My Funding & Priority Suggestions
Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2025 8:30 am
Colleagues,
I appreciated our productive discussion during Tuesday’s work session, and I look forward to seeing how staff will incorporate council’s suggestions into a new iteration of the budget.
In light of staff’s response yesterday regarding the best way to share priorities and funding opportunities, I thought it may be more efficient to share here. This is also in lieu of offering amendments.
I was encouraged by CM Alter’s comments at the end of the work session, and I acknowledge the resolve we will need to demonstrate to reverse our structural deficit and position Austin for long-term success. I hope the efficiency study/audit process, shared services review, and staff contract and consultant review, alongside the work we do on the dais, can get us there.
Priorities:
- Public Safety
- Given the modest cost, health insurance for temporary employees (per CM Ellis)
- Preserving the reserve fund
Funding opportunities:
- Consider suggestions from my August post including: evaluating “standards for staff-to-manager ratios, employer-to-HR ratios, vacancy rates, overtime, on-call, and call-back time….purchasing cards, workers’ comp, travel, training, and no-bid contracts, freezing hiring and reengineering management….(and) anyone hired had to go through a multilayer process.”
- Delay certain planning or pilot projects, such as Imagine Austin or the Housing Trust Fund pilot
- Sunset programs like We All Belong that have run their course, and work with groups like the Hate Crime Task Force to self-administrate.
-Marc
I appreciated our productive discussion during Tuesday’s work session, and I look forward to seeing how staff will incorporate council’s suggestions into a new iteration of the budget.
In light of staff’s response yesterday regarding the best way to share priorities and funding opportunities, I thought it may be more efficient to share here. This is also in lieu of offering amendments.
I was encouraged by CM Alter’s comments at the end of the work session, and I acknowledge the resolve we will need to demonstrate to reverse our structural deficit and position Austin for long-term success. I hope the efficiency study/audit process, shared services review, and staff contract and consultant review, alongside the work we do on the dais, can get us there.
Priorities:
- Public Safety
- Given the modest cost, health insurance for temporary employees (per CM Ellis)
- Preserving the reserve fund
Funding opportunities:
- Consider suggestions from my August post including: evaluating “standards for staff-to-manager ratios, employer-to-HR ratios, vacancy rates, overtime, on-call, and call-back time….purchasing cards, workers’ comp, travel, training, and no-bid contracts, freezing hiring and reengineering management….(and) anyone hired had to go through a multilayer process.”
- Delay certain planning or pilot projects, such as Imagine Austin or the Housing Trust Fund pilot
- Sunset programs like We All Belong that have run their course, and work with groups like the Hate Crime Task Force to self-administrate.
-Marc