A "Social Contract" is coming to Austin, Texas

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During its meeting on Thursday, December 10, the Austin City Council issued a groundbreaking directive to the city manager: write a social contract for Austin. The council has tasked City Manager Spencer Cronk to work with the city’s Joint Inclusion Committee to write the document, which is to be presented to the council by June 1, 2021. 

"A global pandemic and racial unrest have led this nation and communities across the country to an inflection point; and ... despite the polarization playing out on the national stage, the Austin community strives to rise above," reads the resolution.

This resolution is the first of its kind in the nation, according to those who worked on the initiative.

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The contract should reflect values shared by the people of Austin, reads the resolution. Those values are outlined as: 

Be respectful

Listen to understand

Act with good intentions

Support ideas with evidence and experience

Disagree without being disagreeable

Critique the idea not the person

Invite wonder

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Austin's social contract would not be a legal document, but rather serve as a "written agreement outlining a community’s core values and instructs the direction of laws, regulations, policies, contracts, culture and more."

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