Dallas set to give nod to Ware as city manager.

DALLAS -- John Ware, the first assistant city manager here, was expected to be named Dallas' top administrator following an executive session of the city council yesterday evening.

He would replace Jan Hart, the Dallas city manager who resigned last week to join the Dallas office of Bear Stearns & Co. in early November as an associate director of public finance.

Ware, who has been Hart's number two in the city's day-to-day operations, was expected to receive the support of the majority of Dallas' 15-member council.

He was hired by the city in 1989 as director of streets and sanitation and was named first assistant city manager in 1990.

Before coming to Dallas, he was acting city manager in Austin, Tex., from November 1987 to March 1989, where he oversaw a $960 million operating budget and 9,300 employees. Ware also served in various positions in municipal governments outside Texas for more than a decade.

Ware will assume the top administrative job in Dallas as the city faces a declining tax base and a possible downgrade of its AAA bond rating to AA-plus by Standard & Poor's Rating Group. That rating will be reviewed within the next several months.

In the meantime, Hart will join an effort to expand the public finance group at Bear Stearns, which is trying to bolster its bond underwriting business with municipalities and other government agencies in Texas and the rest of the southwestern United States.

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