Special Council Meeting to Hire New City Manager Falls Flat

The search for a new city manager in Dallas has gone on for too long according to a trio of council members. A Friday memo from Paula Blackmon, Jaynie Schultz and Gay Donnell Willis calling out the recruiting and hiring process that's taken nearly 10 months so far set the stage for a special council meeting on Monday morning.

“The most important task of a city council is to hire a city manager. Leading up to yesterday’s ad hoc committee meeting, the process has been loose and nontransparent,” the memo obtained by the Observer stated. “It has excluded councilmembers in our most important duty to the taxpayers and it’s time to bring this critical choice to the full governing body.”

Former city manager T.C. Broadnax announced his resignation on Feb. 21, triggering a wave of departures that included a slew of executives from the city manager's office and well beyond, including the surprise retirement of popular Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia in September. Broadnax began working in his new role as Austin's city manager, while Garcia joined as assistant city manager in November.

The Dallas city manager oversees the day-to-day operations of the city with a roughly $5 billion budget and more than 15,000 employees. Broadnax and some members of the city council, including Mayor Eric Johnson regularly failed to see eye to eye, and even Broadnax's resignation sparked controversy when the specifics of how he resigned factored into whether or not he would receive one year's salary, $423,000, in severance pay.

During a council meeting on Thursday, Dec. 12, it was revealed publicly that Baker Tilly, the company hired by the city to handle the city manager search, had a list of nearly 50 candidates, although most of the council had only been made aware of four finalists, one of which was current interim city manager Kimberly Tolbert.

The 9 a.m. special meeting on Monday was called even though Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins was already set to preside over a 1 p.m. Ad Hoc Committee on Administrative Affairs meeting to "deliberate the qualifications of candidates for the city manager position provided by Baker Tilly and recommend a list of final candidates to be considered by city council," on Monday, according to the meeting's agenda.

But the 9 a.m. meeting was not to be. Nathan Collins of KERA reported that there was not a quorum present for the meeting, but some public comments were accepted. Blackmon, Schultz and Willis were present, along with only Omar Narvaez and Adam Bazaldua.

“We just wanted the ability to discuss, with our colleagues, our concerns and hear from them and have them hear us,” said Willis on Monday morning, according to Collins.

Later in the morning, local reporter April Towery posted a statement from Bazaldua to X, where released a notes his displeasure with the turnout.

"I must express my disappointment in the outcome," Bazaldua wrote. "The special called meeting scheduled for this morning to interview candidates and officially hire a city manager failed to make a quorum. As city council members, our first responsibility is to show up when called. Over the past few weeks, much has been said about processes and procedures, yet when a meeting is scheduled, not enough members attended to move forward. This neglect disregards the responsibilities entrusted to us by the city charter and undermines the process of our government."

With so many council members not present, it is clear that the frustration shown via Friday's memo isn’t shared by the entire council, not enough to derail the official protocol at this time, at least.