Summary

Travis County voters will have two important propositions on their ballot this year - Prop A & Prop B.

Action Box

Vote! Early voting starts on October 23rd and Election Day is November 7th.

If you live in Travis County, you’ll get to vote on two bond propositions this year – Prop A & Prop B. Keep scrolling for our Prop B explainer.

 

If you’re looking for our Prop A explainer, you can find it here. 

You can look at a PDF map of all the Prop B projects here and an interactive map here. 

You can look through a more detailed tax estimate breakdown here and you can look through a full list of endorsing organizations here. 

Information for this election guide comes from Travis County documents, the Citizens Bond Advisory Committee Final Report, an original interview with Jennifer Bristol, and media requests submitted to Travis County. 

The post Explaining Your Ballot: Travis County Prop B appeared first on The Austin Common.

Summary

Travis County voters will have two important propositions on their ballot this year - Prop A & Prop B.

Action Box

Vote! Early voting starts on October 23rd and Election Day is November 7th.

If you live in Travis County, you’ll get to vote on two bond propositions this year – Prop A & Prop B. Keep scrolling for our Prop A explainer… and stay tuned for our Prop B explainer, which will be published early next week! 

You can look at a PDF map of all the Prop A projects here and an interactive map here. 

You can look through a more detailed tax estimate breakdown here and you can look through a full list of endorsing organizations here. 

Information for this election guide comes from Travis County documents, the Citizens Bond Advisory Committee Final Report, an original interview with Jennifer Bristol, and media requests submitted to Travis County. 

The post Explaining Your Ballot: Travis County Prop A appeared first on The Austin Common.

The post Mental Health & Our Criminal Justice System appeared first on The Austin Common.

Summary

An important race to decide who will be the next Travis County Commissioner representing Precinct 4 (southeast Travis County) is on the ballot for this March primary election.

Action Box

Vote! Vote! Vote! Early voting begins on February 14th & Election Day is March 1st. You can find polling location info at VoteTravis.com.

Care about climate change? Criminal justice reform? Health care? 

 

Then you’re going to want to pay attention to the Travis County Commissioners Democratic primary election. We go over all the basics with our guide below. 

 

PS – Want to learn more about the candidates? Be sure to listen to the latest episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour. We interviewed both of the candidates and spoke to them in-depth about their plans for Travis County. You can also figure out which Travis County precinct you live in here. 

PPS – You can also check out each of the candidate’s website here:

• Margaret Gómez

• Susanna Ledesma-Woody

The post Your Guide To The Travis County Commissioner (Precinct 4) Democratic Primary appeared first on The Austin Common.

The post Your Guide To The Texas Primaries: Travis County Edition (Episode 27) appeared first on The Austin Common.

Summary

An important race to decide who will be the next Travis County Commissioner representing Precinct 2 (central/west Austin) is on the ballot for this March primary election.

Action Box

Vote! Vote! Vote! Early voting begins on February 14th & Election Day is March 1st. You can find polling location info at VoteTravis.com.

Care about climate change? Criminal justice reform? Health care? 

 

Then you’re going to want to pay attention to the Travis County Commissioners Democratic primary election. We go over all the basics with our guide below. 

 

PS – Want to learn more about the candidates? Be sure to listen to the latest episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour. We interviewed both of the candidates and spoke to them in-depth about their plans for Travis County. You can also figure out which Travis County precinct you live in here. 

PPS – You can also check out each of the candidate’s website here:

• Brigid Shea

• Bob Libal 

The post Your Guide To The Travis County Commissioner (Precinct 2) Democratic Primary appeared first on The Austin Common.

Summary

In 2020, Travis County hired its first-ever chief public defender, marking a major change in the way our region handles defense for those who can't afford a lawyer.

Action Box

Learn more about our county's new chief public defender by listening to Episode 20 of The Austin Common Radio Hour.

Up until 2020, Travis County was the largest jurisdiction in the country without a public defender’s office.

 

So then how did our criminal justice system work? And what is being done now to try and make our criminal justice system more equitable? Find out with our latest explainer post. 

PS – Want to learn more? Check out these links:

• You listen to our complete interview Adeola Ogunkeyede, Travis County’s first-ever chief public defender, on Episode 20 of The Austin Common Radio Hour here. 

• You can read a Texas Tribune/ Texas Monthly story on the history of indigent defense in Texas here. 

The post How Austin Is Working To Make Our Criminal Defense System More Equitable appeared first on The Austin Common.

Summary

On June 15th, the Travis County Commissioners Court will decide whether or not to build a new $79 million women's jail.

Action Box

Have thoughts on what the Travis County Commissioners Court should do? Send an email to Commissioners-Court@traviscountytx.gov.

On June 15th, our local leaders have a big decision to make – whether or not Travis County should move forward with building a new $79m women’s jail. The proposal has generated a lot of controversy. The Travis County jail population is 34% Black, despite the fact that only 9% of the county’s population is Black. Add on to that the fact that the jail population has been decreasing steadily, & many are left wondering why a new jail is needed in the first place.

 

Check out our latest guide to learn more about the proposal & what community leaders are saying about it.

 

PS – At the meeting on June 15th, Travis County Judge Andy Brown & Commissioner Ann Howard are expected to present a resolution to call for county staff to develop a new strategic plan on the county’s criminal justice complex, convene a working group to reduce the number of women in the jail, and give recommendations and options on how to provide better physical, mental, and behavioral health care inside and outside of the jail. 

PPS – Want to learn more? Check out these links:

• You can read through Grassroots Leadership’s petition against the new jail here.

• You can watch a press conference from Grassroots Leadership & the Austin Justice Coalition against the new jail here. 

• You can read a letter signed by 95 civil rights groups and community leaders, in opposition to the new jail, here. 

• You can look through a presentation from Travis County staff about the new women’s jail here. 

The post Should Travis County Build A New Women’s Jail? appeared first on The Austin Common.

Guest Post – from Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea

Brigid Shea is a Travis County Commissioner representing Precinct Two. She also serves on the board of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, the region’s transportation planning body. She recently wrote this open letter to the Austin/Travis County community, calling for a change in leadership at CAMPO.

Tonight, the CAMPO board will vote on a questionable deal that twists the rules in order to keep former Hays County Commissioner Will Conley on as chair. He resigned as Commissioner in order to run for Hays County Judge, so he is no longer an elected official. The plan would create a new position for him as an un-elected “Affililate Non Voting Member” and allow him to continue as chair of CAMPO for another two years, beyond the 6 years he’s already served as chair. To underscore that this arrangement is not supported by the rules, the agenda backup states “There are no provisions in the ..bylaws..that would prevent” it. Hays County will also be allowed to add another voting member in addition to Conley.

The reason this matters is that CAMPO is THE regional transportation planning body.  It decides how and where virtually all federal and state transportation money will be spent in our community.  CAMPO is THE gatekeeper for hundreds of millions of dollars for transportation projects and toll roads in our area.

During Conley’s time as chair, CAMPO has been overly focused on toll roads and highways.  It has largely ignored the kind of innovative solutions other regions like Dallas, Denver, Nashville and Chicago have invested in to great competitive advantage. During this time, CAMPO has been openly hostile to multimodal solutions to our congestion problems and recklessly dismantled the only commuter rail authority between Austin and San Antonio, (Lone Star Rail) with minimal debate.

The balance of representation has also shifted, putting Austin and Travis County in the minority.  Austin and Travis County represent 57% of the population of this region but is the minority on the policy board and holds only 25% of the votes on CAMPO’s Technical Advisory Committee as reported by the Austin Monitor.

There is an enormous fiduciary responsibility to make sure we are properly representing the biggest part of the region’s population. We also have a duty to pursue meaningful transportation alternatives that don’t require everyone to own a car.  Austin is labeled the most economically segregated metro area in the country and yet CAMPO’s chief approach to transportation needs is to support the costliest option: toll roads.

Should Hays County have 8 years of continuous leadership at the expense of Austin/Travis County having our turn? Not according to Sen. Kirk Watson. In his farewell letter to CAMPO in November 2009, he wrote, “I will strongly encourage the Board to adopt a system that regularly rotates the position of Policy Board Chair among the different members.”  His whole letter is here.

Furthermore, it is customary practice when someone resigns from public office that they also step down from board and commission seats they held because of their elected status.  Sarah Eckhart played by those rules and stepped down as Vice Chair of CAMPO when she resigned as Travis County Commissioner to run for County Judge in 2014–the exact same circumstances that Conley is in today.  Conley even stepped down recently from his position on CAPCOG for that very reason.  He should do the right thing and step down from CAMPO as Sarah did. This is not about individual personalities, it is about good governance.

Community leaders need to weigh in. CAMPO is making decisions on hundreds of millions of dollars of transportation funding. I am asking the Austin Chambers of Commerce, major employers, the University of Texas and other universities, ACC, small businesses, neighborhood groups and community leaders all over our city and county to help make sure that the people of Austin and Travis County get the transportation systems they need for the future.

If you agree that it is time for Austin/Travis to have its turn as CAMPO Chair, please email the CAMPO board (campo@campotexas.org) or come to the meeting at UT Thompson Conference Centertonight, January 8, at 6pm and speak out.  Respectfully ask that Conley step down and for the Board to elect a member of the Austin/Travis delegation as Chair.

In the name of good governance and responsible, equitable transportation policy and funding, thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.

Please note – editorials and sponsored posts are written by guest writers to inform and educate the community on a variety of different viewpoints, as well as to share information about local eco-friendly businesses and organizations. However, they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Austin EcoNetwork. 

The post Leading Our Region’s Transportation Future: An Open Letter appeared first on The Austin Common.