In an interview with the Observer, former Mayor Mike Rawlings said the solution is simple: accountability through one chief executive who actually has to stand by their record every four years. The time has come for a stronger mayor<\/a>, he said, and Rawlings wants voters to weigh in on that decision too.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the city comes together much better with this,\u201d Rawlings said. \u201cWe\u2019re more unified, and come back to my notion that that\u2019s what the job of a leader is: to unify people, and get us on a strategic path to growth and the type of healthy growth that we all want.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sign up for the This Week\u2019s Top Stories newsletter to get the latest stories delivered to your inbox<\/p>\n THANK YOU!<\/p>\n You’re all set.<\/p>\n CLOSE\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n He and two predecessors, Tom Leppert and Ron Kirk, are pushing for\u00a0a May referendum\u00a0that would let Dallasites decide whether to give the city\u2019s top elected official more power at the ballot box. The proposal would let the mayor hire or fire the city manager with council confirmation, propose a budget, and wield limited veto power.<\/p>\n \u2018No bosses\u2019 Council members represent individual districts and act together as a policy-making body, while an unelected city manager oversees day-to-day operations and proposes a budget to the council. They technically report to the council, which can fire them with a two-thirds supermajority vote, although most are allowed to resign and collect sizeable severance packages<\/a>. Even then, their responsibility to the council is sometimes questionable<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe weakness is fundamentally that the city manager has no bosses, because they have 15 bosses,\u201d Rawlings said. \u201cIf you have 15 bosses, you don\u2019t have anybody. Kids realize that with their parents, they can play one off the other, and they\u2019re really in charge. And you take 15, it gets much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n Some contracts are decided without the council\u2019s approval or knowledge, as Robert Wilonsky of The Dallas Morning News recently reported <\/a>on the current city manager\u2019s decision to retain a Virginia legal firm for $100,000 without approval from the horseshoe. In a June D Magazine article arguing against the current council-manager form of government<\/a>, former mayor and Observer columnist Laura Miller reported that the former city manager T.C. Broadnax had skipped two years\u2019 worth of meetings with a veteran council member before eventually resigning and collecting a $467,000 exit deal. <\/p>\n Dallas\u2019 mayor, meanwhile, controls committee assignments and can influence policy if they build support among the council, but otherwise largely functions as a ceremonial figurehead and brand ambassador with limited authority to push their own agenda. The result, Rawlings said, is a system that is structurally \u201cbroken\u201d and lacks unified aims.\u00a0<\/p>\n Symptoms of the current system\u2019s dysfunction are evident and spurred the campaign, he added. They include bickering over small budget items through the lens of 14 competing priorities; longstanding obstacles (namely permitting wait times) to doing business in the city; and the departure of the Mavericks from downtown, along with\u00a0painful exits by AT&T, the Dallas Stars and Neiman Marcus.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody\u2019s realized the emperor has no clothes on,\u201d Rawlings said. \u201cOK, and I mean the system by emperor at this point. That, fundamentally, it\u2019s flawed, and I think citizens are ready. They want a different option, and the dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of people stop me all the time and say we\u2019ve got to change the system.\u201d <\/p>\n But Dallasites have rejected similar proposals before. In 2005, 62% of voters rejected a proposed charter amendment that would have effectively eliminated the city manager and given those powers to a true strong mayor. The current proposal doesn\u2019t go that far and, Rawlings said, maintains some balance of power, with the city manager retaining some authority while council members could override hiring decisions by a two-thirds vote.<\/p>\n He added that circumstances have changed since \u201905, as people are more likely to \u201cvilify\u201d their perceived opponents and are less inclined to find common interests to fight for, mirroring national trends. For example, the ongoing quagmire over the future of Dallas City Hall <\/a>or the two recall campaigns targeting sitting<\/a> council members lean in that direction. Or maybe even the latest news that the council body is currently gridlocked over renaming a <\/a>small segment of Harwood Street to Exchange Place, a move intended as a nod to the city\u2019s fast-growing financial sector. <\/p>\n \u201cBy not having a unified vision or a sense of where we\u2019re going, it\u2019s easier to splinter and not be as effective,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Why a stronger mayor could be the answer Originally from a small town on the High Plains of the Texas Panhandle, Rawlings spent decades in the corporate world<\/a>, including as Pizza Hut CEO from 1997 to 2002. He said he wasn\u2019t \u201cexcited\u201d about entering the current system when he was elected to his\u00a0first term in 2011, because the fractured nature of competing interests at City Hall was a different environment altogether. \u201cI\u2019ve been a business person my whole life, so having command and control is a positive in business,\u201d Rawlings said. <\/p>\n And that\u2019s what he thinks is the antidote to Dallas\u2019 present woes: leadership. Under the proposed charter amendment, the mayor would have the ability to identify candidates, draft a contract and hire a city manager, who would still oversee day-to-day operations. And, as in any successful corporation, if a high-ranking employee can\u2019t get with the program, they\u2019re out, he said, with both the manager\u2019s exit and entry still contingent on council confirmation.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are always the most important thing, hiring talent,\u201d he said. \u201cOne can argue that you can have any system, and if you have the greatest people in the world, you make this system work. We don\u2019t have the greatest people in the world year in and year out over the last 30 years \u2014 you have ups and downs. But I do believe having accountability about who I hire and what they\u2019re doing is ultimately the most important.\u201d<\/p>\n The proposal, still short of a full strong-mayor approach, would also give the chief executive the power to set council agendas and advance their own legislative priorities. But the biggest change might come during budget season.<\/p>\n Dallas faces financial difficulties amid rising costs, state-imposed revenue restrictions, and declining tax revenues. With current City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert steering the process, officials had to close a $51 million funding gap <\/a>to balance the previous fiscal budget, which included steep cuts to employee healthcare, parks funding and libraries, as well as layoffs. Council members also had to wade through a protracted process of amendments and straw votes, most of which followed hours of debate over relatively small amounts<\/a> as individual members wrangled over line items like youth commission travel and funding for pools in their districts.<\/p>\n Under the proposed plan, the mayor would replace the city manager in compiling and proposing a budget. Then, council members could propose amendments as they do now, with one added hitch: the mayor could veto any line item the body proposes. And if they don\u2019t agree, it would take a two-thirds supermajority of the council to override the veto. A consensus, if you will.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what people that aren\u2019t inside that loop don\u2019t understand is once you start to be the initiator of the budget and have a line-item veto, now I can work with you to say, \u2018Where are we going together?\u2019\u201d Rawlings said. \u201cAnd if you want to be a Peck\u2019s Bad Boy and constantly be throwing darts, it\u2019s like, \u2018OK, you\u2019re not going to get what you want in that budget.\u2019 You\u2019re just cutting your own nose off to spite your face. Now we have a point. We\u2019ve got to all agree to this, and I think that\u2019s a healthy thing.\u201d<\/p>\n 14-1, inevitably<\/p>\n The debate about a stronger mayor in Dallas isn\u2019t just about the council-manager form of government; it inevitably bleeds into a discussion about the council\u2019s current 14-1 composition. The current setup was mandated by a federal judge in 1990 following a lawsuit by local civil rights activists who argued that Black and Latino votes were diluted under the prior framework. Under the struck-down 8-3 system, once called \u201cflawed, elitist, exclusive, and racist\u201d<\/a> by former council member Diane Ragsdale, two council members and the mayor were elected citywide, while the remaining eight members were elected from single-member districts.<\/p>\n In a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals opinion, U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer wrote that<\/a> at-large seats often precluded Black and Latino candidates because their communities struggled to fundraise the hefty minimum of $150,000 to $200,000 required for an effective campaign. Only one Latino had been elected at-large in the 8-3 configuration, while no Black candidates had won citywide office. The setup also disenfranchised Black voters in the way single-member districts were drawn, Buchmeyer wrote. A significant portion of Black Dallasites were crammed into two council districts, while the remainder were \u201ccracked\u201d into Council Districts 1 and 7, discriminatorily preventing them from forming a third majority-Black district.<\/p>\n With the new maps, four Black and two Latino council members were elected in 1991, dramatically increasing representation on the council. In a recent D Magazine article <\/a>defending the system, civil rights activist Gerald Britt wrote that the court\u2019s ruling \u201cwas a gain for the whole city\u201d and that, now, \u201cwe\u2019re told inclusive government is the problem.\u201d He argued that taking power away from council members with a stronger mayor is an ill-conceived remedy to creating accountability in the city manager\u2019s office, and that the best solution is electing representatives who wield council authority more assertively.<\/p>\n \u201cCritics warn that single-member districts create fiefdoms and corruption, but those charges confuse representation with dysfunction,\u201d Britt, one of the main organizers who drove support for the 14-1 system, wrote. \u201cDistrict loyalty is not treason; it is democracy at its closest range, with members accountable to the voters who elected them.\u201d<\/p>\n Rawlings said he and the other mayors \u201cfelt we had crossed the Rubicon\u201d with the 14-1 system, which is why their proposal does not directly call for remolding it. Still, he acknowledged that the proposal will impact how it functions in reality.<\/p>\n \u201cIt takes some power away because the city manager now knows who\u2019s hiring and firing me,\u201d Rawlings said. \u201cNow, if they\u2019re a good city manager, they\u2019re going to spend as much time in those city council offices and try to make those people happy. That\u2019s the only way the city can pull together. I think if I\u2019ve heard anything negative, it is from people that have a lot of power at city hall because they have the ear of a city council person, and they want to keep that power.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that those \u201csingle-issue\u201d voices will lose power as the city moved council elections to November to boost turnout. Voter participation in May elections has historically been underwhelming<\/a>, which gives officials who received only a few thousand votes the authority to legislate and control budgeting priorities for the entire city of Dallas, Rawlings said.<\/p>\n But as longtime proponents of a strong or stronger mayor likely remember, turnout has not always been weak. In 2005, Black and other minority voters in southern Dallas turned out in record numbers<\/a> to vote down the ultimately unsuccessful strong mayor proposal after mobilization by religious and community coalitions.<\/p>\n When asked how the group will win support from neighborhoods that have historically balked at giving the citywide office more power, Rawlings said they are talking with community associations and leaders but are currently focused on getting the proposition on the ballot through a petition. If they collect the required number of signatures (about 20,000), he said, the persuasion campaign will begin.<\/p>\n \u201cI think when you just explain it, people kind of get it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut if it\u2019s put around personalities in history, sometimes it\u2019s easy to kind of fall into that.\u201d<\/p>\n And isn\u2019t that all the more dangerous coming from three former mayors? \u201cMaybe,\u201d Rawlings said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I think Ron Kirk and Tom Leppert were two of the best mayors we ever had,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd I think I have a decent amount of respect out there. So I think people want to follow leaders. We don\u2019t have anything to gain from it. We\u2019re just saying, \u2018Look, we\u2019ve done the job. You want to solve the issues that you are complaining about. This is the way to do it.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n Behind closed doors<\/p>\n A weakness of the current system that Britt pointed out in his article is city managers\u2019 tendency to meet with business leaders behind closed doors, away from the prying eyes of the city council, which often learns about deals only when it\u2019s asked to stamp them. In Miller\u2019s piece, she wrote that a city manager had negotiated with Roy Hunt for years away from the spotlight on a massive $210 million private project that included a sports arena. Council members were \u201csurprised\u201d by the deal, Miller wrote, but still voted to approve it. The arena eventually went through without penalty for Hunt under the city manager-brokered contract, and Dallas was forced to spend $60 million of taxpayer money on Reunion Arena, Miller added.<\/p>\n The current city manager has also come under fire for pursuing her own downtown arena deal. In March, Mavericks CEO Rick Welts told a <\/a>group of business leaders that Tolbert had approached him a year before council approved\u00a0exploring potential relocation sites, suggesting the property as a new home for the team. After Tolbert defended her actions, pro-Save City Hall Council member Paula Blackmon said her public explanation pointed to \u201ca preference for self-justification over a transparent partnership with the City Council and the people of Dallas.\u201d<\/p>\n Britt wrote that a stronger mayor would still do that. Instead of a city manager negotiating on behalf of the council, he wrote, it would simply shift the \u201csingle point of entry\u201d for private interests to the mayor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Rawlings, a founding member of a local private equity firm, said he doesn\u2019t buy the argument.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess if you don\u2019t like business interest, you can always be fearful of business interest in any system,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the DNA of this city is business, and when we do that well, working with communities for what they want, that\u2019s when this city does great. So I don\u2019t think you build a system to chase out boogeymen. You build a system for what is optimal for accountability to citizens. The citizen is number one here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Why I think this is important\u2019<\/p>\n Despite explosive growth in North Texas, Dallas\u2019 population has stagnated in recent years as housing remains expensive, birthrates decline and, perhaps most concerningly, residents move to neighboring suburbs.<\/a> At the same time, more unified suburban councils<\/a> have lowered barriers to doing business and voted decisively to approve economic incentives for corporate relocations, with some coming at the expense of the city. <\/p>\n Y\u2019all Street is a promising sign, Rawlings said, but the city\u2019s constraints still lead him to believe Dallas could become one of the \u201ccities across America that have had their heyday, and it starts to slow,\u201d though he added it hasn\u2019t reached that point yet.<\/p>\n With the November 2027 elections on the horizon, elected officials will face several difficult realities. Finding relief on revenue caps from state lawmakers in Austin will be an uphill battle; funding requirements for the police pension and hiring remain in place, and services continue to be cut with each budget. Rawlings said the next mayoral election isn\u2019t as important as redefining the office, which he believes could be the only way to unify the city behind a shared vision to get Dallas back in the green.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not easy decisions to make,\u201d He said. \u201cPeople may think they\u2019re easy because they know what the right answer is, but when you try to unify the city, there are different points of view in that. That\u2019s why I think this is important. If you don\u2019t make that [happen], then you start to slowly lose it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas city manager hasn\u2019t had a performance review since 2022 \u2014 the last one, by the way,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3084,102,104,103],"class_list":["post-470525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-city-hall","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Dallas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/tc_broadnax_by_dallascityhall-com-10-24-2018.webp\")
Former Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax\u2019s had some rocky relationships at City Hall.<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/180424_dpd-shooting015.webp\")
Mayor Mike Rawlings and Dallas police Chief U. Renee Hall talk to reporters in the wake of the murder of Botham Jean.<\/p>\n