Austin, Monitored: A look at gun violence prevention and police payouts

Austin’s fight against gun violence: A public health-based strategy in uncertain times

From Mina Shekarchi:

Three years after the tragedy in Uvalde, Austin is doubling down on a different approach to gun violence: treating it like a public health crisis. With the third anniversary of the Robb Elementary School shooting on May 24 and an upcoming city and county summit to mark Gun Violence Awareness Month, the Austin Monitor took a closer look at local efforts to reduce gun violence.

The Biden administration categorized gun violence as an “epidemic” and the city of Austin has chosen to approach the issue from a similar lens. Austin’s Office of Violence Prevention (OVP), housed under the city’s public health department, has been operating since 2020. The OVP focuses on addressing the causes of violence, including firearm accidents, individual homicides, domestic violence-related shootings, and suicides, in addition to mass shootings (which comprise only around 1 percent of all gun violence in the United States).

Austin has paid out $27 million to people injured by police during 2020 racial justice protests

From Andrew Weber, KUT News:

Austin has paid out nearly $30 million to settle lawsuits over police conduct during protests following George Floyd’s murder five years ago.

Most of the settlements were related to injuries caused by police using shotguns to fire lead-pellet bags at demonstrators outside the department’s headquarters in May 2020.

A wave of lawsuits followed over police use of the so-called “less-lethal” ammunition. As of last week, the city had settled 27 lawsuits, including a $4.5 million settlement to Sam Kirsch.

Commissioner Shea to seek re-election
Travis County Precinct 2 Commissioner Brigid Shea has announced she will be seeking re-election. The first step for Shea is winning the March 3, 2026 Democratic Primary, which she has done every four years since 2014. While Shea is best known for her efforts to protect the environment, she stresses the need to continue her work to build more affordable housing and help those in need.

In her news release, Shea emphasized that local governments “must take bold action to protect their communities as the federal government retreats” from providing food assistance, health care and other assistance to the needy. “In my current term, we built meaningfully on the significant investments the previous federal administration made in housing, social justice, and climate action,” Shea said. “Now, in 2025, I’m running for reelection because local governments must step up where the Trump Administration is failing. Travis County must continue to lead—for the well-being of our community and as a model for the nation.”

Amanda Marzullo has previously announced her bid for the Precinct 2 seat.

— Jo Clifton

Broadnax talks budget cuts
At a recent Urban Land Institute Austin breakfast, city manager T.C. Broadnax offered his thoughts on budget, infrastructure, and management developments on tap for the spring and summer. Among them: departmental spending cuts of 1.5 percent are already in motion, with frontline services like pool operations facing possible reductions, with a broader recalibration of public expectations likely to follow this summer. He signaled that staffing levels—including the city’s under-resourced homelessness outreach team—will be scrutinized in the coming budget cycle, specifically mentioning the need to quintuple the city’s homeless outreach staff from 4–5 staffers to more than 20.

Broadnax described a pivot in homelessness strategy that moves beyond permanent supportive housing to emphasize prevention, diversion, and rapid rehousing. He also acknowledged the need for a more coordinated response to encampment cleanups and debris removal, citing creating a proactive cleanup team as a model for Austin during his tenure in Dallas. He noted that current city-led efforts to close encampments can take up to two weeks and leave other parts of the city without coverage, strengthening the need for expanded staffing and operational capacity.

In remarks about the Interstate 35 cap-and-stitch project, he previewed the need for Austin to realign its funding approach to match peer cities like Dallas and Boston, where cap infrastructure has been financed primarily by private and non-local dollars. “That is not the norm,” he said of Austin’s reliance on local funds. Those comments suggest a possible pivot toward pursuing philanthropic and institutional partners more aggressively as the city enters design and planning phases.

— Chad Swiatecki

Ethics Review Commission meeting cancelled
Lack of a quorum at the Ethics Review Commission on Wednesday night meant the committee could not hear ethics complaints against Council Members Mike Siegel and Natasha Harper-Madison. The chair, William Ross Pumfrey, cancelled the meeting after waiting for 30 minutes to see if more members would arrive. Siegel sat on the front row in the meeting room with paperwork he said would show that he did not violate the city’s regulations during the 2024 campaign. But he never got a chance to make his arguments because only five members showed up. Siegel told the Austin Monitor that although William King, his appointee, attended the meeting he would not have been able to vote on Siegel’s case.

Tiffany Washington, who filed a complaint against Harper-Madison alleging that the District 1 Council Member engaged in personal attacks on Washington on her city social media account, was also waiting for a hearing. Harper-Madison did not attend the meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for June 25.

— Jo Clifton

Elsewhere in the News

Austin’s news continues to be filled with storm coverage, after Wednesday’s wild weather. KXAN reports that the event was what was a “long-track microburst” that claimed the life of at least one person.

KUT has news on the overwhelming task of restoring power to the tens of thousands of homes that were experiencing outages.

The Austin Chronicle reports on upcoming, seemingly-inevitable closures at Austin ISD and what schools are at particular risk.

And, in case you missed it, KVUE reported on what appears to be a disturbing case of mistaken demolition in East Austin.

Thanks for reading!

Liz

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