Dallas City Hall. Like you didn’t know that already.
Chris Bowers spent close to 30 years in the city attorney’s office defending Dallas City Hall. Which is exactly what he’s doing again, only this time as one of four attorneys threatening to sue the mayor and Dallas City Council if they don’t start fixing City Hall.
This was just the thing I needed to get refocused on this story, a good, old-fashioned legal thrilla on Marilla! Because God knows I am not one of those waiting to see those 400 ridiculous renderings the city will eventually release when it needs another lookie-over-there. And I just can’t take one more briefing, one more closed session, one more 9-6 vote.
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I always figured the fight to keep City Hall – and to keep it out of the hands of the Dallas Mavericks – would wind up inside a courtroom one way or another. Better sooner than later. I just never figured there would be city attorneys on both sides.
Late Tuesday, Bowers and three other attorneys repping the Save Dallas City Hall coalition dispatched a three-page warning shot that accuses Mayor Eric Johnson and the council of failing to maintain, repair and restore I.M. Pei’s City Hall. They’re giving the council 60 days to start sinking some set-aside money into a few deferred maintenance issues, including back-up generators and public bathrooms, lest they file an actual lawsuit.
If the architects couldn’t get the council’s attention, the attorneys surely should. Joining Bowers are another former assistant city attorney and one-term state representative, Robert Miklos; Mike Northrup, who in 2024 took on council appointees who overstayed their welcomes at City Hall; and Sol Villasana, whose long career likewise includes a stint in the city attorney’s office.
Chris Bowers during his nearly 30 years in the Dallas City Attorney’s Office, where he was first assistant and interim city attorney during his long tenure
Maybe they aren’t household names where you live. But most of these guys used to get mail at 1500 Marilla Street.
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I spent years on the phone with Bowers discussing “demolition by neglect” back when he was on the city’s dime. He told me Wednesday that taking on City Hall to save City Hall was “an easy decision” that has actually been in the works for a while.
“I believe demolishing City Hall and relocating all the folks to different buildings would be a huge, costly mistake for many reasons,” Bowers said. “City Hall is a landmark, one of the most distinctive buildings in Dallas. Like it or hate it, it should be preserved if at all possible.”
During his longtime tenure as first assistant city attorney (who also spent five months holding down the top job), Bowers was the guy who took on property owners who let their historic properties go to shambles. Like Dallas High School downtown. Or East Dallas’ “House of the Future.” Or the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad depot at Ross Avenue and Record Street, which he proved was illegally razed by a developer 20 years ago. The last case resulted in a rare cash prize for the city: $750,000 in damages.
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Last year, the Landmark Commission unanimously initiated making City Hall a Dallas landmark, which the plan commission and council would still have to approve. But Bowers and his colleagues insist that initiation alone demands they comply with the historic designation ordinance that says, “All structures on properties subject to the predesignation moratorium and in historic overlay districts must be preserved against deterioration and kept free from structural defects.”
The demand letter also chides city officials for refusing to spend millions in American Rescue Plan Act dollars to replace generators and make electrical system upgrades. It also alleges that City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert is “improperly maintaining city equipment” by refusing to repair public bathrooms despite having the money to do so.
Like ducks on the pond … or, at least, in the reflecting pool on Dallas City Hall Plaza
“By neglecting to timely repair City Hall and its equipment,” the letter says, “City Council members and employees are violating their fiduciary duty to the City and its taxpayers.”
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I asked a city spokesperson if Bertram Vandenberg, the interim city attorney who crossed paths with Bowers at City Hall, had any comment on his former colleague’s comments. As expected: “We’ve received the letter and are reviewing it. We have no comment at this time.”
Bowers, now in private practice, has fought City Hall on behalf of clients since leaving City Hall. But this is a first, threatening to sue the city he spent most of his career defending.
“I never expected to be in this position, but I never expected policymakers would seriously consider demolishing City Hall,” Bowers said.
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I asked him if this was, ya know, strange, surreal, just weird.
“All of it,” he said. “I just never saw this day coming. In a perfect world, I would be doing other things. I don’t relish having to spend time fighting for this. But I think it’s important, so I am going to get involved in this fight.”