Just a couple of months after it appeared Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax’s job was on the line, Dallas City Council members Wednesday affirmed his performance during an annual evaluation and offered a 3 percent raise to his $410,919 salary.
The vote was not unanimous. Mayor Eric Johnson and council members Paula Blackmon (District 9), Adam McGough (District 10), Gay Donnell Willis (District 11), and Cara Mendelson (District 12) voted against the city manager’s salary hike.
Other council appointees, including City Secretary Bilirae Johnson, and City Auditor Mark Swann also were evaluated and given 3 percent salary increases. City Attorney Chris Caso’s evaluation was originally scheduled with the others but later moved to January.
Broadnax’s raise comes just two months after a handful of council members asked for a review of the city manager’s performance and related action, which could include termination.
Three of the five later said the memo was filed without their consent, and the request was rescheduled and then removed from consideration entirely, leading elected officials to consider the city manager’s contract along with the other council appointees Tuesday and Wednesday.
At the time of the June memo, Broadnax — who oversees the city’s 13,000 employees — was under fire for his role in the city’s money-wasting building permit debacle, the deletion of millions of police files, and antiquated record-keeping processes that add red tape to city government functionality.
Broadnax promised to take corrective measures, issuing a 100-day plan on July 19. He’s also addressed the problems in the proposed city budget, but now Dallas residents are concerned that Broadnax’s 2.75-cent proposed property tax rate decrease is not enough to provide any real relief to homeowners.
The city manager has said the proposed tax rate of 74.58 cents per $100 assessed valuation is appropriate. The Dallas City Council is slated to adopt the tax rate and $4.51 billion proposed budget Sept. 21.
“Our expenses are growing at an alarming level and the decades of disinvestment, as well as deferred maintenance, are things we’ll continue to talk about,” Broadnax said in an Aug. 9 council meeting. “I wanted to make sure we at least had the revenue to get at those things year over year.”
The city manager’s raise takes effect in October, as the new budget year begins. He’ll now earn more than $423,000 a year.
