During his brief tenure as Dallas’ manager of Nighttime Economy & Responsible Hospitality Division, Edward Grant did an interview with KXAS-TV (NBC5) in September. It was one of two such media appearances that led to his firing in December.
Courtesy KXAS-TV (NBC5)
In the fall, when the city’s ludicrously named Nighttime Entertainment Strike Team was striking venues in Bishop Arts and Deep Ellum, I tried repeatedly to reach the man at Dallas City Hall in charge. At least, I thought Edward Grant was in charge: At the time, he was manager of the city’s Nighttime Economy & Responsible Hospitality Division.
Except I never could reach him, and the city wouldn’t acknowledge his employment, insisting it was a personnel issue, in case you’re counting the red flags. Turns out, Grant was on paid administrative leave at the time. Rumors were it was because he’d done a couple of TV interviews. Which I absolutely believed (because City Hall’s about as transparent as I.M. Pei-poured concrete these days) but could never prove.
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I finally spoke with Grant a few weeks ago and got my hands on documents from City Hall, including an Oct. 17, 2025, inquiry “into allegations of unauthorized conduct.” And, man, that sounds bad. Until the first sentence, anyway, which alleges Grant requested a media release — the nerve — and spoke to the media “without permission,” which doesn’t appear to have been the case.
And now, less than 50 days from the World Cup kick-off, the city barely has a Nighttime Economy division left. Just last Thursday, its coordinator, Marisa King, submitted her two-week notice, also obtained by The Dallas Morning News.
“Over time, it has become increasingly challenging to operate effectively within the current leadership structure,” King wrote. “A continued lack of clear direction, communication, and consistent leadership support has created an environment that does not allow me to perform my role effectively or sustainably.”
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King didn’t respond when asked for a comment. But she’s likely referring to the fact that the Nighttime Economy division once reported to Convention and Event Services before being pawned off last year on the Office of Arts and Culture. Then eventually, Code Compliance, two words that scream fun.
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Grant confirmed he was fired for talking to TV stations back in September, after the city issued a media release about his division and the impact of the nighttime economy on the city’s coffers. From the Dec. 18, 2025, notice of discharge signed by Convention and Event Services Director Rosa Fleming and obtained by The News:
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“You acted as a city spokesperson for various news and media outlets without being officially designated or authorized to do so by Convention and Event Services Director Rosa Fleming,” wrote Fleming, “and otherwise made statements to the media without approval.”
There are emails from the city’s media department that would appear to disagree with Rosa Fleming.
“Fleming was judge, jury and executioner,” Grant recently told me. “Which made no sense to me. How can the person who initiated the complaint get to fire me?”
I met Grant last July at St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin, where he was one of the few city officials to attend a community meeting about the rising crime in Deep Ellum. Club and business owners considered him a reliable liaison between the streets and City Hall. And everyone with whom I spoke in the fall had nothing but good words to say about Grant, who moved here in November 2024 after spending some 18 years on the Savannah, Ga., police force, and another six as assistant director in its Special Events, Film & Tourism Office. He also helped develop that city’s first Office of Nightlife.
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Grant first visited Dallas for a nightlife economy conference, he told me over breakfast, and fell in love with this city. He moved his family here for the same pay he was making in Savannah, Grant said, “because it was the chance to make positive change in a big city.”
Rosa Fleming, Dallas’ Convention and Event Services Director, complained that Edward Grant was posting media releases and doing TV interviews without permission.
Tom Fox/Staff Photographer
Last fall, the city screwed up by giving tickets to The Free Man in Deep Ellum and Reveler’s Hall in Bishop Arts for charging for live music. That led to the creation of a task force, whose recommendations will be taken up (again) by a City Council committee next month. Grant could only watch from the sidelines, frustrated to see his hard work and goodwill undone.
“This has been very hard,” Grant said. “The biggest thing for me is everybody’s like, ‘Are you even still around?’ Yeah, I’m not leaving Dallas. My goal is to continue doing this work. I just wanted my job back.”
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Grant had 10 days to appeal his firing to Assistant City Manager Robin Bentley. The only thing he received in response was an auto-reply from Bentley. A city spokesperson told me Tuesday morning that Grant’s appeal “is pending scheduling.”
Best I can tell, the only thing that got Grant in trouble was making sure people knew about the work his division was doing. This started in September, when the city issued a media release: “Dallas Spotlights Nighttime Economy & Responsible Hospitality Division.” The release hailed a report from Pennsylvania-based Tourism Economics and Visit Dallas that said Dallas’ nightlife generates “more than $24 billion annually between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., supporting over 256,000 jobs and standing as one of the city’s most powerful economic and cultural drivers.”
Grant didn’t hack the city’s website to post that release. Beginning in August, he asked Nick Starling in the city’s Office of Communications, Outreach and Marketing about how best to tell the Nighttime Economy team’s story, especially given all the bad news coming out of Deep Ellum last summer.
“Storytelling feels especially important to help frame the work the City is already doing,” Grant wrote. Starling agreed, and looped in others. Grant wrote that he wanted to “make sure the City is being seen in the best possible light.” A month later they all arrived at the media release, with Starling writing on Sept. 4 that he “suspect[ed] a few media members would like to do stories about this division.”
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KTVT-TV (Channel 11) ran the first story about the Nighttime Economy division, in which Grant spoke about “getting our venues prepared for major events that are coming to our city,” meaning FIFA World Cup. The story appeared on the station’s website beneath the headline, “Dallas launches new division to keep nightlife safe and thriving.”
Starling, a former multimedia reporter at KTVT, emailed the piece to several city staffers and thanked Grant for speaking with Channel 11. “You did a fantastic job highlighting this new division,” Starling wrote, “and why it’s important for Dallas and our nighttime economy!”
When Deep Ellum was going through its difficulties last summer, Edward Grant attended community meetings in his role as liaison between the city and business owners. But by the fall, he was on administrative leave, without anyone knowing why.
Angela Piazza/Staff Photographer
A few days later, KXAS-TV (NBC5) reporter Candace Sweat asked the city’s media staff and Grant if she could interview him about the new initiative. Shortly thereafter, a story ran about the city’s “new initiative designed to boost revenue and ensure safety.”
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That media release remains on the city’s website. Yet Fleming fired Grant by insisting that he “failed to inform department leadership about the media inquiries or coverage.”
Now, that wasn’t the only reason she cited for his firing. She also claimed that he “misrepresented facts” about his division, without offering any further explanation, and insisted that his “actions created confusion among the City Council during the 2025-2026 budget season and resulted in a waste of city resources to correct news stories and manage the content.”
Best I can tell, staff did that all on its own. That’s the City Hall Special.
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Initially, a city spokesperson said they won’t comment on personnel matters. I responded that nothing about this story made sense, and sent further questions for clarification. Eventually, I was told, “The city cannot discuss this personnel matter or answer specific questions until after the appeals process has concluded.”
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And while Grant’s awaiting that appeal, the city has listed his old job on its website. But you might want to do some background checks before applying.
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