When news broke this summer that City of Dallas employees had to vacate the Stemmons office they’d just moved into over city code violations and a missing certificate of occupancy, the irony was not lost on others. However, some of the sharpest criticism for the widely-panned “lemon on Stemmons” came from within, when one municipal plans examiner blew the whistle and shared what was going wrong inside 7800 N. Stemmons Freeway.
Eddie Small, 57, retired in mid-September after serving 20 years with the City of Dallas. In a phone interview last month from his Ellis County home, Small set us straight on what went down and what he’d like to see happen now.
What Happened on Stemmons
In 2022, Dallas purchased the 11-story building at 7800 N. Stemmons Freeway for $14.2 million and spent another $6.5 million on improvements, furniture, and moving expenses. The building was intended to house Development Services inspectors, some Code Compliance officials, and other city employees.
About 70 employees were moved out of the overcrowded, antiquated Oak Cliff Municipal Center in December 2023, but soon encountered problems with their new building.
We started getting emails that there was something going on, but the offenses sounded fairly innocuous: the parking lot wasn’t adequately striped and the elevators didn’t work. Then we learned that the building had no heat in the dead of winter and the minor inconveniences previously cited actually amounted to four dozen fire code violations.
For reasons still not completely known, the city-owned property didn’t have full certificates of occupancy, and employees were moved back to OCMC on April 9.
Blowing the Whistle
Employees who were sent to work in the unfinished Stemmons building funneled their grievances through Small. The inspector contacted CandysDirt.com, the city’s Ethics Advisory Commission, and “a few of the City Council members who I thought would listen. Then I talked to the fire marshal and The Dallas Morning News,” he said.
Small said he was close enough to retirement at the time that he wasn’t worried about retaliation or drawing attention to himself. Based on Small’s claims and those of other city employees, Dallas City Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn called a meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on General Investigating and Ethics in early May.
Department Reorganization
Former Development Services Director Andrew Espinoza, former Assistant City Manager Majed Al-Ghafry, and former Deputy City Manager Robert Perez, all central figures in the Stemmons debacle, have recently departed from the City of Dallas.
Espinoza was forced out of his job in June when Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert restructured the city’s organizational chart. The Development Services Department merged with the Planning and Urban Design under the purview of Planning and Development Director Emily Liu.
For what it’s worth, Andrew Espinoza was a good source for CandysDirt.com during his two-year tenure in Dallas. He was responsive when the department was under fire for a massive permit backlog and is credited for initiating new practices that improved response times. He stopped responding to our interview requests, however, when the Stemmons issue came to light.
CandysDirt.com recently conducted an exclusive interview with Epinoza, in which he responds to allegations made by Small and others, that is scheduled to appear in Thursday’s edition of our newsletter.
Employees Sound Off About Stemmons
Small said Espinoza started making changes in his second year on the job and employees began leaving. The work environment was toxic.
“All the guys in our plumbing inspection department were leaving; some of our electrical guys were leaving. I know one guy who retired because of [the leadership],” Small told CandysDirt.com.
“It was creating anxiety. It was making people sick.
“When he put me in that building over there at 7800 Stemmons, the first day I was in that building, it was 30-something degrees outside. I had an infrared camera and it told me that the glass was 42 degrees and the walls inside the building were 57 [degrees]. I couldn’t believe this guy was pushing us into the building with no [certificate of occupancy] and no inspections. He just moved us in and didn’t even bother to get the HVAC fixed up.”
Small said he also found out there were no fire sprinklers on the fifth floor where numerous city employees were expected to work all day. He knew something was “bad wrong.”
“He was a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Small said of Espinoza. “He was tearing us apart. I wish they’d follow the money and find out exactly what happened [at Stemmons]. It’s all in the dark. Somebody knows exactly what happened.”
Small moved from the fifth floor to the second floor in January.
‘Roaming Employees’
During the May meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on General Investigating and Ethics, city officials including Espinoza claimed that the problems were caused by employees “roaming” to floors they weren’t assigned to and leaking information to the media and City Council members. Those officials stressed that there were “no life and safety issues.”
Employee emails obtained by CandysDirt.com, however, revealed a different story. One employee called the building a “deathtrap.”
Small said he suspects money was the motive in moving employees to Stemmons before the building was ready. The city was paying a building inspection company, SafeBuilt, $1.5 million annually for two third-party reviewers, he said. The department was also reportedly “hemorrhaging money,” so there was a sense of urgency to recover costs. Permitting fees increased earlier this year in an effort to keep the department in the black.
What’s Next For Stemmons?
The building at 7800 N. Stemmons Freeway has been the subject of several recent closed-door City Council sessions. Some speculate the building could be sold, but that doesn’t solve the problem of what to do with the employees who need a place to work.
Employee Morale
Small has nothing but kind words for new Planning and Development Director Liu and Interim City Manager Tolbert.
Tolbert visited the department on Espinoza’s last day and reassured employees that they were valuable team members, Small said.
“She was so good to us and made concessions with us, trying to keep us, because everybody was talking about leaving,” he said. “We need better leadership. Emily is doing her best. She has a Teams meeting with all of us every Monday morning. That helps. I think people need to listen to her. She just doesn’t know the ins and outs of building inspections. She’s good at planning and zoning; that’s what she’s been doing for 20 years.”
Vernon Young and Sam Eskander are now overseeing building inspections but restoring morale is a tall order, Small explained.
“There’s still a little struggle there,” he said. “I know it’s going to take time to change. Things are going in a better direction. The overall morale is so much better. People know it’s going to get better. We need a director who’s going to lead us in the right direction.”
Looking Back — and Forward
Small said, in spite of the challenges, he loved his job. His father was an electrical contractor and Small used to accompany him to the building on Jefferson Boulevard to get permits.
“I always thought, how cool would it be to work here?” he said.
Small started out taking home about $28,000 a year in 2004. He was able to retire before age 60 with a pension provided by the Employee Retirement Fund. If the Stemmons building is sold, there’s a possibility those funds could go toward the ERF, the inspector said.
As for Small, he’s happy to put this 20-year chapter behind him now and wishes the new team well. His advice for the current leadership is to listen to the loyal employees who weathered the storm.
“They want to bring in all these new people and new ideas, but building inspection has been around for years and years, and there are people who know the processes,” he said. “If they put some people in [leadership] who know the processes, things will go a lot smoother.”
The married father — whose daughter is a mechanical engineer — started his own electrical contracting company last month.
