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(Capital Metro)
CapMetro and the Austin City Council approved a scaled-down version of Project Connect on Monday, reducing the funding ask to voters by nearly one-third.
City staff will now bring forward an official tax rate proposal for the council to vote on by Aug. 7. The proposal will include an 8.75-cent property tax increase.
The city and CapMetro also approved creating a shared governing board for the project, with officials from both entities overseeing the massive transit upgrade.
"This is an exciting day to be taking a step forward," Mayor Steve Adler said. "This is both a scary time filled with uncertainties, and a time of hope as we are on the verge of real transformative change … We need to move forward to be the Austin of our aspirations, and our dreams."
The influence of the pandemic
The reduced ask came as a sharp turnaround for Project Connect—the city gave the nod to the full $10 billion plan as recently as late June. The plan approved today will be just over $7 billion, with 45% coming from the federal government and most of the rest from the planned November vote.
However, the property tax increase approved by CapMetro and the council was actually slightly higher than the reduced proposal—an 8.5-cent property tax increase—brought forward last week. The 0.25-cent increase will allow Project Connect to triple the amount of funding to help with housing displacement to $300 million.
For and against
Of the 84 people who signed up to comment on Project Connect, 68 registered in favor of the plan, with five registering against it.
The speakers who opposed the proposal called parts of Project Connect, such as the construction of an underground rail tunnel through downtown, "sketchy," poorly planned and a "fairy tale" that could easily go over budget.
"We're in the middle of a pandemic, and we don't have funds to do this sort of thing," said Caroline Reynolds, who lives near downtown and said she is drawing on her experience as an engineer.
Other residents called on the council and CapMetro to delay putting the issue on the ballot to 2022 and impressed upon the officials the possibility of the it failing during a year with such major financial crises going on.
Many spoke in support of the project, advocating for the need to work on improving public transit in the city sooner rather than later.
"I urge you all to go big on this project and support it moving forward," said Bay Scoggin, the director at Texas Public Interest Research Group.
Danielle Skidmore, a civil engineer and former candidate for City Council District 9, in Central Austin, also spoke in support of Project Connect.
"We will look back at 2020, and recognize it is the right time to begin this investment," Skidmore said. "Project Connect will define Austin in the 21st century."
Two more votes are required before the proposal can be put on the November ballot, the second of which will happen during the Aug. 12-14 City Council budget meetings.
This article was updated after the vote.
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Popular
(Austin Public Health/Twitter)
Eighty-seven providers in Travis County will receive a total of 75,540 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for the week of March 8 as part of the 13th weekly allocation, a nearly 62% increase compared to last week's. The significant increase is largely due to inclusion of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which received an emergency use authorization from the FDA last weekend.
The bulk will go to hub providers Austin Public Health and UT Health Austin, the clinical wing of Dell Medical School, as well as to Seton Medical Center, which will receive the largest share of this week's shipment. These three providers will either receive doses from Moderna or Pfizer.
<p>Other providers will mostly receive smaller shipments of between 100 and 500 doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, although some will receive initial doses of the Moderna vaccine. Two Travis County providers that will receive doses as part of this week's allocation are not open to the public: the Texas Department of State Health Services' pharmacy warehouse, which will receive 25,700 doses, and the Texas Department of Public Safety, which will receive 1,000. </p><p>A full list of Travis County providers can be found <a href="https://dshs.texas.gov/news/updates/COVIDVaccineAllocation-Week13.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. </p><div>Although these providers may have doses to administer next week, many are limiting their supply to existing patient waitlists or reaching out to eligible candidates directly. Seton, for example, is reviewing the medical records of existing primary care patients and contacting those who fall into the 1B category <a href="https://healthcare.ascension.org/COVID-19/vaccinations" target="_blank">to schedule appointments</a>. A list of providers with a waitlist can be found <a href="https://austonia.com/austin-vaccine-waitlists" target="_self">here</a>. </div><p>Some providers, however, are starting to anticipate widened eligibility criteria in light of DSHS' announcement earlier this week that school employees and childcare providers now qualify and as state officials mull over the next phase—1C, which will likely include essential workers. APH will debut a weekly School Saturdays vaccine event, targeted at educators who are already registered on the department's waitlist, and UT Health Austin is now encouraging anyone who is interested in receiving a vaccine to sign up <a href="https://redcap.dellmed.utexas.edu/surveys/?s=FNJMNYKH4N" target="_blank">here</a>, Chief Clinical Officer Amy Young wrote in an email to the University of Texas at Austin community on Friday.</p><p>With this latest allocation, Travis County will have received 309,055 initial or single doses. There are approximately 532,468 Travis County residents who qualify for a vaccine as a member of group 1A (healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents) or 1B (people 65 years or older and those with a medical condition) or as an educator or child care provider, according to DSHS data. This accounts for <a href="https://austonia.com/austin-vaccine-eligibility" target="_blank">more than half</a> of the estimated population 16 years of age or older. </p><p>As of Friday afternoon, 157,468 Travis County residents have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine and 79,209 residents—or around 6.2% of the overall population—have received both doses, according to DSHS.</p><p>Texas will receive more than 1 million initial doses of the vaccine next week. DSHS will allocate 929,320 doses to 1,651 providers across the state, focusing n hub providers capable of widespread community distribution as well as smaller providers serving older adults. This represents a 37% increase compared to last week's allocation and includes 84,240 doses for large-scale FEMA vaccine clinics in Houston and North Texas.</p><p>The federal government will also provide more than 200,000 doses to pharmacy locations and <a href="https://www.hrsa.gov/coronavirus/health-center-program/participants" target="_blank">federally-qualified health centers</a> directly. Participating Texas pharmacies include CVS, H-E-B and Walmart. <a href="https://www.cvs.com/immunizations/covid-19-vaccine" target="_blank">CVS</a> and <a href="https://corporate.walmart.com/media-library/document/covid-19-vaccine-locations-walmart-and-sams-clubs-texas-2-9-21/_proxyDocument?id=00000177-87e1-d0dc-af7f-ffef5a230000" target="_blank">Walmart</a> do not currently list any Austin area stores with vaccine appointments. Participating H-E-B locations can be found <a href="https://vaccine.heb.com/scheduler" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p>DSHS will allocate 676,280 initial doses of the COVID vaccine to 522 providers across the state next week, focusing on hub providers capable of widespread community distribution as well as smaller providers serving older adults. This represents a 37% increase compared to last week's allocation and includes 110,240 doses for large-scale FEMA vaccine clinics in Houston and North Texas. In addition, Texas is ordering 457,000 second doses for people who received their first shot three to four weeks ago.</p><p>Johnson & Johnson's vaccine was found to be around 66% effective against moderate to severe symptoms 28 days after vaccination in a worldwide study. Although the two previously approved vaccines—from Pfizer and Moderna—are around 95% effective, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine offers significant advantages:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>It's easier to store and ship because it does not require refrigeration.</li><li>It only requires one shot, which means the same number of Johnson & Johnson doses can vaccine twice as many people as Pfizer or Moderna doses.</li><li>It has proven to be mostly effective against new strains of the disease, which emerged after clinic trials were conducted for Pfizer and Moderna's candidates. </li></ul><div></div><div>The Johnson & Johnson vaccine "is extremely effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death—the goal with any vaccine—and only requires one dose," a DSHS spokesperson wrote in an email to Austonia <a href="https://austonia.com/jandj-vaccine" target="_blank">earlier this week</a>. </div>
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Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 oz Tito's Handmade Vodka
- 2 oz sparkling water
- 1/2 oz coconut sugar simple syrup
- 1/2 oz lemon juice
- 2-4 kiwi slices, peeled
- 2 basil leaves
Directions: Muddle kiwi slices in a shaker tin. Add Tito's Handmade Vodka, syrup, lemon juice, basil and ice. Shake and strain over fresh ice in a glass. Top with sparkling water. Garnish with a basil leaf and kiwi slice.
Austinites gathered at Huston-Tillotson University on June 7 to protest police brutality. (Emma Freer)
Austin Police Chief Brian Manley received intense criticism for the police killing of Michael Ramos, an unarmed Black and Latino man, last April and his department's response to mass protests over the summer. When he announced his retirement Feb. 12, he said the criticism did not factor into his decision. But it will undoubtedly shape the nationwide search for his successor.
<p>Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said the top job at the Austin Police Department, which he led <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2016/11/17/austin-police-chief-expected-become-houstons-polic/" target="_blank">until 2016</a>, used to garner 70 or 80 applicants. But that's no longer the case. "People are hesitant to apply for cities with misguided, reactionary city councils," he told Austonia. "It's having an effect."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-height="5504" data-rm-shortcode-id="96e9f29ffc172496d8aa95127a85a11d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcxODA1Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzOTY0MjI0MX0.gsxH8NI0XAzKUy07oxjquViBcS-VVwjEYTY5DJ-0ywE/img.jpg?width=980" data-width="8256" id="2f293" type="lazy-image"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo at George Floyd's funeral on June 8, 2020 in Houston. (Bob Daemmrich)</small></p><p>There is also the challenge of hiring a police chief at the same time as many other major cities across the country. Acevedo estimates around a third of the police executives who belong to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, of which he is president, have either left their jobs or been asked to leave in the last year due to political pressure.<br/></p><p>"Some of these elected officials are tripping over each other to be able to demonstrate they're reform-minded ones, when they're no different from the right-wing extremists who look at everything through the prism of political theater, and that's really damaging the long-term health of policing across this country," he said. </p><p>Austin City Council Member Greg Casar, an avowed progressive and the architect behind recent cuts to APD's budget, agreed that heightened public scrutiny and the city's ongoing effort to reimagine public safety will influence the search process. But he doesn't see this as a bad thing. "I think that we will find candidates who want to bring the community together in Austin," he said, "around making police better." </p><p><strong>The ideal candidate</strong> </p><p>Dennis Kenney, a professor at the John Jay School of Criminal Justice and a former police officer, said the role of police chief is a politicized position that has grown even more so in the post-George Floyd era. In addition to managing overall department strategy, police chiefs also have to contend with strong unions, binding labor contracts, city management, a broken mental health care system, declining budgets and a divided public. "It's something of a nightmare job right now," he added. </p><p>Progressives and criminal justice reform activists want a chief who can improve accountability and transparency while addressing racial disparities among arrests and use of force incidents. </p><p>NAACP Austin President Nelson Linder believes Austin's next police chief should be more visible and engaged with the community, while also capable of holding his or her officers accountable when they make mistakes. </p><p>"Chief Manley had a very challenging tenure because, in essence, he got hijacked, first with the Austin bomber and then with the George Floyd death," he said. "I think he's a very committed policeman, but I think he was not prepared for the escalation of police issues around the country and in Austin." </p><p>As an alternative, Linder suggested someone like Frank Dixon, a former APD assistant chief who went on to lead the Denton Police Department and now serves as the city's interim assistant city manager. "There are people out there who can meet this criteria," he said.</p><p>Others would like to see a chief who can rebuild a beleaguered department. </p><p>Ken Casaday, president of the Austin Police Association union, wants a chief who can address APD's years-long staffing shortage and support its officers. "It will take a very, very special person to come to this department and start the healing that it needs from a very brutal contract negotiation … (and) the de-policing issue," he said. </p><p>APA members have thrown out names of people they would like to see in the top spot, Casaday said, including:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>APD Assistant Chief Robin Henderson, a Black woman who was promoted shortly after allegations of racism rocked the department's top ranks;</li><li>APD Commander Donald Baker, who joined <a href="https://www.statesman.com/NEWS/20160924/Police-commander-joins-discrimination-lawsuit-against-APD" target="_blank">a discrimination lawsuit</a> against the city in 2016, claiming he faced retaliation for pointing out that older and minority officers were being transferred from an elite division;</li><li>And former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best, who retired <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/former-seattle-police-chief-carmen-best-makes-debut-on-nbc-news-today-as-a-contributor/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">last September</a> in protest over the city council's plan to cut the department's budget and lay off officers.</li></ul><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-height="1428" data-rm-shortcode-id="8132a86e9ae31f95ddb98ab7946fe9f8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcxODI3Ni9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxOTQxNjE3N30.Gl-i_lPrRXKD-H4pz1P5C_DROCqxLWk4Yvmx5v2VlQk/img.png?width=980" data-width="2000" id="62ded" type="lazy-image"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption..." spellcheck="false">APD Assistant Chief Robin Henderson, APD Commander Donald Baker and former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best. </small></p><p><br/></p><p>These competing priorities can lead to unmeetable expectations. "The problem that you've got as chief is: You're expected to come up with solutions that don't exist—or at least aren't likely to be doable—to address social problems that we can't even agree (on) and to do so in an organization that you have limited control over," Kenney, the John Jay professor, said. </p><p><strong>The search process</strong> </p><p>Another challenge is the nationwide game of police chief musical chairs currently underway. </p><p>This search will be different than the one City Manager Spencer Cronk conducted in 2018, in the wake of the Austin bombings, in which he named Manley, then interim police chief and one of Fortune's <a href="https://austin.culturemap.com/news/city-life/04-30-19-ifortunei-names-austin-police-chief-one-of-the-worlds-greatest-leaders/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">top world leaders</a>, lone finalist. In <a href="http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/pio/document.cfm?id=354966" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a Feb. 12 memo</a> to City Council announcing Manley's retirement, Cronk wrote that he would "immediately start to conduct a national search for our next Chief and look forward to an extensive engagement with our Austin community in that process." </p><p>In addition to heightened public scrutiny, there will also likely be more competition. "There's a kind of circuit of chiefs who move from one place to the next," Kenney said, adding that protests and politics are leading to a wave of chief resignations and retirements. "That's kind of uniformly hitting chiefs around the country. So where do you recruit your new chiefs from?" </p><p>Headhunting firms will help, such as the California-based Public Sector Search & Consulting, which exclusively recruits police executives. "While demonstrably smaller, the folks in the pool are really committed to reimagining policing and advancing it to the next level," CEO Gary Peterson <a href="https://www.axios.com/police-chief-hiring-changes-public-vetting-d9e53d13-1469-4d63-800a-b64625cb2740.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recently told Axios</a>.</p><p>Casar is both optimistic that such a candidate is out there and pragmatic about what a new chief can accomplish. "It's not all on them," he said. "In the end, we'll need the city manager to be committed to change. We'll need the community and all of our city employees to shift." Still, this is a unique opportunity. "We usually have to wait years before there is change at the top of the police department," he said, "so we really want to get this one right."</p>
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