In making his committee appointments today for the Dallas City Council, Mayor Mike Rawlings established a new committee: Arts, Culture and Libraries. Interestingly, this is different from the  Quality of Life committee, chaired by Angela Hunt, which faces this question from the mayor: “How do we have more fun and enjoy our city?”

Apparently, the arts, culture and libraries are no fun. On the other hand, the Trinity River Corridor Project needs to get more fun. That committee is tasked with getting “some recreational projects moving as soon as possible.”

At any rate, the new ACL committee will be chaired by council member Ann Margolin, with Delia Jasso as the vice chair.  Committee members include Tennell Atkins, Vonciel Jones Hill and Jerry Allen.

For this group, the mayor’s proposed initiative is “develop a plan for alternative funding sources for arts, culture and libraries.”

You’re right. Funding doesn’t sound like fun.

The full release:

To: The members of the Dallas City Council

From: The Honorable Michael S. Rawlings

Subject: City Council Committee appointments
Thank you for your partnership and support over these past couple of months. Each of you brought forth unique ideas about how to better organize our committee structure while addressing the future needs of our city and how we will work together to meet those needs. I appreciate your thoughtfulness and passion during our conversations.

Many of you indicated the committees were too large and that some members sat on too many of them. Therefore, committee size will be 5 members on all but a few committees. Most members will be serving on 3 committees. This will allow each of you to dig deeper into the subject matter on each committee you serve. Plus, all committees will remain intact with one additional committee that will focus on the Arts, Culture & Libraries.

In addition, I am asking Councilman Caraway to serve on 2 committees and assist me in addressing our efforts to improve the education product for our Dallas youth. He will focus on two things:

1) Maximizing the role of communities and families to support our students; and,
2) How the city council can work closer with and give support to Dallas ISD’s Board of Trustees.
After careful thought and consideration, the following are the committee assignments as well as an initiative that’s important to me for each committee to address:

Public Safety
Chair – Pauline Medrano
Vice Chair – Sheffie Kadane
Members – Delia Jasso, Carolyn Davis, Sandy Greyson
Mayor’s Initiative: The City of Dallas must be in the top 5 large cities for fewest crimes. Currently, we are ranked 7th and working with Chief Brown and DPD create a plan to accomplish this.

Quality of Life
Chair – Angela Hunt
Vice Chair – Sandy Greyson
Members – Dwaine Caraway, Monica Alonzo, Carolyn Davis
Mayor’s Initiative: How do we have more fun and enjoy our city?

Arts, Culture and the Libraries
Chair – Ann Margolin
Vice Chair – Delia Jasso
Members  – Tennell Atkins, Vonciel Jones Hill and Jerry Allen
Mayor’s Initiative: Develop a plan for alternative funding sources for arts, culture and libraries

Economic Development
Chair- Tennell Atkins
Vice Chair – Ann Margolin
Members – Monica Alonzo, Sheffie Kadane, Jerry Allen
Mayor’s Initiative: Southern Dallas needs to be turned into a growth engine for Dallas and the region. Let’s push the right initiatives to accomplish this goal.

Budget, Finance & Audit
Chair – Jerry Allen
Vice Chair – Tennell Atkins
Members – Scott Griggs, Monica Alonzo, Ann Margolin
Mayor’s Initiative: One of the most important things the city does is purchase millions of dollars of goods and services. We need to be assured that we do it in a fair and transparent manner that provides our taxpayers the best value possible while ensuring 1) we never compromise our minority purchasing program, 2) we can easily and fairly get goods and services donated to the city by companies wanting to help, and 3) that no lobbyist has an advantage at City Hall.

Housing
Chair – Carolyn Davis
Vice Chair – Scott Griggs
Members – Pauline Medrano, Dwaine Caraway, Linda Koop
Mayor’s Initiative: We must have safe, quality, multi-unit dwellings that help build our economy, not hinder it.

Transportation & Environment
Chair – Linda Koop
Vice Chair – Sheffie Kadane
Members – Pauline Medrano, Vonciel Jones Hill, Sandy Greyson
Mayor’s Initiative: How can our vision of complete streets becomes a reality?

Trinity River Corridor Project
Chair – Vonciel Jones Hill
Vice Chair – Linda Koop
Members – Delia Jasso, Scott Griggs, Monica Alonzo, Angela Hunt
Mayor’s Initiative: While safety must be our top priority and transportation and economic development must be addressed, the short term question is how do we get some recreational projects moving as soon as possible?

Ad Hoc Legislative Committee
Chair – Vonciel Jones Hill
Members – Pauline Medrano, Angela Hunt, Tennell Atkins, Jerry Allen, Carolyn Davis, Linda Koop, Ann Margolin

Ad Hoc Committee for Judicial Appointments
Chair – Angela Hunt
Members –Jerry Allen, Vonciel Jones Hill, Delia Jasso, Linda Koop, Sheffie Kadane

To reiterate, each committee should establish the top 5 priorities that the committee will work on for the next two years and present to the city council during our fall planning retreat. Lastly, I don’t expect all committees to meet on the same schedule, so feel free to meet as often or as little as necessary in accordance with the open meetings act. I look forward to working with each of you in creating the best urban city.