- Despite being fired by the City Council in a 10-1 vote, Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk will still collect $463,000 from taxpayers on his way out the door, adding to the $500,000+ he already received for his last year’s work, according to our Open The Books investigation.
- Cronk, who has been Austin City Manager since 2018, was fired due to his office’s slow and ineffective response to a power outage caused by a winter storm that left thousands of Austin residents without electricity for a week or longer.
- Despite the frustration at his response, Cronk’s “golden parachute” contract provision ensured that he received a large compensation package over the past year. That includes his $388,190 base salary, another estimated $132,000 in additional benefits like health insurance and executive perquisites, and a severance payment of $463,000. That’s a lot of money to be woefully unprepared for crises expected based on past events.
