It was announced last week that Travis County won’t be pursuing criminal charges against currently suspended city of Austin Chief Information Officer Pete Collins, still under administrative investigation for possible and vague “misuse of city resources.” But if the unprecedented amount of axe-grinding comment-trolls populating the Statesman‘s reporting on Collins speaks even a kernel of truth, he ain’t outta the woods just yet.
Granted, on the probability meter, that’s a likelihood just south of Marcia Ball sitting down to a migas platter at Austin Java. Or better yet, the WATBs behind the restaurant and Barton Place condo project deciding to STFU in their mission to “set the record straight.”
Anyway, to the comments – or not. Containing all matter of speculation, invective, and potential libel, according to BTP’s attorney, much of it is not suitable for re-publication in the pages of the Chronicle. (Online is a whole ‘nother magically unaccountable territory.) But in accusing Collins of everything under the sun, they did succinctly spell out one fact: There’s a whole lot of people out there irked at Collins (or that Collins irked) during his decade-plus tenure with the city and the Austin Police Department.
The fact that the district attorney and the police won’t be pursuing charges against Collins – which some of the trolls are still demanding – precludes the wildest accusations against him – as does common sense. But unanswered questions persist – like, what was the still-as-yet-unknown “personal project” Collins was alleged to have been working on on the taxpayers’ dime? No answers were forthcoming in the statement from City Manager Marc Ott, who said with the D.A.’s decision, “The city now will perform a full administrative review and treat this as a personnel issue.” For Ott, the Collins fiasco could be seen as a continuation of the mass departure of assistant city managers and department heads that occurred when Ott took the reins; by design or not, he’s indisputably been given the opportunity to put his stamp on the organization.
No answers, either, from Collins. Asked if he had any idea what he is being investigated for, he told BTP, “I haven’t really sat down with anybody from the city to discuss things in detail.” However, he would “rather not make any comments about the process and what’s going on, because it’s an ongoing situation. So I’d rather just let the process follow through.”
But aside from what set this entire tale in motion, another question now may be more relevant: Judging from the online, wide-spectrum vitriol levied against Collins, why did he unleash the full, anonymous fury of the Statesman‘s posters? Just how many folks did he seriously piss off in his years as a cyber-jock? Or better yet, how many of the IP addresses on those Statesman comments originate at the city’s servers? If only we had a full-time chief information officer to tell us.
Summertime and the living is easy – scratch that, sleepy – at City Hall. With no meeting scheduled until July 24, the 90-degree doldrums have set in at 301 W. Second. So send your suggestions, tips, and summer travel itineraries to wdunbar@austinchronicle.com.
This article appears in July 11 • 2008.