Tag Archives: Austin City Council

State news

Buh-bye, Austin city manager

It is looking for all the world as if the Austin City Council is going to make a serious personnel decision next week.

The council appears ready to axe City Manager Spencer Cronk over the city’s pitiful response to the ice storm that hammered the Texas capital city this past week.

It happened on Cronk’s watch as city manager. It is his job ultimately to ensure the city’s 1 million residents are kept warm in the face of Mother Nature’s wrath. Cronk didn’t deliver and the city appears ready to move on from his tenure as city manager, a post he has held since 2018. Hundreds of thousands of Austinites were without power, despite assurances from Gov. Greg Abbott and others that the power grid was working … well, in fact.

Austin City Council to vote on replacing city manager Spencer Cronk | The Texas Tribune

I am a bit confused about whether the city should grant him a severance, which apparently will be on the table when the council decides his fate next Wednesday.

From my vantage point, the council is set to fire Cronk for cause, that he didn’t do his job while his Austin constituents were freezing in the dark. So, he’s going to get a severance … even though he failed to do his job?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Abbott threatens overreach

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is angry with the Austin City Council.

He is so angry that he is threatening to meddle into a level of government that is none of the governor’s business. He said the city’s decision to “defund” its police department might result in the state imposing a property tax freeze, which would deprive the city of any sort of budgeting flexibility, which is essential to the governing body.

C’mon, governor! What happened to your belief in local control?

The judgment on whether the city council acted wisely in defunding the police department and reallocating funds to human service programs is up to the voters of the city. It is not the governor’s call!

The council voted to cut $150 million from the police department’s $434 million annual budget. Is that the right call? It’s not for me to decide, or for the governor, either. The decision should come from the city’s voting public.

This is a reactionary decision on the part of the governor. The Dallas Morning News published an editorial that takes appropriate note of the governor’s decision to deploy Department of Public Safety troopers to cities to help fight spikes in crime, which he did this past year in Dallas. That’s all fine and is in keeping with the governor’s commitment to protecting the safety of Texans.

The DMN editorial also points out that budget matters belong solely to the city. The governor should butt out! Read the editorial here.

The governor should concentrate on issues that are relevant to the constitutional authority invested in his office, not seek to meddle in matters that belong exclusively to our cities.