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Detective in Sanders internal affairs investigation disciplined
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo today has fired an internal affairs detective involved in the investigation into the fatal shooting of Nathaniel Sanders II by a police officer, officials said.
Detective Chris Dunn sent an e-mail to fellow investigators and supervisors two days after the May 11 shooting that suggested they review the criminal histories of Sanders and two other suspects and possibly make the histories the cause of the shooting.
“I am so smart I scare myself,” Dunn wrote, according to sources familiar with the e-mail.
Independent investigators cited the e-mail in concerns that the investigation into the shooting by senior police officer Leonardo Quintana was biased.
Acevedo has since removed Dunn from internal affairs and opened an internal affairs investigation into his actions. Austin police policy requires investigators to maintain an impartial attitude.
Acevedo is expected to discuss his decision in a news conference later today.
His decision comes the day after he suspended Quintana for 15 days for not activating his patrol car camera before approaching Sanders.
“We are outraged,” said Sgt. Wayne Vincent, president of the Austin Police Association. “We understand that punishment was in order, and the e-mail was inappropriate. However, firing this officer makes this more of a scapegoat.”
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Officer suspended for violating rules in Sanders shooting
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo today suspended Senior Police Officer Leonardo Quintana (pictured at right) for 15 days for events leading up to the May 11 fatal shooting of Nathaniel Sanders II.
Quintana was found to be in violation of the department’s patrol car camera policy. However, he was not disciplined for any tactical violations or for using excessive force.
During a news conference, Acevedo said Quintana’s use of deadly force was “objectively reasonable based on the totality of the circumstances.” He said although he might have approached Sanders differently, “I cannot simply replace his judgment with my own. I have to use a reasonable officer standard.”
Acevedo encouraged people in the community who might be unhappy with his decision to review the investigative files on the shooting. Such information is expected to be released by the city in the next couple of days.
Also Wednesday, Acevedo announced a more specific policy for when officers must activate their patrol car cameras, and increased the punishment for officers who fail to do so. For example, an officer can now be fired if he or she intentionally fails to turn on the camera during an incident in which the officer fires a weapon.
Acevedo’s decision concludes the internal affairs case investigation into the shooting, which prompted an angry response from on-lookers in an East Austin apartment complex parking lot, where the incident happened about 5:30 a.m.
Police officials are expected to release a disciplinary memo today describing more reasons for the suspension.
Quintana had not activated his patrol car camera before approaching Sanders, in violation of a departmental rule requiring officers to videotape all traffic and pedestrian stops
A second officer who was at the scene also was suspended for three days for failing to activate his patrol car camera, according to the city.
Officials have said that Quintana fired after a struggle during which Sanders, who had been asleep in the back of a car, reached for a weapon that had been at his waist.
Sources have said that an internal affairs investigation initially concluded that Quintana violated no departmental policies in his tactics leading up the shooting, a finding that was overturned by department leadership.
The city in August hired independent investigators to review Quintana’s actions and the internal affairs inquiry.
Those investigators were critical of an e-mail from a case detective who proposed reviewing the criminal histories of Sanders and two other suspects and possibly using that information to justify the shooting.
A Travis County grand jury in August declined to indict Quintana on any criminal charge.
Acevedo today could have fired Quintana or taken no disciplinary action on him.
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Austin Energy to propose rate increase
Austin must raise electric rates or the city’s electric utility could start losing millions by 2011, according to a report released today.
Austin Energy could be $9.1 million in the red in as little as two years and $177 million in the hole 2013, largely because of rising operations costs and increased state fees, general manager Roger Duncan told his City Council member bosses during a presentation this morning.
A rate increase would probably take effect in 2012. Duncan said it is too early to tell how exactly it would affect homeowners and businesses.
“We have got to cut expenses at Austin Energy just to get to” a rate increase, Duncan said.
The immediate shortfalls could be exacerbated over the long term by fundamental changes in the electric industry, unless Austin Energy changes some business practices and redefines its relationship with customers, Duncan said.
Austin Energy has said since 2007 it will need a major rate increase some time early next decade. But the stark financial figures are nonetheless surprising because Austin Energy is commonly perceived as the city’s cash cow. For most of the last decade, the utility has collected about $200 million-plus annually from its customers than it has spent operating and maintaining the city’s electric grid, according to Duncan’s presentation.
But the utility’s operating costs have risen, mainly because it’s gotten more expensive to expand the grid to meet Austin’s growing energy demand, Duncan said.
He said the city has also added numerous programs to Austin Energy’s budget in recent years. These have raised the utility’s expenses by about $50 million annually. They include: the city’s 311 call center, $8 million this year; $27 million in grants for customers to use electricity more efficiently; and $4.3 million in subsidies that helps homeowners pay for installing solar panels.
The utility also provides revenue to cover about 20 percent of the city’s spending on parks, firefighters, libraries and other “general government” services.
Council members gave limited responses during early parts of the presentation. Duncan told Council Member Randi Shade the utility already tries to maximize the dollars from its incentive plan; Council Member Mike Martinez said the economic-development office and some other programs Duncan mentioned are too important to cut but may be need to be paid for through other means.
Duncan’s presentation was focused on Austin Energy’s looming difficulties and did mention specific solutions to the projected shortfall and other issues. But Duncan proposed a general plan.
First, he said, Austin Energy should restructure its rates by 2012.
It’s not clear how that will play out. The restructuring will be a two-year process that requires state approval and a significant amount of number crunching. It’s not clear how new costs will be spread among customers — typical homes, businesses large and small, nonprofits, low-income families — but generally speaking, rates will have to go up, Duncan said.
In addition, Duncan said Austin Energy should add an extra monthly charge to cover the city’s share of $5 billion in state transmission lines that will carry electricity from West Texas wind farms.
Austin Energy paid $12 million in 2009 for the lines, and the utility owes $14 million in 2010. That figure will climb steadily, according to Austin Energy, which predicts the city could be on the hook for as much as $95 million in 2015.
But the City Council would not allow Austin Energy to add an extra fee this year for the transmission lines. The utility had to dip into its reserves and put some planned construction projects on hold to find the money, Duncan said.
Austin Energy has not dramatically restructured its rates since 1994.
Most homeowners have seen monthly fluctuations, and bills have gradually risen since 1994. But the higher bills are due to the rising cost of coal, nuclear rods, natural gas and other fuels that produce electricity, according to Austin Energy. The utility does not collect extra profit when fuel prices rise or fall.
Thus, as expenses have risen, revenues have not kept pace.
Duncan has championed the solar-rebate program, saying solar is a power source that one day could provide much of Austin’s electricity needs without greenhouse-gas emissions. He also designed energy-efficiency programs with the idea that homes requiring less electricity to heat or cool can keep the city from building an expensive new power plant.
Earlier this year Duncan presented a plan for Austin to get 35 percent of its electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy by 2020. The city now gets 12 percent from these sources. The plan calls for heavy investment in energy-efficiency programs and rooftop solar power, and Austin Energy says it is the best combination of price and environmental stewardship. The council is scheduled to vote on it late this year or early next year.
Austin Energy expects the plan to raise monthly bills somewhat, although Duncan acknowledges determining how much is guesswork because of rapid industrywide changes in laws and technology.
“We’re speculating on what the market will do,” Duncan said after Martinez inquired about syncing up the rate increase and generation plan in the hope the city will have a more complete long-term picture.
Duncan says there are also long-term problems that must be addressed. He and other energy experts expect that people will, in the coming years, begin generating at least some of their electricity at their houses, storing it in electric-powered cars and living in homes that use power more effectively.
Some of the 900 Austin homes and business with solar arrays already generate excess electricity and sell it back to the city.
“We will soon have tens of thousands of buildings for whom we (the utility) are the customer,” Duncan said.
Those homes don’t pay for the poles and wires and substations the city operates. But they still rely on the grid to beam out excess electricity when the sun is shining, and to provide it when the sky is dark, Duncan said.
To deal with that issue, he said, the city will eventually have to institute a monthly charge that remains unchanged no matter how much electricity someone uses.
“My dream is that all of Austin’s buildings create their own clean, reliable, affordable energy,” said Duncan, a former environmental activist. But as a utility director, “My nightmare is that all of Austin’s buildings create their own clean, reliable, affordable energy.”
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Austin Energy to brief council on looming difficulties
The Austin City Council will hold a special workshop at 9 a.m. Wednesday to discuss challenges facing Austin Energy, including related to finances and the utility’s business model, according to a release from the city.
Roger Duncan, Austin Energy’s general manager, has said the utility needs to change fundamental assumptions about the way it does business to avoid going bankrupt in the future. He predicts that Austinites will find ways to use less electricity without disrupting their lives and will gradually install more solar power on their homes. But both of those trends would cut into the revenue the utility needs to maintain its electric lines and substations.
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Audit: ARA, city to blame for redevelopment problems
The City of Austin and the Austin Revitalization Authority are both to blame for delays in redevelopment work along East 11th and 12th streets, a city audit has concluded.
The city formed the revitalization authority in 1995 to help redevelop those streets, which were dogged by crime and blight. The authority has built two retail-and-office buildings and restored two historic structures on East 11th, but has not turned dirt for a major project since 2004.
The city, the authority and an urban renewal agency are partners in the redevelopment effort. The audit presented this afternoon said the redevelopment work so far has reduced blight and crime along both streets.
But the roles and responsibilities of the three agencies have not always been clear, contributing to delays and problems, the auditors said. The city does not have a clear strategy for carrying out a 1999 master plan for the area, auditors said. And the ARA has a lot of debt and not enough revenue to support its work over the long term and to become financially self-sufficient, the auditors said.
The auditors stopped short of urging the city to continue or discontinue the redevelopment efforts. But they recommended nine things the city could do to make the redevelopment work go more smoothly, such as hiring a project coordinator to oversee it. City Council members have been waiting on the audit, initially due in May, to figure out what to do with the authority.
The City of Austin has spent about $23 million on the redevelopment work so far — a mix of grants, loans and things like reimbursements for utility work, the audit says. The city is also currently the authority’s biggest source of income, because the city’s housing office occupies about 26,546 square feet in an ARA building, paying the agency about $839,000 in rent.
The authority has about $13.5 million in debt, including loans from the city and bank loans. If the authority defaulted, the city would assume ownership of ARA buildings but would also be responsible for paying off $4.7 million in federal loans, the audit says. Auditors said the authority has had unrealistic and inaccurate long-term plans for its finances, and needs to find new sources of income to reduce the ratio of its debts to its assets — currently an eye-popping 27-to-1.
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Austin firefighters, city reach tentative labor agreement
Austin firefighters and city officials early today agreed on a tentative labor contract, nearly a year after firefighters rejected a proposed agreement.
The tentative agreement, which must go before firefighters and the city council for a vote, establishes a hiring process for new cadets and will give firefighters raises of 3 percent in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
It also will require Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr to establish criteria for the appointments of division chiefs and assistant chiefs.
“We are pleased with the way this turned out, and I commend the firefighters, especially on this long day that started at 8 this morning and finished at a 1 a.m.,” said Larry Watts, the city’s labor relations officer.
Fire union president Stephen Truesdell said, “We’re glad, after months of negotiations going to back to last year, (to) have reached a tentative agreement that we can take to our membership. I’m confident it is a good deal for the firefighters.”
Firefighters and city officials in August returned to negotiations, nine months after firefighters overwhelmingly rejected a tentative agreement.
Union officials have said that firefighters voted against that proposal in part because it gave the city too much flexibility in hiring cadets and no specific hiring policy was set.
Since then, city and union officials have traveled to Kansas City and Memphis, Tenn., to review their hiring process, which have resulted in more diversity. Without a contract, firefighters have been working under state civil service laws, in which firefighters are hired and promoted based on written-exam scores.
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City of Austin expands same-sex benefits
According to an announcement from Council Member Bill Spelman’s office:
Austin City Manager Marc Ott notified the Austin City Council today that COBRA-like benefits will be made available to the same-sex domestic partners of City employees. This benefit will make available healthcare coverage to same-sex partners of City employees in case of the employee’s termination, divorce, or death.
“I want to offer my deepest thanks to City Manager Marc Ott, the Human Resources staff, and everyone who worked hard so that we could extend this benefit to all our employees. I appreciate the way the staff recognized immediately that this was the right thing to do, and made it happen so quickly when I brought it to their attention,” said Council Member Spelman.
The partner of Spelman’s former employee raised the issue with Spelman after his partner, who was still a City employee, passed away. When his partner attempted to access COBRA benefits, he discovered he was ineligible. This is the first known instance of a same-sex domestic partner requiring COBRA benefits and being denied because of federal rules.
The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) is federal legislation requiring employers to extend health care coverage to employees and qualified dependents for certain qualifying events. Since COBRA is a federal program, it uses the definition of “spouse” from the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines “spouse” as a husband or wife of the opposite sex. Thus, COBRA coverage is not extended to same-sex domestic partners. The City will instead extend a similar benefit without using COBRA.
“Equality Texas applauds the City of Austin for fully extending equal benefits to its employees,” said Equality Texas Executive Director Paul Scott. “Once again Austin exhibits its understanding that its citizens should be treated equally and that doing so benefits the city and its economic environment.”
The City of Austin will be the first city in Texas to offer this benefit to its employees. The City of Austin has had domestic partner benefits since 2006.
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Zilker Park Great Lawn reopening
Zilker Park’s Great Lawn will re-open tomorrow, the Parks and Recreation Department announced today.
The 46-acre lawn was closed for restoration of the turf following the rain-drenched Austin City Limits Festival earlier this month.
Officials said an acre of turf will need to be replaced in the spring.
The lawn was closed earlier this year, through August, as parks staff installed a $2.5 million irrigation system and new turf, a Bermuda grass called Tifway. ACL organizer C3 Presents will reimburse the city the cost over the next five years, and is supposed to pay for any repairs to the grass.
Recent heavy rains have saturated some areas, and city staff are asking park patrons to avoid those areas to minimize damage to the turf. Crews will continue to work on restoring parts of the lawn, officials said.
Parks officials said the lawn looks different because the turf has started to become dormant because of cooler fall temperatures. They said the turf should return to its green lush state in the spring.
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Barton Springs Pool remains closed
Flooding and debris is keeping Barton Springs Pool closed for now, according to the Austin Parks and Recreation Department Aquatic Division.
Aquatic division staff has not been able to clean the debris and silt from the pool as flood water continues to pour in. After the water flow stops and a cleaning can be done, staff will decide when the pool can reopen.
Deep Eddy Pool nearby revised its schedule to accommodate Barton Springs swimmers. It will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. most days this week, the city said, except tomorrow, when it will open at 7 a.m.
For more information, go to the Parks and Recreation Department website.
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Crews picking out tons of trash from Lady Bird Lake
As storm drains and creeks drain from the recent rains, about 25 city workers are trapping and removing tons of trash that have been dumped into Lady Bird Lake, said William Fordyce, who directs and takes part in the cleanup for the city’s Watershed Protection Department.
City crews have been on the lake since this morning emptying boom nets that trap refuse coming in from places such as Shoal and Bouldin creeks.
The crews are in chest and hip waders in the lake, using pitchforks, pool nets, rakes and their hands, Fordyce said. They’ll be on the lake for the next several days until most of the trapped garbage is collected and hauled off, Fordyce said.
“I’m pretty proud of the works these guys do,” Fordyce said, speaking on a cell phone from one of the trash sites. “It’s pretty hard work.”
Fordyce isn’t sure how much trash will be collected after the heavy rains yesterday. He’s expecting crews to pick up tons of refuse, he said, but probably not as much as the 40 tons collected after rain in the second week of September. Fordyce called that rain the first flush, because the drought had allowed for a lot of garbage to collect in storm drains and dry creek beds.
On average, watershed protection crews remove 200 tons of trash every year from Lady Bird Lake, Fordyce said. About half of what the crews remove is natural, like branches. The other half, Fordyce said is styrofoam and plastic, and all of it junk.
Over the past several years, watershed protection has gotten significant cleanup help from volunteers coordinated by Keep Austin Beautiful, Fordyce said. “It has been a great partnership,” he said. “They have their own storm action team.”
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LCRA to consider moratorium on new water sales
The Lower Colorado River Authority may soon impose a temporary moratorium on new water sales until drought conditions ease.
The goal is to protect water supplies already promised to cities and industrial users along the Colorado River, said General Manager Tom Mason today.
The LCRA board of directors will discuss the moratorium at a specially called meeting Nov. 10 in Austin, Mason said.
“We’re trying to not increase demand on the river and lakes,” LCRA spokesman Robert Cullick said.
The proposal would not affect cities or industrial users with existing water contracts, including Austin.
“If you have purchased water, that’s fine. If you want new water contracts, we will recommend to the board of directors that we temporarily put those on hold until the lakes significantly refill, ending the drought,” Cullick said.
Shoreline residents along the Highland Lakes who are seeking permits for existing water use — those with pipes already pulling out water — would not be affected by the proposal.
Despite recent rains, Central Texas remains in the third year of an intense drought that last summer dropped Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan — the region’s water-supply reservoirs — to less than 40 percent of capacity.
“Those lakes are still less than half full at the end of October — traditionally a rainy month,” Mason said. “We’re in a real hole.”
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Barton Springs closed at least through the weekend
Barton Springs Pool, the iconic Central Austin swimming hole, will be closed for a few days while the city clears away debris that washed into the pool during the recent rains.
City officials could not say when the pool will open. But Jodi Jay, acting program manager of the city’s aquatics division, said it will be a matter of days.
“We’ll try to get it open as soon as possible,” Jay said.
In the meantime, the city will keep nearby Deep Eddy Pool open a few more hours a day to accommodate Barton Springs patrons, Jay said. Deep Eddy hours will run from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday and 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday.
Only half of Deep Eddy Pool is open, though. The shallow end has been closed since late August because of low water levels in the two wells that feed it. The shallow end will remain closed through the winter, as it typically is for maintenance, Jay said. The deep end, separated by a concrete wall from the shallow portion, remains open.
Spokeswoman Lynn Lightsey said the city is still collecting data on the wells. A proposal should be ready in a month or so for keeping the pool full, Lightsey said.
The city should also be unveiling a plan soon for repairing major structural damage at Barton Springs Pool. City engineers have determined that Barton Springs will probably have to be closed at some point up to six months at some point to repair a tunnel that runs parallel to the pool on its north side. The damage poses no immediate safety risks, according to the city.
City spokeswoman Stephanie Lott said the $2.5 million-$3 million repair job is tentatively planned for fall 2010 and a formal proposal will be released in the coming weeks.
During heavy rains, the tunnel shunts excess dirty water from the creek that feeds Barton Springs Pool. The tunnel is about 6 feet high and 10 feet wide, and is filled with cracks that allow water to seep in. It’s now almost full but blocked off at the downstream end.
A third popular recreation area, the Zilker Park Great Lawn, remains closed as it slowly emerges from the mud that covered much of it during the Austin City Limits Music Festival earlier this month. City spokesman Victor Ovalle said he expects the Great Lawn to re-open at the end of October or early November.
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City Council take stance on collecting DWI blood evidence
Austin city council members, in a unanimous vote, approved a resolution today that said it is their “clear will” and the community’s desire that police officers not personally collect blood from drunken driving suspects — an idea Police Chief Art Acevedo had floated for months.
The resolution stopped short of directing City Manager Marc Ott to ban such draws, which had been the original proposal by council members Bill Spelman and Laura Morrison and Mayor Lee Leffingwell.
Assistant City Attorney David Douglas told the council before their vote that the earlier measure appeared to conflict with state law, which requires officers to use “all lawful means” to enforce the law.
Also before the vote, Assistant Police Chief David Carter, who is the department’s chief of staff, told council members that the agency has no plans to train officers to draw blood. He said the idea was first mentioned last year after police officials reviewed practices in other Texas cities.
“We have not trained anybody, nor are we currently training anyone,” Carter said. “We do not expect to train anybody.”
Carter said that police officials have been and will continue to have blood drawn at Austin hospitals. He said they also are in talks with Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton about creating a partnership in which blood would be drawn from phlebotomists at the county’s central booking facility.
The resolution directs Ott to develop clear guidelines for the collection of blood specimens and bring them to the council by Feb. 19.
“The guidelines must explain who will collect the specimens and under what circumstances,” the resolutions said.
Ott also must prepare a cost study for the new blood specimen program.
Civil libertarians, including representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union of Central Texas and Texans for Accountable Government, had initially asked city officials to ban police officers from drawing blood.
They also had asked that police officers be prohibited from conducting so-called “no refusal” operations in which they seek the blood of drunken driving suspects who refuse to provide breath tests. Such operations usually are conducted on holiday weekends.
The resolution did not address that concern.
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Council approves disapproval of police collecting blood
Austin city council members unanimously approved a measure Thursday saying it is their “clear will” and the community’s desire that police officers not personally collect blood from drunken driving suspects — an idea Police Chief Art Acevedo had floated for months.
The resolution stopped short of directing City Manager Marc Ott to ban such draws, which had been an proposal by City Council Member Bill Spelman that was co-sponsored by Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Council Member Laura Morrison.
Assistant City Attorney David Douglas told the council before their vote that the earlier measure appeared to conflict with state law, which requires officers to use “all lawful means” to enforce the law.
Also before the vote, Assistant Police Chief David Carter, who is the department’s chief of staff, told council members that the agency has no plans to train officers to draw blood. He said the idea was first mentioned last year after police officials reviewed practices in other Texas cities.
“We have not trained anybody, nor are we currently training anyone,” Carter said. “We do not expect to train anybody.”
Carter said that police officials have been and will continue to have blood drawn from suspects at Austin hospitals. He said they also are in talks with Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton about creating a partnership in which suspects’ blood would be drawn by phlebotomists at the county’s central booking facility.
The resolution directs Ott to develop clear guidelines for the collection of blood specimens and bring them to the council by Feb. 19, 2010.
“The guidelines must explain who will collect the specimens and under what circumstances,” the resolutions said.
Ott also must prepare a cost study for the new blood specimen program.
Civil libertarians, including representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union of Central Texas and Texans for Accountable Government, had initially asked city officials to ban police officers from drawing blood.
They also had asked that police officers be prohibited from conducting so-called “no refusal” operations in which they seek the blood of drunken driving suspects who refuse to provide breath tests. Such operations usually are conducted on holiday weekends.
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City hires new auditor
The Austin City Council has named Kenneth Mory — currently Chief of Audits for the County of San Diego — as the city’s new auditor.
The auditor serves as the city’s watchdog, a crucial and sometimes politically dicey role at City Hall. The auditor and his staff reviews city programs to see if taxpayer money is spent wisely and the city is run well. Then the auditor reports the findings to the public and the City Council, even if those findings make city leaders look bad.
A ballot measure passed by voters last year created a five-year term for the city auditor and required that six out of seven council members would be needed to fire the auditor. That granted the auditor more job protection — and more freedom to scrutinize and criticize city management without fear of political reprisal — because previously, the auditor could be fired if only four council members agreed to oust him or her.
Mory will start Dec. 1 and earn a salary of $135,018. He will replace Steve Morgan, who retired earlier this year after more than 20 years at the department.
The work of Morgan’s office led to the criminal conviction of a former Austin Convention Center director last year. His office also found flaws in such services as the SMART Housing program, the public-access TV station, police operations and the collection of a hotel tax that pays for arts programs.
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Council passes texting ban
Austin City Council members this morning unanimously passed a ban on text-messaging while driving, though a few speakers expressed concerns that it was too broad and wanted to delay it to refine the ordinance language.
The ban was supposed to take effect Nov. 2. But Council Member Mike Martinez, the ban’s lead sponsor, suggested extending that date to Jan. 1. He directed city staffers to conduct an educational campaign about the ban, and noted that the extra time would give council members and city commissions a chance to weigh in and suggest tweaks to the ordinance language.
Drivers will still be able to text while a vehicle is stopped. The ban will prohibit writing, sending or viewing electronic messages on a cell phone, BlackBerry, iPhone or any other wireless communication device while driving. Electronic messages will include text messages, e-mails, posts on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and “a command or request to access an Internet site.”
Chip Rosenthal, a member of the city’s communications and technology commission, urged council members before the vote to give the public more time to review the language. “I think the language before you will have unintended and unanticipated consequences,” he said. “The scope is so much wider than just a ban on texting.”
Debbie Russell of the local chapter of the ACLU said the ban could also be tough to enforce.
Council members Laura Morrison and Bill Spelman suggested postponing the item two weeks to give city commissions more time to review it. That motion failed and the council passed Martinez’ compromise: delaying the effective date until Jan. 2.
Exempt from the ban will be navigational systems, texting in emergency situations and public safety personnel who use wireless devices while on duty. Violations will be Class C misdemeanors, which can be appealed in Municipal Court and carry a fine of up to $500, though the penalty could be increased if a driver is caught engaging in another dangerous driving behavior, such as speeding.
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Commissioner gives thoughts on Taser settlement, incident
In a blog posting, Travis County Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt calls the county’s recent $40,000 settlement with the 72-year-old woman who was Tased by a deputy constable “just.”
Precinct 3 Deputy Constable Christopher Bieze pulled over Kathryn Winkfein for speeding in May.
“While Ms. Winkfein did exhibit a lack of cooperation with the deputy constable in his attempts to cite her for speeding, I believe the danger Ms. Winkfein posed to the deputy or to the public is far outweighed by the danger in which the deputy constable put Ms. Winkfein. Further, support for the deputy’s lack of control in the situation indicates a greater risk to society than speeding,” Eckhardt wrote.
Eckhardt wrote that in assessing the danger of Winkfein’s actions, she took into account Winkfein’s height (this newspaper has reported that Winkfein stands 4-foot-11), her age, and that the offense was speeding.
In assessing the danger of the deputy constable’s actions, Eckhardt wrote that she considered that the Taser manufacturer warns that use on the elderly may pose a higher risk to their health and warns against the repeated use of the Taser, that the deputy constable Tased Winkfein twice as she was on the ground apparently unable to move her arms, and other law enforcement entities, including the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, do not agree with his actions.
Commissioners on Sept. 29 unanimously approved $40,000 as their “firm” counteroffer, which Winkfein accepted about a week later. Winkfein and her lawyer originally sought $175,000 from the county, documents show. The county made a counteroffer of $25,000. Winkfein’s side countered back at $135,000 before taking $40,000.
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Commissioners delay decisions on constable vehicles
Travis County commissioners voted unanimously this evening to reduce the number of members of a committee that will review the county’s vehicle-use policy, among other charges to be decided next week.
Also next week, commissioners will decide who will serve on the committee. County Judge Sam Biscoe said earlier in the Commissioners Court meeting that he wanted six or seven people to serve on the committee instead of its current membership of 25 to 30 members.
“I think what we need to do is revisit policies we put in place more than a decade ago,” Biscoe said.
Next month, the commissioners will decide how to equip constable vehicles.
The 2010 budget includes money to buy 17 constable vehicles to be distributed among the five constable offices in the county, Rodney Rhoades, executive manager of the county planning and budget office, told commissioners.
But equipping them like the sheriff’s department vehicles would cost about $37,000 per vehicle, a cost that includes a camera system, lights and sirens. If the county paid $28,000 per vehicle — the amount the county currently pays for a constable vehicle — the vehicle would not include those law enforcement-related items.
Currently, some constable vehicles have cameras paid for by grants and that are several years old, a constable official told commissioners.
Rhoades said that if the replacement policy for county vehicles, including constable vehicles but excluding sheriff’s vehicles, changed to every six years and 90,000 miles, it would cost $4.1 million more than the current policy, a cost that does not take into account maintenance costs.
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Fire marshal files federal discrimination complaint
Austin Fire Marshal Don Smith has filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging racial discrimination in a decision not to promote him to assistant chief.
Smith, who is white, said Austin fire officials first discriminated against him in March 2006 when they promoted Greg Keyes, who is black, to the fire marshal position and named him assistant chief, even though he did not want the position, according to Smith’s nine-page complaint. During that time, fire officials had told Smith he was the “go-to person” for fire-prevention issues, the complaint said.
Smith said in the complaint that he was again discriminated against in April 2009 when Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr named him fire marshal, but demoted that position from the rank of assistant chief to battalion chief, which Smith said he had already held for seven years.
A few months later, Kerr appointed several new assistant fire chiefs whose appointments were based on race, Smith said.
Assistant Fire Chief Harry Evans said Monday that officials have not yet received a copy of Smith’s complaint.
“It’s a pending claim, and that’s all we know,” he said.
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Council to consider solar power financing plan
The Austin City Council next week is expected to consider a proposal to make solar power more accessible to homeowners, Mayor Lee Leffingwell said Friday in a statement.
Under the program, the city would provide loans to local homeowners for solar installations and other renewable power investments that would be repaid through a voluntary line item on a property tax bill.
The plan was inspired by a state law, passed earlier this year, that allows cities to create energy districts to provide the loans to homeowners, Leffingwell said.
“If successful, it will help make solar energy accessible to many more local residents, help them save money on their home energy bills almost immediately, and continue to build on Austin’s growing reputation as a national leader on renewable energy initiatives,” Leffingwell said.
Leffingwell said the program could potentially allow the installation of solar panels and energy efficiency upgrades with no up-front cost. The loan would also be tied to the home and would convey when it is sold, the statement said.
The proposal is scheduled to go before the council as a resolution Thursday, the statement said. It’s sponsored by Leffingwell, and Council Members Mike Martinez and Randi Shade.
If approved, city staff will put together a detailed proposal for implementation of the program and present it to the council for approval by January.
The program would be the first of its kind in Texas, the release said.
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Two companies bid to run Trail of Lights
Two companies have applied to run the annual Trail of Lights, but only one is still in the running.
The City of Austin Parks Department is looking to turn the popular December event over to a private company to save money in a tight budget year. Parks officials have said the city loses about $500,000 on the event each year, partly because it has had free admission.
The city began seeking proposals in July, and received two. The city’s purchasing office determined that one of the applications was “non-responsive,” which means it was not complete and cannot move forward.
The other applicant is Roadway Productions/Road Star Productions. Because of city and state purchasing laws, details of Roadway’s proposal will be kept private until the City Council votes next month — likely at its Nov. 5 meeting — on whether to hire that group, city spokeswoman Nicole Sherbert said.
City staff will continue to review Roadway’s application over the next few weeks and make a recommendation to the council, Sherbert said. It’s not clear what would happen with the Trail of Lights if the council doesn’t choose Roadway.
Roadway or the city could charge an admission fee this year of $5 each for visitors 11 years or older. The City Council approved the fee as part of the budget process this summer.
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Engine 43 ran 4 calls in the last five shifts. Up all night my fanny. And before you cry, engine 8 and 18 didn’t do so bad either. Don’t make me put up visinet.
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Dangerous position protect up your good work.
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Greg, what department are you following? At last count the Austin Police Department have prevailed on all the indefinite suspensions appealed by officers fired under his watch. The only exception was the commander who ended up receiving the same number
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Seriously, this detective wasn’t fired for a legitimate “opinion”. He was fired because he wasn’t interested in actually investigating a case. He came in with a presumption about what happened and was willing to manufacture a fantasy
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