Mobility, housing progress among the highlights of Cronk’s ‘most normal year’ in Austin

Spencer Cronk takes a measure of perspective when asked to look back on 2022 and a year that demanded constant attention to homelessness, ongoing labor negotiation, and persistent difficulties filling open positions within city government, among other issues. After a pandemic that has spanned more than two years and a winter storm that crippled utilities statewide in 2021, the past year feels tame by comparison.

“I really do consider this my most normal year since I’ve been here,” said Cronk, who has served as Austin’s city manager since early 2018. The relative calm allowed Cronk and city staff numbering roughly 16,000 to focus on longer-term work and priorities such as making progress implementing the Project Connect transit plan, hiring more than 60 new officers for the Austin Police Department, and creating more than 400 income-restricted homes in a bid to help address the city’s housing crisis.

Other highlights Cronk noted in his own Year in Review memo posted in early December include taking steps to improve the city’s resiliency during climate or other disasters, and implementing new workforce development programs to help enrollees secure middle-income jobs.

With a new mayor and three first-time City Council members coming onto the dais in January, Cronk said he looks forward to seeing how previous policy priorities will mesh with the goals of the newcomers. His early attention will be on giving the newcomers and returning Council members the support and resources they need to address the needs of constituents.

“This will certainly be the most significant change since being in the 10-1 (district representation) system. The good news is there is going to be the continuation of a number of Council members that will have their own thoughts and priorities around how things have been played, how things have been working, and how they might want to see things change in the future,” he said. “We’re going to give the new Council the support that it needs from day one. With this different composition, we might see different priorities and approaches and our job is to make sure that we’re implementing that Council direction and ensure continuity and stability in those basic services that we provide our residents.”

Cronk said an important piece of learning about the new Council will likely come during the crafting of the city’s next five-year vision, the current version of which helped to focus discussion and negotiations during annual city budget workshops. In addition to mobility work beyond Project Connect, areas Cronk sees as needing long-term attention include public safety and mental health issues connected to safety, reducing carbon emissions, and sustainability and resiliency.

Those are in addition to the far-reaching support for adding housing stock and density throughout the city.

“It’s clear the city is not building enough housing to keep pace with the rising cost of living. We’re making progress, and even making progress on ensuring that people experiencing homelessness have appropriate housing options,” he said. “There’s still too many people living on the streets and we still need to build more units for people to afford to live in generally. So if there is a shift, it is even more emphasis on housing coming from staff, from the community and from Council.”

With the state Legislature convening in 2023, the city’s formal legislative agenda is most heavily focused on combating attempts to limit how Austin governs itself. Cronk said Council and relevant staff also need to stay involved in working to secure funding for key priorities with the money the state will be allocating, thanks to several large, unexpected surpluses totaling $30 billion.

Employment levels throughout city government will remain a prominent to-do for Cronk and staff going into 2023, including EMS workers’ contract ending in September, ongoing mediation sessions with the Austin Fire Department and the police contract ending in March.

Beyond the union negotiations, Cronk said there is progress on filling the unusually high number of vacancies in all departments. The city’s recent wage increases have helped to slow departures and spur a 44 percent increase in the number of applicants for open positions, with the vacancy rate sitting at 16.6 percent as of early December.

“The needle is moving in the right direction. We’ve seen applications just skyrocket from September to October and we’re seeing lower vacancy rates,” he said. “We’re finally seeing the curve turning in the right direction, but I know there’s more work to be done because sometimes the departments and the services that are most impacted are the ones that our residents need the most as well. And so we need to double down on our efforts.”

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