Alex posted the list of the Dallas City Council committee assignments. I have a few thoughts:
- Note the new committee organization. That’s your new(ish) city manager at work. It will be interesting to see how the new structure affects how things get done at City Hall.
- Those who count votes around the horseshoe will quickly recognize that the committee chairs are all allies of Mayor Mike Rawlings. That’s not surprising. The mayor chooses committee chairs, co-chairs, and membership. And in our council-manager/”weak mayor” system of government it is one of the ways the mayor possesses more power than an ordinary council member. In these committee assignments you can see the execution of that power. Effective committee chairs can wield significant influence on council dealings, especially considering the full council often rubber stamps measures that are debated and approved in committee. Sometimes, as we saw with the DART board nominations, the committee chair can be overridden. But it’s not easy. It takes a lot of work and horse trading.
- Here’s something about the mayor’s committee assignments that jumped out at me: under the new organization, Trinity River Watershed Management has been moved under the Mobility Solutions, Infrastructure, and Sustainability Committee chaired by Far North Dallas council member Lee Kleinman. And yet, the mayor has decided not to appoint the West Dallas (Omar Narvaez) or Oak Cliff (Scott Griggs) council members to the committee that deals with with the Trinity River, nor has he appointed to that committee the southern Dallas council members (Kevin Felder and Dwaine Caraway) whose districts include the majority of the Trinity Forest and Trinity Watershed. Politically, that makes sense. Griggs has often clashed with the mayor on Trinity matters; Narvaez just unseated the mayor’s closest ally (Monica Alonzo). But not giving these council members voice on a matter that so greatly affects their districts feels, well, petty.
