We’ll leave it to others to make determinations about whether an almost-deal between the city of Dallas and a sitting Park Board member for a no-bid contract broke the city’s ethics rules.
But you don’t need a law degree to know it stinks.
Earlier this month, our newsroom revealed a proposed no-bid contract for a restaurant lease at Dallas Executive Airport. The city’s Aviation Department had negotiated the deal with the newly founded company of then-Park Board member Ernest “Bo” Slaughter.
After our colleague Tracey McManus started asking questions, the city reversed course. It scrapped the contract, and Slaughter, whose term had expired in the fall, resigned from the Park Board.
The city charter prohibits council members, but not board members, from entering into contracts with City Hall. The Dallas Ethics Code goes further. It bars city officials more broadly from entering into city contracts, regardless of whether they are required to be competitively bid.
Opinion
The code exempts members from boards and commissions that are “advisory only.” The Park Board, however, is a policy-making body. It supervises the Park and Recreation Department and has the power to acquire land and negotiate contracts.
Slaughter told McManus that he saw no conflict because the contract was outside the purview of the Park Board. That’s true, but City Hall prepping a no-bid contract with a member of one of its most powerful boards is a terrible look, especially for a city with a gnarly history of corruption.
The council members charged with reviewing the contract said they didn’t know it involved a Park Board member. In our view, the Aviation Department should have never negotiated with Slaughter’s company, but the decision to proceed should have at minimum entailed a disclosure of Slaughter’s role to council members.
Park Board president Arun Agarwal also raised eyebrows after a recent council briefing in which he said he would be interested in a future partnership between City Hall and his cricket league. Agarwal said he was invited by a council member to address a committee on professional sports. In an interview with us, he clarified that his league wouldn’t pursue any deals with the city while he was Park Board president.
We lauded a series of thoughtful ethics reforms in 2021 that clarified city policy on conflicts of interest and that created the office of the inspector general, a watchdog whose presence would deter bad behavior. But Dallas couldn’t even get that right, booting one inspector general after three years and ousting the second one after two months because the city forgot to check whether he was an attorney, a requirement for the job engraved in the charter.
The episode with the Slaughter deal shows the council and the city manager should reexamine how Dallas vets contracts. The ethics code, too, should be subject of ongoing refinement. But the city can’t codify rules for every possible situation. We expect our officials to use their common sense. If something looks bad, best to pump the brakes.
The public trust is something precious, something to be protected. It shouldn’t be an afterthought — or worse, no thought at all.
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