Dallas Considers Ceding Some DART Power as Negotiations With Suburbs Progress

Editor’s Note, 2/10/2026: This article has been updated to include updated information regarding the demands Addison has given DART leadership.

The Dallas City Council is set to consider ceding some of its influence on the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Board at a Wednesday meeting as negotiations with member cities appear to be progressing.

Council members will consider a resolution at the meeting calling for the city to give up its majority vote on the DART board. Dallas and DART leadership are currently navigating negotiations with discontented suburban member cities, six of which have called withdrawal elections from the agency since November. The votes can still be called off, with Collin County finalizing ballots on Feb. 23. March 18 is the deadline for cancelling the elections.

Officials appear to be making progress in the negotiations. At a Monday meeting, Plano’s city council voted to table discussion on a proposed contract with microtransit provider Via until a Feb. 23 meeting. City Manager Mark Israelson told council members discussions with the DART board have grown “more focused” in recent weeks after staff received a proposal from the board. Israelson also said certain actions would need to be taken in the next two weeks for the proposal to move forward.

Cities like Irving and Plano criticized DART’s funding mechanisms and return on investment in November resolutions calling for withdrawal elections. Officials have sought up to a 50% reduction in the one-cent sales tax contribution each city makes to DART’s general fund. 

Plano’s tabling of the Via discussion comes as the DART Board is set to discuss alternate funding models at a Tuesday meeting, which may return sales tax dollars to member cities for general mobility programs geared toward city-specific transportation initiatives. The Regional Transit Council will also consider potential partnerships with member cities, should they remain, at a Thursday meeting.

While it hasn’t garnered as much attention in negotiations as funding structures, proposed reforms to DART’s governance also play a large part in discussions with member cities, which have grown dissatisfied with a perceived lack of representation stemming from sharing board members and the influence Dallas wields on the board. 

Plano previously supported Senate Bill 2118 in the last legislative session. The bill, which did not advance beyond the transportation committee, would have reduced the number of Dallas-appointed representatives on the board.

Dog or Tail?

Dallas leadership currently appoints seven of the DART board’s 15 members and shares an eighth seat with Cockrell Hill. The rest of the member cities — with the exception of Plano, Irving and Garland — are jointly represented with at least one other municipality. Richardson, University Park, Highland Park and Addison all currently share a single representative.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the council will consider a resolution supporting a 20-person board structure in which no single member holds a majority of seats and each city has at least one dedicated representative. Dallas would still appoint up to five board members, with votes weighted by population. The resolution calls for Dallas’ representatives to account for at least 45% of the weighted vote share.

Tyler Wright, the vice president of the Dallas Area Transit Alliance, said progress on funding reforms likely played a large role in Plano’s decision to table the Via vote, but that Dallas and the agency’s openness to governance reform will also be important in avoiding May elections.

“If Dart pulls together the funding and kind of unites everybody around that says, ‘Hey, let’s work together on the governance based on the proposal,’ that’s another step in the right direction,” Wright said. “We’ll have to see what Dallas says. From what I hear, they may have the votes to pass it in support of something less than 50%.”

At a Jan. 20 meeting of the transportation and infrastructure committee, members were divided on whether to give up their seats on the board. District 13 Council member Cara Mendelsohn questioned why Dallas should give up its simple majority given its contributions to the system.

“Why should the city of Dallas give up governance control when it contributes approximately half the revenue, half the service area and the majority of the ridership,” Mendelsohn asked at the meeting.

Other members signaled openness to relinquishing some of the city’s simple-majority rule.

“I don’t think we’re actually the dog or the tail, as I’ve listened to that part of the conversation, but we are obviously one of the biggest partners in the room, and part of the system. We are not all of it; we are a good portion of it,” District 10 Council member Kathy Stewart said. “But our goal is for the system to succeed, for the system to be healthy, for the system to be respectful, and to work together, not to take advantage of maybe being the biggest piece in the system.”

Council members narrowly approved the resolution by a 4-3 vote, sending it to the entire body ahead of Wednesday’s meeting.

The board was originally comprised of 25 members when first formed in 1983. After Coppell and Flower Mound voted to withdraw from the agency in 1989, the board slimmed down to its current 15-member structure in the 1990s. DART realigns the board’s composition every five years, as required by state law. 

The body has approved changes to counteract Dallas’ unilateral decision-making ability in the past. In 2023, the board approved changes to its governance that require two-thirds of the board to vote to halt any services in a city, and in 2025, the board extended that rule to the addition of services.

Any proposed changes to the composition of the DART board must be approved by the state legislature. Consensus from DART and member cities, however, would likely clear the way for such reforms. The DART board will also discuss legislative priorities at the Tuesday meeting.

Negotiations progress

It remains to be seen whether Dallas’s potential support for a one-city, one-vote structure with a minimum 45% voting share will placate suburban governance concerns and further negotiations. Addison’s city council recently voted to send a “letter of demands” to the DART board that stated the town’s preference for Dallas’ weighted vote to account for 45% or less of the total vote share, although some members advocated for a smaller percentage.

“I think it’s unreasonable for Dallas to have a 50% weighted vote,” Addison Mayor Pro Tem Marlin Wilson said at a council meeting. “I think that’s crazy. I think 40%, with the size of Dallas and the money and so forth, is reasonable.”

Even if cities remain in disagreement on the particulars of the board’s composition, Plano’s decision to postpone discussion of a DART alternative marks the most public progress in negotiations since November. The city has been a leader in the fight for agency reform, Wright said, which may prompt other cities to consider DART’s proposals.

“I would bet money on it,” Wright said. “Plano has been the ringleader. I think a lot of people are following Plano’s lead. I saw two Addison city council members who voted for the pullout election at Plano’s city council meeting last night.”