As y’all may know, Austin has been without a permanent City Manager since 2023. We now have two contenders to choose from.
As part of the City Manager recruitment process, the city is inviting community members to submit questions that may be included during a moderated discussion. Questions can be submitted at SpeakUpAustin or by calling 3-1-1 or 512-974-2000. Questions will be accepted until 11 p.m. on March 20.
The City of Austin is hosting a public event to introduce the candidates for Austin’s next City Manager. Austinites are invited to meet and hear from the two finalists for the Austin City Manager position on Monday, March 25, 6 p.m. at the Permitting and Development Center Events Center, 6310 Wilhelmina Delco Drive.
T.C. Broadnax and Sara Hensley are the candidates under consideration. Of the two, Hensley is best known to parks activists, since she was the parks director of Austin from 2008–2019, when her protégé Kimberly McNeeley took over. While Hensley gained a reputation for budget solutions, she was an avid advocate for the “public-private-partnerships” that have incrementally removed Austin parks from public oversight and management. For example, she was a driving force for the conversion of Waterloo Park into a concrete entertainment district. “People need to be aware that if Hensley is appointed, we will be ceding Zilker and the parks system to the nonprofit grifters,” warns parks activist Teri Adams.
Also out-of-step with Austin values, while City Manager in Denton, Hensley fought against implementing the low-level marijuana decriminalization measure passed by citizen referendum.
Relatively unknown in Austin, T.C. Broadnax was recently ousted as city manager of Dallas, Texas, where (white) Republican pressure found fault with, among other things, Broadnax’s slow-walking of development permits. He has been praised for his racial equity and climate policies that seem better suited for Austin than Dallas. To us, he sounds like the kinder candidate.