Latest / Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement / #013- "Austin Councilwoman Kelly stands in the fire DEFENDING the Police"

Transcript

#013- "Austin Councilwoman Kelly stands in the fire DEFENDING the Police" · Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement

0:01
SPEAKER_01: Monumental cuts for the Austin Police Department.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: No matter how loud or how proud I am to support public safety, it's like beating my head against a wall.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: They're so anti-public safety that they think that me sticking my neck out for a group of hardworking, dedicated law enforcement professionals who want to protect the community and do so.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what kind of middle finger is that to the from the council to the officers?
0:25
SPEAKER_00: It was really disappointing.
0:29
SPEAKER_02: Welcome back, TMPA family, watchers, viewers, listeners, Blue Grip Podcast.
0:36
SPEAKER_02: Go ahead and hit that subscribe button.
0:38
SPEAKER_02: And again, I can't stress this enough.
0:40
SPEAKER_02: Guys that uh and ladies that listen to the podcast, you guys have to download the uh the episodes on on all the platforms.
0:47
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of how we measure uh the success of this deal.
0:50
SPEAKER_02: And plus, we've all got bosses, and as you're well aware, John Serrega, my boss, is kind of somewhat a tyrant.
0:55
SPEAKER_02: And so uh, you know, if it would help us out to download those.
0:59
SPEAKER_02: So go ahead and download those episodes and hit the subscribe button.
1:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm back, Tyler Owen, Clint McNear.
1:05
SPEAKER_02: We have got an absolute special guest today.
1:09
SPEAKER_02: I am so uh so honored that you you took time and carved time out of your busy schedule.
1:13
SPEAKER_02: Councilwoman McKenzie Kelly, City Council of Austin, uh wanted to kind of jump on and uh we wanted to bring you on to kind of discuss uh you know what's going on here in Austin.
1:24
SPEAKER_02: Uh the perception of of the Austin City Council prior to you getting on there was the defunding movement.
1:30
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and you'll kind of dive off into why you got on the council to begin with.
1:34
SPEAKER_02: But man, thank you so much for coming on.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for having me.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely joy to be here.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: For carving timeout, is there anything there's nothing really going on in Austin right now?
1:42
SPEAKER_01: Is there you had to carve timeout?
1:44
SPEAKER_00: I only moved two appointments to be here, so it's not that big of a deal.
1:47
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was joking because there's nothing going on in city council right now.
1:51
SPEAKER_02: No issues, nothing.
1:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the public safety I think uh, I think this morning, public safety committee hearing.
1:57
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah, yeah.
1:59
SPEAKER_02: I was actually uh you're actually one of the first council uh people that I've I've I've I've talked to that has a a chief of staff.
2:06
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's so that tells me right there how busy you guys really are.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and uh I always take offense when people assume that it's a part-time job because council members can have outside employment, but I am absolutely there every day that I can be.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: And if I'm not there, I'm out in the field, or some weekends I'm working.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: I really do the best to represent the community that I do.
2:25
SPEAKER_02: Well, speaking with you just a little bit that we did uh last week, it's obvious that that your passion is for uh not just for public safety, but for the people uh within your district.
2:33
SPEAKER_02: So I applaud you for your efforts and uh very much look forward to kind of uh covering the topics we have for this episode.
2:38
SPEAKER_02: So again, thank you for coming on.
2:39
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
2:58
SPEAKER_01: Right.
2:59
SPEAKER_01: They love to tell you when you screw up, but you're not gonna often hear thank you for doing what you're doing and giving up your time and your energy.
3:05
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, so that that goes, I mean that's that's huge service back to the community.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
3:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
3:12
SPEAKER_02: So tell us a little bit about uh who is McKenzie?
3:15
SPEAKER_02: Where did you grow up at, and uh who are you?
3:19
SPEAKER_00: I like that you're asking me instead of just telling everybody about me because I feel like whenever I get introduced, I learn something new about myself.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: No, so um you know, I was born and raised in Austin, uh raised in District 6, which is the district that I represent.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: I went to all the schools there that are public.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, well, not all of them, but a couple of them.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: My daughter's attending the same school as I was, which is great.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: Um it is.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: And I think my deep roots in the community really helped me understand that I can't let the city of Austin continue down the pathway that it's going.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: And that really clicked in 2020 when that person who had my job before me, who was elected, spearheaded the defund the police movement.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: And he even went so far as to say he wanted to blow up the police headquarters, which I now know he wanted to demolish it because it's a real crummy building.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, but there were no plans to move it or get a new building and had to be demoralizing to the officers.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: And I spent eight years at the Jollyville Fire Department.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: I actually started as a fire service explorer when I was in high school at Westwood High School in Austin.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: And I took an EMT class and I realized, you know, I really need to learn how to use these skills in the field.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: Because you can read from a book what to do.
4:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: Once you get out there, like there's the whole thing changes.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: Um, somebody's bleeding and you're like, what?
4:35
SPEAKER_00: Or somebody gets hit by a car and you don't know why their shoes are 50 feet from where they got hit, do they stop and take their shoes off before they got hit by a car?
4:43
SPEAKER_00: No.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: Right.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: The force of the vehicle hitting them caused their shoes to fall off.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: And I felt like a dum dumb asking my captain why that was the first time.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: But you know, once you realize it, you realize, okay, this is way different.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: The other thing that I learned was whenever something's wrong or needs to be changed, you got to go to training, right?
5:01
SPEAKER_00: So in 2020, when the city council decided to unanimously defund the police department, they wanted to change how police officers did things in Austin, and I think that's admirable.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: But you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: There have to be people to backfill the positions to do that training.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: And what they did was they stopped the flow of police officers through the police cadet training academy.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: And with attrition, they got behind real bad, which is I think why you're seeing a lot of staffing issues.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: But back to why I ran for office, you know, I have a strong background in public safety.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: I spent two years at the Round Rock Fire Department in the training division and worked in Williamson County and emergency management.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: And I really got the sense that the county, that the county commissioners, bless their hearts, they didn't know what they were voting on or what the impacts were.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: And I really thought in 2020 when the defund movement happened, I mean, call it what you want, reallocation of money, you're still taking money away.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: You're defunding something.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that that is what it is.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Um the people voting on those things up on that day is some of which who are still there with me now, they didn't know the implications of what they were doing and the unintended consequences of where it would put public safety.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: So it really comes as no surprise to me we are where we are now.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: But no matter how loud or how proud I am to support public safety, it's like beating my head against a wall.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that public officials in general invest enough time and energy in learning about the different departments that they're making decisions about before making those decisions.
6:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:28
SPEAKER_02: So the mere fact for an elected official uh that's not somewhat related to law enforcement.
6:34
SPEAKER_02: So I'm I mean, I guess what I'm saying, a city councilwoman, uh a commissioner's court person, for you to stand up and to to link arms with uh law enforcement public safety, it means a lot to us.
6:44
SPEAKER_02: And I'm speaking for the 33,000 members uh of of TMPA.
6:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and rhetoric sounds good until you execute it and realize it was a horrible experiment.
6:56
SPEAKER_01: Um I've I'm your hometown girl from your district.
7:01
SPEAKER_01: I've I've been in Texas my whole life.
7:04
SPEAKER_01: Only one time have I ever been kind of awkwardly embarrassed to be from Texas.
7:08
SPEAKER_01: We're in California to school and it's day two, and I'm in California, which you think is the king of craziness, and talking about issues and government issues and labor issues and municipal issues, and a couple of the instructors said, guys, it could be much worse.
7:25
SPEAKER_01: We know we have it back here.
7:27
SPEAKER_01: We could be from Austin, and they start showing videos of the shenanigans at Austin Kitty City Council meetings, and it's me and another guy in the whole room, the only two from Texas.
7:38
SPEAKER_01: And it went on and on, and I we went on a break, and I'm like, when I'm in California and they're thankful they're not from Texas, we're in a cry.
7:47
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's that slapped me in the face.
7:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:50
SPEAKER_01: And I never thought I would go anywhere and be like, yeah, I'm yeah, I'm super proud to be from Texas.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: It was an awkward, I'm loudly proudly from here, and for Californians to be thankful they weren't here, I thought, well, we're in a new low.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: We've hit a new awkward low for our state.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: I will say, and you're absolutely correct.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is very embarrassing when people come here and they they say that response times are too long.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: Well, we don't have enough officers.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: I mean, during that whole defund movement, they the city council also voted to take 150 police officer vacancies away and reallocate that money.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: So we lost 150 officers potentially there, in addition to the cadet academies, it stopped.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: And on top of that, they took away license plate readers, which is a force multiplier.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: Huge.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it's a great tool for you all to have in your tool belt.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: And I'm thankful that once the council member who also sponsored the defunding was gone, I was able to bring back a resolution to council to reinstate the license plate reader program for the city of Austin.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: $114,000 to do what that tool does is absolutely incredible.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know if you all recall when there was a rock thrower terrorizing the city a couple years ago.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: He would stand on overpasses and throw rocks on the vehicles.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: Several people were critically injured in that.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: And one person actually, I think, died.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, they caught him with license plate readers because he would return to the scene.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow, did not know that.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, kind of like a common denominator coming back to those scenes.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: And a tow truck driver trying to drum up business for himself.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: Common person, well known at council meetings.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: One time he passed out, my colleague ended up giving him water.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, so but that was a fight.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: And it was a fight because there are some far-left council members on our council who are almost Democrat socialists, if I'm being kind and saying almost, I truly believe they are.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: And they they believed in privacy of data.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you're not doing anything wrong, then why would you have a problem with your license plate being scanned?
9:50
SPEAKER_00: And furthermore, if I'm going down the road and I'm suspected in a crime and you have the data showing that I wasn't anywhere near what happened, then that would help me too.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: So um, if I'm not doing something wrong, then I don't have anything to worry about.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
10:06
SPEAKER_01: The community's fortunate to have you because you have the background.
10:09
SPEAKER_01: One thing I retired from Garland PD, which is up near Dallas, and one thing we were always blessed was our council members would come right out with the with the officers so that they could see ground zero what really is going on.
10:23
SPEAKER_01: Um you have the background that already provides you with that, but I think they would be shocked if some of those council members that think this is a great Seattle experiment would go out and see the the call load, the delayed response, what these guys and girls are going through.
10:42
SPEAKER_01: Um but I I I would suspect some of those would not want to put their money where their mouth is.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: And you're right.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: I I would probably guess that too.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: But one thing that actually is very timely related to this matter, I was before I got elected, I knew that I wanted to know more about the police department.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: And I was fortunate enough at the time to have been accepted into the 100th class of the Austin Police Department Citizen Police Act.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: So it's a 16-week-long program, or maybe it's only 14 weeks, I don't remember exactly.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: Same like 16, I think.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: She learned so much.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: And each so it's once a week, and each night you go and you learn about a couple different departments.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: They come in, they do presentations, they take questions.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was valuable for a number of reasons.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: For whatever reason, my my uh classmates voted me class president, so I got to give a speech at the end, which was really cool.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: Um but I learned, and I don't know why I didn't realize this.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, probably because I'm just a dumb firefighter, but the first time somebody sees a police officer, when it goes bad, it's because it's it's the worst day of their lives.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: And so we need to provide as city council members and even just as a community, more positive interactions with police officers.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: So I'm real big on public education.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: And next week at our council meeting, I'm bringing forward a resolution that will direct the city manager to come back with recommendations on when to begin the program again because it was on a two-year hiatus due to COVID.
12:01
SPEAKER_02: Well, and and you and you brought up a good point whenever we start, whenever you we we began this conversation, we have had multiple, multiple people that have come on here.
12:09
SPEAKER_02: And what sparked their interest in law enforcement was the Explore program.
12:13
SPEAKER_02: Sadly, me being in law enforcement right now, that program is is dwindling.
12:18
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what the city of Boston is doing.
12:20
SPEAKER_02: I'm certainly not saying that that you need to dive headfirst into this, but I think that if we that's a part of that education, and I think that if we revamp and refocus the efforts to the youth to the youth in younger generation and educate them, it's gonna be better for everybody.
12:37
SPEAKER_02: Um so but I think more community policing is probab was was certainly the answer, and I think that got defunded as well, did it not?
12:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
12:44
SPEAKER_02: Which was was it just it it's just a terrible idea.
12:46
SPEAKER_01: So in the the quandary is the defunding or reallocation or reimagining, do it it's done away with numerous specialized units within the department.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: It's downsized the department, which means the guys and girls in uniform, they're only going call to call to call to call.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, when you're going from call to call, you're not able to get out in the community and visit with the grandmother that you know is having problems with neighbor kids or so there's not actually more community policing, there's actually less.
13:19
SPEAKER_01: Because if I check in service and I don't slow down until I'm out of service, I'm not doing anything in the community.
13:25
SPEAKER_01: I don't have time to do anything in the community.
13:27
SPEAKER_01: So you're not enhancing community contact or relations, you're actually taking more of that away.
13:34
SPEAKER_01: Mounted unit, uh, some of those units are the best PR community relations representations of the city that there are.
13:43
SPEAKER_01: And when you start taking all that away, and the interesting part, we're really f pretty good friends with the Seattle um folks, and they're where they're about a year ahead of Austin because they've already been through the failed experiment, and they're actually backtracking now saying, God, we need a lot of police, we need to start having some more conservative thoughts because these crazy ideas that we were floating out, turns out that wasn't a great idea.
14:10
SPEAKER_01: And I know I didn't think Seattle, I I've told personally friends, I'm like, Seattle will never come back.
14:15
SPEAKER_01: There's that pendulum's that train's gone.
14:18
SPEAKER_01: And they're telling us now they've actually realized this was a bad idea.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: Sounded great in theory, this is horrible.
14:25
SPEAKER_01: And the pendulum's now swinging back the other way.
14:27
SPEAKER_01: And uh I I pray that happens here, and it takes it takes common sense people.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a lot of us praying it'll get better, and and that's it's good to hear.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: I haven't been paying attention to Seattle as much as I've been dug into what's going on here in Austin because it's quite a complicated mess.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: But you mentioned community policing, and we absolutely don't really have that.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: We also don't have proactive policing, which is officers who are actually on their own initiative going out and and doing things and responding to things that they see.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of that is because of our DA.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: Why would you go out of your way to do something if you had the time to, which you probably don't, if the DA is just gonna throw the case away.
15:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's gotta hurt.
15:09
SPEAKER_01: Goes hand in hand.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: We get indicted.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we'll get indicted.
15:13
SPEAKER_01: I try and stop this car burglar and I end up having to fight him, and then I I get indicted by the DA for trying to do my job.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: That's awful.
15:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is.
15:21
SPEAKER_01: It is.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I had a friend who was indicted and he showed up to a funeral and he wasn't in his uniform, and I didn't realize you're not allowed to wear your uniform when you're under indictment.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: That's very demoralizing.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: You can't even step in if you see another officer needing help if you're being if you're under indictment.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: It's awful.
15:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:37
SPEAKER_01: And there should be a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: Until proven guilty.
15:42
SPEAKER_02: It's a bad environment altogether, uh, county.
15:44
SPEAKER_02: It's just a it's just a bad situation.
15:46
SPEAKER_02: And like you said, I think prayers and uh good leaders like you of what you're doing.
15:51
SPEAKER_02: I I I I cannot not ask this question without us getting off here.
15:56
SPEAKER_02: And I want everybody to kind of understand this.
16:01
SPEAKER_02: You obviously support the public safety and you obviously support law enforcement.
16:07
SPEAKER_02: How much rhetoric have you specifically gotten for standing up and doing the right thing?
16:14
SPEAKER_02: Not just within your district but citywide.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: So am I allowed to well I probably shouldn't say that word.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: But I mean I've been called all kinds of names.
16:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh quoting people you can Yeah.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's there's a a specific person who I know who is married to a council member who has told me in public at least three times that I'm just a whore for the police, um, to which I've responded nothing about what I do is is related to that.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: I think that's probably the worst and sticks with me the longest because they're so anti-public safety that they think that me sticking my neck out for a group of hardworking, dedicated law enforcement professionals who want to protect the community and do so.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: I've been there before.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: I've been there when there are bad things happening, and I know that there are officers who've protected me and my role as a volunteer firefighter.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a thankless job, like you said earlier.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: And I just there's that.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: There's, you know, I'm a white supremacist, I'm I'm racist, um, lots of people on Twitter quoting things, saying that I want people to die.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's ridiculous.
17:20
SPEAKER_02: I thought about that the entire night after you and I hung up that that a couple weeks ago, whenever we talked, and I just remember the environment and the culture of Austin.
17:28
SPEAKER_02: I just remember thinking, man, she's got to have some rhetoric and got to have some hate field, you know, emails and phone calls.
17:35
SPEAKER_02: And I never I didn't think it was that bad.
17:36
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I I wanted to ask you that, and that's that that says a lot.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:41
SPEAKER_01: How dare you be an independent thinker and how dare you.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, how dare I actually care about this city?
17:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I it's it's almost like I had a crystal ball in front of me, and I can see where we're going, and it's not good.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't good before.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful now at least I can try to talk some common sense into these council members.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: But I've gotten to the point where, you know, uh, there was an item on the agenda which I'm sure we're gonna talk about related to an ordinance to preserve the pay for the officers in Austin.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: And I made a motion sheet and I struck out all the part about oversight because I know that a lot of the oversight that they're pushing in Austin is not legal.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: And I got to read my entire motion sheet, and I remember I strike part F, strike all of part H.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: Like, and then I I motioned to pass it.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: The mayor asked for a second three times, it got very quiet, and it failed for a lack of a second.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
18:38
SPEAKER_00: At least I tried.
18:39
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: At least I tried.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: And then uh out of the three motion sheets that I had, one actually got put into the ordinance.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: So I go in there thinking I'm not gonna get anything done, and that's okay, at least I'm trying, but when it does happen, I'm like, cool, I did something.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: Well, the beauty is the joke's not on you, the joke's on them.
18:55
SPEAKER_01: Because we have Minneapolis, Seattle, and Portland that have all proved this doesn't work.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: You're aware of that, and apparently one of one of the lone or one of the few that sees.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: And so for people to not pick up on there's three other cities that that are further down the road in this failed experiment to show that we're going down a path that's not good.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: The joke's not on you, the joke's on them.
19:19
SPEAKER_01: I mean, ultimately, or it's gonna it's gonna be for sure.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: Well, and that's the unfortunate part.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, you say it's a joke, but we're talking about it, yeah, not literally.
19:27
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if they think you're the one that doesn't know, look what she's doing, right?
19:31
SPEAKER_01: Right.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: We'll see how it all plays out in the end, who who was right and who was wrong.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it'll be real nice to be able to tell them I told you so.
19:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:39
SPEAKER_01: There's three great examples.
19:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:40
SPEAKER_02: See, uh unfortunately.
19:42
SPEAKER_02: One one would think 20 2020 crime rate, 2021 crime rate, 2022.
19:47
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it it's it's increasing, and we've got to do something.
19:50
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
19:50
SPEAKER_02: I'm how how else could you not look at that in that manner?
19:53
SPEAKER_00: Well, and one good thing about Austin is we post our crime statistics monthly.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: And if the Chief's monthly report isn't posted by the middle of the month, I'm always emailing the assistant city manager, where's the chief's monthly report?
20:03
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to read it.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: Why isn't it not on the website?
20:05
SPEAKER_00: Because I keep up with those types of things.
20:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:07
SPEAKER_01: So current events, I saw Dallas, uh, Dallas is posting that they will take all of Austin PD, um, lateral transfers to Dallas PD.
20:18
SPEAKER_01: There's the council meeting yesterday or the day before where um the motion to preserve pay was made.
20:29
SPEAKER_01: That felt like just a band-aid on a gaping wound.
20:33
SPEAKER_01: Is that all that is?
20:34
SPEAKER_00: That's that's exactly how I felt it was as well.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, real quick though, to go back to the mayor.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: I can't blame him, the mayor of Dallas, for wanting Austin PD officers.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: They're some of the best and the finest officers in the state.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: The training that they go through is it's great training.
20:51
SPEAKER_02: You have a absolute wonderful department.
20:53
SPEAKER_02: We had two guys on the podcast a couple weeks ago, and and they're y'all have an awesome department.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not trying to slight any other department across the state.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying that the conditions that they're working under right now with the lack of support from the other council members is it's devastating.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: But so, yeah, the I'm gonna rewind the tape a little bit here and go back before that ordinance was passed to preserve the pay.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, city manager Spencer Cronk was given direction by the city council to pursue a four-year contract with the Austin Police Association.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: And he did.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: He he was able to finally reach that after 22 public meetings and over a year and a half of talking and going to the table and then not being at the table and then coming back again.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Finally, they reached an agreement.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: And on the same day they reached that agreement and announced it, there was an item on the council agenda from council member Cheetovella with other council members.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: So that you know how it works.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: We have 11 members on our council.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: It takes a sponsor plus a minimum of three other council members to put an item on the agenda.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: So he had four of them total.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: So there were four members total for this.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, what happened is it was on the same Day that the city manager and the police department and the APA had that meeting or the press conference to talk about the four-year agreement was when we met to meet about this item that was going to change things and direct the city, redirect the city manager with negotiations to a one-year contract.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even get the chance to read the four-year contract to know if it would be worth scrapping a year and$530,000 that the city invested in negotiations.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a lot of money.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: We got to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars there.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: And plus, I wanted to see the content and have meetings and fully understand it.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: So initially, when we got to the council meeting, I made a motion to postpone the item until we could review the four-year contract to see what that looked like versus what a one-year might look like.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: And this is just direction for a one-year contract.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't even a one-year contract that was in front of us.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: The council meeting got really confusing, and there was a lot of things that were talked about and said differently.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, another council member motioned to postpone the item until the next council meeting.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: That got a second, and we were able to postpone it.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: But I think the Hail Mary there was I at the end of the meeting, or towards the end, the council member to the right of me asked for the advocates to come up and to talk about why we needed a one-year contract instead of a four-year.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Well, the advocates are activists.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: They're the ones who spearheaded or spearheaded the defund movement, all that stuff.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: So I was like thinking in my head, how can I fix this?
23:35
SPEAKER_00: If I knew what the APA told me, then maybe I could change minds, or if I told them, I'm gonna call up the APA president.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: So I did that because I can do that as a council member.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: And then one next to me was like, oh no, I can't believe you're doing that.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: You know, she was just taken aback.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: And um, he came up and he said they will absolutely not bargain for a one-year contract.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: So he told them.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: And so the other another council member made the motion to postpone.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: We postponed the item.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: I reviewed the four-year contract, I talked to the APA, I talked to the police chief, I talked to the city legal team.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Four-year contract's the way to go.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: But the problem is that these activists put a item on the ballot related to police oversight, which has many parts that are not legal.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: And the city council has this idea that they want to ensure that the voters' rights are taken care of.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: Well, oversight is something you bargain for.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: That's my understanding.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Under chapter 143 of the Texas Local Government Code, you can't have oversight.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: So if we don't have contract, they can't get their oversight.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: The only way to do that is to bargain for it.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: So it's a big complicated mess, and it is very difficult to figure out.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: But the one-year thing passed, the direction for a one-year contract, it passed.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: We know APA is not coming back to the table.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: And so the Hail Mary for the mayor, I think, was to pass an ordinance to preserve the pay and benefits for the officers so we don't have a mass exodus of officers leaving the department.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: And for the listeners, originally the direction to the city manager was to do a four-year contract.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: And then we got a new council, and all of a sudden everything changes.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: Elections have consequences, guys.
25:16
SPEAKER_01: The sad part is I watched some of the council meetings, not you.
25:22
SPEAKER_01: But it seems like the priority often is not what's best for the community as a whole.
25:28
SPEAKER_01: It's how do we keep the activists happy.
25:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:31
SPEAKER_01: And that's not why folks are elected.
25:32
SPEAKER_01: That's their duty to serve.
25:36
SPEAKER_01: It's what's best for Austin.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: Right.
25:38
SPEAKER_01: Not the loud few that want to come up and make everything a circus.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: And that's so unfortunate.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: I call them the vocal minority.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: Well, and let me ask you this.
25:48
SPEAKER_02: What this is what it it's mind-boggling.
25:52
SPEAKER_02: The activists are upset about a protest, about a situation that didn't even occur in Austin.
25:58
SPEAKER_02: There was protests that occurred in Austin, and yes, there were there were situations that occurred at the protest, but the protest themselves itself was due to a situation that there was protest nationwide.
26:09
SPEAKER_02: But the protest itself was for a situation that didn't even happen in our state.
26:13
SPEAKER_02: And so they're going to defund Austin for a situation that had nothing to do with this community.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: It was awful virtue signaling.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: And it was at the risk of the safety of people in Austin, which is why it's a failed experiment.
26:26
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: So the tiny band-aid's been put on the the wound.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: Where do you see this going?
26:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh APA you said's not coming back to the table.
26:40
SPEAKER_01: They followed the same direction that the city manager did.
26:42
SPEAKER_01: Originally it was a four-year deal.
26:44
SPEAKER_01: They came to an agreement.
26:46
SPEAKER_01: Um I guess it was T8, it was tentative agreement.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: So I mean it was almost down the aisle and the marriage was almost done.
26:53
SPEAKER_01: And what's what's sad is a four-year contract prevents this from happening for a while and can let some relationships mend and heal.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: Negotiating every year, this rhetoric every year.
27:06
SPEAKER_01: That's a Jerry Springer episode every eleven months.
27:09
SPEAKER_01: That's not healthy for the community, for the people trying to serve on council, for the public safety.
27:16
SPEAKER_01: A one year is really tough in this environment.
27:18
SPEAKER_01: And look at what has been beneficial.
27:20
SPEAKER_02: Look at what the cost was for the negotiate.
27:21
SPEAKER_02: Was$500 something,000?
27:23
SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't include staff time,$530,000.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: It's not just unhealthy like what you said.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: I think about the cadets, right?
27:31
SPEAKER_00: And the insecurity of trying to well, you're recruiting people if you can even get them in the first place, given the the bad, I guess, reputation the city of Austin has for supporting police officers.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: But some of them aren't going to be done with field training after they get T-Cole certified and they're they're done with the Academy, and we're not going to have a contract.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: We're back to 143.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: And this ordinance is only a year long.
27:55
SPEAKER_02: And refresh my memory, that whenever the defund movement happened, we there there was literally cadets that was in that were in the academy that there's the door.
28:03
SPEAKER_02: I mean, is that what happened essentially kind of what happened?
28:05
SPEAKER_02: They were moved to like a graffiti unit or something for a little bit, weren't they?
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I don't know about that.
28:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:12
SPEAKER_01: I could be wrong on that, but um, yeah, I don't I don't I don't know.
28:16
SPEAKER_01: Your point earlier about the professional men and women serving.
28:21
SPEAKER_01: I respect them because they're better people than me.
28:26
SPEAKER_01: If the community didn't want me here, I'd be gone.
28:29
SPEAKER_01: And for those that are sticking this out, I admire them an incredible amount because my small brain is not too smart, and if the community doesn't like me or I feel like they don't like me here, I can pop smoke and go somewhere else and and I'll leave.
28:44
SPEAKER_01: So the dedication to those that are at this point still trying to stick it out before they all move to Dallas, that's I hope people understand how commendable that is.
28:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:54
SPEAKER_01: Um, because uh if you don't want me here, I'll leave.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I it makes sense.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: I tried to actually add, so there was one amendment that I brought forward, and it was to change the wording and a whereas of a resolution, which is kind of the the the I guess the foundation of building a case as to why you need to have something happen.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: So you have that part and then you have the now therefore be it resolved, was which is the action.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: So the whereas was the hardworking um Austin police officers or officers of the Austin Police Department.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: And I just tried to add dedicated and community serving as an amendment, and that didn't even get a second.
29:32
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, what kind of middle finger is that to from the council to the officers?
29:38
SPEAKER_00: It was really disheartening.
29:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
29:40
SPEAKER_02: Wow, that's crazy.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: There's two words to support them.
29:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:44
SPEAKER_01: Say thank you.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
29:46
SPEAKER_01: But they'll be the first call 911 if somebody's kicking their front door in, I suppose.
29:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's a joke amongst you being a firewoman.
29:54
SPEAKER_02: Uh, there's a joke amongst cops.
29:56
SPEAKER_02: You don't like it, you can call a crackhead.
29:57
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure you probably heard that.
29:59
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, I that that's just astonishing that they wouldn't even do that.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: It's it's very disappointing.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't believe it.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: And then several officers messaged me thanking me for trying, but also they're watching and they want to see support from council in any kind of way they can signal it.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: And so even just with that, I mean, gosh.
30:18
SPEAKER_01: So where do you see where do you see this going?
30:22
SPEAKER_01: I mean, how does this band-aid ride for a year until um I think it said March 24?
30:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's a good thing.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: Do you think there will be something in between or so there is there's a couple things at play here.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: So there's two petitions that were put onto the ballot, uh citizen-led ballot initiatives related to police oversight.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: One of them is led by equity action, and it includes all the oversight provisions that the police association has mentioned is really not legal.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: Um we have oh, on the four-year contract, it was one of the most robust, well thought out, and planned and agreed to forms of oversight in the whole state.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: That's what the police chief said.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I believe it.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if the APA is gonna agree to it for what they get out of the contract, I'm okay with that.
31:09
SPEAKER_01: Right.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to overdo it.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: So I don't support what equity action is bringing forward because I believe it's gonna be um tied up in court.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: It's a needless waste of taxpayer money with the resources that go to that, whatever.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: The other ballot measure, I can't remember the group that brought it forward, but they um have oversight, but all the illegal stuff's taken out.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: So you've got prop A and Prop B, and you've got a couple scenarios.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: If they're if one wins versus the other one not winning, or if they both pass, then they negate each other.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's this whole thing.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: So we have to see what happens in May related to those two ballot measures.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I'm hopeful that APA will eventually come back to the bargaining table because the officers do need stability.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that we'll ever be able to bring a four-year contract back, but everything really hinges on what happens in May.
31:56
SPEAKER_02: And just so I'm clear and and and the listeners and watchers, uh, which which what which proposition are you are you for or you you think are is our hopeful?
32:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I would go with B because that's probably the one that that the association is supportive of.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: They they've put money into getting this onto the ballot.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: I will vote for Prop B, but I will not vote for Prop A.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: Um if you support law enforcement, you probably want to support prop B.
32:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
32:23
unknown: Yeah.
32:24
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever see a time when citizens of Boston finally see the craziness and decide to change their voting styles and put people some common sense back in council?
32:36
SPEAKER_01: Or do you think things have to deteriorate worse before kind of the pendulum swings and and the voters speak out?
32:43
SPEAKER_00: That's a really good question.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: And I I think back to the public safety committee meeting we had this morning where um we discussed lighting on Rainy Street.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: Someone recently was lost and he fell into the lake somehow and died.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: And that is absolute tragedy.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: But we heard over and over this morning from families of people who died in the lake or were seriously injured.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: And it really struck me that we don't do things to to mitigate, to make things better.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: We wait until there is like a tragedy.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a tragedy or something specific, an incident happens that brings forward to light that we need to make changes.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: And I think that if more people were cognizant of the pathway that we're headed, which is why I like talking about it, not because I like what's going on, but because we need to raise awareness about it so that more people know.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, city council elections are low turnout.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: People don't realize, at least I can say the general populace, when I talk to them, they're low information voters.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: Local politics affects you way more than the federal government in a lot of ways.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: And the things that I do and the resolutions we pass, they actually I can see the tangible differences.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I passed uh something in the budget to bring a modified cadet academy to the police department because I knew how many vacancies we had.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: And I thought if we could get lateral transfers in, then we could fix the problem, get more officers out on the street.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: I was asked to be the keynote speaker at the cadet academy that just happened, and I shook hands of eight officers who graduated from that budget amendment that I put in there.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, wow, this really did something.
34:17
SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
34:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's awesome.
34:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's tangible.
34:20
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
34:21
SPEAKER_01: You can measure.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
34:23
SPEAKER_02: Well, um, so what's for the future for McKenzie Kelly?
34:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing.
34:30
SPEAKER_02: Keep up the good fight.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
34:32
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you, I I I am uh I'm I'm I'm honored you're here, but you just you have no idea what it means to to us that you're here uh to kind of give your version of of really the fight that you're putting up with.
34:43
SPEAKER_02: Um I I commend you.
34:45
SPEAKER_02: I commend the hell out of it and keep doing it, and we'll always be kind of in your corner uh rooting.
34:50
SPEAKER_02: Not from the sideline, but right there, right there with you.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
34:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I love it because the easy thing to do would be to stay home and not run.
34:58
SPEAKER_01: But to go stand in the fire.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the lone wolf standing in the fire alone, I commend the hell out of that for you because it it takes intestinal fortitude in this environment to want to stand up and do the right thing.
35:11
SPEAKER_01: And we were joking a while ago about how dare you be an independent thinker, but it's easy to stay home or stay home and be a keyboard warrior, like a lot of people enjoy doing.
35:21
SPEAKER_01: But um for you to stand up and do the right thing, to do the hard work and put your money where the mouth where your mouth where the money is, one of those.
35:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh that's huge.
35:31
SPEAKER_01: If we had more people that would do that, there wouldn't be the vocal minority.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
35:36
SPEAKER_01: There would be more Councilwoman Kelly standing up doing the right thing.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: The way I look at it is I've been in a flashover chamber before.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: I can handle city council.
35:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
35:46
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
35:47
SPEAKER_02: Well, you got anything else?
35:49
SPEAKER_01: Anything we didn't cover you want to hit on?
35:51
SPEAKER_00: Not at all, but you're welcome to invite me back anytime.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm such a great guest.
35:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
35:58
SPEAKER_02: So we typically kind of end the show on some fast, quick questions.
36:03
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
36:04
SPEAKER_02: So, the number two question, I have faith that you will answer it in my favor, because my friend here is obsessed with a certain patrol car.
36:12
SPEAKER_02: So, three questions are favorite cop movie or line from a cop movie, favorite all-time police vehicle, and favorite drink of choice.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I don't know if I'm gonna do this correctly, but are you gonna be a cop or pretend to be a cop?
36:32
SPEAKER_01: I like it.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: That was my favorite one, so I like it.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh that was a pretty good movie, Leonardo DiCaprio.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: Pretty good the departed.
36:39
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's really a cop movie, but it is like it.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: I like baldems.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then favorite police vehicle.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: I like police boats.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: We haven't had that answer.
36:50
SPEAKER_01: We haven't had that answer.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: I almost said helicopter, but the boat's pretty cool.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, boats are like that answer.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: And then I like uh favorite drink, orange juice.
37:03
SPEAKER_02: Like orange juice.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: Every morning like coffee orange juice.
37:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I could use more of that one.
37:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I could.
37:09
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
37:09
SPEAKER_02: A little bit of vodka with it too makes it makes a really nice drink.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: Only if it's fresh orange juice.
37:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's true.
37:14
SPEAKER_02: Not with any pulp, though.
37:15
SPEAKER_01: That we discussed it.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: See, you said come back.
37:19
SPEAKER_01: We would love to have you come back and get it, give us an update.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: I was just thinking for some choice.
37:24
SPEAKER_01: No, I would love to seriously we're we're down.
37:26
SPEAKER_01: Come back and give us an update how this is going, and uh it's super important, and at some point I don't want California talking smack about Austin again and uh making fun that we're the weirdos.
37:38
SPEAKER_01: They need to go back to me as the leader in that category.
37:41
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, absolutely.
37:42
SPEAKER_02: Well, this about wraps it up.
37:44
SPEAKER_02: Uh man, you guys stay safe.
37:46
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely stay safe.
37:48
SPEAKER_02: It's uh it's getting crazy out there.
37:49
SPEAKER_02: Again, you watchers, viewers, voyeurs, hit the subscribe button and again download these uh these podcast episodes that help us out tremendously.
37:58
SPEAKER_02: We have a uh tyrant for a boss, the man, the myth, the legend, John Sarrega.
38:03
SPEAKER_02: Uh he does our evals, and depending on how we do on the uh downloads is kind of how we get uh our evaluations done.
38:10
SPEAKER_02: So kids to feed these.
38:11
SPEAKER_02: We have kids to feed the houses, the you know, furnish and everything else.
38:15
SPEAKER_02: So again, God bless you guys, and as always, may God bless Texas.
38:19
SPEAKER_01: Hey, and if you uh hear a city council meeting going on in Austin, yep, and you see public safety on the agenda item.
38:25
SPEAKER_01: Show up and be uh show up and drown out the uh local minority.
38:31
SPEAKER_01: Yep, show up down there and put your money where your mouth is.
38:34
SPEAKER_01: Yep, I said right that time.
38:35
SPEAKER_01: Did I proud of you?
38:37
SPEAKER_01: All right, all right.
38:38
SPEAKER_01: Love you guys, stay safe, God bless Texas.
38:39
SPEAKER_02: We're out.