Coronavirus News

Governor hits pause on Texas' reopening following COVID-19 surge

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There've been record highs in the number of positive cases.

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The glorious reopening of Texas has been put on a temporary hold, in response to a surge in positive cases of the coronavirus.

According to a release, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is pausing any further phases to open Texas, as the state responds to the recent increase in positive COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

Businesses that were permitted to open under the previous phases, with the most recent one being Phase III deployed on June 3, can continue to operate.

Just don't expect Phase IV to come along any time soon.

"As we experience an increase in both positive COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, we are focused on strategies that slow the spread of this virus while also allowing Texans to continue earning a paycheck to support their families," Abbott said in a statement.

"The last thing we want to do as a state is go backwards and close down businesses," he said. "This temporary pause will help our state corral the spread until we can safely enter the next phase of opening our state for business."

"Corral" has been his go-to word. He used it in his press conference on June 22, when he said that current strategies to combat the coronavirus were working, despite 10 straight days of record numbers of COVID-19 cases across the state.

"COVID-19 is spreading at an unacceptable rate in Texas and it must be corralled," he said. "But we have strategies to reduce that without shutting Texas back down."

Abbott also suspended elective surgeries at hospitals in Bexar, Dallas, Harris, and Travis counties, in order to ensure there are enough hospital beds for COVID-19 patients.

"These four counties have experienced significant increases in people being hospitalized due to COVID-19 and today's action is a precautionary step to help ensure that the hospitals in these counties continue to have ample supply of available beds to treat COVID-19 patients," he said.

Dallas County has hit a series of new highs, significant enough that healthcare professionals from UT Southwestern sounded an alarm.

According to UTSW figures, statistics in Collin, Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant counties all show that the pandemic is spreading. Tarrant County reported a seven-day high of 25 percent positivity on June 23, while hospitalization rates in Collin County and Denton County doubled in a week.

State-wide, Texas is also seeing new highs, with 5,551 new coronavirus cases on June 24, a record high, and another record of 4,389 patients hospitalized.

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Politics News

Dallas narrows down field for new city manager to 4 candidates

Photo by R K on Unsplash

This is an Dallasite's sign to launch that small business they've been dreaming of.

After six months without a city manager, the city of Dallas has narrowed down the field of replacements to four semifinalists including one serving as current interim city manager, plus candidates from Fort Worth, Michigan, and Georgia.

Dallas has been without a city manager since May, when previous city manager T.C. Broadnax left to take a job with the city of Austin. Since that time, Broadnax's former chief of staff Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has served as interim city manager.

The city retained Baker Tilly, a consulting firm, to recruit and compile candidates. (Baker Tilly famously erred in the brochure it created for the position by featuring a photo of the Houston skyline instead of Dallas; they've since replaced it with Dallas.)

A spokesperson for Baker Tilly did not respond to inquiries but according to D Magazine, an email listing the candidates has been sent to the Dallas City Council.

The semifinalists include:

Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Dallas’ current interim city manager
William Johnson, an assistant city manager in Fort Worth
Mark Washington, the city manager of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Zachary Williams, a county chief operating officer in Georgia

All have more than 25 years' of public administration experience and have worked in similar capacities in their respective cities.

Before working in Fort Worth, Johnson was Baltimore’s transportation director and Atlanta’s deputy chief operating officer and public works commissioner.

Washington worked in Fort Worth and Austin before becoming Grand Rapids’ city manager.

Williams has mostly worked in Georgia at the county level, including serving as county manager in Fulton County and chief operating officer in DeKalb County.

Tolbert began working for the city in 1998, first as the city manager’s assistant and later in the aviation department. Broadnax hired her as his chief of staff in 2017.

Unlike the Mayor and the Dallas City Council, the city manager position in Dallas is not elected but is instead appointed by the city council, and is tasked with executing policies, overseeing the annual budget, and managing staff at city hall.

The council’s Ad Hoc Committee will choose finalists, introduce them to the public, and make an offer in early 2025.

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