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Dallas selects 3 finalists for city manager job
A committee interviewed three candidates for the Dallas city manager position. One of those three candidates, Kim Tolbert, has been acting as the city manager since the previous one left.
DALLAS - On Monday morning, a committee interviewed three candidates for Dallas' open city manager position.
The Candidates
- Kim Tolbert: Current interim city manager of Dallas
- William Johnson: Assistant city manager of Fort Worth
- Mario Lara: Assistant city manager for Sacramento
The Process
What We Know: On Monday, Dallas City Council quickly voted to move all three candidates from semi-finalists to finalists.
Monday's vote moved quickly after the review committee interviewed all the three candidates in executive session.
The list of finalists comes amid a contentious debate between the Dallas City Council.
Dallas City Council divided over search for new city manager
The ad-hoc committee removed one of the four previously named semi-finalists, and two new finalists have been added. However, those names haven’t been made public yet.
A few weeks ago, five candidates were being considered for the role. One was removed by the committee and another withdrew from consideration.
Dallas has been without a permanent city manager since T.C. Broadnax announced his retirement in February.
What's Next: The next step for the candidates is a meet and greet with Dallas residents next month.
"We look forward to the community, our bosses, our constituents, to be able to give their input, to be able to have them an opportunity to give feedback and recommendation on who they would like to see as our next city manager for the City of Dallas," said Councilman Jesse Moreno.
A date for the meet and greet has not been announced.
The lone finalist is expected to be announced and voted on in January.
Challenges Ahead
Why It Matters: The new city manager will enter the position at a time when there is a great deal of uncertainty about how the city government will be run.
The city manager will be tasked with hiring a new police chief and, pending any action from the courts, move forward with an aggressive police staffing requirement that could strain the city's budget.
Dallas HERO Amendments: Props S, U passed
Former and current Dallas city leaders warned that the so-called HERO amendments sound good but could have disastrous results. However, voters approved two of them anyway.
A newly-passed amendment to the city charter also allows the city to be sued for any charter requirements it is not upholding.