Austin, TX
Texas Senate narrowly confirms formerly indicted Austin cop to police watchdog agency
The vote is a show of strength for Texas Republican leadership after several members of the Senate Democratic Caucus sought to block Justin Berry’s nomination.
Statesman photojournalist speaks on documenting George Floyd protests
Photojournalist Ricardo B. Brazziell speaks to moments that have stuck with him while covering the George Floyd protests.
Brontë Wittpenn, Austin American-Statesman
With one Democrat giving Republicans the margin they needed to advance a controversial nomination, the Texas Senate narrowly confirmed the appointment of a previously indicted Austin law enforcement officer to the state agency that governs police conduct in Texas.
Just reaching the two-thirds threshold, the 21-10 Senate vote Wednesday evening was a show of strength for Texas Republican leadership after Democrat Caucus members in the upper chamber sought to block Justin Berry’s nomination to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, the state regulatory agency that sets standards for peace officers. Berry, an active-duty Austin Police Department senior patrol officer, was indicted alongside several colleagues in 2022 for shooting less-lethal munitions at racial justice protesters in 2020. The charges were later dropped.
State Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa of McAllen was the sole Democratic senator to vote for Berry’s appointment.
Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock said the police union “wholeheartedly supports Officer Berry’s nomination to TCOLE,” sending records of Berry’s commendations and performance evaluations to back up his support of the “dedicated” officer.
“He has led community policing efforts, built relationships, and helped his fellow officers all across the state in times of need,” Bullock wrote in an email to the American-Statesman on Wednesday.
But several lawmakers felt Berry’s actions during the social justice protests nearly five years ago were too damning. During the Senate floor debate before the vote, Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, warned that Gov. Greg Abbott’s choice to tap Berry for the commission is “evidence of a growing intolerance to dissent” in state government.
“The symbolism of Officer Berry’s nomination is unmistakable. Of the more than 8,000 peace officers in Texas, the governor chooses Officer Berry not in spite of the fact that he shot into protesters, but because he shot protesters,” Eckhardt said.
The senator invoked Abbott’s recent pardon of Officer Daniel Perry, who was convicted of murdering Austin racial justice protester Garrett Foster in 2020, and his support of Kyle Rittenhouse as similarly symbolic. She also cited several other allegations of excessive use of force or misconduct against Berry as reasons why another candidate would have been better suited for the role. Ultimately, Berry’s charges were dropped.
Sen. Borris Miles, a Houston Democrat and former police officer, drew on his commonalities with Berry to explain his opposition to the cop’s appointment.
“We all took an oath to protect the welfare of our citizens,” Miles said on the Senate floor. “I cannot, in good conscience, support the appointment of Justin Berry to the commission … whose motto is ‘ethical law enforcement’ when he has been shown to be unethical.”
‘A political victory’
A Travis County grand jury indicted Berry in February 2022 for aggravated assault against racial justice protesters. The investigation determined that either Berry or one other officer shot a demonstrator in the face with a less-lethal munition, fracturing her jaw. The protester, wildlife biologist Christen Warkoczewski, later won $850,000 in a settlement with the city of Austin.
In 2023, Austin district attorney Jose Garza dropped the charges against Berry and 18 other officers who were indicted over their conduct during the May 2020 protests. Bullock, the Austin police union president, said the dismissal should have taken Berry’s indictment off the table when considering his confirmation.
“The fact that an incident investigated by the Austin Police Department and the Travis County District Attorney, where both said no policy or law was violated, is now being used against him for political purposes is alarming and disappointing,” Bullock said.
No Republicans gave remarks on Berry’s confirmation during the debate. Hinojosa, the lone Democratic senator to vote for Berry, did not respond to the Statesman’s requests for comment Wednesday but told the Texas Tribune that he felt voting against Berry’s confirmation would make him a “scapegoat” for the officer’s superiors’ failures. An attorney for eight of the indicted officers, Ken Ervin, told the Statesman in 2022 that the order to use beanbag munitions came from “the highest levels of APD command.”
“I didn’t feel there was any criminal behavior that would rise to the level of rejecting his nomination,” Hinojosa told the Tribune.
Berry has already served on the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement for nearly two years but had avoided confirmation until Wednesday. Abbott first appointed him in September 2022, while the officer was still under indictment, but Berry resigned in May 2023 after senators signaled he would not be confirmed before a deadline.
Berry — who has unsuccessfully run as a Republican candidate in two Texas House primary races — then served 14 more months as a TCOLE commissioner after Abbott reappointed him in January 2024. The officer’s term is set to end in August 2027.
Wednesday’s debate touched on held-over tension over Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s decision to deny Democrats’ request to question Berry during a Nominations Committee hearing, a move that Eckhardt said was unprecedented as far as she knew.
“Minority senators should have the same rights and rules as majority senators,” Eckhardt told her colleagues on the floor Wednesday.
While the Austin Democrat’s effort to block the nomination did not succeed, Eckhardt can still “claim this as a political victory,” said Brian Smith, a professor of political science at St. Edward’s University who specializes in Texas politics.
“If you’re in the minority party … you’re not going to win a lot of legislation, but you want to make sure that the other party is going to have to be held accountable for their vote,” Smith said in a phone interview with the Statesman.
Wednesday’s vote also reflected a decision on the part of lawmakers about whether this was a “hill worth dying on,” Smith said.
“Democrats have to look and say, ‘Is there something that I’m going to want later in the session where I’m going to need Republican support?’” Smith said. “It’s a very important position, but it’s not a very visible position.”
Berry did not immediately respond to the Statesman’s request for comment.
AUSTIN, Texas — Self-driving cars have become a common sight on Austin streets, but a new Texas law is adding tougher requirements for the companies behind the wheelless vehicles.
Senate Bill 2807 imposes stricter rules on autonomous vehicle companies operating in the state, including state authorization, emergency response plans for law enforcement, and a public portal where residents can verify operators and file safety complaints.
The changes come as Austin continues to track incidents involving autonomous vehicles. The city’s autonomous vehicle dashboard shows 75 incidents in 2026, including a collision, eight near misses, and seven incidents of ignoring police direction.
Attorney Drew Gibbs, a partner at Slingshot Law, said one crash involved a Waymo vehicle.
“There was a T-bone collision. A pretty serious T-bone collision where a Waymo just crashed into the side of my client’s vehicle,” Gibbs said.
ALSO| Waymo files voluntary software recall over flooded-lane risks on high-speed roads
KEYE
One of the incidents of ignoring police direction happened during the mass shooting on West Sixth Street back in March, when three people died, and 15 others were injured.
Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock said autonomous vehicles can struggle in unusual situations.
“It didn’t impede on anything in the moment, but it’s not necessarily uncommon where these vehicles don’t quite know how to deal with these one-off scenarios,” Bullock said.
The new law requires autonomous vehicle companies to be authorized by the state, to provide an emergency response plan for law enforcement, and to participate in a public-facing portal that allows the public to verify operators and submit safety complaints.
Kara Kockelman, a professor of transportation and engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, welcomed the added oversight.
“I’m glad that the state is taking this a bit more seriously now,” she said. “It’s important not to just let others slip in without kind of meeting those basic minimums.”
Bullock said the emergency planning requirement may not make a major difference in fast-moving situations. Asked how impactful it is to have a fully laid out emergency response plan, Bullock said, “These plans are great, but it takes time to work through all of those versus the immediacy of having someone behind the wheel.”
The four autonomous vehicle companies operating in Austin — Waymo, Zoox, AV-Ride, and Tesla — are all state-authorized.
The Texas DMV said an autonomous vehicle company can lose its authorization to operate in Texas if the agency deems the vehicles are operating in a way that endangers public safety.
Waymo was contacted for comment, but had not responded.
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said Tuesday she will leave the post next month.
What we know:
In a statement, Nelson said her resignation will be effective July 17 but did not provide a reason for the departure.
“It has been an honor to serve the people of Texas in this role,” Nelson said. “My time as Secretary came at an important moment for Texas, and I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish as an agency in under four years.”
Nelson has served in the role since 2023.
Among other things, the Secretary of State oversees elections and business filings in the state and serves as the chief diplomat of Texas.
View of Texas State Senator Jane Nelson, during the 80th Texas Legislature, on the floor of the Senate at the Texas State Capitol, Austin, Texas, January 22, 2007. (John Anderson/The Austin Chronicle / Getty Images)
What they’re saying:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott described Nelson as extraordinary.
“I am deeply grateful for her long and loyal service and outstanding leadership. She has represented our state with grace and honor across the globe, and Texas is better because of it,” Abbott said. “Cecilia and I wish her all the best in the next chapter of her distinguished career.”
Dig deeper:
According to the Secretary of State’s office, Nelson has presided over seven statewide elections during her tenure with a cumulative 27 million ballots cast and broke a record with more than 3 million active business filers.
Nelson also served three decades in the Texas Senate, where she remains the longest-serving Republican in state history.
The Source: Information in this story came from the Texas Secretary of State’s office.
Michael Dorman
Austin, Texas, is revving up to sell $2.35 billion of debt for a convention center and a wastewater treatment plant, while a legal battle continues over bonds to help finance a light rail system.
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The bond boom comes as the city council voted on Thursday to pursue the development of a $390 million baseline general obligation bond package for the November ballot despite a call by Mayor Kirk Watson to wait until 2028.
“I believe we can and we should bring forward significant investments in the future,” he said. “In fact, if we restore compliance with our financial policies and we maintain the discipline we actually will have greater future capacity to do more for this community in 2028.”
A bond election would
The city, which last held a successful GO bond election in 2022 for $350 million of debt for affordable housing, had $1.03 billion of unissued voter-approved GO bond authorization as of the Sept. 30 end of fiscal 2025. Last year,
On Thursday, the city council signed off on a $34.5 million wrongful prosecution and conviction settlement with four individuals to be financed through the sale of non-voter-approved GO bonds.
The council approved up to $1.35 billion of special tax revenue bonds on May 21 for a $1.6 billion project to replace the city’s now-demolished convention center with a facility that will increase rentable event space to 620,000 square feet from 365,000 square feet.
Rich Saskal
The bonds are backed with revenue from certain city hotel occupancy taxes and incremental state tax revenue generated within a project finance zone the city established in 2024. Amounts and timings for issuing the debt are being determined, according to the city, which filed a petition with a Travis County District Court for an expedited validation of the bonds.
An ordinance approved in October
The city also plans to refund hotel occupancy tax-backed debt issued for the prior convention center in order to pledge a 4.5% hotel tax for the upcoming bonds.
“The refunding bonds are a separate, but related item to the expansion bonds and will only be secured by 2% venue HOT,” city documents said. “The 2% venue HOT will not be pledged to the expansion bonds and will cease to be collected upon final maturity or early payoff of (the refunding bonds).”
A petition drive that would have delayed the project fell 494 signatures short of a requirement for 20,000 valid signatures of registered voters, Austin City Clerk Erika Brady determined in November.
Petition backers are appealing a district court’s refusal to force validation in state appellate court after the Texas Supreme Court dismissed
The petition drive by Austin United PAC and others sought a ballot measure to stop the demolition and reconstruction of the convention center for seven years — or until the project was approved by voters — and prioritize city funding for local live music, arts, cultural, and outdoor tourism.
The Austin City Council also approved as much as $1 billion of water and wastewater system revenue bonds last month for the Walnut Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion and enhancement project. The bonds will be used to obtain a direct low-interest loan from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program.
Other financing sources for the $1.5 billion project are $59 million from the Texas Water Development Board Clean Water State Revolving Fund program and funding from Austin Water.
A
The plant, which serves more than 50% of Austin and operates at a treatment capacity of 75 million gallons per day, will have its capacity increased to 100 MGD, helping meet future demand and requirements set by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for Austin’s projected growth of 1.5 million by 2040, according to a city statement.
A legal logjam over a light rail system eased May 22 when the Texas Supreme Court finally ruled on a procedural issue related to an initial $150 million of bonds for the project. The high court ordered a Travis County Court judge to decide whether the bonds’ issuer, the Austin Transit Partnership, a nonprofit corporation created by the city and Capital Metro Transportation Authority, has standing to seek court validation for the debt.
City taxpayers who filed a lawsuit in 2023, along with the Texas Attorney General’s Office have been challenging the legality of the bonds, which would be paid off with a portion of Austin’s operation and maintenance property taxes
Escalating costs led ATP to downsize Project Connect to an initial less than 10-mile, 15-station system with a similar price tag. The completion of a federal environmental review in January allowed the project to continue a process
ATP said Project Connect is moving forward with construction scheduled to begin next year.
“We are confident in our case and look forward to our day in court,” ATP said in a statement. “The pending litigation has not slowed our progress advancing Austin light rail, which has hit major milestones in the federal funding process, design, and pre-construction work this year.”
Bill Aleshire, an attorney who filed the taxpayers’ lawsuit, cautioned that several issues remain before the court, including the legality of the downsized project and the ability to pay off bonds with property tax revenue that is supposed to be used for operations.
“Their federal funding is uncertain, their ability to issue bonds is uncertain, and they just stubbornly will not listen to us and say it’s time to pause Project Connect and rethink it, that maybe rail isn’t the best way to go at this time and maybe we can’t afford it at this time,” he said.
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