Austin City Council could make its pick for city manager as soon as Tuesday night

AUSTIN (KXAN) — After 39 people applied to be Austin’s next city manager, Austin City Council now has its top two candidates: Sara Hensley and T.C. Broadnax.

According to sources close to the search, the council could make its pick between those two candidates as soon as Tuesday night.

Alternatively, Mayor Kirk Watson has previously said they could bring back one or both candidates for further questions early next week. The council is posted to announce its pick during its meeting Thursday.

Here are the candidates Austin City Council is considering:

T.C. Broadnax, Dallas city manager

In a Q&A session with members of Austin’s media Thursday, Broadnax talked about his priorities for his first 100 days in office, including hiring a permanent police chief and making that process open to the public. He also talked about early work on homelessness.

“Going back to the table to figure out the appropriate scope of services that everybody can agree to for the diagnostic that was supposed to be done on our homeless ecosystem to make sure we get that right,” he said.

Broadnax has served as the city manager of Dallas for the last seven years, according to the City of Dallas’ website. He announced he was stepping down from the role last month. His last day will be June 3, according to Dallas City Council documents.

Several Dallas City Council members pushed for Broadnax’ resignation last month citing his tense relationship with Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, according to reporting from the Texas Tribune.

“I think collectively the decision that they wanted to go and have a reset, and go in a different direction with a new manager that could coalesce and work with them in a manner similar to when they hired me,” Broadnax told Austin reporters Thursday. “I think, gotta respect that and so I think my time there has been good.”

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Prior to landing in Dallas, he was the city manager of Tacoma, Washington. According to KXAN’s NBC affiliate in Dallas, which vetted Broadnax prior to his start there, he received high praise from the City of Tacoma before his departure.

Sara Hensley, Denton, Texas city manager

Hensley repeated the message during her interviews with Austin media and with the public this week: She’s looking to come home.

“I’ve sharpened my skills in the City of Denton. It’s a wonderful city, it’s a smaller city though. Many compare it to Austin in its culture, it’s live music and the two universities,” Hensley told Austin reporters Thursday.

Hensley was appointed as the first female city manager of Denton in March of 2022, according to the City of Denton’s website. She’s been with the city since 2019 in various leadership roles including deputy city manager and interim city manager, the website said.

Hensley is no stranger to the City of Austin, though. She was first introduced to Austin as the director of the Parks and Recreation Department in 2008, according to a release from the Austin Parks Foundation, and later served as interim assistant city manager in Austin for roughly two years where she oversaw Austin Public Health, Austin Public Library, the parks department, animal services and the Office of Real Estate, the City of Denton said in a release.

“She led large-scale teams in multiple program and service areas and operations, served as the executive lead for several citywide cross-departmental efforts, and had frequent interaction with elected officials, community stakeholders, and residents,” her bio on the City of Denton’s website says.

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Hensley made news last year when she refused to direct the Denton chief of police to abide by Denton’s marijuana ordinance, which similar to Austin’s, was voted on by residents to decriminalize misdemeanor marijuana offenses, according to reports from the Denton Record-Chronicle.

“I’ve said it a thousand times and I’ll say it again, I do not direct the police chief. He gets his oath from the state of Texas,” Hensley told council members, the Record-Chronicle reported. “I could tell him to break the law, but that is not what I will do as a professional.”

Attorney General Ken Paxton announced earlier this year that he was suing cities for violating state law in their adoption of those ordinances. Both the City of Austin and the City of Denton were named in the lawsuits.

“It’s different in Denton, I’ll just be honest. Here all the council were aligned. You had the DA aligned, the county aligned, you had your police officers association aligned…in Denton it was the opposite,” Hensley told Austin reporters.

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Hensley’s bio says she has more than 20 years of experience in public service including working as the Director of Neighborhood Services, Animal Services and Parks and Recreation for the City of San Jose, California, and the Director of Parks and Recreation in both Virginia Beach, Virginia.

How we got here

Interim City Manager Jesús Garza was brought out of retirement by the council after it voted to fire former City Manager Spencer Cronk. Garza did not apply to remain in the position long-term, according to documents KXAN received of the full list of applicants.

Cronk faced increased scrutiny last year following prolonged power outages from an ice storm in early February and negotiation with the Austin Police Association on a four-year deal “in principle,” which ultimately fell through.

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