The city is being sued to fix the building.

On August 12, 2026 the Save Dallas City Hall Coalition asked a Dallas County district judge to order the city to repair City Hall, keep its emergency generators working, and finish the landmark designation it started in 2025. This page says what the suit asks, what it does not, and what it lays out about the money.

What was filed

A 45-page verified petition, filed in Dallas County district court on August 12, 2026, the same day council rejected a $100 million City Hall repair proposition 7–8 and called the November bond election. The plaintiff is the coalition, a Texas nonprofit. The defendants are the city, the mayor, all fourteen council members, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Historic Preservation Officer Marcus Watson, and Chief of Real Estate John Johnson, each sued in their official capacity. Counsel of record are Christopher D. Bowers, R. Michael Northrup, Sol Villasana, Vonciel Jones Hill, Robert J. Miklos, and Scott T. Griggs; Griggs and Hill are former council members.

The suit runs on five claims, each tied to a section of the city's own code:

1
Demolition by neglectA building under a landmark moratorium may not be allowed to deteriorate. The petition lists, from the city’s own condition reports, recurring roof and interior water infiltration, a failed interior gutter system, water over electrical and telecommunications equipment, active garage water intrusion, a failed plaza storm drain, garage cracking and concrete spalling, obsolete electrical infrastructure, and a nonfunctioning generator.
2
Failure to investigateWhen an interested party asks, the preservation officer "shall" meet the owner, inspect, identify funding, and report to the Landmark Commission. The coalition asked on July 22. He acknowledged the request on August 5 and referred it to the City Attorney. Nothing was scheduled.
3
Abuse of city propertyAgainst the city manager and the chief of real estate, for not maintaining the emergency backup generators.
4
Breach of fiduciary dutyFor identifying money to repair City Hall and then moving it, spending it elsewhere, or leaving it idle. The figures are below.
5
Failure to finish the designationThe Landmark Commission voted unanimously on March 3, 2025 to begin designating City Hall. Seventeen months on, the required report has not been written. The petition says the protection that vote created runs out on March 3, 2027.

The suit is brought under Chapter XXV of the city charter, the 2024 Proposition S, which lets residents sue the city to enforce its own laws after sixty days' notice. The coalition sent that notice on May 12, 2026. Coverage: KERA, Dallas Express.

What it asks, and what it doesn't

The petition asks the court to order the mayor, council, city manager, and chief of real estate to repair the listed defects and stop the building deteriorating; to order the city manager and chief of real estate to maintain the generator system; to order the preservation officer to write the designation report on a schedule that lets council vote before the moratorium expires; and to extend that moratorium by as many months as the officer has delayed.

It does not ask for money. It does not ask the court to stop the city from studying a move, choosing a site, or leaving. A judge could grant every word of it and the council could still vote to relocate the next day. What the suit would change is the condition the building is in when that vote happens, and whether the building keeps its legal protection while the city decides.

This is a different case from the June one. In June, two council members won a restraining order because a special meeting's agenda was too vague; they dropped that suit in July. This one is about the building, not the notice.

The money trail

The petition's fourth claim is the argument this site makes on the Why page, with the city's own memos as exhibits. As the coalition reads those memos:

$22.7M
Identified for City HallFederal relief money the city reprogrammed for City Hall in 2024: $7.66 million for the generator and electrical work, $15 million for major maintenance.
$17M
The generator needA November 2025 memo from the city manager's office put the engineering estimate for generator and electrical rehabilitation at about $17 million, against the $7.6 million allocated, and said there was "no specific major maintenance funding for City Hall projects" in either of the last two budgets.
$523,335
Left on the generator lineUnencumbered as of April 30, 2026, per a May memo from the chief financial officer. Two months earlier the same line showed $6.5 million unencumbered. The petition does not say where the difference went; it says the city has not produced an accounting.

On June 17, the city manager's item funding the search for somewhere else to go was written to draw its $2 million from that same generator and electrical line. Council amended it on the floor to take the money from the General Fund contingency reserve instead, and passed it 9–5. The petition's point is not that any of this broke federal rules. It is that the city found the money, set it aside for the building, and then did not fix the building.

These are the coalition's figures, drawn from city memos the petition cites. The city has not yet answered them in court.

What to watch

Sep 9Wed
Council closed session on the suit Item 37, with the city's lawyers. No public motion followed. Legistar entry
Sep 21Mon
Sixty days after the inspection request The earliest date, by the coalition's count, that it can add the charter version of its claim against the preservation officer.
Mar 32027
The moratorium runs out Two years after the Landmark Commission's vote, unless council finishes the designation, terminates it, or a court extends it.

Not dated: the city's answer, any motion to dismiss, and any hearing on the injunction. This page will say when those land.

1500marilla.com is not a party to the suit and is not affiliated with the coalition. The petition is public; read it and judge it yourself. What to do with any of this is on the How page.