City Manager Mary Suhm Clarifies That New "No Public Parking" Policy at Dallas City Hall

By Robert Wilonsky Mon., Dec. 20 2010 at 6:13 PM

Categories: City Hall

Patrick Michels

A couple of weeks back, as you no doubt recall, Assistant City Manager Forest Turner sent the mayor and city council a memo in which he wrote that come January 3, the general public would no longer be able to park beneath Dallas City Hall. One James Reginald Calloway Schutze was not amused.

A few days later, council members Angela Hunt, Jerry Allen, Sheffie Kadane, Pauline Medrano, Delia Jasso, Dave Neumann and Dwaine Caraway responded with their own no-so-fast memo to City Manager Mary Suhm.

To which Suhm responds today with her own memo, in which she clarifies what she says was her intention all along. As in: If you wanna park in one of the 72 freebie spots below Dallas City Hall, fine. Just one thing: You gotta call ahead to the office or official you're planning to visit and reserve a visitor's spot on the list kept at the entrance to the garage. You also need to let them know what time you're coming.

But Suhm wants to be very clear: "This is no compromise," she tells Unfair Park this evening. The change in security procedures "was communicated poorly," that's all. "The only change we're making is you have to call ahead and say you're coming down. It was just terribly poor communication, which brought down everybody on my head."

I did ask: What if you're going to a council meeting or, I dunno, a City Plan Commission meeting and not going to someone's office? She says: "Call the city secretary or city manager's office." Just don't ask for Mary Suhm, whose memo follows. Parking Garage Memo

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