AUSTIN, Texas — Austin leaders have settled on who should fill the role of city manager.
Mayor Kirk Watson named Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax as the recommended selection for the same role in Austin following meetings on Tuesday.
"I am honored and I look forward to the city council’s vote to allow me to serve as Austin’s next city manager," Broadnax said in a statement on Tuesday night. "With the continued growth of our state’s capital city, I am mindful of the critical needs we must urgently address and I am committed to doing so with a collaborative, transparent, inclusive and equitable approach. I also want to thank the Dallas City Council, city staff and residents for the opportunity to serve as their city manager for the last seven years."
The announcement came hours after Broadnax and Denton City Manager Sara Hensley took questions from Austin media outlets. Both were asked about several issues, as well as how their past experiences have prepared them for the job in Austin.
"There are a lot of things that have happened in Dallas … that I've had to experience as a city manager in my brief time there that some managers, frankly, don't get to deal with or have to deal with in their entire career," Broadnax said. "And those things happen monthly for me. And so I think I'm built to run a city of large sizes."
Broadnax has served as Dallas' city manager since February 2017. Before that, he served as the city manager of Tacoma, Washington.
According to his profile on the city of Dallas's website, Broadnax has more than 25 years of local governmental management experience and is an International City/County Manager's Association credentialed manager. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science and communications from Washburn University and a master's degree in public administration from the University of North Texas.
As Austin's police union is in contract negotiations with the city, Broadnax said he has experience with the collective bargaining process.
"If it's still not resolved at the time of my arrival, should I be selected to be city manager, I would dig in and work with the team to figure out how we get to some agreement," Broadnax said. "If it is already gone, then hopefully, I'll be working on how to implement it effectively – particularly the area that seemed to be most contentious, and that is oversight and finding ways to make sure that that's set up the right way, in the manner befitting the public vote to have it done."
A final vote will be conducted on April 2, when a contract will likely be created between the chosen candidate and Mosaic Public Partners.