District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn continues her winning streak in The Dallas Derby, pulling far ahead of the competition.
The Dallas Express’ latest monthly feature centers on the results of the “Rate Your Council Member” survey, which asks residents to weigh in on the effectiveness of City leaders in the areas of crime reduction, homelessness reduction, aggressive panhandling reduction, litter reduction & city cleanliness, street repairs & maintenance, and park maintenance & cleanliness for a given month.
By evaluating council members’ performances on a scale of 0-10, an average score and a comparative ranking can be established both by month and by year-to-date (YTD).
Click here to learn more about how DX arrives at its rankings each month.
Followers of the Dallas Derby know that Mendelsohn has been the council member to beat. She came ahead in the inaugural race in February and has bested her compatriots on the Dallas City Council each month since.
The results of the April survey show Mendelsohn clocking an average score of 9.4 out of 10. This is her strongest showing yet, leaving other council members in the dust. The runner-up to the winning laurels was Jaime Resendez, who represents District 5, with an April average score of just 4.7 out of 10.
District 8’s Tennell Atkins ranked lowest in terms of effectiveness in April, with survey respondents giving him an average score of 1.0 out of 10. Yet the most ineffective council member YTD is currently Jesse Moreno, who represents District 2 and has an average score of 1.7 out of 10.
A closer look at Mendelsohn’s results reveals that her constituents feel she is strongest in her efforts toward street repairs & maintenance and crime reduction, scoring a near-perfect 9.6 in both categories. However, Mendelsohn scored a bit lower in the reduction of homelessness, averaging 9.1 out of 10, despite being Vice Chair of the Housing and Homeless Solutions Committee.
Interestingly, residents of District 12 scored Mendelsohn’s efforts to curb panhandling the lowest in March (8.2 out of 10) but rated her a full point higher in April. Nevertheless, this category remains her worst overall YTD, followed by homelessness reduction, and then litter reduction & city cleanliness.
Survey takers also considered Mendelsohn to be most effective in the area of crime reduction YTD (9.3 out of 10), which is noteworthy given that she serves as the Chair of the Public Safety Committee.
Respondents also had the chance to rate the performances of Dallas Major Eric Johnson and City Manager T.C. Broadnax. Future survey takers will be able to weigh in on interim City Manager Kimberly Tolbert’s work since she took over for Broadnax on May 4.
While Broadnax scored 1.7 out of 10 in April — down from 1.9 in March — this is better than the all-time-low of 1.5 logged in February. His seven-year tenure as City Manager of Dallas ends with an overall Derby score of 1.7 out of 10.
Mayor Johnson was rated 5.0 out of 10 by survey takers in April, bringing his YTD average to 4.9 and reflecting what respondents believe to be a middling performance in terms of effectiveness in the key issues impacting city residents.
If you are a City of Dallas resident, DX encourages you to click here to ensure you can take May’s “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 give their two cents.
