Local real estate developer Scott Beck underscored the importance of local elections during a recent Metroplex Civic & Business Association (MCBA) luncheon in Dallas.
The MCBA identifies itself as a non-partisan, non-profit business organization dedicated to the success and prosperity of the DFW metroplex. The Dallas-based association champions charitable and civic engagement among member companies throughout the region.
During Tuesday’s MCBA luncheon, keynote speaker Scott Beck, founder and CEO of Beck Ventures, highlighted the numerous ways in which businesses are impacted by local policy decisions.
“In Dallas, local city elections carry significant importance,” Beck told The Dallas Express.
“Each of our City Council members in Dallas acts as their own mayor or CEO of their districts. Some of these districts have a couple hundred thousand people in them — which is the size of some of the cities that surround Dallas,” Beck explained.
“We want our City Council members to be effective at advocating and leading for the things that are going on within their specific district,” Beck said.
Beck believes that City Council members should have a background in some form of finance. Otherwise, decisions might be made that end up costing Dallas and interfering with its potential growth and prosperity.
“If you don’t have a finance background, it’s very difficult to understand the present value or time value of money related to a tax increment financing district, or a municipal utility district, or a public improvement district and the mechanisms with which those things are very useful,” he said.
Beck gave The Dallas Express a prominent example in the City of Dallas’ choice to push back on supporting a new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys in their city.
“There’s a consequence to the City of Dallas and the County of Dallas deciding not to give Jerry Jones $600 million to build the new Cowboys Stadium,” Beck said.
“There’s an economic cost-benefit analysis, and there is a business-benefit analysis. Ultimately, our municipality at the time chose to utilize an antiquated model. And as opposed to the sound and practiced decision-making business people might utilize to make those decisions, the consequence now is that Fair Park doesn’t have the new Cowboys Stadium,” he explained.
The exodus of companies from Dallas for more cooperative and business-friendly cities around North Texas is, unfortunately, fairly common, according to Louis Darrouzet, founder and CEO of MCBA.
“Several of our member companies that had offices in and around Dallas are now opening up shops in Frisco, Prosper, Las Colinas, and Celina,” Darrouzet told The Dallas Express.
He said other city councils are much more welcoming than Dallas, taking an approach that says, “Hey, come, we’ll help you get the zoning,” and “Oh, you don’t need that many parking spaces? Okay. Not a big deal.”
Until Dallas City Council improves its decision-making, Dallas will continue to set itself back despite the great opportunities it holds at its fingertips, according to Beck. Beck noted the city’s proximity to DFW International, Love Field, and the Alliance airports.
“[The City of Dallas] shouldn’t be doing slightly better than everybody else, we should be doing 20 times better than everybody else,” Beck told The Dallas Express. “Because of inadequate policies, we consequently see neighboring towns and cities just multiplying like wildfire.”
Beck concluded by saying, “The City of Dallas is doing good, but not unbelievably fantastic, which is what we should be doing.”
Amen, with a grade of C-. Dallas once had great leaders.
I stand with the Council Person who puts their constituents over the financial interests of the Metroplex Civic & Business Association (MCBA). There is a human cost-benefit outcome to almost every development decision as well. How much emphasis does the financial expert place on that analysis?
How many reasons do we need to GET OUT AND VOTE?
Please call your neighbors, friends, family and church members and ask them to pass on the message to change the Dallas City Council by replacing the current status quo group.
Our beautiful city is turning to a lawless sanctuary city. It is happening right before our eyes as our city budget continues to grow and our citizens foot the bill as businesses relocate to the suburbs.
We need to elect people with business savvy, common sense, collaborative skills and who LISTEN and react to their constituents.
WE can make a difference by voting away the APATHETIC label that our current leaders rely on to stay in power.
We need to hold our leaders accountable for allowing CRIME to go up, TAXES and the BUDGET to go up and CITY SERVICES to go down.
Please VOTE for CHANGE!!!
Although I agree with much of what you have to say, a blanket disapproval is not where I am. I know a little bit about each council person, even the 13 that don’t represent me. They are not all bad and I can name a small handful that deserve another term. The key is to know who you are voting for and why. Who you are not voting for and why. The incumbent may be better than the alternative. An uniformed vote is worse than no vote at all.
Sounds like the 1970’s mentality when minorities were rejected from jobs because they had no experience. How can you get experience without having worked? Cities are created for people to live not for business to exploit the people.
If they would just follow up with citizens Dallas would be so much better. If they would not lie to citizens that would be fantastic. Yeap I’ve caught them in a lie.. 🙁
There are so many reasons to replace our current City Council incumbents.
Please tell all your friends and neighbors to VOTE.
All of the incumbents were elected by somewhere near 10% of the voters.
We have found the problem and it is US. WE can be the solution if WE VOTE!!
I know my councilperson. I know exactly how she votes and I know where she stands on almost every issue that matters to me. If I want a councilperson to agree with me all the time, I guess I should get off my couch, push away from my keyboard and run. But, that comes with the responsibility to answer all the folks who think they have bought me with their vote or yelled at me at a town hall. I’m not willing to make that commitment. So, I thank her all the time for her hard work on her constituents behalf.
They most often don’t follow rules that were made for them