This announcement will come as a surprise to few: Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has officially been named Dallas’ next city manager by the City Council in a vote of 13-2. Tolbert is the first Black woman to be named to Dallas’ top leadership role.
Wednesday's announcement came nearly one year after former City Manager T.C. Broadnax announced his resignation. Tolbert has been serving in the interim role since her former boss' departure and has spent the majority of her career serving in Dallas’ government. Two other finalists — William Johnson, an assistant city manager for Fort Worth, and Mario Lara, an assistant city manager for Sacramento — were considered by the City Council for the job.
Several public speakers spoke in favor of Tolbert, and one spoke in support of Lara. Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins, who chairs the committee charged with organizing the search, motioned to pay Tolbert $450,000 annually for the job.
“I believe this city manager has the expertise and compassion that I do. She believed in talking to the people, she believed in going to the community,” Atkins told the council. “We are one city, one Dallas, and we are going to show that with this new city manager.”
Atkins added that he is aware the search for a city manager garnered some bad publicity and criticism from other council members, but defended the yearlong search as transparent.
Council Member Adam Bazaldua also spoke in Tolbert’s favor, saying he is “proud” that the best candidate for the job was a Black woman.
“Even inferring that this is a DEI hire is absurd,” Bazaldua said. “What we did was an exhaustive search of talent across the country, and what we ended up with was something I already knew, which is that we have the best here in the city of Dallas.”
Under Tolbert’s interim reign, the ForwardDallas land use plan won passage, a $1.25 billion city bond was approved by voters, Dallas’ nearly $40 million budget deficit was remedied and the fire and police pension was stabilized. A wave of high-level resignations also plagued the city during Tolbert’s test-run, with many — including former Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia — following Broadnax down south to lead Austin’s municipal government.
As city manager, Tolbert will now be tasked with hiring Dallas’ next police and fire chiefs and working through the Dallas HERO charter amendments passed by voters in November. Amendment S opens the city up to citizen lawsuits if state or local ordinances are unenforced, while U calls for the hiring of 900 additional police officers and increased funding for the police department.
Though some in City Hall have stated the amendments should be a wake up call for Marilla Street, Tolbert — the only internal candidate in the city manager search — breezed along the inside track throughout the last year. In a statement to the Observer earlier this month, Tolbert said she believes she is capable of bringing the change that voters seem to want.
“The work is already underway, and I think the beauty is that during my time of being the interim city manager, I've approached this job with bold actions,” Tolbert said. “This has not been business as usual, status quo. And it's really given me an opportunity to really do a deep dive into some of the challenges that we face and we've already begun to address those.”
But Council Member Cara Mendelsohn, one of two council members who voted against Tolbert’s appointment, argued that the problems facing Dallas require a new set of eyes to address. Mendelsohn listed the deferred maintenance on City Hall and the downtown convention center, Dallas’ homelessness response and lackluster police response times as top priorities that signal the need for a new city leader.
Stating that she knew her vote would “be in the minority,” Mendelsohn advocated for a candidate that would approach the job with "transparency and accountability.”
“When I think about the decision of hiring a city manager I see department after department that is in need of reform," Mendelsohn said. “Dallas is a city with extraordinary promise but it is clear we need changes.”
