Laura Miller, Tom Leppert push for stronger mayor form of government amid Dallas City Hall debate

Some former Dallas Mayors want a big change in how the city of Dallas works.

It comes after controversy erupted over the future of City Hall - whether city leaders should spend at least half a billion dollars in repairs or move out of the nearly 50-year-old, I.M. Pei-designed building and sell the land for redevelopment.

Council members rejected the repair plan earlier this month and last week approved spending up to $3 million to begin negotiating with downtown property owners to potentially relocate city hall and other offices to their buildings.

There's another controversy brewing, this one over the city's new nearly $4 billion convention center. After construction began, a costly redesign may be needed because the project's impact on two viaducts could hamper traffic into downtown from southern Dallas. Council members are set to vote next week on what to do.

Former Mayors Tom Leppert and Laura Miller say the mayor needs to have more power and that the city manager form of government no longer works. 

"The nub of the problem is that you've got six council members who don't even know what's going on, because the city manager doesn't even talk to them. And that's why we need to get rid of the city manager form of government," Miller told Jack Fink. 

Miller clarified that, "the city manager can be the chief operating officer, but the city manager should be hired by the mayor. And answer to the mayor. And answer to the mayor and the council."

She told Fink that currently, "the city manager doesn't isn't accountable to anybody, which is why we're in the problem that we're in. You know, no city manager in my lifetime that I've been covering and serving in City Hall has ever been fired. Some should have been fired, but they weren't fired. There's never enough. There are never ten of 15 council members that pull the trigger and fire a bad city manager."

"I think it's time that we've got to reevaluate the governance structure," Leppert said to Jack in an interview. "We need to look and see that it's not as effective as it needs to be, especially when we need to compete all across this nation and all across the world. I'll stop short of giving terms, terms attached to it, but I think, yes, the mayor has to be in a stronger position to basically identify a vision. Walk our entire populace there and have the tools to be able to accomplish that."