Dallas City Manager finalist T.C. Broadnax received praise from Tacoma city and community leaders Monday, even though he plans to leave their city, after fewer than five years as chief executive.
Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland said she is disappointed.
“I regret deeply that he’s leaving. I think Tacoma could use his leadership for another five or 10 years. However, I can’t fault him for the opportunity. It’s like playing minor league baseball and being asked to go to the big leagues,” Strickland said.
Broadnax has a masters degree in public administration from the University of North Texas in Denton.
“I made a commitment to myself that I wanted to come back and work in the Metroplex,” Broadnax said. “Ironically, I wanted to work in the city of Dallas. And, so I’d say this is my opportunity.”
Broadnax had stops in municipal government positions in Pompano Beach, Florida, and San Antonio before his time in Tacoma.
The state of Washington city of about 200,000 residents is much smaller than Dallas but it has many similar urban problems.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
Progress during his time in the city’s Hilltop neighborhood is one example of why people in Tacoma are sad to hear Broadnax is planning to leave.
“They are very fortunate to be able to grab him from Tacoma,” said the Rev. Gregory Christopher, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Hilltop.
There’s a new street in front of his church, a well-maintained park across the street, and a vacant house beside the park no longer looks vacant because of tougher code enforcement, the pastor said.
“The rich neighborhood just kept getting all the resources,” Gregory said. “To make these areas better makes the whole city better and T.C. got that. And he got it quick.”
Down the block from Shiloh Baptist is a social service agency, Associated Ministries.
Executive Director Michael Yoder said Broadnax brought noticeable changes to Tacoma, just in the way he worked with all segments of the community.
“You’ve got a real gem in T.C. There isn’t a person that I’ve talked to that isn’t very mixed emotions,” Yoder said. “It’s a great loss to us. We just appreciate having had him for the few years that we did.”
Early in Broadnax's time as city manager, Tacoma faced a big budget problem similar to other cities during the nation’s recession.
“We needed to do some things differently if we wanted to get better,” Broadnax said.
There were budget cuts and staff reductions.
The end result was a city staff that better reflected the multiracial population of Tacoma, according to Lua Pritchard, executive director of the Asia Pacific Culture Center.
“And the city of Tacoma is now so much better to work with because you go in there and you see all sorts of diverse people – people who look like us and can feel us as a diverse population,” Pritchard said.
The Community Oriented Policing philosophy promoted by former Dallas Police Chief David Brown is also a Tacoma priority.
Korbett Moseley, who runs a family stability initiative with the United Way in Tacoma, gives Broadnax much of the credit for better communication between the city and the community.
“He was able to bring that fresh perspective and he’s brought that to Tacoma and took us so much further than we were before. And we’re better for it,” Moseley said.
The Tacoma Police Union has complained this year that the city needs more officers and did not return to pre-recession staffing.
Dallas also faces a police staffing shortage, but the Dallas City Council has already approved a large raise for police and firefighters. A public safety pension crisis is scaring Dallas public safety employees and many have retired or resigned this year.
Broadnax said the Dallas pension crisis does not frighten him.
“I think we’ll get the necessary people around the table to deal with those issues,” Broadnax said.
Aside from the police union, other people with no obligation to praise the manager who is leaving said they wish he would stay.
“Dallas should take good care of T.C. because we’ll come and get him back,” Pritchard said.
“Give him an opportunity, that’s all he needs,” said Pastor Christopher. “Trust that his experience will get the job done and get it done on a high level of respect and integrity.”
The Dallas City Council is scheduled to vote Wednesday on launching contract negotiations with Broadnax as the only candidate for Dallas City Manager.
