Where did the Dallas City Council go?

Twenty-four hours ago, we’d anticipated that the Observer’s Wednesday Dallas City Council report would be all about the Council’s deliberations surrounding two special-called agenda items likely to determine the future of the city’s municipal footprint. 

The items, which authorized the city manager to spend the summer shopping for real estate and allocated up to $3 million to do so, passed 9-5, with council member Adam Bazaldua absent when the votes were taken. Bazaldua attended the meeting virtually at intermittent times. 

The fact that it took four hours to get through two agenda items would normally be interesting enough for us City Hall watchers. A handful of Council members who have stood opposed to leaving the Marilla Street building that Dallas moved into 48 years ago introduced so many amendments on the items that we lost track. Their motions suggested that the city manager should consider everything from employee parking to protest space when evaluating the four new sites where City Hall may soon move. 

Every amendment was ultimately shot down, but not before the morning hours had ticked away. In the end, though, it was what didn’t occur in the afternoon hours that really caught our attention. 

After taking a break around 2:30 p.m., City Council failed to reconvene due to a lack of quorum. Quorum is the number of members legally required for official city governing to take place; in Dallas, that number is nine. If nine of the horseshoe’s 15 members are present, business may proceed as usual. 

By our count, only eight representatives were present after the break. So where were the other seven? 

To answer our question, we look to Arlington, where the second North Texas match of the FIFA 2026 World Cup kicked off promptly at 3 p.m. 

The Observer spoke with two individuals who confirmed that a handful of Council members left the afternoon’s meeting — which would have included a briefing on the results of the survey where community members were asked to share their thoughts on the city’s management, and a briefing on the next fiscal year’s budget, which has a $51 million deficit — in pursuit of greener World Cup pastures (or pitch, if you will). 

Who exactly was invited to the game is unclear, but the afternoon’s attendance as we’ve been able to confirm it consisted of Gay Donnell Willis, Paul Ridley, Cara Mendelsohn, Maxie Johnson, Kathy Stewart and Bill Roth, who all returned to the horseshoe after the break. For her part, Council member Laura Cadena told the Observer in a statement that she’d moved to her office for the afternoon portion of the meeting after falling ill. Council members may attend meetings virtually, and unlike in committee meetings, virtual attendance counts toward the quorum for council-wide meetings. 

“Listening to residents and participating in Council meetings is extremely important to me,” Cadena said. “I understand the frustration of residents who took time out of their day to attend and participate in the meeting, and I appreciate their engagement in the City’s work. However, even with my participation, there still would not have been enough members present to maintain quorum.” 

The eighth member of the council counted as present at the afternoon meeting was Chad West, who also tuned in virtually. West confirmed to the Observer that he attended the World Cup game in Arlington, but said that he’d planned to finish out the afternoon’s agenda nonetheless.  

“I was logged in virtually and had my video on. If quorum had been met, I was prepared to be a part of the meeting,” West said. 

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert and Council members Zarin Gracey, Jesse Moreno, Jaime Resendez, Paula Blackmon and Lori Blair did not respond to the Observer’s inquiry about their Wednesday afternoon whereabouts. As previously stated, Bazaldua spent the majority of the day in virtual attendance; a representative from his office did not answer the Observer’s questions about his schedule. 

We asked Council members whether they thought the afternoon’s briefings on budget problems and community feedback were appropriate to miss — regardless of whether their absence was due to the World Cup or any other reason. 

We asked the mayor’s office why the afternoon’s meeting wasn’t preemptively canceled if quorum may have been an issue, but did not receive a response. After all, community members who’d signed up to address the council during the public comment period spent half the day waiting around, only to be left behind.

Tolbert’s office did not answer our question regarding when the Council will hear the briefing items missed on Wednesday, which included the city budget and community survey. The horseshoe breaks for the summer in July, and next week’s meeting will be a voting agenda. Typically, briefing items are kept separate from voting meetings. 

The city of Dallas did not respond to our questions about how Council members traveled to the stadium and whether city vehicles were used for transportation. The city also did not answer a question regarding whether taxpayer dollars were used to fly in a representative from the Kansas-based company that conducted the community feedback survey to give the scheduled presentation that never happened as a result of the quorum threshold not being met on Wednesday afternoon.