Dallas inspector general briefs commission on DalTech and Dallas Black Dance Theatre reviews, training and complaints rise

Bart Beavers, the city of Dallas inspector general, briefed the Ethics Advisory Commission on Jan. 29 about the Office of Inspector General's work in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 and the first quarter of the current fiscal year. Beavers described two external reviews his office completed -- of DalTech and the Dallas Black Dance Theatre -- new training and outreach efforts, a rise in incoming complaints, staffing additions and the operational changes since voters approved a charter amendment to establish an independent inspector general.

Why it matters: The OIG's reviews and recommendations affect how city funds are tracked and how agencies that receive city support are overseen. The office's internal and public outreach programs aim to increase ethics awareness across roughly 13,000 city employees and clarify how advisory opinions and complaints are handled after the OIG's new independent status.

Beavers said the DalTech review is a 13-page report with nine exhibits (728 pages of supporting material in the link he provided to commissioners). He said management accepted the report's findings and recommendations and that the review identified about $116,000 in change and unsupported costs that were not documented in sufficient detail to determine whether billed work matched contract terms.

"We gave the investigative report and all the exhibits to management, and we gave them about 30 days to give a management response. When that management response was delivered back to us, they agreed with every finding, and they agreed with every recommendation that we made to try to fix the problem," Beavers said.

The office also completed a review of the Dallas Black Dance Theatre after a request from the city's cue lock committee. Beavers said that review was completed in 49 days and produced a 22-page report with 18 exhibits (326 pages).

Beavers briefed commissioners on training and outreach metrics: in the fourth quarter the OIG held 39 training events reaching 2,690 employees; since inception the OIG has trained 6,550 people, "over half of the 13,000 city employees." He said the office has launched an internal SharePoint site called the Ethical Way with resources including advisory opinions, a plain-language code guide, a gift analysis matrix and an interactive quiz the office calls "catch the canary." He said the quiz had been played 7,394 times as of Nov. 14.

The OIG reported input metrics showing complaints rising from 348 in fiscal 2023 to 412 in fiscal 2024, an 18.39% increase. Beavers characterized the increase as partly attributable to better outreach and awareness of the office's services: "I think that it's primarily attributed to the fact that our messaging is getting out there and people are hearing it and they're responding to it," he said.

Beavers said the office has been working to launch a public-facing website (ITS provided mock-ups) and was close to publishing it. He described four public-service announcement scripts the office has prepared (on advisory opinions, how complaints are handled, the recusal process and an introduction to the Ethical Way site) and a short ethics video for Human Resources titled "Above and Beyond Ethics." He also described a planned ambassadors program to recruit trained, embedded employees in departments to serve as local points of contact for ethical questions; recruitment was planned to begin in February.

Staffing and work in progress: the OIG recently hired investigator Matthew Day, who joined from the Internal Revenue Service; Beavers said his office currently had 56 in-progress cases. He also described outreach to the Dallas County District Attorney's Office specialized crime division and other interagency contacts.

On the office's independence: Beavers said voters approved the charter independence initiative by almost 70% and that the office is adjusting operationally to independence, including transferring some functions and reworking processes that had previously relied on the city attorney's office. "I think independence has a lot of benefits. I've told a couple folks, be careful what you pray for. Because when we got independence, we had a whole list of things to do," he said.

Beavers said the office stopped issuing confidential advisory opinions after election day; those opinions now are handled by the city attorney's office. He and Laura Morrison, legal counsel to the commission, discussed limits on sharing confidential advisory opinions and the problem that advisory opinions could affect or be raised during OIG investigations. "We're exploring avenues of how to deal with that issue, and I don't have an answer yet," Beavers said.

Commissioners asked for follow-up on final outcomes when contested hearings lead to sanctions or other actions. Beavers and Morrison agreed the commission should receive information about final sanctions when they are decided by city council as a matter of public record; Morrison said she would check whether sanctions decided by department directors or the city manager could be reported back to the commission in the same way.

Public comment and other items: the meeting opened with a three-minute public comment from a registrant who criticized the Dallas Cowboys; commissioners did not take action related to the comment.

What's next: commissioners asked the OIG to provide updates on the status of contested hearings and final sanctions and asked staff to add related items to the next regular meeting agenda so the commission can review suggested agenda language and follow-up processes.

Ending: Beavers said the OIG will continue implementing outreach and internal programs while staffing and systems are established under the office's independent structure. He invited commissioners to follow up by email for detailed materials and management responses to the reports.