Council keeps on councilin’ (photo by John Anderson)
Look outside. Look at your feet. Yes, you are in Austin, and don’t forget it. The state, the nation, and the world may be a mess, but in this city the fight for progressive policies continues.
Luckily, our local electeds on City Council are basically pleasant people who basically respect each other. They’re also returning to the dais each week to move forward on largely progressive goals. And they do it with a musical intermission. (This week’s Council meeting features local songwriter Brent Allen, who self-describes as “basically just another creative type trying to bring my music out into the world.” See? Austin is still Austin.)
So, ahead of Thursday’s Council meeting, let’s take a bird’s-eye view. Here are a few of the most interesting items Council members will take up.
Following the city’s bungled plan to directly fund travel expenses for locals looking to leave the state for abortion services, this week’s Council agenda includes a $100,000 investment in abortion assistance. That payment will go to nonprofit Jane’s Due Process, so they can help people seeking reproductive health care. That includes “travel, case management, emotional support, or other services that would support a client who is facing barriers to abortion access.”
Another roughly $100,000 investment is headed for American Gateways, a nonprofit providing legal services to people representing themselves in immigration court.
“I am simply and deeply proud to see how far we have come.” – Hanna Senko, leader of a project to reform APD’s sex crimes unit
Meanwhile, Council is poised to authorize nearly half a million dollars to continue a project overhauling APD’s sex crimes unit. After a 2020 lawsuit filed by sexual assault survivors identified failures in the unit, an audit laid out more than 100 specific changes for the sex crimes unit to implement. The goal of the Collective Sex Crimes Response Model is to check off each item on that comprehensive list. The project is led by Hanna Senko, a lead plaintiff in the 2020 case against the city. (When Senko was raped in 2006, APD detectives did not investigate the crime scene or interview witnesses.) “I am simply and deeply proud to see how far we have come,” Senko said about the program earlier this year. “I honestly didn’t think I’d ever see us get to this point in Austin.”
This week, Council is also moving to make our local economy a little more equitable. A series of items will authorize the city to put a combined $2.5 million toward minority chambers of commerce. This money is earmarked for the development and implementation of regional economic plans to support businesses run by marginalized Austinites. It breaks down like this: $461,250 for the Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce, $607,500 for the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce, $692,391 for the Greater Austin Black Chamber of Commerce, and $758,646 for the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
The daily progressive grind continues.
