The Austin City Manager’s Office is now open to exploring a less sweeping approach to overhauling the city’s technology services after hearing from dozens of employees who vehemently opposed it and a City Council subquorum that expressed concerns about consolidating the city’s technology workers into a single department.
The city’s executive team has maintained the plan, known as “One ATS,” would help save Austin hundreds of millions of dollars, arguing the current model “has led to a proliferation of duplicative applications and operational inefficiencies,” according to a Wednesday evening memo from City Manager T.C. Broadnax. But since Broadnax announced the plan, many Austin technology workers and the city’s labor union, AFSCME Local 1624, have fiercely criticized it, warning it could weaken emergency response, expose critical systems to cyberattacks and lead to delays in city services.
After weeks of city staff members raising alarm bells, a subquorum of council members, led by Council Member Mike Siegel, drafted a resolution seeking to postpone the effort, citing the concerns raised by technology workers opposed to the consolidation and fears it could lead to large-scale attrition.
“We have these wonderful, committed, mission-driven civil servants who could make more money elsewhere in the private sector with their technology skills, but have chosen to serve the community because they love what their departments do,” Siegel said. “I don’t want the gentleman from Austin Public Library, who’s a skilled technologist, to leave the city. He told us that he’s working for us because he loves libraries, and providing access to information, books and community.”
Potentially shifting course
Broadnax’s Wednesday memo detailed his commitment to a slow and careful rollout of any changes, and promised increased transparency and an exploration of alternatives to a fully centralized consolidation.
The alternative to a full consolidation would be a federated approach, which would keep many IT employees within a centralized department while allowing some to remain embedded in their current departments.
“It allows for the opportunity to blend the positive aspects of centralization, for example, making sure we aren’t acquiring too many applications and too many technological tools,” Siegel said, “with also the benefits of decentralization, which is having skilled technological employees right there on the front lines with the customers.”
Before the memo came out, some of the city’s executive staff guiding the consolidation came to the City Council’s Tuesday work session to address concerns. No action was taken, but almost two dozen technology workers from the Austin Fire Department, Austin Energy, the Transportation and Public Works Department, the city demographer’s office and others spoke at the meeting, telling city leaders their specialized skills contribute directly to their departments’ success. They also delivered a petition with more than 800 signatures from city employees opposing the plan.
Stefan Wray, an IT supervisor at Austin Public Health, was among those testifying. He said his team’s work was essential to Austin’s COVID-19 response before and after the vaccine rolled out.
“Our embedded health IT staff was critical,” Wray said. “IT staff support unique technology solutions, administer public health-specific applications, develop data models to further help data integration and push the edge with what AI can do for public health.”
“Austin Public Health saved lives. Health IT played a crucial role,” he added.
What led to the plan and the pushback
Before the plans for the technology services consolidation were revealed, the Austin City Council passed a 2024 resolution directing the city manager to review the city’s technology spending and processes.
Still, technology workers said they were caught off guard by the fast-moving proposal, saying they learned of the imminent plans after Broadnax sent a memo related to increasing efficiency and optimization in the wake of the Nov. 4 election, when voters overwhelmingly rejected Proposition Q and the accompanying increase in city property taxes that would have boosted the city budget.
After learning about it, many city employees said they didn’t feel they were being involved in the process.
“Our concern was that this massive and rapid reorganization of Technology Services was not fully discussed, that significant risks had not been addressed and that the voices of city workers were not being heard,” Siegel said.
After the 2024 resolution passed, the city hired three outside consultants — including Gartner for a comprehensive assessment, Loblolly to help structure the consolidation, and Parsolvo for application rationalization — at a cost of just under $4 million. The city said the consultants determined the consolidation has the long-term potential to save the city more than $140 million annually.
The city had previously indicated the first phase would be completed by May 2026, when employees were expected to be notified of their new assignments. But in early April, after weeks of criticism from city employees, city management softened aspects of the plan, announcing workers with specialized operations-focused roles — known as “operational technology” staff — would no longer move into the centralized technology structure.
In their presentation on Tuesday, Austin Chief Information Officer Kerrica Laake and Chief Financial Officer Ed Van Eenoo said city technology workers would not receive their new team assignments until mid-August.
As it currently stands, the city would complete the first phase in August, when about 200 IT staff — including information security workers, technology vendor managers and systems planning employees — would receive new assignments in the centralized department.
The second phase would bring over IT project managers, business analysts and staff from the Austin Aviation Department, Austin Energy and Austin Water. That would affect more than 200 employees.
City executives project the consolidation’s third and final phase would be completed by the end of 2027. During the shift, the remaining non-operational technology IT workers would move to One ATS, affecting about 240 employees.
“I’m very much appreciative that the [city] manager, the Chief Financial Officer, and the ATS director have heard that pushback and concern and have significantly narrowed the scope,” Siegel said. “They’ve also slowed the pace of the effort.”
