Item3d_CDC_recommendation_No Prop A — original pdf

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION XXXXXXX WHEREAS, the City of Austin’s Community Development Commission’s core mission is centered on serving the poor and community at large; and WHEREAS, the Council passed resolution 20200611-050 acknowledging that racial discrimination in policies, services, and institutions continues to support a web of connected outcomes that disparately impact Black and Latinx and other non-white communities of color, such as poverty, increased food insecurity, increased incarceration, decreased educational attainment, decreased economic mobility, shorter life expectancy, among others, which may last for generations, as well as fewer opportunities to remedy these outcomes and break the cycles that perpetuate them; and WHEREAS, the Council passed Resolution Nos. 20180614-073 and 20180614-074, the "Freedom City" resolutions, to seek reporting on and to encourage the elimination of racial disparities in discretionary arrests and other law enforcement actions; and WHEREAS, Austin Proposition A, November 2021 ballot initiative, if successfully passed would establish a minimum police staffing, requiring the city to hire no fewer than 2 officers per 1,000 residents, which equates to hiring up to 680 additional police officers at a cost of $120M each year over the next five years; and WHEREAS, the effect of this requirement would reallocate the city’s general funds from essential public services (i.e. housing programs/initiatives, mental health, parks, libraries, etc) and potentially layoff firefighters, medics, and 911 responders to cover the cost of additional police officers; and WHEREAS, research shows that more policing does not reduce violence and crime; and WHEREAS, only a comprehensive approach to public safety that meets the basic needs of residents can, which includes adequately funding essential services and providing affordable housing; and WHEREAS, budget cuts to essential public services and housing programs would harm the ability for residents to transition out of poverty and lead stable and thriving lives; NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Community Development Commission recommends its endorsement of the No on Prop A campaign, expressing its opposition to the Proposition A on the November 2021 Ballot and adding its name to the list of endorsing organizations on the ‘No Way on Prop A” campaign website.