Mayor Eric L. Johnson on Wednesday released the following statement:
Today, the Dallas City Council voted to save our taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and take a critical step towards realizing a vibrant new vision for Dallas’s urban core.
Rather than spending what likely would have amounted to over $1 billion to stay in an obsolete building, we directed the City Manager to begin imagining the future of our city’s center.
After I charged the Finance Committee last summer with determining the most fiscally responsible course of action for City Hall, the City Council was briefed over the past 10 months on repair cost estimates calculated by not only City staff, but also by many reputable outside experts. The deeper the analysis went, the higher the estimates got. It simply cannot be honestly said that this process was rushed or that it lacked transparency.
When this process began, I was undecided, saying multiple times that I needed to see the data before making a decision—as every elected official should. Now, we have seen the data. We have seen how expensive it would be to make 1500 Marilla Street a functional workplace.
The City Council was also briefed on several occasions in executive session about potential new locations for City Hall, and it is overwhelmingly clear that relocation will be not only a far more prudent use of taxpayer dollars but will also be a better long-term solution for our government, City employees, and all Dallasites.
Instead of delivering the Dallas taxpayers a billion-dollar invoice for a dilapidated government office building that is impeding the growth of a large section of our urban core, the City Council took an important step toward realizing my vision of a downtown teeming with life, with community, and with social and economic activity.
I want to thank the City Manager, her team, and our consultants for the important work they did for the people of Dallas by providing the City Council with the information we needed to make this decision, and for the patience they demonstrated under the pressure of being aggressively cross-examined and having their integrity impugned by some members of the City Council for simply doing the work they were hired to do. They consistently demonstrated impressive grace in addition to their clear expertise.
And I want to thank my City Council colleagues who voted tonight to be good stewards of our taxpayer’s dollars and to open up opportunities to revitalize our urban core.
While this vote was not unanimous, disagreement and debate is normal and healthy in the democratic process around the horseshoe. But once a decision is made, good governance demands that we recognize the legitimacy of that decision and move forward in a professional and dignified manner. These are challenging times for our city, and it is more important than ever that we show the world we are one Dallas.
