DALLAS — Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson is asking the city attorney’s office to determine whether or not former City Manager T.C. Broadnax should receive severance pay.
In a memo Tuesday to City Attorney Tammy Palomino, Johnson wrote that he’s opposed to the city “paying any severance to Mr. Broadnax,” and questioned whether Broadnax’s resignation counted as “involuntary separation.”
As WFAA previously reported, that language in Broadnax’s contract allowed for him to receive a lump sum payment equal to his $423,247 salary upon the end of his employment with the city.
“While Mr. Broadnax’s Agreement of Employment stipulated that he would receive a severance payment if a majority of the Dallas City Council suggested he resign, the background and timeline of these events raise serious questions about the legitimacy of this alleged ‘involuntary separation,’” Johnson wrote in the memo.
Johnson also cited WFAA reporting in his memo that Broadnax was said to have initially approached councilman Jaime Resendez about his potential departure and to have asked him to identify a collective of eight city council members who would ask him to resign, triggering a severance clause in Broadnax’s contract.
Johnson also raised concerns in the memo that Broadnax was named a lone finalist for the city manager job in Austin, about two weeks after he resigned as city manager in Dallas, that city leaders in Austin approved hiring Broadnax for the city manager job there April 4, and that Broadnax’s resignation may have occurred the way it did to ensure Broadnax would leave Dallas with severance pay.
“If this is indeed the case – as the available evidence currently supports – it is wholly inaccurate to characterize Mr. Broadnax’s separation as ‘involuntary,’” Johnson wrote. “Therefore, the severance clause of Mr. Broadnax’s Agreement of Employment should not apply and the City of Dallas should have no obligation to pay Mr. Broadnax nearly half a million dollars from Dallas taxpayers.”
