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Public Safety
Public Safety Commission calls proposed APD budget inadequate
Public Safety Commissioners did not attempt to hide their displeasure Monday with the proposed FY 2015 Austin Police Department budget. APD’s budget plan calls for $307.6 million, which is a $12.2 million increase from FY 2014 and adds funding…
Public Safety • By Gene Davis • Jun 3, 2014
Council members angry over lack of notice on salary overpayment
Members of the Council’s Audit and Finance Committee expressed frustration and disapproval Wednesday over the city’s $239,000 overpayment to a city employee and the failure of City Auditor Kenneth Mory to tell them about it. Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl…
Local Politics • By Elizabeth Pagano • May 29, 2014
Council members concerned about handling of employee overpayment
Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole and Council Member Bill Spelman, who both sit on the Council’s Audit and Finance Committee, as well as a local attorney with expertise in employment law, have expressed concern over the city’s handling of an…
Local Politics • By Michael Kanin • May 23, 2014
Council OKs two measures to speed buyouts in flood-prone areas
More than six months have passed since Austin’s Halloween flood. At nearly 1 a.m. Friday, Onion Creek residents gathered at City Hall learned that relief may be in sight in the form of an expanded city buyout program. Two…
Development • By Elizabeth Pagano • May 16, 2014
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Clerical error causes city to overpay EMS employee by $200,000
The City of Austin has overpaid a former Austin/Travis County paramedic by perhaps as much as $200,000 over an eight-year period that began in 2004. Though the problem was first discovered in 2011, it took until 2013 for the city…
Public Safety • By Michael Kanin • May 14, 2014
Spelman continues to press police department on budget increases
With no attempt at coyness, Council Member Bill Spelman kicked off his questioning about the Austin Police Department budget during last week’s budget work session saying, “This is a ritual, we’ve done it for years – I’ll do it again.”…
Local Politics • By Elizabeth Pagano • May 13, 2014
Austin Fire Chief explains to Council why she can’t expand service
Ranks of the Austin Fire Department are down by 76 members and that number is growing every month as veterans retire, according to Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr. Kerr says at that rate, the department would have around 100 vacancies…
Local Politics • By Heydn Ericson • May 9, 2014
Attorneys protest Travis County Jail’s cooperation with ICE
Pressure is growing for the Travis County Jail to halt its participation in a federal program to put immigration holds on certain inmates for possible deportation, as a group of more than 100 attorneys and law professors are calling the…
Local Government • By Mark Richardson • May 9, 2014
Community group seeks organized assistance for flood victims
A community organization called the Travis Austin Recovery Group (TARG), formed in the aftermath of the historic 2013 Halloween floods, is noting the six-month anniversary of the event with the release of a Draft Recovery Plan for the people and…
