Dallas City Manager A.C. Gonzalez to retire

Dallas City Manager A.C. Gonzalez is calling it quits.

After 14 years as assistant city manager and 3 years running as the interim and appointed city manager, Gonzalez announced on Monday that he will be retiring.

Gonzalez tells FOX 4 he came to the decision a few weeks ago and believes the timing is right.

“There isn’t any one thing. It’s more of a reflection that came to me as we were going through the review process,” said Gonzalez. “I started to reflect where we are in the organization and my personal life.”

Gonzalez says he’s accomplished what he set out to do by implementing programs designed to enhance transparency and customer service.

But Gonzalez has had moments of contention with this city council. There were questions that surrounded the investigation of City Councilman Scott Griggs and whether he assaulted a city employee. Griggs was not billed by a grand jury. There are also questions of Gonzalez' involvement in Uber coming to Dallas and how he handled or mishandled that vote before the city council.

“There are those moments where you think boy this didn’t go as well as you would have liked to,” Gonzalez admitted. “But I look at every one of those moments as an opportunity to learn. And indeed we came out of those situations with the idea that we would improve.”

Gonzalez has been the cover for Dallas Police Chief David Brown through a season of police associations calling for a change in leadership in the department. He says Brown is the man to lead the department.

“This police chief that we have is, in my opinion, head and shoulders above that we have had come before him,” said Gonzalez. “I’ve seen him in action in so many different ways in delaying with problems facing the department facing the community, and he's done so in a very professional way.”

The construction of the Omni Hotel is what the city manager sees as his legacy. Not just the structure, but what it took to build it.

Gonzalez says his budget will include a raise for police but does not yet know how large that pay increase proposal will be.

He will stay on until January to give the city time to search for another manager