Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson delivered an address at the inauguration ceremonies on June 14, welcoming four new members to the Dallas City Council.
The mayor welcomed Paul Ridley, Jesse Moreno, Jaynie Schultz and Gay Donnell Willis as new members to the Dallas City Council who emerged victorious in the June 5 runoff race. Three of the new council members replace members who were term-limited and two members defeated better-funded opponents, according to NBC DFW News.
Johnson started his speech by addressing the challenges that many people faced during the pandemic.
“While we were isolated, we shared common experiences, faced common challenges,” Mayor Johnson said in his speech, as reported by Medium. “Some of us juggled our kids’ schooling and working from home. Some of us worried about our businesses’ bottom lines. Some of us saw our loved ones and neighbors get furloughed or laid off.”
The mayor discussed the problems the city needs to tackle and a need to “get back to basics” to improve the city’s quality of life.
“We have too much work to do,” Johnson added. “During the next two years, we must get back to basics and build for the future. You’ve likely heard me talk about these issues as my agenda. But it’s more than just my agenda. It’s our agenda. It’s the agenda of the people of Dallas.”
Included in the mayor’s back to basics agenda for the next two years are improving trash pickup, streamlining the permitting process to help businesses open and boosting emergency service response times.
“This is what it means to focus on the basics,” Johnson said. “The frustrations of the people of Dallas are our frustrations. Their quality of life is our quality of life. The pressures on their families, made worse by city services that aren’t working, are our paramount concern. We all live in this city, and it’s our job to make it as livable as possible.
Other issues the mayor said that need work include public safety initiatives, lowering tax rates, coming up with funding for infrastructure and helping the growing homeless population.
“We are Dallas, Texas. We refuse to stay down, and our determination and ingenuity can and will carry us to new heights,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson wrote in a June 14 Twitter post.
