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Public Safety: Austin’s quality of life begins and ends with a strong public safety network. Over the last few months I have been on ride-outs with Fire, Police and EMS. Based on what I have seen and heard, I believe we do not have enough public safety personnel patrolling our neighborhoods, and our City has not made adequate public safety planning and resource allocation decisions in the context of more height and mixed-use density development, especially in downtown. Just as transportation planning needs to be part of land use discussions, so does public safety planning. Also, our public safety personnel are deeply impacted by what happens (or doesn’t) in our community’s health and human services agencies. I support funding for community policing and coordination for front-line social services programs to work with police, fire and EMS. By better addressing poverty in our community, we will help our public safety agencies.
Health & Human Services: It is wonderful that Austin is consistently recognized for its economic vitality, but until everyone’s basic human needs are met, we have very few bragging rights as far as I am concerned. Too often issues related to poverty are at the bottom of our City’s priority list rather than at the top. This has direct consequences on our public safety network in particular as many of our public safety personnel are regularly performing tasks much closer to social work than law enforcement and emergency response. Our City contracts with more than 60 health and human service organizations and spends tens of millions of dollars each year, but we’ve got to do more to create lasting solutions and leverage the strengths of our local nonprofit organizations. I plan to build on my extensive experience in the nonprofit sector to improve the way the City does business with basic needs providers and will also work hard to create new resources by bringing private sector partners to the table. I will also explore new sources of federal funding that will likely become available with the upcoming change in White House administrations. Austin must not only get its fair share of those funds, it should get even more - by competing as successfully on that front as we do on so many others.
Animal Shelter: Watching the Animal Shelter re-location debate unfold last year was one of the most frustrating things I’ve seen in a while. Our City Council passed a “no-kill” policy in 1997, yet our shelter has seen virtually no change in the number of animals sheltered or in the percentage of animals killed. The shelter’s operating budget has grown significantly over the years, and in November of 2006 Austin voters approved a bond package that included $12 million for a new animal shelter. The re-location debate opened old wounds between the east side of town and the west side of town, challenged the neighborhood planning process, and resulted in open record requests, open meeting violation allegations, and even lawsuits. The subject of the no-kill policy seemed lost in the crossfire. As a Council member, I will work hard to re-direct the discussion back to the topic of running the best animal shelter we can run, so we can make the no-kill policy a reality rather than an unfulfilled promise.
Parks: Like most Austinites, I believe that green spaces are one of Austin's most treasured resources. We should invest in parks, preserves and trails to increase neighborhood involvement, to expand pool operations and to double trail miles in the next decade. We should also explore ways to enhance concession offerings.
Libraries: We should extend neighborhood library hours, expand after-school services especially in areas of need, and make our new central library the best in the nation.
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