City Reporter
Dallas council members Monday agreed to interview semi-finalists for the city manager position Dec. 23 after two conflicting scheduled meetings and nearly three hours in executive session.
They took no other action publicly but spent nearly three hours in executive session.
The majority of the City Council skipped a special meeting at 9 a.m. called by council members Paula Blackmon, Gay Donnell Willis and Jaynie Schultz in hopes of speeding up the search for Dallas’ new city manager. But most attended a 1 p.m. meeting of the ad hoc committee on administrative affairs, which is leading the search.
Only council members Omar Narvaez, deputy mayor pro tem Adam Bazaldua, and the three who called the meeting were present at 9 a.m. The meeting itself could not start because they lacked a quorum — nine council members — necessary to conduct official business.
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“What we want to ultimately do is take (the search) away from [the committee] and bring it to the full council and have the process play out at with community meetings,” Blackmon said, adding council members might add more candidates to the list.
Before the meeting, Blackmon told The Dallas Morning News she hoped her “colleagues will see the importance of this exercise and come express it at the meeting because it’s been dragging out too long.”
In the afternoon, Atkins immediately moved the committee into an executive session. The committee includes council members Cara Mendelsohn, Kathy Stewart, Paul Ridley and Jesse Moreno. All of the council members present in the morning also attended the afternoon meeting and went into executive session, though they are not on the committee.
When the committee reconvened, Ridley made a motion to interview semifinalists virtually on Dec. 23. Committee members approved the motion but did not publicly explain why and did not state whether new semi-finalists would be added to the mix.
After the meeting, when reporters asked Atkins to address complaints about lack of transparency and the 9 a.m. meeting, Atkins said he didn’t know of a morning meeting and “I wasn’t here.”
Last week, a fight behind the scenes over Atkins’ committee leadership and concerns over transparency spilled into the public eye when Blackmon and Willis got into a back-and-forth with Atkins over the search timeline. Blackmon and Willis said the council did not receive the list of semifinalists until November, when Atkins had the documentation in October.
Blackmon said she also emailed search firm Baker Tilly to get the resumes and the complete list of 50 people who applied for the top job. The information wasn’t released until last week.
“We don’t know where we are in this process. It could be another 30 to 45 days in committee when it comes to us [the full council],” Blackmon said. “We just need to get this moving.”
While waiting for others to show up for the morning meeting, Willis said council members were told the search’s timeline had another three and a half months added to it.
“We just wanted the ability to discuss with our colleagues our concerns and hear from them and have them hear from us, and so we were ready to interview informally, virtually, three of the city finalist candidates,” she said.
In the morning meeting, the council members present listened to several public speakers, who emphasized it was essential for the council to work together and not delay the search, as City Hall staffers needed stability and an administrative head who could hire the new police chief.
“Unfortunately, we’ve been delaying for many months, trying to figure out this whole city manager to the point right now where it’s in the paper every other day,” said Frank Mihalopoulos, a real estate developer and investor who serves on several influential boards, such as the Dallas Citizens Council and the real estate council. “It’s not good. It’s not healthy for our city.”
Mihalopoulos credited interim city manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, a semifinalist for the top job, for engaging with years-long criticism leveled at City Hall. “I’ve seen changes. I’ve seen personnel,” Mihalopoulos said. “You know, what’s more important? People are listening. People are changing the attitude.”
Other candidates on the shortlist for the city’s top job are William Johnson, an assistant city manager in Fort Worth; Mark Washington, city manager of Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Zach Williams, executive assistant and chief operating officer for DeKalb County, Georgia.
Last week, some council members expressed disappointment they were only given four semifinalists to pick from when they were expecting a shortlist of at least 10 to 15. Atkins said there may have been a “missed step” in the committee process between the time applicants had finished applying and between Baker Tilly submitting the list of the semi-finalists.
Council members Zarin Gracey and Paul Ridley asked the search firm if its officials interviewed former Dallas official Carl Simpson for the job.
Simpson, a former assistant city manager in Dallas, left in January and is now the city manager of Jackson, Calif.
Art Davis, with Baker Tilly, said they had not. He explained the semifinalists were put on the shortlist after reviewing education levels, demographics and professional experience, among other criteria. Baker also said several candidates dropped out of the running, citing the Nov. 5 elections, when voters approved propositions S and U.
The two propositions waive the city’s municipal immunity and mandate the city allocate 50% of any new revenue growth year-over-year to the police and fire pension system and other public safety initiatives.
Bazaldua, who isn’t a part of the ad hoc committee and was not a signatory on the special meeting request, said he was disappointed not to see his colleagues at the 9 a.m. meeting.
“It’s a sad day for our city,” Bazaldua said.
“I think that it’s important to note that we have colleagues who felt that the process was not going in a way that was transparent. Our duty as elected officials is to show up and do the work of the people, and if a meeting is scheduled at Dallas City Hall, it’s my duty to represent district seven,” he said. “We cannot continue to allow for politics and egos to overshadow the most important task that we’ve been tasked to do as elected officials.”
Before joining the Dallas Morning News, Devyani Chhetri covered South Carolina politics and presidential primaries at the Greenville News. She went to Boston University for graduate school.
