8 March 20 - 26, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents quests asking for a more detailed breakdown describing the types of crimes those arrested have been accused of. Tellez remains in ICE custody, the agency said, pending immigration removal proceedings ahead of deportation. ▼ CITY HALL BIG D DOLLARS WHO ARE THE HIGHEST-PAID DALLAS CITY EMPLOYEES? BY KELLY DEARMORE T he city of Dallas is a massive organiza- tion with a roughly $5 billion annual budget and around 15,000 employees. Recently, city employee pay has been a hot topic in Dallas, thanks to the 2024 departure of City Manager T.C. Broadnax and the 2025 hiring of his successor, Kimberly Bizor Tol- bert. Broadnax was paid more than $460,000 after his resignation, thanks to his severance agreement with the city that included pay for salary and unused vacation time. That’s a pretty sweet deal. However, the fact that Broadnax’s annual salary was more than $420,000 sent Mayor Eric Johnson looking for ways to avoid paying that amount and ensure that no future city managers have such a clause included in their agreements. All that Broadnax pay drama got us thinking: Who are the highest-paid city em- ployees, and how much do they earn? Unsurprisingly, the new city manager sits atop the list provided to the Observer by the city with an annual salary of $450,000. That’s quite the raise from her salary of more than $319,000 as the dep- uty city manager. The second highest sal- ary in Dallas belongs to Cheryl Alston, the executive director of the Employees’ Re- tirement Fund of the City of Dallas, who now makes $407,285 per year, which is nearly $20,000 more than her 2024 salary of $387,891.42. Alston oversees the pen- sion plan for the civilian employees. Offi- cials in Alston’s department make up an additional three spots on this list. Interim Dallas Police Chief Michael Igo is missing from the City Hall list. According to a Dallas spokesperson, Igo makes $284,129.93, but only $208,965.15 of that is base salary. The remaining $74,164.77 is “interim assignment pay” and is not con- sidered part of a person’s salary by the city. Each of the 20 highest-paid Dallas em- ployees easily clears $200,000 annually, and dozens of other positions pay an aver- age annual salary between $100,000 and $200,000. The Dallas mayor is paid $80,000 per year. On the lower end, at least for full-time positions, an office assistant’s average salary is a little over $34,000 a year, some water meter reader jobs pay $40,000 and certain custodian jobs offer an average of $43,000 yearly. Here are the 20 highest-paid city of Dal- las employees, as of March 2025. Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, City Manager: $450,000 Cheryl Alston, Employees’ Retirement Fund Administrator: $407,288.99 David Etheridge, Employees’ Retirement Fund Assistant Administrator: $331,040.23 Devarati Rastogi, Assistant City Manager: $330,000 Tammy Palomino, City Attorney: $325,000 Natalie Sorrell, Employee Retirement Fund Officer II: $311,401.13 John Jenkins, Director - Park and Recre- ation: $288,631.69 Dominique Artis, Chief of Public Safety: $283,607.10 Jack Ireland, Chief Financial Officer: $270,112.50 Mary Cedillo-Pereira, Assistant City Man- ager: $248,065.20 Alina Ciocan, Assistant City Manager: $240,000 ▼ TEXAS LEGISLATURE THOU SHALL PREACH IN SCHOOL CHALLENGES LURK FOR BILL REQUIRING TEN COMMANDMENTS IN CLASSROOMS. BY EMMA RUBY T he Texas Legislature is moving full speed ahead on a bill that would in- troduce the Ten Commandments to the classroom despite a First Amendment legal challenge all but promised by those who oppose it. The bill would require every public K-12 classroom across Texas to display a framed or “durable” copy of the Ten Command- ments “in a conspicuous place” that can be seen by anyone in the room. And if you’re thinking, “Wait, do they mean the ‘I am the lord, thy God, thou shalt have no other gods before me,’ Ten Commandments?” You’d be exactly right. And if you’re thinking, “This bill again?!” That’s because this bill seems to come up ev- ery single legislative session, although this session feels like it may be the one where Republicans can finally muster up enough juice to get the job done. Every Republican State Senator sponsors Senate Bill 10, which Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has marked as a top legislative priority. The bill’s low filing number indicates just how much of a priority it is. While thousands of bills are submitted over the legislative pe- riod, the lowest bill numbers are reserved for the whims of Patrick and Gov. Greg Ab- bott. S.B. 10 was placed on the Senate intent calendar on March 6, and a recent news re- lease from Patrick said Texas’ second-in- command expects to have his priority bills 1-40 “passed by mid-April.” For Zeph Capo, President of Texas’ American Federation of Teachers (AFT) branch, Lege’s willingness to fast-track a bill that he feels contradicts First Amendment freedom of religion rights is nothing short of frustrating. “This is the priority that we’re going to focus on? If the Titanic is sinking, this is akin to rearranging the chairs on the deck,” Capo told the Observer. “With everything else go- ing on between school vouchers, employees not getting a raise, schools closing down, school districts passing deficit budgets, this shouldn’t be something that they’re focusing their time on.” Capo thinks any legislator who doesn’t re- alize S.B. 10 will pull a legal challenge as soon as it’s passed “has their head in the sand.” Af- ter all, a similar law passed by Louisiana legis- lators was blocked by a federal judge last fall for being “unconstitutional on its face.” But S.B. 10’s author, Republican Sen. Phil King of Weatherford, says pulling a le- gal challenge is actually the bill’s goal. King told lawmakers he hopes “it’ll work its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.” If that hap- pened, the conservative-majority court would have the opportunity to take a swing at the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which outlines the separation be- tween church and state. Chloe Kempf, an attorney with the ACLU of Texas, told the Observer the establish- ment clause “has been part of the legal fabric of America for decades.” She added that members of the civil rights group have sub- mitted testimony to state legislators outlin- ing the constitutionality of S.B. 10. The bill poses a social issue in addition to a legal one, she added. “Within Christianity, within Judaism and religions that recognize the Ten Command- ments, there are many, many versions. There are legitimate biblical disputes about which version is correct,” Kempf said. “A bill like this could alienate students and make them feel very othered in school, and perhaps even contribute to bullying and harassment against students who don’t prescribe to this very narrow version of the Ten Command- ments.” Matt Krause, a lawyer with the conserva- tive legal group First Liberty Institute, told lawmakers that S.B. 10 could withstand legal challenges because of the Ten Command- ments’ historical impact. This sentiment echoes King’s, who claims the Ten Com- mandments’ introduction to the classroom recognizes the documents’ relevance to Tex- ans’ “national heritage.” But Kempf disputes that interpretation, arguing that the only reason a document with seemingly historical foundations would be required in a math or science classroom is that its true purpose is to “pros- elytize to our young Texans.” House Republicans have filed several pro-Ten Commandments bills that mirror S.B. 10. Though Louisiana’s law remains un- der legal scrutiny, legislators in Montana, Kentucky, Ohio, North Dakota and Georgia are also working to pass bills to bridge the decades-long divide between schools and religion. If S.B. 10 passes, it will go into effect at the start of the 2025-2026 school year. For Capo, introducing the Ten Com- mandments to the classroom could also put teachers in uncomfortable positions. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, educators have come under a growing amount of scrutiny and pressure from conservatives who claim students are being “indoctrinated” or “groomed” in the classroom. Now, Capo said, those same conserva- tives want him to teach an elementary school student what it means to covet thy neighbor’s wife or manservant? “Most parents don’t want us actually teaching religion. We heard this in the cur- riculum fights at the State Board of Educa- tion that that’s not our place, that’s something for them to learn at home, and I 100% agree with that position,” Capo said. “We may teach about religion from a his- torical perspective, but putting the Ten Commandments on the wall, it’s kind of crossing that line.” ▼ SPORTS QUALITY NOT QUANTITY THE LEAST VALUABLE TEAM IN DALLAS GIVES ITS FANS THE MOST. BY MATT MCCLEARIN F our major sports franchises in North Texas are worth billions of dollars in total, including the single most valu- able sports franchise on Earth. However, the least valuable local team is the one that the others should model themselves after. According to Forbes, the Dallas Cowboys are worth $10.1 billion. No other franchise in any sport is worth more than $8.8 billion. And yet, at least until very recently, the Cow- boys would be voted the local team run the poorest. Unless you’ve been in a fruitcake- induced coma since Christmas, however, the Dallas Mavericks have, at least temporarily, claimed that prize after the shocking Luka Doncic trade and ensuing fallout that has seen the team become the league’s biggest joke. But, lest we forget, the Mavs do Adobe Stock Top Dallas officials are paid well. But just how well? Unfair Park from p6 >> p10
