TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — On Tuesday, Travis County commissioners voted not to participate in a third-party review that the City of Austin and other partners are conducting to look at its services for people experiencing homelessness.
It involves a $2 million contract with global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, with Travis County expected to pitch in about $400,000. But county leaders like Commissioner Jeffrey Travillion declined the request because commissioners did not feel included in the negotiations.
"We need to be involved in the planning process. Why is that important? Because we have seen a lot of public housing stock go away and before more of it goes away, we need to make sure that not only do we keep the quality high but that we make sure that people have access to it," Travillion said.
Commissioner Brigid Shea is uncomfortable with McKinsey serving as the consultant on this project. Publications including the New York Times have investigated McKinsey's role in providing sales advice to drug-makers who manufacture oxycontin.
"It's their pattern and their history of unethical behavior. I could not in good conscience pay to have them do an important analysis of the city and the county and other operations," Shea said.
But David Gray, the homeless strategy officer for the City of Austin, is determined to still move forward with the review. He is in the process of looking back at the scope of the work and figuring out the tweaks needed to forge ahead. He is feeling a sense of urgency as city and county leaders work to find solutions for a community crisis.
"McKinsey was the firm that had the greatest qualifications. They've done similar studies in other cities and we negotiated them down from their initial offer to the $2 million price point, which we felt like was really fair given the amount of contracts they were going to review," Gray said. "We owe it to our residents and we owe it to our homeless community to do this review to make sure that we're aligned and to make sure that we're delivering the best possible services for our in-house residents."
Gray also told KVUE he plans on returning to Austin City Council with a new plan in the near future and will now adjust the scope of the work to "right-size" the budget.
KVUE also reached out to McKinsey for a comment, but we have not heard anything back.