Nine Dallas mayoral candidates are making promises and vying for your vote — but don't expect him or her to solve all your problems.
In Dallas, the mayor isn't as powerful as many voters think.
"The perception of the mayor is that they run everything — literally," said Paula Blackmon, a City Council candidate who worked for mayors Tom Leppert and Mike Rawlings. "The reality is they don't manage staff. They don't control the school district. They don't control DART. They don't control the Housing Authority. But everybody is expecting the mayor to manage that and work through its problems."
Dallas, unlike many of its fellow big cities, has a council-manager form of government — devised in 1930 by a group of businessmen who wanted to thwart the political influence of the Ku Klux Klan in city government.
The system means the mayor isn't the city government's chief executive; he or she is a board chairman and the only citywide-elected council member. The power of the job lies in agenda-setting, coalition-building, appointing people and cheerleading for causes.
But all of those soft powers can still be immense. And, Blackmon said, the mayor is still the mayor.
"And there is a little bit of gravitas to that," Blackmon said.
Here is what the mayor of Dallas can — and can't — actually do.
Officially speaking
The City Charter designates the mayor as "the official head of the city government" and the presiding officer over the City Council. And the charter requires the mayor to "ensure that annual reports are made as to the state of the city, its financial condition, its accomplishments, and its plan and needs for the future."
But the mayor is not the city's chief executive — that's the city manager, T.C. Broadnax, who reports to all 14 council members and the mayor.
The city manager and mayor share one power: the ability to single-handedly place items on the council agenda. If other council members want something on the agenda without the mayor's support, they have to round up four of their colleagues to sign a memo.
But the mayor, who has no veto power, still has to build coalitions and win a majority of the council's support.
"Probably one of the most important parts of that role is building relationships and maintaining them," said Chris Heinbaugh, who was also a chief of staff for Leppert.
Heinbaugh said the mayor must spend time listening to council members about "what the needs are in their districts and working with them so that they're able to achieve their goals, and you're able to achieve your goals."
But Blackmon said such efforts can be a major challenge for a mayor.
"They have to manage 14 agendas, 14 personalities and their desires for their districts while moving everybody in a direction that betters Dallas," she said. "And that's a hard task."
Representing the city
The title of Dallas mayor also bestows prestige and official and unofficial position at the table in major regional and national conversations.
The Dallas mayor, for instance, serves on the DFW International Airport's board of directors. Rawlings is also a trustee of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
And when something big happens in Dallas — such as the July 7, 2016, ambush or the 2014 Ebola scare — people want to hear from the mayor, even though he or she does not directly manage the situation.
The mayor is also an in-demand speaker for much more pleasant happenings — groundbreakings, fundraisers, conferences, awards ceremonies, luncheons, birthday parties and other events.
Heinbaugh said Leppert sometimes went to three events a night. "Drove me crazy," Heinbaugh said.
Appointing people
The mayor, like City Council members, can appoint members of the city's boards and commissions.
But the mayor's appointees have far more sway than other appointees. The mayor, for instance, designates board chairs, such as the influential Park Board and City Plan Commission. And the mayor appoints the entire Dallas Housing Authority board and now selects the majority of the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System's board. Rawlings also spurred the creation of new boards, such as the Local Government Corporations that manage the Trinity River park project and regional homelessness efforts.
The mayor also sometimes creates task forces to focus on vexing issues, such as poverty and Confederate monuments and Fair Park's future.
The mayor's appointees are often ambitious, too. Rawlings was Leppert's Park Board president before he ran for mayor. Current mayoral candidate Mike Ablon was Rawlings' appointee to chair the Trinity LGC board. Another candidate, Regina Montoya, was Rawlings' co-chair of the Mayor's Poverty Task Force. And businessman and candidate Albert Black Jr., was one of the mayor's appointees to the Dallas Housing Authority board.
The mayor also appoints council members to committees as members or chairs. Those appointments can decide which council members have influence over issues — and which do not.
Initiatives and the bully pulpit
Mayoral candidates campaign on big ideas, like growing South or boosting the city's education system or affordable housing.
But the mayor's scope of control is limited. Rawlings' staff currently has a budget for seven full-time employees. By contrast, the city manager oversees an organization of about 13,000 city employees.
That means when the mayor wants something done, he or she has to compete to carve out limited funds in the budget or help raise money for private causes using their bully pulpit.
Leppert, for example, was a cheerleader for education causes and started a mayor's intern fellows program and a scholarship program. And in addition to GrowSouth efforts to promote development in southern Dallas, Rawlings brought attention to domestic violence issues, poverty and "high-impact landlords" who owned significant numbers of low-income single-family rental properties.
Such initiatives can focus City Hall's direction and raise public profile of issues. More than any other public official in Dallas, the mayor, Blackmon said, "has the ability to get a news conference together and to get things moving" quickly.
"He or she can get information out faster than anybody just by the pure fact that they're the mayors of Dallas," she said.
But, she said, relationships are still needed to make the vision a reality and receive City Hall's attention and funds. While people often "want the mayor to be the savior on something," she said, "the reality is he's a megaphone, and it takes the rest of the council to work together to solve a problem."
QUICK FACTS | Mayor of Dallas
Current officeholder: Mike Rawlings
Term length: 4 years
Salary: $80,000 (Rawlings is paid $60,000, but the next mayor will get a bump).
Election Day 2019: May 4
Runoff Election Day 2019: June 8
Tell us:
What do you wonder about the upcoming elections for Dallas mayor and City Council?
Here's how it works:
In the module above, tell us what questions you have about Dallas' mayoral race.
Our journalists will investigate to find the answer. We may reach out to you for more information.
Then we'll publish as many answers as we can.
You can reach us via our Curious Texas Texts number. Text "DMN" to 214-817-3868 and ask us your questions.
