Mayor Eric Johnson flubs Dallas council inauguration

The Dallas City Council’s inauguration on Tuesday should be a chance to celebrate local government coming together. Instead, it is turning into a point of division.

Based on our reporting, Mayor Eric Johnson has decided to undo a longstanding tradition of permitting one guest to join each council member onstage. It might sound like a small thing, but to council members who have promised children or partners or other loved ones that they would be by their side during the swearing in, it’s a big deal.

Beyond that, the mayor has taken other actions that have soured the inauguration. You can count us among the fans of Sen. John Cornyn, who has honorably served the state. But Johnson has wrongly decided to have Cornyn swear him in, according to multiple council members and a seating chart shared with council members. The rest of the Council is set to be sworn in by Dallas Municipal Court Administrative Judge Preston Robinson.

First, this signals Johnson is somehow separate from the full Council, something he nailed down in a self-congratulatory newsletter with the subject line “My Inauguration.” Second, the Dallas City Council is nonpartisan, and respecting that should involve recognizing that having a prominent member of the Republican Party on the stage might rankle.

But what’s really frustrating City Council members is the issue of guests. Council members Adam Bazaldua, Paula Blackmon and Gay Donnell Willis all confirmed that the mayor made the decision to stop the stage guest tradition. Willis, who had chaired the council’s ad hoc Administrative Affairs committee, was told directly by the mayor. Bazaldua learned through City Manager T.C. Broadnax that this was Johnson’s decision.

In a statement, the mayor’s staff described this as a “logistical decision made months ago in an effort to minimize the crowding of the stage.” That doesn’t hold up. The stage at the Meyerson has hosted many council inaugurations without a problem.

Bazaldua got the news after mentioning that he had taken his young daughter to NorthPark Center to get a special dress. Blackmon had planned to bring her son on stage.

This is no way to start a new term.

Johnson had done a better job in the last two years of building connections with council members. As a result, he was rewarded by having only a write-in challenger.

But he has a history of being his own worst enemy. This inauguration stunt hearkens to his first two years in office, when a council bloc rallied against him, and his efforts to elect a slate of allies fell totally flat.

Logistics are a soft excuse for dismissing a cherished tradition. The price will be a bad start to the City Council’s next term. We wish the mayor would have seen that and respected both the past and the wishes of those with whom he serves.

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