Dallas mayor calls City Hall debate ‘silly games,’ defends review of options

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson pushed back Sunday against friction over City Hall’s future as “silly games” meant to “muddy the waters,” saying exploring relocation options is routine due diligence, not a backroom scheme.

In his weekly newsletter, Johnson outlined his most detailed case yet for studying whether Dallas should move City Hall, saying speculation and sensational coverage have distorted the debate.

“Those who are more interested in muddying the waters than dealing in facts are working overtime, trying to make normal stuff sound nefarious,” Johnson said.

The mayor said the core issue is simple: the I.M. Pei-designed City Hall is aging, expensive to maintain and ill-suited for modern government operations.

“Dallas City Hall isn’t in good shape,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t meet the needs of a modern big-city government — or, really, of any modern workplace.”

He said the building’s design anchors a government district that leaves a large stretch of downtown inactive after business hours.

Why now?

Broader changes in Dallas’ urban core make it the right moment to reconsider the city’s headquarters, Johnson said, pointing to:

• Redevelopment of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.
• The rise of the city’s financial district, dubbed “Y’all Street.”
• The expected departure of AT&T’s downtown headquarters in the coming years.

“This city is at an inflection point,” Johnson wrote. “It’s the right time to ask what kind of urban core Dallas wants to have in the coming decades and then start building it.”

He said that’s why he sided with the majority of the City Council in a recent 9-6 vote directing city staff to explore options, including repairing the building or relocating City Hall.

Johnson said that is a common step to gather information before any major decision is made.

Consultants estimate fully modernizing the current building could cost more than $1 billion over 20 years. Less expensive repairs alone may not produce a more effective workplace, he said.

“You can’t consider the viability of any one option in a vacuum without knowing what your other options are,” he said.

Downtown boost

As he has before, Johnson said redeveloping the City Hall site could increase the city’s tax base and spur development in a largely quiet part of downtown.

He said Dallas has moved its city government headquarters several times in the past and cited other civic projects, such as Klyde Warren Park and the American Airlines Center, that helped reshape Uptown and Victory Park.

Johnson also took issue with news coverage highlighting “5,000 pages of emails,” saying standard city procedures have been portrayed as suspicious. Instead of “tabloid-style articles about boogeymen,” Johnson wrote, “you deserve straight talk and clarity.”

The Dallas Morning News, after reviewing the internal messages, reported last week that city officials and outside advisers discussed relocation scenarios and took a few council members on site tours that had not been publicly announced.

Related

Johnson said consultants and city officials involved in evaluating City Hall — including AECOM, CBRE, the Dallas Economic Development Corp. and the city manager’s office — are carrying out the council’s direction to review options.

Criticism of their work reflects political disagreements, he said, not flaws in the process.

Arena speculation

Opponents of a possible City Hall move have said the push is tied to finding a new home for the Dallas Mavericks.

Johnson rejected that. “The team wants a new arena. That has never been a secret,” he wrote.

He said no formal proposal for an arena at the City Hall site has been presented to the council. That echoed what Mavs CEO Rick Welts told The News in a recent interview.

“There’s no basis to characterize an entirely unknown, and as yet hypothetical, deal as a ‘giveaway,’” Johnson said.

He chided some relocation opponents who wanted an outside assessment of City Hall’s condition but are now attacking its findings.

“It is ironic that some of the same voices who most loudly demanded an outside facility condition assessment are now the loudest critics of the result,” Johnson wrote.

He called for a focus on long-term planning. “It’s time to put aside the pettiness,” he said, “and start talking about a real vision for this city’s future.”