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Sunday, April 18, 2004

The Dallas Morning News

CITYHALL
Nobody wants the ball, said George Schrader, who served as Dallas city manager from 1973 to 1981. Theres no sense of where were going. No ones really in charge, said Dr. Robert Fairbanks, who teaches Dallas history at the University of Texas at Arlington. Too inward-looking no shared vision or overarching strategy operates in uncooperative silos rather than as a cohesive whole, the Booz Allen Hamilton consultants wrote. City Manager Ted Benavides begs to differ. The conclusion seems to be that were in a ditch somewhere. I dont concur with that, he said. Frankly, I think somebody wanted to write bad things. Mayor Laura Miller was more receptive. Do I think the report is off base? she said. No, I dont think its off base. People contribute to the problems the report cited, but most of the fault lies with the system of government itself or, as Booz Allen found, the absence of a workable system. Under Dallas 73-year old City Charter, no one the city manager, the mayor, the council members, the city staff is explicitly responsible for doing many of the basic things a modern city does: thinking strategically about its future; keeping its infrastructure in good condition; seeing that the city is able to meet its long-term financial obligations. Heres how vague the charter is: The council, with $1.9 billion to spend this year, is directed merely to make suitable provision for the assurance of adequate and appropriate prior review and consideration of [its] official actions. Thats less direction than is given to the citys Animal Shelter Commission, with a budget of zero. Like all other council-created advisory boards, it is required by law to formulate a mission statement, guiding principles, objectives, an annual work plan and indicators by which to measure success. On paper and even more in practice, Dallas labors under a highly fragmented decision-making process and a diffused governance model that make it all but impossible to maintain focus on the key objectives, Booz Allen concluded. Fewer than half of the 14 council members accepted repeated invitations from The Dallas Morning News to see and discuss the reports key findings. Among those who took the opportunity, the overwhelming response was that they unlike previous councils personally work well together, so the report is wrong. The city is finally moving in the right direction, said council member Elba Garcia. Im very proud to serve with my colleagues. For the first time, all of us came up with five points where were willing to focus. In defending the council, First Assistant City Manager Mary Suhm inadvertently suggested just how low the leadership bar is set: Some days, when they sit and have a discussion, you realize that they discussed issues, theyve come to some decisions, they have developed some consensus. And on the other days? Despite its habitual claims to professionalism and efficiency, City Hall can no longer hide the consequences of its disconnects. o o o RESIDENTS LIKE LIVING HERE, according to the 2003 Dallas Morning News Poll. But they are less satisfied than they were 10 years ago with crucial city services such as crime prevention, streets and code enforcement. They are less satisfied than residents of Dallas peer cities in the Southwest, even though the citys expenditures on those services are comparable. The city has more than $193 million in long-term bills that it doesnt know how it will pay; the state is forcing it to pour more money into its pension system; and the agencies that rate its fiscal health have begun to raise red flags. Even when Dallas sets out toward something visionary say, the Trinity River project it can still lose its way. The largest public works project in the citys history was sold to voters with lofty promises before the costs or benefits were thoroughly analyzed. Six years after the $246 million bond election to pay for it, discord over the project continues, and residents wonder if theyll ever see the things they voted for. Government Dallas-style not only lacks incentives for effective leadership, it provides cover for a host of failings. The accountability is fuzzed up. Thats a good safety device, Mr. Schrader said. The way the charter is, people have built-in excuses, said David Holl, president and CEO of Mary Kay Inc. The mayor can blame the manager, who can blame the council, who can blame the public, who can blame the staff, who can blame the mayor, who When presented with Booz Allens findings, Ms. Miller emphatically connected with the idea of an accountability gap among the staff, that is. When people are nonperforming, it is the style of this management team to move them to another spot, the mayor said. Nobodys ever held accountable for anything. Ms. Miller sidestepped a question about whether elected officials also should be accountable, just as coaches are held accountable for providing players with a game plan. Again, she suggested that the problem is with the staff, and that the council should replace Mr. Benavides, which it has declined to do. On many levels, the council and I are running in the same direction, she said. A lot of us have the same vision for the city. But I think we could get there a whole lot faster with one vote, and its not happening. Mr. Benavides said that he and the staff have always considered themselves accountable. I take responsibility for all the folks that work for me, and when theres issues, I step up and do it, and I think my staff does it. The city manager noted, obliquely, that past councils have failed even to provide him with broad goals, much less a detailed strategy. Hes glad, he said, that this year the council named priorities and is laboring to translate them into a performance plan for him. I want to come back and go through this section by section, Mr. Benavides told the council in March, after it failed to take up the performance plan during a workshop session. I cant read your minds. I want to do a good job. o o o ANOTHER DISCONNECT: WHO speaks for the city of Dallas? In the public mind, the mayor does. However, under the charter, the mayor the one person who owes his or her job directly to voters across the city is a figurehead. If youre going to get the kind of political leadership you need, it requires more than strong jawbones; it requires the ability to use the levers of power, said Dr. Royce Hanson, author of Civic Culture and Urban Change: Governing Dallas. Under Dallas council-manager form of government, the city manager is supposed to operate the levers. But in 2004, the city manager survives in Dallas by keeping council members comfortable, not by presenting them with long-range challenges that might generate controversy or cost money. Right now, there is a culture of hedg-

DALLAS AT THE TIPPING POINT:

Story by Victoria Loe Hicks

ing, stalling and trying to avoid decisions, said Jon Edmonds, executive director of the Foundation for Community Empowerment, which works to improve blighted neighborhoods. The exercise is: How can I make it through another year, just make it through another budget? said former Police Chief Ben Click, who also served as an interim assistant city manager. I think the challenge is balance, Ms. Suhm said. The question every day is: What have I got to get done today, and how does that affect me long-term? Right now, do we need to focus on the long term? Yeah, we need to. The City Council is a disconnect unto itself. The authors of the charter conceived of it as a board of directors, and of the city as an undivided whole. But for decades, white people living north of the Trinity got vastly more than their fair share. Increasingly through the years and especially since the city begrudgingly adopted the 14-1 voting system in 1991 council members have functioned as representatives of distinct constituencies. Trouble is, the mechanisms of government are disconnected from todays political realities. For instance, council members, who are paid $37,500 a year for a full-time job, have no independent staff to analyze issues or handle the flood of constituent requests. They have little power to challenge the manager, given that it takes a two-thirds vote to fire him or her. Why would anybody want this [council] job? asked Dr. Robert Behn, who runs training programs for local government leaders at Harvards John F. Kennedy School of Government. The elected officials dont have the wherewithal to set up a system to ratchet up performance. Its a great deal for the city manager. He realizes, They cant touch me. o o o SO WHAT DO THE POLICYMAKERS the council do, if theyre not making policy? Prodded by complaints from their constituents, they immerse themselves in low-level operational matters. Imagine that the board of directors has stationed itself on the production line, where it micromanages the way the workers make widgets. That irritates and embitters the workers, who figure, rightly, that no one on the board has ever made a widget. Officers in the Police Departments narcotics division reported in an internal review that 80 percent of their workload is responding to requests from City Hall. Service requests should be a source of information for the officers to act upon, but they should never dictate the dayto-day workings of DPD personnel, the review said. Under the current system, too much time is wasted in writing and rewriting the politically correct response. Staff members have learned the hard way that its unwise to give council members an answer they dont like. They [council members] spank city employees publicly, Mr. Schrader said. Everybodys afraid to make a mistake. Its a mistake-avoidance operation. Dallas seems to have the worst of both worlds, said Dr. Fairbanks, the UTA historian. It doesnt have the efficiencies of the council-manager system or the leadership of the strong-mayor

rchitect I.M. Pei probably didnt mean for Dallas City Hall to look like a ship run aground, but these days the imagery is hard to ignore. Consider these events: The city manager hires the police chief without interviewing him and fires him before informing the mayor or City Council. Neighborhoods crumble while code inspectors sit in their offices, writing bogus citations. The council protects the citys bond rating by limiting its borrowing to the point that the bond rating goes down. Whos steering this ship of state? The answer according to everyone from insiders to political scientists to management experts is nobody.

A
21%
The mayor

What do Dallas residents say?

The 2003 Dallas Morning News Poll asked Dallas residents for their views on the structure and function of city government. They were divided on the question of which branch of city government wields the most power.

13%
The city manager

19%
The City Council

38%
All three equally

They also think that under Dallas government structure, any mayor, city manager and City Council could all be effective leaders.

yes
Can any mayor be effective? Can any city manager be effective? Can the council as a whole be effective?

no
33% 37% 31%

62% 56% 64%

Asked which people or institutions were most important in shaping Dallas future, poll respondents cited City Hall and other figures, too.
The city government State and federal governments Business leaders Average residents The county government 24% 15% 26% 23% 7%

But residents dont think that people like you have much influence over City Council decisions.

By 2-1, respondents think that an elected mayor would be more effective in day-to-day management of Dallas city government.

44%
A little

20%
None

25%
A moderate amount

9%
A great deal

63%
An elected mayor

31%
A city manager hired by the City Council

Half of the respondents said their taxes were too high. About a third judged them to be about right.
Very low? A little low? About right? A little high? Very high? 17% 1% 3% 37% 35%

Services and the city

The last time the city measured residents satisfaction was in 1993. The 2003 Dallas Morning News Poll asked some of the same questions. The result: Residents are happier with life in the city overall, but not particularly with city services. Considering all things together, how satisfied are you with living here? On a 1-5 scale, with 5 being completely satisfied: How satisfied are you with the quality of the services that the city provides? On a 1-5 scale, with 5 being completely satisfied:

1993

2003

1993

2003

3.13

3.39

3.0

3.08

Make suitable provision for

Dallas requires vastly different levels of detail regarding the duties and performance of the City Council compared with what it expects of its advisory boards and commissions. Booz Allen concluded that Dallas diffuse governance model is to blame for many of the citys performance problems.

Over 10 years, how four key services stack up Ratings are on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 being not satisfied and 5 being completely satisfied
2003 1993
2.7 3.24 2.3 2.9 3.7 3.9 2.3 3.1
SOURCES: 2003 Dallas Morning News Poll, city of Dallas 1993 poll

Housing code enforcement Streets Fire protection Crime prevention

FOR THE CITY COUNCIL

Under the heading Policy-Making Procedures, the Dallas City Charter directs the mayor and City Council to: I Make suitable provision for the assurance of adequate and appropriate prior review and consideration of official actions. I Assure a high performance level of services to the citizens. I Provide responsiveness to the people and accountability in municipal government. I Adopt rules of procedure. I Create a standing finance committee responsible for financial and audit oversight. I Establish other standing committees and set rules for their operations.
SOURCE: City of Dallas

FOR CITY BOARDS

The ordinance creating the citys citizen advisory boards and commissions requires that, each year, each one submit to the council an annual report containing: I A mission statement and guiding principles I A list of objectives, programs and success indicators I Highlights of the past years accomplishments I A working program for the coming year, with revised goals I A summary of the boards recommendations, including a minority report if one exists

About The News poll

Blum & Weprin Associates Inc. of New York, The News pollster, conducted the poll Oct. 7-9, interviewing 801 Dallas adults. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for the overall sample; the responses for subgroups have a larger margin. Respondents were screened to ensure that they lived in the city of Dallas. They also were offered the option of a Spanish questionnaire. For the 1993 comparisons, Blum & Weprin asked some questions using the same wording employed in a poll conducted that year for the city of Dallas by Rincon & Associates, a Dallas-based consumer-research firm.