Dallas Mayor Issues Statement on City Hall Relocation Vote

Late Wednesday night, Dallas Mayor Eric L. Johnson released a statement on the ongoing discussions over the fate of Dallas City Hall.

The city put the statement out in a Wednesday evening press release. "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," the statement reads.

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"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," Johnson wrote.

The statement references the council's vote to put off a final decision on repairing the building until the city can figure out how much it will cost versus relocating to an entirely new space.

"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 1o months on repair cost estimates calculated by not only city staff, but also by many reputable outside experts," Johnson wrote.

He continued, "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."

Johnson said that council was briefed on several occasions in executive sessions about potential new locations for City Hall, and he concluded that it is "overwhelmingly clear" that relocation is a more efficient use of taxpayer dollars.

"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," Johnson wrote. "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."