Former Dallas Plans Inspector Sour But Sated After ‘Lemon on Stemmons’ Permit Debacle
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When news broke this summer that City of Dallas employees had to vacate the Stemmons office they’d just moved into over city code violations and a missing certificate of occupancy, the irony was not lost on others. However, some of the sharpest criticism for the widely-panned “lemon on Stemmons” came from within, when one municipal plans examiner blew the whistle and shared what was going wrong inside 7800 N. Stemmons Freeway.
Eddie Small, 57, retired in mid-September after serving 20 years with the City of Dallas. In a phone interview last month from his Ellis County home, Small set us straight on what went down and what he’d like to see happen now.
What Happened on Stemmons
In 2022, Dallas purchased the 11-story building at 7800 N. Stemmons Freeway for $14.2 million and spent another $6.5 million on improvements, furniture, and moving expenses. The building was intended to house Development Services inspectors, some Code Compliance officials, and other city employees.
About 70 employees were moved out of the overcrowded, antiquated Oak Cliff Municipal Center in December 2023, but soon encountered problems with their new building.
We started getting emails that there was something going on, but the offenses sounded fairly innocuous: the parking lot wasn’t adequately striped and the elevators didn’t work. Then we learned that the building had no heat in the dead of winter and the minor inconveniences previously cited actually amounted to four dozen fire code violations.
For reasons still not completely known, the city-owned property didn’t have full certificates of occupancy, and employees were moved back to OCMC on April 9.
Blowing the Whistle
Employees who were sent to work in the unfinished Stemmons building funneled their grievances through Small. The inspector contacted CandysDirt.com, the city’s Ethics Advisory Commission, and “a few of the City Council members who I thought would listen. Then I talked to the fire marshal and The Dallas Morning News,” he said.
Small said he was close enough to retirement at the time that he wasn’t worried about retaliation or drawing attention to himself. Based on Small’s claims and those of other city employees, Dallas City Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn called a meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on General Investigating and Ethics in early May.
Department Reorganization
Former Development Services Director Andrew Espinoza, former Assistant City Manager Majed Al-Ghafry, and former Deputy City Manager Robert Perez, all central figures in the Stemmons debacle, have recently departed from the City of Dallas.
Espinoza was forced out of his job in June when Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert restructured the city’s organizational chart. The Development Services Department merged with the Planning and Urban Design under the purview of Planning and Development Director Emily Liu.
For what it’s worth, Andrew Espinoza was a good source for CandysDirt.com during his two-year tenure in Dallas. He was responsive when the department was under fire for a massive permit backlog and is credited for initiating new practices that improved response times. He stopped responding to our interview requests, however, when the Stemmons issue came to light.
CandysDirt.com recently conducted an exclusive interview with Epinoza, in which he responds to allegations made by Small and others, that is scheduled to appear in Thursday’s edition of our newsletter.
Employees Sound Off About Stemmons
Small said Espinoza started making changes in his second year on the job and employees began leaving. The work environment was toxic.
“All the guys in our plumbing inspection department were leaving; some of our electrical guys were leaving. I know one guy who retired because of [the leadership],” Small told CandysDirt.com.
“It was creating anxiety. It was making people sick.
“When he put me in that building over there at 7800 Stemmons, the first day I was in that building, it was 30-something degrees outside. I had an infrared camera and it told me that the glass was 42 degrees and the walls inside the building were 57 [degrees]. I couldn’t believe this guy was pushing us into the building with no [certificate of occupancy] and no inspections. He just moved us in and didn’t even bother to get the HVAC fixed up.”
Small said he also found out there were no fire sprinklers on the fifth floor where numerous city employees were expected to work all day. He knew something was “bad wrong.”
“He was a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Small said of Espinoza. “He was tearing us apart. I wish they’d follow the money and find out exactly what happened [at Stemmons]. It’s all in the dark. Somebody knows exactly what happened.”
Small moved from the fifth floor to the second floor in January.
‘Roaming Employees’
During the May meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on General Investigating and Ethics, city officials including Espinoza claimed that the problems were caused by employees “roaming” to floors they weren’t assigned to and leaking information to the media and City Council members. Those officials stressed that there were “no life and safety issues.”
Employee emails obtained by CandysDirt.com, however, revealed a different story. One employee called the building a “deathtrap.”
Small said he suspects money was the motive in moving employees to Stemmons before the building was ready. The city was paying a building inspection company, SafeBuilt, $1.5 million annually for two third-party reviewers, he said. The department was also reportedly “hemorrhaging money,” so there was a sense of urgency to recover costs. Permitting fees increased earlier this year in an effort to keep the department in the black.
What’s Next For Stemmons?
The building at 7800 N. Stemmons Freeway has been the subject of several recent closed-door City Council sessions. Some speculate the building could be sold, but that doesn’t solve the problem of what to do with the employees who need a place to work.
Employee Morale
Small has nothing but kind words for new Planning and Development Director Liu and Interim City Manager Tolbert.
Tolbert visited the department on Espinoza’s last day and reassured employees that they were valuable team members, Small said.
“She was so good to us and made concessions with us, trying to keep us, because everybody was talking about leaving,” he said. “We need better leadership. Emily is doing her best. She has a Teams meeting with all of us every Monday morning. That helps. I think people need to listen to her. She just doesn’t know the ins and outs of building inspections. She’s good at planning and zoning; that’s what she’s been doing for 20 years.”
Vernon Young and Sam Eskander are now overseeing building inspections but restoring morale is a tall order, Small explained.
“There’s still a little struggle there,” he said. “I know it’s going to take time to change. Things are going in a better direction. The overall morale is so much better. People know it’s going to get better. We need a director who’s going to lead us in the right direction.”
Looking Back — and Forward
Small said, in spite of the challenges, he loved his job. His father was an electrical contractor and Small used to accompany him to the building on Jefferson Boulevard to get permits.
“I always thought, how cool would it be to work here?” he said.
Small started out taking home about $28,000 a year in 2004. He was able to retire before age 60 with a pension provided by the Employee Retirement Fund. If the Stemmons building is sold, there’s a possibility those funds could go toward the ERF, the inspector said.
As for Small, he’s happy to put this 20-year chapter behind him now and wishes the new team well. His advice for the current leadership is to listen to the loyal employees who weathered the storm.
“They want to bring in all these new people and new ideas, but building inspection has been around for years and years, and there are people who know the processes,” he said. “If they put some people in [leadership] who know the processes, things will go a lot smoother.”
The married father — whose daughter is a mechanical engineer — started his own electrical contracting company last month.
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By the way, Eddie Small wasn’t the best employee. He was more focused on rumors and gossip than on actual work (just my opinion). Employees like him are the reason Andrew was brought in to clear the 100-day backlog of permits.
Unfortunately, Small and others like him made it personal, prioritizing working from home or coming in late instead of considering the impact on their jobs when the department faces bigger issues.
The only point I agree with him on is that this department is still led by Sam and Vernon, who were part of the problem during the transfer to Stemmons.
As for the leadership today, here’s who we have in charge:
1. Robin Bentley, ACM, with no knowledge of building permits.
2. Emily Liu, Director, she is a planner with very limited experience in building permits, leaving EVERYTHING for Sam and Vernon
3- Mina “Sam” Eskander, Chief Bldg Official, he is engineer, never opened a code book!
4- Vernon Young, deputy director, not sure how he got his position with no degree!
I completely disagree. Eddie was an exemplary employee who looked out for his fellow coworkers and cared about his customers at the City deeply. The micro-managing, lying, and obfuscation of actual permitting issues that Espinoza presided over caused so many good staff to seek employment elsewhere. There is a reason they had almost 70% turnover ion less than two years. His lack of understanding (or even caring) about the entirety of the process (zoning, inspections, etc.) has caused serious issues for the City.
The biggest issue is with the third-party reviewers, who have no stake in the outcome of the permitting process and have literally no knowledge of any zoning requirements (see Elm Thicket issues). Add a guy who tried to run a department like his own personal fiefdom and you have a recipe for disaster.
I can’t speak for Mr. Small’s work ethic as mentioned in the first post, but I don’t disagree with this characterization of Andres (not Andrew). Andres was part of the San Antonio Gang (Majed Al-Ghafry, Robert Perez, and TC).
Robert Perez was given the position of Public Works Director by TC, despite having no engineering background or degree. He heavily relied on everyone else who had the experience and knowledge. For his performance, he was promoted to Deputy City Manager. As for Majed, it was no different; for his hard work and loyalty, he was promoted to Assistant City Manager. Andres wasn’t the only one causing a toxic environment—it was a group effort.
What Andres brought to the table was a very lazy style of management, which was actually micro-management. On day one, in one of his many mandatory meetings, he declared himself the “head football coach,” stating that he alone made the final decisions.
Let’s be honest: every organization has hard-working members and others who barely do the minimum to avoid being fired. Someone who understands management would set up a structure that doesn’t punish the most knowledgeable, hard-working members of the team but focuses on those not pulling their weight. Andres did the complete opposite.
Andres responded to problem employees with knee-jerk reactions, instituting sweeping policies that affected everyone. If you wanted to take a vacation extending beyond four days, you had to send a personal letter to Andres explaining why, using a format he provided. Andres also changed everyone’s work schedule, and again, you had to send him a letter asking permission to continue with your previous schedule.
He required every single minute to be accounted for in spreadsheets—many people had to fill out three or four. More time was spent completing these than actually working. Managers went from managing to checking every spreadsheet, making sure everything was filled out correctly (think TPS Reports from Office Space). Supervisors and managers were terrified to make decisions on their own; everything had to go through Andres.
Andres knew he was protected by TC, which seemed to embolden him. The effect of Andres’ policies was extremely low morale and a wave of employee departures. Those who could retire did. Those who could transfer out of the department moved. Those who couldn’t left the city altogether. Some departments were completely gutted, with the hardest-working, most knowledgeable people leaving—not the laziest.
Dallas residents and any developers wanting to do business will ultimately pay the price in the long run. It will take years to train the new hires, most of whom have little to no experience.
As far as the current managers and supervisors go, they need to be more vocal and stand their ground on policies that undermine their teams and their ability to manage effectively. They are also to blame for allowing Andres’ unchecked behavior. If they don’t take action, another Andres will rise through the ranks in no time, creating a similar disruption.
At the end of the day, I appreciate that Mr. Small spoke out. The Stemmons building wasn’t what “broke the camel’s back”—it only served as a final symbol of the San Antonio crew’s incompetence. Once TC was on the chopping block, it was all over. The crew was broken up, Its now Austins Problem to bare
Smalls was a model employee who genuinely cared about his clients at the City and watched out for his fellow employees. He wasn’t scared to stand up to the incompetent leadership.
Espinoza’s micromanaging, lying, and obscuring of real permitting concerns drove a large number of talented employees to go for work elsewhere. Many administrators/ deputy in trainee are still pushing for a micromanaging agenda asking employees to fill out two to three documents a week before actually doing the plan review process.
You want to know why permits are delayed? Why don’t we ask Linda, whom is still advocating for the Andrew way of doing spreadsheets and filtering down to managers to push onto the people that are working. Is this what these positions are for?
8 years ago this was a great place to work at but the fact that we have no people with knowledge left nor have people with knowledge to be a manager, no wonder Smalls had to be a voice of reason. Yet, many things are still getting worse. Emily the new director, changing employee meals to last 30 minutes and she didn’t think of our [2] 15-minute breaks as instruments to boost morale and have our 1 hour that’s been like this FOR YEARS. Does the term burn out mean anything? Emily, good luck getting the folks who really do the job to stand up for you.
The City is facing major problems as a result of his ignorance—or lack of interest—about every aspect of the process of permitting. Council and HR, stop promoting and hiring people that don’t know a thing about the permitting process, about construction or “managers” that don’t know how to manage people. It’s evident we have people like Linda, Sam and Emily and many others whom are sabotaging morale, the permit process, and disrupting it with administrative crap and policies so they can fulfill their days instead of helping the PUBLIC. These kind of expectations were not here 8 years and are not aligning with the people with the boots on the ground.
I worked with Eddie both as an equal and as his superior. He was always focused on serving the public. I totally respected that. I am glad that he chose to stick around and fight the good fight and expose what was going on in the BI department. He did what a lot of us that left the department because of Andres didn’t have the stomach for. Andres beat anyone that didn’t agree with him down until they acquiesced, or quit. Except Eddie. Well, done my man. Well done.
I’ve talked with Eddie Small numerous times, and I have no reason to question his integrity.
Having worked in the Oak Cliff Municipal Center (OCMC) for several years, my area was also scheduled to relocate to 7800 Stemmons. The impression I received, was that the move was poorly planned, poorly managed, and was pushed way to fast. The City of Dallas had been talking for years about moving out of the OCMC. So why the rush into a suspect building?
Perhaps the Municipal building, and the City owned parking lots surrounding it, have become more valuable to private developers now that Southern Gateway Park is nearing completion? That could be something to look into.
I experienced and am still doing so in a very, very lawsuit against a developer given free reign to do as they pleased, regardless of the building codes and consequences to my property. I begged, begged, Donald Dixson to not allow a huge diesel fuel exhaust pipe 10 feet from my property line, begged Juan Espinoza to please help, and all the rest at the City of Dallas, no one would listen to reason or help. Now, when this huge generator is on, the diesel fuel fills my small apartment house with black soot, diesel fuel, noise is incredible (130 decibels) when it is supposed to be 56, sickenin odor. I cannot rent my property, my tenants are sick, are planning on leaving. All because the building codes were ignored, Donald Dixson allowed this, and so did the City management, engineers, I brought in the relevant codes, told them they were wrong, and it would ruin my property, What Happened? Exactly that. No one cared. The City of Dallas is only out to help developers get whatever they want at any cost to anyone in their way. I have spent many, many thousands of dollars in legal fees so far, with nothing, because the ower of this property with the generator, The Anthology, has no concern whatsoever that this is causing sickness to my tenant and could be a catastophic situation. There is no concern, none. They advertise how they care for their clients(assisted living) do not believe it. They cared for no one. They only care+ about money.
The City of Dallas is responsible for the ruination of my property allowing this situation. They were advised of this, I have all the paper works to prove it.