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Abbott blames Dallas leaders for AT&T's move
The Texas governor believes Dallas leaders are to blame for AT&T leaving its downtown skyscraper because they haven't fully funded the police department. A Dallas City Council member agrees that public safety needs to be a priority, but she said there's more to this story.
DALLAS - Gov. Greg Abbott is placing blame on Dallas leaders for how the police department is run and AT&T’s move to Plano.
While the chair of the Dallas committees on public safety and homeless solutions admits there’s more work to do, she believes the city has been making great strides in reducing violent crime and homelessness in recent years.
Dallas Crime
What they're saying:
Speaking at a law enforcement event in Fort Worth, Abbott took aim at Dallas leaders. He believes they need to fully fund the city’s police department.
The governor made the comment while responding to a question about a charter amendment requiring cities to boost staffing.
Abbott claimed a failure to meet those requirements led to AT&T’s plan to vacate its Downtown Dallas skyscraper in favor of creating a new global headquarters in Plano.
"Local leaders, it’s their responsibility to ensure that homeless people are not endangering their citizens. It is the responsibility of local leaders to fully fund their local law enforcement. Because Dallas did not do that, AT&T is now moving out of Downtown Dallas," he said.
AT&T moves headquarters from Dallas to Plano
AT&T announced it will move its global headquarters away from its tower building in Downtown Dallas to a more horizontal campus in Plano.
The other side:
Dallas City Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn chairs committees on public safety and homeless solutions. She said she agrees with the governor that public safety needs to be a priority. But she believes the city is doing just that.
"You’ve seen a steadfast commitment to increasing pay for officers, hiring more officers. We’ve got the academy. We’ve bought lots of equipment and updated our technology. So he’s right. We should have public safety as number one. And when you start looking at the numbers for Dallas, we have more officers. We have a larger share of our budget going to public safety as well," she said.
Mendelsohn pointed to stats that show violent crime in Dallas has dropped for four years in a row.
The city has also allocated $10 million in additional funding toward homeless response efforts last month.
AT&T Moving Headquarters
Dig deeper:
AT&T’s CEO did not cite crime as a reason for the company’s move to Plano.
Rather, he said moving to a 54-acre site along Legacy Drive allows the company to consolidate three of its North Texas locations.
AT&T is set to vacate its Dallas headquarters in two years.
The Source: FOX 4's Lori Brown gathered information for this story from Gov. Greg Abbott's comments at a Fort Worth public safety event and an interview with Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn.