Dallas Voters Will Decide $443M Public Safety Bond, But Not Fate of City Hall Repairs
Share News:
Voters will get the final say on a $443 million public safety bond package this November, but they won’t get the chance to decide on whether to borrow additional money to help repair Dallas City Hall.
An attempt to add City Hall repair funding as a separate proposition became one of several flashpoints on Wednesday as council members spent hours debating a bond election originally pegged at nearly $1 billion.
Council Member Adam Bazaldua (District 7) proposed adding $100 million to fund deferred maintenance for 1500 Marilla St. late in the discussion.
“If there’s going to be a future for City Hall, it’s going to require bond funding,” he said. “Why on earth would we send a bond this November to get the pulse from the voters for things that we say are important and fail to get them to weigh in on what we should be doing with this building?”
Bazaldua, who has opposed measures that would open the door to abandoning the building, said voters themselves could settle the argument. If they aren’t willing to authorize debt for repairs, he said, “then my fight’s over.”
The proposed amendment to the bond package failed 8-7, a slightly closer vote than most concerning the fate of City Hall. A 9-6 majority of the city council has been steadily advancing exploratory work on potentially relocating City Hall operations and considering future options for 1500 Marilla St.
Council Members Maxie Johnson (District 4), Lorie Blair (District 8), and Kathy Stewart (District 10) argued against Bazaldua’s motion by pointing out that the city council opted against authorizing a phased repair program for the building in June.
“From my perspective, we’ve said no,” Stewart said. “I don’t know how we would then authorize or ask our residents to authorize $100 million for a repair strategy when it has been the wisdom of this council to not pursue that.”
She called the decision reached a “difficult” and “heartbreaking” one, but one nonetheless based on multiple rounds of assessment by consultants who said it would cost at least hundreds of millions of dollars to bring City Hall into proper working order.
“If you want to do a bond for City Hall, let’s be honest with the public,” said Council Member Gay Donnell Willis (District 13). “Let’s use the real number that it would take.”
Earlier in the day, the Save Dallas City Hall Coalition finally filed suit against the city after months of legal threats related to the relocation debate. The organization sued the city, Mayor Eric Johnson, council members, and several other officials, alleging they allowed the I.M. Pei-designed building to deteriorate in violation of its own demolition-by-neglect ordinance. The suit pointed to water infiltration, drainage failures, concrete spalling, and deficient electrical and emergency generator systems.
It also claimed the city failed to carry out required preservation procedures after the Landmark Commission initiated historic designation of City Hall in March 2025. The lawsuit seeks court orders compelling inspections and other preservation measures, along with repairs and protections against further deterioration.
Mayor Eric Johnson and Council Members Chad West (District 1), Jesse Moreno (District 2) and Zarin Gracey (District 3) joined Maxie Johnson, Blair, Stewart, and Willis in voting against Bazaldua’s motion.
The vote was the capstone on a sometimes contentious debate over what to include in a November 3 bond election. Staff had proposed $960 million in bonds across three propositions: $443 million for public safety facilities, $500 million in pension obligation bonds for the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System, and $17 million for fleet maintenance facility improvements.
Council members ended up paring down the proposal to the single $443 million proposition for public safety projects. The proposition includes funding to close an $82 million gap for the new Dallas Police Department academy at the University of North Texas at Dallas, along with $149 million for a separate public safety training complex at Dallas Executive Airport. It also has $150 million for police evidence storage, a property room, and crime lab; $40 million to relocate 911 dispatch and the Emergency Operations Center from City Hall; and $22 million to replace Fire Station No. 4 downtown.
“The Dallas City Council took an important step on Wednesday to strengthen public safety by focusing our upcoming bond package solely on critical public safety infrastructure. … If approved by voters, these projects would modernize Dallas public safety operations and keep our focus on the future,” City Manager Kimberly Tolbert said in a statement after the vote.
Landing on the single public safety proposition wasn’t a straightforward affair, though. Council Member Cara Mendelsohn (District 12) motioned to break up the public safety item into three propositions, which would have allowed voters to consider the police training facilities separately from the 911/EOC relocation and other projects.
She argued against abandoning the EOC’s current location in the basement of City Hall, saying the building’s hardened construction provides advantages that other municipal buildings don’t have, in spite of any needed upgrades.
A handful of council members pushed back, decrying the EOC’s existing conditions. Kevin Oden, Dallas’ director of Emergency Management and Crisis Response, told council members that federal partners declined to co-locate at City Hall during recent FIFA operations after assessing the facility. He said the FBI-led federal operation determined that City Hall’s risk profile, available space, and conditions did not meet its operational needs.
Mendelsohn’s motion was defeated.
Voters will be presented with an up-or-down vote to authorize $443 million in borrowing for public safety capital projects on November 3.
