Less than a month following his resignation, Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax has been named one of three finalists for the same position in Austin.
“Our search firm, Mosaic Public Partners, will contact and request T.C. Broadnax of Dallas, TX, Sara Hensley of Denton, TX, and Brian Platt of Kansas City, MO, to come to Austin and participate in the next phase,” according to a post from Mayor Kirk Watson on the Austin City Council’s message board.
“On Monday, March 25th, we will ask them to participate in some meetings with members of the professional city staff. Also, that evening, we will conduct a community townhall. The location for the community townhall is being finalized,” Austin’s mayor’s post continued.
Additionally, Watson and the city council are scheduled to interview Broadnax and the other two finalists in the Executive Session Room at City Hall on March 26.
“We will ask one, two or all three candidates to return for additional discussion on April 1st and anticipate voting to direct our search firm to negotiate a contract with a specific person on April 2nd,” Watson stated on the message board. “We will post for a vote on that day.”
Broadnax announced his resignation on February 21, effective June 3, after just over seven years with the City of Dallas. When he leaves in June, Broadnax is expected to receive more than $423,000 — the amount equal to his annual base salary.
Meanwhile, Dallas City Council members have appointed Kimberly Tolbert interim city manager as they determine how to conduct a national search for Broadnax’s successor.
Broadnax has been under heavy scrutiny since 2021 when Dallas lost 20 terabytes of police data and after the City was targeted by a ransomware attack last year that saw the personal data of more than 30,000 people leaked online. Broadnax has also been criticized for a building permit backlog that factored into his near-firing in 2022.
“There [are] many media stories about how the mayor and Broadnax butted heads in a lot of ways,” Louis Darrouzet, CEO of the Metroplex Civic & Business Association, previously told DX. “It’s hard to get permits done. It’s hard to work with the city. There’s all this bureaucracy. It’s inefficient, and they’re pushing an agenda that doesn’t make sense.”
Since Broadnax arrived in 2017, the Dallas budget has increased from $3.2 billion to $4.6 billion. At the same time, residents have become increasingly unhappy about the direction the city is headed.
“We need someone who can run this City like an efficient business,” said Darrouzet. “The City doesn’t have to solve the problem. The City provides the [core] services for everyone, and that creates opportunity for people to be successful.”
The Austin American-Statesman reported that 39 candidates applied for the Austin city manager position.
Hensley has been with Denton since May 2019, where she climbed the ranks from assistant to deputy to interim city manager before being permanently named city manager in March 2022 following a national search. She’s served as the parks and recreation director for Austin; Virginia Beach, Virginia; Phoenix, Arizona; and San Jose, California, where she was also director of both neighborhood and animal services.
“Of course, I am excited about the opportunity to be a finalist,” Hensley said to DX in an email. “My time in Austin before was wonderful. I had the pleasure to work with some of the most talented people in the City and the community. I feel a tug, pulling me back to be a part of creating the next chapter in Austin.”
The third candidate, Platt, has been Kansas City’s city manager since December 2020. He’s also been city manager in Jersey City, New Jersey, and chief innovation officer for the same city.
With a population of about 975,000, Austin has a $5.5 billion budget and more than 16,000 employees. Comparatively, Dallas has a population of about 1.3 million but a budget of $4.6 billion and approximately 13,000 employees.
Neither Broadnax, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, nor any of Dallas’ city council members responded to requests for comment.