Good Wednesday morning --
We have several updates for you.
APD CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS HEATING UP
The City's police contract expires at the end of March and it it does, we will lose 100-150 more police officers to retirement, which would put us more than 500 officers below where we were when defund the police was passed in 2020. In fact, we have already seen 25 officers retire this month (could be a monthly record in APD history).
Falling out of contract ends APD's ability to pay out officers for accrued sick time and discontinues to salary bonuses officers earn for working night shifts, overtime, mentoring and foreign language proficiency.
Public safety in Austin has reached crisis levels and falling out contract would be yet another self-inflicted wound.
We need a four-year contract that the City Council and the Austin Police Association can approve to give APD and the city certainty.
Mayor Watson has pledged to work on improving police staffing and retention early in his first year. We look forward to supporting these efforts.
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SAVE AUSTIN NOW JOINS NORTH AMERICA RECOVERS COALITION TO FOCUS ON ACTIONABLE, PROVEN SOLUTION TO HOMELESSNESS, ADDICTION
In early January, Cleo and I attended a two-day conference in Seattle with leading experts, nonprofit leaders and community activists in cities across the U.S. and Canada with the goal of saving our cities by focusing on recovery and treatment.
Below is our press release from yesterday:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 24, 2023
SAVE AUSTIN NOW JOINS NORTH AMERICA RECOVERS, NEW COALITION LAUNCHED TO ADDRESS HOMELESSNESS, ADDICTION
Urges President Biden to Stop Government Funded Drug Sites
AUSTIN, TX — Nonpartisan Save Austin Now PAC today announced it has joined a new coalition called North America Recovers, which is made up of dozens of grassroots leaders, policy experts and nonprofit executives from the U.S. and Canada who have united to push back on destructive policies destroying our cities and instead advocated for proven solutions to homelessness and drug addiction. The coalition spent two full days together in Seattle in January 6-8 to align on policy proposals and strategic objectives.
“Save Austin Now will keep its focus on improving standard of living in our city for all residents, especially in the policy areas of homelessness and public safety,” said Save Austin Now co-founders Matt Mackowiak and Cleo Petricek. “There is good and inspiring work being done in many other cities and we want to learn from it. We hope this coalition can fight the good fight and turn the tide in our failing major North American cities. This will require both compassion and honesty, with a focus on recovery and rejection of policies that incentivize addiction and misery. We can restore safety to our cities while improving the lives of the least fortunate among us.”
On Monday this new coalition announced formation.
Mothers Against Drug Addiction and Deaths and 21 other organizations focused on addiction, mental illness, and homelessness are urging President Biden to “Stop Government Drug Sites” and order the Department of Justice not to grant Philadelphia and other cities, which are seeking waivers so they can operate supervised drug-use sites without violating federal law.
The coalition launched an advertising campaign on Monday in Washington, D.C. and with mobile billboards with a photo of a mother of a homeless fentanyl addict that reads, “Please Help My Son Escape Addiction the Way You Helped Hunter.”
The ads are aimed at convincing Biden and his Department of Justice (DoJ) to not allow “supervised drug consumption sites,” where taxpayer-funded healthcare workers assist anyone over 18 to inject or smoke fentanyl and other hard drugs. In response to a lawsuit by a group in Philadelphia that wants to open a drug-use site, the Justice Department said in early December that it would make a decision by early February.
“We as a coalition urge President Biden to reject these sites in favor of first creating a recovery-focused system for addressing our addiction crisis,” the Coalition said in a statement on the organization’s new website, NorthAmericaRecovers.org. “This means we must allocate sufficient funding for evidence-based intervention, treatment, and recovery programs.”
One of the laws Biden is considering not enforcing is a 1986 "crackhouse statute,” which Biden cosponsored as Senator, and which made it illegal to “knowingly open, lease, rent, use or maintain any place, whether permanently or temporarily, for the purpose of manufacturing, distributing or using any controlled substance.”
To learn more about North America Recovers, please visit http://www.NorthAmericaReocvers.org.
To learn more about Save Austin Now PAC, please visit http://www.SaveAustinNowPAC.com.
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TRAFFIC DEATHS IN AUSTIN SET NEW RECORDS WITH POLICE STAFFING CRISIS SHUTTING DOWN TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT UNIT
We have been pointing this out for more than a year and now the data proves it: It has never been less safe to drive in Austin than today.
The year 2022 saw the highest number of traffic deaths in city history, despite former Mayor Steve Adler's cheap commitment to "Vision Zero" and its goal of eliminating all traffic deaths. His last two years as Mayor, Austin set consecutive records for traffic deaths. Some vision.
From a recent Austin American-Statesman story:
For the second consecutive year, Austin broke its record for annual traffic fatalities, but the city is turning to road infrastructure plans as a possible solution to avoid another tragic tally in 2023.
Austin police recorded 122 deaths resulting from injuries sustained in city traffic, exceeding the 2021 total by two. The 2022 death toll was the highest for a single year in the nearly four decades that Austin police have kept such records.
"There are a lot of ways to prevent fatal crashes, and there are a lot of theories about why they are going up," said Jay Blazek Crossley, a board member for the nonprofit Safe Streets Austin, which advocates for safer urban road infrastructure. "There was a hope last year that things would get better, but they haven't yet."
Pedestrians made up a major portion of the Austin traffic deaths in 2022, with local fatal crash experts pointing to a combination of speeding vehicles, larger vehicles, dangerous crosswalks and unsafe walking as possible factors.
Austin police Lt. William White, who leads the vehicular homicide unit, blames speeding for so many road deaths in the past three years, adding that it's a trend exacerbated by fewer officers handing out traffic tickets.
In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic cleared Austin's streets of its typical bumper-to-bumper traffic as people started working from home and students began remote learning.
Despite the change in road use, Austin recorded 94 traffic deaths in 2020 — the highest toll since 2015, when the city tallied 102. Authorities in 2020 also pointed toward speeders taking advantage of the empty roads as a reason for the increase in deaths.
In 2021, as vaccines became more widely available, more drivers returned to commuting and deaths continued to rise. The 120 traffic deaths that year were an all-time high going back to 1985, the earliest date for such police records, before they were topped by the 122 mark set just days ago.
Police, seeing the spike in traffic deaths, have for the past three years pointed to an officer shortage that prompted leadership to disband a unit dedicated to cracking down on drunken driving and another to catch speeders. Officers in those units were moved to patrol.
The shortage came after the City Council voted to eliminate three cadet training academy classes in 2020. The lack of officers led to a ballot measure two Novembers ago that sought to bolster the force by requiring the city to hire hundreds of additional officers and maintain two officers per 1,000 residents. The proposition failed by more than 56,000 votes, with 68% of voters opposed.
The department as of November was about 178 officers short of the 1,812 for which it is budgeted.
"It's nothing short of frustrating," White said of the shortage. "I believe wholeheartedly that were we to have more officers out there visible and making traffic stops, we could certainly reduce serious injury crashes and fatal crashes."
In the 2022 fiscal year, which went through the end of September, the Austin Municipal Court reported 3,951 citations for speeding. That was down 9.2% from 2021 (4,351), 49% from 2020 (7,751), 72.6% from 2019 (14,399), 82.5% from 2018 (22,598) and 89.9% from 2017 (39,179).
However, the Municipal Court switched to a new reporting system in the middle of September, so 18 days of speeding citations in fiscal year 2022 were not listed in the system.
"Speeding citations have dropped significantly, and that's a trend we've seen going back to the 2015 and 2016 time frame," said Lewis Leff, transportation safety officer for the Austin Transportation Department.
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WATSON: PROP B ENFORCEMENT COMING
First, as he did while campaigning, Mayor-elect Kirk Watson has pledged to FULLY ENFORCE Prop B as Mayor. He reiterated this commitment in a conversation with The Texas Tribune yesterday (homeless discussion starts around 20:00 minute mark).
From a recent CBS Austin story:
Austin mayor-elect Kirk Watson has thoughts on how to humanely enforce the camping ban when he takes office in January. Watson says he plans to fully enforce the ban.
“The people have told us they want us to enforce the camping ban, and the state has passed legislation signed by the Governor mandating that we enforce the camping ban,” said Watson.
“I think we can enforce the camping ban and do it in a humane way. In fact, in a way that is better, because we will be in a position to put services more into play for people that need services. So yes, I intended to see us enforce the camping ban.”
Watson says there needs to be a focus on prevention, mental health care, and building out wraparound services.
“I feel like what we've been allowed here in the past bit of time is all or nothing. Pretty much camping, anywhere you want, anytime a day with little responsibility, or permanent supportive housing in some way. We're not building the continuum which could make a big difference as well.”
Ultimately this will have to pass the City Council, as they will need to direct the City Manager to fully enforce. Enforcement will fall on the understaffed Austin Police Department. This is very encouraging to tens of thousands of Austinites who desire a safe and clean city.
Make no mistake: This is a result of all the work we all have done for 3+ years.
Instead of Mayor Steve Adler pretending the camping ban is being enforced, we have an incoming Mayor who respects the Prop B vote and will not violate existing state law. We will monitor this closely.
In the meantime, our lawsuit for the lack of Prop B enforcement proceeds. It is currently before the 3rd Court of Appeals with our notice of appeal being filed this week. Our lawsuit will take some time and while we have excellent, committed lawyers, this battle will require resources. You can donate to our legal effort here. If you wish to send a check to ("Save Austin Now PAC" and mail to 807 Brazos Street Suite 701, Austin, TX 78701).
DONATE TO OUR LEGAL EFFORT HERE
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SAVE AUSTIN NOW'S '25 IDEAS TO MAKE AUSTIN A WORLD CLASS CITY'
As you may know, recently we revealed '25 Ideas to Make Austin a World Class City', a project that is five months in the making and is the result of more than 75 stakeholder meetings among elected officials, former elected officials, business leaders, community leaders, and policy experts.
Our ambition for Austin is to make it a truly world class city.
To do this, we need to enact major, structural reforms to address the five most pressing challenges facing Austin: Affordability, Public Safety, Homelessness, Transportation and Transparency.
Here is the exclusive story unveiling our plan by Brad Johnson of The Texan.
Please share this story on your social media networks.
The full plan is available to MakeAustinWorldClass.com.
We will be working to implement this plan over the coming year.
To support our efforts to pass this plan and continue holding City Council accountable, please securely donate here or make a check to “Save Austin Now PAC” and mail it to 807 Brazos Street Suite 701, Austin, TX 78701.
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HELP US HOLD CITY HALL ACCOUNTABLE HERE
SUPPORT OUR WORK
You can support our efforts to hold city leaders accountable for their decisions here. If you wish to send a check to ("Save Austin Now PAC" and mail to 807 Brazos Street Suite 202, Austin, TX 78701).
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As we have said before, we have only begun to fight!
Thank you!
-Matt Mackowiak & Cleo Petricek
Co-founders, Save Austin Now PAC
> Questions? Email Matt.
> Learn more: http://www.SaveAustinNowPAC.com
Will you please support our efforts now?
You may donate to our legal effort here: https://secure.anedot.com/save-austin-now-pac/save-austin-now-pac-legal-fund-c4cfa533f8ab98c9da232.