Dallas: Eric Johnson Shows Us What It's Like to Be a (Really) Weak Mayor
There is a leadership vacuum at Dallas City Hall. It was on full display during yesterday’s epically long, 13-hour City Council budget briefing. To start, Mayor Eric Johnson was absent for more than 11 hours of the meeting. But it was Johnson’s behavior when he was present at the virtual horseshoe that demonstrated how ineffectual he has been as the city’s top elected official.
Johnson entered yesterday’s meeting with one thing to get done: win approval of his proposal for across-the-board salary cuts for city staff making $60,000 a year or more. The salary cuts, which the mayor has branded as his attempt to “defund the bureaucracy” at City Hall, were rejected by a near unanimous council vote of 13-1.
With that result, Johnson didn’t simply lose a vote, he lost credibility. Yesterday’s loss was the latest in a series of episodes in recent months that have shown us that, after a little more than a year in office, the mayor has managed to alienate his colleagues on the Council and city staff, while showing no capacity—or willingness—to steer city policy within Dallas’ council-manager, so-called “weak mayor” form of government.
It gets worse. After yesterday’s brutal defeat, the City Council paused for lunch. Johnson went to the Flag Room with his COVID-19 czar for a press conference, urging residents to remain vigilant against the coronavirus during Labor Day weekend.
Read more: https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2020/09/eric-johnson-shows-us-what-its-like-to-be-a-really-weak-mayor/
