DALLAS — A former Dallas City Hall intern is set to become the city’s most powerful public official.
Dallas City Council members named Kimberly Bizor Tolbert as the next city manager Wednesday, voting 13-2 to officially give her the job she’s been working in an interim capacity since February 2024.
Tolbert will be the first Black woman to hold the role and the first woman in more than a decade.
The city’s top job became vacant after former City Manager T.C. Broadnax resigned to become Austin’s city manager last year.
Tolbert was widely considered the frontrunner for the job but remained publicly coy through the summer on whether she would apply for the permanent position — even as she implemented a major reorganization of city departments and oversaw the departures and subsequent replacement of top city leaders.
It was no surprise when she was named as one of the semi-finalists for the job in November. The city council gave Tolbert the job over the other two finalists — Fort Worth Assistant City Manager William Johnson and Sacramento Assistant City Manager Mario Lara.
The city manager search was contentious, though, with infighting between city council members throughout the process. Some city council members criticized the extended length of the search.
It was Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins who made the motion to appoint Tolbert to the city’s top job permanently with a salary of $450,000. As WFAA previously reported, Broadnax earned an annual salary of $423,247 at the time of his resignation.
“This has not been the easiest journey,” Atkins said ahead of the vote. “I know there’s been a whole lot of confusion around this horseshoe, but I believe we’re going to be unified today.”
Added Atkins: “Dallas is the greatest city in America, and we should show that we have the greatest city manager in America.”
During council comment ahead of the vote, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam Bazaldua praised improved City Hall morale under Tolbert in her interim role.
“We already have the best in the city of Dallas,” Bazaldua said. “I know that the future of the city of Dallas is bright in the hands of Ms. Kimberly Bizor Tolbert.”
Prior to casting her nay vote, City Council member Cara Mendelsohn said she wanted to see a city manager who would represent more change and reform, including hiring more officers and speeding up of the process for getting permits.
“My vote will be grounded in the hope that I have for Dallas’ future,” Mendelsohn said. “A future that demands a new direction and a fresh perspective in our leadership.”
Council member Paul Ridley, the other member of the horseshoe to vote against Tolbet’s hire, said he was concerned with a provision in the contract that had been negotiated with Tolbert. He said that the verbiage allowed for a “golden parachute” of up to two years’ pay — or $900,000 — in the event of her termination.
Bazaldua said that allegations that those concerns hadn’t been addressed were “disingenuous at best.”
Mayor Eric Johnson, meanwhile, stressed that the hiring of a city manager is “the single most important hire” that the city council makes.
“What we needed to do — and I believe we did it — was find the right person for the right job at the right time,” Johnson said.
Tolbert’s family, including her mom, sisters, and son, were in attendance for the vote, and Tolbert addressed the city council, staff, and others after the vote.
“I want to thank the mayor and city council for your confidence in me to serve as your city manager,” she said. “We proactively laid a new foundation to evolve into a more customer-centric organization that does business with thoughtfulness, yet urgency.”
“Together, we can continue to improve and make Dallas an even greater city,” Tolbert said.
As part of her role as City Manager, Tolbert will write the city’s $5 billion budget, oversee the police and fire departments and manage the people in charge of building permits and road repair. Under the city’s charter, the position technically has more responsibility and power than the mayor.
Naming a permanent police chief is among the most immediate challenges facing Tolbert, who first scored a victory in her interim role in fending off other cities that were looking to hire away the popular Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia – only for her to then lose him to Austin last fall.
Tolbert also must steer the city through the implementation and implications of voter-approved Propositions S and U, which city leaders warned would mire the city in lawsuits and cripple its finances.
Finally, she must address the city’s ongoing legal entanglement with the police and fire pension board. A judge’s decision in November blew up the city’s proposal to shore up the plan and instead committed Dallas to follow the pension board’s more expensive strategy.
In her interim city manager role, Tolbert was earning $367,000 annually.
From Intern to Top Boss
Tolbert is a graduate of the University of North Texas, first obtaining a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1991, then a master’s in public administration from the Denton school in 1993. While in Denton, she was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Tolbert started her work with the city of Dallas as an intern in the early ’90s and described taking the interim job as a “full circle moment” in public remarks in October.
“I have the same level of excitement and enthusiasm that I had 32 years ago when I stepped into City Hall,” she said. “When I started my tenure, it’s like the stage lights just got a little bit brighter.”
Tolbert worked her way up the ranks for nearly a decade, serving as assistant director of the Department of Aviation and assistant to the city manager. She left for a nearly nine-year career with the North Texas Tollway Authority where she served as chief of staff and director of strategy.
She rejoined the city of Dallas in 2017 as Deputy City Manager to then-City Manager Broadnax, but it was his controversial departure from the role in early 2024 that allowed her to assume the top job — albeit on an interim basis.
Her elevation to interim city manager was buoyed by a show of support from a coalition of groups representing the city’s Black community, which Mayor Eric Johnson decried as “special interests.”
Her appointment was opposed only by two members of the City Council — Cara Mendelsohn and Paul Ridley — who said they wanted to see a more deliberative process to select a person to fill the job.
“I’m concerned about a rush to name an interim when we should be considering all possibilities systematically,” Mendelsohn said at the time.
Promoting a track record
Tolbert’s service as interim was viewed as an extended audition — perhaps by no one more than Tolbert herself, who promoted her accomplishments in a memo to city council members.
The October 4 “progress report” at the conclusion of her first 100 days in the job outlined successes such as passing a plan to stabilize the city’s public safety pensions, approving a $5 billion budget with a remarkable lack of contention and establishing a new homelessness response strategy.
She reorganized city departments in an attempt to streamline city services and fix departments that have been plagued by years of complaints. The changes coincided with the departure of several top city officials, whom Tolbert replaced.
“Many have asked, why I have made such “bold” moves as interim,” Tolbert wrote in her October 4 report. “As a public servant for the last 3+ decades, I have given my all. I am driven and resolute in my desire to leave the City of Dallas a stronger and more resilient organization for the future, regardless of if I am selected for the permanent role.”
One of her successes was overshadowed this fall when Garcia announced he would leave Dallas for Austin after all, despite Tolbert’s urgent mid-summer attempt to fend off other cities competing for the popular law enforcement leader.
Her deal to increase Garcia’s salary and build in retention bonuses lasted less than six months before the chief announced he was leaving active policing for an assistant city manager job in Austin, working for Broadnax — Tolbert’s former boss.
Messy hiring process
The 11-month process to name Tolbert to the permanent role was not a smooth one. Councilmembers complained the process, helmed by Atkins, was too slow and too opaque.
The city paid search firm Baker Tilly $134,000 to oversee the search, but the search was plagued with high-profile mistakes such as the placement of a photo of Houston on the cover of a brochure advertising the Dallas position.
Tensions over the hiring process spilled into the open just before Christmas when a group of councilmembers tried to force Atkins’ hand by calling a meeting to start deliberations over the hire.
When their effort failed to garner enough support from fellow councilmembers to continue, they blasted Atkins and his oversight of the hiring process in press interviews. For his part, Atkins refused to respond – repeatedly insisting he had no awareness of the concerns his fellow councilmembers raised at their meeting.
On January 15, council members interviewed the final three candidates and debated their qualifications behind closed doors for about 7 hours. They discussed the hire out of public view again on Wednesday before the final vote.