Yesterday, the Dallas City Council sent off outgoing City Manager T.C. Broadnax during what is likely his final council meeting in Dallas. He’ll start in Austin as its city manager on May 6. His resignation is frequently tied to his relationship with Mayor Eric Johnson, which has been marked by attempted firings, arguments, and poor communication.
But to hear the mayor tell it, the media is the real reason everyone thinks that Broadnax and Johnson can’t get along. The council recognized Broadnax yesterday morning, and Johnson’s remarks were, well, interesting.
The mayor said that he and Broadnax actually agreed about “90 percent” of the time. “That’s not a secret,” he said and then claimed that the media didn’t write about the “wins” that happened while he and Broadnax were at the helm. He pointed to several policies and moves the city has adopted over the past five years, including its racial equity plan, its approach to environmental issues, economic development opportunities, the importance placed on parks, and improvements in crime rates. Those things, he argued—incorrectly—didn’t get attention from journalists.
“The media is going to feast on those times when we’ve not agreed,” he said. “But I am going to acknowledge that there have been times that we haven’t, that 10 percent is real. I believe that the times we’ve disagreed have been very much overblown and very much exaggerated and played up for various reasons.”
He continued: “I get what people have to write to get people to click on stories in a dying industry. You got to write what you got to write to try and keep food on your family’s table. But I deal in the reality of public policy making. I’ve been doing it for 14 straight years.”
Let’s dissect that. For one, the current narrative that the mayor and the city manager’s relationship had grown so dysfunctional that they could no longer effectively conduct city business came from six of his colleagues. They took the extraordinary step of drafting the announcement (which you can read in its entirety here) that Broadnax would step down at the council’s request.