The Austin Animal Services Office is in the early stages of formulating a bond package that will be submitted to voters in 2026. Deputy Chief Jason Garza outlined six guiding principles during a commission meeting that will dictate project criteria: social equity, affordability, innovation, sustainability, proactive prevention, and community trust. Each principle has a different weight affecting the scoring of proposed projects. The scoring matrix emphasizes community trust and proactive prevention significantly, prompting discussions among commissioners about the weight of sustainability and resiliency.
"These six principles are tied to the city strategic plan and are the foundation of how each will develop the criteria to score the proposed project," Garza said.
"On this (Animal Services Office) scoring matrix here, I find it a little disheartening that sustainability and resiliency only receive five points," Commissioner Lotta Smagula said during the questioning period.
"With resiliency, we are looking at how we can impact the shock and stressors of climate change," Garza explained.
"Each department participating in the bond process must adopt guiding principles that will be used consistently in the development of technical criteria and a scoring matrix."
#austin-animal-services #bond-proposal #community-engagement #sustainability #project-scoring-criteria
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