Page 18W

Sunday, April 18, 2004

The Dallas Morning News

LEADERSHIP

DALLAS AT THE TIPPING POINT:

The Dallas Morning News

EDITORIALS

Dallas in Denial

City leaders must aggressively reshape Dallas

rosperity, it seemed, would never end, or at least that is the fable Dallas told itself over, and over and over. No, Dallas isnt Detroit, a city long cited as the poster child for the urban hollowed-out, holein-the-doughnut metaphor. At least not yet, and we hope never. But thats faint praise. As this special section so clearly notes, Dallas no longer can afford to take success for granted. Yes, Dallas can claim a vibrant entrepreneurial spirit, a low cost of living and affordable undeveloped land in the southern sector among its assets. Yet clouding Dallas future are the challenges of high crime and an undereducated workforce, as well as problems that the overall regions prosperity have masked, including ongoing residential flight to the suburbs, a shortage of middle-class housing, a weakening tax base, sluggish economic growth and the repeated failure of city leaders to plan and invest in the citys long-term needs. City leaders, when presented with these findings, insisted theyre already working aggressively to address them. But they also expressed surprise at some of the findings and vigorously disputed others. Mayor Laura Millers first reaction was to bash the city manager for bungling the police chief hire three years ago. She overlooked the broader implications of the citys lack of a strategic plan for combating the citys high crime rate, undereducated work force and poor investment record. Only six of the 14 City Council members bothered to attend any of three newspaper briefings about the report prior to publication, and most spent more time complaining about the negative tone of the report and questioning the newspapers motives for commissioning it than reviewing the actual data. The Dallas Morning News commissioned a study like this because the City Council failed to. Council member Lois Finkelman challenged the reports finding of a citywide housing shortage in the $150,000 to $300,000 range by citing anecdotal experience in her district: I see all of my friends children moving into those neighborhoods where they grew up because those houses are affordable and they want to raise their children in the city. Council member Bill Blaydes insisted city government was plenty transparent and then in the next breath noted with regard to his colleagues: Most of our differences (are) handled before we walk into (public council meetings) on a lot of very sensitive subjects. Just as disturbing was the city staffs reaction. Though some initial defensiveness about a critical report is understandable, the city manager never seemed to move through that phase to any robust discussion of how to right this ship. City Manager Ted Benavides criticized the reports observations about oversight of the police department as a pile of doo-doo and was equally dismissive of the reports overall findings. You can take any data and say this is the tipping point and that were in the hole. Well, I disagree. Collectively, this denial in the face of facts is as disturbing as the fundamental message of the report: Theres danger on the horizon if the city doesnt act.

them come up with a sustainable solution for the city. Jon Edmonds: I embrace this report. I think its right on point. Im happy that we have it, and I think we should use it to create and continue a sense of urgency that this city is going to need. Having said that, Im tremendously optimistic about the future of Dallas. I think we are approaching a tipping point, but were thinking about the right thing. This report says it really takes some modest, basic changes to make a big difference, and I agree with that. I dont think were in deep trouble. I think we have to make some very key adjustments to how we do business in Dallas. Walt Humann: I would say Dallas is in transition and has been. There are some problems here, and we ought to face them. But, like Jon, we should be optimistic. Heres my point: Dont color your output. You have to give a sense of concern, so you just arent complacent. But be very careful of how much you say the sky is falling.

Laura Miller
Mayor Dallas biggest challenge: Better schools, cleaner air, safer neighborhoods, a clear-eyed vision

Heres what needs to be done

City officials simply must get past the defensiveness and focus on how to convert these findings into reform. Action should be swift, clear and comprehensive. DEVELOP A STRATEGIC PLAN Who needs to act: City manager, upon consultation with the mayor, council and public. When: Now. City officials are correct when they boast about the many master plans recently developed for key city resources, including the Arts District and Fair Park. But Dallas still is the largest city in its peer group operating without a strategic plan to outline where the citys going, how its going to get there and how it will measure success. Without a shared vision, its impossible to govern for the future and all too easy to get mired in day-to-day operations. Portland is one of a handful of midsized U.S. cities that has a healthy downtown with major department stores. Its strategic plan makes clear how the city will measure its success. UPDATE THE CITY CHARTER Who needs to act: City manager, mayor, council and public. When: Now. This isnt a paean for converting to a strongmayor system of government. Phoenix, a city larger than Dallas, and San Jose prove that a strong-manager form of government can indeed work if roles and responsibilities are clearly spelled out, and the right people are in place. Both Phoenix and San Jose, for example, have clearly delineated lines of authority for the elected and appointed officials, and measure performance around actual service delivery rather than internal reporting processes. San Joses charter places citizen satisfaction at the top of its organizational chart. This might seem to be a tiny change. It, however, emphasizes the need for responsive city governments to make citizens their top priority. Dallas should do the same. INVEST IN THE FUTURE Who needs to act: City manager, upon consultation with the mayor and council. When: Now. Dallas too often manages to budget. In other words, key decisions are based on making the immediate budget line rather than achieving progress toward performance goals. This must stop. Example: The $555 million bond issue voters overwhelmingly passed last year almost didnt make it to the ballot at all. Most council members and both mayoral candidates started out favoring a package barely two-thirds as large. Elected leaders were willing to perpetuate the cycle of inadequate investments in such basics as streets, housing and the homeless in order to tell voters theyd held the line on taxes and minimized the debt load to maintain a strong bond rating. Thats not leadership. MODEL BEST PRACTICES Who needs to act: City manager, upon consultation with the mayor and council. When: Now. Dallas doesnt benchmark itself against peer cities. Yet thats what every smart business does. For example, the citys economic chief couldnt name any economic indicator that his office watches to gauge the citys economic health. Look to Portland for clues to downtown success. Look to Phoenix for tips about transparency. Build on the urban planning successes of suburban neighbors, like Flower Mound and Frisco. Decide what success looks like and then be relentless about measuring progress. TRUST THE PUBLIC Who needs to act: City manager, mayor and council. When: Now. Sing about successes, yes, but be more open about acknowledging problems. The Dallas Way wont move the city where it needs to go in the 21st century if leaders arent more forthright about shortcomings.

Keven Ann Willey: Do you think Dallas is at a tipping point? Laura Miller: No, I wouldnt call it that. Id say Dallas is going to become a different city in the next five years if we can get downtown revitalized to where there are no empty buildings and people are on the street. When we get the Trinity River [project] built and if we can connect Fair Park, which is a huge and wonderful jewel in our city unlike anything else in the country, to downtown, then youve got a totally different city. All that is in our reach because weve already dedicated the money to do a lot of this. There are very few cities, in my opinion, that have the ambitious goal that Dallas has right now. I am wildly idealistic and optimistic about where were going. KAW: Mr. Jones, youre new to Dallas. Do you think Dallas is in a state of decline or at a tipping point?

Phillip Jones: The way I like to describe it is that a renaissance is taking place in Dallas. There are a lot of opportunities to reposition Dallas as one of the best destinations in the country. One of the things I like to tell folks when Im traveling and promoting Dallas is that in the last 18 months, 20 new restaurants, clubs and hotels have opened up, and several more are on the hook. So there is a real renaissance taking place in Dallas. To me, the biggest challenge and I dont know if the city can do something specifically about this is the education system. If you want to get people back downtown and into the city, you have to fix public education. Thats not unique to Dallas. I feel this is something that has to be addressed. Andres Ruzo: We lack a sense of identity, who we are as a city. I think its not readily understood by most people. Dallas is a multicultural city, but we havent embraced that richness of being multicultural and multiethnic. We have serious challenges. From Andres Ruzo our perspective in the Hispanic CEO, Link America Inc.; immediate past chairman, Greater community, we see that change Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has to take place, and it has to be with a sense of urgency. We need Dallas biggest challenge: Its lack of identity and how to to bring together the leaders in all embrace and positively leverage diversity as a long-term the ethnic communities and have solution

Jim Mitchell: The report talks about transparency or a lack of transparency in government; it also talks about fragmentation in government and about a government organization that doesnt require accountability. Youre in the trenches every day; talk to us about that. Does that ring true with you? Laura Miller: Im not very concerned about transparency; obviously, Im very concerned about accountability. We just had an all-day City Council retreat about two months ago, where we ranked the biggest priorities that we had over the next five years. The No. 2 priority in the eighth-largest city in America was, believe it or not, staff accountability. First was economic development. Second was staff accountability, and after that were neighborhood quality of life, the Trinity River and public safety. Those were the five. But it is astonishing that the whole council is frustrated enough to say, Why dont our 13,000 employees have an accountability system in place, so that when you perform, youre rewarded, and when you dont perform, youre fired? Thats not how it works at City Hall. Jon Edmonds: My perception is that its not transparent. The good news is that I think its improving. We got stiffed for a couple of years by the housing director and the assistant city manager at that time. They were not transparent. Everything we suggested, they said, Weve already tried that, were already doing that, or we dont have a problem in this area. Not transparent at all. Fortunately, one person who listened to us was the mayor,

Make a great city greater

Dallas is a wonderful place to live and work. Some of us are here by birth; others by choice. We all want to see the city and its residents prosper. We are by turns enchanted and excited by visions of a Trinity River extraordinaire, a robust Arts District, a bustling Fair Park and a bright economic future for all Dallasites from Oak Cliff to Old East Dallas, from Far North Dallas to the southern sector. This newspapers love for the city is what drives it to outline so starkly in this special section the challenges the city faces, challenges that have long been camouflaged by the regions relative strength overall. Were optimistic that Dallas can dig itself out of these problems; we point them out because were worried the city hasnt to date appreciated their gravity. Dallas: destiny or disaster? The answer is in your hands. Take this report to City Hall and demand accountability from city leaders. Start right now.