Austin city manager becomes city’s 1st executive to lose job over prolonged power outages

AUSTIN, Texas — Austin’s metropolis supervisor was fired Wednesday within the wake of concern over a gradual and fumbled response to a winter storm energy outage that left hundreds of individuals with out electrical energy for every week or longer within the Texas capital.

The video above is from a earlier story.

The ten-1 vote by the Austin Metropolis Council to take away Spencer Cronk, town’s prime govt, got here within the face of rising requires accountability after an ice storm this month knocked out energy to greater than 170,000 prospects. Frustration within the nation’s Eleventh-largest metropolis boiled as Austin officers publicly supplied little data and gave residents no estimates on how lengthy repairs would take.

Cronk, who had been within the job since 2018, was town’s first govt to lose his job over the extended outages. He’ll obtain about $463,000 in severance.

The council appointed Jesús Garza, who has beforehand served as Austin’s metropolis supervisor, to take Cronk’s job on an interim foundation.

The ice storm toppled timber and energy strains throughout town of greater than 1 million residents, inflicting outages and harm on a scale that Austin officers in comparison with a hurricane or twister. Gradual restoration efforts left hundreds of individuals coping with faculty closures, malfunctioning visitors lights and the monetary pinch of spoiled groceries and lodge payments. Energy was not absolutely restored in Austin till practically two weeks after the outages started.

Cronk had apologized for “any shortcomings in our response” and vowed that town would implement adjustments to higher reply to future disasters.

His workplace didn’t instantly reply to a message searching for remark Thursday.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat who took workplace in January, put in movement conferences that plunged Cronk’s job into jeopardy. In Austin, town supervisor is appointed by the mayor and metropolis council, and operates just like the chief govt officer of a enterprise.

Austin Power, the city-run energy supplier, introduced in further utility crews from throughout Texas to assist deal with the huge variety of outages.

For hundreds of Austin residents, it was the second time in three years {that a} February winter storm knocked out their energy for days. Though Texas’ catastrophic blackouts in 2021 have been the results of a unique failure – an ice storm pushing the state’s electrical grid to the brink of collapse – the totally different motive was of little consolation to Austin residents.