Out of 50 candidates vying to be Dallas' next city manager, four are now semifinalists, according to a report sent to the mayor and city council. The city is slated to decide and offer one of the candidates the job in early 2025.
The semifinalists are William Johnson, an assistant city manager in Fort Worth; Grand Rapids, Michigan, City Manager Mark Washington; Zachary Williams, a county chief operating officer in Georgia; and Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Dallas’ interim city manager.
Members of the city’s Ad Hoc Committee on Administrative Affairs will “separately and independently select finalists” from the list of candidates at the end of November, according to the report from Baker Tilly, the firm hired to conduct the search.
The committee is tentatively slated to finalize its list of finalists in mid-December and then move on to the in-person interview process.
Each semi-finalist has over twenty years of public administration experience and have worked in similar capacities in their respective cities, according to their resumes. Washington worked in Fort Worth and Austin prior to becoming Grand Rapids’ city manager.
Williams has predominately worked in Georgia at the county level. That includes being the county manager in Fulton County and chief operating officer in DeKalb County.
Before working in Fort Worth, Johnson was Baltimore’s transportation director and Atlanta’s deputy chief operating officer and public works commissioner.
Tolbert has spent all of her time in North Texas, according to her resume. That includes at the cities of Denton and Dallas — along with holding several positions at the North Texas Tollway Authority.
And Tolbert has been at the helm since former Dallas and current Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax resigned earlier this year, at the apparent suggestion of most of the city council.
After Broadnax left, some of the city’s top officials resigned too. That includes a deputy city manager, a chief of staff and an assistant city manager.
A few months ago, former Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia announced his resignation too — and said he would be heading to Austin to become an assistant city manager under Broadnax.
Since Broadnax’s departure in early May, the city has started to weather several significant issues. That includes figuring out how to pay for the grossly underfunded police and fire pension system and trying to comply with two new — and highly controversial — city charter amendments.
Those charter amendments will require the city to hire hundreds more police officers — and leave it vulnerable to lawsuits without the protection of governmental immunity.
Dallas’ next top executive will have to navigate the city through all of it.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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