{"id":267910,"date":"2025-10-01T01:15:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T01:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/267910\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T01:15:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T01:15:10","slug":"dallas-council-member-asks-da-to-investigate-alleged-violation-of-open-meetings-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/267910\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas council member asks DA to investigate alleged violation of open meetings law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Council member Paula Blackmon, one of two council officials to accuse her colleagues of violating the Texas Open Meetings Act<\/a>, asked Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot to investigate a Sept. 23 meeting where city officials received proposals to move The Bridge, a homeless service provider out of downtown Dallas to a facility at the Dallas Executive Airport.<\/p>\n

Whether Creuzot will look into the case remains to be seen. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur office does not comment on matters that may or may not be under investigation,\u201d Claire Crouch, a spokesperson for the DA\u2019s office said. <\/p>\n

Blackmon and council member Adam Bazaldua said four of the seven members of the Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee \u2014 council members Cara Mendelsohn, Lorie Blair, Jesse Moreno and Zarin Gracey \u2014created a quorum to conduct public business, and required public notification.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public has every right to expect decisions to be made openly, where they can take part in the policymaking process, and not behind closed doors on the fifth floor, especially on an issue as critical as homelessness,\u201d Blackmon and Bazaldua said in a news release last week.<\/p>\n

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In a video shared with The Dallas Morning News, Blackmon and Bazaldua are seen walking toward council member Mendelsohn\u2019s office. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe heard there was a quorum of the housing committee talking about housing right now,\u201d Bazaldua said in the video after he knocked on the door. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there is,\u201d Mendelsohn said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not?\u201d Bazaldua said. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Mendelsohn said. <\/p>\n

\u201cFour of seven?\u201d Bazaldua responded. <\/p>\n

Mendelsohn, who chairs the housing group, said in the video she didn\u2019t realize that everyone invited was part of the committee. <\/p>\n

Language in the Texas Open Meetings Act handbook indicates that a committee may not be covered by the open meetings law if it is not making final decisions that are often \u201crubber-stamped\u201d by the City Council. <\/p>\n

Bill Aleshire, an Austin-based open government expert, told The News that it is possible that the law may not be applicable to the committee if it is merely making recommendations and not approving policy.<\/p>\n

The housing committee is tasked with exploring ways to reduce regulatory barriers to housing development, developing policies to address persistent housing and homelessness challenges, according to a memo as released by Mayor Eric Johnson, laying down committee assignments and policy priorities. <\/p>\n

The recommendations often go to full the City Council for approval. <\/p>\n

Last week, Mendelsohn told reporters that no deliberation, vote or agreement had taken place. \u201cCouncilmembers meet with third parties all the time,\u201d Mendelsohn said. <\/p>\n

\u201cMendelsohn must be confused about what constitutes a meeting,\u201d he said. Citing state law, Aleshire said pitches from third parties with a group of council members present, if it involves city business, still means they\u2019re receiving information from someone. <\/p>\n

When reached earlier this week, Mendelsohn cited Aleshire\u2019s opinion in The News\u2019 story to say there were no violations. However, Aleshire, pushed back. <\/p>\n

\u201cI did not say that,\u201d he said Tuesday, adding that it is still yet to be determined if the housing committee is merely advisory or decision-making in nature, and that would need more evidence. <\/p>\n

Council member Zarin Gracey said he did not support moving The Bridge from downtown to his district. Documents given to him showed a plan to replace the downtown provider with a model that resembles San Antonio\u2019s Haven for Hope, a plan that was supported by Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound. <\/p>\n

The Bridge is located in downtown\u2019s southern half, which is in the midst of a redevelopment plan anchored by a refurbished Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. Parking lots behind City Hall could also see new housing and businesses after the City Council handed a $96 million incentive package to developer Mike Hoque.<\/p>\n

It is unclear if the housing committee will discuss the Dallas Executive Airport in the future. Mendelsohn did not directly questions related to it. <\/p>\n

One of hotelier Monty Bennett\u2019s associates, Mark Nunneley, who has spoken of homelessness downtown to council members as a public speaker, was also attending last week\u2019s meeting with the council members. For Gracey, however, the tussle between council members boiled down to politics that did not take into considerations the will and needs of residents in southern Dallas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Council member Paula Blackmon, one of two council officials to accuse her colleagues of violating the Texas Open…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":236817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,14840,14841,80,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-267910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-city-council","11":"tag-dallas-city-hall","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115296267383687872","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}