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Join Jenny Kerzman, CTP, Assistant Director of Treasury for the City of Dallas, for a discussion on Engaging Investors & Residents in Equity & Public Finance.  Register today at: https://www.publicfinanceinitiative.com/register

The third installment of this webinar series features leaders from two large jurisdictions - The City of Dallas, Texas and King County, Washington - that demonstrate holistic and long-standing commitments and practices on racial equity. They’ll share their experiences, lessons learned, and strategies they worked on to expand and enhance how they engaged two core audiences in their work - residents and investors - when going to market with a new bond deal and outside of the market context. 

King County, the City of Dallas along with other jurisdictions are members of the inaugural cohort of the Municipal Bond Markets & Racial Equity Technical Assistance Program, launched in 2023 by the Public Finance Initiative in partnership with the PFM Group Consulting LLC’s Center for Budget Equity & Innovation, PFM Financial Advisors LLC, the Government Alliance on Race & Equity. We’ll hear about what Dallas and King County worked on in the program, the lessons they learned, and how they plan to sustain or build on that work in the future. The program is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, but the views expressed in the series are those of the program team members

KBRA is a global full-service rating agency established in 2010. In this episode of KBRA's ESG Talks, Karen Daly, Senior Managing Director and head of KBRA’s Public Finance Team interviews Kim Bizor Tolbert, Deputy City Manager of Dallas and Liz Cedillo-Pereira, Assistant City Manager. Karen, Kim, and Liz discuss city initiatives aimed at improving equity and inclusion for Dallas’ diverse population.

Follow the link to listen to the City Series: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Dallas episode or visit KBRA's media page to view all of the ESG Talks series.

The City of Dallas received recognition from FEMA Region 6 for its Class 4 Rating in the Community Rating System (CRS) Program. FEMA’s Region 6 Mitigation Division Director, Mr. Gary Zimmerer presented the award to Mr. Steve Parker, the City of Dallas Floodplain Administrator.

The rating recognizes the City’s floodplain management practices.

Dallas is the first community to reach a Level 4 in Texas and is the highest ranked community in Texas. Per the preliminary list of communities published by FEMA in April of 2022, there are only six other communities in the United States with a Class 4 ranking in the CRS program.

The City has participated in the Community Rating System Program since 1991; over 1,500 communities participate nationwide. The CRS program is a voluntary incentive program that recognizes and encourages community floodplain management practices that exceed the minimum requirements of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

The Class 4 Rating allows Dallas residents residing within the Special Flood Hazard Area (100-year floodplain) to receive a 30% discount on their flood insurance costs, and residents who live outside of the Special Flood Hazard Area (100-year floodplain) to receive a 10% discount on their flood insurance costs.

In CRS communities, the rating and flood insurance premium discounts reflect the reduced flood risk from the community’s efforts that address the three goals of the program:

• Reduce and avoid flood damage to insurable property
• Strengthen and support the insurance aspects of the National Flood Insurance Program
• Foster comprehensive floodplain management

Dallas residents are encouraged to consider purchasing flood insurance for their properties at a discounted rate. To learn more, visit National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

For questions regarding Dallas Water Utilities’ Floodplain and Drainage Management Program call 214-948-4690 or FloodplainManagement@dallascityhall.com.