Dallas Black and Hispanic business leaders say the city should stick with T.C. Broadnax as its top administrative official to promote stability.
The Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce threw their support behind the city manager Wednesday, a day after Mayor Eric Johnson announced he was postponing a Wednesday executive session and special meeting where the City Council could have opted to fire Broadnax.
Broadnax will now get his usual annual evaluation on June 23, when the council was originally scheduled to review his job performance along with other top council-appointed officials.
The latest support for Broadnax comes as his job security with the city remains in the air. As of Wednesday, it still isn’t clear whether the majority of the council wants to keep Broadnax as city manager.
Support to consider firing him this week waned after news emerged that the mayor and some council members were pressuring him to step down or be booted out. That led to lobbying for and against the city manager, including by high-profile Dallas political figures such as retiring congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson and Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price.
Among the council, the fallout from the postponed job review has led to finger-pointing and accusations of deception between the mayor’s office and some council members who’ve withdrawn initial support to push for a resolution this week.
Johnson has been leading the charge to fire Broadnax, city manager since 2017, as soon as possible.
The City Council proceeded with its regularly scheduled briefing meeting on Wednesday, where Broadnax and Johnson sat in their assigned seats — next to each other at the dais in council chambers.
In a statement, Harrison Blair, president and CEO of the Black Chamber of Commerce, said accountability of leadership is important, but noted the city needs a familiar hand at the wheel as it navigates the upcoming budget cycle, recent resignation of Chief Financial Officer Elizabeth Reich and ongoing economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We wholeheartedly understand the current state of the city as it relates to the delays in our permit department, rising violent crime stats and the need for property tax relief; and how those issues impact our members and the Black business community as a whole,” the statement said. “However, we encourage the mayor and the City Council to continue to work with our city manager and his staff to bring a resolution to these important issues rather than making a wholesale change.”
Both chamber groups say they’re willing to work more closely with Broadnax to address challenges facing Dallas communities.
Johnson and some council members have cited ongoing delays in the city’s building permitting process, as well as issues with the information technology office and 911 call center and delays in trash and recycling collections among the reasons the city should consider firing Broadnax.
Other council members have pointed to Broadnax’s focus on trying to fix systemic disparities in the city through the creation of citywide plans to address housing, residents’ mobility and economic development, navigating the city through the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing progress in trying to remedy long running problems like building permitting as part of the reasons he should stick around.
Supporters and critics of Broadnax have become increasingly vocal since Friday after Johnson issued a memo seeking a closed executive session for the council to discuss the city manager’s job performance and a separate memo was issued by council members Paula Blackmon, Cara Mendelsohn and Gay Donnell Willis requesting a specially called meeting Wednesday to allow the 15-member City Council to publicly vote on whether to keep or fire Broadnax.
Broadnax refused an ultimatum to resign during a meeting two days earlier with council members Donnell Willis, Chad West and Tennell Atkins. The trio referenced a third memo bearing the signatures of West, Blackmon and Mendelsohn as well as council members Jesse Moreno and Adam Bazaldua asking Johnson to place an executive session meeting about Broadnax on the council agenda.
A council majority — eight of the 15 members — is needed to remove Broadnax as city manager.
But West, Moreno and Bazaldua on Monday called for their signatures to be removed from the memo, prompting Johnson to delay the performance review until next week.
West and Bazaldua told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday that they asked that their names and signatures be removed because they said they didn’t believe the third memo would be used as a basis to fire the city manager.
Moreno didn’t respond to requests for comment.
West said that memo was to be used in ongoing discussions with Broadnax and wasn’t meant to be a binding agreement filed with the city secretary’s office.
Bazaldua said he planned to skip any proposed vote on Broadnax job status at the now-canceled Wednesday special meeting. Bazaldua said he has been on vacation in Israel since Sunday and is expected back in Dallas on Monday.
On Wednesday morning, Bazaldua took to the comments of a Facebook post of a media story on Broadnax to say the “mayor’s staff fabricated this memo and submitted it to themselves.”
When asked by a commenter to clarify how his signature ended up on the document, Bazaldua replied, “I’m saying my digital signature was used for this memo, without my consent,” he wrote. “I’m not sure how much clearer I can be.”
Tristan Hallman, Johnson’s interim chief of staff, said Tuesday that the mayor’s office filed the memo with the city secretary’s office so the authenticity of the record couldn’t be questioned and the council members asked Johnson to publicly take the lead on the issue.
On Wednesday, Hallman said Bazaldua’s statement that he was taken advantage of is “false. Period.”
Hallman said Bazaldua read what was on the memo, agreed to have his signature on the document and had one of his council staffers email a copy of his signature last Wednesday morning to be put on it.
“He was fully aware of what was happening,” Hallman said of Bazaldua. “They asked on Monday to be removed only after the media made the memorandum public.”
In response, Bazaldua on Wednesday told The News, “That’s bulls—.”
Beatrice Martinez, board of directors chair of the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the public divide over Broadnax has concerned the local business community and could have trickle down effects that impact future city business.
The apparent dysfunction and public declarations to fire Broadnax don’t make Dallas an attractive destination for corporations, events or people looking to be based in the city, she said.
“So you fire the city manager after dragging him in the media, then what? What’s the plan after that?” said Martinez, a real estate broker. “Who would want to come to Dallas after seeing the way this has played out. And no one is going to be able to wave a wand and make everything right.”
Martinez said the chamber supports Dallas’ council-manager form of government, and that Broadnax or any city manager whose record has been publicly questioned should have a fair opportunity to defend himself.
Also Wednesday, the Dallas Black Firefighters Association and the Dallas branch of the NAACP sent letters to council members supporting Broadnax.
The city’s largest firefighters’ association, the Dallas Firefighters Association, previously sent a letter on Sunday calling for Broadnax to be fired.
That group cited issues with firefighters’ pay and poor conditions at fire stations, with fire trucks and other equipment as reasons for “seeking a change in direction at the helm of the city of Dallas.”
The city’s Black firefighters’ association pointed to Broadnax’s work overseeing starting pay increases, improved mental health support for firefighters and authorizing the purchasing of new equipment as among reasons he should stay.
“Mr. Broadnax is direct in communication, but always open in thoughts, suggestions and concerns,” association president Gregory Evans wrote. “The BFFA supports Mr. Broadnax for what he has done for firefighters as it relates to (Dallas Fire-Rescue).”
The Dallas NAACP in a letter to Mayor Johnson mention the development of the new convention center, and the hiring of the city’s first Hispanic police chief in Eddie García and the first African-American woman to lead the department in U. Reneé Hall as among Broadnax’s accomplishments.
“Mr. Broadnax during his tenure has exemplified professional managerial strengths and courage during some of the city’s most challenging times,” the letter said. “Under his leadership, he has demonstrated knowledge and the ability to guide the city with reference to finance, housing, safety, minority business development with the enhancement of diversity inclusion, just to name a few.”
