How to eat like a Dallas City Council member using taxpayer dollars

Even though the Dallas City Council is out for the summer, there has been no shortage of stories stemming from City Hall. 

There have been ongoing legal threats surrounding the future of the downtown building. No one really knows how next year’s budget will shake out, but cuts are sure to come and be felt across town. Furloughs have affected non-uniformed city departments to help cut costs. Although morale is reportedly down, the Dallas Morning News reports that a city manager-sponsored pizza party may help cheer things up for some employees soon. 

The council’s summer break also signals the filing of a state-mandated, semi-annual report on how officeholder money is being spent. All officeholders in Texas are required to file their reports by July 15, and the document makes public all expenditures and contributions received by an elected official in the first half of the year. 

Now, if you were an especially savvy political journalist, you may look at these reports as a way of seeing who supports what. For instance, council member Cara Mendelsohn, who has been outspoken in her support for preserving the city hall building, contributed to the Dallas chapter of the American Institute of Architects in March. Those dots connect fairly easily. 

But we are the Observer, which means that semi-annual expense reports mean one thing, and one thing only: it’s time to check in on where the Dallas City Council is eating. 

Council members are allowed to expense their meals when the meal happens as part of that representative’s official duties. Taking a community advocate to coffee to learn about an infrastructure project; planning a speech for an upcoming council meeting while inhaling pizzas, or combing over zoning cases with a side of Chinese takeout; that sort of thing. 

Some council members utilize this perk more than others. 

Take the aforementioned Mendelsohn, who may never have stepped into a restaurant before in her life if this report is all we have to go off of. At the opposite end of the spectrum is council member Chad West, whose expense report includes a stop at nearly every restaurant in the Bishop Arts District over the past six months. Tribal All Day Cafe appears to be his favorite place, as he took meetings with constituents at the health food spot at least four times. 

Like with most things Dallas does, the city’s electronic filing system is a bit glitchy. Oftentimes, the report repeats entries, which could make it appear that a council member visited an establishment four or five times when really it was just one. To determine individual visits, we are checking for unique transaction dates and charge amounts. 

For some council members, the reports offer a look into who the person behind the horseshoe really is. For instance, council member Jesse Moreno is a coffee guy. He’s swiped his card at Starbucks, Palmeri Cafe, La Casita Coffee, Killer Joe Neighborhood Cafe, Weekend Coffee and LA 57. Most of those charges detail that meetings took place while Moreno got his caffeine fix. 

Anyone who has looked into this particular issue before knows that council member Paula Blackmon has a thing for Bread Zeppelin. Who among us doesn’t? Blackmon charged her Caesar-stuffed baguette to City Hall on at least three occasions since January. But Bread Zeppelin may have been dethroned as Blackmon’s go-to spot; Cheba Hut, a cannabis-themed sub shop, was the District 9 lunch spot seven times. 

Council member Laura Cadena is also a repeat visitor of one establishment: Charco Broiler Steak House on Jefferson Boulevard. You know the place that I’m talking about, there’s a giant cow on the roof. Cadena visited at least three times in the first half of the year. (We’ll be reaching out to her office to find out about her order. This story is developing.) 

A handful of council members had only one or two food-related charges, and most were spots within that representative’s district (or close to it). Council member Adam Bazaldua made a stop at Far Out, while representative Gay Donnell Willis lunched at Henks Deli. Council member Jaime Resendez had a charge at Cielito Lindo. 

Six representatives — council members Zarin Gracey, Maxie Johnson, Lori Blair, Kathy Stewart, Bill Roth and Paul Ridley — did not file July 15 reports. That’s a real shame, because we were getting on a roll here. That and the whole “accountability” thing too, we suppose. 

That brings us to the head honcho himself. Yes, even the mayor is required to file a July 15 expense report. 

Mayor Eric Johnson loves a steakhouse. We’re talking Bob’s, Capital Grille, Dakota’s — you name it. On at least eight occasions, Johnson took a “meeting with interested parties” at a fine-dining establishment, and the bill typically came out to around $230. (One trip to Bob’s topped $300.) Who exactly is “interested” in the mayor is unclear, but we’d certainly be interested in a nice steak if he’s footing the bill.