An Ad Hoc Administrative Affairs Committee and the Dallas City Council met for nearly four hours on Monday to consider a timeline for finding a new city manager and appointing an interim city manager, with no public announcement on how either will be determined.
Council members Jesse Moreno, Tennell Atkins, Cara Mendelsohn, Kathy Stewart, and Paul Ridley formed the Ad Hoc Administrative Affairs Committee. The other nine council members also attended Monday’s meeting.
“A lot of work has been done in a quick turnaround,” committee member Moreno said. “My hope is that we’ll be able to really soak it all in and follow up with some questions at a [later] meeting. My understanding is these are the guidelines, but you’ll allow for council member input when we are looking for qualifications and scope.”
Atkins chaired the committee. Throughout the meeting, he tried to keep discussions separate, with one focused on explaining the selection process for a firm to conduct a national search for T.C. Broadnax’s successor and the other on a search timeline. However, members repeatedly sought clarification on those issues from human resources director Nina Arias and director of procurement services Danielle Thompson.
“I apologize,” Atkins said. “We just got this this morning. It’s not complete. Nina stayed up most of the night trying to write this scope of work. We didn’t have a document like this in our catalog, so this is completely new.”
The 10-page document is a framework for advertising requests for proposals from prospective search firms and an estimate of how long procurement will take. Many members said they did not have time to review the document and acknowledged that they do not know what’s involved in the search for a city manager, stressing the need for details on how the process works from start to finish.
“Some of y’all have not been here when we hire a city manager,” Atkins explained. “I’ve been here twice when hiring a city manager.”
“I’ve been around a long time, and I believe in process and procedure,” he said. “I did invite all council members to come to this meeting. We are the policymakers. We are the councilmen. I know we have a special-called meeting tomorrow. But we might be able to resolve this today if we work together.”
The special-called meeting scheduled for February 27 is a council briefing to discuss the search process and name Assistant City Manager Kimberly Tolbert interim city manager. Council members are also expected to schedule performance evaluations for City Attorney Tammy L. Palomino, City Auditor Mark Swann, and City Secretary Bilierae Johnson. During the open meeting on February 26, officials did not discuss whether Tolbert — or anyone else — should be named interim city manager.
“There is a process. There is a procedure. You can’t do it overnight,” Atkins said.
His remarks came near the end of nearly two hours of questions and comments from committee and council members on how the selection process will and should look, including incorporating feedback from residents and one another. The meeting ended immediately after council members returned from the executive session to deliberate a timeline for naming an interim city manager and candidates for that position.
“I want to offer my services and experience,” Zarin D. Gracy (District 3) said. “I’m a student of public administration. I have a master’s in organizational leadership and certification in state and local government from Harvard. I’ve gone through this process on both sides. I’ve been a candidate … to become a city manager. I’m very passionate about these next steps and want to be involved.”
Arias said officials are early in the process.
“We are looking for the best search firm to engage,” Arias said. This is “the very beginning of the process, and I think that is the first decision to be made. It’s again at the pleasure of Council how you would like to proceed on engaging a firm, but that’s where we are.”
The monthslong search to find Broadnax’s successor starts with advertising for a search firm and contracting the city council’s selection — a point Arias and Thompson stressed several times during the February 26 meeting.
“We’ll actually discuss, and I’ll present to you, a timeline for requests for proposals, to do a vast search, and also include some local participation for community outreach,” Thompson said. “This process is the standard process for a request for proposal. We’re not focused on one particular firm.”
Whichever firm is chosen should have expertise in city manager recruitment, Gay Donnell Willis (District 13) said.
“A specialized firm in this would be in order,” Willis said. “I wonder if some parts [of the solicitation] might be able to be moved expediently. While the search for a firm is going on, we know how to get public engagement and public input. Certainly, the Council plays a vital role in this. We are the board of directors this CEO will be taking direction from. Our staff — they have firsthand knowledge as well on what it takes to be successful in this role.”
Finding a search firm is expected to take months.
“The requests for proposals is actually what’s up for discussion,” Thompson said. “Finalizing the scope and the solicitation structure is sound. This timeline of four months is extremely expedient. I just want to make that clear.”
Some members expressed frustration over the timeline, including Mendelsohn, who asserted that taking four months to contract a search firm is nothing more than bureaucracy and represents “what’s wrong with city government.”
Chad West (District 1) offered his viewpoint on the timeline.
“I share my colleagues’ frustration with the timeline,” West said. “We’ve got to meet state law requirements on notice. We’ve got to publicize this, so it’s not something we can necessarily speed up much more than it already is, given our restrictions, correct?”
Arias agreed.
“No need to recreate the wheel here,” West said. “Just use our best practices and take them forward. This is our process. I don’t personally think we should be getting into the weeds on every line item here. Staff has got that.”
Arias said the process used to find Broadnax in 2016 was “very high-level,” adding, “This is more specific and comprehensive. This document is a lot more detailed than what we presented then.”
A contract with a search firm is expected to be submitted to Council by mid-June.
“We’re looking at seven months, minimum,” Willis said. “That procurement gives us time to be developing our criteria — what we believe the next city manager should be and designing our public engagement process.”
Paula Blackmon (District 9) reminded members that the 10-page guideline for soliciting a search firm and setting deadlines is a draft.
That “means it’s not set in stone, which means this is our process as a council,” Blackmon said. “I think what we have to keep in mind here is that this is the Council’s employee, and we dictate how this goes. One of the things we are charged to do is hire the city manager.”
Broadnax submitted his resignation on February 21 after seven years as city manager, effective June 3. Taxpayers are on the hook for this severance pay of more than $423,000 — a separation benefit stipulated in his employment agreement.
“The fact is there’s already been some very highly unusual activities surrounding this entire process, and I’m concerned about transparency,” Mendelsohn said.
“And what I’d like to propose to the chair is that any council member that’s getting input into these changes or edits [to the draft guideline] do so in writing. And if a council member would like to speak to you directly, then you document it — who said it and what their proposed change is. I think we need to assure our residents that we are doing this in a transparent manner, and so I’d just like to make that suggestion,” added Mendelsohn.
The Texas Municipal League offers its member cities guidelines for recruiting city managers. The procedures include recommendations on selecting search firms, marketing to candidates, developing the application process, complying with the Texas Public Information Act, interviewing candidates, and negotiating compensation and contract terms.
According to The Texas Tribune, Dallas is the third major city in Texas to currently have a vacancy in its top government position.