‘Neglected’: Southern Dallas residents urge officials to resolve dispute over $20 million federal grant

Prominent southern Dallas residents, including a former council member, came to the City Council briefing Monday and expressed concern that a dispute between state Rep. Yvonne Davis, D-Dallas, and city officials over $20 million in federal grants could further delay vital investments in infrastructure in the city’s southern sector.
The state representative and city officials have been caught up in monthslong back and forth. There have been disagreements over project design plans, the cost and the process of picking grant recipients.
Davis said Tuesday that city officials were presenting design proposals for park improvements where the price tag attached to some of the projects seemed exorbitant: a swing set for $152,000 or a bathroom for $300,000.
“I’m going to object to that because you’re gouging my community from needed resources to do meaningful things,” Davis said.
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The state lawmaker listed infrastructure in parks with broken swing sets and inadequate restroom facilities with only a portable toilet available.
“I welcome the council’s involvement to hold your staff accountable,” Davis said, adding that city staff have offered four different plans. “Every time we reach one hurdle, it changed to another,” she said.
The Dallas Morning News obtained a memo Monday night signed by interim City Manager Kim Tolbert and Parks and Recreation Department Director John Jenkins. In it, city officials said Davis’ “atypical involvement” in procurement processes as well as design plans slowed the pace of disbursing funds.
They also said Davis was picking vendors in a manner that could violate the regulatory requirements attached to money received through the American Rescue Plan. In the memo, officials said Davis submitted supporting documents for vendors she had picked. But city staff didn’t finalize the contracts because they were at risk of not complying with state and federal law.
It is unclear how exactly the process would render the grant noncompliant. Officials wanted to go with a procurement process called Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), allowing prospective recipients to apply for the grant.
“A NOFA is the appropriate process to use rather than a solicitation, as it allows for multiple award grantees to be selected,” the memo said.
The city received federal funds from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department after Davis secured a grant in 2021 to serve areas in and around House District 111 for housing and workforce development, parks and trails, and libraries and cultural centers.
The City Council accepted the grant in 2022. The resolution attached to the voting item said Davis had “identified several future projects that can be aligned with the grant requirement,” and the state representative wanted to partner with the city to execute those projects.
Projects include adding infrastructure compliant with the American Disabilities Act in District 3 and 8 parks, such as Beckley-Heights, Bluebird and Danieldale. A portion of that money was also originally intended for Cadillac Heights and Fair Park for a cultural archive digital board.
Multiple residents, some attached to prominent Black churches, expressed disappointment Tuesday over the back and forth between Davis and the city. Ultimately, it’s community members in southern Dallas that lost out in the end, they said.
Charles Beasley, a District 3 resident, said the neglect had a cumulative effect. The longer the city waits to start work, the longer the job will remain neglected, he said.
“In the southern sector, the neglect has been there for years, and the citizens of that southern sector are tasked with fighting off some of the last vestiges of Jim Crow, and in many instances, they’re tasked with fighting that alone,” Beasley said.
Several speakers said they were surprised to read about the details of the conflict between officials in The News and said the city and state legislative district needed to solve their issues.
“There may be blood on the floor of the State Capitol, but when we come out, we come out singing Kumbaya,” former council member Vonciel Jones Hill said. “That’s what we need to do now. This is a problem that needs to be resolved and needs to be resolved quickly, and the money needs to go where intended: To my community.”