Travis County Commssioners Court
August 5, 2003
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Item 36
36 is to consider and take appropriate action on downtown district attorney funding. A is 10,000-dollar donation from the downtown Austin alliance and b, interlocal agreement for downtown business district attorney with the city of Austin.
>> judge, if it's already to make a few intro ducttory remarks and then i'll turn it over to our district attorney, ronnie earl. I think we have one of the best partnerships. A program that got started originally is a federal grant, and demonstrated well in terms of the advantage of having an assistant district attorney specifically assigned to the downtown business district. And when -- in terms of folks that we have with us today, wade cooper, left to right, is the chair of the downtown Austin alliance, commander harrell piot is the commander of the Austin police department. Our district attorney is in the middle. Eric mc donald is the district attorney assigned to the central business district. Sam mcguire is a staff member for the security and maintenance committee. And in front we have joel share, who is the chair of the security and maintenance this year. And charlie becks, who is the executive director of the downtown Austin alliance and various and sundry people. I hope I hit everybody. And i'll turn it over to ronnie to walk us through what it is that we're doing today.
>> thank you for this opportunity. The district attorney's office is one of the sites for what's called community prosecutions, the next step from community policing. The next step is that many of the problems that produce crime can be solved by a collaboration between the prosecutor and the police, and it helps if there's a prosecutor in the neighborhood. So our first neighborhood da downtown is barry mcdonald. I'll introduce commander harold piot is the commander of the downtown Austin area command for the Austin police department. And without further adieu, let me turn to over to harold and give you some idea of the contributions that eric mcdonald and the assistant da assigned to that area has made to the community.
>> we created the downtown area command in October 1st of 2001 because of the propensity for crimes in the downtown area, which is essentially the river to 29th street and 35 to lamar. Barry came on a short time after that and ha what he brought with him is not only prosecution, with you crimes that are unique to the area we work in, but also good ideas. If the first 18 months barry was with us, we saw a 30% decrease in crimes. In the policing business if you get a five or six percent decrease in a year, that's quite good and we had better than 30 percent in 18 months. Although we have a new computer system and I'm not sure what the numbers are right now because we're changing over our statistics, I expect to see something close to 50% by disers. And that's why I think it's very important that we keep this program working, but it and let other people know how beneficial it's been to us.
>> I think it's important to point out that not only has eric been prosecuting cases that come from the downtown area, he's prosecuted three cases that came to jury verdict over this period of time. But he's also organized job fares for the homeless and met with police officers and did the training seminars for police officers in terms of what is acceptable and not for search wairnts, search and seizure law and other things. He's created and distributed a panhandling flyer. He's done things that are aimed at the front end of crime. The whole idea is to prevent the crime before it happens. Not simply wait until it does happen and then prosecutor the result because then you have a victim. We've had a significant decrease in motorcycle burglaries in the downtown area since eric has begun. Also with us here today is wade cooper, who is the board chair of the downtown Austin alliance. This again is a -- this is a cooperative and dlab ra active agreement -- collaborative agreement with the county and the federal government with the grant that we have received. So wade, i'd like to turn it over to you, if I could.
>> Commissioners, wade cooper from the downtown Austin alliance. We're very proud to be here today. The downtown Austin alliance exists of business people and property owners who assess themselves over and above the regular ad valorem tax to pay attention to the unique issues that relate to downtown. We believe that downtown -- a healthy, vibrant downtown is the key to a healthy, vibrant region. It all begins with safety and the perception of safety. So we're very excited to contribute to this collaboration. We thought it was an interesting, unique experiment when it first came to us. We have unique needs downtown. We're the center of the tourism industry, we're the center of the criminal justice system, a lot of social services, a bowrj burgeoning residential neighborhood and obviously the greatest concentration of workers. We have unique needs downtown and we thought this was a unique and innovative approach to those needs. We're particularly excited to be here today to finish the first payment and commit to you to make an additional payment because we've seen results. As the district attorney made reference to, there was a 30% de@rease in crime, but let me give you some other statistics that speak to effectiveness of this program. We're required biannually to poll the people in downtown to see how we're doing. And one of the things we ask them is do you perceive the downtown situation -- situation in downtown has improved? 75% of the people that we've polled in the last year said that downtown is either somewhat or greatly improved. 75% said that assistant district attorney mcdonald was effective in reducing neighborhood problems. 95% of the people polled said their experience meeting with him had been a positive experience. I wish that 95% of the people who I came into contact had the same view of our relationship. We're very careful with the dollars of our constituents. And this is a little bit outside the realm of things that we traditionally fund, but we're very excited because this is a great collaboration and it been very effective. So we're proud to be here and we thank you for your continued support of this program. I'd be happy to answer any questions. I'd point out also that in addition to the regular prosecutor duties, I really can't emphasize enough the key to which everything matters in keeping everything safe. Eric has organized grafitti cleanups, waller creek cleanups, job fairs for the homeless and other activities that again speak to the conditions that create crime and that attract crime. We sort of follow the broken window theory here, which is if you've got one broke window, have you to fix it. If you have any grafitti you have to clean it up because it attracts other elements of disorder. And that has been successful in this experiment and we intend to continue it. And with the help of the downtown Austin alliance and with the help of the city we expect to be able to do that.
>> somebody had a 10,000-dollar check, I take it? [ laughter ]
>> I would point out that the court, if you recall last week, I appeared before you and brought to you $185,000 in new money, and today there's $10,000 more coming. And usually the flow goes the other way, you understand. I just want to point out that we're doing the best we can to help with the shortfall.
>> we've noticed.
>> appreciate it.
>> and again --
>> you all have to come down and --
>> and this is an example of partnership at its best. I chaired the security and maintenance committee of the downtown Austin alliance about three years, four years. It seemed like four, it was three. And downtown is very unique in terms of the problems that are down there. And I'm very proud of the work that the downtown Austin alliance has done in terms of raising the bar, be it lighting issues, getting the alleys cleaned up, the wonderful work. Ed commander takes unbelievable attention to the problems that are brought to him. The cleanup crews that Sam allison has headed up in terms of the folks who pick up the litter. Travis County and the city of Austin both are investors in lieu of taxes in the downtown Austin alliance, and so in a way we are seeing a rebate back of some of those dollars that we too are investing. And I would move approval of the interlocal agreement and the acceptance of the 10,000-dollar check.
>> second.
>> any more discussion?
>> Commissioners, I might want to point out one additional thing, which is in addition to the statistics I quoted, the real vote of confidence is investors putting their risk capital into downtown and improving our tax base. Even in the tough economy we've had two new hotels announce construction downtown. We've got an office building at fourth and congress. And I think that the real payoff for us in paying attention to downtown is continuing to get people to invest and to move to downtown. So we're very appreciative.
>> I have one more thing --
>> how long will you be able to continue to make this kind of initial investment? I know this is kind of like a beginning point, but again -- then again, how long do you think this will continue? Shrangs you get results, I guess you will continue to put up the money.
>> this started as an experiment and this payment we're making today is the second part of our commitment. We've also committed to fund an additional year beginning in the fiscal year of 2004. So we've committed to you to take it through at least 2004.
>> okay.
>> it's been pointed out earlier in this court session that today is national night out. And today will not celebrations all over town. Safety in the community really depends on more than just the police and more than the prosecutor. It depends on the neighborhood itself. I think that what we have with the downtown Austin alliance is a wonderful example of a neighborhood taking its self back, taking back its own neighborhood and strengthening the ties between businesses and neighbors downtown has resulted in downtown being the mecca for entertainment and safe night life that it is today. Again, the credit goes to downtown Austin alliance.
>> let me say this to you. I applaud what you're doing, but I know that it is important to downtown, but we've got to realize that we do have many other businesses throughout Travis County within Austin and Travis County that continue to be threatened by unwanted drug distribution, obvious, in your bang, bang face type distribution where we feel that the community may time is kind of at a disadvantage as far as just feeling safe to go to the neighborhood convenience store, for an example. So we do have a long way to still go I think as far as trying to combat crime and to ensure that the neighborhoods are felt to be safe. And I think that's the ultimate goal in all of this. Even though this purpose is for the downtown business district, per se, of course I think throughout the community of Austin, I think we need to do more and I think we can do more to ensure that the residents feel safe from these types of criminal activities. So I want to impress that on each and every one of you as we look at Austin and Travis County in its entirety, not just downtown.
>> did you go to harvard law school or u.t.?
>> neither. I went to the ronnie earl law school. He raised me up and taught me to be a community prosecutor, but I went to law school in san diego, california and undergrad at u.t.
>> I wanted to let your many friend know that $10,000 is not your full annual salary. [ laughter ]
>> sometimes it feels like it. [ laughter ]
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank y'all.
Last Modified: Wednesday, August 6, 2003 4:52 PM