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Dallas, TX
Dallas’ new city manager is already set up for failure
HELP WANTED. New city manager for Dallas, Texas.
The job: Administer a $5 billion budget. Guide more than 13,000 employees. Ensure streets and parks are built and maintained, drinking water is clean, garbage is collected, public libraries are open, neighborhoods are thriving, building permits are issued, fires are put out and residents stay safe.
Exciting challenges: Steer the city through a $4 billion pension shortfall, a contentious land use plan and the redevelopment of a massive convention center downtown.
Your board of directors: 14 City Council members with different priorities and personalities, led by a mayor who is often absent and struggles to get along when present.
Personal requirements: A backbone of steel and skin of leather.
Expectations: Competence, trustworthiness and, most important, public accountability standards.
Wait. Actually, scratch that last part. Sure, this is a CEO-level job with astronomical expectations. But here in Dallas, for a job that could actually make or break the city, accountability is optional.
Candidates for Dallas city manager might ask the Dallas City Council: What are your priorities for me? How will you measure my success?
They’ll get 15 different answers.
That’s because the council, the city’s elected board of directors, has failed in its fundamental duty to set public, measurable goals for the city manager.
That should be shocking, because no serious company would seek a new top executive without clear metrics for success and agreed-upon priorities for how that person should spend his or her time.
If this City Council doesn’t take up the difficult political work of negotiating and shaping a handful of priorities for its next city manager, it will set itself up for another battle of wills like the one it had with former City Manager T.C. Broadnax.
Broadnax benefited greatly from the council’s failure to set performance goals. Much of his tenure in Dallas was a game of divide and conquer, and he played it well.
We learned just how bad things were when we began looking into how the council had measured the prior city manager’s work over the years.
We wanted to know how Broadnax had performed according to the sort of evaluations high-level executives are accustomed to. We were curious how he had measured up to the goals that were set for him and that he set for himself. We wanted to see the feedback that he might have gotten in a performance review of the type that most of us have experienced. So we asked for the paperwork.
Dear reader, there wasn’t any.
No evaluation forms. No written reports of goals or accomplishments. No scores or ratings.
What the city offered was a 2022 memo explaining how the city manager’s performance evaluation usually goes. The city manager is invited to prepare a report of accomplishments and identify goals for the coming year. A consultant interviews council members individually and summarizes their assessments in a closed session with the full council.
Council members we interviewed said their one-on-one sessions with the consultant focused on general feedback rather than data-driven criteria.
This is what accountability looks like for the person with the top job at City Hall. Never mind that city employees down the ladder have evaluation plans.
In fact, the timing of the city manager’s verbal performance review jumped around year to year. The consultant urged a council committee two years ago to establish a time frame so that the council wouldn’t be rushed and so that the city manager could meaningfully prepare.
As far as we know, that didn’t happen. In fact, Broadnax didn’t even have a performance evaluation in 2023, his last full year in Dallas.
Vague and broad
Is it any wonder that Broadnax chafed at questions from reporters and from his own bosses about his performance? He could move the goal posts as he pleased because the council didn’t put anything on paper about its own expectations.
Outsiders searching the internet for clues about Dallas’ priorities might stumble upon Broadnax’s 29-point “100-day plan” after he quieted an attempt to oust him in 2022, or a webpage titled “2023 City Manager’s Top 25 Goals,” or the Dallas 365 dashboard that “tracks our progress on 35 performance measures.” But council members say those measures are outdated.
Where goals were tracked, they were usually marked incomplete. More often, goals had vague targets. It will surprise residents who are deeply unhappy with city services that in the Dallas 365 dashboard the city is almost entirely “on target.” (The exception, public safety, is listed as “caution” even though the mayor touts this as Dallas’ greatest success.)
The problem, again, is that Dallas isn’t really measuring its city manager against clear and important strategic priorities. Many of the listed city goals are focused on department-level work, not broad strategic goals appropriate to a chief executive. And there are so many of them, they amount to microtargets for lower-level problems.
If everything is important, nothing is.
The good news is that this transition period between city managers gives council members time to commit to a set of priorities and metrics. And they only have to look to the Dallas Independent School District for a template on how to do it right.
A better way
The school district oversees 139,000 students, 20,000 employees and a budget of $1.9 billion.
The DISD superintendent has an enormous challenge in educating a population of low-income students. She must manage a massive public debt and construction program. But she has guideposts for what success looks like, and that comes through her board of directors.
Here’s how DISD does it.
First, the board of trustees establishes a set of goals for itself focused on student outcomes. There are only five goals, but they are tangible and meaningful and have deadlines attached. One is that 56% of third graders meet or exceed state standards for math by June 2025. Another is that 67% of graduates are college, career or military ready by the same year.
Each goal has its own set of three to five progress measures, or benchmarks, that let the school board know whether it’s moving in the right direction and at the right pace, such as whether student achievement in district math and reading tests reaches certain levels by the middle of the school year.
The board also agrees on a set of “constraints.” These are guardrails to ensure Dallas ISD doesn’t sacrifice other important criteria, such as student happiness, in pursuit of its academic targets. For example, 68% of students must respond positively to campus climate surveys by the spring.
All of these goals and metrics are documented on the district’s website and in board policy so that they are easy to find. They are crafted with the superintendent and set the foundation of her evaluation form.
“When you don’t do that work, you just jump from fire to fire,” said school board President Joe Carreón, who explained that the board has a formal committee whose only job is to refine the superintendent’s annual evaluation criteria. The full board votes on the final scoring rubric.
The evaluations of school administrators and teachers are confidential under state law, but the annual appraisal instrument that DISD’s board uses to grade Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde is public.
Sixty percent of her grade hinges on the student outcome goals. The rest of her score is determined by her performance on financial management, minding the “constraints” and stakeholder satisfaction. The school board’s perception of the superintendent accounts for only 4 of 100 possible points.
“We’ve removed ourselves emotionally and personally from it,” Carreón said. “It’s just numbers.”
A contrast of contracts
Elizalde’s contract lays out how big a raise she’s eligible for based on her evaluation score. She can also earn up to $100,000 in bonuses for meeting certain academic targets.
Her contract is 28 pages, plus an amendment. Broadnax’s contract was five pages, with zero mentions of evaluation scores and zero indication of what would constitute a satisfactory performance.
We asked experts in public administration about goal-setting. They reinforced what DISD is preaching.
“If people have too many goals, our brains can’t manage that. Our brains are not multitaskers,” said Deborah Kerr, professor of the practice emerita at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. She specializes in performance management and measurement.
It’s easy, when you’re constantly marshaling reams of statistics and reports and presentations, to fall into what scholars call the knowing-doing gap. That’s when you perceive talking about a problem as taking action, making it look like you’re doing something when you’re not, Kerr said.
This has been a recurring trap for Dallas city leaders. How many studies does it take to change a light bulb at City Hall?
This city needs direction, and it’s the council’s duty to provide it.
Leading the leaders
Don’t look to the mayor of Dallas for leadership. Council members went off-site Aug. 9 for a retreat to discuss “near-term priorities” and “long-term visioning,” according to a meeting agenda. Mayor Eric Johnson, their presiding officer, didn’t attend. His spokesman didn’t respond to emails.
That’s not unexpected. Dallas is in a leadership crisis because we are in a leadership vacuum. But such vacuums aren’t accidents. They arise from a failure of vision. We cannot have a leader without a destination. And neither the mayor nor the council has given the city a destination.
Until Dallas City Hall has real strategic goals for its city manager, it doesn’t have any way to hold the leader responsible for leading. There is no place to go and, inevitably, no accountability for not getting there.
Before it hires our next city manager, the City Council has to take deep stock of itself and decide what the major strategic priorities should be for that leader and how it will measure success and create accountability. How will it reward excellence? How will it punish failure?
Our city needs the council to achieve consensus and draw a map for the next city manager, with mileposts and timelines.
Because no matter how talented or enthusiastic, that person can’t build or sustain a great city on a foundation of bureaucratese and bromides.
Part of our Leading Dallas series, this editorial explores how the City Council can get better results by revamping the performance review of the city manager.
We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com
Sunday was another frustrating game for Dallas Cowboys fans who had to watch the secondary miss one tackle after another against the New York Giants.
In addition to the poor angles and inability to wrap up, the defensive backs couldn’t consistently stop an aerial attack that was without their top two players. That sums up the season for the Dallas defense, which is why Matt Eberflus being relieved of his duties feels like a foregone conclusion.
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From there, the question turns to who will replace Eberflus. While there’s no shortage of options available, here’s a look at some of the top candidates if Dallas made fixing the secondary their primary goal.
Daniel Bullocks, DB Coach/Pass Game Specialist, San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers have one of the most impressive coaching trees. While Robert Saleh didn’t excel as a head coach, he returned to his role as defensive coordinator and continued to excel. They’ve also seen DeMeco Ryans do an extraordinary job in Houston as a head coach, with a staff loaded with former 49ers assistants.
That’s why looking at their staff is a wise move. One name to consider is Daniel Bullocks, who has been an assistant with San Francisco since 2017. He currently serves as the safeties coach and pass game specialist. While they haven’t been elite this year, his unit is usually among the best in the NFL.
Aubrey Pleasant, Assistant Head Coach/Pass Game Coordinator, Los Angeles Rams
Aubrey Pleasant has been a name to watch for years, even interviewing for multiple defensive coordinator vacancies. He’s been with the Los Angeles Rams since 2023, and was promoted to assistant head coach in 2024.
Cory Undlin, Pass Game Coordinator, Houston Texans
DeMeco Ryans was mentioned earlier as a great coach to come out of San Francisco. One assistant he brought along with him is Cory Undlin, who has been a pass game specialist for the 49ers (2021-2022) and now the Houston Texans (2023-present).
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Houston has a vicious defense led by hard-hitting safeties and physical cornerbacks. Undlin deserves credit for helping develop their young talent and could help Dallas get back on track in the secondary.
Al Harris, Pass Game Coordinator/DB Coach, Chicago Bears
Everyone who follows the Cowboys knows, and loves, Al Harris. He was part of Dan Quinn’s defensive staff and was credited for developing ballhawks such as Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland.
Harris left this offseason and while the Cowboys fell apart, the Chicago Bears began to generate turnovers at a high rate. We’ve seen enough to know Harris should have been kept.
Raheem Morris, Head Coach, Atlanta Falcons
Raheem Morris was fired after two seasons as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad coach. Morris remains one of the more well-respected defensive minds in the NFL, even winning the Super Bowl in 2021 as the Rams’ defensive coordinator. That was his second Super Bowl ring, as Morris earned one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following the 2002 season. That year, he was a defensive quality control coach for Jon Gruden.
Morris excels at coaching defensive backs and brings extensive experience to the table. He may be exactly the kind of hire Jerry Jones would feel comfortable making, and one Cowboys fans could believe in.
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The Dallas Cowboys wrapped up their 2025 season on Sunday and will now turn all of their attention to offseason work in the name of not finding themselves out of the playoffs this time next year. Obviously that is much easier said than done.
This upcoming offseason is one of the most important and critical in recent Cowboys history as they have multiple first-round draft picks for the first time since 2008. With the Cowboys now officially done for the season, we know where they will be picking come the 2026 NFL Draft.
Updated 2026 NFL Draft order
Here are the first 12 picks of the draft, through the Cowboys selection at number 12 overall, courtesy of Tankathon.
If all of this sounds familiar it is because it is… the Cowboys held the 12th overall pick last year and used it to select Tyler Booker. They also used it in 2021 to select Micah Parsons, more on him in a moment, although they picked it up after trading back two spots. For what it’s worth the Detroit Lions held the pick in consecutive seasons beginning the year after and landed Jameson Williams and Jahmyr Gibbs, so hopefully that type of success is what the Cowboys find.
While we know where the Cowboys are picking, it is still unknown exactly where their other first-round pick will land. Dallas holds Green Bay’s selection in the 2026 NFL Draft and the Packers are currently set to visit the Chicago Bears in the Wild Card Round which means we are all rooting for Chicago to take care of business.
Updated rundown of Cowboys Draft Picks
Keep in mind that Dallas has also already dealt away 2026 draft capital as well.
The Cowboys are projected to receive a couple of compensatory picks as well, potentially in the fifth-round, but those are not fully known at this time.
It seems like a match made in urban planning heaven. Most metro areas have an abundance of underperforming retail property, such as half-vacant shopping centers, and a shortage of housing that average Texans can afford. Turn that retail into housing, and voila, two problems solved at once.
But no complicated problem has such an easy fix. The North Texas growth juggernaut means that burgeoning exurbs need additional retail space even as dilapidated strip centers plague core cities and older suburbs. Some homeowners may fear and fight plans for new, higher-density housing near them, even when it replaces obsolete shopping centers.
Yet reinvigorating or repurposing underused commercial property can improve a neighborhood’s quality of life while also adding value to a city’s property tax base. That new revenue is especially important because state lawmakers have been keen to limit homeowners’ property taxes. Responsible city leaders need to grow other parts of the tax base just to keep up with the increasing cost of providing public services and maintaining aging infrastructure.
What North Texas needs is a variety of tactics to address these related issues: streamlined rezoning, public incentives to redevelop infrastructure, increased public education about budget issues, and a greater tolerance for change. Fading retail centers can be revitalized in ways that preserve their original use or transform them into something totally different, such as housing. It just takes determination, money and imagination.
Retail abundance
Dallas-Fort Worth has about 200 million square feet of retail space, and it’s about 95% to 97% occupied, said Steve Zimmerman, managing director of the brokerage group at The Retail Connection. Colliers, a real estate services and investment management firm, reported in August that retail rents here have been rising about 4% annually. Those statistics suggest that retail space isn’t severely overbuilt.
But not all retail centers are full of high-performing, high-value businesses. Aging strip centers tend to attract vape shops, nail salons, pay-day lenders, check-cashers, doughnut shops and vacancies; their capacious parking lots remain mostly empty. Those underutilized properties don’t enhance nearby neighborhoods or the tax base as much as busy, attractive retail centers would.
Last year, the Texas Legislature created a new tool to help redevelop commercial properties. Known as Senate Bill 840, the law forces large cities in urban counties to allow multifamily and mixed-use residential development on commercial, office, warehouse or retail property without a zoning change.
SB 840 is meant to encourage developers to transform bleak, underperforming retail spaces into badly needed housing. For example, it might have prevented the fight over Pepper Square in Far North Dallas.
That shopping center languished while the developer and nearby residents sparred in a bitter and protracted rezoning dispute. It is a prime example of how local government processes and NIMBYism make it hard to redevelop in Dallas.
But implementing the new law has been more complicated than we’d hoped. For starters, some North Texas suburbs reworked their zoning code to try to sidestep the new rules.
Irving, for example, set an eight-story minimum height requirement for new multifamily or mixed-use residential development — much taller than what’s typical in the area. Frisco pulled a different trick. Senate Bill 840 exempts industrial areas, so Frisco changed its zoning code to permit heavy industry in commercial zones.
Market conditions also may be slowing commercial-to-residential redevelopment. Our newsroom colleague, Nick Wooten, reported in November that there is a temporary over-supply of apartments in Dallas, fueled by a construction boom and a stream of remote workers in the post-COVID years.
(Unfortunately, that oversupply hasn’t made rent much cheaper. Even if a lease is relatively inexpensive, there are plenty of added costs, like electricity and Wi-Fi. Plus, building managers often nickel-and-dime residents with mandatory fees for trash collection, parking lot security gates, parcel lockers, pets and on and on.)
The temporary situation doesn’t erase the region’s long-term shortage of lower-cost homes. We need SB 840 to work because we need a larger, more diverse stock of housing, including multifamily and townhomes, across the entire region. With a more generous supply of all types of homes, both rental and owned, housing costs should eventually decline.
More options for faded retail
Senate Bill 840 is only one strategy for remaking forlorn retail properties into something more useful and valuable. Some creative owners, managers and public officials have found ways to maintain a property’s retail orientation while adding unique experiences and features.
Carrollton updated design standards and established a “Retail Rehabilitation Performance Grant Program” to encourage property owners to reinvest in underutilized retail centers. One notable success: Carrollton Town Center, where occupancy had dipped to 20% more than a decade ago, according to a story in PM Magazine. Now it is a bustling, walkable, Asian-focused retail and restaurant destination.
Hillcrest Village in Far North Dallas is part of an entire block of aging retail along Arapaho Road. A public-private partnership transformed a parking lot into the “Hillcrest Village Green,” a 1.5-acre expanse of turf with a playground at one end. Restaurants with oversize patios overlook the city-owned greenspace.
Local developer Monte Anderson, a champion of “incremental redevelopment,” is remaking the Wheatland Plaza shopping center in Duncanville. He’s reworking interior spaces and reclaiming some of the parking lot for food trucks, new landscaping, and eventually, a dozen for-sale townhomes built with Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity.
Cities can speed retail redevelopment with small and large incentive programs. Retail properties typically don’t have the utility infrastructure needed for housing; grants and revolving, low-interest loan funds can help residential developers keep costs down so their end product is more affordable. Elected officials need to help constituents understand why most cities need denser, higher-value redevelopment to keep tax rates lower.
D-FW has matured into a metropolis with a vibrant, diversified economy. To accommodate population growth, cities can’t ignore languishing commercial property, or allow only one type of new housing, or permit property tax bases to stagnate. By tackling all three issues at once, they can lay the foundation for a more prosperous future.
We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here.
If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com
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