Good evening:
The Dallas City Council is on recess until early August after another marathon meeting that stretched into Thursday morning, concluding one of the more divisive — and disappointing — months in recent Dallas political history.
On June 1, the Dallas Mavericks announced plans to build a new arena at the former Valley View Mall site, spurning City leaders who had been advocating since last year for the team to consider moving into the Downtown core, potentially where City Hall is currently located.
About 24 hours later, the Dallas Stars announced their intentions to move to Plano. Both teams’ leases at the American Airlines Center expire in 2031.
“They got it done in an unbelievably quick fashion, coordinated communication between the developer and us. Fantastic governmental process,” Stars CEO Brad Alberts told The Dallas Morning News about working with Plano.
Less than a week later — on the same day those fantastic Plano City Council members approved a non-binding Letter of Intent with the Stars and incentive agreements for the planned arena development — three Dallas City Council members sued their own city to halt votes to advance plans for leaving City Hall. The case filed by Council Members Paula Blackmon, Adam Bazaldua, and Cara Mendelsohn (she removed herself from the suit a day later) led to a brief delay of some votes.
Still, City Council members voted 9-6 to reject a City Hall renovation plan that could have cost at least hundreds of millions of dollars over several years. The next week, they voted 9-5, in separate votes, to authorize City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert to explore relocation sites for City Hall, 911, and emergency operations.
With a looming $51 million shortfall for the fiscal year that starts October 1, we also thought we’d get a better sense this month of how council members hope to close that gap as the city manager prepares to deliver her proposed budget in August. But a City Council briefing meeting and a separate committee meeting in which council members were to deliberate on potential cost-cutting measures were canceled because not enough council members showed up for work.
We do know that one possible strategy to address financial pressures long-term is to ask Dallas voters this November to approve issuing nearly $1 billion in bonds. City Council members voted late Wednesday night to move forward with that plan, which would include $500 million for police and fire pension obligation bonds, and $441 million for public safety facilities.
Even the bond issue is getting tied to the politically fraught City Hall issue. At least one council member, Mendelsohn, says that because it would include funding to move 911 and emergency operations out of the City Hall basement, she will fight against it.
Meanwhile, hundreds of residents who showed up to take part in the democratic process at several council meetings were left waiting for hours and had their speaking time reduced to one minute.
So while some marvel at Plano’s “fantastic governmental process,” Dallas spent June suing itself, canceling meetings meant to discuss budget savings, and adjourning near 1 a.m. Thursday.
The relative calm of recess is here. Budget cuts and a lot more debt may not be far behind.
📖 Table of Contents
🗞️ Highlights From Last Week: Meetings, Memos, and Media of Interest
A long-planned 1.7-acre, $200 million expansion of Klyde Warren Park is set to begin this fall, The Dallas Morning News editorial board reports. The westward expansion will include a glass-and-steel pavilion with a 5,000-square-foot indoor meeting space and a rooftop terrace. Also in the plans is a 37,000-square-foot turf open space for private or public events, including a Christmas-season ice-skating rink. Read more.
On Wednesday, June 24, Dallas City Council members voted to:
Approve Item 5, the acceptance of $2.8 million from an anonymous donor to support programming and services for the Dallas Public Library system.
Approve Item 23, up to $8 million in a New Market Tax Credit deal between the Dallas Development Fund and nonprofit Forest Forward for the restoration of the historic Forest Theater at 1918 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Read more about the project.
Approve Item 45 authorizing more than $1 million — largely federal grant funds — to hire Gresham Smith to master-plan and design the connections linking the new Halperin Park deck park over I-35E and the Dallas Zoo to the surrounding Oak Cliff neighborhoods. The work targets specific points within a half-mile of the plaza, with engineering work running from next month through September 2027.
Approve Item 58, rejecting all bids for a proposed eviction advocacy pilot program for reasons outlined in this memo.
Approve by a 15-0 record vote Item 88, a grant of up to $18.5 million to woo Morgan Stanley to a new Uptown high-rise. The company would first occupy Fountain Place in Downtown for about four years while it awaits the new tower. Read more from WFAA.
Reject Item 90, a committee recommendation to redesign and raise the height of the planned new Downtown convention center to accommodate the Jefferson Viaduct, rather than re-route it. City staff urged council members to reject the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's recommendation, noting that a redesign of the convention center could cost nearly $600 million and further delay the project beyond 2030.
The vote was 9-6, with Mayor Eric L. Johnson, Mayor Pro Tem Jaime Resendez, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Maxie Johnson, and Council Members Jesse Moreno, Zarin Gracey, Lorie Blair, Paula Blackmon, Kathy Stewart, and Gay Donnell Willis voting to reject the convention center redesign. Council Members Chad West, Cara Mendelsohn, Adam Bazaldua, Paul E. Ridley, Bill Roth, and Laura Cadena voted against the motion.
Council members voted 13-2 (Mendelsohn and Ridley voted no) to hire an independent transportation consultant to support delivery of all transportation components related to the convention center redevelopment, and to seek community input and brief the City Council on additional plans using the Houston and Jefferson Viaducts to access Downtown. Learn more from NBC 5.
Approved by 9-5 vote Item 93 directing the city manager to prepare for an August City Council vote to call a $941 million November bond election, split between police and fire pension bonds and public safety facilities. Voting in favor: Mayor Pro Tem Resendez, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Johnson, and Council Members West, Moreno, Gracey, Cadena, Blair, Stewart, and Willis. Voting against: Council Members Bazaldua, Blackmon, Roth, Mendelsohn, and Ridley. Mayor Johnson was absent for the vote.
Deferred to September 23, 2026, zoning case Z16, Winners Assembly Church’s request for permission to build a 25-story hotel-apartment-retail high-rise on a small lot in South Dallas. The City Plan Commission recommended denial by a 10-0 vote.
Approved code amendments following Public Hearing 4 that change Chapters 51A and 52 in what City officials insist is a technical cleanup to streamline the appeals process when the city revokes a business’s certificate of occupancy — the document that authorizes it to operate legally — when the business operates without a required license, permit, or registration. Deep Ellum Foundation Executive Director Stephanie Keller Hudiburg and President Jon Hetzel stayed up past midnight to urge closing what they said was a "loophole" that often allows problem businesses to continue operating. Read the draft ordinance and this background memo for more.
Dallas reports 10.36 billion gallons of “real water loss” in 2025, up slightly from 10.15 billion gallons in 2024, according to this memo. “Water loss is an expected and unavoidable component of operating a large water distribution system and can be influenced by several factors, including increased water demand, system pressures, shifting soils, temperature fluctuations, aging infrastructure, and the normal wear associated with moving large volumes of water through pipelines each day,” the memo says.
Dallas police response times to 911 calls are improving under Chief Daniel C. Comeaux, “though the department still has a ways to go to achieve its targets,” The Dallas Morning News editorial board writes.
Here’s the complete city manager memo packet for Friday, June 26, 2026.
🔢 Number of Interest
12:48 a.m.
The time on Thursday that the Dallas City Council meeting, which began at 9:32 a.m. on Wednesday, adjourned.
🤝 Meetings of Interest: June 29 - July 3, 2026
Tuesday, June 30
🛣️ Special Called Meeting of the Farmers Market Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District, 2:30 p.m., 6DN Conference Room, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
Board members are being asked to commit up to $4.2 million in Farmers Market TIF funds to reshape Cesar Chavez Boulevard through Downtown — the result of a 2024 corridor study in which residents asked for a safer, more walkable "boulevard feel." Phase A ($1.43M) targets the crash-prone Young/Canton intersection with a new "smart" signal, bulb-outs, and wider sidewalks; Phase B ($2.82M) trims the road from six lanes to four between Commerce and Marilla, reclaiming the space for sidewalks, medians, parking, and a new signal at Marilla. Another $338,000 in remaining 2006 bond funds would also be put toward the project. Staff scrapped an earlier roundabout idea as too costly and not pedestrian-friendly. The board’s recommendation will be forwarded to City Council. Read more.
🗣️ Quote of Interest
Dallas City Hall couldn’t be more divided, and it seems we are turning our fractured working relationships into a sea of trouble all around our city.
A note to readers: Meetings of Interest is an independent newsletter curated and authored by The GoldHam Group Managing Partner Scott Goldstein and edited by GoldHam Managing Partners Sam Goldstein and Vana Hammond. The content, perspectives, or commentary presented herein reflect the views of the author alone and do not necessarily represent the views, policies, or positions of any other organization, institution, or individual, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Any affiliations are for identification purposes only and do not imply endorsement.
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Have a great week.
Best,
Scott Goldstein
Managing Partner
The GoldHam Group
Sam Goldstein, Scott Goldstein, and Vana Hammond are co-founders of The GoldHam Group, a southern Dallas-based boutique communications, events, and public affairs firm.
