Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Throughout Dallas’ history, this city has thrived when its leadership has been bold enough to think big and plan creatively for the future, leveraging the expertise and generosity of Dallas’ civic community.
As the mayor and City Council search for a new city manager, they must identify a leader who can harness this kind of creative, strategic thinking — someone who can foster a spirit of collaboration and dismantle the barriers that sometimes exist within the city bureaucracy and between Dallas’ government and its community and philanthropic organizations.
As a civic-minded individual, I have worked closely with many issues that straddle the public and private sectors and experienced these impasses first hand. I have also seen what is possible when the city and community collaborate, which is why I believe Dallas needs a leader who exemplifies these three core qualities.
Get smart opinions on the topics North Texans care about.
Or with:
By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
When Mayor Eric Johnson appointed me as “workforce czar” in 2022, I looked at how Dallas was already addressing the critical need to support working-age adults. I discovered that Dallas was neither short on resources nor lacking in desire to address workforce development, but it struggled with a lack of strategic coordination.
Greater Dallas Workforce Solutions operates with a $200 million budget and allocates only 20% to workforce development. Many businesses and nonprofits have their own workforce programs, and the city’s workforce department partners with various nonprofits for workforce initiatives. Yet there’s a glaring lack of communication among them.
Other Texas cities have figured this out. In Austin, for example, Workforce Solutions Capital Area integrates seamlessly with the city’s initiatives, creating a network that efficiently connects people to training programs and jobs. The new city manager must be able to establish this kind of synchronization of services and demand similar accountability.
The opportunity is there. The recent dissolution of the Small Business Center offers a chance for a new city manager to introduce new approaches to integrating the city into broader workforce development efforts, leveraging entities like Workforce Dallas, a private sector solution with a collaborative impact model.
The city’s current $38 million budget gap illustrates a familiar paradox: While City Hall often struggles to find ways to fund basic services, the city’s philanthropic community ranks among the most generous in the nation. Dallas’ most effective leaders have found ways to creatively leverage the city’s dedicated civic leadership to channel this generosity into lasting solutions.
For example, in 2004, the Young Women’s Preparatory Network collaborated with Dallas ISD to launch the Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School, the first public, all-girls school in the state of Texas. Private philanthropy brought the money and the model to address this critical need in public education. Serving predominantly economically disadvantaged students, the school boasts a 100% graduation rate, 100% college acceptance rate and ranks as the second-best high school in Texas, according to U.S. News & World Report.
The city manager doesn’t have a role in public education, of course, but this example illustrates how thoughtful approaches to leverage community resources can drive public-sector success.
It is easy to get overwhelmed trying to unpack the city’s ongoing challenges, such as pension reform, building permit inefficiencies, homelessness, and housing affordability. But too often the city focuses on treating some of the symptoms of these endemic issues without working toward sustainable solutions that address their root cause.
Dallas moves forward when it thinks big and acts decisively. Consider policing. Dallas is establishing a new regional Law Enforcement Training Academy housed at the University of North Texas at Dallas. The academy will bring together the city, police department, educational institutions and philanthropies such as the Caruth Foundation at the Communities Foundation of Texas, which kicked off the effort with a $10 million grant.
This institutional investment will lay the groundwork for fostering a culture of public safety focused on recruitment, retention, health, wellness and training in 21st-century policing strategies. The new institution is poised to have a sustained, long-range impact on public safety in our communities, and it will truly position Dallas as an example to other cities as a leader in quality policing.
Dallas can — and should — be a model for other cities. It just needs the right leaders to unlock its potential.
Ultimately, what Dallas residents expect and deserve from their city is simple: They want well-maintained streets, timely trash collection, accessible green spaces and safe neighborhoods.
Achieving these outcomes, however, requires leadership that can harness the power of creative collaboration between civic leadership and city bureaucracy to strengthen the economy, create greater opportunities for upward mobility and enhance the quality of life for all.
Lynn McBee is the city of Dallas’ workforce czar, CEO of the Young Women’s Preparatory Network, an advisory board member of the Caruth Police Institute, and a life sciences professional at New England Biolabs.
We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at [email protected]