Take a Look Inside T.C. Broadnax's Comfy City Manager Contract

As expected, the Dallas City Council voted 15-0 Wednesday afternoon to appoint Tacoma, Washington, City Manager T.C. Broadnax as replacement for Dallas City Manager A.C. Gonzalez when Gonzalez calls it quits at the end of January.

Following a closed-doors executive session of the council last Friday, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings announced that Broadnax was the lone finalist for the job, making Wednesday's vote an anticlimax. Still, with Broadnax officially coming on board, we did get our first look at his contract with the city. While the new guy's going to be making a lower base salary than Gonzalez's, he'll be getting quite a few perks to make up for it.

Broadnax' starting salary is $375,000. That's less than Gonzalez's $400,000 annual pay but a significant step up from the just over $250,000 Broadnax was making in Tacoma. In the only larger U.S. cities with council-manager forms of government, San Antonio City Manager Sheryl Scully makes $425,000 and Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher makes $315,000.

Broadnax's contract stipulates that he will receive a $20,000 raise to $395,000 in January 2018, $35,000 in relocation expenses to move his family to Dallas and a $700 monthly car allowance. The city will also pay $18,000 to a "deferred compensation program" chosen by Broadnax on Feb. 1.

The council approved Broadnax's contract with significantly less rancor than it did Gonzalez's three years ago, when then council member Vonciel Hill complained that Gonzalez's salary should have been $350,000 max.

"I believe that this salary should stand on its own bottom," she said.

This time around, even council member Philip Kingston, who opposes the mayor more than any other council member, congratulated Rawlings on the negotiation that led to Broadnax's contract.