Council Members Bill Spelman and Laura Morrison told the Monitor Tuesday that they’ve seen serious progress in the process of developing the City’s annual budget. Their comments were heard Wednesday on the weekly Austin Monitor Radio news show on KOOP 91.7 FM. “My first budget, I went down to the budget hearing. I was basically […]
Officer:Citizen Ratio
A metric used to measure the number of police officers relative to the population of a given municipality. In Austin, the current ratio is two officers per every thousand residents. Council Member Bill Spelman, an academic with much experience in studying public safety, regularly questions the efficacy of the figure.
Posted inLocal Politics, Public Safety, Resources
Energy, water utility rates top Council concerns over 2015 budget
The Austin City Council took on next year’s budget in earnest Thursday. Of the $3.5 billion budget, members’ biggest concerns continued to rest with the city’s water and energy utilities. A proposal from Austin Energy to increase the fuel charge customers pay had Council particularly on edge. That increase will add $4.67 to the average […]
Posted inPublic Safety
APD offers to cut new officer positions to increase 911 call staff
Council Member Bill Spelman’s annual dive into the city’s public safety budget has prompted the Austin Police Department to offer to shed officer positions in favor of more staff in its 911 communications department. The statement came in response to a question submitted by Spelman – a longtime critic of the standing 2.0 officers […]
Posted inPublic 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 for 59 additional officers. However, Public Safety Commission Chair Kim Rossmo said the increase would […]
Posted inLocal Politics, Public Safety
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.” With that, he got right to the point, saying that most of the $23 […]
Posted inLocal Politics, Public Safety, Uncategorized
Council, police chief clash over district representative assignments
Austin City Council members continued to do battle amongst themselves and with Police Chief Art Acevedo Tuesday over lingering issues associated with the opening of three segments of city hike and bike trails to 24-hour traffic. It all comes against the backdrop of the continuing dispute over how many officers it takes to serve the […]