T.C. Broadnax will be stepping down from his position as Dallas City Manager in just a few months, following a seven-year run defined by dissatisfaction from residents and the business community over inefficiencies, red tape, and poor management of core City services.
Broadnax announced his resignation on Wednesday, as reported by The Dallas Express, after a “suggestion” from the majority of the City Council.
“After careful consideration, it has become apparent that the relationship between the mayor and the city manager has not been conducive to effective governance and the advancement of Dallas’ interests,” according to a statement from council members.
Broadnax’s last day on the job will be June 3. The Mayor and City Council will appoint an interim city manager shortly before launching a nationwide search for a new permanent city manager.
“There [are] many media stories about how the Mayor and Broadnax butted heads in a lot of ways,” said Louis Darrouzet, CEO of the Metroplex Civic & Business Association (MCBA), in an interview with DX.
Darrouzet noted that the business community in Dallas has grown frustrated with the extensive red tape and government inefficiencies in the City — notably the inefficiencies of its building permit process. The permit backlog has been an issue for Broadnax for several years, and played a major role in his near-firing in 2022.
“It’s hard to get permits done. It’s hard to work with the city. There’s all this bureaucracy,” said Darrouzet. “It’s inefficient, and they’re pushing an agenda that doesn’t make sense.”
Over the past seven years, the City budget ballooned from $3.2 billion in 2017 to $4.6 billion for the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, Dallas residents have grown increasingly dissatisfied with the core services the City is supposed to provide.
A City satisfaction survey released last summer found that residents believe Dallas is headed in the wrong direction. Darrouzet noted that while the budget grew, the City got further and further away from focusing on its “core functions” like public safety, homelessness, and street maintenance.
Residents cited homelessness, crime, and poor street maintenance as the biggest problems in Dallas. Furthermore, residents have expressed frustration with police services and response times amid a shortage of police officers that has been extensively covered by DX.
Additionally, the City suffered several IT calamities under Broadnax, including a 20-terabyte loss of police data in 2021 and a ransomware attack last year that led to the personal data of more than 30,000 people being leaked online.
Darrouzet told DX that Dallas should find a new city manager that has a plan to trim the inefficiencies in the City and refocus on the municipality’s core responsibilities.
“We need someone who can run this City like an efficient business,” he said. “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.”