The new Dallas City Council was officially inaugurated on Tuesday as Mayor Eric Johnson began his next term as the 60th mayor of the City of Dallas.
The inauguration ceremony was held at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center and was bookended with musical performances from the South Dallas Concert Choir.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) administered Johnson’s oath of office as the two highlighted Johnson’s commitment to public safety and the Dallas Police Department.
The majority of the previous council was re-elected last month, as reported by The Dallas Express. However, District 10 Council Member Adam McGough and District 3 Council Member Casey Thomas reached their term limits and therefore could not run for re-election.
Their replacements began their first term on Tuesday, with Kathy Stewart representing District 10 and Zarin Gracey representing District 3. Both Stewart and Gracey were endorsed by their predecessors.
Mayor Eric Johnson, having been re-elected to a second term in a landslide, winning 93% of the vote, lauded the purported accomplishments achieved under his leadership thus far and pledged to continue fighting for public safety, more property tax relief, and the best parks of any city in Texas.
Johnson particularly highlighted his commitment to supporting the police department, both by funding the police force and by getting the community involved.
“In this ‘either/or’ world, you have a ‘both/and’ mayor, which Dallas deserves — despite what the cynics and the dividers tell you,” he said.
Johnson claimed Dallas outperforms other major American cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
“New York City … lost nearly 470,000 people between April 2020 and July 2022 because of COVID lockdowns, rising crime, and an ever-rising cost of living,” he said. “We don’t want to be like New York clearly.”
However, the City of Dallas’ population is still recovering from losses it suffered in 2020 and continues to grow at a slower rate than the surrounding metroplex.
Johnson also said, “We also don’t want to follow in the footsteps of Los Angeles … [which] has become overrun by people experiencing homelessness and is shedding corporate headquarters every year to cities like Dallas.”
While homelessness and vagrancy in the city have not yet reached the critical levels of Los Angeles, Dallas residents still view them as serious problems. Parents with children in Dallas ISD schools are concerned about homelessness, vagrancy, and panhandling across the city, according to polling from The Dallas Express.
“Worse still, Dallas could become like Chicago — a city that these days is … more known for its truly shocking levels of violent crime and it’s steadily declining population,” Johnson continued. “To date, Dallas has made very different decisions than our big city rivals. We’ve applied ‘both/and’ solutions to address complex problems.”
Despite efforts by the police department to address crime, it persists across the city. Dallas has seen a 44.68% year-over-year increase in non-family violence homicides in the first quarter of 2023, according to the data from the police department.
Mayor Johnson has repeatedly voiced his support for the police department and for hiring more officers. As Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia recently told The Dallas Express, the department still needs “hundreds more” police officers.
As Sen. Cornyn administered Johnson’s oath of office, he praised the mayor’s efforts and emphasized the importance of bipartisanship in a politically divided climate.
“People are sometimes surprised that the mayor and I have such a good working relationship,” he said. “Because at first glance, we don’t appear to have that much in common.”
“We come from different generations. We come from different races — different political parties,” Cornyn continued. “Despite those differences … we have to work together where we can.”
Other elected officials, including U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Fort Worth Mayor Maddie Parker, also attended the ceremony.
The first meeting of the 2024-25 Dallas City Council will be held next Wednesday.