Austin’s Office of Police Oversight has a new, permanent director at a critical juncture in the fight over civilian oversight of the Austin Police Department – but it’s unclear to us how and why she was selected.
The permanent appointment of Gail McCant – who was previously appointed OPO’s interim director in May by Interim City Manager Jesús Garza – follows the departure of two previous interim directors. Like his predecessor Spencer Cronk, Garza told the public that the city would conduct a national search to find the best candidate for the job. But then Garza changed his mind, promoting McCant to permanent director without any kind of public process, let alone a national search.
It is currently within the city manager’s authority to hire and fire the OPO director as he pleases. But Austin voters made clear in approving the Austin Police Oversight Act this May that they want a strong system to hold APD accountable. Given that preference, it is reasonable to expect Garza to defend his choice of McCant, who is not a licensed attorney as previous OPO directors were, and who has no prior experience in law enforcement or in providing oversight of law enforcement.
Garza declined an interview with the Chronicle this week because he’s on vacation. But in a statement Friday, Sept. 29, shortly after we broke the news of McCant’s promotion, a spokesperson explained that previous statements about a national search were simply “standard language regarding a possible national search,” and added that three months of McCant’s leadership at OPO gave Garza “ample opportunity” to assess her ability to fill the role permanently.
In a statement this week, a city spokesperson said Garza’s move was in response to a Council resolution that ordered Garza to finally implement the Austin Police Oversight Act, which created the legal framework for a robust system of civilian police oversight. The spokesperson said that given “the desire to move forward quickly with implementing some aspects of [the APOA], it was important to provide stability to OPO and provide clear direction of where we need to head.”
So far, McCant has done little to help create the oversight system the Austin electorate said they wanted by voting for the APOA. Chris Harris, policy director of the Austin Justice Coalition, told us, “Garza forgoing the promised national search to fill the OPO director role and instead elevating a person that’s overseen the disempowering of police oversight in defiance of the law shows us that defying the law and disempowering police oversight were Garza’s goals all along.”
McCant’s first days as permanent director have been a bit rocky. She was invited to speak at the Public Safety Commission‘s Oct. 2 meeting about communication with families of people shot by police, but minutes before the meeting was scheduled to begin, PSC Chair Nelly Paulina Ramirez received word that McCant was ordered to skip the meeting. Ramirez was clearly frustrated. “We need to be able to have the conversation that [we] intended to have,” she said, “not the conversations that the city manager’s office would like us to have.”
“We need to be able to have the conversation that [we] intended to have, not the conversations that the city manager’s office would like us to have.” – Public Safety Commission Chair Nelly Paulina Ramirez
Assistant City Manager Bruce Mills, who oversees the city’s three public safety departments (but not OPO, which reports directly to the city manager), offered a slightly different version of events. He tells us that he did not order McCant to skip the meeting, but that the director asked if she needed to go and he said no. “I saw the agenda item and it had nothing to do with police oversight,” Mills said. “I told her she didn’t need to attend because it wasn’t in her purview and she was fine with that.”
McCant also declined an interview request to discuss her goals for the office and how she plans to ensure that the APOA is fully implemented. Through a spokesperson, she described the APOA vote as a “clear statement in support of transparency and accountability” from the Austin community and said that under her leadership, OPO “will foster a culture of trust and accountability between the community and the police department.”
What if her boss – Garza – impedes or delays efforts to build that trust? We reached out to every Council office (and Mayor Kirk Watson) to talk about Garza’s decision, but only a few got back to us before our deadline. “Over the past few months, OPO hasn’t been as robust as the community would like it to be,” Council Member Ryan Alter told us, “and a big reason has been they’re getting their feet under them. I’m optimistic McCant is going to do very well in that role.” As for Garza’s decision to skirt a public process before promoting McCant, Alter said, “It’s unfortunate that public promise was made and then not followed through with,” but he feels that Garza did not intentionally deceive the public. “He felt [McCant] was doing a good job and changing directors every three months would not help the office long-term.”
As we went to press Oct. 4, calls from Council for Garza to explain himself grew. CMs Ryan Alter, Alison Alter, Zo Qadri, Chito Vela, José Velásquez, and Vanessa Fuentes co-signed a statement praising McCant as “professional, transparent, and accessible,” but saying that they were surprised by Garza’s decision to forgo a national search. “We hope the City Manager can further explain his thinking on this decision,” it concluded.
At some point, City Council could take away Garza’s and future city managers’ authority over the OPO director, which Austin voters empowered Council to do in the May 1, 2021, election. Then, more than 60% of voters approved Prop C, which amended the City Charter so Council could opt to have the OPO director report directly to Council rather than to the city manager. It wouldn’t be unusual. The city auditor, city clerk, and municipal judges already report to Council. But CMs would have to adopt an ordinance to make the change, a city spokesperson told us.
The few CMs who responded said they were unfamiliar with the charter amendment and declined to comment.
This article appears in October 6 • 2023.