Out of the 14 Dallas City Council leaders, District 2’s Jesse Moreno was rated the worst by residents in terms of effectiveness this June.
The Dallas Express‘ Dallas Derby is a feature that centers on monthly “Rate Your Council Member” surveys conducted among readers living in Dallas. Each month, respondents can rate how effective their council district leader has been in terms of crime reduction, homelessness reduction, aggressive panhandling reduction, litter reduction & city cleanliness, street repairs & maintenance, and park maintenance & cleanliness. The lowest possible score is 0, and the highest is 10 for each category.
Over the past six months, Moreno has performed rather poorly in these surveys, leaving him with the lowest average score year-to-date amongst his peers: 1.6 out of 10. As reported previously in The Dallas Express, District 12 Council Member Mendelsohn is at the other end of this spectrum, winning every round of the Dallas Derby since its inception.
Moreno was also June’s Dallas Derby loser, with his constituents rating his effectiveness as poor across the board that month. He scored 0 in several categories, including city park maintenance and cleanliness, the reduction of aggressive panhandling, city cleanliness, and the reduction of crime. His effectiveness in reducing homelessness earned him a rating of 0.5, while his best score — a 1 out of 10 — was achieved for street repair and maintenance.
District 2 is one of the two council districts comprising Downtown Dallas. It stretches across the heart of the city and includes the Reunion district. However, the area has been plagued by homelessness, vagrancy, drug crime, and vehicle-related theft. In June, Moreno earned third place in The Dallas Express‘ Crime Boss series, which focuses on how crime rates have shifted each month compared to the year prior.
Stakeholders in the community have pointed to the Dallas Police Department’s officer shortage as dampening its impact on crime reduction. For instance, Louis Darrouzet, the CEO of the Metroplex Civic & Business Association (MCBA), recently told The Dallas Express that City leaders’ apparent reluctance to strengthen the police force is taking a toll on the business district’s potential.
MCBA produces monthly comparative analyses of crime in Downtown Dallas and Fort Worth’s city center, which is patrolled with a specialized neighborhood police unit and private security guards. They regularly show drastically more crime occurring in the former compared to the latter.
“You are roughly 30 to 60 times more likely to have your car stolen in Downtown Dallas than you are in downtown Fort Worth, and that’s just ridiculous,” Darrouzet remarked recently.
The Dallas Express reached out to Moreno for comment about his dismal Dallas Derby ratings but had not heard back by press time.
If you are a City of Dallas resident, DX encourages you to click here to ensure you can take the “Rate Your Council Member” survey so your local representative knows how you feel about their performance. Also, be sure to spread the word and refer a friend who lives in Dallas so they can help hold city officials accountable.