DALLAS - Multiple members of Dallas City Council have sued the city in an attempt to stop Wednesday's meeting on redeveloping Dallas City Hall from moving forward.
Dallas City Council members sue City of Dallas
What we know:
Dallas City Council members Adam Bazaldua, Cara Mendelsohn and Paula Blackmon have filed a lawsuit against the City of Dallas in an attempt to stop Wednesday's Dallas City Council meeting from moving forward.
Wednesday's meeting includes a special agenda item about the redevelopment of Dallas City Hall.
The councilmembers argue that no meaningful notice was given about the meeting, and that the city failed to follow its own financial criteria.
What they're saying:
Bazaldua released the following statement on the lawsuit:
"Today, I filed a lawsuit against the City of Dallas and was joined by colleagues, Councilmembers Paula Blackmon and Cara Mendelsohn.
We have filed an emergency petition in Dallas County District Court seeking a Temporary Restraining Order to stop Wednesday’s special called meeting agenda item on the redevelopment of Dallas City Hall. This is not about whether City Hall should be redeveloped.
This is about whether the City of Dallas must follow its own rules. The City Secretary denied my lawful deferral request under Rule 7.11 of the Council Rules of Procedure. The agenda language gives the public no meaningful notice of what is actually being authorized. And the City has not complied with its own Financial Management Performance Criteria, requirements that exist specifically to protect Dallas taxpayers from rushed, ill-informed decisions.
Dallas City Hall is an I.M. Pei masterpiece and an irreplaceable civic landmark. A decision of this magnitude deserves full transparency, proper process, and genuine public participation, not a rushed vote at a specially called meeting with two days’ notice. We are asking the court simply to require the City to follow the law. Nothing more, nothing less."
Dallas City Hall's future
The backstory:
The future of Dallas City Hall has been in question since March, when Dallas City Council voted to explore leaving the iconic I.M. Pei-designed structure.
Last Wednesday, experts from two different firms presented options to Dallas City Council that ranged from $530 million to $610 million. Those costs are strictly for repairs and not potential upgrades to the building.
The latest estimates are less than the $1.4 billion estimate to keep the iconic building from February, but more than AECOM's $304 million baseline repair estimate presented in May. The latter estimate included a 10-year plan for repairs.
City council members characterized the fight to save the building as a fight for Dallas itself.
"To me, it's no longer ‘save City Hall’. It's ‘save our city’," Councilwoman Gay Donnell Willis said. "It's been a hard week. We've had a lot of news this week. And, I think we need to not only hear from our experts, but we need to listen to our experts."
"It's not a debate about whether we love an old building, Councilman Adam Bazaldua said last week. "This is a debate whether Dallas has done right by our taxpayers, whether we keep our word protected assets, and, from a process designed to make predetermined outcome look inevitable."
Dig deeper:
The Dallas Mavericks were interested in redeveloping the land around Dallas City Hall for a new arena before opting to purchase land in Far North Dallas last week.
The Dallas Stars also announced their intent to build a new arena at the Shops at Willow Bend mall site in Plano last week, which would leave Downtown Dallas without a professional sports team by 2031.
The Source: Information in this story comes from a letter from Dallas City Councilman Adam Bazaldua and previous FOX 4 reporting.