DART officials review withdrawal city proposals as special election approaches

With several cities now considering withdrawal elections, DART and city officials are discussing city proposals that could lead cities to cancel their upcoming elections.

At their Jan. 27 meeting, DART officials reviewed proposals from Plano and other cities as part of ongoing talks over service levels, funding and governance. Plano officials have submitted two agreements that could lead the city to cancel its upcoming special election.

Since Plano City Council voted to call the special election, nearly half of DART’s 13 member cities have now scheduled withdrawal elections, including Highland Park, University Park, Irving, Farmers Branch and Addison.

What happened

Since calling the special election in November, Plano officials have submitted two formal proposals to DART that could lead the city to rescinding its withdrawal election if agreed upon.

Irving and Farmers Branch have also submitted written proposals to DART that are currently being evaluated. Carrollton, despite not calling a withdrawal election, submitted proposed changes to DART’s general mobility program interlocal agreement.

DART CEO and President Nadine Lee said the issues around services and funding equity have “been around a long time.”

Lee noted that there are also several reasons that some member cities have called withdrawal elections, particularly due to funding concerns including regional and state changes that have “put pressure” on DART member cities’ financial resources.

DART board Chair Randall Bryant said he is working to find a regional solution to both the governance and funding issues for all of the agency’s 13 member cities.

Bryant added DART’s finance and operational teams have been reviewing the proposals to “determine the impacts of implementing these city requests, which is still an ongoing process.”

Zooming in

Plano’s two written proposals include:

Plano’s Nov. 14 proposal outlines a six-year agreement under which DART would continue providing rail service and express buses in Plano but discontinue “all standard bus, demand-response and other non-rail transit services within the city” by Jan. 1, 2029.

Under the proposal, DART would return a phased portion of the city’s sales tax contribution back to Plano through the general mobility program with quarterly payments, including:

2026: 25% return2027: 35% return2028: 45% return2029-2031: 50% annual returnAccording to the proposal, the returned funds would be used for transportation and mobility improvements in Plano.

Plano’s second written proposal, submitted Jan. 13, would modify the GMP interlocal agreement to redirect up to 25% of sales tax contributions back to all 13 member cities.

The money disbursed would be designated toward “locally delivered transportation projects that support or complement DART’s transit system,” according to meeting documents.

“This one is … not just for Plano,” Lee said. “Their edits modified the eligibility of the proposal to all 13 cities, not just the seven cities that the original GMP proposal was for.”

The draft agreement outlines a phased disbursement of sales tax contributions for each city, starting at 15% in the first year and increasing to 25% for five years.

Under the draft agreement, Plano would be required to:

Be in good financial standing with DARTAssume responsibility for project delivery, maintenance, insurance and liabilityWaive the right to withdraw from DART during the agreement termNot pursue legislative action that would reduce DART’s sales tax authorityPlano’s draft agreement states that all future service adjustments “must be approved jointly between the service area city and DART in writing.”

Some context

Lee said staff will compile an estimate of the total financial impact of the various city proposals for future board consideration.

“There would be a huge financial impact,” Lee said. “Last summer, we were talking about $60 million in operating costs that we were trying to reduce, and we got that down to $25 million, but it’s still a significant impact. We’re running out of things that we can surgically cut at this point.”

Plano City Manager Mark Israelson said city officials have not heard back from DART on the January proposal as of Jan. 28.

“We tried to make meaningful steps towards what we thought could be a resolution that that the city could live with, and so that was the spirit and the intent of putting that together,” Israelson said.

In addition to funding proposals, DART officials and city managers from member cities are continuing discussions about potential changes to the agency’s governance structure.

These changes could include a system that would remove Dallas’ voting majority and grant more voting power to the suburban cities.

A working group is discussing a framework that would establish “one city, one vote” as the baseline for representation, with each city guaranteed at least one seat on a 20-member board.

The debate

Several DART board members raised concerns that negotiating individually with cities could create broader financial and operational challenges.

Mark Enoch, board representative for Garland, Glenn Heights and Rowlett, said addressing requests from one city could trigger similar demands from others.

“You can’t treat one city different than the others,” Enoch said. “As soon as we start giving money back, we’re going to start giving it back to everybody.”

Some board members said DART should consider letting the decision go to a vote rather than negotiating for proposals that may not meet the needs of all riders or that could hurt the agency long-term.

Gary Slagel, former DART board chair, said long-term solutions may require legislative action to help increase revenue for DART member cities.

“The only real answer to this is to work with the state and find a way to solve the problem of revenue for our cities,” Slagel said. “Otherwise, we’re going to destroy this organization because we need additional revenue for us and for the cities to be able to build the kind of system that we all envision is the right kind of system.”

Anthony Ricciardelli, board representative for Plano, noted concerns that under proposed governance changes, Plano’s voting power per resident could decrease more than Dallas’.

“Should every city have to pay the same when different cities have different transit needs?” Ricciardelli said. “It simply does not work for some cities to subsidize transit in other cities at the expense of their own needs.”

Ricciardelli said he hopes negotiations can prevent any city from leaving.

“I hope we can get this all figured out [and] get all these elections cancelled because we have a value proposition that is fair to all 13 member cities,” Ricciardelli said.

Dates to know

Feb. 10: DART board discusses city requests and considers possible actionFeb. 23: Collin and Denton County ballot language finalization deadlineFeb. 24: DART board considers final action to address city requestsFeb. 27: Dallas County ballot language finalization deadlineMarch 18: deadline to rescind electionMarch 24: DART public hearing on potential services changesMay 2: withdrawal electionsDART will also be holding a series of community meetings in February and March to discuss potential service changes if any member cities vote to leave the agency.