AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- As Austin's City Council moves closer to finalizing the city's 2020-2021 budget this week, city officials have laid out a possible timeline for transferring several programs from the Austin Police Department to other city departments.
Council members are set to adopt the budget on either Wednesday or Friday of this week. The final adoption will come after a number of hours-long workshops and public comment sessions.
While City Manager Spencer Cronk's initial budget proposal called for $11.3 million to be reallocated from the APD budget, council members appear to be headed towards proposing more than $152 million in cuts. $23.3 million would immediately be reinvested into a number of other programs and services, while nearly $80 million represents programs and services that council members say can and should be decoupled from the department.
A
memo to council members from Assistant City Manager Rey Arellano on Monday outlines a possible scenario and timeframe for transitioning services out of APD. Six areas and functions that city staff have identified as high priority, which could be transferred outside of APD as soon as this fall, include:
- Forensics lab
- Administrative & management services
- Technology services
- Municipal and community court security
- Protective services
- Officer wellness program
Six more programs and functions have also been identified to potentially be moved outside of APD later in the budget year, stretching well into 2021:
- Chief Medical Officer concept
- Strategic Support
- Emergency Call Center & Police Dispatch
- Internal Affairs
- Special Investigations Unit
- Nuisance Abatement
City staff has been working on setting up a City-Community Reimagining Public Safety task force to provide community input on these and other decisions. Arellano says the task force, which is expected to be formalized this week, hopes to hold at least three meetings in August. That task force will tackle whether to move these functions outside of APD:
- Crisis Intervention Team & Mental Health Response
- Park Patrol, Lake Patrol, and Airport Police
- Victim Services & Crisis Counselors
- Community Partnerships
- Officer Training
- Vehicle Licensing & Highway Enforcement
- Governance
According to proposed budget amendments from council members, these and other areas represent just over $49 million that would go into a "Reimagine Safety" fund.
Arellano says city staff is also still looking into potential issues with pensions and civil service rules and other legal considerations, which could affect the timing of any of the transitions listed.
