AUSTIN (KXAN) — Here’s a quick rundown of the items topping Thursday’s Austin City Council agenda:
Limiting enforcement of misdemeanor marijuana possession:
City Council will take up a bill that would effectively — although not officially — decriminalize misdemeanor marijuana possession. Under the proposal, citations and arrests for these cases would virtually be eliminated, unless the officer determines there is a public safety threat.
The proposal comes after changes in Texas law.
After the state legalized hemp last year, many prosecutors, including those in Travis County, said they’d stop prosecuting misdemeanor marijuana charges, unless they had a lab report on THC levels. The proposal would also prevent the city from spending money on THC testing.
MORE: ‘This is not decriminalization’: Austin City Council makes changes to marijuana possession resolution
Expanding the Pilot Path Program
City council will hear five contract
amendments that would fund the Guided Path Project. The program began as a
pilot in October and was used as a strategy to provide social services and
housing options for clients living outside of the Austin Resource Center for the
Homeless (ARCH). The pilot also was designed to reduce the health and safety
risks of those living in encampments.
The five contract amendments total $612,336
and are recommended for the following partner agencies:
• Salvation Army ($102,056)
• Integral Care ($204,112)
• Front Steps ($102,056)
• Family Eldercare ($102,056)
• Caritas ($102,056)
Since the program’s inception, the city says 18 people have been housed (one was reunited with family), 60 people are enrolled or are pending enrollment into programs that lead to permanent housing, 14 people are not yet matched up with enrollment programs, three people have not been seen since the initial survey, and four people are in long-term incarceration.
City will lawyer up against pipeline
City council members are expected to authorize
City Manager Spencer Cronk to hire an attorney and join a lawsuit in the fight
against the Permian Highway Pipeline.
The pipeline will not pass through the city of Austin, but the city staff members have worried that water flow could lead contamination from the pipeline all the way to Barton Springs.
MORE: Cities of Austin, San Marcos, Kyle intend to sue over environmental concerns with Kinder Morgan pipeline
Gun Safety
Council will hear a proposal that would direct
the City Manager to collaborate with Governor Abbott’s office to ensure that
state grant funding for firearm safety education programs is used to distribute
equipment like gun locks, to people or organizations requesting this equipment.
The City Manager should collaborate with the Task Force on Gun Violence in this
effort as necessary.
The State of Texas provides funding to the National
Sports Shooting Foundation’s Project
ChildSafe, which distributes this equipment.
The number of guns stolen or lost in Austin
almost tripled between 2006 and 2015.
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