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Three candidates make their pitch to become the next Dallas city manager

Kimberly Tolbert, city manager finalist, talks to the public about her experience during a meet and greet Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, at Dallas City Hall.
Yfat Yossifor
/
KERA
Sacramento Assistant City Manager Mario Lara, Fort Worth Assistant City Manager William Johnson and current Dallas Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor-Tolbert are all vying to become the city's next chief executive. Dallas elected officials say they could make their decision by the end of the month.

Dallas residents got a chance to meet the three finalists vying to become their next city manager at City Hall over the weekend. The finalists answered questions and gave their best pitch as to why they’d be the right fit for the position.

The candidates are Fort Worth Assistant City Manager William Johnson, Sacramento Assistant City Manager Mario Lara and current Dallas Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor-Tolbert.

The event on Saturday started with all three candidates giving opening remarks before heading back to their separate corners of the City Hall lobby so that residents could introduce themselves.

Most discussion centered around the usual slate of city topics: public safety, road infrastructure — and how the candidates would deal with mounting financial issues.

And residents wanted to know what each candidate would do on day one at 1500 Marilla Street, if picked for the gig by the city council.

“We need a police chief, and I would immediately convene a national recruitment process to fill that role,” Johnson told the Dallas Observer’s Emma Ruby and residents gathered around.

“At the same time I would be spending time with existing command staff, assessing their qualifications, investing any of them to be part of the process, but we would absolutely do a national search," Johnson added.

Johnson said that there are “a lot of challenges” with the new Proposition U charter amendment. That was passed during the November 2024 election and requires the city to hire hundreds more police officers.

He said the biggest challenge would be to hire the required officers — and be able to train them and pay them a livable wage.

“My first day would be sharing my strategy with the city council for the recruitment of the police chief,” Tolbert said during the event. “We definitely want to be able to have someone to continue all the progress that we’ve made.”

Tolbert said the right candidate would be able to keep violent crime trending down and embrace Dallas’ diverse population.

Lara is the only candidate from outside of the Dallas Fort-Worth area — and from outside of Texas. He said he realizes he’s the “external candidate” but thinks that could work in his favor.

“I have no… alliances established, so I think I can come and reset relationships, develop relationships of trust,” Lara said. “I think as an outside candidate, it could be an asset in terms of bringing that kind of freshness and ability to reset.”

Before the informal mingling began, Lara told residents in the audience about his personal background. He grew up in Belize — and was “raised by parents who were educators.”

“From them I learned the importance of integrity, the importance of service to others and the importance of hard work,” Lara said.

If selected by the council — and if he accepts to role — Lara would become city manager at a time when Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has aligned himself with President elect Donald Trump.

Johnson, who served as a Democrat in the Texas Legislature, switched to the GOP in 2023 shortly after being reelected for a second mayoral term.

Last year, Johnson vocally supported Trump’s promise of mass deportations — and said Dallas would aid in that plan.

When KERA asked Lara later in the event if he had any concerns about working with Johnson, he said he wasn’t trying to be political when he highlighted his immigrant background.

Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins speaks before the city manager finalist meet and greet Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, at Dallas City Hall.
Yfat Yossifor
/
KERA
Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins speaks before the city manager finalist meet and greet Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, at Dallas City Hall.

“The role of the city manager is to execute the policy that is adopted by the mayor and council,” Lara said and added that he would work with Johnson and the council “amicably, respectfully, with integrity.”

The meet and greet event comes after a tense, chaotic and confusing search process. And the finalists are slightly different than those released in a mid-November 2024 report.

The current finalists changed after almost 50 other applicants were kept from council members until late last year. Elected officials at the time said they wanted to review other candidates — not just the four brought to them from the firm hired to conduct the search.

During that time, two of the original finalists withdrew their names from the running.

Getting to the three finalists has been confusing. Two factions inside City Hall have locked horns over how the process should be run.

Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins chairs the city’s Ad Hoc Committee on Administrative Affairs and has overseen the search process. Some other city council members have voiced concerns over a lack of transparency during the search.

When asked for comment about his colleagues concerns, Atkins told KERA “I don’t know exactly what you mean.”

He stressed that his committee was leading the search and that “there is a process and procedure that we have to follow.” Atkins said overall, he thinks that process has been running smoothly for the most part.

“There may be some hiccups and everybody has a right to…agree or disagree,” Atkins said. “But I think we’re doing great.”

Atkins said the council could pick a candidate as soon as the end of the month. Elected officials are slated to discuss the finalists — behind closed doors — during Wednesday's council meeting.

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.

Nathan Collins is the Dallas Accountability Reporter for KERA. Collins joined the station after receiving his master’s degree in Investigative Journalism from Arizona State University. Prior to becoming a journalist, he was a professional musician.