Shortly after City Council acted Thursday to protect transgender people from discriminatory health care laws, Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a threatening statement, vowing to “consider every possible response to ensure compliance” with state law prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors. Against this backdrop of escalating anti-trans rhetoric within the Republican Party, Council passed a resolution […]
Austin Human Rights Commission
an advisory committee to members of the Austin City Council. It’s purview includes “all matters involving racial, religious or ethnic discrimination.”
Posted inAustin
Human Rights Commission passes recommendation for domestic violence survivors
Late last month, the city’s Human Rights Commission unanimously passed a recommendation to continue providing hotel shelter for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking during the Covid-19 pandemic. Courtney Santana, a Human Rights commissioner and the CEO of the foundation Survive 2 Thrive, told the Austin Monitor that means struggling Austin-area shelters […]
Posted inCity Charter
Human Rights Commission calls for democratically elected police chief
On Monday, the Human Rights Commission agreed that City Council should change city ordinance to allow Austin to democratically elect its police chief. Under the proposal, which was put together by commissioners Nathan White, Kristian Caballero and Alicia Weigel, Austin voters would select a new police chief in a local election, and then the mayor […]
Posted inBudget
Community Development Commission to study new uses for police funding
The Community Development Commission has formed a working group to recommend how City Council should make reductions to the Austin Police Department budget, and may move to sign to recent resolutions from three other commissions in support of the budget moves. At last week’s meeting, the commission discussed the ongoing defunding of APD, which had […]
Posted inPolice
Commission wants more detail and authority behind police oversight findings
The Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities has signed on to a resolution passed by the Human Rights Commission that asks the Austin Police Department to investigate all complaints recommended for investigation by the Office of Police Oversight. The committee voted unanimously and without comment to endorse the resolution, which was approved last month. It […]
Posted inAustin
City offered free DNA analysis of remains exhumed in Oakwood Cemetery chapel project
Years of analysis have revealed little information about the human remains of 36 bodies discovered buried beneath the Oakwood Cemetery Chapel in November 2016. Now a potential academic partnership between the Parks and Recreation Department and a biological anthropologist at the University of Connecticut could use minimally destructive methods of DNA testing to offer insights well […]
Posted inParks
Oakwood Cemetery chapel report soon to be released
After years of anticipation, the Parks and Recreation Department has finalized its report on the East Austin Oakwood Cemetery chapel restoration project. The two-volume report will soon be delivered to the Texas Historical Commission for review. The city received the first volume of the report from Hicks and Company, the archaeological firm that conducted the […]
Posted inAustin
Commission recommends ban on cashless retail
Human Rights Commissioner Garry Brown noticed recently that more and more businesses across the nation are going cashless in order to make doing business safer, cleaner and more efficient. But for millions of people without bank accounts or with limited access to banking services – disproportionately people of color and those over 65 – the […]
Posted inAISD
Human Rights Commission seeks apology from AISD
Last week the Austin Independent School District’s chief equity officer, Stephanie Hawley, called the board of trustees’ vote to close four elementary schools racist and inequitable. In an effort to improve the district’s financial situation, the board was faced with a list of 12 proposed school closures. The list was whittled down to four elementary […]
Posted inPolice
Office of the Police Monitor building a police oversight agency
For 16 years, the Office of the Police Monitor has been available for citizens and city staff to issue complaints against law enforcement. However, it appears not many Austinites take advantage of its services. Police Monitor Farah Muscadin found that of the 250 formal complaints investigated each year, 50 came directly from the community while […]
Posted inCity Hall
Harassment policy heads to Council without a commission willing to hear cases
After the Ethics Review Commission declined to weigh in on the city’s newly proposed anti-discrimination and harassment policy, it volleyed the task to the Human Rights Commission, which similarly declined to take on the job. This hot potato of an issue came to the court of commissions from the city clerk’s office earlier this fall […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Better luck next time
Best-laid plans… A pair of music festivals set to take place within six days of each other were felled by permitting problems, with one forced to reschedule until September and another planning a move into Austin nightclubs. The Punk In Drublic punk and craft beer festival was scheduled to take place May 5 on the […]