Dallas Leaders Sure Confederate Statues Will Be Removed
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The process to determine the fate of Confederate monuments in Dallas is just beginning, but many city council members have already made up their minds. "We have made a decision to have them come down, and they will," said Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway.
Caraway said that, while there's been no vote yet, conversations between council members have revealed a consensus behind the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in the Oak Lawn area, and a Confederate memorial near City Hall.
The mayor's task force, assigned to hold public meetings and make a recommendation, is still in the process of being formed. Council members were each allowed to make an appointment this past Monday.
Despite Caraway's confidence in the final decision, he stated that it is important to go through the process. "We're being very transparent. Our constituents have asked for transparency," he said.
Council member Phillip Kingston, though, declined to appoint anyone. "The mayor's appointing a task force to tell us whether to remove them. I don't need a task force to tell me right from wrong," Kingston explained. He is one of five council members calling for a vote to put the city's intentions on record, before the task force weighs in.
A proposed measure, supported by Kingston and four other council members, would mandate not only the removal of these Confederate memorials, but the renaming of city streets and buildings which are named after prominent Confederate leaders. Kingston said that it will come up for a vote on September 27.
Caraway, who has not supported the measure, said that the city must weigh the cost of these actions. A memo, provided by Caraway's office, shows that city staff members have estimated the cost of removing the Robert E. Lee statue to be $550,000. The removal of the Confederate memorial will cost $1.2 million.
"You're going to have professional companies come in and remove the statues, put them in storage," Caraway said. "They may go to a museum."
Kingston, on the other hand, believes that the city's cost estimates are greatly exaggerated. "I had two demolition companies call me today and say they could do it for so much cheaper," he said. "They were outraged by those numbers." The companies could not provide estimates, Kingston added, only assurances that the work would cost significantly less.