As the Dallas City Council continues its search for a new city manager, it has narrowed the list of candidates to just three people expected to be interviewed this week.
The Dallas City Manager exercises an important role, overseeing the city’s daily infrastructure, law enforcement needs, and public service standards. As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the next city manager’s salary is expected to cost taxpayers about $435,000 per year.
Dallas City Council Members will now decide on the next city manager from a candidate pool comprising current interim City Manager Kim Tolbert, Fort Worth Assistant City Manager William Johnson, and Sacramento Assistant City Manager Mario Lara, as reported by Fox 4 KDFW.
Previous candidates for the role included Grand Rapids, Michigan, City Manager Mark Washington, and DeKalb County, Georgia, COO Zachary Williams, though both candidates removed their names from consideration.
The three finalists are expected to be interviewed on Monday, but a final decision on the future city manager position is not expected until January, per Fox 4.
The incoming new city manager will face a number of key responsibilities that will shape the city’s future, including the appointment of a new permanent police chief. The current void at police chief comes after former Chief Eddie Garcia’s retirement earlier this year, a move that followed former City Manager TC Broadnax’s resignation to join the city of Austin, as previously highlighted by DX.
In addition to losing the police chief during her stint as interim city manager, Tolbert has faced criticism for her handling of local policy issues. Specifically, she spent considerable time opposing the HERO amendments — propositions S, T, and U — that Dallas residents fought to approve in the recent elections.
Mayor pro tem Tennell Atkins said last week that the City Council is working under the “same timeline” as initially stated, explaining that the council members want to make sure the correct decision is made.
“We don’t want to go out there and get ahead of ourselves and everybody say, ‘well, you didn’t do this, you didn’t do that’,” he added, per NBC 5 DFW. “We don’t want to do that. We don’t want to be knee-jerk reaction. Let’s be professional.”
These interviews will come after months of searching for a new Dallas City Manager to Broadnax, who resigned from his role with the city in February due to pressure from the city council, as reported by DX.
Although the city has reportedly been searching for candidates who could fill this role, the investigation has come under scrutiny due to a report from the Baker Tilly search firm detailing just four candidates who could meet the requirements.
These results prompted Dallas City Council Members Paula Blackmon, Jaynie Schultz, and Gay Donnell Willis to request a Special Called Meeting to expedite the process of hiring a city manager.
However, City Council Member Omar Narvaez and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam Bazaldua were the only two other council members to attend the December 16 meeting, resulting in a cancellation of the meeting.
Subsequent meetings were held by the Ad Hoc Administrative Affairs Committee and other groups, narrowing the pool of candidates to three, from which the City Council will select the next city manager.