DALLAS — Dallas is hiring for the city's top job, but you wouldn't know it from the latest draft of the brochure designed to attract candidates.
Instead of a photo of Big D, the draft document submitted to city councilmembers searching for the next city manager showed a photo of the Houston skyline on its cover.
Several councilmembers instructed consultants from BakerTilly to add a better photo to the front, perhaps a shot of Reunion Tower or the iconic red pegasus, but none seemed to recognize the photo didn't show Dallas at all.
Our WFAA team believes we found the original photo -- or at least one taken from a similar vantage point. It was posted to Flickr in 2017 by photographer Raul Cano with the caption "mid-morning view of Downtown Houston."
Even if they didn't recognize the photo of Houston on the cover page, councilmembers were not sold on the substance of the document prepared by BakerTilly.
They told consultants to make changes, including swapping out the photo, before submitting a new draft by the close of business Wednesday.
Assuming the changes satisfy city leaders, the document will then be officially released to attract prospective candidates for the most powerful position at City Hall: city manager.
The city manager writes the city's $5 billion budget, oversees the police and fire departments and manages all city employees including those in charge of building permits and road repair.
To find the right candidate, Dallas agreed to pay BakerTilly $134,375. Part of its responsibility is compiling the job description brochure to sell prospective candidates on the qualities of Dallas.
The company's proposal indicates it received 30% of the fee upfront, it will then get 30% once it finishes identifying quality candidates and then another 30% once on-site interviews with finalists begin. Once the finalist accepts the job, the company will receive the final 10%
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