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We’ve got a lot of systems failing at City Hall right now — construction permits and affordable housing, to name two. For people like me, who are paid to stay on top of these issues, for quite a while it’s felt that none of these critical city services are improving — nor that sufficient urgency is even being applied to try to improve them.
But what should be a substantive conversation is slipping further and further away as everyone has run to their political corner of the glass house that is City Hall and started throwing rocks.
It leaves me worried that doing the right thing too quickly might actually wind up hurting Dallas when future city managers dissect this spectacle.
It’s been clear that Broadnax was headed for a reckoning since the May 18 permitting-office briefing that he was forced to provide to the City Council.
After maintaining that most anyone who’s ever had a complaint with the department in question was guilty of overhyping permitting’s problems, Broadnax admonished the council to simply trust he would get the job done.
That’s a promise the City Council and Mayor Eric Johnson have heard too many times on too many topics.
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Behind the scenes, talk of Broadnax’s shortcomings has been slowly growing as the pandemic subsided. After the May briefing, many on the council decided it was time for a change.
That culminated in a meeting Wednesday night between Broadnax and City Council members Gay Donnell Willis, Tennell Atkins and Chad West. They told him a change was needed and gave him the chance to resign by noon Friday or expect a special called meeting Wednesday on his performance and continued employment.
They upped the stakes by referencing a five-signature memo, signed Wednesday by West and colleagues Adam Bazaldua, Paula Blackmon, Cara Mendelsohn and Jesse Moreno, that telegraphed that, for the good of the city, swift action was necessary.
Broadnax quickly did the math — seven votes for his ouster, not counting Johnson. It would take eight to boot him.
He got yet another visit Thursday from two council members — Donnell Willis and Blackmon — and again was encouraged to submit his resignation rather than face Wednesday’s proceedings.
So far, his arguments to extend his employment beyond Aug. 15 hadn’t budged his critics. He had a decision to make, and Broadnax made the choice to fight. He let the noon Friday deadline pass with no action.
After the news broke, Broadnax issued a statement in which he welcomed a performance review to “demonstrate progress and ensure transparency” on work he is proud of to “improve the lives of Dallas residents in ways that are responsible, equitable, accountable and legitimate.”
The furious politicking had begun — and along the way at least a few of those solid eight votes have gotten squishy.
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Johnson and Mendelsohn took to social media to rally folks to their side. Johnson’s weekly newsletter to constituents, which hit my mailbox at 6 p.m. Sunday, outlined his list of complaints and intention to vote to fire Broadnax.
But even before Johnson’s first tweet, Broadnax supporters — who not-so-coincidentally are backing potential challengers in the next mayoral election — had privately emailed me scathing criticism of Johnson.
The Dallas city manager’s job is a ridiculously difficult one, but it’s also one for which we taxpayers shell out a hefty salary to get it done right. Broadnax makes $410,000 annually, and his contract gives him a full year’s salary as severance.
Looking back over the regular surveys of citizen satisfaction — with approval regularly dipping in almost every category of city services since Broadnax’s hiring in 2017 — a lot of residents don’t seem to think they are getting their money’s worth.
Two of many findings in his citizens’ report card that stuck out to me is that the percentage of people who said they were “pleased with the overall direction the city of Dallas is taking” fell from 49% in 2016 to 36% in 2020, and the percentage of those who said they get good value for their city taxes fell from 45% to 31%.
A new group was hired to do the 2022 survey; according to the recent memo from City Hall, those results are expected late this month.
So, yes, I believe the City Council is right to hold Broadnax accountable. I just hope that what’s gone down the last few days doesn’t undermine the effort. And I wonder — even if the mayor and his side win the war — what this episode signals to future potential city managers of Dallas.
As someone who bends over backward to play nice — sometimes to my own detriment — I have wondered, amid the backlash, whether Johnson’s “take no prisoners” strategy since Friday is the right one.
Putting myself in his position and that of the council members wanting change, they feel they’ve given Broadnax plenty of time. But for outsiders, it’s easy to feel this was an unnecessary and rushed-up ultimatum.
When Broadnax does leave, at whatever that point is, will what’s gone down the last few days give pause to how the next candidates for the city manager job see the attractiveness of working for Johnson and this City Council?
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Johnson used a similar strategy in unmasking the shortcomings of Police Chief U. Reneé Hall — especially when it came to reducing violent crime — and that didn’t seem to scare off any top-notch applicants for chief. So far, Dallas seems the winner with the hiring of Chief Eddie García.
But I’ve spent enough time talking to Dallas business leaders over the years to know that how you publicly treat your CEO when you part ways does matter.
The next potential top boss is sure to consider, “Can I work with this board?”
Whatever comes of this personnel drama, the city — and its residents — would be best served if, going forward, the City Council agrees on a set of goals and clear metrics with the city manager, who then reports periodically on progress.
If the goals are not being met and sufficient time has been provided to perform, make a change without fanfare and search for a new leader.
That sounds like a no-brainer, until you remember I’m talking about Dallas City Hall. Among its many dirty secrets is that clear expectations are rarely set.
How this process continues to play out matters for our city’s future. What Broadnax might eventually say privately to national candidates who ask him his opinion about working with our council will matter as well.
This must not wind up looking like it’s about egos and petty grudges but rather what’s right for the city.
As several local business leaders mentioned to me this weekend, how well City Hall’s machine of elected officials and hired staff works together is all about people, trust and relationship
That’s why this can’t just be about getting the right thing done. It’s important the right thing gets done the right way.