Broadnax considers service adjustments as ‘tough’ budget awaits

The Austin Monitor recently sat down with new Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax to discuss some of the more prominent issues facing city staff and City Council as he gets situated in his job.

For the budget process as you’re going through it, are there any big differences that you’ve noticed procedurally in how Austin has assembled its budget compared to what you came from in Dallas?

Not at all. If there’s anything that will be different, it’s an approach that looks at it over a two-year window now, which is something that I’m working with the team and hopefully working with the Council to move forward so that they have a better snapshot of not just what they’ll be approving in the next three months, but what that might look like, the levels of service and any other types of programmatic efforts the following year so that they can get a little bit more long-term view of programs, whether pilot or not, to give some calm to where our budgets are from year to year. That would probably be the only nuance, but that won’t be new to me. It’ll be new to this city, certainly. But I think budgeting – as I’ve been doing it for many, many years for local government – is pretty consistent in how they approach it, just depending on the laws that the state may have. Getting to learn and understand the departments coming in a month new already, and jumping straight into budget, I’m relying heavily on the institutional knowledge of our team when it comes to what those needs are and what the other types of issues and challenges are.

This is going to be a tough year this year, and so there’s not a lot of new recipes that are going to be created in my mind. We’re going to be hopeful to try to maintain the current level of service and advance some other areas that Council has set as a priority. Or pull some things off the needs list and inventory to figure out how we can make some progress. Bigger perspectives on the budget, from me at least, will be gleaned over the next six to nine months when it comes to me getting more familiar with the city of Austin (and) … I won’t say the politics, but the neighborhood concerns and the pent-up things that folk have been asking about and for, then helping navigate through some of those priorities with the Council and the community and level-setting on what we can realistically accomplish. We also have to look at what we’re going to have to get other folk to help us with – whether the county, the state or the private sector – to find a way to lean in on some of those things that make Austin the place everybody wants to continue to move to.

We’re coming out of an odd period because we’re a couple of years since the pandemic has really affected our day-to-day lives – late ’21, ’22 is when we started. We’ve had the nice after-effects of federal money and all that. Obviously, we know that that is coming to a close very soon. There’s going to have to be a new equilibrium in a lot of people’s minds. I think back to a few weeks ago when there was that group out front calling for an extension or expansion of rent assistance. I thought: Heart’s in the right place but, guys, look at the books. I guess you talk a little bit about adjusting realities where we’re headed because obviously we’ve seen that already there’s a budget shortfall. In the budget and probably the one after that.

There’s been talk recently about the end of lots of federal (American Rescue Plan) money, and the new expectations that will require people to adjust to. How do you deal with that? Is it through fees? Are you looking at any new novel mechanisms to address the budget?

First and foremost, it’s about getting my arms around what we’re doing as a city and having a conversation about whether or not we need to continue to do some things or reprioritize and reallocate. And then focus on what is emerging, particularly for programs and projects that may not be meeting the expectations that we want. That will probably be a much more learned opportunity for me. We’ve been through a pandemic, and a lot of big cities – no different than Austin – had resources that they had never had before to really do some things that were generational in nature, that cities had not heretofore done. Having the conversation with the community about (the fact that) federal dollars are not here anymore so we’ve got to get back to local government services and not more of the larger federalized local government services that I think folk have gotten used to. That’s just a straightforward conversation with people.

There may be a step down in what we do and a realignment of how we do it from a fiscal matter, but that’s just really about being honest and straightforward with people and just saying what we can do and figure out who we can call upon that we can work with to figure out alternatives, whether they’re monetary or just process, procedure and just better engagement with folk to share with them where they might go get different types of assistance. That’s not an easy conversation, particularly for folk who have been on the ropes the last few years. But there are many things that Council as well as administrators know we just can’t continue to do.

You ask, am I a fee guy? At the end of the day, it’s really the expense that a resident has to pay, whether fee or tax. I don’t really see a lot of difference in that. It’s really about just making sure if we’re providing a service, folks feel like they’re getting their money’s worth for it. I think people will pay for what they believe is worth what they’re getting. The understanding of how local government is funded is my job to make sure people understand that, and I think they do in this community. But there are a lot of challenges out there, people, for financial, just, survival – and you see it with the cost of living.

Take the situation with the rental assistance. If you look at the city’s role in any of that, six years ago, at worst, it was more a function of heat mapping where certain kinds of things occurred, from foreclosures to the types of things that impacted people. Then the impacts on neighborhoods is where we focus as it relates to people no longer in homes, and now they’re open. That was really our main focus and the county kept track of it for purposes of reporting. But given where we were with the pandemic and where we are with homelessness – the ripple effects are forcing us to be more engaged because it’s not as simple as that anymore. We’re going to pay for something on the other end one way or another. Even the diversion in our homeless ecosystem has changed. It used to be, hey, I’m having a problem. I’m about to get kicked out. And on the other line we would say, all right, call me when you get kicked out, and then I can help you, because my program is not geared for people almost about to be out on the street. It’s for people on the street. You’ve seen a shift that it’s about prevention now. Things change, and I think we’ll change from budgeting to what we fund to how we approach it. I think we’ll evolve as a local government, and we’ll figure it out, quite honestly.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

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