Subject: Dave Cook

• Dallas to Get in the Hotel Biz -- And Turndown Service Won't Be an Option

  February 13, 2008

• Look, You Don't Need to Know Jack Squat About the Convention Center Hotel, K?

  February 19, 2008

• Headache Hotel and Other Dallas City Council SUPs and WTFs

  February 28, 2008

• The City's Running a Little Light on Dough -- Got $50 Mil to Spare?

  May 8, 2008

• A Peek Inside the Ugly Convention Center Hotel Bidding Process

  June 16, 2008

• Reserve Fund May Not Protect Taxpayers If Trouble Finds Dallas' Convention Center Hotel

  Just how safe are taxpayers in the convention center hotel deal? Good question.

  November 20, 2008

• Will the Issuance of Bonds for the Convention Center Hotel Affect the City's Credit? We're Going With Maybe.

  Patrick MichelsMayor Leppert is this close to landing the interest rate he wants for the hotel.When Mayor Tom Leppert testified last week on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, he conveniently failed to mention his own agenda while lobbying the U.S. House Financial Services Committee to loosen the municipal bond market. Instead of arguing the merits of the convention center hotel, he mentioned "building and repairing schools, firehouses, highways and water systems" as examples of projects

  May 29, 2009

• Demanding Answers as the Dallas Convention Center Hotel Moves Forward

  As Mayor Tom Leppert pushes for a convention center hotel, critics demand more details and less tax money. At least, those who haven't been silenced do.

  April 17, 2008

• Busted

  Even in these boom times, Dallas is broke, thanks to a city council that has been giving away the store

  September 2, 1999

• Mayor Leppert on City's Budget Woes: "We Just Gotta Deal With it and Move Forward."

  Mayor Tom Leppert kicked off today's budget briefing by acknowledging that "the challenges will be significant" as the Dallas City Council finds ways to eliminate a $190-million deficit. He stressed that national and international issues are the cause of the shortfall, and the mayor likened it to the economic struggles faced by households and businesses. "We just gotta deal with it and move forward," Leppert said. After City Manager Mary Suhm explained that the budget problems are "rev

  May 20, 2009

• Council Doesn't Want to Raise Taxes, Cut Key Services to Trim Budget. Good Luck With That.

  Sam MertenThe city's budget is $190 million in the hole because of "revenue erosion," according to CFO Dave Cook.The Dallas City Council yesterday afternoon wrapped up a lengthy discussion on how best to tackle the city's $190-million budget deficit by agreeing that a tax increase and making cuts to the police and fire departments are not the answers. Council members opposed several of the proposed cuts by City Manager Mary Suhm and her staff, yet were unable to provide alternative solutions to

  May 21, 2009

• Angela Hunt on City's Budget Crisis: "We're Cutting Muscle; We're Cutting Bone."

  Hey, at least Dallas doesn't have budget problems like Conan is facing out West. So we've got that going for us, which is nice.As we mentioned yesterday, the city council's Quality of Life & Government Services Committee got a look-see Monday afternoon at some of the proposed budget cuts before the full council is updated in a June 17 briefing. To close the $190 million deficit, City Manager Mary Suhm is recommending significant reductions in funds set aside for public libraries, swimming pools

  June 9, 2009

• Rasansky Calls Budget "Non-Transparent," Says Increased Fees Are a Tax Increase and Introduces $21.7 Million in Savings

  Sam MertenMitchell Rasansky and Linda Koop celebrate the end of his eight years on the council and her birthday with glasses of grape cider. Rasansky later crushed the plastic glass with his foot and yelled, "Mazel tov!"City Manager Mary Suhm, Mayor Tom Leppert and CFO Dave Cook all stressed this morning that the city is facing the same budget challenges as other cities and states. As Cook briefed the city council for the last time before a more detailed budget is presented August 10, he said th

  June 17, 2009

• Build, America: City Plans to Use Stimulus Dough to Help Fund Convention Center Hotel

  Patrick MichelsMayor Tom Leppert shows us how much federal funding will be used to build the convention center hotel.Council members at this morning's special called meeting are expected to authorize a bond issuance of up to $514 million for the convention center hotel project. The agenda item restricts selling the bonds at a maximum interest yield of 5.5 percent, and a mixture of revenue bonds and Build America Bonds are the probable funding sources. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

  June 19, 2009

• Why Nearly 800 City Employees Are Getting Pink Slips Before Council Gives the OK

  Dave Cook, the city's chief financial officer, revealed at Wednesday's city council budget briefing that more than 700 layoffs included in City Manager Mary Suhm's cost-cutting recommendations would begin sometime in August. Yet the affected employees' jobs are intact until the council votes September 23 on a final budget. "We're not presuming approval by any means," Cook tells Unfair Park. The 785 unlucky folks will receive formal reduction in force (RIF) notices sometime in August, he explai

  June 22, 2009

• Dot Games Highlight Exercise in Futility at White Rock Lake Last Night as Residents Offer Little to Help Solve City's Budget Crisis

  Sam MertenYippee! Red and green stickers!It was standing room only last night as approximately 200 folks battled the heat at White Rock Lake's Winfrey Point for the final of four community budget forums, where several city staffers were on hand to get input on how best to address the city's $190 million budget shortfall. City Manager Mary Suhm, who has whittled the deficit down to $38.6 million, told Unfair Park after the meeting that the forums gave her a couple ideas to cut costs such as impl

  June 26, 2009

• Must-See TV: Watch the Budget Briefing

  ​At this very moment, the Dallas City Council is being briefed by Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm, chief financial officer Dave Cook and others on the proposed FY2009-1010 budget, which the council will approve on September 23. But before Suhm and Cook took control of the meeting, Mayor Tom Leppert suggested some cuts not yet made -- among them, Jerry Allen's effort to cut council expenditures, to which Angela Hunt added some ideas on July 29. (Suhm did not touch the council's budget -- not even

  August 10, 2009

• Rounding Up the Urban Rodeos (Again)

  Rio Rodeo is the only one of four urban rodeos operating under the city's existing guidelines.​Now that everyone on the Dallas City Council's more or less okee-doke with Mary Suhm's proposed budget -- Suhm and city CFO Dave Cook were damn near feted during yesterday's briefing -- it's apparently back to old business, of which there's plenty planned for today. At noon, the Quality of Life Committee will yet again round up the urban rodeos, which has been on the council's radar ever since the ci

  August 11, 2009

• City Lands Low Interest Yield On Convention Center Hotel Bonds, But CFO Reveals Trickery Used to Push Project Forward

  Sam MertenFirst Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans (left) and Frank Poe (right), the city's director of convention and event services, sign the financial documents finalizing the convention center hotel project. Evans and Poe are president and vice president of the Dallas Convention Center Hotel Development Corporation respectively.The city's Dallas Convention Center Hotel Development Corporation unanimously agreed this afternoon to issue $479.8 million in revenue bonds for the hotel project, lo

  August 18, 2009

• After First Claiming It Couldn't Without Trinity Parkway, City Prepped to Do the Wright Thing

  Once more, a proposed S.M. Wright realignment, which you'll need to click to enlarge​Here's another early peek at the Dallas City Council's briefing agenda -- this one concerning the list of projects, major and minor, the City Manager's Office is proposing to pay for out of the bond sale scheduled for May 2010. While we pore over the details for future Unfair Park items, one item in particular sticks out immediately: a proposal to spend $34 million acquiring properties "around the southern ter

  August 31, 2009

• National League of Cities: If You Think Dallas's '09-'10 Budget Looks Bad, Wait Till Next Year

  Sam MertenCity Manager Mary Suhm debuting her 2009-'10 budget to the media three weeks ago​On August 10, when the Dallas City Council met to discuss City Manager Mary Suhm's budget proposal that gut services and employees to make room for a $190-million budget shortfall, the city's chief financial officer, Dave Cook, warned that next year's process will be even more painful. He said that preliminary discussions with appraisal district officials indicated commercial property values would contin

  September 1, 2009