Let's Talk Local Podcast | Let’s Talk Midterms with Mayor Eric Johnson

00:13

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

We're here to discuss what's happening on November 3, what people are eligible to vote for, and I would very much like your perspective on where you stand on the November third bond election.

00:26

Mayor Eric Johnson

Okay. I just wanted to make sure we were gonna be... You know, I'm trained as a lawyer, so I answer the question people ask me. Not the question that I... And I...

00:35

Mayor Eric Johnson

If I were more of a politician and less of a policy person and less of a lawyer, I'd answer the question that I heard or wanted them to ask, but I typically will answer the question that people actually ask. So I'm glad you said the November 3 bond election because there's a lot of stuff

00:53

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

There is. About November 3 that we we talked Specifically A.

00:56

Mayor Eric Johnson

Because I was going say

00:57

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Specifically proposition A

01:00

Mayor Eric Johnson

folks to come of what's vote for going on in our country and our state. The city has a proposition one proposition, proposition A

01:11

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Mhmm.

01:11

Mayor Eric Johnson

On the ballot on November 3. So after you've done your civic duty and voted for all those other

01:16

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

01:17

Mayor Eric Johnson

Things that I'm not going to comment on today Yep.

01:19

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

We are not.

01:20

Mayor Eric Johnson

I hope that you will make it all the way to the end of the ballot and vote for proposition A, and I'll tell you why. We have an unprecedented, I mean, unprecedented amount of alignment in our city right now around public safety. And everything I tell you today, Sarah, everything I tell you today is none of it is spin. None of it's political. I'm not running for office for reelection here coming up next year.

01:49

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

01:49

Mayor Eric Johnson

I got... Look, I'm telling... And not that I would tell you anything different anyway.

01:53

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Sure. Sure.

01:54

Mayor Eric Johnson

But I'm I'm here to tell you I I got nothing else on the horizon I'm trying to spin you for or anything like that. I'm telling you the truth as a fellow Dallasite, right? As a fellow father of three kids that I'm raising in this city, we have never had the alignment that we have at this moment on public safety in this city. I'm gonna walk you through what I mean by that. Yeah, please.

02:14

Mayor Eric Johnson

I mean, and I love this format, so thank you for allowing me to be here, Doctor. Of course. So we start at the top in our form of government. We got the mayor. The mayor has made public safety his number one priority for seven plus years.

02:28

Mayor Eric Johnson

That's me. Mhmm. I've said it

02:30

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Mayor Eric Johnson.

02:31

Mayor Eric Johnson

Yep. I've said it a million times if I've said it once. Public safety is top priority of the city and our budgets reflect it, my rhetoric reflects it, my actions reflect it, council action has reflected it. So at... In the mayor's office, public safety, number one priority.

02:49

Mayor Eric Johnson

Mhmm. The other person who's most important in this form of government is the city manager, aligned Mhmm. Finally. Didn't always have that. The previous city

02:57

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

manager Yep.

02:58

Mayor Eric Johnson

Was not there on public safety, and there was a lot of fights that we had to have Yep. Over public safety. This city manager gets it. We are in alignment on how important public safety is. The budgets reflect it.

03:13

Mayor Eric Johnson

The commitment to the pension reflects it. The commitment to salaries reflects it. The commitment to putting in our budget through the general fund more than any other area of our government, public safety, our first responders, police and fire. We have alignment with the city manager, finally. You have an amazing and committed to the cause police chief, finally.

03:38

Mayor Eric Johnson

We didn't always have that.

03:39

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah.

03:39

Mayor Eric Johnson

The first police chief that we had when I became the mayor, no Bueno, was not a good police chief.

03:45

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Got you.

03:45

Mayor Eric Johnson

I mean, I'm not even gonna call her name.

03:47

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Got you.

03:47

Mayor Eric Johnson

But she Oh, that's had the

03:50

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

03:50

Mayor Eric Johnson

She had the q philosophy, c u e philosophy, when it came to violent crime in our city, which was crimes up everywhere. That was her answer to everything I ever said. I'd say, I wanna see Dallas do better in this area, this area, and this area. And she'd say, mister Mayor, respectfully, Crimes Up Everywhere. C U E.

04:05

Mayor Eric Johnson

That was her response to everything. Then we got Eddie Garcia Yep. Who was a breath of fresh air, great chief. And now we have Daniel Como, also a great chief. So we've got a great police chief.

04:15

Mayor Eric Johnson

You can't take that for granted, though. We didn't always have that. Yeah. We've got a great fire chief in Justin Ball, also committed to the cause. We've got a great head of public safety in Dominique Artis.

04:26

Mayor Eric Johnson

We've got all the leadership in the city when it comes to public safety and alignment. We've got 11 fifteenths of the Dallas City Council that voted to put this bond before the voters. So 11 fifteenths of the council and all those entities, and all those people, I should say, that I just mentioned, all believe that what this city needs are the five things that that we've discussed at length that would be funded through this bond. So let's talk about what those are, and and I can explain to you why we're all in alignment on this. First, we have the two...

05:05

Mayor Eric Johnson

I'm gonna call them the two parts of the police academy. Yep. The first part of the police academy is at the University of North Texas. Yep. That's the academic part.

05:14

Mayor Eric Johnson

That's the classroom part. That's where we bring the new recruits in, they do the traditional police academy classroom stuff. Mhmm. At Dallas Executive Airport, we want to do the field stuff, the stuff that requires them to to basically... You know, the shooting ranges, indoor and outdoor, stuff that we can't put on a college campus without it being...

05:34

Mayor Eric Johnson

It's just basically can't be done. Yes. So, you know, a a driving course should then learn how to drive the emergency vehicles. All those things that we need to train the officers who are both being brought into the department for the first time as recruits and the ongoing training the officers need. So there's two locations that together make, basically, the world class police training that we need in Dallas.

05:55

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And it will have an indoor and outdoor?

05:57

Mayor Eric Johnson

Indoor and outdoor aspect So to those two facilities are going to be paid for with the $443 ish million in bond proceeds. Then we would be moving our 911 call center and our emergency operations center out of City Hall to another city owned location. We'd be doing our property that's another thing we'd be doing. That's a separate thing. That's not part of the academy.

06:20

Mayor Eric Johnson

That's a separate thing. That's important because our 911 facility right now at City Hall is atrocious, and anyone who's ever toured it would would know that. And everybody I know who's on the city council and and city government who's in leadership has seen that and understands that that is not how we are going to provide the public safety that we need to provide for our city through a facility like what we have right now. It's just... It's it's not someplace you'd ever wanna work.

06:47

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Let's put

06:47

Mayor Eric Johnson

that way.

06:48

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Okay.

06:48

Mayor Eric Johnson

So... And the emergency operations center is tiny, too small, and needs to be upgraded to provide the the service to the city that we have to provide when we deal with an emergency. I call it the situation room. It's where I have to go every time there's something a major incident, you

07:07

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

know Gotcha.

07:07

Mayor Eric Johnson

Something like that.

07:08

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Okay.

07:09

Mayor Eric Johnson

So we need to do that. The property room, evidence room, crime lab facility is a new thing to actually put in one place some things that are in multiple places right now, but this is a very important function and it has to do with how we store the evidence that we need to prosecute the bad guys. Basically, we've got requirements for not only when we're actually storing evidence to present at criminal trials to prosecute the bad guys, but we have certain retention requirements for a certain amount of time after to keep it available for potential appeals and other things. So that requires physical space, and we're just out of it. We're out of physical space in our current location, and it's not a nice facility at all.

07:51

Mayor Eric Johnson

There are people who have I'm going get to that in a minute who've said, you know, we don't need a Four Seasons. You know? We don't. We don't need a Four Seasons, but we're not talking about a Four Seasons. That's just rhetoric.

08:02

Mayor Eric Johnson

Folks who know, like our police chief Mhmm. Who've been other places and who've seen other cities know that our facility is just substandard. All of this Sure. Those four things I just mentioned are on the police side. There's one more item that we'd be paying for that's on the fire side of things.

08:18

Mayor Eric Johnson

But these are all things to make our city competitive as it relates to recruitment and to make sure that we have the facilities, the facilities that allow us to project strength and and project and actually achieve the public safety that we want for our residents. We wanna be the most... The safest and and and the most proactive police department and fire department in The United States. We want Dallas residents to feel like they are in the safest big city in the country. Mhmm.

08:48

Mayor Eric Johnson

And it takes facilities to do that. We can't do that with facilities that are outdated and frankly are an embarrassment when recruits come to look at it. The last thing that the bond would pay for would be a new fire station number four, which is an outdated fire station that was built in 1953 or something like that. 1953, I think, when it was put into service. Those things have a useful life of about 70, and we need a new one.

09:11

Mayor Eric Johnson

And we need to have it be such that it could actually service more of downtown so we don't have to build any more stations. So that's just a smart investment that we need to make, and it's the number one rated station that needs to be replaced according to the needs assessment of the fire department. We have complete agreement amongst all the leaders in public safety that these things are needed, and that's why we're going to the voters to ask for the 443,000,000 to pay for those. I just have to be honest with you, Sarah, and just tell it like it is. And I'm happy to deal with politically any fallout from making this comment.

09:51

Mayor Eric Johnson

But the folks... People need to know the truth. And the truth is is the four people who own the city council who oppose this bond we put before the voters, a couple of them, I don't... I wouldn't have expected anything different because they've they've basically been anti law enforcement their entire time on council, essentially. They've had they've had what would be very, I think, fairly described as a less than stellar record on supporting law enforcement or first responders.

10:23

Mayor Eric Johnson

The other two, I have to just be honest and say this is absolutely something they would have supported, but for the fact that they are suffering from a disease right now. And it's a disease that has infected some members of the council, and they have it bad. And it's... I'm gonna call it city hall derangement syndrome. It's it's it's very similar to Trump derangement syndrome, but instead of being an obsession with everything that Donald Trump does, it's an obsession with this issue of city hall.

10:52

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Interesting.

10:53

Mayor Eric Johnson

Okay. So what is happening, and this is three d chess Mhmm. And only in a format like this could we even get to

11:00

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

it Sure.

11:01

Mayor Eric Johnson

Is two of the members of the four that have opposed this bond so badly wanna make sure make sure that city hall is never potentially redeveloped, or or that a deal is never struck for city hall to have an arena for the Mavericks or something like that. And they so badly wanna ensure that that deal happens at, Valley View and where, you know, they believe it should happen, these these two.

11:34

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Okay.

11:34

Mayor Eric Johnson

That they view every vote that comes before the city council as potential leverage in that debate. And they view this... They took this bond vote as an opportunity to basically threaten the rest of us on the council that, hey. We'll we'll oppose this bond. We will try to see this bond fail unless you don't do anything with the 911 call center and the EOC.

12:01

Mayor Eric Johnson

Because if we take that out of city hall, we think that'll make it easier for you to leave City Hall. They were viewing this as a way to make it more difficult to make a decision to leave City Hall. So it was very strategic. It was very intentional. It was very cynical, frankly, and that's what this is really about.

12:21

Mayor Eric Johnson

This is about Valley View and the Mavericks and wanting to ensure that they go there and using this vote as a way to achieve that goal. Just last week, you had one of the two members who were part of that bloc that I'm talking about say that they were willing to set it on the record, that they were willing to trade their vote on another unrelated issue, which was renaming a tiny portion of Hardwood Street to Exchange Place so that the Texas Stock Exchange and the financial services companies that are moving to Y'all street Yep. Would have a nice address for their letterhead. They opposed that, and they actually said the quiet part out loud. They said, but I'm willing to trade my vote on...

12:59

Mayor Eric Johnson

If you will give us what we want on city hall. Set it on the record. So there's just a series of votes that are gonna happen, and this Bond vote was one of them, where they're... Where it's all about city hall. It's city hall derangement syndrome, and it has nothing to do with public safety, which is why I had to remove this person as the chair of public safety because I haven't been able to get them to do anything public safety related since the city hall debate started.

13:21

Mayor Eric Johnson

Interesting. Yeah. I've asked for a public safety... A comprehensive public safety plan from the former chair of the public safety committee. Never got one because she got so distracted with her city hall derangement syndrome that she just forgot to do her job as the public safety chair.

13:38

Mayor Eric Johnson

And now she's opposed to a public safety bond on projects that everyone in the public safety ecosystem says and knows that we need because she's trying to use it as leverage for city hall to make a deal happen at Valley View that she thinks should happen there and not downtown. So, again, the all city government is being ground to a halt because of city hall derangement syndrome that two people who know better and should be behaving differently on public safety and would be behaving differently but for the city hall issue. The other two, lost cause as it relates to public safety. Those are your four of the 15. 11 out of 15 want this bond and want it to pass.

14:21

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yes, that is correct. And I did sit with this person about this particular issue, because I was trying to understand both sides as best as I could. So thank you for explaining this, because I honestly had not read any

14:36

Mayor Eric Johnson

of this. Everything I just said is absolutely true.

14:38

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Okay. There were some arguments, let's say from her side, that were stating this is somewhat of a blank check. So I went through some notes through some of your

14:50

Mayor Eric Johnson

I'll speak to that really quick. I know you don't have that much time, I'll speak to the

14:53

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

No, don't. I'm sorry.

14:54

Mayor Eric Johnson

But I'll speak to the blank check issue.

14:56

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Okay. Please.

14:56

Mayor Eric Johnson

Okay. So they're not gonna come out and say, we actually think this bond's a great idea. We know it's a good idea. We would otherwise be supporting this, except we are trying to use it as leverage to get something done at Valley View and not at and not downtown. And we were...

15:11

Mayor Eric Johnson

This is all about city hall, we're not being honest with you. They're not gonna say that. Yeah. They gotta say something. I mean, they gotta come up with something.

15:17

Mayor Eric Johnson

So this blank check thing is something they've just thrown out there to see if... Against the wall to see if it'll stick, and it's absolutely not true. What they are saying essentially is there's no checks or constraints on how we spend this money. Here's the reality about that. We have a bond counsel lawyer that we always and every entity uses in the state of Texas that's issuing debt, that has drafted our bond proposition that's going for the voters like every other bond proposition that goes for the voters in this state and like every other one we've ever done.

15:48

Mayor Eric Johnson

The language absolutely meets legal muster. There's nothing confusing about it. There's nothing deceptive about it, and there's nothing deficient about it, and that it absolutely limits us to spending whatever bond proceeds that we may generate. It's may. It authorizes us.

16:06

Mayor Eric Johnson

It doesn't compel us. It authorizes us to issue up to $443,000,000 in bonds for public safety, and specifically the types of purposes that it says in the proposition, police, fire, emergency services. That is absolutely a contract with the voters, so to speak, that we cannot spend it on anything other than that type of facility. Now, as it relates to what specific things we can do, here's the reality, Sarah, that... And again, this is when you're trying to make something sound horrible that's not horrible, you kind of just...

16:41

Mayor Eric Johnson

You exaggerate things or whatever. Here's the reality. We never, we absolutely never, and there's no obligation for a city or anybody issuing debt to enumerate the specific location, type, exact pinpoint the exact project itself in the bond proposition that you're voting on because here's the reality. The reality is a governmental entity issuing debt like that is always subject to further counsel action to spend that money or not spend that money or to spend it on a different project that still fits the parameters of the bond proposition. Meaning, this is something that's always a feature of issuing a bond.

17:28

Mayor Eric Johnson

This is not something we just did differently this time or something that's new. It's always the case that the governing body, in this case, the Dallas City Council, they... The Dallas City Council runs Dallas. That's how our form of government is set up. The Dallas City Council makes the decisions.

17:46

Mayor Eric Johnson

The Dallas City Council can always come later and decide it doesn't want to spend any money that it was authorized to spend or that it wants to shift one project that fits a parameter of a bond proposition to another project. That's always something that the city council can do. As long as I'm here, and as long as I have any say in this, we will spend this money exactly the way we've discussed in open meetings publicly that we're going to spend it. But it's ultimately the Dallas City Council that makes that decision, and it's up to the voters to hold the Dallas City Council accountable for how it spends the money. That's that's just the way the system works.

18:26

Mayor Eric Johnson

That that... There's really no way to to wire around that feature of our city government or any city government, which is ultimately those decisions get made by the council.

18:36

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's correct.

18:37

Mayor Eric Johnson

And so there's nothing that we're doing in this bond proposition that's different, but it's being made out to be, Oh, we're giving them a blank check. Every bond that we've ever done has been It structured this is not a blank check, but an authorization, and always subject to council approval at a subsequent date as to whether or they want to go through with it or not. I can tell you we have an appetite in the leadership in the city right now to do exactly what we've said we're going to do, which is to deliver on a police academy that has been long overdue and has been being promised in the city for thirty years. I was the mayor who decided to stop kicking that can down the road and to get this done. But we cannot get this done without bond funds.

19:20

Mayor Eric Johnson

And I will tell you this, and I will shut up, and hopefully maybe get an answer another one more question or something. But I think I'm answering all of your questions very, very

19:29

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah, in-depth. You are. Thank you for that.

19:32

Mayor Eric Johnson

Here's what a bond is, and here's what people should get comfortable with understanding. Because, again, a of things

19:43

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

a lot of things

19:44

Mayor Eric Johnson

are are being being told to voters right now to scare them that are no different than the way things have been done forever, not just in our city, but the way this works, I mean, the way the way public finance works. So we've already talked about the bond proposition itself being nothing abnormal and business as usual. But what we need to talk about, I think because I think this is being also used as a scare tactic is what a bond is and why a bond is not a bad thing and why debt, when we talk about it in the public finance context, it's not something to be afraid of or scared of, but it's actually a necessary part of running a city well. The best way I can explain this is to talk to people, normal, everyday folks, about how they run their own households and what real life requires. So this is what a bond is, and to make it very, very simple, Sarah, a bond is no different than any other major purchase that a person needs to make that if they had to wait until they had all the cash to pay for it in full sitting in their bank account before they could buy it, they would never buy it.

20:48

Mayor Eric Johnson

So let's talk about what some of those things might be as an example. A car. Anybody who needs a car, who is not ultra wealthy, has financed a car before. Yeah. Let's talk about why you do that.

21:05

Mayor Eric Johnson

If a car sitting on a lot that you need to buy costs $30,000, say, 30,000, and your options were to only show up at the dealership with $30,000 in cash to give to that car dealer and then they would give you that car and give you the title, almost no one would have a car. Because the reality is is once you've, taken out from your monthly income, your biweekly paycheck, all the money you need to spend to live your rent or your mortgage, your utilities, your streaming services for your TV, your cell phone, your your food, everything. Once you've taken all that out, if you're left with $500, say, at the end of the month, that would give you, what, $6,000 at the end of the year Mhmm. In free cash? That's if...

22:04

Mayor Eric Johnson

And if if you took every dollar of that to apply towards a car purchase, you can do that simple math right here, that would take you five years of saving every cent you have before you could actually buy a car. Or you can finance it and actually do all the things you still need to do in your life and have a manageable car payment. That's what everyone does because we have to actually live our lives. Same thing with a house. If you had to wait until you the median home price in Dallas is $400,000

22:36

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

22:37

Mayor Eric Johnson

If you had to wait until you had $400,000 cash sitting in the bank account before you could go to a person selling a house and say, I like this house. Here's $400,000 cash. I'd like to have the title, please, to this house. No one would have a house because it would take you multiple lifetimes before you'd have $400,000 free in cash sitting in your bank account before you could buy a house. So what do we have instead?

23:04

Mayor Eric Johnson

We have mortgages

23:05

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yep.

23:06

Mayor Eric Johnson

So people can live their lives. A bond is a city or a governmental entity saying, if we had to wait until we had $500,000,000 to pay for just these five projects we're talking about, let alone running this entire city, we would never do it. We'd never have the projects. We have way more in needs of things that we need to build and construct and maintain and and keep up and things we need to do operationally, on top of things we need to finance, you know, then pay for, that we could never have the city that we need to have if we had to wait until we had enough cash sitting in the bank before we could buy anything. So if we had to wait until we had the full $227,000,000 sitting in the bank just to do a police academy, we wouldn't ever have a police academy.

23:54

Mayor Eric Johnson

And and you just add up the list of projects we have. That's what municipal finance is all about. It's that we can borrow money on a tax exempt basis at favorable interest rates and pay for things over twenty years or so to make our expenditures smoothed out over time. It's what allows us to actually have a city, and that's nothing nefarious. There's nothing bad about that.

24:16

Mayor Eric Johnson

That's actually a very good and useful tool for the same reason that a mortgage is a good tool and a car note is a good tool. It means we need to be good stewards of our savings, of course, like an individual does. But again, you would never want to take that tool out of the toolbox for an individual. You would never want to get rid of mortgages or get rid of car notes or car financing, because people just absolutely would never be able to afford those things. That's the same thing when we're talking about building fire stations and other large public works like that public facilities.

24:49

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yes, thank you for that, because I don't believe that that was formally discussed. Unfortunately, I get in my head a little bit. I'm a former bond trader, a former fixed income trader. So I understand debt systems and risk pertaining to debt structures very intimately.

25:09

Mayor Eric Johnson

So so you're saying, well, we have treasury bonds and treasury notes? Yes, understand what we

25:13

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

yes, yes.

25:13

Mayor Eric Johnson

At every level of government, they have the Absolutely. Ability to issue debt this

25:17

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And so for me, I do admit that sometimes I should probably simplify some of these metrics and some of these acronyms, some of these tools because the broad majority of people do not understand debt structures and especially how it relates to municipalities specifically. I But, ask just one. Something that was brought up that I actually went and did some research on because I had read differently was how sturdy and strong the existing city hall location is in the prior interview. But then I remember that the emergency director Kevin Oden told council that they couldn't... I think they declined to co locate for FINRA.

26:09

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Not FINRA, dear God, here I'm thinking of FINRA. Whenever FIFA was here, they couldn't use that space. Are you able to even discuss why that happened? Because again, the interview with Councillor Mendelson, she was saying how sturdy and strong that building is, and then I thought, I remember that there was something, know, where people wouldn't use it.

26:33

Mayor Eric Johnson

Yeah. No. I I I know the... I I understand what you're talking about. So kind of...

26:37

Mayor Eric Johnson

Those are kind of two different issues, but they kind of came out probably during the same discussion.

26:42

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Got you.

26:43

Mayor Eric Johnson

One... You know, so, again, we're back to the city hall then because everyone has city hall derangement syndrome on that side

26:48

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Got you.

26:48

Mayor Eric Johnson

And wants to talk about city hall, although this has nothing to do with bonds whatsoever. Although, it's so amazing to me that I I think on these signs you were talking about earlier about the the anti bond campaign, they even got

26:59

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

A bus stop.

26:59

Mayor Eric Johnson

Save city hall on the signs. It's just... They're not even hiding the fact that they've they've linked these two issues. They view killing the bond as a way to kill city hall. It's gotta make that point...

27:09

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

But isn't city hall going

27:10

Mayor Eric Johnson

to survive either way?... As a way to save city hall. I I just have to point that out that I'm not even hiding this fact. But... So what you were talking about is during the discussion about FIFA.

27:20

Mayor Eric Johnson

City about City Hall somehow, it was brought up that FIFA chose not to put the EOC for purposes of the World Cup

27:30

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

FIFA safety.

27:31

Mayor Eric Johnson

At our EOC downtown because it was it was deemed to be insufficient for their reasons.

27:35

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

27:35

Mayor Eric Johnson

That has to do... Or or or had to do with... Maybe it was the the upcoming Republican convention. I can't remember which one it was. Either way, the federal government and others deemed our EEOC to be The only things I think I'm comfortable bringing up, and I actually am not privy to all

27:53

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

the reasons,

27:54

Mayor Eric Johnson

is that it's just too small

27:56

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

to all

27:56

Mayor Eric Johnson

different agencies, organizations that you need to have in there. It's very cramped in there. But other issues had to do with their specifications and them not meeting their specifications. That's a different issue than the sturdiness of the building. No one's debating whether that city hall is a very sturdy structure.

28:14

Mayor Eric Johnson

It's poured concrete, reinforced steel, I'm sure. It's an impenetrable fortress. It's a very sturdy building. The sturdiness of it is not what makes it not suitable for use as the seat of the city government. It's just the building was designed at a time when we hadn't invented Wi Fi yet.

28:33

Mayor Eric Johnson

Wi Fi service in the building is horrible. It's also just horribly energy inefficient, not a great space, not great spaces in there to actually work in teams and to collaborate, not great meeting spaces in there. And then there's just all the the... And I'm not gonna relitigate all of Sure. Don't be able to...

28:55

Mayor Eric Johnson

Because we have engineering firms who've done who've done hundreds and hundreds of pages of studies that people can read about this, about the actual insufficiency of the building for... From a structural standpoint, what it would cost to make it up to date. So that that... That's what the issue was there. But again, it's unfortunate that every major issue facing the Dallas City Council these days by that subset of folks who is really determined to make sure that something happens on a development deal in a different part of our city is holding a bunch of other issues hostage that are unrelated and should be unrelated.

29:34

Mayor Eric Johnson

And frankly, they actually know our good policy and actually would agree with if this city hall issue weren't a factor. And that makes me sad. I was astonished that on the record, it was admitted to last week or two weeks ago at the Horseshoe that the opposition to a a minor street name change was a a a vote that was willing to be traded if we would back off of the city hall issue. It's just... It's unbelievable to me.

30:02

Mayor Eric Johnson

But but back to the, you know, the the real topic that I know you want to talk about today, I... I'm unequivocal in my position on this. The bond is abs... The the bond is limited to public safety, and it is... Has been literally crafted and honed to only deal with the projects that we...

30:24

Mayor Eric Johnson

There's there's nothing else in this proposition but actual construction projects that are related to public safety facilities that we need to deliver this public safety that this city deserves. And that is something that has been attested to by, again, the idea that there are two members or one, really, member of the Dallas City Council. The other one is just following, like, very impishly following the other council member. But there's two council members at best who are claiming that they essentially know better when it comes to the public safety needs of the city. And I know...

31:00

Mayor Eric Johnson

And and the only reason I'm willing to say this bluntly is because I know that they actually don't think this. But, again, it's all about the city hall derangement syndrome, so they're gonna pretend it is. They are bold and brazen enough to say that they know more about what this city needs from a public safety standpoint, these two, than the mayor, city manager, fire chief, the police chief, the head of public safety, and eleven fifteenth to the Dallas city council. That's that's quite the statement. That's quite the statement.

31:36

Mayor Eric Johnson

I'll I'll translate that for the voters. Take my one person, my individual word for it, over your police chief, your fire chief, your city manager, your mayor, and 11 fifteenths of your elected city council. They're all morons. I know what's best. It's insanity.

31:54

Mayor Eric Johnson

It's absolute insanity. It's why this person is no longer the chair of public safety, and it has nothing to do with public safety, really. Has to do with

32:03

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Gotcha.

32:04

Mayor Eric Johnson

Getting a deal done at Valley View for the Mavericks.

32:06

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

See, that

32:07

Mayor Eric Johnson

insanity.

32:08

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I honestly had not heard that. And I'm being very, very truthful when I say that because know that you are our friends. And so I was shocked, honestly, to see what has transpired. But thinking

32:24

Mayor Eric Johnson

What's my motive? Yeah. What motivation do I have? You're not going see me turn around and run for some office based on this. I'm not in any developer's pocket.

32:35

Mayor Eric Johnson

I'm not getting my marks in order from any developer. No. I'm not trying to steer some development to a certain location and a certain district. They're all... I tell people all the time, they're all my district.

32:46

Mayor Eric Johnson

All of them. Yeah. People forget that. I'm the only person sitting down there that represents every constituent that every one of those council members has. Everyone...

32:56

Mayor Eric Johnson

My... When they talk about, you know, my my district, my people, like, they're my people. Yeah. Those are my people. When I'm on the ballot with you, council member x Mhmm.

33:07

Mayor Eric Johnson

I get more votes in your district than you get in your district. Think about that. When you and I appear on the ballot together in almost every one of these districts, if not all of them, I will get more votes cast for me and on the same ballot in their district than they get cast for them in their own district on that ballot. Meaning, there are people in their district that show up at election time to vote for the mayor, and then they're done. They're they're they're out of there.

33:33

Mayor Eric Johnson

They're not even gonna stick around and vote for these people that are on the council. So my point is this, I've got no reason, other than this is best for the city, to tell you everything I'm telling you. I'm not trying to angle for one little part of the city because I represent some little sliver of it like a council person does. I represent all 1,300,000.

33:52

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And do you believe that Dallas has been a good steward? The Dallas City Council has been a good steward of fiscal management?

34:00

Mayor Eric Johnson

I don't believe it. I know it. Our our our reporting wins awards. We have never had any issues whatsoever with anybody auditing us and saying we're misspending bond fund. Look, there there are too many checks in in place already for the issuance of municipal bonds, which I know something about for this idea that some of our bond funds are being misspent.

34:21

Mayor Eric Johnson

They're not. You have a bond counsel, you know, licensed attorneys advising you on the language and actually take shepherding the entire bond issuance to the attorney general of Texas who has to approve the issuance of the bonds. Like, it's approved by Ken Paxton's office and the attorney general's office. And then you issue the debt and then there's ongoing monitoring of the expenditure of the funds. We get reported on constantly.

34:48

Mayor Eric Johnson

We have ratings agencies that that are looking at our debt all the time, looking at our city finances all the time. There's too many eyes on this. Their bond funds aren't being misspent. What some people, I think, are trying to spin into something that sounds like malfeasance is the fact that a city council always has the option of changing its mind down the road. It's a different group of people.

35:13

Mayor Eric Johnson

I can't find what the next mayor and the next council are going to do, but I can make sure that while I'm here and during the seven plus years I've been here, my track record ought to speak for itself on a public say. If nothing else, on public safety, I ought to have a sterling record with everyone in the public in terms of fighting for our officers on the police side and on the fire side and making sure that it's our top priority. And, again, I'm in a system where I can just unilateral do whatever I want. I still have to depend on the city council to agree. But overwhelmingly on public safety, they've agreed.

35:55

Mayor Eric Johnson

They've come along. And now here we are on an issue where 11 fifteenths of that council have said, this bond is a good idea. We believe our police chief, our fire chief, our city manager, our mayor, and our head of public safety. I just... I...

36:13

Mayor Eric Johnson

I'm sorry. And when you look at the four, that coalition right there, it ought to tell you everything you need to know about how not right it is when it contains two of the most anti law enforcement members and the former chair of public safety in the same coalition of four. That lets you know right there it's not about public safety. When else have the former chair of public safety and some of those members ever agreed on anything as it relates to public safety? The answer is never.

36:43

Mayor Eric Johnson

Never.

36:43

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I think when they... When everyone opposed the propositions, ST and U, I think everyone agreed then.

36:50

Mayor Eric Johnson

Yeah. That's

36:51

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

funny. I do remember that.

36:52

Mayor Eric Johnson

That's funny, actually. But I should say, against the rest of the council

36:58

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Of course.

36:58

Mayor Eric Johnson

Of course. What's very telling here is this this coalition that that is proving to be somewhat enduring has only one thing in common, and it's the opposition to any discussion of leaving the City Hall location at 1500 Marilla. That's what... That's... It's the same coalition.

37:19

Mayor Eric Johnson

And it's just cutting across issues because they're sticking together on on other issues, trying to create leverage on that issue. It's why it's on the signs. I mean, it's crazy. Like, why save city hall or whatever on the bust the bond signs? What do those two issues have in common?

37:36

Mayor Eric Johnson

That's what they have in common. It's supposed to be... It's intended to be a roadblock to prevent that from happening, and that's just the reality.

37:43

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I can't thank you enough for coming on and for making the time to discuss this. And I've researched. I've researched. I've tried to learn. I've tried to understand.

37:54

Mayor Eric Johnson

You love Dallas. You love

37:55

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

the city. I love Dallas. I love Dallas. And so I do appreciate your time, but I have to ask about the hat.

38:01

Mayor Eric Johnson

Oh, yeah.

38:02

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

What is your favorite Fletchers anything when you go?

38:06

Mayor Eric Johnson

Well, I'll tell you what. I love the Fletcher family. They're an amazing

38:10

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

family. They a great family.

38:11

Mayor Eric Johnson

So if they're watching, you know, Amber and Emma Yes. And Beck and all of y'all out there, I love you guys. Thank you so much for... And and they love my family. I love my kids, and we

38:21

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

love them. Good.

38:22

Mayor Eric Johnson

But... Okay. So I'm gonna say the Texan Uh-huh. Is my favorite horndog of late of the new varieties.

38:30

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I don't think I've tried the Texan.

38:32

Mayor Eric Johnson

Me too. Is still the original.

38:33

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

The original. Me too.

38:35

Mayor Eric Johnson

My kids love Cheese Pups.

38:37

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yes.

38:37

Mayor Eric Johnson

The Texan is really great because it's made out of brisket. Oh. It's good, but the original is still the original. But they've got something for everybody out there now. They got veggie dogs and turkey dogs and everything else.

38:47

Mayor Eric Johnson

You know, they got everything. And they've got even got a... They won an award this year for the new chocolate dog. They did.

38:53

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I have not tried that either.

38:55

Mayor Eric Johnson

I have, of course, and it's very good. So you can't go wrong.

38:59

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I won't. And I will be visiting, and I will try the Texan.

39:02

Mayor Eric Johnson

The Texan's very good if you eat meat. And if you don't, I think they've got a lot of options for folks who don't eat meat.

39:08

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Oh, I do.

39:09

Mayor Eric Johnson

Yeah, so go see our friends out there.

39:11

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Good. Thank you for wearing that.

39:13

Mayor Eric Johnson

Of course.

39:13

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I mean, you didn't wear it for me, but I'm just saying it's

39:15

Mayor Eric Johnson

I love them. They're

39:16

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

great. I do, too. And right now with the fair, everything, it's just

39:20

Mayor Eric Johnson

They're true Dallas, man.

39:21

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

They are true Dallas.

39:22

Mayor Eric Johnson

They're iconic.

39:23

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

They are true Dallas. So thank you for being here. Thank you for your time.

39:25

Mayor Eric Johnson

Of course.

39:26

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And is there anything else that you want to add to anything that we've discussed? I think you kind of made your way through a bunch of really, really good points.

39:34

Mayor Eric Johnson

Just everyone knows the election's on November 3, I think, and early voting starts on the nineteenth. And I would encourage everyone who loves Dallas, and wants to see it be the safest major state in America to vote for this public safety bond. It's been very well thought through. We're not asking for any more money than we need. We're we're literally not asking for as much as we we can.

39:54

Mayor Eric Johnson

I will tell you this. Your taxes will not go up to pay for this bond. The the debt service can be accommodated within our existing tax rate or even lower. We can actually lower the tax rate and still pay these bonds off. There's not gonna...

40:07

Mayor Eric Johnson

It's not a tax increase, although there's a state law that requires any bond proposition essentially to have that language there. It will not require an increase in your tax rate to pay for these bonds. So you're not you're not getting a tax increase to pay for it. We absolutely need it. And I encourage everybody to go out and vote for it.

40:27

Mayor Eric Johnson

It's just... It's it's really, really, really important. And I know we got a bunch of other things being discussed right now. I mean, I have to say this to you, Sarah. Mhmm.

40:36

Mayor Eric Johnson

I'll come back on your show another time at the right time because what I'm trying not to do, it takes a lot of discipline on my part because in this town, we got a lot of people who wanna be a star, and everyone's got an issue that they think they're gonna be... It's gonna be their breakout issue. But we got too many conversations going on at the same time and people aren't able to sort through and prioritize. And I'm trying to tell you as the person who's in the job right now with nothing to gain by telling you anything that's not true. Again, I'm not positioning myself for something.

41:10

Mayor Eric Johnson

I'm not jockeying for anything. I'm just telling it like it is. The reason this bond proposition is being put forward right now and the amount it's being put forward is because we need it right now and in that amount. I wish everyone was focused on that and not so obsessed and focused about, there's recall campaigns, there's, bonds. There's bond.

41:33

Mayor Eric Johnson

There's initiatives to put before the voters, things related to never allowing us to have any other city hall besides this I am pay city hall. There's people talking about getting a stronger or accountable or whatever they wanna call it, mayor thing done, and they're out running around trying to raise money and talk... Like, it's too much.

41:53

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

It's a lot of noise.

41:54

Mayor Eric Johnson

It's a lot of noise. It is. It's a lot of noise. It is. Because everybody wants to be a star, and no one has the discipline to say that issue is not ripe right now.

42:04

Mayor Eric Johnson

What we need to get it done is this bond first, and then we need to have this conversation that we need to... You know, I grew up in the Church of Christ and we used to have... You know, it's... We used to always say, because we're big sticklers for this stuff, we say everything has to be done decently and in order. Yeah.

42:20

Mayor Eric Johnson

It it was like a a refrain of the Church of Christ to say, everything that feels good to you ain't good for you. You gotta do some things decently and in order. Mhmm. We're getting out of order in Dallas right now. Public safety is the top priority of the city.

42:35

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yes, it is.

42:35

Mayor Eric Johnson

Voters say it over and over again. Yep. Let's pass this bond, and then let's move and and deal with some of these other issues. But all this noise around a stronger, accountable, more whatever mayor and recalling people and tethering and tying the hands of future councils and future mayors and managers by forcing them, like chaining them to a building and saying, you can never have city hall be any place else. I mean, it's just...

43:05

Mayor Eric Johnson

It's it's a lot of noise. It's a lot of agendas. If you... You don't even have to scratch that hard to get underneath the surface and figure out what those agendas are, and they're different ones. But none of it is the agenda of the city as a whole.

43:20

Mayor Eric Johnson

The agenda of the city as a whole is being put forward right now by your current mayor who has nothing but the city's interest at heart. That's it. That's it. That's all I got for you.

43:30

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yep. I'm I'm gonna go shoot with the chief. Yeah. I have not been to the gun range, which I'm ashamed of, and I can't wait to to go. I I Of course, you have.

43:38

Mayor Eric Johnson

We we need a new one.

43:40

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yep. Of course we do. We've needed investment in police for a really long time.

43:44

Mayor Eric Johnson

We have been getting by with an amazing police department because of the amazing people who've been under resourced and have not had the technology and have had the facilities they deserve for a long, long time. And I know another topic we'll have to talk about because I know it's of interest to you is staffing and how we get to that number and what the propositions require. But there's what the propositions say and what they require, and then there's the reality of just how many recruits we can put physically through the existing facilities that we have. So the existing police academy is actually a limiting factor in how many recruits we can put through.

44:24

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Oh, interesting.

44:24

Mayor Eric Johnson

Oh, it is. I mean, you can't just put as many as you want through it. I mean, it's an actual physical structure. It can only accommodate so many seats. Only so many butts can fit in so many seats and so much space.

44:35

Mayor Eric Johnson

I mean, they have to have they have to they have to be trained physically someplace, and we can't accommodate only so so many. And so the academy itself has a limit in that way. But just so so are just, you know, the... It's it's it's more than a notion to hire as many officers as we need to hire, but we certainly don't get there by offering them some of the worst facilities of a top 10 American city. Right?

45:04

Mayor Eric Johnson

It's already a dangerous job. You're already selling the job over less dangerous jobs in surrounding suburbs and in other places. Right?

45:13

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Mean Cause they do have pay parity now, right?

45:15

Mayor Eric Johnson

They do, but yes, they do. There's no but. And is what I mean to say is yes and it's also true that your chances of being shot at by very, very scary people is is less in University Park.

45:31

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Sure. Of course.

45:33

Mayor Eric Johnson

Or even Allen or or Frisco. It's just a reality. And so we have to contend with that reality, and we have to do everything we can. And the facilities are part of the recruitment. It's just like in college athletics, when they're chasing high school recruits, they show them around campus.

45:50

Mayor Eric Johnson

They show them, this is where you're going be training. This is where you're to lift weights. This what your practice facility looks like. I mean, you don't wanna just go show them something that looks like, you know, old prison yard and say, you know, we'll come for the tradition. Like, I mean, like, you know, like, gotta show them some facilities that they'll actually wanna come and and train in.

46:07

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Sure.

46:08

Mayor Eric Johnson

We're not there, and we're... And and that's what this bond's gonna let us do. I've really overstayed my welcome. I've gotta get back to active I

46:14

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

know you have, and I just I just appreciate your time because you were... I was supposed to only have him for fifteen minutes. I've had him for forty eight minutes. So so Wow. I know it.

46:24

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

So thank you. Thank you for being here.

46:27

Mayor Eric Johnson

Talking about public safety.

46:27

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I know it's that important. Thank you for being here.

46:29

Mayor Eric Johnson

Great to see you.

46:30

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

It's good to see you.

46:31

Mayor Eric Johnson

Thanks, buddy. Appreciate the time.

Episode Timeline

Full Transcript

Episode Timeline

Full Transcript

Fight for The Truth

The Dallas Express reports what Legacy Media won’t.