Hello, friend,

As Kimberly Bizor Tolbert likes to say, she came to this city as a budding rose from Tyler over three decades ago.

Dallas allowed her to bloom.

On Wednesday, with her mother, two sisters, son, godmother and many other friends and supporters looking on in the City Council Chambers, Tolbert was named the first Black female Dallas city manager.

The city manager is a CEO overseeing a $5 billion budget and answering to 1.3 million shareholders. Those shareholders, the people of Dallas, are represented by a mayor and 14 City Council members with often divergent priorities — and personalities.

In more than eight months as interim city manager, Tolbert showed she has the skills and the savvy to solve complex problems with the support of her City Council members. She delivered on the budget, on the long-struggling police and fire pension, on permitting, and on community engagement generally.

There is no question she cares deeply about Dallas. It was her late grandfather, she said on Wednesday, who challenged her not to complain, but to “be the change that I was seeking to build a better community for people who otherwise did not have a voice.”

She also delivered a message to her 13,000-plus employees.

“We will be responsive, accountable, open and honest,” she said, “and rebuild trust within this community.”

It was a subtle but important nod to the hard work ahead if Tolbert is to allow Dallas to bloom.

Table of Contents

• 📰 Highlights From Last Week’s Meetings

• 📝 Memos of Interest

• 🤝 Meetings of Interest: Jan. 27 - 31

  • Tuesday, January 28

    • Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee

    • DART Board

    • Government Performance and Financial Management Committee

• 🗳️ Tracking May 2025 City Council Candidates

  • 🗣️ Quote of Interest

📰 Highlights From Last Week’s Meetings

• City Council members want to move faster to add more bike lanes across the city (they certainly can’t move much slower), NBC 5 reports. An updated bike plan for Dallas is headed to City Council for a vote in coming months.

• City Council members on Wednesday:

  • Approved Item 6 authorizing city attorneys to spend another $100,000 for outside legal services in City Hall’s ongoing trademark lawsuit against Triple D Gear.

  • Approved Item 25, acceptance of a $2 million federal grant for Downtown planning studies on mobility, connectivity, and economic development tied to streetcar expansion, Interstates 345 and 30 reconstruction, high-speed rail, the new convention center and more. More details here.

  • Approved Item 37 to amend the City’s state legislative agenda to include advocating for “limited law enforcement capabilities” for the Dallas Office of Inspector General. More information here.
    

• Regional Transportation Council members signed off on spending up to $1 million to fight potential litigation from Hunt Realty Investments over a proposed high-speed rail line that would cut through Downtown, WFAA reports.

📝 Memos of Interest

• Dallas Love Field served nearly 18 million passengers in 2024 and earned several national awards for operations, projects, and services, according to the Dallas Airport System 2024 Annual Report.

• Here’s the complete City Manager memo packet for Friday, January 24, 2025.

🤝 Meetings of Interest: Jan. 27 - 31

Tuesday, January 28

Special Called City Council Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee, 9 a.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

• City officials, in partnership with Housing Forward, are seeking a little over $5 million in remaining federal pandemic relief funds to continue fueling a years-long reduction in homelessness. City Council members are expected to vote on the funding allocations later this year.

• Downtown’s The Stewpot, a key homelessness service organization, acquired the South Dallas CitySquare facility last year for $7.5 million. This briefing highlights Stewpot’s ongoing transition to the former CitySquare campus.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Committee-of-the-Whole (1 p.m.) and Board of Directors (6 p.m.), DART HQ, 1401 Pacific Ave., Watch live here

• Board members will consider increasing the required vote threshold from a simple majority to two-thirds of the board to add transit services in any DART member city.

Special Called City Council Government Performance and Financial Management Committee, 1 p.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.

• This meeting includes a briefing on how the City has spent — and plans to spend — millions of dollars in federal pandemic relief dollars. Briefing materials are not yet available.

• A comprehensive analysis “will identify opportunities to optimize the use of Dallas City Hall, address infrastructure needs, and align space planning efforts with the City’s operational goals,” according to this memo. The final report on the 47-year-old building is sure to be a doozy.

🗳️ Tracking May 2025 City Council Candidates

Voters across Dallas will elect at least four new City Council members this May. Council Members Carolyn King Arnold*, Omar Narvaez, and Tennell Atkins are term-limited and cannot run again, according to the City Charter. Council Member Jaynie Schultz has said she will not seek a third term.

The candidate filing period opened on January 15 and runs through February 14. Explore the candidates who have been certified to appear on the ballot so far at the link below. I’ll be updating the list regularly.

*Council member Arnold filed for re-election despite a recent voter-approved Charter amendment that bars her from running for City Council after she completes her current term. On Friday, the City Secretary’s office formally ruled her ineligible.

🗣️ Quote of Interest

Did I miss anything? Do you have any questions? Just want to talk about meetings and memos and other fun stuff? Hit me up.