Despite last-ditch pleas, City Council votes no to moving police oversight office under it

An effort to convince the City Council to supervise Dallas’ police oversight office failed on Wednesday, keeping the city manager in charge of the watchdog department, despite eleventh-hour pleas by activists and officials.
Instead, council members tasked interim city manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert with drawing up a 90-day plan to overhaul the oversight office — with several saying the discussion shed light on flaws in the current structure.
“The actual job of oversight has not been something we’ve prioritized,” deputy mayor pro tem Adam Bazaldua said at the meeting. “That’s the reality. What we did was we took a vote several years ago, and then we washed our hands and we expected it to be handled by a department. That’s not true oversight.”
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Until Wednesday, council members had scarcely spoken publicly about issues in Dallas’ police oversight. The oversight office, which usually has about four employees, has been without a permanent director for nearly a year. The office works as a liaison between Dallas police and the Community Police Oversight Board — which is made up of 15 City Council appointees — and independently investigates resident complaints about police.
Problems snowballed after the departure in September of inaugural monitor Tonya McClary, who board members said was laid off by former city manager T.C. Broadnax. An investigation published by The News in March detailed how oversight in Dallas unraveled, with tensions rising after the oversight office shared a complaint by DyNell Lane, a disabled veteran who said officers denied him a restroom and were seen on video laughing about how he soiled himself.
After that video went viral, McClary was pushed out of office and oversight lost its chief investigator, according to board members. Oversight’s authority was brought into question as the turmoil unfolded — spurring a push by activists and board members to move the oversight office under the City Council instead of the city manager.
They argued doing so would ensure its independence and prevent conflict-of-interest issues because the police chief also reports to the city manager. The proposal passed the Charter Review Commission earlier this year.
Eleven City Council members opposed the move on Wednesday after several raised procedural questions about how it would work and how much rebuilding the office needs.
Council member Jaynie Schultz said shifting oversight under council would add a burden they aren’t prepared for. Cara Mendelsohn, who chairs the public safety committee, said improvement is needed but she doesn’t want oversight to become politicized and the city manager has “professional management, not political management.”
Bazaldua — along with council members Zarin Gracey, Jaime Resendez and Paula Blackmon — voted in favor. Bazaldua said Dallas oversight lacks teeth and voting no was “the path of least resistance.” He said police oversight should be afforded the same autonomy as the parks department, whose director answers to a volunteer board.
“I don’t know why we wouldn’t look at a department that takes over the lion’s share of our budget,” Bazaldua said, referencing police. “We’re talking about peoples’ lives. We’re talking about peoples’ interactions with the police. We’re talking about relationships that we hold so sacred.”
Oversight board chairman John Mark Davidson — along with activist Dominique Alexander, who authored the proposal, and board member Changa Higgins — urged officials to vote for the move during public comment. At the oversight board’s monthly meeting Tuesday, every board member in attendance said a leadership change was needed. All but one member supported reporting to the City Council.
“I am disappointed,” Davidson told The Dallas Morning News after the council’s vote. “However, I am encouraged by the recognition that change is necessary. This could be the beginning of important discussions about reworking the city ordinance and the structure of police oversight to better serve the people of Dallas.”
Tolbert told council members the oversight office needs a reset on its “entire operations” — including by identifying gaps in resources, staffing and processes, training the board and giving the office new leadership. A city HR employee has filled in as interim monitor, but a new director is expected to be named next week.
“We’ve missed some opportunities … I believe if we truly want this to work, then we have to be intentional about what we do and how we do it,” Tolbert said. “It’s almost like starting over.”
Higgins, a board member who helped revamp Dallas police oversight in 2019, called the vote “shameful” and “disappointing.” He told The News the amount of fundamental questions lodged about police oversight during the meeting showed it wasn’t a priority, adding council has “no idea” of the challenges the office has faced.
He said he was hopeful after the council earlier Wednesday signaled support for asking voters whether the city should separate the Inspector General from the city attorney’s office and establish it as an independent office. He thought officials would see similarities with the police oversight proposal — but said their office and board have been treated like “black sheep.”
“They don’t want to do anything that makes them look like they are anti-police,” he said. “I guess we were asking for too much from them.”