Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson is not in the habit of returning calls or emails from this newspaper.
But it’s not just us. Johnson won’t even pick up the phone for business leaders invested in Dallas — people he presumably likes a whole lot more than pesky journalists.
Our newsroom reported that Linda McMahon, CEO of the Dallas Economic Development Corp., emailed City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert in September to relay a concern from the CEO of Scotiabank. The banking giant had recently decided to set up a regional hub in Dallas, and CEO Travis Machen wanted to thank the mayor.
But Machen couldn’t get Johnson to return his phone call, and he voiced his concern to McMahon, according to an email exchange obtained by this newspaper.
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“He has talked to everyone involved from the Governor on down and he was asking me why the Mayor has not returned his call. Anything you can do on that will be appreciated,” McMahon wrote.
This is disconcerting because former President George W. Bush and Ross Perot Jr. had put in face time to lure Scotiabank. But the CEO can’t get a hold of the mayor?
Perhaps this was a misunderstanding. Johnson was at the Scotiabank ribbon-cutting on Feb. 25.
But this isn’t a one-off. The mayor has a pattern of not being there when the city needs him.
When Dallas was on the brink of losing the flagship Neiman Marcus downtown last year, civic leaders assembled to try to save it. Developer Shawn Todd texted the mayor to ask him to become involved and received no response.
In 2024, when civic leaders came together to oppose three concerning charter amendment proposals, Johnson was MIA. He didn’t return a call from former Mayor Laura Miller, and he initially didn’t respond to texts from her and former Mayor Mike Rawlings. Eventually he replied with a link to an op-ed, but it’s common courtesy to return a call from a predecessor.
The list goes on. Last year, he called a joint meeting of two council committees to discuss a proposal for the city to partner with the feds on immigration enforcement, a controversial policy question. The mayor met with the feds on his own, but he didn’t show up to the council discussion he requested.
Most crucially, it was Johnson who precipitated the debate over the future of City Hall. Last summer, he instructed the council’s finance committee to study City Hall, but why now? The mayor’s spokesman didn’t reply when we asked Friday, but Johnson addressed the question head on in his newsletter Sunday. Johnson said the City Hall debate is happening now because the city is at an “inflection point” and that Dallas “must fight to keep the Mavericks.” He denounced critics who complain about a “giveaway” of land to the team and said the council hasn’t been briefed on what a potential development deal at the site might look like.
We wish the mayor had been this forthcoming from the start, and in a public setting, not a newsletter.
Out of all 15 members in this City Council, he is the only one who doesn’t list his staff members and their contact information in his official city webpage.
Need to talk to the mayor of Dallas? He doesn’t want to be reached.
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