The head of one of the organizations that wants Kimberly Tolbert to assume the post of interim city manager in Dallas has a history of criminal conduct in North Texas, with allegations ranging from injuring a child to theft and assault.
About five years before Dominique Alexander founded Next Generation Action Network — the Dallas-based nonprofit that claims to advocate for “social change and equity for all regardless of race, religion, nationality, gender, sex, or age” — he was arrested for causing serious bodily injury to his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son.
Alexander pled guilty to the charge in 2011 and was sentenced to probation. However, he reportedly violated the terms of his probation multiple times, leading the judge to sentence him in 2016 to five years in prison. The judge counted his time spent on probation as part of the sentence, so Alexander only spent eight days behind bars for the offense, according to The Dallas Morning News.
In 2017, Alexander was indicted on felony theft charges related to a 2016 business dispute in Denton County. The charges were enhanced because of a previous conviction for forgery. He pled guilty and was sentenced to two days in jail, with credit for time served.
Alexander also allegedly shoved and head-butted his long-time partner, Keyaira D. Saunders. He was subsequently indicted for “continuous violence against the family,” but those charges were dropped in 2021, DMN reported. He has also reportedly been convicted of evading arrest and making a false police report.
Alexander has become known for organizing protests in Dallas and elsewhere in North Texas, including following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.
“Next Generation Action Network is committed to addressing all of the issues that affect the (BIPOC) Black Indigenous People of Color in America,” the organization’s website states. “We believe in attacking these problems at the root. By addressing America’s problem with systematic racism we can begin to improve the lives of the community while shrinking the economic wealth gap that has plagued our country since it’s [sic] infancy.”
Alexander was one of two people — the other being former Dallas City Council member Chris Luna — who proposed placing the Dallas Park and Recreation Department under the city manager’s direction during a Charter Review Commission (CRC) meeting on March 4.
“The current way only continues an inequitable Dallas that serves wealthy areas and fails to address impoverished areas of Dallas,” he wrote in his proposed amendment. “The City of Dallas has a racial equity plan that the park board doesn’t even recognize. Lastly, it only keeps the city park & recreation department open for private agendas, for gentrification plans to displace minority communities.”
Alexander was among more than 15 people who spoke about the proposed amendment at the meeting. With many members of the CRC in opposition, the body unanimously rejected it.
He was also scheduled to speak in favor of appointing Tolbert as interim city manager at a meeting in February but did not appear. Next Generation Action Network was one of several organizations whose logos appeared on promotional material supporting her appointment. The others were the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, United Black Contractors, South Dallas/Fair Park Faith Coalition, and NAACP Dallas.
Tolbert is slated to become interim city manager at the end of the business day on June 3, when City Manager T.C. Broadnax, one of three finalists for the same position in Austin — is expected to depart. The Dallas City Council’s rush to name an interim city manager has been criticized by some, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Central to such criticism was whether council members coordinated Broadnax’s resignation — possibly violating the Texas Open Meetings Act — to allow him to receive a severance payout expected to exceed $423,000. The Dallas Express has filed a Texas Public Information Act request for all communications between Broadnax and council members and between council members, Mayor Eric Johnson, and Tolbert since February 1 to determine the extent to which they deliberated Broadnax’s termination and Tolbert’s appointment in private.
