Fort Worth’s City Manager David Cooke announced that he will be retiring from his position at the end of February 2025, ending the longest tenure of Cowtown’s city manager since the position was founded.
Following a nationwide job search, Cooke took up his position on June 30, 2014 + has surpassed the eight-year tenure of Robert Terrell, who served from July 1992 to January 2001.
What does a City Manager do?
The position was established in 1925 with O. E. Carr to implement mayoral and City Council policies + manage city staff. Currently, Cooke manages the $2.3 billion city government enterprise and oversees ~8,100 employees.
In the last 10 years, Cooke has helped:
- Facilitate the move to Future City Hall
- Reduce property tax rate by 20 cents
- Create five new city departments
- Integrated infratructure needs to accommodate ~20,000 new Fort Worth residents annually
Stay tuned for announcements from city leaders about next steps.
