Almost two months after City Manager David Cooke announced plans to retire in 2025, Fort Worth officials have launched a national search to find his successor. 

The city’s human resources department will conduct the search, which officially kicked off with the release of a recruitment brochure Sept. 16. The announcement comes weeks after some City Council members called for a national search, characterizing the hiring of a city manager as one of the most important decisions they will make as a council. 

Council member Chris Nettles expressed concerns that the city does not plan to hire an outside firm to conduct the search. Of the four roles the council is charged with hiring, it makes most sense to hire a consultant to lead the way on hiring the city manager, he said.  

“We hired an outside firm to hire the city attorney. We hired an outside firm to hire the city secretary. We hired an outside firm to hire city auditor, which are all of our hires on mayor and council,” Nettles told the Report. “Why would we not hire an outside firm to do a national search for the city manager in a city manager-ran city. … It makes no sense to me. I don’t agree with it.”

Mayor Mattie Parker said in a written statement to the Report that she is confident in the HR department’s ability to lead the search. 

“Given their expertise, resources, and deep understanding of our community and city manager form of government, I believe there is no need to engage an external firm,” Parker said. 

Council members Alan Blaylock and Gyna Bivens previously told the Report they wanted to conduct a national search for the position and hopefully have the job filled by the time Cooke retires in February. The Report contacted all council members for their thoughts on the search, but only Parker, Nettles, Carlos Flores and Michael Crain responded by the time of publication. 

Dianna Giordano, director of the city’s human resources department, told the Report in a written statement that the decision for her department to lead the search stemmed from confidence in staff’s ability to handle the project while managing financial considerations.

“The city decided not to hire a consulting firm after determining that our internal team is well equipped to handle the search efficiently, with a strong understanding of our community’s needs, council priorities and the city’s organizational mission and vision,” Giordano said. “This approach also allows us to manage costs and timelines while prioritizing the best candidate for the position.”

The HR department will lead the process in “close collaboration” with the council, according to a city news release. Nettles said he was a vocal proponent of hiring an outside firm during council’s executive session meetings, which are closed to the public, but his opinion was not supported by fellow council members. 

As Fort Worth seeks its next city manager, the city of Dallas is also seeking a successor to former City Manager T.C. Broadnax, who announced his resignation in February following pressure from Dallas City Council members. Dallas is paying the search firm Baker Tilly US LLP $134,375 to conduct a one-year search for its next city manager, according to reporting by The Dallas Morning News. 

“I don’t want to spend the money. I don’t want to waste $100,000 on a city manager search. I don’t, but when you are a city manager-ran city … I call this the ‘ultimate hire,’” Nettles said. “We are a $1.2 billion-budget city. Are we not willing to spend $130,000 on making sure we have the top candidates there are nationally?” 

Council member Carlos Flores said he doesn’t feel comfortable allocating $100,000-plus toward the city manager search from an already tight budget. Council members adopted the city’s fiscal year 2025 budget Sept. 17, in which they halved funding to a popular neighborhood improvement program to trim the budget and keep the tax rate flat. 

“In terms of city budgets, $100,000 may seem to pale in comparison to other numbers, but still, that’s $100,000 of taxpayer money,” Flores said. “I am confident in the city manager search (led by) HR. They have the capability of doing that, and I don’t see a compelling reason to spend $100,000 approximately in taxpayer money when this can be done in house.” 

Nettles questions fairness, transparency without outside firm

Nettles said he fears what residents will think about the city conducting the search in-house. 

“My true concern at the end of the day is transparency,” he said. “What is the community going to think? It’s not a secret that we have hired a national firm for all of our other hires.” 

Council member Michael Crain said he has full confidence in the city’s HR department to conduct the search in a fair and transparent manner. To him, hiring a third party doesn’t guarantee any greater objectivity than staff would have. 

“Dianna is a very well-respected HR professional … To me, you’re questioning her ability when you say it would be more fair and transparent to hire an outside firm,” Crain said. “I think that’s absolutely false and not respectful to her as an HR professional.” 

He added that the onus of transparency should be placed on himself and his colleagues on council as elected officials rather than city staff. 

Nettles noted that the council did end up hiring internally for the position of city attorney in 2022 — but only after conducting a national search. He said he is open to the possibility of hiring internally for the position of city manager, but he wants to be sure that a fair national search is conducted first. 

What he doesn’t want is a current staffer to be cherry-picked for the role without committing adequate time and resources to seek out top candidates. 

Parker said in her statement that she believes she and council will find the right candidate — “there might even be a worthy candidate right here in Fort Worth,” she wrote. She declined to elaborate on potential local candidates. 

In January, Cooke hired Mark McDaniel to be deputy city manager, a role that is new but not unique to Fort Worth. As the city already has five assistant city managers, some have speculated that the move was meant to test McDaniel for the role of city manager. 

McDaniel told the Report he has no intention of applying for the role of city manager, but he has committed to staying on staff throughout Cooke’s transition out of his role. McDaniel is willing to help council members in whatever capacity they ask him to, he said.

He added that he came out of retirement to take on the role of deputy city manager at the request of Cooke, but he doesn’t aspire to higher roles in the office.

“I’ve really enjoyed that role and feel like I’ve provided some value, but at this stage in my career, it’s not something that I would aspire to as far as being the city manager,” McDaniel said. 

He declined to offer his thoughts on the city not hiring an outside firm to conduct the search, saying the matter is “100% the council’s prerogative.” 

Nettles said he believes McDaniel is “already on day one” to become interim city manager if council doesn’t hire Cooke’s successor before February. He declined to comment on whether he would support McDaniel as a candidate for city manager, adding that his main concern is ensuring a fair process for all who are interested. 

“To take away the independence of (the process) is the problem that I have, and I’m going to be vocal about it. The rest of council doesn’t like that I’m going to be vocal about it, but I was elected to speak on behalf of the people,” Nettles said. “If we’re a representative of the community, we should be doing what the community wants and not what we want or what we think is affordable.” 

Outside firm can help with bandwidth and resources, expert says

Ron Holifield, CEO for the Keller-based firm Strategic Government Resources, said it’s difficult to definitively say whether hiring an outside consultant is better than conducting the search in-house. The matter has to be determined on a case-by-case basis, he said, depending on a city’s dynamic and political situation. 

“For a city with a really healthy political dynamic like Fort Worth has, you’re far more able to do it in house,” Holifield said. “There’s not anything on the surface that gives me great concern in this particular situation.” 

However, hiring an outside firm to lead the way on hiring a top position like a city manager comes with several advantages, he said. Mainly, an outside firm will have more bandwidth to execute a search quickly and efficiently. 

Part of the candidate search includes reaching a wide, diverse pool of candidates and conducting extensive background checks on those candidates. Holifield said search firms are generally more equipped to handle the long hours that go into that process, but the city’s HR department shouldn’t automatically be written off. 

“It’s not rocket science. There’s nothing that says they are not capable of doing that themselves,” Holifield said. “Fort Worth has a really well-run HR operation. So it’s not a competency issue. It’s just a bandwidth issue.”

Flores and Crain both said Giordano and other staff from the HR department were present when council members discussed the options of hiring an outside firm versus having HR conduct the search. When the idea of having HR lead the project was floated, Giordano readily said yes, they said. 

Before her current role, Giordano held various roles in HR departments in Austin, Travis County and Aurora, Colorado. She has worked in the HR field since 1991, according to her LinkedIn. 

“Before she came to the city of Fort Worth, (Giordano) had relevant experience in these kinds of searches, so that reaffirms my confidence in the ability of the HR department to do this kind of search,” Flores said. 

Giordano said she doesn’t foresee obstacles to attracting top candidates, as Fort Worth stands out from other cities for its “unique growth, vitality and being one of the fastest-growing big cities in the nation that has also managed to maintain its identity and charm.” 

“The city of Fort Worth naturally attracts experienced and highly qualified candidates from local and afar,” Giordano said. “There is no doubt this capstone opportunity will appeal to public sector executives that desire to round out their career as a city manager.”   

Although she supported a national search, Bivens said she believes Fort Worth will have no trouble attracting quality candidates without the help of a national firm. 

Nettles said he believes the HR department has the willpower to conduct the search, but he’s concerned about staff’s bandwidth to manage this task in addition to its day-to-day responsibilities. The department offers employee assistance in talent acquisition, classification and compensation, organization development, employee relations, benefits and year-round wellness programs, according to the city’s website. 

He also questioned whether HR employees would be given adequate time and fair compensation to execute the task. He said they may not have the bandwidth and resources to be as detailed as an outside firm would be. 

“The current HR director and manager (are) tasked with every task as it relates to the HR department in the city of Fort Worth: the hiring, the firing, the research and the list goes on,” Nettles said. “You’re going to then task these same individuals with now having to go out and conduct a national search?” 

Crain said he is not aware of any plans to pay Giordano and HR staff additional compensation for conducting the search, but he believes the department is able and willing to handle the task on top of their other duties. 

As the city continues to move forward with the search, Flores and Crain said they are open to the possibility of reevaluating HR’s role in the process and reopening the discussion of hiring an outside firm as needed. 

“If we are not satisfied with the pool of candidates that are brought forward, we can always go spend taxpayer dollars to hire outside professionals,” Crain said. “But if we have someone who is a qualified professional, it’s our job as elected officials to ensure a fair and transparent process.” 

Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org or @bycecilialenzen. 

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