8 June 20 - 26, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents ups and downs in basketball, and that’s the same with life,” Lopez Sénéchal said. “It re- ally helped me to be patient. To learn that sometimes things take time.” She returned to the game with a better understanding of the importance of ensur- ing longevity in her sport, as this was her first significant injury in her basketball ca- reer thus far. “I feel like it made me more mature,” Lo- pez Sénéchal said. “Also having a different perspective on my career in the long term. If I want to have a long career, I also need to take care of myself.” In preparation for the current season, Lopez Sénéchal sought advice from her coaches and reached out to players like Maddy Siegrist — also a rookie last year — to get more comfortable with the team’s dy- namics. During the league’s offseason, she geared up while playing for a Czech club named BK Žabiny Brno. “I’m glad that I went one year overseas,” Lopez Sénéchal said. “I was able to play, you know, professional obviously in Spain, so at least that, I think, gave me an idea of what professional basketball is.” In learning to bridge the gap from college athletics to competing professionally, she says the past year made her realize she is no longer in school. “I was so used to playing basketball and having education or other things on the side, but now this is all I have, you know, this is my job, this is basketball,” Lopez Sénéchal said. “I try to see it also as a job where I can keep learning things because it’s a job that I want to keep doing for many, many more years.” Her basketball playing days began when she was an 8-year-old in France, where she spent most of her life after moving there from Mexico. “I always wanted to go outside of Europe or outside of France to either study or play basketball,” Lopez Sénéchal said. Only when she played at the North Atlan- tic Basketball Academy in Ireland did she discover, through a chance conversation, that she could do athletics and academics si- multaneously in America. “When I realized that in the U.S., you could have an education and also play bas- ketball, I really tried to work for that, and I’m very proud,” Lopez Sénéchal said. “Very grateful that it happened.” The Mexican-born French resident carved a name for herself at Fairfield Uni- versity before transferring to UConn for her fifth year of collegiate eligibility, where she quickly became one of the team’s best scor- ers with her exceptional three-point shot. While Lopez Sénéchal says she’s still trying to find her rhythm in transitioning from college to her current position, she aims to build on her debut WNBA season by contributing to her team’s success mov- ing forward. “I’m a competitor, so whatever my role can be with the team, I just want to win as many games and get better as a team,” Lopez Sénéchal said. “We’re a young team. Right now, we’re a little bit short with some inju- ries, so it’s just trying to get that chemistry. And it’s getting better, I think, week after week.” Looking ahead to the WNBA’s future, she hopes to be the first of many Mexican-born players to join the league, paving the way for young girls who aspire to compete profes- sionally. “We see the diversity of people that are in this league, people from a lot of coun- tries, people that have not really played col- lege here who came from overseas, so I feel like I would hope that there’s still going to be a lot of international players coming into the league,” Lopez Sénéchal said. “But ob- viously, for me, it’s trying to also be that role model for those young girls that have a dream to be a professional one day, and with my story and my journey, seeing that it’s possible.” ▼ DALLAS COUNTY THAT’S NOT A LITTLE BIT COUNTY BUDGET SHORT TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. BY JACOB VAUGHN T he Dallas County Commissioners Court was supposed to discuss an in- terim report from the county’s office of budget evaluations during its last meet- ing, but the meeting was postponed. As a re- sult, the commissioners did not discuss an alarming $40.6-million budget deficit as de- tailed in the report. According to the report, the shortfall is largely due to increased spending on over- time and compensatory benefits. The report comes with some recommendations to get the budget back on track by making some pretty big cuts. If the recommendations are approved by the county commissioners, there will be no discretionary bonuses this month. Additionally, there will be a freeze on countywide hiring and projects, and a re- duction in force. The report also recom- mends the HR department review and update overtime and compensatory poli- cies, a third-party audit of overtime, and the publication of quarterly reports on countywide overtime and compensation costs. These are just recommendations, how- ever, and could change, Lauren Trimble, chief of staff for Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins, said via email. The county projected that it would start the year with a general fund balance of $86 million. However, a report pub- lished by the county auditor found the ac- tual starting balance was $52.8 million. One reason for the $31.5 million difference is the rollover of purchased countywide contracts. Additionally, some $13 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds were supposed to be transferred to the county but that didn’t happen, adding to the budget shortfall. “What we’re looking at right now is what happened with this [funding] gap and what were the areas that caused this gap,” County Commissioner Elba Garcia told the Observer last week. She said that while a hiring freeze is on the table, it may exclude certain de- partments with critical position vacancies. “My point on this is we have to be sure that we keep everybody apprised of what’s going on,” Garcia said. Issues at the county jail are also con- tributing to the deficit. This year, the county is spending more to hold people in jail as the cost per bed has increased sig- nificantly since 2023. There are also more people in the jail, something that’s true for a lot of counties, Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins told the Observer. “No one budgeted for that many prisoners in Texas,” he said. In the juvenile department, there’s $5.13 million in overtime spending, largely due to staffing shortages, as the department has over 150 vacant positions. Food and house- hold utensils for inmates have also increased in price; the budget office estimates the sheriff’s department will need an extra $200,000 to cover the difference. Then, there’s comp time pay for employ- ees. If a Dallas County employee works overtime, they can either take the overtime pay or have the hours go toward their paid time off. So far this year, the office of budget and evaluation has received non-budgeted comp time payout requests of about $1.52 million. There have also been some unforeseen costs in the county courts. The county bud- geted $23.3 million for its courts. But through the first seven months of this year, the county courts have already blown through $16.8 million. Now, the total cost of the courts is projected to be around $28.7 million. It’s also costing the county more to pay for jurors, as Texas House Bill 3474 in- creased juror pay from $6 to $20 for the first day of service, and from $40 to $58 on subsequent days. Jenkins said he and others are still trying to figure out what the deficit means for the county. “That may mean that there’s a proj- ect that you’d like to do in 2025 that gets pushed out or not done,” he said. “But it also may be that everything can get done.” He’s confident the county will be able to balance the budget. “By doing this midyear and managing this, in the end, that number will get to zero,” he said. “I’m confident that we can get that number to zero without dra- matically affecting any of the programs that we have committed to.” All of this comes as the city of Dallas faces a $38 million budget shortfall of its own. “We’re going to have to make some cuts and tough decisions right now in order to bal- ance the budget,” Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins said last month of the Dallas budget. ▼ REPUBLICAN MAYOR PLATFORM? WHO NEEDS ’EM ERIC JOHNSON AVOIDS THE QUESTIONS LOCAL MEDIA HAVE BEEN ASKING. BY EMMA RUBY I t’s a well-known fact that Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson doesn’t often talk to the local media. He rarely even deigns to speak to state media, which is why an inter- view recently published by Texas Monthly caught our attention. (Midway through the very first paragraph, by the way, he con- firms that he prefers to speak solely to na- tional outlets.) Since Johnson announced his switch to the Republican Party last year, the Observer has asked everything from the serious — such as whether he planned to attend the NRA convention — to the silly — does he own a Make America Great Again hat — all to no response. Not even a “I’m not com- menting on that” or a “I’ve received your email” or a “This account is no longer re- ceiving messages from emails ending with @dallasobserver.com” response. So maybe it was silly of us to think that the rare, 4,000-word Johnson tell-all would actually tell us, well, anything. In the piece, the mayor reverts to his regular talking points about public safety and how Dallas should have two football teams, specifically the Kansas City Chiefs, because Johnson is close friends with Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt. They “talk pretty regularly.” But the meat of the story comes when Texas Monthly reporter Alexandra Samuels finally digs in on Johnson’s party change, which he said was inspired by Democrats’ dramatic, party-wide shift to the left, which became inexcusable to him during the “defund-the-police, post- George Floyd era.” “I learned that the real heart of the Dem- ocratic Party is with the criminals and that it feels more sympathy toward the offenders,” Johnson said. He added that, after “withstanding pro- testers at his house,” he wouldn’t be able to Unfair Park from p6 courtesy Dallas Wings Lou Lopez Sénéchal made her WNBA debút in May playing for the Dallas Wings.
