City Hall Insider: Austin city manager search comes to a close, D7 council race update

Editor's note: City Hall Insider is a roundup of items the Austin City Council is set to vote on other local government news and an inside look at my reporting process. This story will be updated after the Austin City Council voted.

What a whirlwind these past few weeks have been.

Austin has, after over a year, selected its next city manager, the top official overseeing the city's daily operations.

This search came to a head last month when the names of three candidates were announced, and it quickly progressed last week with a meet-the-candidates event, closed-door interviews and a recommendation from the City Council.

On top of all the city manager news, there are updates on the local election front and news about the city's dealings with a federal agency on its COVID-19 operations.

Let's get into it.

Austin's city manager search comes to an end

The City Council last week made clear who they want to be Austin's next city manager: T.C. Broadnax, the exiting city manager of Dallas.

After nearly a full day of deliberations in a closed-door session, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson announced that the same City Council subcommittee charged with picking the firm for the city manager search had recommended Broadnax for the position.

Read More: Austin City Council subcommittee recommends T.C. Broadnax be Austin's next city manager

"I am honored and I look forward to the City Council’s vote to allow me to serve as Austin’s next City Manager. With the continued growth of our state’s capital city, I am mindful of the critical needs we must urgently address and I am committed to doing so with a collaborative, transparent, inclusive and equitable approach. I also want to thank the Dallas City Council, city staff, and residents for the opportunity to serve as their City Manager for the last seven years," Broadnax later said in a statement.

The City Council voted unanimously Thursday to appoint Broadnax and to authorize Watson to execute an employment agreement with him, per city documents.

Read More: Austin City Council votes to appoint T.C. Broadnax as next city manager at $470K salary

Broadnax was one of two finalists for the position. He has held the role of the city's top executive for seven years, working before that as the city manager of Tacoma, Wash., and the assistant city manager of San Antonio and Pompano Beach, Fla.

Read More: Who is T.C. Broadnax? What we know about the man recommended for Austin city manager

The other finalist was Sara Hensley, the city manager of Denton.

FEMA reimbursements

This week I reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency declined to reimburse the city of Austin for about $8 million related to its operation of "protective lodges" for people experiencing homelessness at high risk of contracting the virus during the pandemic.

Read More: City of Austin challenges FEMA's denial of $8M reimbursement for COVID protective lodges

The city is now challenging this, and it could spend more time and money fighting the claim in the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals — an independent tribunal (a special court or committee) within the General Services Administration that deals with disputes involving federal executive branch agencies, according to its website.

Something that stood out to me about this story, besides the $8 million dollar price tag hanging over the city's head, was that Austin doesn't seem to be the only one having this issue.

In Austin, a lot of the questions about why FEMA declined to reimburse the city for the lodges were not immediately answered — FEMA declined to comment, and the city did not provide specifics on FEMA's claim.

In California, however, regional FEMA officials denied reimbursements for similar hotel programs, CalMatters, a nonprofit news organization in California, reported in February.

Though the specifics of FEMAs argument in California and how their programs were run may vary with Austin, it does pose questions about how the federal agency is interpreting guidelines on what were unprecedented emergency sheltering moves made across the country due to the pandemic.

If, as California officials claim, FEMA made these rules after residents moved out, who will end up paying the bill?

Were there changes in direction transitioning from one presidential administration to another?

Are similar reimbursement denials happening in other cities and states?

There are several questions I have related to this story and hope to answer soon.

If YOU have any questions, please share them with me via email! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this story. My email is listed at the bottom of the column.

District 7 City Council race updates

In some local election news, a fifth candidate has entered the District 7 City Council race. Todd Shaw, the former chair of the city's planning commission and long-time environmental engineer, threw his hat into the ring this week.

The election is in November, and there is still plenty of time for other candidates to file. But, as of now, District 7 has drawn in the most interest with five candidates compared with the other council seats slated to be on the ballot this November, including Austin's mayor.

If you've made it this far, thank you for following along! I hope you'll continue reading "City Hall Insider," published the day of every Austin City Council meeting, which is usually bi-weekly. In the meantime, I will continue my coverage of local government and politics. To share additional tips or insight, email me at emccarthy@statesman.com. You can also find me on X, formerly Twitter, @byEllaMcCarthy.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin city manager search ends, FEMA reimbursements and more