\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWith several cities now considering withdrawal elections, DART and city officials are discussing city proposals that could lead cities to cancel their upcoming elections.<\/p>\n
At their Jan. 27 meeting<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n Since Plano City Council voted<\/a> to call the special election, nearly half of DART\u2019s 13 member cities have now scheduled withdrawal elections, including Highland Park, University Park, Irving, Farmers Branch and Addison.<\/p>\n What happened<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s general mobility program interlocal agreement.<\/p>\n DART CEO and President Nadine Lee said the issues around services and funding equity have \u201cbeen around a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u201cput pressure\u201d on DART member cities\u2019 financial resources.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 13 member cities.<\/p>\n Bryant added DART\u2019s finance and operational teams have been reviewing the proposals to \u201cdetermine the impacts of implementing these city requests, which is still an ongoing process.\u201d<\/p>\n Zooming in<\/p>\n Plano\u2019s two written proposals include:<\/p>\n Plano\u2019s Nov. 14 proposal<\/a> outlines a six-year agreement under which DART would continue providing rail service and express buses in Plano but discontinue \u201call standard bus, demand-response and other non-rail transit services within the city\u201d by Jan. 1, 2029.<\/p>\n Under the proposal, DART would return a phased portion of the city\u2019s sales tax contribution back to Plano through the general mobility program with quarterly payments, including:<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Plano\u2019s second written proposal<\/a>, submitted Jan. 13, would modify the GMP interlocal agreement to redirect up to 25% of sales tax contributions back to all 13 member cities.<\/p>\n The money disbursed would be designated toward \u201clocally delivered transportation projects that support or complement DART\u2019s transit system,\u201d according to meeting documents.<\/p>\n \u201cThis one is … not just for Plano,\u201d Lee said. \u201cTheir edits modified the eligibility of the proposal to all 13 cities, not just the seven cities that the original GMP proposal was for.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Under the draft agreement, Plano would be required to:<\/p>\n 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\u2019s sales tax authorityPlano\u2019s draft agreement states that all future service adjustments \u201cmust be approved jointly between the service area city and DART in writing.\u201d<\/p>\n Some context<\/p>\n Lee said staff will compile an estimate of the total financial impact of the various city proposals for future board consideration.<\/p>\n \u201cThere would be a huge financial impact,\u201d Lee said. \u201cLast 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\u2019s still a significant impact. We\u2019re running out of things that we can surgically cut at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n Plano City Manager Mark Israelson said city officials have not heard back from DART on the January proposal as of Jan. 28.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d Israelson said.<\/p>\n In addition to funding proposals, DART officials and city managers from member cities are continuing discussions about potential changes to the agency\u2019s governance structure.<\/p>\n These changes could include a system that would remove Dallas\u2019 voting majority and grant more voting power to the suburban cities.<\/p>\n A working group is discussing<\/a> a framework that would establish \u201cone city, one vote\u201d as the baseline for representation, with each city guaranteed at least one seat on a 20-member board.<\/p>\n The debate <\/p>\n Several DART board members raised concerns that negotiating individually with cities could create broader financial and operational challenges.<\/p>\n Mark Enoch, board representative for Garland, Glenn Heights and Rowlett, said addressing requests from one city could trigger similar demands from others.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t treat one city different than the others,\u201d Enoch said. \u201cAs soon as we start giving money back, we\u2019re going to start giving it back to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Gary Slagel, former DART board chair, said long-term solutions may require legislative action to help increase revenue for DART member cities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only real answer to this is to work with the state and find a way to solve the problem of revenue for our cities,\u201d Slagel said. \u201cOtherwise, we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Anthony Ricciardelli, board representative for Plano, noted concerns that under proposed governance changes, Plano\u2019s voting power per resident could decrease more than Dallas\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cShould every city have to pay the same when different cities have different transit needs?\u201d Ricciardelli said. \u201cIt simply does not work for some cities to subsidize transit in other cities at the expense of their own needs.\u201d<\/p>\n Ricciardelli said he hopes negotiations can prevent any city from leaving.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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,\u201d Ricciardelli said.<\/p>\n Dates to know<\/p>\n 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<\/a> on potential services changesMay 2: withdrawal electionsDART will also be holding a series of community meetings<\/a> in February and March to discuss potential service changes if any member cities vote to leave the agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With several cities now considering withdrawal elections, DART and city officials are discussing city proposals that could 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