Item 6- Draft Budget Recommendation 20260302-006 — original pdf

Backup

RECOMMENDATION TO COUNCIL Public Safety Commission Recommendation Number: 20260302- 006: Budget Recommendations for FY26–27 Budget Date of Approval: Recommendation: WHEREAS, the Public Safety Commission is tasked with reviewing public safety agency budgets and providing recommendations to the Austin City Council; WHEREAS, the Public Safety Commission has discussed topics with Austin Fire, Austin Police, Austin-Travis County EMS, additional city departments, and community organizations that coordinate with our public safety departments; WHEREAS, throughout the course of those discussions various departments have expressed programmatic and departmental needs; WHEREAS, the Budget and Organizational Excellence FY26–27 presentation provided updated FY26 amended baseline budgets and FY27 planned budgets for public safety departments; WHEREAS, several of the public safety departments’ identified unmet needs and programmatic priorities remain outstanding or require sustained funding to maintain operational performance; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Public Safety Commission recommends allocation of funds and use of all available means to incorporate the following public safety priorities into the FY26–27 Budget: • Extreme Weather Preparedness: Funding for decentralized intake, surge staffing, and coordinated emergency shelter operations to ensure shared situational awareness across Austin Emergency Management, Austin Homeless Strategies and Operations and other public safety agencies during cold weather and other climate-driven activations. • Emergency Communications: Fund 911, dispatch, and EMS communications staffing and technology modernization to improve reliability and response throughput, with performance metrics reported quarterly. • Sexual Assault Reporting & Coordinated Response (CSCRM): Ensure financial support for civilian staffing and civilian overtime, survivor navigation services, interagency data integration, and quarterly public reporting dashboards tracking case timelines and outcomes. • C4 Project (ATCEMS): Sustain funding to support continuous 24/7 staffing, technology infrastructure, data systems, and interagency coordination required to maintain service continuity. • Counsel at First Appearance: Stabilized funding to ensure uninterrupted operations and long-term sustainability. Funding should support 24 hour services as well as additional lawyers for full staffing. • Urban Wildfire Prevention: Funding for wildfire mitigation, prevention staffing, and equipment. Support Community Wildfire Protection Plan implementation, community outreach, equipment readiness, and evacuation planning and training with an emphasis on traditionally underserved areas and populations with civilian staffing where possible. • Trauma & Violence Reduction: Sustain and expand programs that address high-acuity violence, including victim services coordination, data-driven prevention, and public availability of readily accessible data. • Traffic Safety & Vision Zero: Support funding to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injury crashes and improvement in data collection and availability for accurate interventions and tracking. • Austin Police Oversight: Budget assessment and funding to ensure more robust, timely and accessible reporting and compliance with Austin Police Oversight Act and Resolution 99 • Language Support & Access Materials: Budget assessment and additional funding to expand language support to more languages both online and for in-person interactions • Overdose and Opioid Response: Sustain and expand overdose intervention capacity if necessary with naloxone distribution and cross‑agency public health coordination with consistent outcome reporting and coordination. • Staffing and Civilian Support: Reduce sworn and civilian vacancy-driven strain through civilian and retiree backfill to keep sworn staff in the field. • Transparency and Data Quality: Require routine, standardized public reporting on response-time performance, staffing, academy outcomes, and key safety initiatives, with accessible meeting records and transcripts. Motioned By: Seconded By: Vote: For: Against: Abstain: Off the dais: Absent: Attest: __________________________________