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Kimberly Bizor Tolbert named next Dallas city manager

Kimberly Tolbert, city manager finalist, talks about her experience during a meet and greet Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, at Dallas City Hall.
Yfat Yossifor
/
KERA
Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has served as Dallas' interim city manager since last year. The Dallas City Council voted to offer her the full time position after a long — and chaotic — search process.

Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, who has served as interim Dallas city manager since last year, was offered the role permanently. The Dallas City Council voted 13-2 on the appointment during Wednesday’s meeting.

Tolbert will earn a salary of $450,000, according to the motion voted on by city officials.

She thanked her staff, city volunteers and her family for supporting her throughout her life and the search process.

“I believe that we will be a model for global excellence in how we continue to innovate…and continue our focus on targeted economic growth,” Tolbert said after the council’s vote. “We will be responsive, accountable, open and honest and rebuild trust in this community.”

Council members lauded Tolbert — who has served in multiple roles in several North Texas governmental agencies over decades — during the meeting.

“I intentionally went into this, knowing what we all knew,” District 3 Council Member Zarin Gracey said. “I wanted to make sure that not only were we getting the best, that we already had the best.”

Carolyn King Arnold represents District 4 on the city council. She said she wanted to avoid a national search at the start — and opt to offer Tolbert the job last year.

“This has been a journey,” Arnold said. “I believe that we wasted a lot of time, we should have supported and hired Ms. Kimberly Tolbert last June.”

But not all council members agreed with naming Tolbert as the city’s top executive. District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn and District 14 Council Member Paul Ridley were the only officials to vote against offering Tolbert the job.

“When I think about the decision of hiring a city manager, I see department after department that is in need of significant reform, modernization and efficiency,” Mendelsohn said during the meeting. “I wonder why small projects, like digital kiosks and city branding, are prioritized over our city’s most urgent needs.”

Mendelsohn said Dallas is a city with “extraordinary promise” but said changes in executive management was needed to bring that promise to fruition.

Other elected officials had different concerns.

“I can’t in good conditions hold my thoughts and concerns about the contract that the council has negotiated with the city manager,” Ridley said during the meeting.

Ridley said he wasn’t comfortable with what he called a “golden parachute” in the contract, if the city manager is fired for any reason.

That includes a two-year salary pay out, according to Ridley, who referenced backlash against paying out similar funds when former Dallas and current Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax left the city last year.

The cost would be around $900,000.

The decision comes after a contentious, chaotic and confusing search process that included almost 50 other applicants being kept from elected officials until a committee meeting last year and some finalists ultimately dropping out of the running. The process was also scrutinized by other city council members who voiced concerns over a lack of transparency.

When previously asked about his colleagues concerns, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins, who chairs the city’s Ad Hoc Committee on Administrative Affairs and oversaw the search process, told KERA he didn’t “know exactly what you mean.”

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said during Wednesday’s meeting that the process was conducted the right way — and said it was “unfairly” scrutinized.

“What y’all need to hear from the mayor is what I believe to be the truth,” Johnson said. “This process, as criticized as it might have been, yielded the best candidate for this position and her name is Kimberly Bizor Tolbert.”

Tolbert was one of three candidates that ultimately made the list for city manager along with Fort Worth Assistant City Manager William Johnson and Sacramento Assistant City Manager Mario Lara.

Now, Tolbert will have to focus on navigating the city through financial hurdlers — like the grossly underfunded public safety pension system — and new controversial voter-led policies passed on election day.

Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.

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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.