Colleagues,
Tomorrow, we will have the opportunity to approve a transformational new policy governing how we as a city use surveillance technology. This policy emphasizes transparency and disclosure as powerful tools to enable the community and city officials to make informed decisions about how we can benefit from technology while protecting civil liberties and other critical Austin values. While the ordinance cannot answer those challenging questions for us, it does ensure that we have reliable, comprehensive information to build public trust and hold the city and vendors accountable.
This ordinance is the product of months of research, consultations with other cities, and discussions with diverse stakeholders including civil liberties advocates, technology experts, attorneys, and city staff. Those conversations have continued since Council approved the resolution initiating the code changes. In consideration of additional community input, I will be offering a motion to make two small adjustments to the timelines in the draft ordinance.
My motion will extend the advanced posting requirement for the privacy impact assessment, surveillance use policy, and proposed contract language from two to four weeks to ensure that the public and Council offices have sufficient ability to engage with the nuanced issues surrounding surveillance and the technical complexity of new technology. We all know that a busy Council agenda can create challenges for both our staff and the public to fully vet proposals with just one meeting period's notice.
In order to tighten up the oversight of the use of the exigent circumstances exception, my motion will reduce the amount of time before the City Manager has to report back to Council about the use of the exception or extending the use from 120 to 60 days. I believe these changes strike an appropriate balance between achieving the goals of the resolution while maintaining flexibility to respond to urgent needs.
I hope you will join me in supporting these modest adjustments. I look forward to casting my vote to pass the TRUST Act ordinance, once again demonstrating how Austin leads the way in Texas on critical issues impacting the public good.
Chito