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Fort Worth City Manager David Cooke on Monday announced plans to retire from his position in February.
Cooke, the longest-serving city manager in the city’s history, has served since 2014, when he was hired to succeed Tom Higgins.
David Cooke
In a press release, the city said that it will soon announce plans to ensure a “smooth and orderly leadership change.”
During his tenure, Cooke has overseen a budget that has grown into a $2.3 billion enterprise with 8,100 employees. As chief executive officer, Fort Worth has grown from the 16th-largest city to the 12th, with more than 956,000 residents.
Cooke is also credited with playing instrumental roles in the public-private partnerships that created Dickies Arena, the redevelopment of the Stockyards, and the coming Texas A&M-Fort Worth downtown campus.
“David Cooke’s leadership over the past 10 years has left an indelible mark on the city of Fort Worth,” Mayor Mattie Parker said in a statement. “He has continually led with integrity, intelligence, and most importantly always remembering to have fun along the way.
“His accomplishments are too many to list, but above all, he ensured our city is in the best possible fiscal health of any large city in the country. Without question, I will miss serving alongside my friend when he leaves at the beginning of 2025, but I am incredibly proud of his leadership, and he has earned a celebration as he enters his next chapter.”
Fort Worth adopted a council-manager form of government in 1924. O.C. Carr, who was the manager in the city of Dubuque, Iowa, was hired as Fort Worth’s first city manager in 1925.
Cooke received a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned a master’s degree in public administration from there, too.
This will be Cooke’s second retirement from the public sector. The first chapter covered close to 30 years in North Carolina.
He worked for the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, from 1985-96 in several positions, including budget analyst and manager of internal operations. His most recent position in the public sector was as county manager of Wake County in North Carolina.
Immediately prior to his employment here, Cooke had been the director of business development for Mulkey Engineers and Consultants in Raleigh. Before applying in Fort Worth, he had been a finalist for the city manager’s job in Dallas.
But it was this job that he got.
Cooke was hired over two other finalists, Roderick Bremby, a commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Social Services; and Penny Postoak Ferguson, deputy county manager of Johnson County, Kansas.
Cooke came here with a reputation as a good numbers guy who knew budgets and financing, and planning. He had also been called pivotal in transportation endeavors, connecting Raleigh and Durham with rail and making plans for more bus and rail services in the Triangle Transit operation.
He served under mayors Betsy Price and Parker.
“Serving as city manager has been an incredible and fulfilling journey,” Cooke said in a statement. “Together, we have built and sustained an organization that is now the 12th largest city in the country, renowned for our exceptional customer service, neighborhood improvements, public-private partnerships, transparency, and commitment to inclusive prosperity.”
Cooke’s other achievements include stabilizing the city’s pension system, and the establishment of the FWLab, the city’s budgeting and planning division, which has become a model for other municipalities.
Cooke’s tenure wasn’t without some hand-wringing.
He led the city through the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring continuous service delivery and support for residents and businesses.
A crisis arose in 2016 with the controversial arrest of Jacqueline Craig, a Black woman who was handcuffed and thrown to the ground after she called police over a confrontation with her neighbor. In 2019, Atatiana Jefferson was fatally shot by a Fort Worth police officer in her home.
Those incidents led to the creation of the race and culture task force and eventually the Office of Police Oversight Monitor.
In 2022, Cooke was reprimanded by the City Council for accepting a ride on the private airplane of Ed Bass and his wife Sasha. Moreover, he was instructed to recuse himself from any contracts or city partnership issues involving the Basses’ Sundance Square.