Dallas City Council members said they were caught off guard when they found out Dallas Police Chief Eddie García was on his way out to join former City Manager T.C. Broadnax in Austin as an assistant city manager.
Council members were made aware of García’s departure after phone calls and texts from reporters when Broadnax released a memo announcing García’s hiring to Austin officials.
That did not sit well with several council members, and by the time interim City Manager Kim Tolbert told them Thursday afternoon, the news had spread like wildfire.
In her note to council members, Tolbert said García was retiring.
“Although I wish it was not so, the Austin City Manager has released a memorandum to the City Council confirming his new appointment as an Assistant City Manager,” Tolbert said.
Tolbert and Mayor Eric Johnson released a joint statement late Thursday afternoon. “Chief Garcia was the right leader at the right time for the Dallas Police Department,” they said. “We shared a vision for a safer Dallas that relied on proven strategies and a relentless approach to fighting crime, and we worked together to prioritize public safety at City Hall and turn the tide against violence in Dallas neighborhoods.”
Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins and council members Paula Blackmon, Zarin Gracey and Jaynie Schultz said they were caught by surprise. Gracey, who learned the news from a Dallas Morning News reporter, said he was disappointed and still processing García’s departure.
Each considered García a change-maker, an official respected by his rank and file as well as community members. The best of what Dallas could be, council members said.
Atkins said he was surprised since the city had just given the outgoing police chief a retention bonus in May.
“I thought when we gave him the incentive to stay and ruled out Austin way back then, I thought that he was on board with the city of Dallas,” Atkins said.
A few months ago, Tolbert said García was committed to staying in the city until at least May 2027. Tolbert worked out an addendum to his agreement that gave him a retention bonus of $10,000 every six months. García also agreed to help the city find a new chief when the time came, the release said.
Schultz and Blackmon said they weren’t surprised that García was moving on professionally, but it’s the manner of how they found out that bothered them.
“The news to the council should have first come from Tolbert,” Blackmon said. “She works for us. He works for her,” she said.
García’s move to Austin comes at a critical time, Blackmon said. Council members recently approved a pension plan to close a $3 billion funding gap in the police and fire pension system.
Blackmon also cited the November elections, when Dallas voters will consider “three dangerous charter amendments brought forth by Dallas HERO.”
Dallas Hero, a nonprofit group, launched a campaign over the summer that would force the city to have a minimum of 4,000 police officers and devote excess city revenue to public safety, tie the city manager’s job status and bonuses to an annual community survey, and force the city to waive its governmental immunity to allow lawsuits over not following local and state laws.
“One will hamstring our police chief with hiring 900 officers in the next year – an unrealistic and arbitrary number and will put the city in financial chaos,” Blackmon said. The amendments could jeopardize the council’s ability to hire and retain top talent, including a police chief, she said.
During council meetings, before a lawsuit between the city and the group complicated matters, both García and council members said the police department struggled to meet goals of hiring over 200 officers a year.
Tolbert and Chief Financial Officer Jack Ireland have said that these amendments will force the city to cut services drastically.
“I am concerned that this effort, led by non-Dallas residents, has run off the best police chief in the nation, and this is only the beginning of many more top-quality staff to leave the CCity of Dallas,” Blackmon said.
Reporter Everton Bailey Jr. contributed to the report.
