Alison Alter diversifies her investments in public safety

District 10 City Council Member Alison Alter takes an expansive view of public safety and prioritizes related investments to ensure the city is prepared when threats arise.

“My focus this year has been on safety … resilience and effective delivery of core services,” she told the Austin Monitor. 

Alter’s 2023 goals included entering into new labor contracts with the city’s three public safety agencies, strengthening gun violence prevention and improving the city’s response to hate crimes and the police response to sexual assaults. 

Although the city and the police union fell out of contract in March and have yet to return to the negotiating table, Council – in many cases thanks to Alter’s leadership – made progress on the other fronts, including approving a contract with the Austin-Travis County EMS Association in September. That same month, an arbitration panel delivered a two-year contract between the city and the Austin Firefighters Association after months of tense negotiations.

Alter also touts progress in the realm of gun violence prevention, including the November opening of the Harvest Trauma Recovery Center, created via a partnership between the city’s Office of Violence Prevention and the African American Youth Harvest Foundation. Alter authored a budget amendment funding the office in 2020.

The program will “target the folks (in Austin and Travis County) who have been the subject of violence and help them get the support they need so that they won’t, in turn, commit violence as a response to dealing with the trauma,” she said.

Recent events – including a Dec. 5 shooting spree between San Antonio and Austin that left six people dead and the Nov. 11 on-duty death of Austin Police Officer Jorge “George” Pastore – highlight the continued importance of such efforts. 

Alter also spearheaded funding for the We All Belong Anti-Hate Initiative, an education and outreach campaign launched in July following a series of hate crime reports in her district. In addition to building awareness, the initiative aims to streamline the reporting of hate crimes across Austin.

“It has been really important to our values as a community that everyone belongs here, given the current international geopolitical climate and what it has meant for the rise of antisemitism and Islamophobia,” she said. “It’s very important that you have these tools in place to be able to meet … the needs that our community has.” 

Lastly, Alter celebrates the Austin Police Department’s new Collective Sex Crimes Response Model Project. This collaboration between sexual assault survivors and community advocates is tasked with implementing the terms of two class-action lawsuit settlements stemming from the department’s improper handling of sexual assault cases as well as 103 recommendations from a November 2022 evaluation of the department’s Sex Crimes Unit.

Project members told Council in September that they have begun work on or implemented nearly half of the 119 items that make up their scope, as the Monitor previously reported. 

“Most importantly, we have an improved culture that is approaching this as an opportunity for us to make the big systemic change,” Alter said. 

Beyond these goals, Alter points to other public safety improvements as year-end highlights. They include the opening or construction of three new fire stations, better collaboration across municipal departments to prevent wildfires, ongoing reforms to the police training academy, improved staffing at the 911 call center and the expansion of new EMS programs that cater to low-acuity patients – expanding their access to medical services while freeing up ambulances for patients who need more urgent attention.  

Alter also emphasized the importance of building a city resilient to challenges as wide-ranging as climate change, state interference and economic headwinds. To this end, she initiated an equally wide-ranging set of city initiatives, including:

• A two-year pilot program that aims to give preference to small and locally owned businesses during the city contracting process, which she said will “keep our investments in our community”; 
• A federally funded research project in collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin that aims to analyze and mitigate the effects of climate change at the community level; and
• Property tax exemptions for eligible child care centers, intended to expand access to affordable child care.

Heading into the new year, Alter’s top priorities include hiring a new city manager and reaching a new labor contract with the Austin Police Association.

Since the firing of former City Manager Spencer Cronk, interim City Manager Jesús Garza has made a series of major organizational changes, attempted to implement a controversial telework policy and rankled some Council members with his appointment of Gail McCant to direct the Office of Police Oversight.  

Alter is looking for an experienced manager familiar with the council-manager form of government. 

“We also need someone who’s curious and willing to learn and who’s able to integrate new thinking into the way they approach their work and who can demand accountability and responsibility from their staff,” she said.

Alter also is looking forward to a new police labor contract. 

Mayor Kirk Watson expressed hope in a recent newsletter that the two bargaining teams would return to the negotiating table. He cited as examples of goodwill the city’s Dec. 4 agreement with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office to drop charges against 17 Austin police officers accused of using excessive force during the May 2020 protests and his own commitment to renew a one-year ordinance ensuring pay and retirement benefits in the absence of a new contract. 

Alter agrees that a new contract is in Austinites’ best interest. 

“We are paying officers more than what we would have paid them in the proposed contract, and we have very little oversight than we would have been able to secure through a contract,” she said. “So, I support moving into a contract. I support paying our officers well and achieving (that) oversight.” 

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 correct the length of the EMS contract and Alter’s role on several initiatives.

Posted In: City Hall, District 10