Summary: First Meeting of the Austin Council Public Safety Committee

The newly formed Austin Council Public Safety Committee convened today for its first meeting. Created at council’s June 11th meeting, the agenda focused on Austin Police Department (APD), particularly staffing and program changes and budget priorities.

Every member of council attended the meeting, though only four serve in a official role: Council Members Jimmy Flannigan, Chair (District 6); Greg Casar, Vice-Chair (District 4); Natasha Harper-Madison (District 1); and Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza (District 2). Similar to their unanimous vote for a slate of police reform resolutions last week, having the entire council present was not an ordinary occurrence.

As evident from the past two weeks of dais and message board discussion, council is keen on making ambitious changes regarding police reform and combatting racial inequality.

While this meeting focused on providing recent policy updates to the committee, there was a struggle to discuss every topic of interest within the limited time frame. Many of the topics are expected to be discussed at future meetings.

City Manager Spencer Cronk and staff are continuing to prepare the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 budget, which will be presented to council on July 13.

Based on discussions during this meeting, rejecting the budget is possible if it fails to reflect the council’s police reform objectives. Mayor Pro Tem Garza specifically voiced her wariness about this, and the dread over her final council budget vote being against. Historically, most council members vote in favor of the budget despite final budgetary disagreements and concerns.

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//The Bingham Group Team