When Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Chair Gary Slagel sent a letter to suburban mayors urging them to drop reform efforts in exchange for funding, he quietly copied Michael Morris — the longtime regional planner once dubbed a “King of Sprawl” by D Magazine, and now increasingly seen as the King of Gridlock.
Morris is an unelected staff member of the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) and its Regional Transportation Council (RTC), with outsize influence over North Texas transportation. Over the years, he’s earned nicknames like “King of the Roads” and “King of DFW Politics” — a reflection of the quiet power he’s wielded behind the scenes for decades.
Slagel’s July 17 letter obtained exclusively by The Dallas Express, tied access to tens of millions in DART funding to political compliance — demanding suburban city councils formally request the funds and commit to ending any further legislative efforts against the agency. At the bottom of the letter, he copied Morris.
“Michael had no knowledge of the letter, nor did he see it beforehand,” said Malcolm Mayhew, NCTCOG communications specialist, in a statement to The Dallas Express. “Michael remains focused on trying to solve the issue at home rather than with the Texas Legislature.”
This letter came after the mayors of Plano, Irving, Carrollton, Highland Park, and Farmers Branch wrote Gov. Greg Abbott, asking him to include DART reform in the special session.
While Dallas controls the majority of seats on the DART board, the city and agency still sometimes struggle to work together. This is where Morris comes in.
Growing Tensions
When DART and Dallas City Council members held a joint meeting in February 2023, Rodney Schlosser – then a Dallas member of the agency’s board – foreshadowed the issues that have recently come to a boil.
“The suburbs are now funding more of DART than the city of Dallas,” Schlosser said. “The suburban members of the DART board have gone from being frustrated to being extremely unhappy.”
Dallas had historically funded the bulk of DART’s services, but that dynamic was shifting. As The Dallas Express has reported, suburbs like Plano, Carrollton, and Farmers Branch are now paying tens of millions more than they receive in return.
Schlosser said the situation had reached a “precipice.” He called it a case of “taxation without representation” and noted that even Dallas City Council members were becoming “frustrated with the Dallas members of the DART board.”
“We are on a regular basis having to deal with very tense situations on the DART board, which come down to a question of governance and control,” he said.
Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn also criticized the agency’s lack of accountability, pointing to repeated delays.
“It’s outrageous to think that DART would be the judge and jury,” she said.
Enter The ‘Marriage Counselor’
Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn pointed to a familiar figure in DART disputes.
“There’s somebody who frequently calls himself the ‘marriage counselor’ with the city and DART – and that’s Michael Morris.”
Morris has long referred to himself as a “marriage counselor” in conflicts between local agencies and governments. But some elected officials and observers have called him more of a “bully,” pushing billions in funding for wasteful transit programs — including DART, TexRail, and a proposed high-speed rail line connecting Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. That project has never come close to breaking ground and has faced years of resistance from private property owners.
He has held power at the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) for 35 years, after first being hired by the agency in 1979. The group is a metropolitan planning organization — essentially a shadow government — that controls how billions in federal transportation dollars are allocated across the region. It selects its own board members — some elected officials, some appointed bureaucrats — and operates with no direct accountability to voters.
Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn — a member of NCTCOG’s board — told The Dallas Express that while DART sits on the Regional Transportation Council, it is “not accountable to it.”
NCTCOG spokesperson Malcolm Mayhew said Morris supports the council’s broader mission to build a transit system for a projected 12.5 million residents by 2050.
“Michael supports the Regional Transportation Council’s interests to develop a transit system to meet the needs of 12.5 million people, the projected population in 2050,” Mayhew said. “He spent time on mediation between DART and its member cities.”
In the same 2023 meeting, then–City Councilman Omar Narvaez praised the idea of a “resolution team” and pointed to Morris as the likely facilitator.
“I’m sure if we call Michael Morris – there’s many of us here that are on the NCTCOG board, we’re members – we can get that to happen,” Narvaez said at the time.
DART CEO Nadine Lee — who was also copied on Slagel’s recent letter to mayors — said she would participate.
“We will definitely participate in earnest, and our expectation is that we will come out of it with some real resolutions,” she said.
The Dallas Express asked whether DART ever formed this “resolution team” with Morris. Lee did not respond in time for publication.
DART is $3 billion in debt and serves just 5% of area residents, as The Dallas Express previously reported.
Suburban mayors have grown increasingly frustrated over rising crime, homelessness, and unequal representation on the DART board. Most recently, Garland officials passed formal language expressing frustration with the agency.
The Dallas Express asked what Morris has done to fix DART’s long-running problems or hold the agency accountable. Mayhew responded that the RTC “aided transit agencies during low ridership throughout COVID,” but did not cite anything Morris had personally resolved.
“Michael has no role in determining how much debt DART takes on,” Mayhew said. He added that Morris proposed a “pro-local government position” to the RTC in July — though he did not explain what that entailed.
Mayhew also said Morris “does not have the authority” to block DART funding, adding that the RTC makes “all funding decisions.”
When asked who benefits from Morris’s involvement with DART, Mayhew cited “air quality and safety benefits,” pointing to the upcoming FIFA World Cup — though he gave no examples of measurable outcomes tied to Morris.
As of 2019, Morris earned $245,000 in salary at NCTCOG. When asked whether Morris is paid by any other group with ties to the projects he advocates for,
“Michael is paid solely by the North Central Texas Council of Governments,” Mayhew said. “His annual salary is a matter of public record.”
More Highways
Morris’ influence extends far beyond DART or Dallas City Hall. While he talks about “mobility,” few individuals have done more to entrench sprawl and gridlock in North Texas.
As far back as 2007, Morris intervened as a “facilitator” between the Texas Department of Transportation and the North Texas Tollway Authority in a bitter funding dispute over $3.5 to $4 billion, according to The Dallas Observer.
“When there’s money on the table, he and NCTCOG operate like a local political party,” the Observer wrote. “Then the minute the deal gets done, they duck back inside their turtle shell, protected by their relative anonymity as a little-known regional agency dealing in technical matters that are opaque to most voters.”
One of Morris’s longest-running crusades was the failed Trinity Parkway toll road, which ultimately died in 2017. In a 2007 internal memo, he offered “10 Reasons to Build the Trinity Parkway,” claiming the tollway was essential to delivering $5 billion in projects — including the massive Mixmaster interchange.
But as D Magazine later reported, “most” of those projects proceeded “just fine without the tollway.” And officials concluded the tollway would have shifted traffic problems elsewhere, not solved them.
Then in 2014, Morris played the race card. When residents expressed support for tearing down the dilapidated stretch of I-345 downtown – which still poses issues today – he dismissed the concerns due to their race.
“They were all white, they were very wealthy, and I don’t think any of them live in the neighborhood,” Morris said, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Since NCTCOG wields federal funding, it often controls which projects can get off the ground. So in this case, Morris said the I-345 demolition stood little chance of moving forward.
“There’s not much our office is going to be able to do to help them, and there’s not much [the state highway department] will be able to do,” he told The Dallas Observer.
More Spending
In 2018, Collin County officials claimed they needed $12.6 billion for new roads over the next 30 years — more than the county’s entire annual budget. Michael Morris applauded a $750 million bond proposal to help cover the cost. But he made clear that wasn’t enough.
“It’s not the solution,” he said. “It’s the start.”
Morris’s support for massive, uncoordinated infrastructure spending has spanned decades. In 2019, D Magazine labeled him one of the “Kings of Dallas Sprawl,” alongside then-DART CEO Gary Thomas. Thomas, who earned $325,000 as of 2019, presided over a 20-year period of mounting debt and questionable priorities.
During Thomas’ tenure, DART took on a $908 million federal debt for its Cotton Belt light rail extension, according to Bond Buyer. Officials claimed this left DART in a better position to take on another project – the D2 Subway downtown, initially projected to cost $1.2 billion.
By 2021, that figure had ballooned. The Dallas City Council approved $1.7 billion for D2 and demanded better coordination across major infrastructure projects. That’s when Morris finally stepped in — calling for a “horizontally integrated vision.”
“Michael was critical of DART’s D-2 alignment,” Mayhew said. “He led the initiative with Sandy Wesch that included realigning D-2 and developing a combination project including I-345.”
But Morris has consistently backed large-scale projects — roads, tunnels, rail — without clearly defined outcomes. In a 2023 op-ed in The Fort Worth Report, he argued for building around highways, not away from them.
He called for more development in dense suburban zones, “around rail stations,” “inside transit authority boundaries,” and “along transportation corridors.” He also advocated for high-speed rail and population-driven investment.
The problem, according to Morris? Too many people.
The solution? More development, especially near public transit like DART – which just pushes for more funding.
After 35 years, Michael Morris continues to call himself the “marriage counselor” between agencies. But with billions in debt, mounting suburban revolt, and no clear results, critics are starting to ask: Who exactly is he reconciling — and who’s been stuck with the bill?