Dallas mayor’s plan to cut ’bloated’ city salaries goes down with no support

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson’s much-lobbied budget amendments to generate $6.5 million for public safety or tax relief by cutting the salaries of the city’s top civilian earners failed to win any support Wednesday during a council meeting.

Johnson had taken his case directly to the public with tweets and a Dallas Morning News commentary explaining why he felt the city needed to “defund the bureaucracy” by cutting its “bloated” salaries.

Johnson told the 14 council members Wednesday that if the city couldn’t cut top salaries during a pandemic and economic meltdown, they should just say they never will.

But when the council took a straw vote, not a single member voted for his amendment.

Johnson did not return to the meeting after lunch and was still gone 5½ hours later when the council took a break for dinner.

A spokesman for the mayor said Johnson left the meeting to attend to a family matter and intends to move forward with a formal vote on his amendments.

The outcome was a considerable defeat for the mayor, who’s only been on the job for a little over a year. During that time, he has occasionally clashed with T.C. Broadnax, the city manager who prepares the annual budget proposals and whose $406,850 yearly salary would have been affected by the mayor’s proposal. Johnson also has miffed some on the council with his board and committee assignments. The vast majority of council members declined to even discuss the mayor’s budget savings idea before voting it down.

Johnson’s amendments were one of about 80 that the council discussed and considered during the marathon budget meeting. Support or lack thereof was indicated by informal straw votes. Broadnax said amendments that received a majority of support would make it into his $3.8 billion proposed budget that is up for an initial vote next week.

The council will formally approve and adopt the 2020-21 budget on Sept. 23, as well as the property tax rate, which currently is unchanged.

Johnson said Dallas residents are facing unemployment, housing insecurity and an increase in violent crime.

“This is a challenging year,” he said. “We owe it to them to share the sacrifices.”

The mayor’s amendments would have cut salaries of the top 10% of civilian workers, excluding anyone earning less than $60,000 a year. Some Police Department employees also are high earners but were not included in Johnson’s failed amendment.

Johnson said he and his staff were willing to take pay cuts. He said it’s about putting service and equity first. His $80,000 salary is set by the City Charter, he said, but he would have been willing to donate the equivalent of his pay cut to help fund his Safe Communities Task Force.

“This is about what kind of city we want to be,” he said.

The mayor said the city has seen “unacceptable increases” in violent crime. He proposed using the savings from the cuts for three possible areas: public safety initiatives; street repairs and traffic signals; and a property tax rate reduction.

To help the city “become safer and cleaner,” his proposed public safety improvements included adding lighting to high-crime areas, spending cash on improving neighborhoods and violence interruption programs.

Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam McGough said he supported the mayor’s spending priorities but disagreed with the extent of the salary cuts that would be needed to make it happen. He added that some City Hall salaries are too high and need to be addressed.

Council member Cara Mendelsohn, who represents Far North Dallas, said she supports the mayor’s “defund the bureaucracy” philosophy and his public safety priorities, but she disagreed with his approach.

She said the city is struggling with rising crime and a police leadership issue. The murder rate, she said, is on the rise. And the city is seeing “street takeovers,” and “people on the highway” as well as panhandling and street racing.

To support his proposal, Johnson pointed to private sector employees who are experiencing pay cuts across the board. His proposal would have only impacted the top 10% of earners. He has said the Dallas city manager’s six-figure salary is more than what the U.S. president earns ($400,000) and more than double the Texas attorney general’s pay (about $154,000).

“If this is not the time … to trim the top 10% of salaries at the city of Dallas … then there will never be a time,” he said. “The entire world is cutting salaries.”