Crystal_Cotti's Blog

That's what City Manager Marc Ott has...somehow he and his staff have managed to freeze vacant positions and cut city services without having a negative impact on city services or so they say.

As newly elected Council Member Randi Shade points out, the only way that's possible is if the city was overstaffed to begin with. For the record, I don't doubt there was some fat in the Austin budget and Ott has already proven he's not afraid to cut it.

The most controversial proposed cuts are in road maintenance, libraries and parks in the form of 24 frozen vacancies.

But before we start targeting basic city services for the cutting block, shouldn't we look at pet projects first? City staff know what they are but none were mentioned in the proposed budget. Let's get those out in the public and then have a full discussion about which ones we can do without.