agency should consider a wide range of funding options, guided by models from across the country.
Community, council support
Key to the development corporation’s success would be community buy-in. Residents of neighborhoods long short-changed have every reason to be leery of more city leaders and businessmen with big ideas. Input from the people who live and work in southern Dallas would be essential. Who better to help guide this process than the people living it?
Perhaps the biggest political hurdle would be the Dallas City Council. Creating a semi-autonomous agency would require shifting power and money away from City Hall – a tough sell under any circumstances.
Our hope is that the council would consider different dotted-line relationships. For example, the Dallas Housing Authority is not a city department, but the mayor appoints its board of commissioners.
This City Council has shown a commitment to southern Dallas and appears better positioned to make real progress than any in recent memory. Our goal is to build upon the council’s ideas – not undercut them.
All we’re asking members to do is take the next big step.
Mr. Leppert and his colleagues have begun to move the ball forward. But term limits and the unpredictable nature of politics guarantee that their time at City Hall will be relatively brief.
Short-term solutions will not do and haven’t for many decades. Creating a true, muscular development corporation would institutionalize redevelopment efforts and ensure that funding and focus would not be lost as mayors and council members come and go.
What do you think?
Mayor Tom Leppert and City Council member Tennell Atkins have led efforts to bolster southern Dallas. Today, we offer our thoughts on a next step towarddevelopment. You may have your own ideas, and we’d all like to hear them.