Dallas City Council member Adam Bazaldua was set to speak on a panel about how sister cities can offer support following tragic events.
DALLAS — Dallas City Council member Adam Bazaldua returned to Japan this week to speak at a sister city conference, records show, less than a year after he and other Council members traveled to the country to ride the high-speed bullet train.
The trip will be paid for, at least in part, with public funds from federal grant money Dallas previously earmarked for “rebuilding international business and tourism.”
Bazaldua spoke on Tuesday at the 2025 U.S.-Japan Sister Cities Summit, the speaker page showed. The panel is titled “Helping Through Heartbreak: Supporting your Sister City During a Tragic Event.”
Sendai, Japan, is one of Dallas’ nine sister cities. According to the Dallas city website, “after the horrific earthquake and tsunami in 2011, the citizens of Dallas provided assistance to its partner as part of the long recovery.”
In a statement to WFAA, Bazaldua said he also visited Sendai and met with that city’s vice-mayor.
“Dallas is an international city and sister city relationships are a crucial part of our international engagement,” Bazaldua said. “I am honored to be able to represent the city this week and share more about this relationship and the incredible ways Dallas residents responded in the wake of a terrible tragedy.”
WFAA has filed a public information request seeking records for expenses tied to the trip.
The Sister Cities International conference was held in Izumisano, Japan, approximately 300 miles Southwest of Tokyo.
“To the average citizen, this can easily look like a boondoggle,” said SMU Political Science Professor Cal Jillson. “The trip may well be worth its cost, but the city does not explain that well.”
He said sister city relationships do have benefits, but “those benefits probably show themselves slowly and over time.”
Bazaldua was one of four City Council members who previously traveled to Japan in early November 2024 to experience the country’s network of high-speed bullet trains, in anticipation of Dallas voting to approve a similar train system in Texas.
The Texas bullet train plans now appear on hold, and the city-funded trip became a regular talking point of political activists opposed to city spending.
Earlier this summer, Mayor Eric Johnson traveled to Tanzania to sign a new sister city agreement with Dar es Salaam. His trip, which cost in excess of $40,000, included stops at two luxury safari lodges and lie-flat business class seats on Qatar Airways.
Approximately $13,000 of the mayor’s trip was reimbursed by the Dallas International Fund, a private donor-supported fund, the Dallas Foundation said.
Bazaldua’s latest trip to Japan comes as the City Council is set to hold a final vote on the city’s proposed $5.2 billion budget on Wednesday.
The city’s proposed budget was set to cut funding for community pools, “re-allocate” more than 200 positions, and close a library in the face of a multi-million dollar budget deficit.
Council members have approved amendments to keep the library open, and can continue to propose changes to the budget during the discussion before the vote. Johnson had challenged his colleagues to propose savings that cut taxes.
Bazaldua will not return to Dallas in time for the budget vote. He said he will join the City Council meeting virtually.
AloJapan.com