Mackenzie Kelly: ‘Hyper-focused on public safety’ in 2023

Over Mackenzie Kelly’s two years as City Council’s lone conservative, she has made a point of finding common ground with those she often disagrees with and avoiding the charged rhetoric employed by politicians at the state and national level.

“That’s really been a mainstay of how I’ve conducted myself here, finding out what priorities other Council members have, that they care about, and trying to find out where we might align,” she said. 

This year, Kelly gathered the support of her peers on initiatives around preventing human and sex trafficking among people experiencing homelessness; restarting the city’s biennial point-in-time counts, a census of unsheltered Austinites; and reinstating automated license plate readers for use by the Austin Police Department. 

Kelly cited bringing back ALPRs as one of her biggest achievements this year. “It’s something that can save lives, and it’s a very little cost,” she said. The initiative was also one of her hardest fought. It faced opposition from some Council members over data privacy concerns, and it only passed after weeks of negotiations. “That was a pretty uphill battle,” Kelly said. 

She also brought improvements to her Northwest Austin District 6, such as new crosswalks near Jollyville Elementary, where a woman was struck and dragged by a car, and a new all-abilities playground.

In the realm of housing policy, Kelly sponsored a resolution to allow accessory dwelling units in more places around the city. As one of two renters on the dais, Kelly has felt rising housing costs personally; this year, her rent increased by $300 a month. 

While Kelly supports strong property rights, including the right of property owners to petition against zoning changes nearby, she acknowledged the city’s housing supply shortage. “We need more housing. We need more density. I’m OK with density along high-traffic corridors.” Kelly said she looks forward to proposed equitable transit-oriented development, or ETOD districts, as one way to allow more housing.

In 2023, she aims to stay “hyper-focused on public safety.”

“Public safety is my area of focus, mostly having been in public safety for the majority of my adult life,” said Kelly, a former volunteer firefighter and participant in APD’s Citizen Police Academy. 

Ensuring approval of a new police contract, still under negotiation, is a top priority, as is alleviating the public safety worker shortage. “I know there’s a staffing crisis at APD. We’re about 350 officers short.”

She hopes to build on budget amendments from the past two years that funded additional cadet academies, but acknowledges the “multifaceted problem” of recruiting and retaining officers. “I don’t know how we can recover without ramping up our training, but then at the same time, we don’t have enough resources to sustain enough training. And then there’s the problem of trying to get individuals to even want to apply to be a police officer.” 

After voters rejected a minimum police staffing ballot measure in 2021, Kelly launched a public safety staffing plan she hopes will help the city maintain fully staffed public safety departments.

Police oversight is also set to be an important discussion next year. Kelly is opposed to the Austin Police Oversight Act, a measure on the May ballot aimed at increasing APD’s transparency and accountability. “It is an overreach,” she said, pointing to the provision in the act that would make police officers’ confidential files available to the city’s Office of Police Oversight and Community Police Review Commission, either of which could then recommend disciplinary action. 

A competing police oversight petition, reportedly backed by the Austin Police Association, could be on the May ballot if it is verified by the city clerk. Kelly said that the petition is on her radar, but she has not taken a position. 

During this year’s budget process, Kelly moved to expand EMS resources with a mannequin simulation training lab and more blood transfusion capacity on ambulances.

Kelly, however, was the only Council member to vote against the budget in August. She was also among three members who voted against a 40 percent pay raise for Council members. 

“No” votes are not uncommon for Kelly – she often objects to items on Council’s consent agenda (items voted on all at once, and usually unanimously). She said her objections are sometimes based in fiscal conservatism, or disagreements over how money is spent, or the lack of time to thoroughly assess the value of whatever it is Council is voting on. 

While Kelly said she couldn’t comment on whether local government, generally speaking, spends taxpayer money loosely, “I do question the amount of money we get and the areas which we spend it on.” 

“We have to be good stewards of taxpayer money, and we have to treat it like it’s precious.”

The Austin Monitor’s work is made possible by donations from the community. Though our reporting covers donors from time to time, we are careful to keep business and editorial efforts separate while maintaining transparency. A complete list of donors is available here, and our code of ethics is explained here. This story has been changed since publication to clarify the nature of the car crash near Jollyville Elementary.

Posted In: City Council, District 6