Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson removed two of his colleagues from council committee leadership positions. Some on the council say he’s done this before without any notice — and likened the move to “bully tactics.”
Both District 7 Council Member Adam Bazaldua and District 11 Council Member Jaynie Schultz will no longer chair their assigned committees.
In a recent memo announcing the switch, Johnson said in the last year the council has “united…to address the basic needs of the people of Dallas.”
“This collective unity has been instrumental in achieving significant progress and improvements for our city’s residents,” Johnson continued in the memo. “Accordingly, I hereby announce the following medications in committee assignments, all of which are effective immediately.”
KERA reached out to the city for comment into the specific reasons Bazaldua and Schultz were removed from their positions. A city spokesperson told KERA the request had been forwarded to Johnson’s office.
Schultz, who previously chaired the Workforce, Education and Equity Committee, will now serve as the vice chair of the committee. District 4 Council Member Carolyn King Arnold is now the chair — who Schultz said she has great respect for.
“I was very surprised,” Schultz told KERA. “The mayor has not spoken to any of us about it, and of course I am deeply disappointed because that chairmanship was something I valued and treasured every minute of the work.”
The Quality of Life, Arts and Culture Committee, which was chaired by Bazaldua, has two new leaders. District 14 Council Member Paul Ridley is now the chair of the committee — and District 5 Council Member Jamie Resendez will serve as vice chair.
Bazaldua, who is still a member of the committee, has faced public scrutiny for briefings he added to agendas. Those include from advocates and opponents of water fluoridation — and an ongoing debate over horse-drawn carriages in Dallas.
On Friday, Bazaldua took to social media to voice his outrage over Johnson’s announcement.
“Our weak Mayor is also a petty one! Today, [Johnson] removed me as Quality of Life Chair, as he has done to several other colleagues when his throwing a tantrum,” Bazaldua wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“He believes in bully tactics because he doesn’t know what real leadership is, just like the president he supports or the failing party he recently joined.”
Johnson identified as a Democrat for many years, including when he served as state representative. Months after he was reelected in 2023, Johnson announced his switch to the Republican Party.
In May, Johnson said he voted for former President Donald Trump in the 2024 primary elections, according to reporting by The Dallas Morning News.
Confrontation
While the motivations remain unclear, the announcement comes after an apparent confrontation between Bazaldua and Johnson at an early June council meeting. The body was slated to discuss a resolution condemning the controversial Texas immigration law Senate Bill 4 (SB4).
The bill essentially empowers law enforcement officers across Texas to detain those they suspect of being in the country without proper immigration documents. The law has been in legal limbo since being signed into law earlier this year.
Bazaldua introduced the resolution condemning the action and its “potential negative impact on public safety and community relations.”
But, before the item could be discussed, Johnson told the council it would be breaking for lunch before hearing residents who had shown up to speak in favor of the resolution. They had been waiting for hours for the item to come up.
Bazaldua, who was elected deputy mayor pro tem earlier in the meeting, moved to object formally to Johnson’s announcement. “Well, you don’t get to,” Johnson replied.
“I am just asking that we take up an item so that we hear from the public that is sitting here,” Bazaldua said.
“They’re going to get to sit there for 51 more minutes,” Johnson told Bazaldua before continuing with the meeting. When it was time to break, Bazaldua tried to get the mayor’s attention around the horseshoe.
Johnson recessed the meeting and could be seen walking over to Bazaldua’s seat in council chambers.
Bazaldua’s amendment goes directly against the Republican-led effort for SB4 to remain on the books as written. GOP advocates say the law is meant to crack down on illegal border crossings.
But critics have called the immigration law racist and unconstitutional. Dallas residents have called on elected officials to take a stand against the law.
Schultz, who has chaired the Workforce, Education and Equity Committee for years, told KERA she really didn’t know why she had been removed from her role. And she said she hadn’t spoken to the mayor in quite some time.
“About anything,” Schultz said. “Definitely out of the blue, no communication about this or frustration or anything in anyway.”
Schultz also said she wasn’t aware of how Johnson goes about forming committees — and changing them.
“To my knowledge, in my three years as a chair, the mayor has not had a strategic conversation around committee work,” Schultz said.
A pattern?
Johnson’s been surprising council members with committee shake-ups for years, according to media reports.
In 2020, Johnson formed two separate committees to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In March of that year, D Magazine reported that District 9 Council Member Paula Blackmon had signed a five-signature memo that sought to start discussion of an eviction moratorium with the full council.
“Johnson responded two days later with his own memo, stating that he would refer the evictions proposal to one of two COVID-19 ad hoc committees he’d created,” Peter Simek wrote in the June 2020 article. “In the memo, Johnson also announced that he would eliminate two of the COVID-19 ad hoc committee co-chairs.”
Blackmon and District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn both lost their positions as committee co-chairs. D Magazine reported at the time that Mendelsohn “wasn’t sure why she was removed” from the role.
Just months later, longtime Dallas journalist — and author of The Accommodation — Jim Schutze reported that Blackmon had been “hereby removed” from the city’s ad hoc committee on legislative affairs.
In the article, Schutze references another COVID-19 measure Blackmon was involved with that could have led to the mayor removing her from leadership positions on committees. That measure would “enact a mayoral…disaster declaration” on top of Dallas County’s declaration.
“Blackmon supported Johnson’s motion, but in so doing she seems to have committed two cardinal transgressions. First, she dared to offer an amendment,” Schutze wrote.
Blackmon’s amended motion capped how long the declaration was in effect and won by an 8-7 vote.
According to the article, Johnson's then-chief of staff did not return Schutze's calls about why Blackmon had been removed from yet another committee.
District 1 Council Member Chad West, who has been an outspoken advocate for housing initiatives in Dallas since being elected, served as chair of the city’s Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee in 2020.
By 2021, he was removed from the committee completely.
Before being inaugurated for a second term last year, tension surrounded the ceremony planning process.
Before the event, The Dallas Morning News editorial board claimed that among the planning issues, “what’s really frustrating City Council members is the issue of guests.”
Johnson had foregone an inauguration tradition that allowed elected officials to bring a guest on stage for the ceremony. Johnson’s office told The News that it was a “logistical decision.”
Blackmon, Bazaldua and District 14 Council Member Gay Donnell Willis were all named in the article as confirming their frustration over the change.
“Bazaldua got the news after mentioning that he had taken his young daughter to NorthPark Center to get a special dress. Blackmon had planned to bring her son on stage,” the article said.
Shortly after reelection, Johnson reassigned some of the committees.
Blackmon, who had chaired the city’s committee focused on the environment, was replaced by District 10 Council Member Kathy Stewart. Stewart was elected to her first term a few months before Johnson’s announcement.
Willis chaired the Ad Hoc Committee on Administrative Affairs. A few months after the council was inaugurated, she also was removed from her position on the committee.
In comparison, former District 10 Council Member Adam McGough chaired the Public Safety Committee for three years under Johnson before leaving office due to term limits.
Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins has chaired the city’s economic development committee since 2020. But Atkins was replaced as chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Legislative Affairs in July 2023 and replaced with Mendelsohn.
"I expect this committee’s work to commence immediately and urge its members to take advantage of any available opportunities to advocate fervently for the passage of this property tax relief bill, which could include providing public testimony at the Texas State Capitol," Johnson said in his memo announcing the change.
In August, Johnson and Mendelsohn both started advocated for lowering property taxes in the city.
'Par for the course'
Johnson’s relationships with council members and other city officials can be tense. His relationship with former City Manager T.C. Broadnax was cited as the reason a majority of council suggested Broadnax resign.
After he did, Johnson publicized his opposition to paying Broadnax over $400,000 in severance — as was determined by Broadnax’s contract with the city.
On social media, Bazaldua alluded to Johnson reassigning council committees as retaliation on social media. But, Schultz said it doesn’t really change the dynamic of the council.
“Its par for the course that there are words and then there are actions,” Schultz said. “That said…the people who will bear the brunt of this decision is the staff.”
Schultz said the staff must constantly “pivot to the mayor’s political whims.”
It’s unclear if more committee reorganizations could be on the horizon. The council faces multiple financial and operational hurdles including balancing the budget, remedying billions in unfunded pension obligations — and finalizing the charter review proposals to send to Dallas voters.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
