The City of Dallas has repeatedly dodged requests for its “general ledger” — the master record of financial transactions — claiming it does not exist.
Mark Nunneley, former chief accounting officer at Ashford Inc., told The Dallas Express he has repeatedly requested Dallas’ general ledger transaction-level detail since early 2024. The city has responded dozens of times, claiming the reports do not exist.
A general ledger serves as a centralized record of all financial transactions and is used to generate financial statements. The City of Dallas publishes audited financial statements, which are audited annually by a major public accounting firm. The city’s accounting system is built on Oracle software.
Nunneley said the term “general ledger” may not be used explicitly in the City of Dallas’ Oracle system, but that does not mean the data is missing.
“As part of any accounting system, there will be a ledger or set of records that tracks financial transactions by account over a period of time,” Nunneley explained. “Any enterprise resource planning or financial accounting system — including Oracle — necessarily maintains records that constitute the functional equivalent of a general ledger.”
Nunneley clarified that he is seeking a complete extract of accounting records showing journal entries and transactions that would typically make up a general ledger, including transaction dates, account numbers and descriptions, amounts (debits and credits), and reference information for the relevant period.
He said this should also include subledger data from modules such as Accounts Payable (AP), Accounts Receivable (AR), Fixed Assets (FA), Projects, or other components that feed into the main ledger.
“All reports should be provided in a format sufficient to understand and reconcile the data,” Nunneley added.
But despite those specifics, city officials have continued to claim the reports do not exist.
“They are fully familiar with what we’re asking,” Nunneley said. “Those guys are accountants, just like I was, and we speak the same language. They know what I’m asking for. They’re just not making it available.”
After Nunneley submitted his initial request in January 2024, officials responded, “The city does not run a general ledger report.” He continued requesting various forms of the data throughout the year, receiving the same or similar responses.
When he asked for the general ledger data for the full year of 2024, officials pointed him to a database containing vendor transactions, but again stated the city did not maintain a “2024 General Ledger.” They also claimed they were not legally required to “prepare new information” in response to an open records request.
At one point, an official told Nunneley that “a general ledger report is not created or used.”
“There’s just not a lot of conversation, and they just feel like this is something that they’ve never made available,” Nunneley said. “They don’t make it available to the public.”
According to Nunneley, Dallas officials have now begun to “totally ignore every request” for the general ledger report.
“It’s not like we’ve just submitted and waited — we’ve had conversations with multiple people,” he said. “I’ve even said, ‘Look, either electronically or hard copy, or even make your office available and let us come down and look and see what we need.’”
The Dallas Express requested comment from the City of Dallas but did not receive a response before publication.
Damien LeVeck, executive director of Dallas HERO, said the city’s behavior raises serious transparency concerns.
“They’ve actually said in their response that what he’s asking for doesn’t exist,” LeVeck said. “The city says that they’re all about transparency, but they’re not willing to share with us their ledger.”
LeVeck added that the situation appears more troubling than mere technical confusion.
“Anybody with half a brain knows every organization keeps financial ledger reports,” he said. “It’s really concerning for us and for the city, because their behavior tacitly implies that they are intentionally obfuscating the truth about where the money in the city is going. Perhaps they’re concerned about the public scrutiny they’ll receive once the public knows how the city is spending their tax dollars. Regardless, we have a legal right to know.”
Attorney General Closes Complaint After City Denial
An attorney for Dallas HERO submitted a complaint to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, asserting that the City of Dallas was withholding existing information.
Paxton’s office responded with a letter obtained by The Dallas Express, stating the city submitted a certification “that it has conducted a good faith search of information,” but “found no information responsive.”
“When a governmental body represents to this office that it has no information responsive to a public information request, we must accept its statement,” the AG’s office wrote. “Under the Act, the enforcement authority of the OAG does not include on-site inspections of records held by another governmental office.”
As a result, Paxton’s office said it would “close our file on this matter.”
LeVeck said the refusal to release these records is not only evasive — it’s unlawful.
“There are laws that give the public the right to request and obtain this information,” he said. “We aren’t asking for anything that is unreasonable or outside the bounds of our legal rights. Whatever, give me excuses until you’re blue in the face — get it done.”