How the Dallas City Council Works
{insert it doesn’t joke here}😀 🙄
The Dallas City Council is a 15 (14 + the mayor) member body, which according to the City Code is supposed to:
“assure that a high performance level of services to the citizens is maintained, responsiveness to the people is provided, and accountability in municipal government is assured”
We have a Council Mayor System in Dallas, as opposed to a Strong Mayor system (may get to that topic in another post). The Council hires the City Manager (currently TC Broadnax) to run the city.
Here are the council rules of procedure if you are so inclined (doubtful, but I gave it a shot).
How Are They Elected?
They are elected 2 year terms with term limits of 4 total terms in a row…so members can’t be on the council for more than 8 years. BUT…they can run again if they skip a term. We saw this in the last election with Dwaine Caraway and Tennell Atkins, who both came back to win their former districts after 2 years away.
The Mayor is able to serve two 4-year terms.
The general election is held in odd-numbered years and all City Council seats come up for (re) election as there are no staggering terms.
The city is divided into 14 single member districts, meaning a citizen can only vote for the representative of their district. If you live in District 9, you can only vote in the election for that district (members are listed at the end of the article).
Council members are paid $60,000 per year.
When Do They Meet?
The whole council meets every other Wednesday.
The Council Agenda comes out here every Friday before their meetings on the following Wednesday.
Can I watch?
Yes. They do record every meeting (and you can watch live at the same link too).
And apparently, you can watch on actual television as well:
Where Do they meet?
City Hall (and yes, you can go).
It’s a pretty confusing building actually (It was designed by famous architect I.M. Pei). The inside is kind of like if a mall were designed to be a maze. I usually just walk in and try to look like I know what I’m doing until I find a cop I can ask where to go.
The council chambers are up on the 5th floor and look like this:
(Fun fact: Robocop was filmed in Dallas and they used City Hall for something):
Committees
Everyone’s busy in this crazy world of ours, so the council is divided into committees to oversee certain aspects of the city. The committees meet on the 6th floor. Here is the schedule and agenda for those committee meetings. Here’s the list:
Economic Development & Housing
Mobility Solutions, Infrastructure & Sustainability
Public Safety & Criminal Justice
Human & Social Needs
Quality of Life, Arts & Culture
Government Performance & Financial Management
Voting Record
The council obviously votes on a lot of issues and fortunately the Dallas Open Data Portal has those votes online:
https://www.dallasopendata.com/Government/Dallas-City-Council-Voting-Record/ts5d-gdq6
Who’s on the Council?
Here are the members (by District number):
That’s about it. It’s that simple.
