AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Three former Austin mayors and a current City Council member have thrown their support behind a November ballot measure aimed at increasing the city's police staffing.
District 6 council member Mackenzie Kelly, along with former Austin Mayors Lee Leffingwell, Lee Cooke, and Ron Mullen, joined Save Austin Now co-founders Matt Mackowiak and Cleo Petricek at a press event Tuesday afternoon.
"There is nothing wrong with having too many police officers, but there is a lot wrong with having too few," said Leffingwell, who served as Austin's mayor from 2009-2015.
The proposition would force the city to hire a minimum of two police officers for every 1,000 residents. According to a city estimate, the proposal could cost somewhere between $271.5 million and $598.9 million over the next five years.
Lee Cooke, who served two terms on Austin's City Council beginning in 1977 and as Austin's mayor from 1988 until 1991, said he supports all three public safety agencies. "Cities started five thousand years ago for one reason - safety," said Cooke. "Protect the citizens. In those days they put up walls. We have an unsafe city, we have a city that's going to be in decline, and I think that having two officers per thousand people is something that we were talking about in the 1970s."
"We're a big city now, and we've got to think big," said Cooke.
District 6 council member Mackenzie Kelly called it a "pivotal moment" in the city's history. "Unfortunately, there are individuals who are trying to divide the community over the issue of public safety," said Kelly. "That's not appropriate, it's not something that should be tolerated amongst the people that live here. We have outside influences who are putting money and donations into our city that don't live here; what we need to do as a city is come together collectively, and honor and respect the over 25,000 people who signed the initiative to put this on the ballot."
Equity PAC, a group leading efforts against Proposition A, last week received a contribution of $500,000 from the George Soros-backed Open Society Policy Center, along with another $200,000 from the Washington, DC based Fairness Project.
Early voting for the Nov. 2 election gets underway on Oct. 18.
