{"id":82882,"date":"2025-12-10T08:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T08:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/82882\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T08:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T08:26:08","slug":"dallas-city-hall-should-approve-dei-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/82882\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas City Hall should approve DEI replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many years now, the city of Dallas has defined its policies and daily governance according to diversity, equity and inclusion policies. But national political power has changed hands, and now the city doesn\u2019t have much choice<\/a> but to change. <\/p>\n

On the merits, council members should approve proposals intended to bring the city into compliance<\/a> with directives that prohibit federal grant recipients from offering preferential treatment based on race or gender. <\/p>\n

It seems clear that the threat of losing federal money is what\u2019s driving this DEI departure in Dallas. But this is the right outcome. The city needs to move forward from policies that dictate everything from contract awards to service on city boards according to race and ethnicity. <\/p>\n

Dallas\u2019 equity-based policies have always been well-intentioned, directed at addressing real historical injustices. That\u2019s important work; but doing so based on race, ethnicity and gender runs afoul of federal policy and is increasingly under legal scrutiny. <\/p>\n

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The proposals before council members today would better align city policy with an approach that looks at creating opportunity based on economic disadvantage rather than innate characteristics. <\/p>\n

Under one proposal, Dallas would adopt a new \u201cdrivers of opportunity\u201d framework. This document is admittedly vague. But, on its face, it would shift us from a racial equity focus to an economic opportunity focus by examining things like education and employment access. <\/p>\n

Dallas has already suspended the \u201cracial equity plan\u201d that it shaped as a defining way of governing the city. Failing to do so would have put hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds at risk.<\/p>\n

Now, the city\u2019s business inclusion and development policy is also on the chopping block. Known as the BID plan, it set rules that advantaged contracts that included minority or women-owned businesses.<\/p>\n

That program could be replaced with a new one that would instead focus on city contract participation for small businesses located in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. <\/p>\n

The BID program was supposed to open access to city contracts for groups that were historically cut out, but it was always flawed. Over time, the same certified Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprise contractors became repeat winners, and it wasn\u2019t clear that opportunity was available often enough to newcomers. <\/p>\n

In some cases there was obvious manipulation, with prime contractors including politically powerful MWBE subcontractors on bids. Such contracts only poisoned confidence in the wider program.<\/p>\n

Other proposals before the council today would change racial and ethnic references throughout Dallas\u2019 city code to eliminate DEI-related language. <\/p>\n

For example, per city rules, the Board of Adjustment\u2019s membership must reflect the city\u2019s \u201cgeographic and ethnic diversity.\u201d A proposed revision would change that to require its membership to reflect the \u201ccommunity served by\u201d the city.<\/p>\n

There is a long and difficult history behind the push for such racial and ethnic requirements. That history must never be forgotten. But prescribing city service or city contracts according to race does not, and should not, pass legal muster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For many years now, the city of Dallas has defined its policies and daily governance according to diversity,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,105,106,104,103,1631],"class_list":{"0":"post-82882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-city-council","10":"tag-dallas-city-hall","11":"tag-dallas-headlines","12":"tag-dallas-news","13":"tag-opinion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}