Dallas to combine departments, eliminate jobs to save more than $1 million

Dallas officials are combining several departments and eliminating one to help fill a $38 million funding gap in the upcoming city budget. City leaders can’t say yet how many jobs will be affected.

The changes began last month and will continue through the summer. The reorganization, which will streamline some city services, is expected to save at least $1.3 million in the next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.

“I would say that residents are not going to see any reduction in services,” said Chief Financial Officer Jack Ireland. “But hopefully, they will see better collaboration when they come to the city and a more efficient approach to service delivery.”

Ireland said the city would save money by eliminating duplicate positions and services.

The city plans to merge departments that oversee zoning and permitting as well as departments that house its 311 non-emergency line and communications offices; move a division that handles city real estate deals with the department that manages city-owned buildings; and dissolve a department meant to address challenges impacting small businesses, entrepreneurs, day laborers and formerly incarcerated residents and split those services between five different offices including human resources and economic development.

A memo sent to City Council members in June from interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert about the Small Business Center being broken up spelled out that the office was downsizing from 21 jobs to 16 positions that would be divided among five different departments.

More city department changes are being considered, Ireland said. The City Council approved a $4.6 billion budget last fall, and the next budget, as of May, was set at $4.55 billion. Federal coronavirus relief money from the American Rescue Plan Act helped boost the current budget, but the federal funding will not be included next fiscal year.

City staff told council members during a preliminary briefing on the upcoming budget in May that they aimed to close the funding gap by the time Tolbert presents her proposal for the annual citywide spending plan on Aug. 13.

But because of upcoming financial pressures, like needing to present a plan to the state by November on how to address a more than $3 billion shortfall in the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System, they needed to review spending among all departments. Every city department was asked to identify 6% in budget cuts for the upcoming fiscal year.

“As a result of revenue limits and increased expense pressures, we must take a different approach to this year’s budget, and we are prepared to do that,” Tolbert said during a May 15 City Council meeting. “We must reconsider our service delivery models, our organizational structure and our service priorities to ensure that we’re operating more efficiently and responsibly.”

At least one of the department reorganizations has already been greenlit by the City Council.

The group on June 26 approved changing the name of the Development Services Department, which oversees permitting, to the Department of Planning and Development. The new office will manage issues involving land use, permitting, planning and zoning. The move merges Development Services with the Office of Planning and Urban Design.

Ireland told The Dallas Morning News that the move isn’t believed to have any immediate budget impacts, but the aim is to prevent people from having to go through multiple departments when dealing with a development matter.

“We anticipate that that will improve the efficiency and expediency of that operation,” Ireland said.

Starting Aug. 1, the three-year-old Small Business Center will no longer be a standalone department and its functions will exist elsewhere. The change is expected to save more than $500,000 next fiscal year.

The city’s oversight of contracts going to businesses owned by women and people of color will move to Procurement Services. The Human Resources Department will manage a program that helps people with criminal histories gain city government jobs, and support to ensure day labor workers are properly paid and not experiencing workforce abuses will be handled by the Office of Community Care.

The Economic Development office will direct financial aid for small developers, and a new position will be created in the Office of Government Affairs to focus on growing and attracting international small businesses.

A June 14 memo from Tolbert to the City Council said all the newly created positions will be posted by July 31, and all 21 workers in the Small Business Center will be encouraged to apply and remain employed by the city until Aug. 1. The memo doesn’t list which specific positions will be cut.

Tolbert said in the memo that closing the Small Business Center is meant to give Dallas “a greater return on our investment and making an even more meaningful impact.”

“This realignment does not diminish our commitment to small businesses, who are the foundation of our growing economy,” she wrote.

City officials plan to move the real estate division from the public works office to the Building Services Department. The office’s name will be changed to the Department of Facilities and Real Estate Management.

“We just thought that we could gain some efficiencies by having those two groups together,” Ireland said. The realignment isn’t expected to have any immediate budget impact.

A June 28 memo to the City Council said the move is meant to improve how Dallas manages its properties and could lead to future revenue by “monetizing unneeded and underutilized assets and growing the tax base.”

The last reorganization city officials announced will see the city’s 311 customer service office merge with the department that oversees communications, outreach and marketing. The new department would be the Office of Communications and Customer Experience and is estimated to save more than $800,000.

City officials hope the move will help the city respond more proactively to residents’ issues reported to 311, from trash pickup delays, street potholes, and water main leaks to getting the word out to the community about emergencies, natural disasters and other urgent issues.

“We will do a better job of having one consistent, cohesive message on things that we’re sending out and the way we communicate with our residents,” Ireland said about the move. “I think there’s an opportunity for improved communications and service delivery by having it under one umbrella department.”

Council member Zarin Gracey told The News in June that he believed the reorganizations made sense, especially those involving the small business center. He said he believed most, if not all, of its programs would return to where they had been before the small business center was created in 2021.

“During a transition like we’re having right now, it makes sense to put these programs back in their home base for now until we can reestablish leadership moving forward,” he said.

After Tolbert’s budget proposal is presented Aug. 13, the city plans to hold a series of town hall meetings for residents to weigh in between Aug. 15 and 29. The City Council plans to start proposing amendments to Tolbert’s budget proposal Sept. 4, and the group is tentatively planning to adopt the spending plan on Sept. 18.