City Hall Insider: Let's talk Art Acevedo, temporary police contract, mayoral candidates

Editor's note: City Hall Insider is a roundup of items the Austin City Council is set to vote on other local government news and an inside look at my reporting process. This story was updated following action from the Austin City Council.

Leading the news out of Austin City Hall the past few weeks was the planned return of Art Acevedo to an executive level position overseeing policing.

Two weeks ago, my colleague Tony Plohetski and I broke the news that Interim City Manager Jesús Garza was planning on bringing the former police chief of Austin, Houston, Miami and Aurora, Colo., back in a $270,000-a-year interim assistant city manager position.

Elected city leaders did not take the news well to say the least, particularly given Acevedo's role in overseeing a police department that had a backlog of untested rape kits — something city and Travis County leaders were previously sued over.

As Tony referred to it in a post on X, news of his return drew in a "firestorm of controversy."

Less than 30 minutes before a formal apology to the plaintiffs from the city, Acevedo announced he was withdrawing his acceptance of the job that was supposed to serve as a liaison between the City Manager's office and the police department.

In other news, the Austin Mayor's race is beginning to heat up. A former council member and longtime community organizer have both announced their candidacy. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson hasn't formally announced but previously said he intends to run again.

The City Council has a lighter than normal (normal is subjective for me given I've only been here for 7 months) agenda Thursday, clocking in at just over 50 items, including procedural changes at the Austin Animal Center and voting on a temporary police contract.

Let's get into it.

What happened with Art Acevedo?

If you're reading this, you probably already know the gist of what happened with Acevedo. If not, basically, the former police chief was set to come back to City Hall per a quiet decision made by the City Manager. Many city leaders were mad and a few days later he withdrew his acceptance.

Garza told me in a statement earlier that he did not ask Acevedo to withdraw from the position, and that he respects the former police chief's decision.

More: Art Acevedo withdraws from $271K Austin City Hall administrative position after backlash

Even though Acevedo won't be on city payroll, it raised several questions from City Council members on what should be expected from the City Manager as far as personnel and organizational restructuring changes as he prepares to hand over the reigns of city leadership to a permanent chief executive.

Garza, when initially explaining his decision that he made with no community or City Council input, said the decision to bring Acevedo back was to provide more resources to the police department that is facing down several issues including staffing shortages and recruitment issues, and the possibility of returning to the negotiating table with the police union after years without a labor agreement.

But, following this decision, several council members asked why they weren't involved at all in this process — if the overarching goal was to provide more resources to the department, why weren't the City Council and other interested parties consulted on the decision to create a new executive level position?

A week after a group of 5 City Council members met with Garza, the city manager sent them a memo Tuesday answering some of their questions on what his future looks like over the coming months as they search for a new city manager, and if he has any more personnel changes coming.

Garza's memo didn't directly address Acevedo, his name was not mentioned one time in the 6-page document, while still answering City Council's questions. He did outline what areas within the police department are of high priority to him to be addressed, which was directly related to the appointment, as he said in the weeks prior.

The questions answered by Garza in the memo indicate to me the City Council doesn't want anymore surprises, especially as the city gets into the thick of the permanent City Manager search.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson has previously said they hope to have a candidate selected by mid-April, but that doesn't necessarily mean they would start then.

"Under some circumstances, we may decide that an actual start date for our selection should be later in the year so that, for example, we've completed the budget process," Watson said in the council message board in December.

That means that Garza could oversee his second budget, which the city manager's office is responsible for drafting, depending on the timeline.

Temporary APD contract

In other policing news, the City Council on Thursday approved a temporary police contract that will guarantee salaries and benefits for a year, or until a contract is finalized.

As I wrote last week in City Hall Insider, and my colleague Skye Seipp reported a few weeks ago, it’s been nearly a year since the last long-term contract between Austin and its police officers ended, and it's unclear if there will be one anytime soon.

The item, which was passed with 9 votes in favor and 2 abstentions, came with additional direction from the City Council to make the funding available from the Austin Police Department fiscal year 2024 base budget or current general fund budget appropriations for public safety without impacting other department budgets.

Michael Bullock, the new president of the police union, told the City Council on Thursday, "The fact that we are renewing these benefits is important and it is critical to us being able to maintain at least what we have."

Bullock said there were certain things in the ordinance he didn't agree with, and that he thought could have been added in, but said he ultimately supports it's passage.

"Though I am grateful as well to see the support that we are starting to see from council, it has been a long five years at a minimum," Bullock said. "But we cannot continue to maintain the status quo."

Austin Mayor's race heats up

Two candidates have officially entered the Austin Mayor's race.

Former Austin City Council member Kathie Tovo and longtime community organizer and GAVA executive director Carmen Llanes Pulido have filed campaign treasurer appointments and publicly announced their candidacy.

More: Kathie Tovo, a former Austin City Council member, is running for mayor

In 2022, Tovo teased a run for Mayor, but ultimately decided against it.

The election, which is still several months away, will also have City Council districts 2, 4, 6, 7 and 10 on the ballot. I've been covering those races as well, and will continue to do so as more candidates file.

If you've made it this far, thank you for following along! I hope you'll continue reading "City Hall Insider," published the day of every Austin City Council meeting, which is usually bi-weekly. In the meantime, I will continue my coverage of local government and politics. To share additional tips or insight, email me at emccarthy@statesman.com. You can also find me on X, formerly Twitter, @byEllaMcCarthy.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: City Hall Insider: Art Acevedo, APD union contract, mayor's race