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Public Safety
Committee mulls medical center skybridge proposal
A proposed medical center skybridge continued to provoke discussion Monday, when the City Council’s Comprehensive Planning and Transportation Committee took its turn questioning the need for a pedestrian walkway. The pedestrian bridge, to be located at 15th and Red River…
Austin • By Elizabeth Pagano • Nov 11, 2014
Council passes sound permitting ordinance
City Council approved an ordinance Thursday that subjects large-scale outdoor music events on city parkland, such as the Austin City Limits festival, to more comprehensive sound permitting requirements. The ordinance amends city code to require that applicants seeking outdoor amplified…
City Council • By Tyler Whitson • Nov 10, 2014
Council tries for changes in Secure Communities
City Council members Thursday instructed city staff to make a series of changes to a proposed interlocal agreement the City of Austin holds with Travis County for prisoner booking services. If county officials agree to the changes, the cumulative effect…
Local Government • By Michael Kanin • Nov 7, 2014
Groups call city social service contracts inadequate
Organizations that provide crucial community needs will walk away from Austin’s newly altered competitive process for assigning next year’s social services contracts without the funding they want, members of the City Council Public Health and Human Services Committee said Friday.…
Austin • By Beth Cortez-Neavel • Nov 3, 2014
Report: County jail needs better medical facilities
Travis County’s correctional facilities have an adequate number of beds to handle its jail’s projected population for the next two decades, but current facilities for inmates with medical and mental health needs are acutely inadequate. That was among the key…
Local Government • By Mark Richardson • Oct 29, 2014
Council to finally get controversial coyote plan
A new coyote management policy will be brought to the Austin City Council in November, following a nine-month-long and somewhat controversial process. The policy was most recently before City Council’s Public Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday. In 2013,…
Public Safety • By Beth Cortez-Neavel • Oct 22, 2014
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Council approves amended TNC ordinance
Following an extensive discussion and several amendments, City Council approved an ordinance Thursday that will temporarily legalize transportation network companies such as Lyft and Uber in Austin on final reading. The ordinance directs the City Manager to enter into an…
Public Safety • By Tyler Whitson • Oct 17, 2014
McDonald announces retirement from city service
After 31 years of service to the city, Deputy City Manager Michael McDonald has announced that he will retire at the end of December. McDonald, who had a distinguished career in the Austin Police Department and served as the first…
Public Safety • By Jo Clifton • Oct 15, 2014
APD Communications hard-pressed to handle calls
As the Austin metropolitan area population grows over the next couple of decades, officials say city services will be hard-pressed to keep up with the demand. But that future is now for Austin Police Department’s Emergency Communication Division, whose leaders…
Public Safety • By Alex Dropkin • Oct 13, 2014
Travis County battles shortage of foster homes
There is a severe lack of homes for children and youth in Travis County’s foster care system, according to the judges and officials who administer the system. They say the situation has become critical, to the point that children are…
Public Safety • By Beth Cortez-Neavel • Oct 9, 2014
Public Safety panel punts on Special Events regs
A vote, or more specifically, a non-vote, by the Public Safety Commission on the proposed Special Events Ordinance proved anticlimactic Monday night. Rather than vote on the proposed ordinance as a whole, commissioners voted only to approve a definition change…
Public Safety • By Gene Davis • Oct 7, 2014
Council OKs TNC regulations on first reading
Early Friday morning, Transportation Network Companies such as Lyft and Uber moved one step closer to operating legally on Austin streets as part of a temporary pilot program, provided they enter into an agreement with the city and follow a…
