Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert and Mayor Eric Johnson pose for a photo at Dallas City Hall in Dallas, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Mayor Eric Johnson says Morgan Stanley’s planned regional hub in Dallas effectively makes up for the loss of AT&T’s headquarters to Plano in 2028, rejecting concerns that a string of high-profile corporate departures signals the city is losing economic ground.
“One Morgan Stanley building is a wash for what AT&T is building in Plano,” Johnson said. “This is real money, and these are very sophisticated people we’re talking about. So I think the scoreboard is all we need to point to.”
Johnson made the comments during a rare joint interview with City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, with the two presenting a united front on Dallas’ economy, the recently adopted budget and their working relationship as Johnson enters his final year as mayor.
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About 6,000 people work downtown at AT&T’s current corporate headquarters. Morgan Stanley plans to bring more than 3,800 workers to its Dallas regional headquarters by 2035.
Johnson and Tolbert say Dallas’ growing tax base, falling crime rates and recent corporate recruitment successes tell a different story from the high-profile losses that have generated questions about the city’s direction.
They also defended their approach to the city budget, while Johnson declined to take a position on a push to give his successor greater power over the city manager and budget.
Their appearance together underscored a markedly different relationship from Johnson’s turbulent years with former City Manager T.C. Broadnax, who left in 2024 to become Austin’s city manager.
Johnson and Tolbert meet frequently, travel together to recruit businesses and are aligned on the city’s priorities, they said.
Tolbert said she operates as the “back office” while the mayor leads the front.
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“Sitting down here together is evidence of just how well I think we work together and how committed we are to doing our job,” Johnson said.
The city manager referred to Johnson as a “seasoned policy enthusiast,” which she said played a part in marketing the city and bringing Morgan Stanley, Scotiabank and Goldman Sachs to Dallas.
On stronger mayor
Their partnership is playing out as three former Dallas mayors push to fundamentally change the balance of power between the mayor and city manager.
Ron Kirk, Tom Leppert and Mike Rawlings are pushing for a vote on the May ballot to give the next mayor the power to hire the city manager and city attorney and set the budget. The city manager currently determines where the money goes, and where it doesn’t.
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Under Dallas’ council-manager system, the mayor presides over the 15-member City Council but has one vote and cannot unilaterally hire or fire the city manager.
Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert and Mayor Eric Johnson speak to the Dallas Morning News at Dallas City Hall in Dallas, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Johnson declined to comment on the stronger mayor movement without seeing a formal ballot proposal. But he said he’s focused on working under the current system in tandem with the city manager.
That commitment came into play during budget discussions when Johnson sided with Tolbert’s plan and didn’t offer a single budget amendment.
Council member Cara Mendelsohn said she had “not once” met with the mayor this year while debating the city’s $6 billion budget. She told him “to set a meeting individually with every single council member.”
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But the mayor said council members were “policymaking on the fly” and said they were trying to “substitute their judgment” with for the city manager’s.
Tolbert said the council went “into the weeds” and used one-time money without solving longer-term problems.
She wants the City Council to say, “This is where we’re headed. This is where we’re going.” But instead, the council gives a variety of disparate directions with the hope that “the city manager will go and figure it out.”
Growth push amid City Hall tensions
The new turn in leadership comes as their pursuit of economic growth has received scrutiny and suspicion, especially concerning the fate of the I.M. Pei-designed City Hall building.
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Some City Council member criticized Tolbert for potentially overstepping her role when Dallas Mavericks CEO Rick Welts said she had offered up the downtown real estate for a potential basketball arena.
It’s still unclear if that was before Johnson directed council members to assess the building’s shelf life.
Some council members and business leaders also have said they have struggled at times to reach Johnson or get meetings with him.
Council members have publicly sparred with him, saying he’s not meeting with the people he’s supposed to steer to get the work done.
But both Johnson and Tolbert pointed to what they said is the bigger picture. The duo has already traveled together to the East Coast to lure financial companies to Dallas, and they have plans to do the same on the West Coast.
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“Not everybody around the country is flipping through the pages of the Dallas Morning News every day to find out what the heck is going on in Dallas, I have to tell them, and that story has been very well received around the country,” the mayor told The News.