Dallas picks interim city manager

The Dallas City Council voted Tuesday to appoint Deputy City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert as the temporary successor to City Manager T.C. Broadnax when he resigns in June.

The council voted 12-2 to approve Tolbert, Broadnax’s former chief of staff, as interim city manager saying they believed she is the best choice for stability as Dallas looks for a new permanent top executive. Tolbert was the only person named by council members as a candidate for the job, and several Black and Hispanic business, trade and faith-based organizations urged the council to select her for the position.

Tolbert’s appointment comes six days after Broadnax’s resignation, which goes into effect June 3. The approval came amid concerns from members of the public and council members Cara Mendelsohn and Paul Ridley, who said they believed the appointment was occurring too quickly and too much out of the public eye. Mendelsohn and Ridley voted against Tolbert’s appointment. The final vote came after the City Council spent two hours in closed session.

Some council members expressed disagreement with concerns about the process.

“We have (the) option to elect the new interim city manager and we are doing what we think is right,” said Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins, who presided over the meeting because Mayor Eric Johnson was absent. “It’s not backdoor politics.”

He told the public that he believed the vote was proof to residents that “we can work together.”

Ridley and Mendelsohn both said they were uneasy with the process.

“I’m concerned about a rush to name an interim when we should be considering all possibilities systematically, instead of a campaign that is lacking in transparency,” Mendelsohn said. “There are other internal and external candidates that we haven’t even considered.”

Mayor Eric Johnson didn’t attend the meeting and also wasn’t present during a committee meeting on Monday where the rest of the council discussed interim city manager candidates in closed session. On X, he posted a photo Monday evening of himself and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick saying they were talking about “how we can improve the safety of cities across Texas and our country by electing more GOP mayors!”

Johnson in a Tuesday statement after the council meeting said while he didn’t have an issue with Tolbert as interim city manager, he thought the process getting there was “deeply flawed.”

“These decisions are too important to the future of our city to have been reduced to shameless politicking, maneuvering, and scheming,” Johnson said. “It sends absolutely the wrong messages to the public and to prospective candidates for this critical job. We should be catering to the people’s best interests, not special interests.”

The Tuesday special meeting follows Broadnax’s resignation last Wednesday. Broadnax said he resigned at the suggestion of the majority of the City Council, though Johnson and some members say they weren’t aware until seeing a news release announcing the move.

The announcement set off a chain reaction with council members Bazaldua, Jaime Resendez and Jaynie Schultz publicly naming Tolbert as the sole candidate to discuss for the interim role soon after Broadnax’s resignation, followed by a public campaign launched from several community organizations urging the council to back Tolbert for the temporary position.

It could take months for the city to select a new city manager.

Tolbert in a statement after the meeting said she was honored to accept the council’s appointment.

“I remain committed to working in partnership with the council, staff, residents, and businesses, to ensure a seamless and efficient operation of city government during this transition,” she said. “Alongside local leaders, we will remain laser focused on the vital issues in front of us such as the upcoming bond program election, FY25 Budget development, homelessness, and stabilizing the police and fire pensions.”

Broadnax’s resignation comes two years after Johnson led a public attempt to fire the city manager that ended in the two declaring a truce and the council approving a raise for Broadnax. The city manager earns $423,246 a year and is the highest paid city employee. Broadnax could be owed a single lump-sum payment equal to his annual salary when he leaves because of a clause in his contract stipulating eligibility for that amount if he resigned at the suggestion of a council majority.

Broadnax after the meeting said he supported the council’s decision, saying he believes Tolbert is “more than qualified, capable and committed to lead the city through this transition.”

“I am confident she will work in partnership with the City Council and lead our talented and dedicated staff to serve the residents of Dallas,” Broadnax said in a statement.

Tolbert began working for Dallas in 1998 as assistant to the city manager and later worked in the city’s aviation department. She left in 2008 to work for the North Texas Tollway Authority and returned to Dallas city government in 2017 when Broadnax hired her as his chief of staff. The two attended graduate school together at the University of North Texas.

Broadnax promoted Tolbert and then-Assistant City Manager Jon Fortune in February 2022 to deputy city manager posts to “carry out complex administrative, operational, public safety and emergency support activities consistent with traditional chief operating officer functions.”

Tolbert oversees Dallas’ departments for homeless solutions, aviation, human resources, and communications, outreach and marketing; Dallas Water Utilities; the Mayor and City Council Office; and the small business center.

Tolbert and Fortune each make $304,500 a year, trailing only Broadnax, Dallas Employees’ Retirement Fund Administrator Cheryl Alston and City Attorney Tammy Palomino in salary, according to city records.

Tolbert will get a raise to $367,683 when she takes over as interim city manager.

Council members Atkins, Schultz, Carolyn King Arnold, Adam Bazaldua, Zarin Gracey, Omar Narvaez and Gay Donnell Willis all spoke in support of Tolbert’s selection before the vote, praising her experience, institutional knowledge of the city and its departments, and her work ethic.

“I believe that our city is going to be in the best place to not skip a beat through a very important transition with this appointment,” Bazaldua said.

Amy Robbins, part of the Metroplex Civic and Business Association, said members of her group wanted “a clean break from the former administration and bureaucracy.” The association has 130 members representing 10,000 employees across the Dallas-Fort Worth area and many are concerned with the state of core city services under Broadnax’s watch.

She cited the city’s response to a then-city IT employee’s deletion of over 8 million Police Department files in 2021 and the municipal government being vulnerable to a ransomware attack last year that exposed the personal information of more than 30,000 people. She also mentioned the city’s struggles with issuing building permits in a timely manner.

“It is no secret that many Dallas residents have been dissatisfied with the direction that the city has been going over the last seven years under the leadership of the former city manager and his team,” Robbins said.

Harrison Blair, president and CEO of the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, said his organization was part of a coalition of nine local groups including NAACP Dallas, the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the South Dallas/Fair Park Faith Coalition that backed Tolbert.

“She didn’t ask us to be here. She didn’t want us to be here,” Blair told the council. “But when you ride with us like that, we’re going to stand for you whether you ask for it or not.”

This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.