Austin Justice Coalition leader withdraws support for strong-mayor proposal

Chas Moore, the executive director of the Austin Justice Coalition, announced Thursday that he was withdrawing his support for the strong-mayor initiative and other proposals from Austinites for Progressive Reform. The group presented a petition with more than 24,000 signatures to the city clerk to get six charter amendments on the May 1 ballot. Those proposals ranged from one that would eliminate the city manager’s position and put the mayor in charge of most hiring and firing of department heads to one that would adopt a new campaign finance system. Members of various labor organizations in the city have opposed all of the propositions, with the most attention given to the strong-mayor system. Moore was part of a group that vetted the propositions and added his name to APR’s list of supporters. But as he said in a news release, “This week, I publicly withdrew my support of the Austinites for Progressive Reform proposed charter amendments because I received a message from the community loud and clear: Austinites for Progressive Reform has not built the trust required to push forward transformative structural changes to our city charter with the kind of robust community support we need to see.”