It was clear to anyone watching the confusing explanations and obfuscation about the permitting building debacle at Dallas City Hall that the city needed someone from the outside to come and clean it up. Leaders in city management themselves presented a plan to bring a third party to evaluate the building at 7800 N. Stemmons Freeway, which the city bought in 2022 and had been renovating to turn into the new base for its building permitting department. But permitting staff vacated in April after a host of issues surfaced, including problems with fire protection systems.
The third party the city selected is a bit of a head-scratcher. It tapped the Dallas Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit that is the city’s arm for business recruitment and expansion.
The EDC itself seems to be wondering why it got pulled into this mess.
John Stephens, president of the EDC, said in a public meeting that the assignment was a “one-time project.” Fellow EDC board member Jimmy Tran said he hoped it wouldn’t set a precedent for the type of work expected from the group, according to reporting by our colleague Everton Bailey Jr.
The recent hiring of Linda McMahon as chief executive officer of the EDC played a role in City Hall’s selection of the group. McMahon is the outgoing president and CEO of The Real Estate Council. In a memo, city staff said McMahon’s expertise in commercial real estate development made the EDC “a natural partner” for the city in figuring out a plan for the Stemmons building.
McMahon is a competent and respected leader in the Dallas development community, and she has been a critic of systemic city delays in issuing permits for residential and commercial construction. Her involvement in evaluating the Stemmons building would bring credibility to any plan to resolve the problems with that structure.
More than anything, the hiring of the EDC to develop a plan and a budget for fixing the Stemmons building is recognition that a plan by city staff would have no legitimacy. City Hall needs someone trustworthy to look over its shoulder and review its work.
The city is asking the EDC to develop a punch list of items that need to be addressed in the building, though the city is already working on its own list. The agreement also authorizes the EDC to hire its own experts to inspect the building “[t]o the extent not adequately addressed by the City-procured and City-produced reports and evaluations.”
A city document indicates that the EDC’s job is strictly to give recommendations about the Stemmons building. But that is not enough. The city auditor, at the council’s request, is looking into the purchase of the building and the moving of employees in and out of the structure.
City staff’s contradictory messages, the lack of due diligence, the passing of the buck — they suggest a profound cultural problem. The City Council needs to get to the root of that. The Stemmons building is not the main problem that needs fixing.
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