By The People ATX

Much appreciation to the progressive organizations, labor unions, workers' advocates, environmental & criminal justice groups united to oppose this power grab aiming to take power away from communities of color, immigrants, working families & low-wage workers. Our progressive community came together like never before to mobilize to defeat Prop. F by 86%. Our communities won, so thank you, ATX!

May 1 Special Election Results: Austin Voters Tell City Leaders What They Don't Like: Strong-mayor proposal fails spectacularly...

May 1 Special Election Results: Austin Voters Tell City Leaders What They Don't Like Austin voters tell city leaders what they don’t like

For Immediate Release – 05.01.2021 Contact: Julie Valentine 512.922.8526

Texas Interfaith Statement on City of Austin Ballot Propositions

We are glad that Austin will retain a Council-Manager form of government with the failure of Proposition F. The current system provides the best opportunity for Austinites’ voices to be heard through their local council districts, and keeps executive authority with a city manager who can be hired and fired by council.

We call on City, County, State, and Federal officials to enact comprehensive and immediate solutions to ending and preventing homelessness through housing, social services, and programs like rental assistance, including prioritizing stimulus dollars and potential bonds. The Passage of Proposition B does not eliminate or address this urgent need, and we hope implementation does not put those who are unhoused in an even more precarious position.

Central Texas Interfaith is a non-partisan, multi-ethnic, multi-issue coalition of 50 religious congregations, schools, unions, and civil organizations who work together to address public issues that affect the well-being of families and neighborhoods in our community www.austininterfaith.org

Austin Interfaith Austin Interfaith is a non-partisan, multi-ethnic, multi-issue organization of 43 congregations, public schools, and unions who work together to address public issues that affect the well being of families and neighborhoods in our community.

"Strong-mayor proposition fails spectacularly

In the May 1 election, voters strongly rejected Proposition F, which proposed a radical change to Austin city governance from the Council-manager form of government to a strong mayor with veto powers over actions taken by City Council. Eighty-six percent of those casting ballots on the issue voted no. The proposition brought by Austinites for Progressive Reform lost as badly as any ballot proposal in recent memory.

Voters also rejected Proposition G, which would have added an extra seat on Council, although the margin was considerably smaller, with about 57 percent in Travis County and 58 percent in Williamson County voting against it.

The Austin Monitor asked Peck Young, a longtime political consultant who is currently advising the city’s redistricting committee, why Prop F lost so badly. He said, “Even though I philosophically believe in strong mayor … that has got to be the most badly worded, badly written and badly planned version of strong mayor … I’ve ever studied or read in my entire life.”

Referring to the infamous Boss Tweed, the strongman who reigned over New York in the post-Civil War era, Young said even Tweed did not have the authority to veto actions by Council. He concluded, “This is the silliest version (of strong mayor) you could imagine.”

Young also criticized the way APR went about putting together the proposition, saying that the advisory group was handpicked and met for only one month during Covid.

“In a city that values input, they managed to get as little as they could. So I’m not surprised it was massacred because it was a good idea that was done as badly as you could do it in Austin.”

“G was just an add-on that shouldn’t have passed without F,” Young said. If G had passed but F had failed, “you’d end up with 12 Council members with a potential for permanent deadlock.”

A clearly elated Nico Ramsey, spokesman for Austin for All People, the umbrella group that worked to defeat the strong-mayor proposition, said, “The voters decided. … It was a clear rebuke of APR’s Prop F and we’re pretty happy here.” Asked if the results matched their polling, Ramsey said, “We don’t do polling, but we feel that we did our best to educate” the voters. “We weren’t expecting this, but we were happy to see the outcomes of our efforts.”

Political consultant David Butts, who worked for Austinites for Progressive Reform, said the outcome for Prop F was worse than he expected, adding it was “pretty clear early on it was not going to be that serious a contest.” So the group concentrated more on other propositions, particularly Prop H, called Democracy Dollars, which would have given every citizen $25 to donate to a Council candidate. That proposition also failed.

Seeking to explain the lopsided loss, Butts said he thought part of the reason was, “the side that was pushing it really didn’t want to try to burn down the city politically. So unless you’re willing to go in there and use a lot of acrimony and fire, you’re not going to make much headway … they looked at their polling … it never really had a lot of support.”

Butts also noted the unusual coalition of opponents, from labor to business to environmental groups, that frequently disagree on such matters.

The International City/County Management Association, led by former Austin City Manager Marc Ott, also contributed expertise and hired the Elizabeth Christian Public Relations firm to help Austin for All People.

Ott said Sunday that when he first heard about the strong-mayor effort, opposition was at “a very low level, quiet, very different from the proponents. So to get to this point where Austin for All People was able to bring together such a diverse coalition of people and organizations was pretty amazing.”

Ott, who served as city manager for eight and a half years, feels strongly about the city manager form of government in Austin. “Why would anyone want to mess up a winning formula?” he asked, especially since Austin has been seen as a top local government, not just nationally but internationally.

Jason Grant, director of advocacy for ICMA, said, “When it comes to accountability, the manager can be fired at any moment, so they’re able to hold him accountable every day …. a lot of that seemed to resonate with people just the way that it functions.”

Asked to name other cities that have had a similar election experience in recent years, Grant said Sacramento “is probably the most apples to apples.” The California capital had a Council-manager form of government, and in a 2020 referendum voters rejected a change to the strong-mayor system, with 57 percent opposed."

https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2021/05/strong-mayor-proposition-fails-spectacularly/

Austin Proposition F for 'strong-mayor' government fails to pass -

Early results look as if Austin's 'strong mayor' proposal headed for defeat Approving Proposition F would have handed much more power to the mayor's office.

TODAY is Election Day, so please go vote NO on Prop. F until 7PM, because this strong mayor power grab is undemocratic and dangerous for Austin!

Polling Locations: https://countyclerk.traviscountytx.gov/elections/current-election/polling-locations.html

It was great talking to voters over the weekend about Prop F. Thanks to Austin AFSCME, Workers Defense Action Fund and IBEW Local 520 for volunteering with us.

Today is the last day to vote early!

Tuesday, April 27th is the last day to Early Vote, so please remember to vote NO on Prop. F! Strong Mayor is undemocratic and dangerous for Austin!

Thanks to the Austin Chronicle for opposing Prop. F!

"Proposition F (Strong Mayor): AGAINST

The other charter amendments brought forward by Austinites for Progressive Reform are but bonbons compared to this one, which (post-10-1) is the biggest conceivable change that could be made to the city's constitution. The few months of attention APR's proposal has gotten – much of it largely driven by its own spending and claims of support that have since been walked back – is not nearly enough time or anywhere close to a sufficiently open process for Austin to consider such a fundamental reconstruction of its own governance.

Austin has very high standards for what it considers legitimate citizen engagement and buy-in for big changes. It has very high expectations for what those with power – let alone those who want power that now resides with the city's people – should do to gain public support. That's why things like a rail transit system, or moving the airport and building an innovative neighborhood in its place, or moving to 10-1 itself from the old at-large system have taken decades to accomplish and multiple trips to the ballot box. As frustrating as that has been for advocates of these ideas, this is not a bug; it is a feature.

"Strong mayor" has been a topic of many a City Hall coffee break and happy hour for most of that time. New mayors and their teams and their big boosters feel the letdown upon realizing what power the job doesn't have. They muse about how a real mayor, like in New York or Chicago, could Get Things Done. Every city manager hears these musings and finds them upsetting, but life goes on. Only this past fall, when Spencer Cronk withstood heavy, heavy pressure from Council and the community to fire the police chief, did we even have a good example of a bad situation that a strong mayor might have handled better.

The haste with which the APR brain trust converted the pain caused to many Austin­ites by police violence into a way to increase the clout of future City Hall insiders may not be unethical or even that unseemly, but it is fundamentally unserious and insufficient. If this is such a good idea, it can survive a proper charter review, such as Austin has done many times, and be weighed as carefully as Austin has weighed such big changes in the past."

Chronicle Endorsements for the May 1 City of Austin Special Election Our picks for the eight propositions you'll see on your ballot

Even former Mayors agree Prop. F is wrong for Austin!

No on Prop F - Feedback - The Austin Chronicle