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The City of Austin Certifies Save Austin Now PAC Petition to Ensure Adequate Police Staffing for Nov. 2021 Ballot

AUSTIN, TX — Today the City Clerk certified the Save Austin Now PAC petition to ensure adequate police staffing for the November 2, 2021 ballot. After reviewing the signed petitions and analyzing them, the office found that of the 27,778 that were submitted, 25,786 were valid for a 93% validity rate. 

The petition drive began May 26, 2021 and was completed just 55 days later on July 19, 2021.

Save Austin Now co-founders Matt Mackowiak and Cleo Petricek released the following statement after certification:

“We are pleased that the city certified our signed petitions and that we will now be placed directly on the November 2nd ballot. The upcoming election poses a stark choice for Austin voters: If you vote for our proposition, Austin will have adequate police staffing, the best-trained police force in the nation, and enact important police reforms. If you vote against our effort, we will continue to see the police staffing crisis worsen, violent crime skyrocket, and our city become measurably less safe for every neighborhood. The City Council has proven they do not support law enforcement and public safety. On November 2nd, we will prove the residents do.

The ordinance does several things:

• ENSURES ADEQUATE POLICE STAFFING: Requires a minimum of 2.0 police officers per 1,000 population, a nationally recognized standard for safe cities, combined with a minimum of 35% community response time (or uncommitted time)

• DOUBLES POLICE TRAINING: Requires an additional 40 hours of post-cadet class training hours per year, making Austin the national model for police training

• ENACTS POLICE REFORMS: Includes provisions to boost minority hiring (through foreign language proficiency), ensure racially diverse community policing, and provides retention bonuses for officers without police complaints (‘Good Conduct Medal eligible officers)

“Steve Adler, Greg Casar, Equity PAC and associated extreme groups will attempt to smear this effort for the next three months,” said Mackowiak. “They do not care about public safety and want to watch Austin burn. We will not let them. We will educate citizens about how our police budget was defunded, how police staffing has become a crisis, and about how a violent crime wave has resulted. We can fix this mess created by a unanimous vote of the City Council in August 2020. Austin must rise up and demand a safe city for every neighborhood.”

“Save Austin Now PAC would not be successful without our passion for families and minorities, who have taken the brunt of the council's poor decision making recently,” said Petricek. “Our most passionate supporters and advocates, myself included, have demonstrated a willingness to show up when others won’t or can’t, to motivate other concerned moms and confront hypocrisy on these standard of living issues. Public safety is not partisan and the Prop B success demonstrated that Austin has many fair-minded citizens that were not on board with the city council’s careless approach to the homeless issue. Similarly, the issue of Austin having a serious staffing problem at APD and the rise in violent crime are concerns to all citizens regardless of political leaning. Austin voters must ignore the childish smears and join our efforts to focus on the issues impacting the town we all love.”

Organizations supporting Save Austin Now PAC’s #MakeAustinSafe initiative include: SafeHorns, Austin Police Association (APA), Texas Police Association (TPA), Texas Municipal Police Association (TMPA), Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas (CLEAT), Austin Police Retired Officers Association (APROA), the United Hispanic Contractors Association and Amigos en Azul. 

BACKGROUND ON SAVE AUSTIN NOW PAC

Co-founder Matt Mackowiak

 Matt Mackowiak is a native Austinite who has lived in Austin since 1984, with ten years after college spent working in Washington, DC. He runs a consulting firm in Austin that specializes in corporate public relations and campaign management.

Co-founder Cleo Petricek

Cleo Petricek is a wife, mom, and neighborhood activist who has worked as a social worker and a probation officer. She describes herself as “fortunate enough to be able to devote time to the critical issues of homelessness and policing” and works entirely as a volunteer, declining all compensation for her efforts.

To learn more about Save Austin Now PAC, please visit http://www.SaveAustinNowPAC.com.