You are watching a meeting of the austin city council
with mayor kirk watson, mayor pro, tim
cheadle, vela council members natasha harper madison,
vanessa fuentes, jose velazquez,
ryan alter, crystal lane,
mike siegel, paige ellis,
zoe cadry, mark uchin,
city attorney deborah thomas, city clerk
erica brady and city manager tc broad.
good morning everybody. It's 10 o'clock in the morning on april 23rd, 2026,
and I will call to order this regular meeting of the austin city council.
uh, we are, we have a quorum of the city council present and we're meeting in the city council chambers,
which are located in city hall at 3 0 1 west second street in austin, texas.
uh, members the order of the day will be that in just a second, I'll read some changes and
corrections into the record. We will then go to our consent items.
uh, there are two items that have been pulled from the consent agenda. Item number six
and item number 29. Item number six and item number 29
have been pulled from the consent agenda. I will also,
by the way, read late back, uh, uh, read make for the, for the record that
you have late backup, but I'll do that in just a second. Once we finish the
consent speakers, uh, we will then go to, uh, I'll
call for a motion and a second on the consent agenda. We will have discussion from the council.
we will then either go to the a hs austin housing finance corporation
board of directors meeting, where we'll recess the austin city council, and I'll call that board
of directors meeting to order, or we will just go to the pooled items. We'll just see how the
morning goes. We have a number of non-consent items. Uh, items
42, 43, 44, 45, and 46
are, uh, non-consent items. Also items 48 49, 50, 51, 52, 53,
and 54 at noon. We will pretty
much stop wherever we are and we will take up a time certain, which is our public
communications, uh, at, at at noon. We will also recess
at around 1230 to 1235 for live music, and
I anticipate that recess will go until about one 10 at some
point during the course of the day. And with that, without objection, uh, I'll just try
to manage when the best time for us to do that. We will go into an executive session
and at two o'clock, of course, we have a time certain we will get to that as close to
two o'clock as we can, which is our zoning and, and neighborhood planning items.
members, for the record, let me state that you have late backup.
you have late backup in, uh, that has been posted,
and you have it on the agenda. It relates to board
and commissions, nominations and waivers. I wanna call that out
for the record. In addition, for the record, uh, let me read some changes and
corrections. Item number six, uh, you should, should not say district
one. It should say district two, item number 41.
it should add council member krista lane as one of the sponsors.
item number 61 is withdrawn. Item number 62
is withdrawn. And members, as I've already noted, items
six and 29 have been pulled from the consent agenda.
unless there's questions or objection, we will now go to
speakers that have signed up on the consent agenda. And, and I don't see any,
so any, uh, questions or, uh, or objections.
so, um, I do see some speakers, and so we'll go to those speakers.
thank you, mayor. We'll begin with in-person speakers on item one, jen
robo.
good morning, counsel. I'm jen robo, a longtime austin resident.
I'm addressing the homeless strategic plan from the council's meeting on march 26th.
first, I thank the homeless strategies and operations for their planned
cleanups. Taxpayers have asked for this, and it shows that the city
is working to maintain public spaces. While I appreciate the city gathering
data to assess our strategies, effectiveness, significant gaps
remain in data collection and housing options. To truly understand homelessness
in austin, we need better information about where our homeless neighbors are coming from,
such as did they move here by choice or were they sent by another municipality
when they arrived? Did they come for a job or were they already homeless? Have
they ever held a job in austin or had their own housing? Here, the
data matters to taxpayers who support helping local austin neighbors,
but oppose using public resources for homeless migrants, knowing if
our policies attract homelessness is essential for public trust and effective solutions.
we also face gaps in housing options. Many homeless neighbors refuse shelter,
yet our strategy relies almost exclusively on traditional models
and fails to offer legal non-traditional alternatives that respect
the rights of both the unhoused and housed. Our city code
makes it a crime to camp in public areas that are
not designated as a camping area by the parks and recreation department.
this indicates that park parks and rec has the authority to designate
such areas, and austin has nearly 300 acres of undeveloped
parkland. Taxpayers do not want encampments in our neighborhoods on streets,
along trails, creeks, or swimming holes. However, creating public camping
areas outside these zones with clear environmental and public safety guidelines
could provide viable options for those who decline shelter. These gaps
come from addressing the issue too narrowly and excluding taxpayers as stakeholders.
thank you for your time. We will move next
to item three, bill bunch. Katie cam,
if your name's been called, please come forward if you wish to speak.
mr. Bunch is passing on item number three, katie cam,
I don't see katie cam on. Perfect.
we'll move to hang, hang before we go to item number five. Item number four,
members. Uh, item number four is a legal matter with
a proposal for a settlement. So I'm going to ask, uh, our law
department to come forward and make a brief presentation with regard to item number four.
good morning, mr. Mayor. Thank you, uh, mayor pro tem, members of the council.
I am assistant city attorney jeremy thompson. I'm here today to recommend, uh,
that you approve a settlement payment and a personal injury lawsuit that appears on your
agenda is item number four. Item number four, our mijo versus
city of austin. We recommend that you prove a payment of $120,000
to settle the lawsuit titled gustavo, our mijo v, city of austin,
dba austin energy. This lawsuit relates to a january, 2018
car accident involving an austin energy vehicle where plaintiff seeks payment
for injuries allegedly sustained in the accident. In exchange for the payment,
plaintiff will release any and all claims against the city from the accident and will also dismiss
his lawsuit filed in the district court of travis county. The austin city
attorney's office recommends that you approve payment based upon these terms. I'm
available to answer any questions you may have. Thank you members. Does anybody have questions of our legal
staff? Thank you very much for the presentation. Uh, I'll turn back to
the city clerk to go to item number five on item number five,
bill bunch.
mr. Bunch is passing on item number five.
item number seven, david levesque, hayden
bagot. Item signed up on six. Item number six is
I indicated earlier, has been pulled from the consent agenda, mr. Bunch.
okay, thank you. Thank you. Please state your name and begin speaking.
mayor and counsel, thank you for the opportunity to speak. Speak today. My name is hayden
bagget and I'm here on behalf of the coalition for clean, affordable, reliable energy
or ccare to support the utility scale solar and distributed battery storage
contracts, as well as the resolution to expand residential solar and battery access
today. Collectively, these items help the utility fulfill
its resource generation plan and maintain its renewable energy production
as a percentage of load, while also offering financial benefits to customers. Thank
you. Thank you. Moving
on to item eight. Paul robbins is bobby lavinsky.
here, you'll have time donated. It'll
be four minutes.
counsel, uh,
a few days ago you received a letter from me and four other
commissioners from the resource management commission asking you
to delay item eight on your agenda. This is a
contract for electric storage batteries located at individual
buildings in the austin area. We have an engaged
commission, and I feel sure that we could have gotten at least
eight out of our 10 members to sign on to this letter,
but I limited it to five members out of concern for
quorum rules. I began my involvement
in austin's affairs in 1977,
opposing the south texas nuclear project. In a five year period,
uh, the nuke experienced a 460%
overrun. This early experience greatly influenced my
skepticism of utility proposals that do not
offer enough information to understand them.
in 2008, austin energy proposed a
biomass powered generator with very little time
to evaluate it. Despite warnings about its
cost from environmentalists council, approve the contract,
and today it is the utility's most expensive
source of electricity. The cost was so
high that mayor steve adler ran against it in his first campaign.
uh, we, the commission are generally enthusiastic
about storage batteries and their potential to
be coordinated as virtual power plants. And
I have heard good things about this specific company. The
problem arises because there's no information in
the backup material about the contract's cost effectiveness
to austin energy's rate payers or participating customers.
this is a $41 million contract.
uh, where is the cost benefit analysis after
the failure of prop q? Every single line item in your
budget is under a microscope. There is no time
to, this is no time to abandon fiscal caution. The
utility has publicly stated its intent to raise
rates 5% a year for the next four
years. I've worked around energy policy
for almost 50 years. I have personally attempted to analyze
the sparse amount of data in the backup material, but little
information there seems to point to a cost of
about 19 cents kilowatt hour contrasted to
retail austin energy power of about 11 cents
per kilowatt hour in 2025. The contract
might still be cost justified. There may be savings from
reduced air cot fees or savings from lower peak demand
costs, but the utility needs to be transparent and
explain what these benefits are. I would not expect
more than a month's delay to get more clarity on the numbers.
again, this is a $41 million contract and the first
of what might be a growing trend. The public needs
to know the benefits. I would think you would want to boast about
them. Uh, take the time to do this right.
again, please get rate payers a cost benefit number.
thank you. Continuing on item eight, david
lavesque and hayden bagot.
if your name's been called, please come forward.
I don't, I don't see any movement.
we'll move to item 10, jennifer robo and bill bunch.
good morning counsel. I'm jen robo longtime austin resident.
I'm speaking on item 10, the proposed issuance of bonds for the walnut creek
wastewater treatment plant. I support necessary investments in our wastewater
infrastructure, however, approving this bond without addressing known
upstream contamination in the walnut creek watershed raises serious
concerns about fiscal responsibility and long-term risk to taxpayers.
my first concern is financial stewardship. The walnut creek plant processes
water from a wa watershed contaminated for over 50 years by leachate
from the closed travis county landfill. On highway two 90,
independent testing has shown elevated levels of lead barium and arsenic
well above epa acceptable limits flowing directly toward the plant.
unaddressed upstream pollution could dramatically increase future operating
costs. Maintenance and treatment challenges all passed on to
austin taxpayers. My next concern is regulatory oversight.
when residents raised water quality issues, watershed protection
staff said they would ask travis county if they wanted the city involved in the stakeholder
group. This inverts the relationship. The city of austin
is the regulator. Travis county is a defendant in a state environmental enforcement
action over the landfill, regulators should not need a polluter's
permission to investigate their own watershed. My last concern
is accountability. The environmental commission tried to advance a
resolution for water quality testing in walnut creek, but city legal
intervened to block it. So the city avoids accountability by staying ignorant
of the data. The plant expansion may be necessary, but proceeding
while actively avoiding upstream accountability turns a needed investment into
a far larger liability for austin's future. Thank you for your time
mr. Bunch. Thank you mayor. Council members for your service to
our community. Uh, bill bunch, executive director will save our springs
alliance, uh, speaking again, uh, and urging you to
stop or slow down on this massive expansion to
the, uh, walnut creek wastewater treatment plant. From 75 million gallons
per day capacity to a hundred million gallons of day per day
capacity, um, we simply don't have the water
to ever need that much capacity, um, to convert
into sewage. Uh, we are in a water crisis. Uh, you're
also facing severe fiscal restraints as you know it. Uh,
and this project just in the last six months, ballooned from
a billion dollars to $1.6 billion.
now, I appreciate the item before you is a $59 million loan.
just a small piece of this. Um, but I urge you to
slow down on this. There definitely needs to be some flood management at
the site, but we really need to have this wastewater treated
upstream, decentralized, where it can be reused
on site or close to where it's needed. Simply doing things the
same way we've always done 'em, uh, has got to stop.
times are have changed. We're in a whole new reality, a whole
new water reality and, and technology reality.
and also urge you to listen to what ms. Robosho said. You have
se have had very serious upstream pollution
problems with samsung and others, discharging
toxic materials into the wastewater system, doing
damage to the functioning of this plant. Um,
and if any of all, any of that continues, uh,
you're gonna have way more financial problems on your hands.
so we really need to scrutinize this project. Thank you.
moving to item 30, synovia joseph,
ms. Joseph, ms. Joseph,
I don't believe she's here. Item 31, bill bunch.
mr. Bunch is passing on item 31.
item 33, bill bunch.
good morning. Uh, bill bunch, executive director save our springs alliance. This
item is to approve a service extension request to
a 2.85 acre tract, uh, very close to barton creek and
the barton creek watershed. Um, your environmental commission
recommended against this, your staff had also been
recommending against this. Uh, you have a divided vote from your wa
uh, water and wastewater commission. Um, it's a fairly small
tract, but you are now challenged with the
ability to make sure that once they get this water and
sewer service, that they don't completely change their plans
and overdevelop the tract. Uh, you know about the
state law, uh, changes that are in place.
and so, uh, would urge you to be extra careful,
uh, doing this and to follow your environmental commissioners
who did the deep dive on it and recommended against it. Thank you for
your consideration. Item 34, carlos leone and
bill bunch.
so at carlos leon, first and foremost, cios for letting me say why
not to do business with ka metro. On item 34, april 17th,
guilty blackmail. Obama bus driver 3 2 2 4 7 0
intentionally initiated an escalated abusive controlling behavior against
me to disrespectfully, tried denying me what's legally mine
to accommodate and serve him. Though he must accommodate and serve me because
he's a public servant like you per texas. Penal code 1.07
a 41 a yesterday guilty older middle eastern obama
male driver of bus 2 8 0 6, refuse to board
me falsely claiming I was banned. He refused to look at the cat metro
letter I had in hand saying I could ride and refused to call
radio dispatch to verify him blatantly disregarding truth
rules. Protocol chain of command and constitutional
law triggered an irate male passenger to attack me
with assault by threat and assault by contact, explicitly
threatening to smash his metal thermos in hand on my skull,
and shoving me off the bus for lawfully standing my ground. These
cat metro attacks appear to be continuing retaliation
against me for whistle blowing cat metro senior director
of public safety and emergency management, darrell jamal's,
alleged crimes a pd special investigations unit. Lieutenant
breal said, my report is still being reviewed, a prerequisite
to launching an official investigation toward criminally prosecuting
jamele. Reread my report that I mail emailed all
of you february 25th via the city clerk because
kat metro, ceo president and dottie watkins
hasn't neither stopped this nor fired jamel, she's no
better kick corrupt cat metro to the curb. In
jesus' name I pray. Amen
mr. Bunch. He's passing on that item. Moving to item 35,
carlos leon, bill bunch. Join carlos leon,
first and foremost s for letting me speak to item 35 issues.
your library commission allegedly has not updated you since august, 2023.
apls use rules two b three 15, d one and 15
d two still have not complied with your superseding rules
for public use of city properties or paramount constitutional
law. August, 2025, I filed allegations of wrongdoing
against hannah terrell with the city auditor to hold her accountable
for her alleged criminal behavior and force her to follow city code
one dash two to revise a pl rules to comply with your rules in
federal law. September, 2025, her boss, assistant
city manager, stephanie hayden howard, said she was working on those rules
and would update the city auditor once done yet, as of
today, nothing's changed worse. Hayden howard allegedly
ignored terrell's transgressions to help her boss city
manager, broad necks wrongly reward terrell's in subordination
by fraudulently promoting terrell to director over true top candidate
kathy donlin. Thus expect me to soon file
allegations of wrongdoing against hayden, howard, and broad necks
with the city auditor to help you take action against them. And
terrell, following your february 26th ordinance
to safeguard public confidence in city services by
identifying and implementing performance enhancements via assessment
requiring external independence, accountability, and transparency.
if you don't do that, you are just as guilty as them because
to him, that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him,
it is sin. James four 17 king james.
in jesus' name I pray. Amen. Praise god,
our true lord. Heck yeah. Moving
to item 37, we will now begin with remote speakers.
before we do item 37, item 35 is the one that I pointed out. We have
additional backup, uh, on item number 35, not just
that item that he was talking about, but the other boards and commissions as well. So
I'll just point that out to you. I'm sorry, go ahead. 37, beginning
with nisha abram.
hello city council. My name is nisha abraham. I am a longtime austin
member austin constituent and, uh, from district, um, seven.
I wanted to call and speak about, um, the safe to call, uh, resolution, and
I would just really like to encourage the, the city council to consider passing
this resolution. Um, it really affects the fact that we can't call
our police officers, uh, our most vulnerable populations
like victims of domestic violence, immigrants, um, you know, government go
governor abbott is making it impossible for, for us that I include myself in this
to get help and safety that we need. Um, I really encourage us not to give in
to governor abbott's pressures to cut funding. It's a really low blow to take,
um, especially with our most vulnerable populations. Um, and I also wanna mention
that this measure has brought a lot of stakeholders and groups together that have a lot of deep knowledge
of criminal justice. So we know that this is a vetted measure and that it really makes sense
and we need public safety for people who need help, but might be scared to ask.
um, I myself have had to call on police officers multiple times in the 20 years that I've lived
here in austin, um, and, uh, I've become more and more afraid of calling them,
and I think that's a really, you know, problematic time that we live in. So really
encouraging city council to go ahead and pass the safe to call resolution and I see the rest
of my time. Thank you.
continuing with the remote speakers on item 37 j popham.
uh, thank you mayor and council for the opportunity to speak on this important issue. Uh, my
name is jay popham. I'm a resident of district two and a member of austin democratic
socialist of america stepping away from work for a moment to speak in my personal capacity.
uh, the fourth amendment protects the right of every person in the united states to be safe from unreasonable search
and seizure. It requires that if the federal government wants to take you from your home, they need
probable cause in the approval of the judge, the trump administration and its junior partners
in our state government have discarded this bedrock requirement of the united states law
as part of a spectacle of cruelty that they expect will pay political dividends for them in november and
beyond. Make no mistake, what they're proposing is nothing less than
a two-tiered race-based system of law enforcement in the state of texas aimed
at destroying families and trampling our constitutional rights for one group, judicial
oversight, semblance of due process and the chance of legal remedy for the other group, a life
in the shadows, constant threat of permanent separation and removal, and the painful calculation of
whether to call for help from your city or suffer alone, leaving yourself and your loved
ones in danger in the hope of just one more day. We're a country of loss.
we aspire to one standard of justice and we will not abandon our neighbors regardless of the state threats.
item 37 establishes a stakeholder process to determine how to ensure universal
access to city services, including public safety. While preserving our fundamental
rights, I like to talk about how socialism is about
positive beliefs. Stability is public safety. We will look after one another.
we will work together to solve our shared problems. We will not submit to bullies
the embattled state government and the disgraced, but not yet discarded. Attorney general ken
facts than our bullies desperate for any distraction they can find. From the disastrous state
of the national and global economy, the gruesome wars of choice, we have waged and supported
and their total submission to the billionaire class in christian nationalism. Cornell laws
legal information institute provide us with a timely warning. Today, protection
under the fourth amendment can be waived if one voluntarily consents to
or does not object to evidence collected during a warrantless search or seizure.
I believe they're always trying to find a way in the first and always. Thank you. You give up first. Thank
you. Do not give up. Do not consent to this extortion. We'll
now move back to in-person speakers on item 37, and we will begin
with spanish speakers. Leticia mendez.
eva aldo, kayla erve,
manuel garcia.
soma franco.
I'm sorry, but we, we,
our rules don't allow if you're, if you're here to mm-hmm .
yeah, please explain.
thank you.
hello, my name is catalina juarez mendez, and I'm here to ask you to
vote for item 37.
on june 15, we left our home, my husband and I, and we were going
to church.
so when we were passing a light, we were stopped by a trooper that told us
that they needed to check our lights, and they told us that everything was
okay, but we needed to go to a gas station that was 10 minutes away.
car cannot track her.
they told us to go to a gas station because they only needed to check for weapons
or drugs and that everything was okay, and then we could leave after that. But
when we got to the gas station, we were surrounded by three cars
and about six ice agents.
we were handcuffed and they were, didn't even make any questions.
we were taken to a detention center. I was there, uh, for 10 days.
my husband was there for three months and he was then deported to mexico.
they also put an electronic bracelet and they said that I couldn't work anymore.
then I lost my house. That was my home, my that my home for my children and
my grandson and I can't work anymore.
so I couldn't work anymore. I couldn't pay for my, my bills. When
I went to court, my lawyer couldn't go with me, so that's when I met the advocates
from grassroots. They are the only ones that have come with me, and
now I am living in a nightmare.
this is not only my experience, but the experience of many. So that's why I'm
asking you to vote for item 37. Thank you very much.
hello, my name is eva aldo, and I've been living in the area of austin
for 22 years, and I'm asking here to vote for item 37.
.
I'm here.
I'm here raising my voice for my son because we don't want more families that
are separated
because if we have a problem at any moment, we shouldn't be fearful to
call the police.
we are risking to be separated.
my family was victim of this law. My son that who lived in austin
since he was 1-year-old.
my son, since he was living in austin, uh, since he was 1-year-old, he
was deported to mexico. Now I'm, uh, I'm asking that
they stop, they meet the police with immigration because we
don't have, we can't do anything for him. He has a problem
of he's in mexico and he has a mental health problem.
he's not okay, and he has health problems there. In mexico,
we shouldn't be feared to be asking for health.
you have the power to change. Austin,
please be brave and defendants from governor abbott.
once again, I ask you to vote for and thank you very much.
kayla.
hello, my name is kayla and I've been living in austin for 10 years,
and I'm here today to ask you something very important.
please vote for item 37. We are a very vulnerable community and
we are fearful.
the collaboration between the police and immigration is affecting many families,
families that are hard workers, families that are honest, families that only want
to progress.
we live with uncertainty every day and every day we ask ourselves,
can we go out to work and come back home with our children? Is who,
is it fair to live with this fear?
austin is a beautiful city, but it should be safe for everyone.
we don't ask him for privileges. We only want to live in peace and with dignity.
we only want to work and take care of our families. We're asking you to listen to
our voices because you are parents and you have families.
please be in our places. You have the power to change this. Please listen
to our voices and vote for item 37.
okay,
leadership.
good morning. My name is summa franco and I live in district two. I work with
grassroots leadership and I'm asking the city council to please vote for item 37.
we all live to this. Uh, we all deserve to live in a place with peace and justice,
and that's exactly what we don't have.
it's also to know that a city like austin that is so beautiful cannot
take care of their residents, and they are all living in fear.
we all know how our immigrant community has been suffering of racist attacks
that is being, becoming like consequences, like to being in jail and being separated
from their families.
right now, texas has been becoming like a lab that is
only like judging people because they race or color and attacking
them
with a series of rules and policies that are only attacking and destroying
our communities. Like the new rule at the dmv
now, they're not allowing that people with legal status, they can renew their stickers,
their registrations.
this is only increasing the risk that a person is being detained in any street
for by the police because the sticker is expired. And this increasing the nightmare
for families.
abbot, please be brave and defend our community from the attacks
from governor abbott.
we deserve something better. We deserve something better than this. We need to be
safe to be, to call the police without fear.
it is time that you take action and you defends. And then please vote for
item 37. Thank you for your time.
thank you. Has one more if she has time?
she, she has 51 seconds. Okay. Can you read that in?
my name is res. I've been in a resident in district four for 21 years, and
I'm asking you to vote for item 37.
I'm afraid to call the police if I have a problem because I'm afraid that they will do
something to me instead of helping me
every day. I am afraid of going out because I dunno if I'm going, coming back to my house to
my children. We deserve something better. Please help us.
the time is, thank you.
continuing speakers on item 37,
rebecca lightsey, catherine garcia, jenny fleming,
michael stein. If your name has been called,
please state your name and begin speaking.
good morning. I'm rebecca lightsey. I'm co-executive director at american gateways.
for nearly 40 years, american gateways has been providing critical
legal immigration services to our low income, uh, neighbors here in central
texas. We wanna thank council member siegel and the, and your colleagues
for this proposed resolution, which we strongly support. We would also
like to thank the city manager, city manager, bro and his team
for his budget transparency and listening to the nonprofit
community, including many of us who are impacted by this, this resolution.
as you have just heard from kayla and her colleagues, this
is an incredibly perilous time for our immigrant community.
their stories are heartbreaking and not at all unique.
we hear from clients with these experiences virtually
every day. As you may know, texas leads the country and the number
of ice arrests, one in four ice arrests take place here in texas.
our clients have the same fears that you just heard, afraid to go
to their cancer treatments, to send their children to school, even to
go to church. So we support this resolution to enhance
the community's trust in getting the help they need, and we support all the
strategies laid out in this resolution. We also
commend you for, uh, recognizing the need to include community partners.
I know that'll be a tricky piece of it, figuring just, uh, which
community partners to include. Um, that said, american gateways would be
happy to be involved in this, um, critical process.
so thank you for the thoughtfulness of this resolution, um,
and for all that the council does. Thank you.
hello, council. My name is kat gia. I live in district 10. Um, I
have grown up here in austin and I also, uh, volunteer as a community
advocate. Um, I'm really pleased to see this item on the agenda and I encourage you
to vote in favor of it. Thank you council member siegel, for bringing this forward. Um,
this issue of public safety is extremely important to our community, and I
think you can see from the people who turned out today and also from the people who could
not take time off work, who did not actually feel safe to come here today.
this is exactly why it's important that we, uh, move forward with this process
and I urge you to approach it with urgency and to
help give our community the dignity and respect that we all deserve, um,
as, as austinites and also as human beings. And
I just wanna share, like myself as a survivor of domestic violence, I
know how difficult compounding elements of,
uh, of uh, I dunno, uh,
, trying to think of the word, but like anything that can be used against
you, anything that prevents you from being seen by authorities
as someone who is worthy of receiving safety and receiving help in
a, in the instance of being the victim of a crime that will be used by
your abuser. And they absolutely know that people who have unprotected
status are afraid to call and will not be respected when they call.
and we've seen a pd officers struggle to judge,
uh, appropriately how to prioritize felony
investigations over low level misdemeanors and or administrative warrants. Um, and
that's something that we really need to change to make sure that our community, uh, equitably can
access safety, which will improve safety overall for all of us. Thank you.
yes. My name is michael stein. I'm a resident of district seven.
um, I can't really add more than what's already been
said here. Uh, I support this resolution.
thank you. Continue on item 37, francesca leahy,
hans maverick, jamie gardner. Trudy
smith, please state your name and begin
speaking.
please begin. Good morning. My name
is francesca fraga lehe and I'm a resident of district five, and
I am proud of austin for putting this resolution forward. Item 37
and grateful to each council member and staff member who were in, was
involved in putting this, um, this testament to
austin's values together and as the, uh, speaker from the
american gateways, um, said to enhance the community's trust in
getting the help they need. Last july,
the republican controlled congress passed a, the quote,
big beautiful bill act, which means that ice's
budget has skyrocketed to becoming the highest, highest funded us law enforcement
agency with $85 billion now at its disposal.
last night, senate republicans passed a blank check of $70 billion to
fund ice with zero reforms added. Hopefully it fails in the house
a week ago, mayor watson, who made the statement that our a pd officers
do not have the capacity and should not be asked to do the other, to do
the jobs of other entities. I agree. I do not want
my taxpayer dollars to go to fund an already, um,
over bloated, uh, highly corrupt and, um,
unconstitutional, uh, in immigration enforcement entity
at the federal, uh, government. My taxpayer taxpayer
dollars are already going to that, and I am infuriated by that fact
every day, and I do not want my city municipal,
uh, taxpayer dollars to go to further
in, uh, to support an, an agency that is
causing such great harm to our community. As we've heard today,
thank you for putting this resolution forward and please, uh, do everything that we can
to ensure that it passes and is, um, uh, fully implemented.
thank you, mayor watson. Mayor proto
vela council members, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is hans maverick.
I'm a resident of council district 10 and I'm a policy and research organizer with grassroots leadership
here in austin. I'm here to express my support for item 37,
the safe to call resolution. Not long ago, I worked for a nonprofit that helped
people resolve outstanding class c tickets and get their driver's licenses reinstated.
we called it fighting the criminalization of poverty. What I learned from that experience
is that something as simple as a traffic ticket can create a barrier to fully
participating in life, accessing housing, employment, childcare, healthcare,
et cetera. I observed that class c tickets have a disproportionate impact
on low income people, unhoused people, undocumented people, and people of color.
also, the systems most cities use to help people resolve their tickets are difficult
to understand and navigate what's more people have outstanding
class c warrants may hesitate to contact law enforcement if they are the witnesses or
victims of crime, particularly if they are undocumented. I worry
about my unhoused and undocumented neighbors having access to emergency services.
recent state and federal actions have further eroded their trust in
law enforcement. I want everyone in austin to feel safe to call when
they need help. In light of those concerns, I believe that item 37 is
good policy. Engaging the community in effective and compassionate approaches
to class c tickets will help rebuild the trust that has been lost.
an easy to navigate system for addressing class cs will reduce unnecessary
police contact. Please stand up for our community and stand up against
right wing bullies. Take measures that reduce racial disparities,
protect the rights of immigrants during police encounters, and dismantle the
pathways that lead to family destruction. True safety is like
true justice. It is only meaningful if it applies to everyone.
thank you. Good morning. My name is trudy
taylor smith. I'm senior administrator of policy and advocacy at children's defense fund, texas
and I live in district 10. Um, we are a nonprofit
advocacy organization dedicated to advancing child wellbeing and building community so
that young people grow up with dignity, hope, and joy, and we support the safe to call
resolution as a necessary first step toward protecting young people in austin from the serious
and multifaceted harms that result when a pd goes above and beyond the requirements of the
law to collaborate with ice current a pd policy harms
children and families in a number of ways, including discouraging immigrant residents from reporting crimes,
seeking help to escape violence or abuse or calling emergency services. As
others have mentioned, it also increases the risk that children will experience or
witness violence and civil rights violations in the course of an immigration arrest.
but beyond that, it exposes families to dangerous detention conditions at
the dli detention center outside of san antonio, ice detains families including
children in horrific conditions marked by medical neglect, hunger, and
inadequate access to clean drinking water and nutritious food, even in cases
where children are not detained. Ice arrest arising out of traffic stops
wellness checks and 9 1 1 responses. Frequently traumatized children separate them from
their families and place children in harm's way. Within the past year, at least three
austin children were deported despite holding us citizenship. And in the most recent case,
this happened because a pd contacted ice while responding to a 9 1 1 call.
at local schools, more children and immigrant families are arriving at school emotionally distraught,
over missing relatives coming to school hungry after a family breadwinner has been
detained, or they're no longer attending school at all. Shockingly,
children in many cases are left without a legal guardian after ice arrests and
detains their parents without making any arrangements for their care. Every child
deserves to grow up in a caring family and community where they are safe and have access
to the resources they need to thrive. With that goal in mind, cdf texas
asked the city council to pass this resolution and to continue working to secure
the safety and wellbeing of every child in our city. Thank you. Thank you.
continue on item 37, kendra bolton,
savannah lee, carrie ann smith, brandon pickard,
please state your name and begin speaking.
good morning, mayor and council members. My name is kendra walton of
district five, and I'm here as a representative and board member of toto
juntos learning center and strong support of item 37.
people in austin should be able to call 9 1 1 without fear
and trust that reaching out for help would not put their family at greater
risk. At total juntos, we work alongside immigrant
families, students, and community members. We hear the fear,
we see the hesitation, and know that for many people, calling
for help feels dangerous. It feels like one desperate moment
could spiral into detention, separation, or other long lasting harm,
and that is unacceptable when people are too afraid to call 9 1 1.
that does not make our city safer. It makes it more dangerous
when victims are too afraid to come forward. Violence continues
when witnesses stay silent. Accountability disappears
when families decide they are safer. Staying quiet in crisis than the system
is failing the very people it is designed to protect and we must
build a better system. Item 37 is about
community safety and trust. Trust is the foundation of public safety without
trust, emergency systems break down. People do not report
harm and fear wins. This resolution is about
real people and their families, like the speakers that we have heard earlier this morning.
every policy choice we make impacts real people. No one should
have to stop and think, will calling for help make this
situation worse? No one should have to earn the right
to be protected in a crisis. I'm asking you to
support item 37 as a policy decision and as a statement about who we are
as a city. Austin should be a place where people can ask for help
without fear, where families are protected in a place where safety includes
dignity, fairness, and trust. Thank you very much.
good morning, mayor and council. Thank you for having us today. My name is savannah lee. I'm
here with equity action and I'm a resident of district one. I'm here in support of item 37
because no one in our, in our city should be afraid to call for help. That's
not a controversial statement, and I know everyone in this room shares that value. But
values only matter when they're reflected in our actions. And in this case, our policies.
we can say austin believes in trust, dignity, and compassion. But if survivors, immigrant
families and low income residents are still afraid to call 9 1 1, then we've got work
to do. As the federal government continues targeting immigrant communities and
the state continues enabling that cruelty, it falls to cities like austin to protect our people and
lead with humanity. That is what this item begins to do. Survivors of
domestic violence, victims of sexual assault, witnesses to crime, immigration, fa or
immigrant families, and people living paycheck to paycheck should never have to wonder whether
asking for help could lead to their own arrest over an unpaid ticket or some other low level issue.
when people are afraid to call for help, violence goes unreported. Abuse escalates and trust
in the government breaks down that makes every neighborhood less safe. Public institutions
only work when people trust them enough to use them. When those most vulnerable to
police contact or ice involvement do not feel safe seeking help, we begin the fairness, legitimacy,
and effectiveness of our systems. Item 37 offers a common sense path
forward. It brings the community into the policymaking process. Prioritizes survivors
increases accountability and helps ensure that asking for help does not become another source
of harm. I would add in light of recent news that every good thing
we do in this building only stands a chance at making a difference if we refuse
to bow to the governor's power grabbing cruelty. The 11 of you are the last elected
line of protection for the millions of people in this city. True
bravery and leadership means doing the right thing even when it's difficult or
frightening. I would ask that you use the power you've been given to prioritize the most vulnerable
folks here and stand in the way of the state's latest attempt at forcing, forcing us into their authoritarian
ideology. The first way to do that is by supporting this item. Thank you.
hello, mayor watson and city council members. My name is carrie ann smith. I'm
leader. I'm a leader with vocal texas. I'm here to support item 37.
I stand here today with a heavy heart to address a critical and
safety justice issue, class c tickets and warrant
issues. I support the stockholders procedure
process because in austin here alone, over 60,000
warrants has been issued. Not in the state of texas, but just here in the city of
austin. And more concerning 25% of these tickets has
been issued to black residents. I speak
from a de personal experience. I too have received multiple tickets
for sleeping in my vehicle that turned into warrants.
how do you expect someone to be compliant with these tickets when they do
not have stable hounds in
and they don't even really know? These tickets exist multiple tickets,
and you get repeated offenses for these tickets
that turns into warrants. This is, this cycle
is a nuisance. It's no, this cycle is not just a
nuisance. It's a trap that escalated to tickets, to warrants, to felonies
and all without offering real services support or
a pathway outta homelessness. Rather than continue to spend millions
of dollars on encampment suites tickets and arresting poor people and unhoused
people, please support this item and so we can work together.
thank you.
hello, mayor watson city council. My name is brandon
pickard, but most of y'all know me. Here is eight track. It's good to be back.
um, I am here in support of item 37. Uh, for those of
you that don't know, I am currently homeless out on the streets of austin.
things get crazy out there very quickly. And at
the drop of a hat, you could be in trouble. Your friend can be in trouble, someone
could be hurt, but you got that camping
warrant. What are you gonna do? You can't call the cops, they're just gonna lock
you up. And then maybe take your friend to the hospital, maybe
the, the, this pa oh, I'm so sorry. This paves the way
to actually start helping people out here. This is a very,
very good first step. People should not be afraid
to have to call for an emergency at all. I've met
so many people where somebody got hurt and then they're like, hey bro, can
you call 9 1 1? I got that camping warrant, or I got that criminal trespass or blah
blah blah. And so I'm left there, you know, trying to
take care of somebody who I don't know until ems gets here. And hopefully
I don't have to talk to the cops because why are the cops
showing up when I'm calling for ems?
they should be not needed at all. I need ems, not
a pd. So that's probably another conversation
for another day. But thank you all for listening.
it's great to be back. Um, I hope to have many
positive conversations with you in the future and, uh, thank you y'all so much.
thank you. Continuing on item 37,
kay graziani, barry jones, tony carter,
david weinberg. Antonio rena,
please state your name and begin speaking. Feel free to begin. Good morning.
good morning, mayor and council. My name is david weinberg, ima district five
resident. Um, I'm gonna start off with a platitude. Uh, the united states
is a nation that was built by immigrants.
um, this idea is very
true for the texas that we live in today. Immigrants are a
vital part of the texas economy, many critical pieces
of it, oil and gas, production, agriculture,
construction, hospital, hospitality, healthcare.
we should be embracing these
populations who are doing so much for our state.
uh, I kind of miss the republican party of texas, which
was what is good for business is good for texas.
um, we should be, I think this item is a no-brainer.
I thank you for bringing it. Uh, I wish we were not in a position where the
governor was vilifying and terrorizing these communities,
um, who put food on our table, who put gas in our gas tank
who'd care for the elderly who build our houses and hotels.
um, and I laed
you for taking this very important step today. Thank you.
thank you. Members of
the council. Mayor, thank you for allowing me to testify. My name is jorge reno
and I'm an organizer at grassroots leadership. I urge you to pass this
resolution based on my experiences. I was honorably discharged from the army in
1976 and returned to beeville. I went to a dancing center, rolled
through a stop sign, was pulled over by a local policeman and ended up not with a traffic
ticket, not with a warning, but thrown into the local county jail.
where I found out later, the arresting officer told folks there to touch me up.
what resulted was a series of events that still resonate with me today, 27
years in prison and on parole until I until 2051. We've
heard someone say that we all make, make mistakes when explaining away a prison
term. I did not go to prison for a mistake, but because
I made choices after that first arrest, choices based on rage and an individual in
a system that thought it was okay to have me brutalized, beaten, and raped for not stopping
at a stop sign at an arguing with a police officer. There is
a phenomenon called churn that refers to individuals who cycle through the
criminal legal system, the majority of them, people of color, most with either
substance abuse or mental health disorders. The chance of an individual being rearrested
and going to prison, losing family and employment, and being consigned to a life
of poverty and despair, go up exponentially after that arrest for wa was yes
a mistake because once in the system, police and prosecutors and judges look
at you not as a citizen with your respect and dignity, but as a number, a
misc to the criminal. Austin has made great strides when
it comes to offering diversion to individuals, mostly youth who become
ensnared in a system that offers little but incarceration to those that captures,
we have a sobering center and a mental health diversion complex on the horizon.
I ask that you vote yes on item 37 and offer relief in the life of hope
to at least 60,000 people who have made a mistake and to not let that mistake
grow into a life of incarceration or regret. Thank you. Thank you.
yes, sir. Uh, good morning, city council and mayor watson.
my name is barry jones. I'm a leader at vocal texas. Uh, formerly
I was unhoused in austin for 10 years. Um,
I'm here to support item 37. Uh, when I first became homeless, I
had an old vehicle and I was trying my hardest to get outta my
situation. I didn't have income, I couldn't pay my vehicle
insurance, which quickly led to a citation
and then a warrant and then arrest. And
so, so I spent 10 days courtesy of the city inside.
uh, when I got out, I still had to face, uh, coming up
with the money to, to, uh, get my vehicle back from impoundment, uh,
which was really difficult. Um, and I just wanna say
that this system of, of warrant enforcement
too often turns into a trap for poor people. Uh, if,
if you're working and you are arrested, the chances are very good that you're
gonna lose your job. If you lose your job, you're very
likely to lose your vehicle. Now you are a person without a vehicle, without
a job, without income who is facing the same situation
that you got the citation for to begin with, so you can get more citations.
and this just becomes a downward spiral for too many people.
and I think that we really need to look at this situation. We need,
uh, our leaders to step up and, uh, help us move forward
to solve this situation to together and, and
put this situation behind us. Thank you very much for your time.
good morning, counsel. Mayor, my name is kate ani, also with vocal texas.
um, we are here in support of item 37, as you've heard from some of our members
already. Um, the criminalization that's happening on the streets of austin
right now is putting people already vulnerable in more danger.
um, folks who are poor and can't pay their tickets are, are getting,
uh, warrants issued by the city. And this is a local policy that we think need to changing.
um, I have a, um, a story from one of our leaders, tony carter,
who couldn't be here today that I wanted to read quickly as an example of how
broken this system is. Um, tony
got a car, a ticket for flying a sign in december. Um, in
order to, um, addressed the ticket, he engaged
with dak case management, um, and he's currently in, in
their deferment program. But because he, tony hasn't been connected to housing, the waiting lists
are too long. Every night when he lays his head down, he's at risk of getting
a camping ticket, which would violate, um, the program through
dak could revoke his deferral. He'd have to pay a ticket that he can't pay for
$300 leading to a warrant. Um, we have over 66,000
warrants for class c um, misdemeanors in this city right now.
and that's why we are in support of item 37 because we need
a real robust stakeholder process,
um, to discuss how we're going to stop criminalizing people who live
on the streets, um, people with immigration status
and how we're gonna begin to support our most vulnerable austinites. Many
of us live here in austin because we stand up to the state
and we have different values here, and we protect our most vulnerable community members. Right
now, folks on the streets are being terrorized daily with sweeps
led by a pd. These are, these individuals are also victims of
crime and assault and violence, and they are not safe to call the police
and we need to change that. Thank you. Okay,
continuing on. Item 37, daniella silva.
roxanna herndon, allison cole, susanna
raza, marissa dixon, please
state your name and begin speaking.
good morning, mayor. City council members. My name is daniela silva. I'm the austin
policy coordinator at workers defense action fund, an organization
representing thousands of working class latina people across the state of texas that fights
for immigrant and worker justice. I would first like to express deep gratitude to
the co-sponsors of this item. Council member siegel mayor pro council members
fuentes and velazquez. Our members in austin work across industries
and live different lives, but share one thing in common. They want safety for themselves,
their families, and their communities. Whether someone has been a victim of a hate crime,
wage theft, or domestic violence workers', defense members wish for a city where they
can call 9 1 1 for help without worrying if they are going to be discriminated against,
harassed, or harmed. Because of unrelated civil issues or low level offenses,
one member sino asks for clarity throughout our police department that if
any officers considering calling ice, they fully understand how they're supposed
to act and what is required compared to what is optional. Another member,
manuel says that our community doesn't feel safe calling the police because
they may call ice. So if there is an emergency, they don't really know what to do.
he believes the police are supposed to be here to protect people and wants to be able to
trust them. Manuel has a question for chief davis. Can
I trust you? Can I trust that I can call you with any problems I have? Because
many police are working with ice, so the trust isn't there. Now, by aiming
to protect victims from unnecessary and unrelated arrests or detentions, the safe to call
resolution is the first step in reestablishing true trust amongst vulnerable populations.
by bringing community members with lived experience to the table, to co-create policies
that support the safety of folks experiencing crisis and tragedy. The current systems
that exist leave vulnerable people at risk of being punished for the bravery it requires to
ask for help and for putting faith in institutions that haven't always listened or stood up to them. We
call on the chief of police, mayor, city council and manager to emulate
that same bravery by standing firm behind this and all policies created
to protect all austinites. Anyone can become a victim regardless of age, race,
nationality, gender, or income. Thank you. Hello,
my name is roxanna herndon. I'm a austin knight with grassroots
leadership under the taj advocate for justice. I have
resigned in austin, texas in district four for 40 plus years living.
I'm here to ask city council to vote yes for item 37. Class
c traffic tickets is a hindrance for citizens to be able to commute back
and forth to work, school, or doctor's appointments. This
is hurting us by not allowing us to choose to pay for groceries
or pay for a traffic violation that will prevent us from going back
to jail. I'm standing up because I'm a mother that is standing in
those shoes that has class c tickets that is hurting me. I'm
speaking on this because that I'm facing situations that
is hurting me from going to work or being arrested when I get
in my car to drive, to take care of my children and grandchildren for
safe call resolution to be effective. People living here in austin shouldn't
be afraid to drive on the road to fear of being arrested, nor make 9 1 1 calls
for help. And this is being used against us. There
is, there shouldn't be penalties that hold us back from trying to change for
the better in our lives. This goes against the amendment for,
for the amendment for, and this goes against the rights for justice.
I'm here asking city council again to vote yes to item 37
to help us to be able to survive and provide for our family. Thank you very
much for hearing me. Thank you. Yes.
hi, my name is susanna za. I live in district nine and
I'm here in support of safe to call item 37. You heard
lots of personal stories to support and I have nothing to add to that, but what I
would like to highlight is that a pd keeps
saying publicly that wants to build trust within the community.
one great step to do that is to come in here
and testify in full support of it, because if you have guidelines
that you can prioritize the safety of the people you're supposed to serve
and not add them to the prison pipeline,
that would be the best pr you can ever
get without any money. It's just like, support this resolution. It will
make your life easier. People will start going to not be afraid
of you, and you'll help the community. Please, I, uh, urge everybody
to support item three, seven. Thank you.
excuse me. Good morning.
um, my name is alison cole. I'm a resident of district 10,
and I am also the vice president of community services at safe
alliance, which is a nonprofit that serves survivors of abuse with
things like shelter, housing, advocacy, forensic exams, counseling,
therapy, legal support. The list goes on. I'm also personally an
attorney who has spent my career, um, serving survivors of domestic
violence, interpersonal violence, and what I and my colleagues have observed
time and time again with the people that we work with is that they do not feel
safe for so, so many reasons coming forward or seeking emergency
assistance, even in life-threatening assaults. There are
so, so many reasons for that. Too many to get into today. However,
why I personally and safe are so excited about item 37 is that
this is an opportunity to remove some of those barriers, very real barriers
to seeking services in a life and death emergency.
what we know is that abusers are very, very good at weaponizing the systems that
are meant to protect people against them. And we have clients who are thinking
twice before calling 9 1 1. They're thinking, who's gonna take care of my kids tomorrow
if both of their parents are arrested tonight because of that unpaid parking ticket that
I have? Because of that time, I got camping because my abuser kicked me out and I
had nowhere to sleep that night. They're worrying, what if it's gonna be my fault
for calling police because my mixed status family gets torn apart tonight.
this is a chance to empower a pd to fight crime because
this is a lot of unreported crime going around, a lot of vulnerable people not being
protected. This is a chance for a pd to be empowered to prevent
homicides because survivors of abuse won't have to think twice when
they are calling for help in life and death situations. So I wanna thank you all for bringing
this forward. I wanna thank you for considering this because this could be something
that could make our community so much safer for everyone, and it's
actually a way that we can fight crime. Thank you.
continue on item 37, ryan rosser.
courtney ski salvador espinosa,
vin robo mira ros,
please state your name and begin speaking with the speakers. Go ahead
and come on down if that next group is present.
alright.
good morning counsel. I am jen robo, a longtime austin resident.
while I support the goal of helping victims and witnesses feel safe, calling 9 1 1
the policies and the safe to call resolution will actually make law enforcement less
effective and austin less safe for everyone. The resolution
directs officers not to check for warrants on victims or witnesses during emergency
calls, to delay arrests on unrelated warrants and to use alternatives
instead of tickets. These changes may sound compassionate, but they are broad
and reach far beyond our homeless and immigrant communities. They deliberately
reduce the chance that people will face real consequences for the crimes that they commit.
even more concerning stopping officers from checking someone's criminal record during
a nine one one call puts both officers and the public in greater danger.
officers may not show up with knowledge that the person that they're dealing with
has a violent history or an act of warrant that raises the risk of
sudden violence against the officers or bystanders.
research and real, real world examples show that when the cost of breaking
the law goes down, crime goes up, especially property crime, theft
and disorder. We already have a county da whose policies
have been widely criticized for dropping or reducing charges and releasing repeat
offenders. Adding city rules that further limit warrant checks, arrests and
citations makes the problem worse. This is not victim centered, it's
criminal centered, and it makes the revolving door problem even bigger.
this resolution is presented as protecting victims, yet much of the
language focuses on protecting people with warrants and immigration issues, creating a cascade
of unintended consequences in trying to help some. It puts
the safety of law abiding residents and the whole community at risk. If public
safety is truly the goal, we need accountability for weak prosecution
policies, not new policies that erode deterrents. Thank you for your time.
thank you.
good morning, mayor and council members. My name is courtney siver
and I'm here today in support of item 37, the safe to call resolution.
I speak not only as an austin resident of district four of volunteer
with hands-off central texas, but as a social worker who has worked with
incarcerated individuals, survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault,
which I have lived experiences with and immigrant communities
I have seen firsthand what happens when people are afraid to ask for help.
fear isolates people, traps them in dangerous situations
and deepens trauma. When someone calls 9 1 1,
it is often during the worst moment of their life, they may be fleeing
abuse, reporting, violence, or trying to protect their children.
no one in that moment should have to wonder whether reaching out for safety could
instead lead to arrest or detention over an unrelated matter.
I have worked with survivors who already carry enormous fear and shame.
I have worked with immigrants who are terrified of systems because they believe any interaction
with authorities could tear their families apart. I have worked with
people who have been incarcerated and know how easily minor illegal issues
can spiral into life altering consequences. When we
create barriers to calling for help, we empower those who abuse
silent survivors and make all of us less safe. Austin
should not be cooperating with fear-based enforcement practices or
cowtowing to ice priorities when our responsibility is to protect the
safety and wellbeing of our local community. Our city's
emergency response system should be focused on helping people in crisis,
not creating more trauma. This resolution is about restoring
trust, protecting vulnerable people, and ensuring that emergency
services remain emergency services. I urge you to vote yes
on item 37. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
also speak, oh, sorry. Go ahead, continue. Oh, thank you.
uh, good morning, counsel. My name is mayor ros. I also go by gumbo.
I use they them pronouns. I'm one of the co-chairs of austin, dsa resident of
district three. I wanna start by thanking council member, single and council
members, cadre, ententes, and velazquez for introducing this item number 37,
which I am in support of today. I had the honor to visit minneapolis
at the end of february, beginning of march for a week of action for people around the
country to learn about how they resisted ice in their city. And they kept asking
me what things were like in austin, what things were like in texas, and I
would describe to them how state troopers were pulling people over and people were being
deported on the spot. Uh, I've seen them come and go within 15
minutes, they detained, they arrest, they deport, the car is towed and they're
gone. Um, and they said, wow, we have it easy up here.
um, they said that, you know, ice has to, had to move in minneapolis
like an occupying army because they had no open collaboration
with local and state police. And so they had to move that way because they knew they were
under scrutiny. And here ice and cbp are almost
like a fact of life. They're just around and they just
show up. We have no way of knowing where they're coming from, where they're going, where they're taking people,
um, and the fact that they're able to come when 9 1 1
calls come up. And the fact that a pd is not always able to distinguish
between an administrative and a judicial warrant only increases that lack of safety.
so we need to put as many barriers as possible between our public safety
locally and the forced migration and deportation of people across the country.
and we also need to break the mold set by am mayor whitmeyer in houston of caving to
abbott and paxton and their threats against our cities. They wanna take away two
and a half million dollars and then maybe a couple hundred million more from public safety.
and that shows that this is not about safety for them. This is about force and threats
of violence. So please vote yes on item 37 and, uh, f**k ice. Thank
you.
continue on item 37, crystal silva, mccormick,
alvin stewart, chris harris, rye vasquez,
and ben sotheby. Please state your name and begin speaking.
good morning. My name's ben sotheby. I'm a resident of district four. Uh, I wanna
start by thanking the sponsors, uh, of, of this item.
uh, council members siegel, mayor proam vela, council member fuentes,
uh, cadre and velasquez. Thank you so much.
um, we've heard excellent testimony this morning. The overwhelming
majority, I think all but one we've heard so
far vastly in favor of this, this is what our community wants.
their lived experiences are gonna speak louder than anything I can say,
but there are aspects of this that jump out at me. From a public budgets perspective.
we see an intention to find efficiency in our systems.
loads and loads of unresolved class c misdemeanors, bogging down our legal
system. Uh, don't save us money. You know, I pay
one tax bill, both city and county on that one thing.
and some of the most expensive. And the biggest dollar spend that's happening
on there is chasing after people who have gotten caught
up with, you know, low level nonviolent crimes that,
uh, maybe it's camping 'cause they have nowhere to go. We
know that our, our capacity is, uh, outstripping our supply of, of
beds to sleep. And it's just stacking and putting these people in
worse places, you know, sending them to the travis county jail where it's really expensive
to house and feed and healthcare and all the, all the other things that
doesn't help my tax bill. So I love that you're looking for strategies to
make both their outcomes and their lives better, but also
saving our precious public resources to devote them to things that
really help people get safe. Safety means my neighbor's needs being
met. I think about, uh, the hesitancy to call 9 1 1
when, when my neighbor's, uh, tools got stolen. Right.
uh, now he can't go work on that construction site delaying the
providing of housing if I get hit by a car. Thank, sir. I wanna
make sure that their witnesses call 9 1 1. Thank you.
good afternoon. My name is alvin stewart. Um, and I'm here to
vote in favor of item 37. But I wanna begin with a story.
a mother and a daughter were deported after police were called for a domestic dispute.
well begin as a call for help turned into a life-changing consequence for an entire
family. The mother was detained over an administrative
a warrant, and then the daughter and her were later deported.
the lowest level of offense should not create the highest level of consequences.
years ago, a personal story of mine. I was taken
to jail for a class c misdemeanor. I did not even had, I didn't even know I had.
it came from a criminal trespassing ticket after officer saw a car I
used drive past the school that I was expelled from. Even though the car
was not in my name, I was never aware of that warrant until I was arrested. That experience
showed me how quickly a minor issue can become
like something serious. I also want to acknowledge the, the
hispanic women that came up here earlier. I know some of them personally, and
that story truly touched my heart. Their experience reflect real people trying
to build their lives in the city, and they deserve understanding and fairness in how
our systems impact them. That's why I'm asking this council to support alternatives
and incarceration for class c misdemeanors to help reduce more than 66,000
outstanding class c warrants and to vote in favor of I 37.
I also wanna highlight a serious concern. African americans make up about 8%
of austin's population, yet account for roughly 25% of warrants
for these low level offenses. That disparity is significant and
raises real questions about fairness. But at the same time, I,
and we respect, support and appreciate our police officers. They do
a difficult and dangerous job every day, and that service deserves recognition. And
because we respect that work, we also believe in transparency and accountability
so our community can understand how our decisions are made to build a stronger trust.
thank you. Good morning,
counsel. My name is ra va community advocate, representing myself.
people should not be scared when they scared that they will be incarcerated
because they call for help. Our tax dollars go to a system that relies heavily on law
enforcement as the mechanism to mediate violent offenses. Blue collar crime and mental
health episodes being caught in your worst day shouldn't result in you being
booked and processed. The fact in the matter is that the metrics show that incarceration
statistically skyrockets when factoring in race, disability status,
or other marginalized groups. Personally, I know that when I
would be scared to call 9 1 1 if I knew there was a threat, that I would be turned over to a federal force,
especially if it's an administrative warrant that has no approval from a judge.
I pride myself in knowing that the city of austin endeavors to rectify these overreaches
of enforcement that do nothing but harm the greater good of our community.
changes to systems like this are daunting, I know, but this is a drop in
the bucket compared to the great good it will do for our austin city.
this is a meaningful way to ensure the safety of our neighbors.
greg abbott is not the arbiter of how austin uses its public funds.
abbot has made it clear if the governor manchin was not located on 11th street, he would not
live in austin. He's started with our rainbow crosswalks
and now he threatens our public funds because we dare to show compassion for our fellow
neighbors. Do not let his empty threats stop you from doing something that will benefit
our community. Having a task force to reassess that statistics,
our and backgrounds of arrest, is
a great idea. I hope that it will lead to a better and more prosperous city
and more avenues for our neighbors to feel comfortable relying on emergency
services that they paid for. Vote yes on item 37.
thank you. Good
morning, uh, council mayor. Um, my name is chris
harris. I'm with texas civil rights project. I'm also a resident here in district nine,
um, here today in support of item 37, uh,
I want to thank, uh, the sponsor and co-sponsors, uh, council members,
velazquez, fuentes, vela cadre, and
sigu, um, for bringing this item.
we often talk, especially in, in nonprofit spaces, but also in in go
government spaces about helping marginalized people. Um,
and of course that's very important. Rarely do we talk about actually ending
key vectors of their marginalization. Uh, social, cultural,
economic isolation, denial of political power, denial of access to
resources. We have an opportunity through this item and the stakeholder process
that follows and actually helping people to become less marginalized by,
by enabling people to access city resources in a way that they have
currently do not feel safe to do. Uh, and and this is really important
because while some would argue that marginalizing people over
their documentation status or committing the lowest level offense in
our criminal system, that doesn't even carry jail time if found guilty, uh, helps
make us safer. Uh, but I think all the evidence, all the data and all the testimony
you've heard here today points a very different story. That when we marginalize people,
we make us all less safe. I wanna also talk about the
governor first. The terms of the governor's public safety grants
violated our initial freedom city policy. Signing that grant to begin with
was a, a major betrayal of the immigrant community in this city, and whoever's
responsible for that in this city deserves accountability. Full
stop. Second, the governor cannot compel this city to violate
the fourth amendment in, in order to receive grant funds.
okay, like the, you cannot be compelled to
violate the fourth amendment in order to receive the grant funds. Please fight
and please vote for item 37. Thank you. Thank you. We'll now move to
item 38, beginning with remote speakers. Cassie
soren.
uh, good afternoon. My name is cassie soren. I live in
district six and I work at goof bamo, often also known as gava.
I'm speaking today on item 38. Um, I have been involved with the dell valley food
co-op from inception. Having written the original grant proposal in 2022
for the austin community owned food retail initiative, I began as a project manager
and now serve on the capital campaign committee to get to this point. Gava
has facilitated hundreds of hours of extensive community engagement and organizing
activities. Established a multilingual resident led steering committee
who developed the co-ops business plan, and we now support the board as
they oversee this truly community owned asset. For years,
residents in dell valley have sounded the alarm on their lack of access to fresh,
affordable food. And this problem exists due to a lack of investment
in the community, which has left people with limited access to food and
basic necessities. Uh, now the co-ops board has obtained
a three year lease for the property in question, and it requires rezoning
so the community efforts can continue to move forward. The current
property owner is, is in full support of the co-op, as evidenced by his
collaboration and recent letter of support for the city's community project funding
application via representative kassar's office, so the city
can hopefully buy his land and the co-op can find a permanent home.
um, I wanna thank council member fuentes for all of your support on this initiative
over the years, as well as the other co-sponsors today, including
my council member, council member lane, um, for supporting this critical step
in the dell valley food co-op initiative. And I urge others to vote yes and
support food security in dill valley. Thank you.
continuing with remote speakers on item 38, monica guzman.
good morning. I'm monica guzman, policy director gaba, go. Austin
bain speaking on item 38. We thank the food policy board
for their recommendation for council approval and waiving of related
fees. We thank council member fuentes for proposing
this resolution and thanks as well to the co-sponsoring council members
to initiate the rezoning of the delval food cooperative property.
historically, food access in del has been an issue for residents,
residents having to drive long distances to bike groceries. Planning a trip to a grocery store
isn't easy for working family. I know the challenge personally
from my lived experiences when I lived in san antonio off loop four
10, and for those who know san antonio, that that was way
out there. The route to a grocery store was loop four 10 to
us 90 to military drive. That was quite a drive.
and we also had to plan since we were at, uh, one car household.
and my then partner had the car most days. So,
thank you, you know, for all who have supported this work, community driven,
and we request counsel to approve the draft resolution and waive the rezoning fees
as re remain recommended by the food policy board. Thank you.
moving to in-person speakers on item 38, christopher reyes
and brittany burke, please come
forward if your name's been called.
please state your name and begin speaking. ,
please. Good morning, mayor and council members. My name
is christopher reyes and I'm the board chair of the dell valley food co-op
and a resident of district two. I'm here to ask for your support in
this item to initiate the rezoning of 58 0 7
ross road, so that dell valley can have a neighborhood grocery store.
right now, many dell valley residents travel long distances, often
over an hour just to access fresh, affordable food.
our co-op was created by community members to change that, to
bring healthy and affordable groceries closer to home. But what we're
building is more than a store. We envision that this site is
a community space, a place where people can gather, learn, and
connect. In addition to grocery sales, we plan to host events, offer educational
programming, and create a welcoming third space for residents.
we're also exploring opportunities like growing produce on site, and supporting local producers
and craftspeople through weekend markets. This rezoning
ensures the property can help support these kinds of community centered
uses. Importantly, we have strong alignment with a property owner.
our multi-year lease includes a formal recorded purchase option reflecting
a shared commitment to making this a long, long-term community rooted site.
I ask you to vote in favor of item 38. This is an opportunity
to turn a vacant property into something the community truly owns,
allows for economic opportunity and a place to gather.
we hope you'll help us make that possible. Thank
you, council min fuentes, and the other co-sponsors. Thank you.
yes. Good morning, council and mayor watson. My name is brittany burke
and I am the director of the dell valley libraries. We have the elroy library
on eight 12 and the garfield library on 71. We're also building
a new library at 7 2 2 5 ross road, next to the dell valley health and
wellness center, and down the street from the proposed side of rezoning. I'm in favor
of this rezoning because the dell valley community is in dire need of equitable food access.
I've worked at the library since 2019 and time and time again we
have heard from patrons about food insecurity. Food access is so central
to work in dell valley because we do not have a traditional grocery store. With
this effort to rezone, it will ensure food access for those in de valley. Thank
you. Thank you.
moving to item 39, beginning with remote speakers. Monica
guzman.
good morning. I'm monica guzman, policy director at gava. Go. Austin. Obamas
austin. Whoops, speaking on item 39. Thank you, council
member quez for leading the response to the community driven efforts to protect
the affordable housing supply in austin. This resolution is not an equity overlay,
but it takes a step in the right direction. While it does not protect our
naturally occurring affordable housing from the displacing impact of the city's density
bones programs, it does provide direction to staff to monitor
for harm and give commissioners more information to consider before they recommend upzoning
existing multifamily properties. The strategic housing blueprint 10 year goal
is to produce 45,000 units for people making less than 60%. Mfi,
according to the scorecard from 2018 to 2023,
10,094 units have produced only 22.4%
of its goals for units at this level. Yet the past three councils have
approved upzoning and subsequent demolition of at least 600
units. Only one of these apartments required one-to-one replacement of affordable
units lost, which means we're operating in a negative for this goal.
these are some of the last multi bedroom apartments that rent for under 1500 per month.
the tenants who live in these properties often don't receive notice of proposed development like
home owning constituents. They rely on neighbors and allies proactively working to
ensure that their rights are recognized and have an opportunity to advocate for themselves and
their neighbors. This policy would provide an opportunity for a review by the community development
commission, the only commission designated to consider the needs of the working
poor. Uh, um, more and more of your constituents fall into that category,
even those who were previously considered middle class. While this policy doesn't
outright grant protection to our naturally affordable housing or to
austinite who live there, it provides commissioners and council members a more informed opportunity
to do so. Please vote yes on item 39 and take a small step toward
protecting the supply of truly affordable housing in austin. Thank you.
moving to in-person speakers on item 39, david weinberg.
good morning, mayor and council. Uh, I am david weinberg.
I am from district five. I am supporting, uh,
this item 39. I think it is a
step in the right direction, uh, to sort of improving,
uh, the thoughtfulness of process and communication where we have existing
affordable housing in the city, uh, and making sure
that the voices of the folks who are living there are being heard. If we are
considering a rezoning of those properties. I think this council aired when
it granted a rezoning of akia cliffs. Um, seriously,
uh, it's not clear to me what exactly is happening with that property today.
it might be good to get an update on that. Um,
also, uh, while the resolution is good, it could have,
um, more teeth. Uh, it, it does not require applicants
to participate in this discussion with the cdc
also. It, it says that the process of rezoning cannot be held up,
uh, with these conversations ongoing with this, uh, with this,
um, commission. Uh, and I think the last thing I'll say is,
um, also this, this has more meeting if, when rezoning applications
find their way to the full council, that they are not taken as state
a complete, I think darryl slusher and the independent reported that,
uh, a couple weeks back, y'all voted down two zoning applications,
uh, on split votes. And as the first time this council has
done that in a number of years. Uh, so let's be thoughtful and,
uh, intentional about how we are dealing with, uh, existing
working class housing, uh, in this city. But this is a step in the right direction. Thank
you. Speaking on item 41, hayden
bagot
bag. I'm good. Moving to item 64,
speaking remotely is monica guzman
ipads.
moving to in-person speakers on item 64, adam greenfield.
david weinberg, miriam schofield.
thank you mayor and council member, and especially thank you to council member
ellis and the co-sponsors for bringing forward this item. Um, transportation
infrastructure decisions in general are decisions about future development
and the decision to expand. Uh, urban highway is no more and
no less than a decision to encourage the people who are utilizing
the opportunities in the city to live further away from it. Uh, the
mopac expansion that's being proposed, um, is no exception to this. And the
project is particularly egregious because of the impacts on
sco park austin high and barton springs. Um,
what I really want to emphasize though about this project and
this resolution is that this is a project by c-t-r-m-a,
the central texas regional mobility authority and not by tdot. And
that has two important implications. First, in addition to the
harms that this, uh, expansion would cause, there's huge opportunity
cost. C-t-r-m-a has so much flexibility in how they use their
funds, unlike txdot, and the billion dollars for this project
could be spent building the transportation system of your dreams. This
could be spent on regional rail. This could be spent on improving transit infrastructure, on trails,
and on so much else. Second, this isn't
being driven by the state. C-t-r-m-a is governed by a seven person
board. Three of those board members are appointed by travis county.
uh, this is a project that as the economic and social hub of
our region, the city should and can have influence over
the asks in this resolution that the expansion be no more than one lane in each
direction, and that the environmental issues be seriously considered,
are reasonable, achievable, ask. This is a fight that, uh, the city can
win on. So please pass the resolution. Thank you for your interest
and attention to this matter. And I'd also ask all of you who are interested
and concerned about this project to not just support the resolution, but also
continue to engage in other ways. Thank you.
hello again. David weinberg, uh, district five
resident, uh, supporting this item. I want to thank you very much,
uh, for bringing it forward today. Uh, I'll try to be brief. I'll
try to be quick. Um, I think the idea of doing a
major highway expansion over
a river, which we call a number of different lakes, uh,
through our main metropolitan park,
where we have, uh, I think four different
endangered species living there, or in the vicinity of vicinity of this project,
proposed project that we would not be doing a full environmental
impact statement does not pass the the smell test.
uh, so I am, I'm glad that, that y'all are getting on board
with, with asking for that. I guess also, just before I wrap up
here, as the parent of a sophomore at, uh,
austin high school, and as the parent of a, of a, as a rising, uh,
sixth grader at o henry, I will be one of those people, uh,
who will have to deal with the, uh, supreme mess,
uh, that this project appears that is going to impose on our,
uh, on austin high school here in central austin. Uh, so thank you very much
for doing this. Uh, I, I know that it is, um,
uh, something that a lot of folks are looking for leadership
from y'all to do, and, uh, you're doing the right thing. Thank you.
continue on item 64, bobby lavinsky, christian may,
bill bunch is paul robbins and neda
cholar here. Perfect. Mr. Lavinsky will have six minutes.
thank you, mayor and council. Um, and a special thank you to council member ellis for
sponsoring this resolution. Um, council member cadre, council voa, um,
council member alter and velasquez, thank you for sponsoring this. It's really important
and I think it's going to help out quite a bit. You may also know that the travis
county commissioner's court has called for the c-t-r-m-a to
prepare a full environmental impact statement as well for the mpac expansion project,
as well as the urban transportation commission. And I understand that the, um, austin
environmental commission is gonna be, uh, addressing this matter ag on, uh, the
may 6th agenda. Um, why
does it matter? This is a, it's, it's being sold as a forward lane expansion. It is
actually a six to eight lane expansion between, uh, scissor chavez, uh, really anfield
road down to slaughter, really slaughter creek. Um,
this is one of the most environmentally sensitive areas of the city, which you're well,
well aware of. It's the recharge zone. I'm gonna address just some really high
level stuff, but I would encourage you to reach out. We've got, um, experts that
are submitting comments as part of the environmental process. So we've had, um, you
know, doctors that are specialists in their fields addressing, um,
the in, uh, inadequacy of the environmental assessment
and the ridiculousness of a fonzi for such a massive highway
expansion project, um, in our community. Um, just
to remind you, the I 35 expansion project was also eight miles, and it
what required an environmental impact statement? Um, air
quality, uh, as you are aware, is a major concern. This project is not consistent
with the, uh, the city's goals for reducing,
uh, greenhouse gases and reducing dependency on single occupancy
vehicles. Uh, it actually will result in a, uh,
that should be a 331 million, um, increase in vmt
annually. Um, and that is an increase, um, of
a 96 million between the builds and the no build scenario.
over that same period of time. They are projecting that air quality
will improve despite that increase in, uh,
in car emissions. Um, that is not consistent with the recently
published draft environment, uh, uh, emissions
reduction plan by campo, uh, which acknowledges that
the increases in vmt in our community, uh, will outweigh
any benefits that we're seeing with clean technology. And I think it's highly discredited
that the state of texas is relying on clean technologies when they're actively suing
over emission standards federally and, uh, suing to
prevent the tracking of air quality emissions related to highways.
um, the current ea only really addresses,
um, uh, the basic, uh, ones and not
the ones that matter. It doesn't address pm 2.5, doesn't address pm 10.
um, and it, uh, doesn't address ozone, uh,
water quality. Uh, you're hearing a lot about jellyfish. I wanna emphasize that,
uh, this jellyfish type, uh, filter technology that's being proposed is not
accepted by the city of austin as an acceptable water quality treatment method over
the recharge zone. Um, and that's because it has issues
with the inspection, maintenance, and operations of it over time. It also,
uh, only, uh, addresses total suspended solids. That's only
one of the, uh, contaminants that are associated with highways. Uh, it doesn't
address things like oil and gas and fertilizers and
all, everything else that's associated with highways. Uh, dr. Lauren ross made a really
great presentation that I'm probably gonna forward to your office until you have it. Um, that,
uh, identifies all of the, I think she had 13 other contaminants that
these, these, uh, stormwater, uh, quality, uh, treatment methods are not addressing.
uh, and it also doesn't address the construction phase. That
is really where we're getting a lot of the environmental damage in the, in the threat to barton springs
to cold springs and the endangered species. There are four endangered species that have been
identified that will be harmed by this project. That is one of the factors that
under the old ceq that, uh, would identify that an environmental
impact statement would be needed. Um, that is the austin blind, the
barton springs salamanders, as well as two cape craters that are live underneath the
highway. So this premise that they're expanding inward, um, really
doesn't support the, the notion that they're actually damaging the habitat for these species
on top of them. And then upstream, uh, in, in the recharge zone.
um, what happens with salamanders, with the sedimentation, um, with, with the
dirt that, so that they take these high pressure drills where they're drilling
into the karst features, they, that results in
a bunch of sediment that gets kicked up and it go, it goes into the,
uh, salamander habitats. It clogs their gills, it destroys their shelter,
and it destroys their food supplies. So there's a massive harm to the, to the
species that we're legally required to protect under a habitat conservation
plan. Um, traffic, this is a really important one.
um, there was a 2024 update where they adjusted this, this project
based off the model. Initially they were proposed saying that with the, we do nothing, we're gonna
have 52 minutes of new delays. That changed
in 2024 when it updated with the new model down to only 20 minutes.
so what that means is this build scenario is only giving you a benefit
of five to six minutes during peak hour if you travel
the entire eight mile stretch of the highway. That is not
something that I think this community is asking for. It's just that five to six minute benefit.
we're asking for better solutions for mobility and to stop living
our lives on highways. Um, and it also doesn't take into account post
pandemic trends, emerging technology, or even the current camp model. Thank
you.
please go ahead. Uh, good morning council. Uh,
I'm here to speak, uh, uh, in favor of item 64. Thank you so much
to all council members who have worked and put this forward, especially council member ellis. Um,
the city must do everything within, in its power to prevent the widening of mopac. The
reasons are countless, but I'd like to focus on one, the air pollution that would create and that
pollution's very humid cost. I don't need to convince you that highway expansions caused more pollution.
co2 and o2 so 2:00 pm 2.55 10, it all goes up.
I'd instead like to describe the intersection, uh, as a way of exploring the
human cost, uh, of mopac and davis lane, uh, which is along the path of the
proposed expansion. Uh, on the east side of this intersection, within a block is the
primrose school, a preschool in kindergarten. On the west side is dell
children's hospital. The, uh, davis lane location just north is
dick nichols district park, with a lovely play playground. These are places
where children learn, heal, and play. It shouldn't be
a place where we allow air pollution to increase their risk of lung and heart disease, especially
childhood asthma. Uh, and pollution does not just affect children.
uh, in the middle of these three properties is another business, uh, silverado,
barton springs memory care community, a nursing home that takes care of people with diseases
like dementia, alzheimer's, uh, diseases, which are significantly more
likely to affect those exposed to highway air pollution. Uh,
my wife has as had, has had asthma since she was a child. Uh, every
time she struggles to breathe, it breaks my heart. My grandfather died from
dementia. Watching him waste away broke my heart. We
should do everything we can to save others from that pain. Thank you,
sir, can you please state your name? Oh, sorry. Christian may. Thank you
so much. Good morning, mayor and council. Adam greenfield here with safe streets austin speaking in
support of agenda item 64. Thank you so much for this resolution.
uh, to the co-sponsors, council members ellis que alter, kari
and mayor pro tem vala, uh, thank you for raising your
concerns about this proposed highway expansion. We
absolutely concur that we should be prioritizing for this project,
bike and pedestrian trails along the full extent of the area,
more crossings and everything we can do for transit we should absolutely
be doing for this project in this most anti-urban
of environments, anything we can do to increase transportation
choice is extremely valuable, uh, to the point made in
the resolution. We absolutely cannot allow this project to increase vehicle
miles traveled. We absolutely cannot allow this project
to undo the progress, the amazing progress that osen is making on
transportation mode shift. Speaking of shift,
we are in the middle of a generational shift in how we think about
and implement transportation infrastructure. We will
probably have these kinds of projects coming forward for a while around austin.
and every time council speaks on projects
like this, you hasten you speed up this badly
needed and much de not desired generational shift.
thank you very much for your engagement and leadership on this issue. Thank
you. Thank you mayor. Council members, bill bunch,
executive director, save our springs alliance district five. Thank you
so much, council member ellis and the other co-sponsors for bringing this forward.
um, especially your very first be it resolved, calling on
c-t-r-m-a to prepare a full environmental impact statement,
um, that is required by federal law, our national charter, the
national environmental policy act. This is earth week. Um, we
need to adhere to that national environmental charter by doing
everything we can to live in harmony. There's gonna be
economic growth. We have to do things smarter with the best social science,
uh, environmental science and economics at the table. There's
nothing of that in the ea. This truncated, uh,
study and proposed conclusion that's absurd,
that there'll be no significant impacts from this project. Adding
six to eight lanes of pavement, uh, basically converting
mopac into a, a, uh, western I 35, um,
8.8 miles over the most vulnerable place in the entire
state of texas. Uh, it's easy to forget that.
um, there's no other city on the planet that has a natural,
beautiful, clean, uh, giant spring in the heart of it.
and our state has told us that this is more vulnerable to
pollution than any other aquifer in the whole state of texas. There's four
endangered species, and that they admit this, that will be harmed by this
project. Two aquatic salamanders at the springs and two cave
critters. There's caves all up and down underneath this, we,
we have to protect this one other thing on the construction phase,
they will be having to shut down the roberta crenshaw bridge, which is our
hike and bike trail for years. Just think of the harm to the
recreational benefits of lady bird lake boaters, walk, heart
walkers, hikers, all of them. Thank you. Thank you.
we have one remote speaker on item 64. Megan meisenbach.
hi, this is megan meisenbach. Thank you for letting me speak on item 64.
I'm in support of it. I think it's, uh, fabulous that
our council members, ellis and uh, other supporters have
put this forward. I really can't add much to
what, uh, the experts have said. I think bill bunch has beautifully
pointed out what there is to lose with continuing with this
roadway project, which, uh, we need to keep our air
quality as, as clean as we can. The water quality,
the species that are, we are legally must, uh, uh, protect.
so thank you so much for bringing this up, and I hope you'll give it your full support,
especially the environmental study. Thank you.
moving back to in-person speakers on item 64, jordy
tello, roy whaley and xia joseph.
if your name's been called, go ahead and come on down.
mr. Whaley floor is yours.
howdy, y'all. My name's roy whaley. I am a long time environmental
activist here in austin, and a longtime political activist also,
um, and a longtime lover of barton
springs in zilker park. My first memory of
the little old western williamson county hill country
kid of coming in to see my family in austin, was
going to barton springs. Going to zilker park, zilker park.
and as a realtor, I get asked this all the time about
zilker park. The wonderful thing that we have this spring
and pool in the middle of our city.
I want to thank all of you that are sponsoring this and
encouraging those of you that haven't to vote for this.
and let's get the study done. A, as mr.
bunch said, we've got four endangered species, we've got
multiple environmental features, and we're rushing this through as
if it's a federal issue. And I'm not gonna start it on the
feds, but all of you please.
we had a great event last night. We had between 250
people on a very busy night in austin, texas, where there are
very many different meetings show up to listen to and
discuss this. That's great that we had that turnout.
we need more people coming out commenting on this. So if you would,
all of you have great outreach, and I'm on most of your newsletters
and I'm glad because I learned so much from each and every one of you.
reach out to your constituents at that are part of your newsletters,
ask them to weigh in on this, ask them to comment on this,
ask them to ask for a real environmental study.
not looks good from here. Well, I'm sorry, but you're
in ontario. Anything might look good from there. Thank you very much. It's good
to see all of you again. Have a great day. Thank you, sir.
thank you mayor. Council anovia. Joseph, I just wanted to state my opposition
to the park and ride that's actually specified. I'm pa
I'm paid it's lines 1 78 to 180 8 to the city manager.
I just wanna remind you of a comment made by council member ryan alter on
april 15th, 2026 at your finance and audit committee meeting
where he said, quote, so, you know, we can decide to violate
policies or change the policies to meet where we are. And
I just want you to recognize respectfully that as it relates to transportation
in the southwest area, it's 2.9 boardings an hour
on convict hill. And paige ellis has engaged in willful
blindness and she refuses to recognize that black people
are waiting 60 minutes for the bus, 10 times longer than southwest
in central austin residents. And so at our, what I want you to recognize is
that it is discriminatory. You've acknowledged it on page one
of the document at the bottom, it mentions project connect, the november 3rd, 2020
ad valorem tax increase. I want you to recognize that this was
late backup mayor. And so respectfully, you have put
us on a strict diet and you do not allow us to provide our slides.
so I'm gonna ask you if you're gonna be lenient with the council for you to be
lenient with us so that we can provide the documentation that supports the
comments that we make. I do want you to recognize as well, it says to
cooperate with capitol metro central texas regional
mobility authority. Mayor, you've seen the slides before. You know that it's
infrequent, unreliable, disconnected northeast of us, 180 3.
and so my opposition is to funding anything in southwest
austin because it was november 7th, 2016 that you
can find it on page 20 in capital metro's board packet that tells you
2.6 boardings an hour. The consultant rush chisholm told capital
metro that they don't have the ridership there. Thank, thank you
mayor. That concludes all speakers on the consent agenda. Thank you. Uh, members, you just
heard that that concludes all the speakers on the consent agenda for
planning purposes. Let me tell you how I, I see us going forward. Unless there's an objection.
I think we go ahead and address the consent agenda, get the con,
uh, pass the consent agenda or, or turn it down, whatever we end up doing here.
and then we will go then to our 12 o'clock time certain
on public communication at the conclusion of that. Uh,
what I will, what I, I wanna suggest we do is recess,
just for a brief period of time, we will come back and go
into an executive session at that point. I I, before we go into any other
items, so let's, let's address the consent agenda. We will
then have, uh, public communication and uh, then we
will go in, into the, the executive session. And, and I'm, I'm gonna work
on something with regard to the music, uh, so that maybe
what we do is we just go straight into the executive session and we allow the music to be handled in
another way than what we typically do. Yes. Council member fuentes is the executive
session item time sensitive because we do have quite a number of people here for item
six. It is. Okay. Yeah. Council member ellis.
mayor, I wanted to pull item number 33 off the consent agenda. Agenda. That was gonna be the very next thing I did
was to ask for that and I knew you were gonna do that. So, uh, for the record, uh,
the items that are not on the consent agenda are item 6 29
and 33, item 6 29 and 33.
is there any other item that anybody wishes to pull from the consent agenda?
alright, then the chair will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as read,
uh, made by council member cadre, seconded by council member ellis.
uh, if anyone wishes to be heard and is part of the discussion on the consent agenda,
please let me know. All right. Council member alter.
council member cadry. Council member siegel. Council member ellis. Then council member alter,
followed by the member pro. Tim, I've got you. If you punch the button, I get
you. So thank you. Great. Yes. Well, you, I I you have
not punched the button, but I, I I saw you raise your hand. Perfect. So the order will
go in is cadre siegel ellis, mayor pro timm
velazquez andar. He still haven't
punched it. Well, your name, council member lane, your name's not up there, so
you told me. Well, I, I, it went off. You, you, if you, if you punch it
and you punch it a second time, it takes your name off. So punch it once,
leave it there. Unless you want to be off
that, that, that helps me keep it through order. Thank you. Alright,
uh, we'll start over. Councilman codre,
followed by councilman siegel, then council member ellis. Great. Thank you, mayor. Um,
I wasn't even trying to be first and I somehow ended up first. Um, before
I get into my, uh, remarks that I, I do wanna acknowledge that the train derailment
that happened earlier this morning, uh, in district nine. And, and, you know, thankfully there were no
casualties, there was no injuries, uh, and really want to thank our first responders,
uh, for, for being on scene. Uh, I understand it's, it's the process to kind
of clear it up. We'll be the entirety of, of the day, uh, but very much thankful for,
for first responders on scene. Um, we just wanna touch on item 37.
uh, want to thank council member siegel, uh, and his team for their hard work on it.
um, you know, I, I think the testimony that we heard today, especially from
the, the speakers who kind of kicked it off, uh, it, it was
very heartfelt. Um, it was very human. And I think often
when we bring forward policy, um, I, you
know, I, I think it's important to always remember that when we bring forward policy, there, there
are people behind that policy. Uh, there's people, the, the reason why we do what we do is to
make sure that people are, are taken care of. And it was mentioned by a lot of the speakers on, on how the
state has, has kind of shirked their responsibilities, uh, and, and, and lead
with, uh, well, don't lead with empathy. Uh, but it's important for us as a council to, to
do that. So I'm very thankful that we're able to get the item across the finish line,
uh, to provide assurance and safety and protections, uh, for our, for our
most vulnerable communities. Uh, and I, I really am
encouraged by this, this council, uh, the work that we've done in the past and the work that we'll continue
to, to do to make sure that, that austin really does work for everyone. And that, you
know, folks that we're here from today are, are properly taken care of. So I wanna thank council member, uh,
siegel and his team again, and, and all the folks who, who made the item possible and as well as
the speakers who came today. Thank you. Council member. Council member siegel, council member ellis mayor,
pro team. Thank you mayor. Um, we'll briefly just wanna acknowledge some
great environmental items on the agenda. Um, really awesome
energy is doing a great job on, on some climate forward items. We have item seven, which
is eight megawatts of solar power generation, uh, at our
landfill. Item eight is 40 megawatts of electric power capacity
from dis, um, distribution scale sale battery
facility portfolio, basically battery storage across the community that's gonna keep rates down,
improve reliability. And then we've got item 23, which is, um,
you know, new solar power, uh, panel facilities on city land,
uh, 25 megawatts or more. Um, and, and there's another ifc from council
member alter. So just, you know, even despite all the challenging things happening
at the state and federal levels on energy policy, uh, I wanna continue to lift up and celebrate
what austin energy is doing. And I also wanna thank, um, council member ellis for item 64
to discourage a massive expansion of mopac, which is also a very important,
um, item 37. I'm honored to be the, the sponsor of the safe to
call item. And I do wanna thank council member fuentes, council member velazquez,
council member cadry amer pro tela for your co-sponsorship. The
resolution covers a lot of ground, but at its core stands for something simple that we
need to do everything we can to make sure that everybody in austin, including our most vulnerable
community members, feel safe calling for help in an emergency.
we've had dozens of mu meetings in the last few weeks, uh, with survivor leaders,
domestic violence and sexual assault service organizations, leaders in the immigration space,
legal providers, experts, civil rights organizations, and directly impacted people,
um, who feel unsafe to call the city for
help due to any number of vulnerabilities including poverty, housing insecurity,
immigration status, past negative experiences with the criminal legal system and more.
we know, unfortunately, there have been instances across the country and in our own city where
victims of sexual assault and domestic violence have called for help and
have then been threatened with arrest on low level or even non-criminal
warrants. We know there are over 60,000 warrants for unpaid
class c citations, which are low level ta uh, traffic offenses
and other poverty based offenses. We know that people
with warrants unpaid tickets are not only afraid to call the city for help in emergencies. They're afraid to go
to court to go vote, to get their id card, apply for needed
benefits and more. And we know we have to come together as a community and do something about that.
so this resolution will start a stakeholder process in
which community experts, city staff, and relevant county officials will come
together to develop safe to call policies related to at least three different
but interconnected topics. The first topic is a direct response
to incidents in which victims have been threatened with arrest or unrelated warrants, even
during rape examinations. We know that there are already steps being taken
to address this, and we are very grateful to chief davis and the many experts and service
providers we've spoken with who've expressed a commitment to a stakeholder process to further
these efforts. The resolution describes multiple policies and strategies, including
performing identification checks without running the optional warrant check
on victims and witnesses, and less required for safety reasons, and also expanding
alternative reporting paths and ways to access services, including through victim
services and partnerships with trusted community organizations. The se second
topic relates to the over 60,000 warrants for unpaid class
c tickets. We've had conversations with national experts who have successfully redesigned
court forms and notices with behavioral science principles, which
result in a decrease in warrants and failure to appear rates. The safe to call
stakeholder group will also explore ways to reduce arrests on class
c offenses, including through expanded use of alternative options like the sobering center
or transport directly to court and set, uh, rather than jail to resolve
tickets. And then the third topic relates to administrative warrants, which is a
subject that is heavy on our minds. Earlier this year, a woman called 9 1 1
to report domestic violence and ended up being removed from the country along with her
child. We thank and commend chief davis for amending the general orders to
clarify that detaining somebody b solely based on a non-judicial,
non-criminal administrative ice warrant, is not permissible under the fourth amendment
of the us constitution. And we want to make sure that we do everything we can to protect our
communities and make austin a safe place for everyone. Thanks again to my
co-sponsors and all the community experts who came forward to help, uh, draft and hone the
language of this resolution and who are committed to seeing the stakeholder process through. And again,
thank you to chief davis for coming to the table and committing to an open and
honest conversation with the community, with the goal of coming together with real concrete
solutions. I truly believe that if we bring everyone to the table directly impacted
people, decision makers at the city and the county community partners and service organizations,
we can make austin a safer city for everyone. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. Council member. Council
member ellis, followed by the mayor pro tim and council member velasquez. Thank you
mayor. And I would also like to be added as a co-sponsor on 37. I really appreciate
the work that you and, um, the other colleagues have done on that. The mother and daughter were
from district eight, and so it's something that we have definitely felt an impact for in
southwest austin to make sure that folks are, um, not ending up deported simply
for calling 9 1 1, um, to make sure that their home and their family is safe.
without objection, council member ellis will be shown as a co-sponsor of item 37.
thank you. I would also like to speak briefly to item number 64, which is
the one you just heard the speakers come and testify about. That is in regard to
the highway expansion through southwest austin. Um, this
mopac south expansion covers eight miles and is essentially the entire
spine of district eight. It, the impacts that this highway expansion
are going to have, are going to affect almost every neighborhood, every school
that's close to mopac, endangered species, and, and a number of
different stakeholder and interest groups along the way. Um, we have found through our conversations,
a couple of the groups that operate within the footprint of zilker park, um, we're not consulted
and didn't know what to say about the public comment period and what the impacts
to their businesses and their events were going to be. Um, so I wanna
thank c-t-r-m-a for stepping up once we recognize that and offering to have those, uh,
consultations to make sure that as many constituents have the information that they need
as humanly possible. Um, this resolution builds on the one that
we sent to c-t-r-m-a about a year and a half ago at this point, that
the city council had also supported for us to put in as a recommendation,
but it not only focuses on, um, expansion for car lanes, but it
also calls for better bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. Um,
park and ride conversations about appropriate locations for park and rides that are part of
the project connect system that voters approved in 2020. And
a number of other environmentally friendly initiatives like safe street crossings to make
sure that we don't end up with this further divide through southwest austin.
um, the city departments do have until may 3rd to contribute
their comments into the public comment period. So there, I know that there are, those were not ready
to go. At the same time. This resolution is ready to be considered by the city council,
but we know that the departments are working very closely, um, to be able to submit those
comments. Um, there are a number of different structures that contribute to
the historic nature of zilker park that were left off the list. Um, clarksville
as a historic neighborhood is not one that, um, is being factored into some of this footprint.
and I've noticed some language around impacts to endangered species not being considered
regionally significant, which I find to be interesting because the
endangered species that our speakers listed previously, they don't have another
home to go to if their cave is impacted, that species
may cease to exist entirely, and they are on the federal list of endangered
species. So this is really, really sensitive. This is something that we cannot get wrong.
this highway is set to double in size. Um, so I think that the
finding of no significant impact needs to be looked at again. And so I'm happy that hopefully
if council approves this, that we will be joining arm in arm with the county who
has already called for the full environmental impact statement. And I appreciate my co-sponsors,
mayor proam, vela alter, velasquez, and cadre for
working on this with us. Um, it's very, very impactful and it's important
that we get this right. Thank you, council member, uh, mayor proam vela,
followed by council members velasquez and alter. Thank you mayor. Uh, council member
siegel highlighted those, uh, critical austin energy items
that are moving through. Uh, again, a lot of good stuff on this agenda, but
item seven, eight, and, uh, 23. Uh, just want to reiterate
the austin energy moving aggressively on, uh, battery storage
on, uh, solar power. You know, the item number seven with,
um, solar on the landfill. That's, I think, one of the last
large scale sites that we're gonna be able to put a, a, a big solar farm on within
the city of austin. Uh, but item number 23
with the solar on city facilities, we're, we're looking for any square footage we can to,
uh, put, uh, solar power on there and, uh, generate additional
renewal power, uh, strengthen, uh, local generation and, and make austin
energy a a better, more, uh, reliable system. Great to see these items, uh, on the
agenda. And I just want to thank, um, our, our director o'reilly
and all the staff at, uh, austin energy for all their, their hard work on that.
um, I, I won't, uh, say, uh, much more about item
37. Again, I just want to thank council member siegel proud to be a co-sponsor on it, and the testimony
with, uh, very, uh, compelling, uh, it, it's, uh, heartbreaking, uh,
out there right now. Uh, what's going on with, uh, the immigration, uh, tactics.
um, item number 29, uh, it was actually not on the consent
agenda. I'm gonna hold off on, on that one. Um, item number 31 is a tiny
little item, but an important one. Uh, it, it will help
preserve historic properties that makes the process for
getting, uh, electricity and, and, and other, uh, renovations
to historic buildings that may, uh, infringe on the city right of way.
again, these are a hundred year old bid buildings, and, and the right of way has changed on them more than
they, they've done anything wrong. We had a long grueling process to do this. This
will simplify it and, and make it better and help preserve historic buildings in austin. A
goal that I very, very much support. Um, number 64,
uh, the, uh, resolution on the, the mopac expansion. I would just say
that, uh, I 35 had to have a full environmental impact
statement. Project connect, had to have a full environmental impact
statement. I just don't see why the expansion of mopac
would not have to have, uh, a full environmental impact statement. I just wanna thank
council member ellis for, uh, bringing that item. And then, uh, last but
not least, uh, item 40, the city is
going to be, uh, sponsoring the dragon vote, uh,
festival. Uh, and first of all, I want to thank, uh, amy wong
monk, uh, andrew lee, victoria lee, nat ho,
uh, and then the, uh, board members, uh, yusak young,
uh, be bernhardt and jeff manley for,
uh, being here to, uh, support for all their work in making the dragon
boat festival. Such a great, uh, success and, and such a great event.
the festival started in 1999. This is the, I guess, 26th
year, uh, 26th annual, uh, dragon boat festival for,
uh, this is also be the first ever city sponsored asian
american event, which is a long overdue. Uh, and it's a,
a, a really exciting, uh, time for, for those that that are not
familiar with, uh, what the dragon boat race is. Uh, it's
a, uh, a chinese tradition, uh, sporting event
dating back, um, 2000 years or so. There's a, a boat with
a, a dragon head on it and a team of paddlers, and they line up and they
race each other. Uh, it will be this saturday at,
uh, festival beach, uh, uh, going, uh, all day from about, uh,
this nine o'clock or so to the end, around three o'clock. Please go and check
it out. Uh, I, I look forward to continuing to work with, uh, the sponsors
of the dragon boat festival to highlight it. And, uh, I, I'll just say
that it would be great to move it to, uh, auditorium shores as well, where I can have even
more participation and become an even more high profile event.
I just wanted to, uh, sincerely thank everybody that's been involved in that. We appreciate you and we
appreciate all y'all do. Thank you. Yeah, thank you mayor pro tim. Some of us
are old enough to remember 1999 and, um,
and I'll see you saturday. So, thank you. Uh, council members, velasquez
altar and lane. Um, uh, thank you mayor. I also want to co-sign what, uh,
councilman oh, mayor pro te vela said about making sure we bring this to auditorium shores
next year. Um, uh, uh, colleagues,
uh, item number 39, uh, ask planning staff to give the community development
commission our commission that is specifically focused on the needs of our, of
austin's low-income residents, an opportunity to review zoning cases
that affect existing multi-family communities. We,
as ais have aggressively pursued ways to increase affordable housing here
in austin, and I'm damn proud of that work. We also need to be just as aggressive
when we're tackling displacement. Um, this will be one
in many steps that our office has taken and will continue to take to ensure that, that
we are working to mitigate displacement. I want to thank my co-sponsors,
mayor watson, mayor pro te, and council member puentes and uchin. Thank you
to trish link and our law department and also the community development commission for
their work on this item. And a huge thank you to victoria hall and the d three office for
all of her work. Thank you. Thank you. Council member, council member
alter, followed by council member lane and uchin. Thank you very much. Uh,
just a few quick hits here on, on item five, which is around our city
designated cultural district. So I appreciate the, the work staff's done and wanted to ask
if they could include the scoring and impact analysis for the south shore
cultural district, which is something we've talked about, and I think they can do. So just
whenever y'all are doing that, if, if you could take a look there. Um, I also want to thank our
item number nine, kim vardas, who, um, this is
a pit. It's, it's by d five, but she
has helped with some of the intricacies here and made this happen. And so
I just wanna, uh, thank her for her work on that to get us where we are today.
um, also item number 30, just thank greg, uh, congressman
kassar's office. Uh, we will always accept money into the
city, and this is gonna be, uh, money for us to help improve,
uh, longhorn dam and, and the mobility infrastructure there.
so that's very exciting as well. Um, certainly wanna touch
on, we, we had the chance to touch talk yesterday at the climate water environment parks
committee, but when, when I first came here, we had a discussion
about how we had all these great, uh, environmental plans,
but they were just kind of sitting on the shelf, not doing the work that we wanted them to
do. And through the work of this council, uh, we
were able to okay, provide direction and, and ultimately, our
climate action and resilience staff and director bomber, uh,
under your work, put together an actionable plan of the steps that we
could take to move us forward to achieve the goals that we had set
as a community. And today we are ticking off a lot of those.
uh, one of those was to do the landfill solar project. We're approving that today.
one of those was to have a virtual power plant, uh, project through austin
energy's work, uh, with item number eight. We're doing that today.
another one, put solar on city facilities. That is something that
I have believed we should have been doing a long time ago, but it's gonna save us money. It's going to
imp, uh, increase our local generation. And that's on the list. We're doing that today. And
I really want to thank, uh, all the work that zach, your team has done, and,
and austin energy, I know has helped as well. We had to, we had to rush
this one a little bit to, to meet a deadline, and I think we're gonna do it. So
really kudos to you on that. Um, item 41, something that, that I'm
bringing forward to increase residential solar, uh, bring more of that to
our community, uh, in new innovative ways. And I wanna thank my co-sponsors,
council member fuentes, velasquez siegel and lane on that.
but within that is also how we can enhance demand response, which is also on our
list of actionable items. And so we are really moving the ball forward
today, uh, in terms of getting closer to our environmental goals
as a city. And last but not least, I'd be remiss if I didn't thank council member ellis for
all her work on the mopac south, uh, expansion project. Not just this resolution,
but, uh, you have championed all that needs to be done, uh,
in order to make that project better and, and, uh, hopefully
not have an adverse impact on our community like it's currently scheduled to do. So I just appreciate
your dedication to that. Thanks. Council member, council member lane. Council
member deon. Thank you, mayor. Um, first, as it relates to item 37,
I wanna thank council member siegel for his leadership, the co-sponsors who brought
this forward for us, and absolutely the many community members
who have spoken about their, the direct impacts of these issues on their lives. You
should not have to come and tell us about these experiences, and
I am so grateful that you did. Um, I'd like to be added as a cons co-sponsor
for item 37. Without objection, council member lang will be added as a co-sponsor
of item number 37. Thank you. As it relates to item 27,
which, um, is about the salvation army women and children's shelter,
I am very pleased that austin is continuing its support of the austin shelter
for women and children. Shelter for children together with their guardians is a
critical component of austin's emergency shelter and homeless response programs, the need
for which has grown dramatically over the last five years. Our existing shelter
system was designed before families with children faced housing instability
in the numbers that they now do. Thank you to director gray and the homeless strategy
and operations team for your continued efforts to ensure adequate shelter for austin's
children, which includes sustaining this downtown shelter for women and
children, but also requires first expanding access to family shelter
outside of central austin and closer to children's home schools
and neighborhoods. And second, adding a family shelter option that is accessible
to men caring for children members. I hope to have your support and working with
director gray as we move through both budget and bond discussions so that austin makes
progress this year on the critical goal of shelter for children and their
guardians. While austin's financial realities are tougher than they have ever been,
austin's children and their guardians cannot continue to wait for us as a council
and a city to prioritize expanded access to family shelter.
with respect to item 64, the mopac expansion, I wanna express my
support encouraging c-t-r-m-a to re reevaluate their draft
environmental assessment of this expansion. And to find the middle ground on this project.
widening by two lanes does not align with the city's goals. Environmentally,
yes, but also with respect to transit and mobility. We must find a way
to develop responsibly because this is a very sensitive area, surrounded by sensitive populations
that it is our duty to protect. And so I would also like to be added as a co-sponsor
on this item. Uh, without objection, councilman lane be shown as a, a
co-sponsor of item number 64. And finally, on a happier note,
uh, I am a co-sponsor of item 40, the drag, which relates to the dragon vote
festival. I wanna thank council member vela for his leadership in mobilizing city
support for this longstanding tradition in amy mock for her years of dedication to
austin, ensuring that we celebrate our asian community, both
near my home in north northwest austin and in the heart of our city this weekend. I
will see you there. Thank you. Thank you. Council member. Council member uchin.
thank you, mayor. I wanna just flag a couple of items. First, items seven,
eight, and 23. Uh, I wanna point out that these items
are just gonna help austin grow our local energy production to make us more resilient, more
cost effective, and more environmentally friendly, which are exactly the three priorities
that austin energy has for us. For item nine, which councilor alter touched
on the estancia hill country development is a positive
for the city of austin. It's gonna allow for and support the development of both single
family homes, as well as other housing types that we commonly encourage.
and it's gonna allow broader market activity that's going to, I think, encourage,
uh, vast, uh, and diverse groups of people to settle
down their residents. They're gonna put down roots there for generations to come.
item 35, 31, I'm not sure if we brought up yet. Um, I'm voting yes
in this item to revise our policy for license agreements, a very sexy item
and the right of way relationships for historic buildings and structures. Uh, the
exemption here is well taken, but we're only here. The action is
only really necessary because the cost of the agreements has grown considerably over
the last decades. Agreements that I think in the first place we're there to simply guarantee
the city's legal right to access the public infrastructure
have instead transformed into becoming a revenue generation tool.
and so we've seen now in several instances where formally insignificant
fees have become, uh, for some os knights thousands of dollars
that, uh, essentially become approaching
a whole yearly tax bill for them. So as we're reviewing the positive impacts
of the exemption for historic structures, I wanna encourage us as a city to review the
totality of these contracts to ensure that our calculations are justifiable
and fair for all. And then finally, for item 64, I wanna
thank council member ellis for her work on this. I also request to be added
to a co-sponsor the latest version of this item. And I'm also hopeful going forward
as a council district that borders on the proposed expansion area
that I can actively work with my colleagues on solutions here. Without objection, council
member ducen will be shown as a co-sponsor of item number 64. Thank you, council,
member members, is there anyone wishing to abstain from
a vote on the consent agenda? Uh, as the motion second
came in, anyone wishing to be shown recusing themselves from
a vote on any item on the consent agenda? Anyone wishing
to be shown voting no on any item on the consent agenda as it was read?
hearing none without objection. The consent agenda is adopted with council member harper
madison, absent members as I indicated. Uh,
now what we will do is we will go to our public communication
agenda item, uh, the, for the, just to give a little bit of heads
up on where we will go. We will do this, uh, then we will
go into an executive session. Uh, we will have, we will still have live
music, but I've arranged to have, uh, somebody from acme
uh, do the introduction of the live music so that we can go continue to do the work of the
council, uh, in, in executive session when we return
from the executive session and for the public that's here on other items.
I don't know how long the executive session's going to take, but it will, it, it, it, um,
just please pay attention so that you'll be here. What we will do, however, is the
first item we will take up will be the board of directors meeting of the au austin housing
finance corporation. And then we will take up immediately following that
item number six. So with that, uh, I'll turn to the city
clerk to call for our general public communication.
thank you, mayor. We'll begin with adrian macias, marianne
sanchez, valerie menard, pedro hernandez, jr.
mad gutierrez, please state your name and begin speaking
folks. Hey, everybody that's, uh, in the council chambers, I would
please ask that you wait to start your conversations until you get out so
that we can continue with our work. Thank you very much for that. We appreciate your being here.
please, uh, whatever order he called your names, but feel free to begin.
I had a slideshow with my presentation. Thank you.
good afternoon, mayor and city council members. My name is adrian macias. I am one of the
youth. Um, I am one of the youth coordinators for poes
summer youth program, young scholars for justice, or wise j for short.
I have been a youth coordinator since 2022 when I was invited to help with the scheduling
and programming for the youth program by pos director susana amanza, who was also
my grandmother.
sorry. Before stepping into this leadership program, I was a y street student
myself. I joined the program in 2016 when I was just 13 years old,
alongside my two older brothers. At that age, I didn't fully understand the
importance of the work I was stepping into, but over time, ysj became a
shape that shaped my perspective, my voice, and my purpose. Through the program, we learned
about the history of austin, not just the version you find in textbooks, but the lived experiences
of our communities. We learned about the racism that has deeply, that has
been deeply rooted in austin's past and how those systems continue, continue to impact
families. Today we started gentrification and
how it has displaced generations of people from their neighborhoods. We
talked about juvenile justice and how young people are affected by inequities in the
system. We learned about the victories that many community members
and organizations like pura have fought hard to achieve victories like
the shutdown of the tank farm, the holly power plant, and the victory against
peer casting y street didn't just teach me history, it gave
me the tools to become part of that change. I developed skills in public speaking, leadership
and community organizing. I learned how to work with others
and to advocate for my community. These are the skills that I carry with me
every day and then continue to shape the work that I do. Now as
a youth coordinator, I have the opportunity and responsibility to give back to the same program
that helped shape me. I want the next generation to understand not only where they
come from, but also the power that they have to shape where we are going. Programs
like yj are important because they invest in young people, not just as students,
but the fu. But as future leaders, organizers, and decision makers,
yj summer youth program starts this summer from june 1st through june 25th,
monday through thursday from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm ages 14 through
18 may join, and every week students attend receive
$160 stipend per week. You can find out more information and fill out an
application on our website, poe austin.org. On that note,
we would like to invite everybody to poes 35th anniversary. The anniversary
will take place at colony godo from six to 9:00 pm we will have
dinner and dance, and also have an award ceremony honoring those who have earned portes
social justice leadership award. Thank you for your time.
I begin, okay, please, yes. Just state your name for the record. Uh, maria sanchez with poed.
thank you counsel. Centering on clean energy education and advocacy.
poed solar equity campaign is founded on the energy cost burden, unreliability
and clean energy and equity that's faced by east austin's low income communities of color.
energy poverty. Studies conducted across texas have reflected the disparate
burden that these demographics faced face compounded by
the climate change and affordability crisis that austinites are enduring in
tandem with the ever increasing cost of living in austin. Just a few years ago,
city council district three experienced the highest increase, 23%
in austin energy rates lived in shared experiences during extreme weather
events. Highlight the lack of reliability that our energy grid desperately needs.
solar installation, solar installations, and batteries that produce reliable,
clean, and affordable energy at all times have the potential to remediate these issues.
unfortunately, many austinites lack access to solar energy because they're
renters cannot afford the steep upfront costs, lack awareness,
sufficient property standards, et cetera. A survey that poder conducted found
that a combination of these factors inhibit many of our community members from inclusive
participation. As such, poder host solar workshops throughout east austin
communities working to raise awareness about the advantages of clean renewable
energy and connecting them to local solar resources and initiatives.
we leverage educational tools such as our solar laia, which is characterized
by solar energy and sustainability related terms. Poed also
advocates for the advancement of solar at the city and state levels. Locally.
poed has engaged with allison elementary's, pta, and campus architectural team
in addition to the cdc and haka to ensure that solar is incorporated into
the allison elementary and santa rita courts. Redevelopments poed additionally participated
in the electric utility commission working group for the resource generation and climate
protection plan. Update submitting recommendations to ensure austin energy
prioritizes clean energy, community needs and divestment from fossil fuels.
looking to the future, poed and its partners will continue to champion local
and statewide coalition efforts toward a clean, affordable energy transition.
we believe that we must use creative mechanisms to foster greater deployment of solar energy
projects within our most disadvantaged communities. In austin, low
income communities of color tend to benefit from reduced energy costs, re
resiliency, and a healthier environment for the austin community at large, in
accordance with our city's climate equity goals, we encourage the city of austin and austin energy
to continue to explore the avenues that could allow solar to be implemented at every opportunity.
thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you.
whoever wants to go next. Good.
a good morning. Oh, afternoon , uh, mayor watson and council members.
we're here today as you might might, uh, can tell, uh, to celebrate well
that 31st anniversary to share information with you about, um,
some of our programs. I have a slide. Could you state your name? I'm sorry. This is
valerie menard with bo of for
the colorado river conservancy.
thank you. So I am the project director for the colorado river conservancy,
also a project of poed. Uh, the colorado river conservancy was,
uh, founded in 2020 by, um, daniel yez,
chris brown, linda guerrero, and susan almanza.
and as a coalition, it was organized to protect, uh, preserve and restore
one's most precious natural resources. The wild green stretch of the lower
colorado river that runs from east austin's longhorn dam to the travis county line.
um, to preserve the colorado river, um, we bled and crc
joined the ra's crown volunteer river testing program in 2022.
testing the river at two locations, the, uh, onlo bridge,
uh, considered a pristine section of the river and near the dog's
paw in austin's colony. We also continue to work to minimize the
impact of impending development along the river. Uh,
to protect the river, po and sierra sea built a strong partnership with the austin
watershed protection department. Uh, wpd led by, uh, manager
jure morale, wpd staff and crc in the
loop regarding issues of concern. Um, through the partnership with that and
the crc successful successfully lobbied city council on march 27th, 2025,
to pass the, uh, wpds colorado river protections ordinance
that expanded the erosion hazard zone to 200, 200 feet and 2025.
with that ncoc joined the wpds rain to river community activation
group to help revise the strategic plan to be more inclusive of underserved
communities. Uh, to restore the colorado river po and crc
supported efforts by the wpd to restore the bridge at roy guerero park and
stabilize areas of the park damaged by erosion completed in 2026. The project
was cost 28.5 million, is the largest erosion control project in
austin's history. Our next concern is the, um, pumping station
that will direct all storm drainage from the expanded ih 35 to
the montopolis bridge. Um, and so we are ready to
support the wpde and the city in its efforts to find the 21.65 million
they'll need to finish in and install a filtering system that will make sure
the storm drainage water, uh, runoff from the expanded I three five will be clear
of particulate pollution. Uh, finally, um, our future stewards,
everything we do will include our ysj, our, our young folks. Uh,
we include them in the river testing part part. Um, they get to see what we do there,
but the youth is always gonna be in our minds, um,
and our future of projects. And very quickly, we have our anniversary. Also wanted to mention we
have free panels, and the last one is today
at, uh, roy. Thank you. Can I just mention this? We, we solved it on the
previous slide, so thank you very much. Yes, thank you,
please. Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is
ma gutierrez and I'm one of the youth coordinators at poed young scholars for justice program.
I've been a part of poed since 2017 as a youth scholar and eventually became a
youth co coordinator in 2023. After acquiring two associates
in general, science and biology at a cc poes and scholars for justice
has taught me many values in my community from organizing to communicating and sculpting
me and becoming a young leader. I'm proud to share that our program has
continued to grow with now regular summer ysj at the advanced ysj.
the advanced ysj program meets biweekly throughout the year outside of the summer session
and focuses more on in-depth and current issues related to political and social justice.
students who complete the summer program are invited to continue their involvement throughout advance ysj,
where they gain more exposure and engagement. Some of the topics and activities
are at events ysj students have participated in, include youth candidate forums,
voter registration, discussions on artificial intelligence and data centers,
and conversations around birthright citizenship and emergency preparedness.
lastly, I would like to invite you all to ed's 35th anniversary celebration friday
may 1st from six to 9:00 pm at the k guerrero center.
during this event, we'll host an award ceremony honoring recipients of the poed social justice
leadership award. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
yes. Um, good afternoon
council members. My name is bianca guerrero and I'm board president of far east austin,
cdc, and a sustainability analyst and organizer with boded austin.
um, if I could have the slide go on at the very last 30 seconds, that'd be great.
um, I'm here to speak for the residents of austin's colony in 7 8 7 2 5,
a community just outside of the city, but right next to tesla's gigafactory
and, um, left to deal with the water crisis that should not exist anywhere
while tesla receives clean water. A clean city of austin water, our neighborhood
is stuck with a privatized utility monopoly delivering discolored
foul smelling undrinkable water to a marginalized committee, uh, community.
um, that is not sustainable. And it is not just, this is an environmental justice
issue. Families are paying high monthly bills for water they cannot trust, while
also absorbing the costs of damaged plumbing water heaters, and,
um, needing to buy bottled water just to meet the basic needs. For the last
two years, we've partnered with ut bridges project to sample
drinking water quality in the neighborhood. And those results are coming soon.
um, we are not asking you to imagine the problem. We're bringing data and we
are bringing the lived reality of people who live in this, um,
live with this every day. I want to thank poed for investing
time, resources, and care into austin's colony, and for helping this community
better understand document and fight for the solutions we need
that support matters. Um, poed is also hosting a free legislative
workshop to help residents understand how bills move through texas legislature,
because we need policy change, not more delay. Um, those
workshops start this weekend and you can find more on poed, uh, website.
um, and finally, I hope you'll join us on may 1st for our 35th anniversary
at the conley guerrero senior activity center. We'll have dinner dancing, and a chance
to reflect on, uh, justice work still ahead. Um, I
also wanna thank councilwoman vanessa fuentes and state rep lulu
flores for their state and local town hall that was given at the dell valley opportunity center.
um, thank you and clean water for all. Thank you.
yes. Good afternoon, mayor council members. My name is carlos
pinon and I'm the resilience program coordinator at ed. Though I've worked here full time
since february, 2023. I actually started as an intern in the winter of 2018 when
I was a student in environmental science at ut. My experience then was incredibly
important for my personal and political development. Bold is one of few places in austin that
understood just how interwoven the struggle for a cleaner, safer, and healthier
environment is with the struggle against racism, exploitation of working class communities,
and the legacy of settle colonialism. It was me and just one other student, then
making maps in arc gis and helping susanna to write reports on how code x would've
compounded the impacts of gentrification that began here years before I was even born.
prior to po I spent maybe 95% of my time on campus. And there
in my program was little mention of environmental justice. It was only through this internship
that I learned how to be an active participant in the issues affecting the most vulnerable, to
listen to and build relationships with longtime residents of a place that I didn't grow
up in. And to understand the responsibility of using my skills and talents to support
my community. Now things have come full circle in a way. As a part of
my work, I'm deeply involved with the bridges program, which bianca mentioned. Um, it's a
collaborative project between poed and the environmental science institute at ut co-created
with three primary goals. One, to have community members in the eastern crescent
lead research projects that will ultimately provide, uh, material benefits to their
neighborhoods through data that supports lived experiences, policy change and skill
building. Two, to establish a bi-directional learning model and build expertise among
community members so that they may conduct the research themselves. And three, to go against
the history of extractive relationships between academia and communities. Originally,
we were funded by the national science foundation for five years. However, last april, our
grant was terminated. Shortly after our years long work with austin energy
to bring residential solar to working class communities and bolster the community. Solar program
took an incalculable hit when the epa solar for all grants were rescinded.
poda also submitted a federal grant application for the first time ever, when the epa lesson
barriers to entry through the grantmakers program so that we could construct a network of
resilience hubs in mentalis. But that went to, despite our losses,
we continue to fight and we celebrate next friday, may 1st, we
invite all to commemorate the depo that was founded 35 years ago. Our gathering
offers an opportunity for us to reflect on the struggles and victories we've had for over three decades,
alongside many community members and organizations. We fought fuel storage tanks, power
plants, garbage truck facilities, upzoning, unaffordable, housing displacement,
and the destruction of our green spaces. To this day, we still pass on the
lessons we've learned to the next generation. We work to preserve the colorado river east of 35
to lower the costs of utility bills and fares to take on private water
companies and developers who prioritize profit over community needs. We rise up for
equitable education, economic development, the preservation of working class neighborhoods, built
over generations, basic human rights and environmental justice. The
struggle is long and continuous. Thank you. Thank you.
carolyn rose kennedy silver, white mountain, george reyna.
if your name's been called, please come forward and if you're already,
sir, if you'd like to go ahead, please go ahead. Just state your name for the record.
alright. Okay. Hello. Um,
hello. My name is george rain. I'm here to talk to city council people in this room, people
watching and listening wherever you are into the future audiences of the city council meeting
when they watch or listen to it. Um,
I was told, I said a lot of ums and ahs. So lemme go ahead and get those out of the way before I
continue.
and a few more are gonna slip by. So please bear with me. I'm trying to get better at,
um, public speaking or speech speaking. Um,
I'm here to talk about hard red light runners and stop sign pauses.
hard red light runners are drivers who after the yellow light has turned red, that
they run it. I understand when the light is yellow trying to make the light,
or if you have an aggressive driver behind you, you don't want to, you have to gas it 'cause you don't want
to get hit. Uh, you don't wanna get rear-ended. But now they're eating
into the time of pedestrians trying to cross the street when they have the right of way.
and the only time I have the right of way is when, uh, the sign
says walk. So I'm trying to follow that. Um,
also stop sign pauses are people that treat a stop sign as a yield sign.
and I know we can't stop 'em, but at the same time, maybe I'm just talking to
them like, I understand you're focusing on cars, but you need to take a moment,
scan the sidewalks for walkers, people on bikes, mopeds scooters,
e-bikes, et cetera. Um,
to close. Speaking to the red light runners and the
the oh the stop sign pauses. Please
don't eat up my time. Um,
and if you can make the light, make it, but try not to eat my slice of pie. Leave
mine alone because, uh, you're eating
my time crossing the street when I have the right of way. I thank
you. Thank you. Ms. Kennedy.
oh, um, carolyn rose kennedy.
thank y'all for having me
and thanks for serving all of y'all. I,
the day I met caesar chavez,
I was 17, fresh outta high school.
I planned to volunteer all
summer. I, excuse me,
I, I chose caesar chavez and
his crew to boycott lettuce.
I told my parents I was going to california.
I am, I'm third of nine kids.
dad said, do you need some money? Mom
cried all night. God bless her.
I went to california by bus. It took
me a day and a half to get there.
I was wearing t-shirt, blue jeans,
cutoffs, and bare feet.
I, I looked at him in
the eyes, cesar chavez, and I said,
hi, I'm kennedy. I'm
from texas. He looked at me
and looked at, looked at my bare feet
and he said, where's your boots?
that's all. Amen.
thank you. Thank you. Yes.
silver white mountain here. Afternoon, council mayor zenobia
c joseph tries to get y'all's cooperation through dollar figures.
I will try to get her point across through a different angle
and possibly a higher power. Since I feel compelled
to do this. Our lifespan could be determined by
disease, accident, suicide, and homicide. Whereas
maximum lifespan is determined by rate of aging.
aging rates vary between individuals based on lifespan, genetics,
and the environment. Here in our city, certain factors greatly contribute
to a shorter lifespan. There's the air quality issue here in austin because
of all the pollution from traffic, there's road rates that causes physical
and mental stress. Also losing time that we are never going to
get back because it takes longer to get from one place to another. The
rate of aging is significantly elevated by living in
austin. So now I'd like to quote denzel washington from
the movie the equalizer. Do the right
thing because we all have a limited lifespan and it's getting shorter
by the minute. Everyone will expire and it won't necessarily
be at boot hill with your ancestors. Action
play video.
there's a trail that leads from dodge up here to boot hill
that many people travel it by choice because it stops right here.
most of the men lying here thought they were heading somewhere else,
but this is where they ended for all their trouble, I know I'm matt dillon,
us marshall. Part of my job is to steer 'em away from here,
to keep 'em from a useless, violent end. But
now, and then there's one who won't listen. And more often than not,
he's buried out here alone and forgotten.
I need to pay tribute to my mother. A a half breed, a warrior, a missionary
who later in life earn her credentials to become a pastor because
of her. I cannot curse as I had my mouth washed out with soap.
I need to come clean and confess one of my sins here in front of the public before
I die. I do not want to be near people with aids. Vanessa
fuentes. Topic, proclamation dedication on february, 2026.
2026 was about aids. The first aids case was
reported in austin, texas in the summer of 1983. Not much
was known about aids back then. Over 40 years ago. I was working at the
texas department of health back in the eighties at a young age,
even though I was not in direct contact with people that had aids, I quit
my job. 'cause other people in the office I worked with
were in direct contact with those patients. I did not
have empathy back then, and that's contrary to christians. Thank you.
thank you mayor. That concludes all public communication speakers. Thank
y'all, um, members that as you've just heard that it concludes all of the people that have signed up
to speak in our, uh, general public communication. As I've indicated,
we're now gonna go into an executive session. When we return from the executive session,
the first item we will take up will be the board of directors meeting of the austin housing
finance corporation. And then we will take up item number six while we are
in executive session. Uh, we will continue with our live music
tradition and we will have a live music. Uh, they will be introdu.
the the, the music will be introduced by, uh, acme, uh, our,
our our acme department. So with that being said, uh, the city council
will now go into a closed executive session to take up two items
pursuant to section 5 5 1 0 7, 1 of the government code. The city
council will discuss legal issues related to item 66, discuss
legal issues related to sb four passed during the 85th texas legislative
session regarding enforcement by local government entities of state and federal immigration
laws. This will be a private consultation with legal counsel pursuant to 5 5 1 0 7 1
of the government code. In addition, pursuant to sections 5 5 1 0 7 1
and 5 5 1 0 7 2 of the government code, the city council will discuss
legal issues and real estate matters related to item 67. That
will be a discussion of legal and relate and real estate matters related to the acquisition by
imminent domain of a fee. Simple interest in right of way, consisting of approximately
0.282 acres, 12,301
square feet. Located at zero zero mount larson road, austin, texas
7 8 7 4 6 for the public use of situating
a communications tower to provide radio coverage in support of all city and
county public safety and public service departments and agencies.
this will be a private consultation with our legal counsel pursuant to 5 5 1 0 7 1
of the government code. And a discussion of real property matters pursuant to section
5 5 1 0 7 2 of the government code. There being
no objection to us going into an executive session on the items announced. The council will
now go into executive session at 12:59 pm hold
apd accountable.
my name is angela means director of arts culture, music and entertainment.
and it is a pleasure to be here today to introduce our
musician of the day for the city of austin. As little j
from dale. From dale. I knew I was gonna say
it like we say it in san diego, california. Little j from the
o hi uhhuh austin, texas.
all right. And I see his family's here, so I wanna make sure I give y'all a
shout out. Thank you for being here. This is a big deal. Thank y'all.
I hope you are proud of him. Lil
j from the o is a rising reality rap artist from austin,
texas known for blending raw street perspectives
with authentic texas storytelling rooted in
real life experience. His music reflects the realities,
the res, the resilience, ambition and culture of the city
that shaped him. Delivering records that resonate across generations
and communities. His sound captures the grit of
southern hip hop while remaining accessible, energetic,
and purpose driven building consistent momentum.
lil j from the o is a two time official south
by southwest artists establishing himself as
a standout presence on one of the world's most influential
music stages. That is a big deal. He
has toured across texas, alongside texas legend
several legends, but chino bling further expanding his reach
and live performance reputation throughout the region.
his rise has earned him notable recognition across respected
platforms, including being labeled next to below by rap
economics. Top 20 texas latino artists by texas
buzz and recognized as a top 20 rap artists
by austin streets tv. These accolades reflect both
his growing influence and the respect he's earned within texas
hip hop culture. He has received genuine
co-signs from iconic artists such as paul wall bby
and lil kiki, and has established groundwork with artists
like chino bling, gt garza, slim
thug, oc chris that mexican ot, the
baby, and more at his plat. As his platform
continues to grow, he remains focused on representing austin
with authenticity while pushing texas hip hop forward on a
national level. Thank you.
okay, and I have a proclamation for you and I'm
gonna read it on behalf of this city council. The mayor and city council,
be it known that whereas the city of austin, texas is blessed
with many creative musicians whose talent extends to virtually
every musical genre. And whereas our music
scene thrives because austin audiences support good music
produced by legends, our local favorites and newcomers alike.
and whereas we are pleased to showcase and support our local artists.
now, therefore, I angela means
I am the director of acme of the live music capital of the world
due hereby proclaim april 23rd, 2026
as lil j day in austin. Woo.
thank you.
I feel like before I get started, I just wanna shout out a few people that played a big role in uh,
to where I'm at today. And first and foremost, I want to give a shout to jose.
um, part of the council. He played a big role as far as like getting to
me where I'm at and achieving this goal. Um, greg,
uh, shelby, everybody that has played a part to get to where
I'm at, um, it's crazy how to thank uh, a little get a boy in
the east side projects can one day, um, have its own day in its own
city. So, um, it's definitely a huge stepping stone for me. Um,
this is just the beginning to where I, I see myself, um,
but thankful for everybody that is here today and anybody that plays
my music or plays any part of seeing me grow. So
this is for the city.
let's go. Let's go n boy. Let's give him a show.
hey, a, you turn me up on the mic a little bit.
I want to hear myself a little bit more. Aye hey,
hey, hey. I'm this hop beat be
rap. So when it come to this paper I wanted them blues. I ain't taking no dust, no
handout trying to look like a million. I step in the building, it look like one off a scratch out.
no, this came for the payment. I put put that in if you played it this man down and
I'm going way harder than ever expected. They still can't said it but they going respect as far
as the days that I used be re I put on the beat, now I get straight to re and I today the people,
they can't even compare. I'm feeling out whoever declared, I always stay ready. No need
to prepare. They saying this, well I came here declared they taking no days off or behind
the next part in the middle of summer. They call it the class clown. Now you look like cash
cow who get some money, need all my, they come in the bun replying the
pressure for things that I want and don't know how to quit. Mama say don't something. Some things never changed. Never
changed with the money. I kept it on honey. Huh?
I kept it on honey. Hey let's go.
hey, I am that test made mexican, huh? Let's go.
hey, I ain't finna tell y'all how I got away with this s**t.
let's go. Hey, hey. I said back then,
then won. But now popping today, y'all on me nine days going do a show in. Let's
pull it. Our homie big do I clip these other just small ponies
down outside. We gripping gray. We chops like paul blend. Don't elevating my name.
don't hear me up. With no small budget. Gc game. The vbs going
to bang for me. Section eight. Y'all spoon fed. Can't even see in my lane homie. I been
doing my thing homie. Chase makes real change homie. I I take you back when. I ain't
even know I who I was. Y texas talk. Now that texas boy done got a
buzz. I made a way. That's why they hey, but s**t, you gotta love it. I bet they
changed they mind when supposed be pulling up his bumper. Kids don't bump your lift because by best
ain't good. Come around my side of town. You know we on that texas, I said bumper kids
don't bump lifts because by best ain't go come around my side of town.
you know he on
going crazy. Hey, I got one more song
for you. If you came a long way had to go the hallway,
this song's dedicated to you. Ah,
let's go hi to the wrong down the path. I guess I had to learn a hard
way. Let's go. Hey,
I done came a long way. I
to the wrong way down the path. I guess I had to learn a whole way.
I, I guess I had to learn a hard way. I done came
a long, long way. I to the wrong way down
a path. I guess I had to learn a hard way.
I guess I had to learn a hard way. I done came a long way up out the trenches.
I had to be the difference. They trying to beat me when I'm down. So I just keep my
distance. You know, my phone didn't only ring when that's beneficial. I had to
hard times. Hey, I had my fair share. I had to learn to grow
from pain that I can't on bel just certain things I would not say. I keep that to myself.
I add like I don't really know, but I be willing, aware. I'm going for hey,
for sure for tribulation and trials. Been traumatized by certain things that I done seen
as a child. A lot that I let go. 'cause if I don't, it just pile lot of
things went on my mind that outta sky with a smile dedicated to this rep. I put
my life on the line. No substitution. If I fall, I got my family, my spine
hardworking, perseverance, they gonna pay over time. My hardworking perseverance.
they, I done
I to the wrong way down a path. I guess I had to learn the hard way.
hey, I guess I had to learn the hard way I done came a
long, long way. I to the wrong way down
a path. I guess I had to learn the hard way. Hey,
I guess I had to learn the hard way. Ain't promised no tomorrow. But one thing for sir,
but every second I got, I'm chasing there for my purpose. It's when they tell you
you worthless when you find what your worth is. I'm trying to break this fan cycle. That's good.
or with curses. I'm not in day with this microphone trying to make it happen. So many
people done told me y'all wouldn't make a rapping. But now they see me performing. I went
and make connections. My life was damn. But I went and made a change of direction.
so much built up deep inside that I could have blown a piston. I guess my love and my loyalty
was just used against me. Can't jeopardize what I'm working for. I got five pennants.
so that's my reasons why I get up off my and get it. I know I'm desperate for greatness
down. Its time for the riches. Now with the scars that I've gained for the
trenches, I had to give him my all knock straight out the hinges. I'm just a person
with problems that going vent with these lyrics I done came a long way.
huh? I took the wrong way down a path. Guess I had to learn a whole
way. Hey, I guess I had to learn a
hard way. I done came a long, long way.
I to the wrong way down a path against. I had to learn the hallway way.
hey, I guess I had to learn the hallway way I then came a
long way. Love, man. I love y'all in texas.
you don't wanna sleep.
can we take down
good afternoon everybody. It is 2 59 and we are out of the closed
session. In the closed session we discussed legal issues and real estate matters related
to item 66 and 67. Um, members.
members. Um, without objection, we will recess the meeting
of the austin city council, um, at 3:00 pm
there's no objection. So we are in recess and I will now call to order the board
of directors meeting of the austin housing finance corporation. Um,
and we have a quorum of the board of directors of the austin housing finance corporation present,
uh, with, uh, and, and I will turn to
we're by the way, we're meeting, it's on, uh, april 23rd, 2026 at 3:00 pm
and we are meeting in city council chambers located in city hall at 3 0 1 west
second street. And we will recognize our professional staff to talk
to, uh, the board of directors. Good afternoon y'all. I am
nicole jocelyn. I'm the housing and community development officer for austin housing.
I am here to present the agenda for the a hfc board meeting today.
we have two items on consent. The first item
is to approve the minutes for the previous board of directors meetings
for march 12th, march 26th and april 9th.
item number two is to authorize a amended loan
agreement with the la vista de lopez lp
in an amount not to exceed one point, uh, 1 6 0 5
$5 million for a total loan amount, not to exceed $6,233,365
for a multifamily rental development known as la vista de lopez, located
at 8 0 9 east ninth street. This loan is
utilizing homestead preservation district tax increment reinvestment
zone funds and it is located in district one. And that is
all we have on the agenda today. Uh, thank you very much. Uh, clerk, do we have any, uh,
speakers? Yes, we have one speaker on item
hfc 0 0 2. Zenobia joseph,
welcome ms. Joseph. Thank you mayor pro
tim members, I'm enovia joseph. My comments are specifically
related to the $1 million request. The actual application
says project connect and it specifies plaza saltillo fee
in lie. I just think that this particular project is a
bit deceptive. If I'm correct, I think it's 10 stories, 27
units, $20 million total. That's about $734,000
per unit. If it's only 27 units, maybe the staff can clarify.
there was a discussion june 10th, 2025 community development
commission where mandy demille actually mentioned the hud funding about $3 million.
it is however unclear why we would spend that much money on
one unit. I just wanna make you aware, this is 27 units for the senior
citizens and the senior citizens and northeast austin specifically do
not have transportation on breaker lane. 3 92 is eliminated
to collinwood. And so my comments are always in the context of
title six of the civil rights act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination
based on race, color, or national origin. I would call to your attention that harris branch
senior living, it's about two miles to walk on dessa to the nearest bus stop.
and so I am having some difficulty understanding how you could invest $734,000
in one unit per elder. And it's about a mile
walk from the wells branch, merrill town as well. And so it's
an equitable, it's discriminatory, and it also would violate the fair
housing act in 1968. So if you could just see clarification on the funding
mechanism. It's started at 16 million. It's only about eight
affordable units at 30% area median income. And then there
are 19, uh, total for 50%
area median income or median family income. It just seems a bit excessive
and I would ask you to table the item and recognize that it's not cost effective.
if you have any questions, I'll gladly answer them at this time. Thank you, mr. Joseph. You're welcome.
no other speakers. That concludes all speakers. Thank you. Then, uh,
with the, uh, can I-a-f-c-a austin housing
finance corporation, uh, the consent agenda would include the
approval of the minutes and approval of item two. Is there a motion? A motion from
council member alter second from council member of velasquez, uh,
any, uh, objections then? Without objection, the
h of the consent agenda is approved.
going back to then, actually we were,
yes. Alright. Uh,
then sorry. Do you have the list of folks who are off the diocese? Uh,
thank you for the reminder with, uh, council member harper madison,
uh, uh, absent and, uh, the mayor of the
diocese and, uh, council member lane off the dais. Let the record reflect
that, uh, on the consent agenda vote, those three members were, uh, not
present for the vote. Uh, and with, uh, that vote, then
we will, uh, adjourn the meeting of the austin housing finance corporation
and we will, uh, return, uh, to the meeting
of the austin city council, uh,
clerk, where are we on the speakers
when we're done with the consent agenda item? And we're going to item six. Yes,
sir. Then, uh, we'll go ahead and call up item six, and please call
any speakers on item six. Thank you. It'll be, uh, we'll start with remote
speakers. The first one will be ira ner.
good afternoon, uh, mayor and city council members. Uh,
my name is ira ner and I'm the ceo of rita development,
the developer of the proposed coda project. We believe
this project will be transformational to the dell valley
and eastern crescent communities. The proposed project will
create thousands of excellent construction and permanent jobs
of very significant new tax base and literally billions
of positive economic impact when built. It will
also become an anchor and town center for austin's eastern
crescent and dell valley communities. These are very
complex public private partnership agreements and will
need the cooperation and support throughout the city,
including staff city legal, and of course, you
council members and the mayor once coming to fruition.
we see a tremendous future for that region.
as a result of significant infrastructure
and follow on projects, we have developed similar projects in
florida, texas, colorado, and california, and seeing these projects
literally transform their local communities, we look forward to
working towards making this vision reality. We thank you
for your support and are here to answer any questions.
thank you. Uh, mr. Mr. We'll now move to in-person
speakers on item six. Susan spataro is sharon
blythe here. Thank you. Susan. Will have four minutes.
also, willie gonzalez. Gus trujillo. Marquita
presley.
good afternoon counsel. Susan pitaro, district eight. I'm here
to speak very favorably for this, uh, item.
I think that I remember back when coda first came, it
was built in the economic, um, desired development
zone. And so people were very enthusiastic about getting, you know, some
real structure out there. It's done a wonderful job of
growing with the community and providing benefits
for everyone. And an, an interesting number to have
is that from, in a, in the period of 2012
to 2021, angeles angelo did an economic
analysis of, of coda. And what they know, what they
concluded is that the economic benefit was a billion dollars
a year. And that facility has expanded. This is the
perfect compliment for that. It provides jobs,
good jobs, it works, can work with the hospitality program
at dell valley high school. And, you know, I, I watched the
work session the other day on the budget, and people are concerned about
not enough economic growth. This is really good economic growth.
the other thing is that they're worried about, you know, what
is the future of property taxes? And I get that, but
one of the things you do then is you focus more on sales taxes. And
that's what this building does. But they also pay property
taxes. And I think that's important because many facilities
out there really don't pay property taxes. Uh, coda pays property taxes
and, and these people will pay property taxes. They will also generate
many, many other taxes. The hot tax is something that I kind
of call a, but for tax, in other words, it,
if there isn't a hotel, then there is no hot tax. And so there's
nothing to redistribute. So I think it is extremely important
that the agreement on hot tax makes a whole lot of
sense. And that is you build a hotel, it generates hot tax and a whole lot
of other things. And if in fact, the hot tax is
not gathered, then they don't get it back. And there's no
loss to the city of austin whatsoever. So I think this is a, a,
a really excellent project. Um, my understanding is
that it has, these projects have succeeded, like the previous gentleman said
in other areas. So it's not as though it's totally new. It's
the perfect compliment for coda. Um, so I would
encourage you to, um, approve this. Uh, one
more thing I would like to say on this item is it's in the dell valley independent
school district. Why is that important? Well, the enrollment is a little over,
uh, 11,000 students, but 92.5%
come from economically disadvantaged homes. We should be concerned
about being able to provide assets training
for that district. And when I've seen projects working
with that district, they're very successful because the kids there wanna learn,
the parents want them too. So I think this is a really nice, um,
blend with with the school district. Um, and one
more thing is that, you know, I I think
it's consistent with what we wanna do in this city. All day long I've
been hearing people not having jobs, not having money. This is jobs, this
is money, it's good jobs, construction jobs, long time fits
nicely into the, the, the complex dakota. So thank you very much. I hope
you will support this
jania marbury, jen robshaw, bill bunch,
michael waylan.
uh, good afternoon, mayor and city council. My name's willie gonzalez.
I'm the secretary treasurer for local 23. We represent hospitality workers
here in austin. So we are here in support of item six.
um, I'd like to speak about this in terms of the workers,
the people who work in the hospitality industry that are a
backbone of this city. The people that get up every morning,
go to work every day, clean those hotel rooms, cook
the food, serve the drink sometimes to an upset guest and make
'em feel better. And then go home to their family. And at the end of the week,
try and figure out if they have enough money to go out on saturday night and spend some time with their family.
um, this is about them too. Many of these projects talk
about the building, the thing, the project, the land. I wanna
talk about those workers, you know, and, and they're important is they're
the ones that make the industry succeed and working with
employers that are willing to do the right thing. Rita,
we have worked with them in houston and created good jobs
in that city. This, there is a very good example,
two hours to the east of here of working with rita, where they created
good jobs and, and made an impact on people's lives and created
a good standard for those workers. So we have to look at
these projects, not just in terms of the economic value as
they say. They assess how much it brings to the city about what it does for those workers.
and there's a track record with rita and we are here to talk about it. 'cause we've,
we've been partners with them on that. Um, so for
us, and a few months, a few years ago, this council
said they wanted to take some steps to make sure the airport jobs were
good jobs. And we did that. And you'll
hear from some of those people. And that was a decision that was made.
and so you'll hear from some of those people now. Thank you very much.
please state your name and begin speaking whoever wants to go next.
good afternoon, mayor and city council. My name is marquita presley
and I'm a cashier at areas. Former delaware north concession stands at the
austin airport. A few years ago, we started organizing at the airport.
since then, with the help of many of you in particular, city councilor,
city council, woman, vanessa fuentes, we have really, we
have really changed the jobs at the airport. These
are now good jobs with good wages, benefits. In most of all respect,
I have now been able to move into a bigger place and was able to pay off my
car early. I no longer have to live. Check
to check. Many of my coworkers have been impacted as well. Many brought
their first car and purchased homes for the first time. For this
reason, I'm excited to support this project. The more we create jobs, so
good hotel jobs, the more we can raise standards for hotel workers and
all hospitality workers in this city. Thank you. You thank you.
and congratulations. Thank you. That's good. Good
afternoon, mayor and city council. My name is, uh, gus trujillo.
I work at the hilton austin airport. I'm a supervisor and I have worked at
this hotel for over three years now. Uh, prior to working at the hilton,
I worked with a property management company downtown. At that job, I was
overworked and I was still not making enough income. As a result,
I had to be a lyft driver on the weekends. It was difficult with, it was difficult
because I was living paycheck to paycheck despite working every day without a day off.
shortly after I began working at the hilton, we organized our union.
we were able to win good raises and improve our benefits.
that has allowed me to le lead a better life. Uh, I can now afford
to pay my bills with one job, and I'm able to take vacations and have
a balanced life. The other important thing we won was respect.
with the union, we are able to speak up and sit down with management
and work through issues. I'm excited to support this hotel development
because the more good hotel jobs we create, the more we will raise
the standard for all hotel hotel workers across austin. Thank you.
thank you. Please.
hello, my name is jania marre, and I'm an organizer
with unite here in houston, texas. But before becoming
an organizer, I was a housekeeper at the marriott marquee
in san francisco. And those were good jobs,
but when I moved to texas, it was, I was shocked to see the difference.
um, but luckily I got a job at houston marriott marquee,
and which, you know, it is owned by rita. That hotel
became a industry leader and worker standards
from wages to benefits. Also,
workload was changed when issues came up.
we were able to sit with management and work it out with local management,
um, in a respectful atmosphere.
that hotel also helped raise standards and
jobs in the area. As someone who's worked
for rita before, I can testify
firsthand
that the commitment to treating and creating good jobs for
the workers in the community. Thank you. Thank you.
continue on item six, enovia, joseph,
katie, cam,
mr. Bunch. Thank you mayor. Uh, council member bill bunch,
speaking as individual, uh, resident of district five. Um,
this item is proposing to authorize your staff
to negotiate and execute in the back room, a business expansion
program for this giant, uh, ultra luxury resort
hotel out at the, uh, f1 racetrack that's being
proposed. It's a 30 year agreement. Your back, uh, does not even
tell you how much projected money you're gonna give
away. 75% of the hotel
tax will be rebated to the owner operator.
um, who is, uh, this, uh, gaylord
rita global multi-billion dollar resort
developer. Um, this is not an agreement for workers.
this is a giant corporate welfare blank check
for, we don't even know how much money. Would one of you please ask
how much money it is projected to be.
and if you really want to help these workers, I don't think there's an agreement in place.
your backup says that it's gonna save 25, they're gonna pay a little bit over market
rates, maybe even 25%. It's just a suggestion, though.
you should put this on hold until you see the agreement that locks in
what it is given to the workers, what is promised to the workers and in writing.
and then see if that's actually a substantial fraction of this
corporate welfare. I also wanna make a point of order and ask mayor if
I might have, uh, four more minutes, because you're combining three
different items here. And as you know, all of you know
now we get two minutes per item. This
is authorizing your staff to cut a deal in the back room.
it's then waiving and erasing two important
ordinances for transparency and public hearings and public
notice. Thank you mr. Bunch. Do I get my four minutes more?
it's certainly implicit in my thanks. Was that you? You don't, okay. I just
wanted that on the record. Well, I, I'm, appreciate that. Yep,
go ahead katie. Kim, and I think I have four minutes from two minutes
donated. Is, uh, betsy greenberg here? Perfect. Yes she is. Yes. Katie cam will
have four minutes. Okay. Thank you. Hello, I'm katie cam, resident of district nine.
I've spoken before about my concerns with how the hotel occupancy tax hot revenue is
used for this item. The plan is to return most of the city's hot revenue that the hotel
generates directly back to the hotel in exchange for agreements made between the city and hotel.
I understand the good intentions of creating an agreement that brings benefits to the community. However,
economic impacts and benefits need to be questioned and viewed from a wider perspective that
considers the costs, especially opportunity costs. In other words, what is
the detrimental cost to the community of giving the hot revenue to the hotel? First,
this will result in loss of funding for other valued programs. Using the texas open
data portal, we can retrieve the local hot revenue reported by the city
to the texas comptroller. The texas tax code allows for up to 15%
of the hot revenue for cultural arts and 15% for historic preservation.
however, according to the data, the city of austin reported to the texas comptroller. The
city of austin has not been spending up to 15% of the hot revenue for cultural
arts and historic preservation. The last time those categories received 15%
each was in 2019. Since then, the percentage has dropped to 13%
in 2020, 12% in 2021, and 11.7%
since 2022. According to a pie chart online,
with the source listed as austin convention center, I'll hold it
up here. If the multi-billion dollar convention center is built, then the percentage of hot revenue
that will go to cultural arts and historic preservation drops to 9.5%
each. Even though texas law allows for 15% each,
this is concerning and will hurt the cultural arts that contribute to a vibrant cultural
and tourism economy. In addition, I've spoken about how we can better support
musicians, artists, and other creatives in austin through the texas tax code section 3 51
provisions that allow for use of hot revenue without a percent limit.
for instance, the city can use the revenue to promote the creative works. In events of austin
residents, the city can hire local artists, musicians, and other creatives to serve as ambassadors
to encourage more people to visit austin. Second, subsidizing
a hotel by returning hot revenue sets a precedent. This opens the door for
other hotels to ask for hot revenue, further eroding away the revenue available to support
their creatives in historic and cultural venues in austin. This
hotel would be built without this plan to give them hot revenue. Using hot revenue
to subsidize corporate events and multinational corporate entities is not the highest
and best use of this revenue. With that said, if city council decides
to proceed with this proposal to provide hot revenue directly back to the hotel,
I ask for the following conditions. One require, as bill bunch
said before, the final agreement is made that the agreement with the labor union is finalized
and signed to protect the workers and require the hotel to honor that portion of
the deal. Two require that the final labor union agreement
inc. Includes support not only for livable wages, health benefits and pension,
but also for financial support of educational and creative pursuits.
what is the quality of those 900 full-time jobs for career and personal development?
perhaps they don't want to be working in hotel, they have bigger dreams and visions.
so let's have a policy to help austin res residents reach their full
potential. In this case, in the agreement, every employee in those 900 full-time
jobs should have access to funding to pursue an education or even perhaps dreams
of being an artist, musician, actor, or become a contributor to austin's creative economy.
thanks,
michael. Waylon on, uh, behalf of rita coda hotel, llc.
um, like the others before me, I wanna start by thanking council member
fuentes for leading on this item and for helping to craft a project and
a partnership that is truly dell valley strong. As you've
heard me say already, this agreement will bring a transformative project
to dell valley creating a long awaited economic anchor for the eastern
crescent. The agreement structure that we're seeking
would ensure there are no upfront dollars coming from the city.
absolutely none. Rita takes on the full $985 million
financing, construction and operations risk. All the risk,
any rebate would be completely performance based and would be
tied directly to the actual hotel occupancy tax receipts
that are remitted by the hotel to the city. If the
hotel is not built, there would be no hotel occupancy tax.
if the hotel generates no hotel occupancy tax
revenue, there would be no rebate available to
rita. The economic impact of this project is immense.
it's projected to generate over $10 billion in overall economic benefit
to the community over the next 30 years, including over $600 million
in total property taxes to the city, county, dell valley
independent school district, a cc, and central health.
as you well know by now, this agreement will ultimately deliver
hundreds of permanent union jobs at the hotel. And we are grateful,
very grateful to unite here for their partnership and their support
of this item. Also, as always, I'm available to answer any
questions that you might have about, uh, the project and
where we're headed. Thank you very much. Thank you,
ms. Joseph. Thank you mayor council. I'm enovia joseph, I'm
just going to read into the record as I did on tuesday during the work session. My opposition,
it is the language as mr. Bunch mentioned earlier, where you are approving
an ordinance waiving the staff presentation, public announcement, and portal setup
and public hearing requirement. But in backup, if you look at f on
page one of two, it specifies pursuant to the chapter three
80 policy, the city manager conducted a review of the business expansion
program, including extensive public outreach and input and
offered revisions to improve the effectiveness of the program. If you look at
the past three 80 agreements, specifically samsung and apple, I want
you to recognize that we've heard these lofty promises before. I
want you to understand that there's a 425 acre development east village across
from samsung, and you have refused to invest in any transit. There
are over 2000 units within two miles of samsung. And I want you to
recognize it's a one to five mile walk to affordable housing. The nearest bus
stop, 3 92 is approximately three miles. So what I
want you to recognize, mayor, is that this is fraud. Fraud
is trying to get something of value through willful misrepresentation. On one hand,
you say that you want public input on the other, you say that you don't. I want you
to recognize that you added part three to the 200, the 2024
ordinance, and specifically it's adding austin transit partnership.
as you're aware, the light rail will never go to northeast austin
in perpetuity. It stops at crestview station. And as it relates
to the part three, it specifies that, uh, the city manager
can promulgate rules. But I want you to recognize that you refuse to comply with
your publicly promulgated rules, regulations, and procedures. If you have any
questions, mayor, I'll gladly answer them at this time. But it is a lofty goal to say
that transit will be a part of this project because you've not demonstrated
a willingness to commit to getting low income residents to the job.
thank you, justice. Thank you, mayor. That concludes all speakers on item
six. Thank you. Um, member members, those are all the speakers
on item number six. Let me ask if anybody has any questions of staff
before we go forward. But in that case then, uh, I'll
entertain a motion with regard to item number six. Council member fuentes, you're
recognized I move to. Okay. Um, council member fuentes moves
approval of item number six. It's seconded by council member velazquez.
um, I'm gonna recognize council member fuentes. Thank you colleagues. I know we had
a discussion about this item on tuesday at the work session. Uh, just wanted to
continue with the conversation. First, give my wholehearted things to everyone that showed up to
support this item. Special thank you to unite here. Also, wanna thank the dell
valley community coalition. Their letter of support is in the backup, as well as
the southeast neighborhood contact team is also supporting the item as
it relates to the pud, which we'll discuss later today. But I just wanted to demonstrate
the strong community support that we have for this economic
anchor that that is proposed for a city partnership in southeast austin.
and when I think about the needs of the dell valley community and what our dell
valley community deserves, it's exactly this. It's jobs that are
stable, jobs that are close to home. It's parks where our kids can play.
it's a kind of real investment that other parts of austin has seen for decades
and yet hasn't. We haven't materialized that in our dell valley community. And so that's why
there is such strong support for this type of proposal because it really is first
of its kind and will be transformative. We're talking about 900
jobs that pay livable wages that come with benefits and pension.
we're also talking about upfront guarantees with this partnership. And that
includes two full-sized developed public soccer fields,
nearly 12 acres of parkland and space for a potential recreation
center. We also fought to secure a $1.5 million
contribution to the affordable housing trust fund. And that goes towards exactly the
families that need it the most. And with this type of proposal, we are
ensuring a new and steady stream of revenue for our struggling schools in de valley,
isd and for city services in which our families depend upon.
and one thing that I didn't mention on tuesday is that there's also a local discount program
for dell valley residents that they also can enjoy and participate
in activities at the resort. So there's a lot of good community benefits
baked into this proposal, and I'm excited to see the momentum move forward,
uh, with your consideration. And what is special about this type of project
is that all of these guarantees are made up front before a single guest
ever checks in and without spending a single penny from our general fund.
and so this project specifically leverages funding from hotel taxes. Um,
I know we'll talk a little bit more about that further. Uh, but with that, I just wanted to signal my
strong support for this partnership and appreciate your consideration. Thank
you. Further discussion, council member alter. Thank you very much. And I just
want to, I guess third, uh, what council member fuentes
has mentioned, you know, this is going to be a transformative project
for an area that has been under invested for too long and
bring really high quality, high paying jobs to that
area. Um, that being said, and we had the opportunity
on tuesday to talk about some of the, the nuances
of how this is going to work mechanically, this is the first time we've done a three 80
with hotel occupancy tax, and there are just some subtle
questions in there as it relates to unintended consequences. We wanna
make sure it doesn't impact, uh, adversely, um, some
other things that we're doing as a city. And so I do have a motion that
I've shared, and this is to continue to move forward with this, uh,
to authorize negotiation, but not yet execution. So we will
get those terms sorted out, have then the final agreement,
come back to the council, but just so we can be sure that we have all those details
ironed out. Uh, and I am with this, you know, very committed
to seeing this deal moved forward. I just wanna make sure that, like I said, some
of those nuances that we haven't, 'cause we haven't done this before, that we get it
all, uh, properly,
uh, established. So I, I will be making that motion at the appropriate
time, but just wanna highlight that. Uh, why don't we do, why don't we do that
if there's sir, turn it off. Alright. Um,
members, unless there's objection, what I, what I would do is
recognize council member alter's motion to amend. We can
have a discussion on the motion to amend, and then we will come, of
course, vote on that, and then come back to the main motion, uh, if regard
whether it passes or doesn't pass the motion to amend. And then we'll have further discussion.
is that appropriate for everybody? Alright. Council member
alter moves. Amendment of item number six.
you have that in front of you. He has described that, uh, he moves to
amend. It's, it's alter council member. Alter number one. Uh, is there
a second? Second by council member uchin discussion on the motion
to amend. Yes. Council member fuentes. Thank you. You know, I just,
colleagues of my office has been involved with the proposal,
um, for many months now. And I just wanna lay out my priorities for consideration
as this amendment is considered by the diocese. And my priorities
for this partnership have been three things. One, to bring significant
economic development to dell valley in the greater southeast austin region. Two,
bringing high paying high quality jobs to the people of austin, especially
for our dell valley community. And three, to ensure that we bring in additional revenue
to support cultural arts and our local arts and music
community, all of which stand to benefit from the additional hotel taxes
generated from this proposal. Thank you.
um, yes. And by the way, a number of people have signed up.
I'm, I don't know. So I, I'll just call names because I worry I, some people may
have signed up thinking they were gonna speak on the main motion. Yeah. And, and, and that, so I'll, I'll, I'll
try to organize that. Council member lane, this is on the motion to amend
mm-hmm . I have a question for mr. Waylon as I understand the implications of
this motion, mr. Waylon,
your name. So I understand the desire to balance,
um, caution and
execution of an agreement. Um, it seems to me
when I read the amendment that what this does is
remove the clarity that your client would otherwise have as to whether the
council is in agreement with these terms. Can you speak
to that a little bit? Perhaps? I certainly wouldn't wanna vote based on a misunderstanding. No. Uh,
michael whalen on behalf of, uh, rita, uh, coda hotel. So just
so there is clarity on that point, uh,
mr. Mier has made it clear to me that he can't have the civil engineers and
the architects really begin until there is an agreement in place.
um, I mean, that's, that's the bottom line for him. So,
uh, the lack of clarity won't help until there is clarity, as you just
noted. And that clarity will come with an agreement. And if that agreement needs
to come back, uh, that's the will of the council. We
understand, I mean, we're gonna abide by the will of the council, obviously, but as
a private citizen, mr. Miter isn't gonna invest the, uh,
extraordinary dollars until he's got a, an agreement that's
clear. And more importantly, that, uh, isn't subject
year to year to, uh, uh, uh, appropriations
from a council 10 years from now, or 15 years from now. There's gonna need to be clarity, just
like you have with your bonds and any bonds that you issue. There just needs
to be clarity in the agreement that there's a stream of payment that, uh, the
financial, the capital markets are gonna expect, uh, when he seeks the
size loan that he's seeking. Thank you, sir.
it is not done till it's done and until it's signed on the dotted line,
we haven't signaled our actual commitment in the way that is needed. So this would effectively
serve as a postponement of that commitment? It does, it is definitely
a postponement of that commitment. And, and he'll, uh, if that's the will of
the council, obviously, uh, mr. Mitch's gonna abide by that will, and it just
postpones, uh, opening, you know, he's hoping to have it open by, uh,
uh, 2030 october, 2030 for the, uh, formula one race. Then,
uh, that's actually, it seems very long way, but his building
permit alone will be thousands of pages long. I mean, it's a very large project, obviously,
with a conference center out there. So I, I myself
have clarity on where I stand in relation to this agreement. Um, so I
would, I will be opposing this motion to amend. Um, and
I'll also simply share that, you know, part of what I, I ran on
was, um, actually, I'm gonna stop right there.
y'all know where I stand. I'll pass it off to others. Thank you. Thank you. Council member.
um, councilman roller, if I might ask you a question,
and, and you may have said it earlier, but I want, I, I just wanna make sure I have clarity,
the reason to not all have an execution of
the item. Uh, now, uh,
describe what, why we, we wouldn't want to do that right now. Yeah,
so there are some open questions as
it relates to hotel occupancy taxes and use of those taxes as it
implicates the city's own bond issuances.
uh, you know, these bonds are used for the convention center,
and because we don't have resolution on
what those impacts would be it, without
knowing the specified terms of the deal, and then how those terms
impact our operations as a city,
we could inadvertently be authorizing something that the council
doesn't know what the impact's gonna be to other very important
city assets and, and revenue generation. So what this is doing
is saying, we're going to go do that negotiation and,
and then have the clarity of what are all the impacts of this deal?
come back to the council and then we can weigh those, uh, things. And
my, is my sincere hope, and I'm gonna be the first one, uh, on the call
with our lawyers to, to get it right so that if they'll take call, right, we can deliver
all this , um, and, and
make those terms work out. This is not intended to delay, to kill this is
get it right. So that, 'cause what could happen is we do what we do
today. We send staff to go negotiate,
and there is an inability to meet the terms
of the other side, and that's it. We have no, that, that's the end
of the conversation for the council. And this allows for us to be able
to have that input and, and get a deal done
to make this, this ultimately happen. So this is meant to, to
get us to the finish line, not to take us anywhere backwards. Okay. Thank you for that clarification.
I'll, I'll say from my perspective, um, on, on
this, and the, the main motion is that as,
as I saw, uh, the various iterations of how
we get to this, one of the things that concerned me was the impact
that it would have, uh, with the, the hotel occupancy
tax, the impact it might have on the convention center.
and we have a whole lot going on with our convention center. And it,
I don't want, I want this deal to go through, uh, for all the good reasons
that we're talking about, but I wanna make sure we're not in an effort to get
that deal to go through, uh, and in our, in our eagerness
to do that, doing damage to something we don't know about. And
so I'll support the motion to amend for the reason of it, making sure
that we get to, we, we do it in the right way. We cross t's
and dot I's, um, I think that, you know, my hat's off to council
member fuentes for, uh, bringing this forward and to,
I think it's a, well, it's, as I say, I'm supportive. I just wanna
make sure we cross t's and dot I's any further discussion
on the motion to amend. Alright. The vote will be on the
motion to amend all those in favor of the motion to amend.
raise your hand.
alright. It, uh, passes unanimously with, um, council member
harper madison being absent, members that will take us back to the main
motion as amended. So this is item number six as
amended. Uh, mayor pro. Tim, you're recognized. Uh, thank you, mar,
I actually, mr. Waylon, uh, could come back down for just a couple of
questions.
uh, yes, sir, mr. Win. Um, we've, uh, talked a a little bit
about this, uh, off the da, but I wanted to make sure
that our local artists are gonna be a
priority when we talk about the, uh, you know, prints and
paintings that are gonna be at the hotel, any sculptures, any artistic features, and, uh,
and all of that. Uh, and, and I was just, uh, wondering if you could, uh, uh, address
that. Yes. Uh, michael whalen on behalf of, uh, rita, and apologies, uh,
mr. Mitter was cut off as soon as he was speaking. Um, but he and I have talked
about this. They typically have, well, they not typically, they
absolutely have an art budget as part of the project as it's getting built. That's number one.
and they typically have a preference to use local artists in
order to ensure that the look and feel of the hotel and the
grounds blend with the local flavor. They're not interested in,
uh, having flavor that looks like orlando or flavor. That
looks like, uh, uh, uh, houston, where their houston product. 'cause
when they built the houston marriott, they did the same thing. They use local talent,
local artists to help, uh, fill the project,
uh, the rooms and other aspects of, uh, the hotel. Same thing
happened in chula vista. They used california artists, uh, for much of the
public areas so that it, it's just, uh, it makes common sense and
they're committed to doing that. Absolutely. Very important. Well, uh, uh,
I, I appreciate that. And, uh, I know when we were talking about this, you
know, we, we kind of went back and forth on what is a local artist. I mean, I, I, I don't
think it would be right to limit it to just city of austin, even though ultimately this is our project.
I don't even think it'd be right to limit it to travis county because I mean, there's a lot of local artists that
have moved out to bastrop and lockhart and, you know, uh, uh, I mean,
you know, farther than that even they, they still kind of are austin artists and
consider austin home. But for whatever reason, they've, uh, moved, uh, kind of out of the, the core,
uh, urban, uh, area. Uh, so again, I, I don't have
an amendment to that effect to say, but, uh, I just wanted,
you know, you to represent and, and on behalf of, of mr. Misner
to represent, uh, that, that there will be that, uh,
emphasis on using, uh, local artists for the project. Yeah, I, I mean, I think the proof's
in the pudding. I think you've heard from unite here, the proofs in the pudding with rita and their track
record. I think if you look at any of their lobbies or any of their, uh, facilities
or rooms, you'll see the proofs in the pudding in terms of using, uh, local artists that
can bring that flavor. Great. And I just wanted to also say that publicly for
staff, I know we're still negotiating this agreement, and like I said, I, I don't wanna amend
it because I, I'm, I don't have that language. I, I, I'm not sure what I would put in there,
but I just wanted to make sure and, and, uh, and, and just offer direction
to, uh, staff to make sure that we are supporting our local artists
as a part of the agreement. Uh, and then finally, I just wanted to say thank you to all the folks from,
uh, unite 23, uh, and appreciate y'all being here. And I'm sorry that
this has gone so long. It's been a, a full day for council, but I, I just,
I really appreciate you getting here and, and still being here. And, uh,
it's been a, a long day. But, uh, again, thank y'all so much. Yeah. Council
member ry, um, I'll make my comments as short and sweet as I can.
um, I just want to congratulate district two and, uh, council
mayor fuentes on her leadership around this. I, I think it's really important. You know, I, I represent
a district that I think, you know, has a lot of, uh, opportunity
and, and an abundance of, of resources at times. And folks unfortunately on the east side don't
always have that. So I think this is a, a game changer, uh, for the region, um, council
fund that's already highlighted all the great stuff it's gonna do. So I'm really excited to see it, it come to,
to district two. Uh, and then also wanna, um, thank
unite here 23 for, for being here as long as y'all have. I appreciate the pizza slice,
uh, that I, I snuck in before executive session. Uh, but, but truthfully, I,
I appreciate everyone, um, you know, having worked with unite here folks, uh,
for years and just the work that y'all do, uh, you know,
jobs of, of dignity and, and so much importance. Uh, so I really do want to just say
thank y'all for, for everything y'all do and, and really excited what this means for, for
district two, what it means for workers and what it means for our city. Thank
you. Council member. Council member uchin. Thank you, mayor.
I just wanted to flag a couple of things. Um, first, like everybody,
a, a real huge appreciation for all the stakeholders, councilor fuentes,
uh, all our work here. Uh, we included in backup today
a letter from the southeast neighborhood plan contact team that highlights two opportunities that
I haven't heard a lot of discussion around. So just wanna highlight them. One is to address
what appears to be a known water quality issue in the area, and two,
is to potentially create some pathways for community youth to
access assets and vocational programs. And so I'm just hopeful
that going forward we can be thoughtful about incorporating some of these opportunities in the agreements.
thanks. Thank you. Council member, uh, I'll recognize,
uh, council member fuentes to close on the motion to
approve item number six as amended. Thank you. Thank you. Council
member uchin for highlighting the southeast neighborhoods contact teams, um,
support letter. I just wanted to flag that there is a commitment to work with the
dell valley isd for internship pathways, uh, through their career and technical institute.
and certainly having a hospitality base, uh, is exciting and something that
is part of the commitments being made moving forward. Also, the water quality
issue that is highlighted for dell valley is an austin colony, which is a complicated
part of the dell valley community, uh, largely residing in the etj.
uh, and so certainly part of, as you all know, dell is a huge part
of austin and crosses three different council districts and is partly in the county.
um, but that's what makes this proposal so exciting and such a milestone
in our commitment and really having a first of its kind type
of city partnership in the area. I had the opportunity to have
a, a town hall with state representative lulu flores, uh, last weekend in dell
valley. And when we talked about this proposal specifically, the community applauded
about the partnership. They really are appreciative and see the potential
that we have here, um, with this type of partnership. So I have a lot of hope
and faith and what this means for our southeast austin community. And just wanna
share my appreciation for everyone who has shared their support along the way
and, and grateful for this council's consideration. Thank you. Thank
you. Council member. Uh, there being no further discussion. Do you?
I had my hand raised, but it went down. Okay. I'd
love to say something. That's okay. After this is over, let's come over here and I'll show you how this works. .
I'll pushed it, I'm telling you. Um, okay. Thank you so much. Um,
I, I, I, I also wanted to note how much it meant means to me to hear
from the members of our unite here, um, union
and so many community members. Um, thank you to council member vela for
covering the last few of my concerns there is the, the artistic and
creative community is certainly of strong importance to me and, and council member
fuentes for her leadership. The last thing that I really would like to
touch on is thinking our economic development staff who've been working around the clock on
not just this agreement, yes, this agreement and others that are so
critical to our city's ability to rise to the challenge of our current financial realities
combined with the pressing community needs that we know we have with both
thoughtfulness and speed. And thank you for allowing me to ask the questions
I have. Um, and I appreciate your thoughtfulness so
that we don't need to waiver from our shareholder values even as speed signals
to all that. Austin is in fact open for business that will help us weather the current financial
storm. I'm really pleased to join you all in supporting this agreement.
thank you there being no further discussion on item number six as amended,
uh, without objection. Item number six as amended
is approved with, uh, council member harper madison, off the dive. Congratulations
everybody. Congratulations y'all. And thank you for what you do.
members that will take us to item number 29,
item number 29, which was pulled from the consent agenda. And I will
turn to the city clerk to start calling on speakers for item number 29.
thank you, mayor. For item 29, we have catherine garcia,
hans maverick, bill bunch, chris harris,
ben sotheby, please state your name and begin speaking.
mr. Your name's been called. Please come forward.
please go ahead. Afternoon, mayor watson, am mayor. Hey,
one second everybody, everybody that's leaving the, uh, council chambers,
thank you for being here. We appreciate it, but if we could have you hold your conversations
until you get outside. Thank you.
uh, mayor watson, mayor proto vela council members, thank you for the opportunity
to testify today about item, uh, 29, the trust act.
my name is hans maverick and I'm a resident of council district 10. I'm also
a policy and research organizer for grassroots leadership here in austin.
uh, here's the thing. The last several years have seen an alarming growth in for-profit
mass surveillance systems. The companies that develop these technologies only
care about the money they can make from people from brokering people's data,
not people's civil and human rights. Despite res repeated
assurances to the contrary, many systems have been found to have back
doors that allow unauthorized access to the data they collect, as
if the authorized access wasn't bad enough.
we already know that employees of companies like flock have used their access to
these tools in ways that range from merely disturbing to downright
illegal. I worked for more than 20 years in the tech sector,
so I'm aware that these systems are never perfectly safe. Human
error, greed and racial bias com compromise their integrity
all too often. Because of that, I hope that this ordinance will give
austinites insight into and control over the decisions the city makes
about surveillance technology. In particular, the requirement
of a privacy impact assessment means that the council and the community
can make informed decisions about whether to adopt a given type
of surveillance technology. I want to shout out, uh, mayor proam
vela and council member siegel and their respective staffs for all their
hard work on this ordinance, especially for keeping community stakeholders
like us in the loop. Mayor tr pro tem velas motions
to reduce the exigent circumstances period to 60 days
and increase the lead time to review contracts to four weeks are welcome and necessary
improvements. I believe this ordinance strikes the proper balance between
safety in our public spaces and respect for austin residents. I
urge you to vote yes on the item. Thank you, mr. Sobe. Good afternoon.
I'm ben sobe, resident of d four, and I'm here to deliver testimony on behalf of
the no aprs coalition in support of the final trust
ordinance language. On today's agenda as item 29, our coalition
of over 35 organizations has watched council grapple
with a number of challenging decisions over the last year regarding whether to use
technology that compromises the civil liberties of austinites in the
name of public safety. These choices are difficult because council is tasked
with keeping our city safe. But navigating proposals that
involve surveillance often requires you all to learn about very new technologies quickly
enough to make policy decisions that impact millions of people.
we trust and support the trust act because we want to lend our support
to you as you navigate those decisions. And we believe the
amended ordinance language meaningfully expands our opportunity to do so by
ensuring we can lend our expertise with respect to surveillance, use contract
analysis and impacts on privacy. We believe trust is an important step in
the right direction, but we want to emphasize that implementing this policy
to the collective benefit of austinites requires vigilance from us and from
you all. Unethical companies like flock have found ways to circumvent
ordinances like trust in other cities. Moreover, we have to be ready
to respond to companies and technologies that haven't even been created yet.
even with trust, the necessity of learning, researching, and vetting remains
crucially. Trust offers us a longer window to analyze
and share insights with your offices. Avoiding last minute mobilizations
of community that is already deeply engrossed in def defending democracy.
and at capacity working to block the authoritarian consolidation of power taking
place in our community and in our country. We hope to offer material
relevant perspectives that will meaningfully support you and making decisions that serve our community.
in exchange, we trust that you will listen and engage with the concerns we raise.
we wanna express our gratitude to council member vela and council member siegel's offices
for working to draft that continue on item 29, daniela silva,
kard, writeoff mckenzie ryan.
justin wash, nick cavalero.
good afternoon, mayor and council. My name is daniella silva. I'm
a resident of district three here on my personal capacity to speak in
support of the trust act. Um, thank you council members for,
um, bringing this forward on the agenda. I know it's taken a lot of hard work and has been
very wonky work, um, getting this all together. There's a common joke
that congress could be sent to its knees simply by asking the members to reformat
a word document into pdf. While reductive, it does point to
a larger concern. Technology is evolving faster than our government has been able to
keep up with. You have the power to be more intentional with technology
adoption to protect austin residents from extractive and exploitative
companies who sell their harmful mass surveillance tech under the guise of keeping people
safe. But we have seen time and time and time again
that these technologies have often been abused and safeguards ignored when
adopted in cities across the country. The trust act is a step
in the right direction, allowing our elected officials and the public to
better understand the technologies we are spending our tax dollars on and implementing
into the daily lives of millions of people without their consent.
we know what keeps people safe. Investments in housing, healthcare,
public education, parks, restorative justice practices, and
the arts, not unbridled and unaccountable ai fueled
mass surveillance technologies that only see bodies but not humans.
please pass the trust act to begin to build our trust in you, that
you'll prioritize our rights to privacy and spend our tax dollars
on technologies that help and not harm us. Thank you.
thank you. Please, please begin. Hi,
my name is mckenzie ryan. Uh, certainly not as exciting a name as anita
bong hit, but nevertheless, I'm a digital rights attorney and a
resident of district nine. I'm speaking in support of the trust act today. I
wanna start by saying how much I respect the difficulty of the decisions this council faces.
you are regularly asked to evaluate really complex and fast moving technologies
and make policies that affect more than a million people. That's no small thing.
the fact that you're meeting that challenge directly with the ordinance speaks well to this body.
uh, the surveillance landscape shifts faster than any policy can possibly keep up with.
in 2016, I was a computer science major using a research grant to do work with my vision lab
for amazon's image recognition tool recognition, supposedly to help workers locate
packages that within a year was taken for mass
surveillance. Um, in just a few months time, ring quietly partnered with over
1300 agencies to share user's data without their knowledge. That's how
fast the landscape shifts. Not in decades, not in years, but in months and often in
secret. This surveillance fight requires vigilance from all of us.
you should honestly expect surveillance companies to violate this ordinance and for them to try
and work it in their favor in any way possible. They spend a lot of time and money doing that
exact same thing across the us constantly, and we should be ready to meet that challenge when
it arises. But this ordinance is a very good step in the right direction and provides
some pretty good safeguards against that. Surveillance technology is extraordinary,
difficult to understand in full the systems, the contracts, the downstream consequences.
I don't expect any single council member to have all the answers because no one possibly can.
that's exactly why something like the trust act matters. It creates a window for informed community
voices to bring their expertise and experiences before decisions are made, and gives council time to
review the contracts and consequences for these powerful tools so that what none of
us know in full doesn't end up hurting all of us. I'm grateful to mayor
pro tem vela and council member siegel for their leadership and strengthening this ordinance. Genuinely,
this council has shown that it takes civil liberty seriously, and I look forward to continue working
alongside you to keep austin free and privacy respective. Thank
you. Yes.
hi. And I am nick cavalero and I'm not
nos tonight. I've driven here from houston four times so far to either
speak out against invasive surveillance cameras or give my support for legislation
that restricts such camera systems flock. Cameras are
already in use in houston, used and are being misused. This
proposed privacy impact assessment will at the very least, help bring
light civil rights violations that will otherwise be ignored.
thank you. Thank you.
that concludes all speakers on item 29 members. That concludes all the speakers
on item number 29. I'll entertain a motion. Uh, the
mayor pro tem moves approval of item number 29. It's seconded by council member
cadre. Um, before we go to discussion members,
we have, uh, as I understand it, three proposed
amendments. Uh, the first amendment is by the mayor pro tem,
and then we have two proposed amendments by council member uchin. I'm gonna recognize
the mayor pro tem on his proposed amendment. You have it in front of you as
item number 29, april 23rd, 2026 mpt velas
motion sheet one mayor pro tem. You're recognized. Thank you, mayor.
uh, the one of the, the speakers mentioned it, but we're, uh,
increasing the time required to lay out the, the privacy
impact assessment from two weeks, uh, to four weeks.
uh, and then with regard to the city manager's
ability to adopt and use, uh, technologies and exigent
circumstances, we're, uh, reducing that, uh, timeframe from a 120,
uh, days to, to 60 days. Uh, and in a,
in a handful of different sections, uh, to again, to, to tighten up the requirements
to make sure that we're, uh, getting information quickly,
uh, and that the public is getting that same information quickly so we can all kinda make our assessments
of whether the, the, the technology is good and whether the the benefits
outweigh the the costs members. Uh, mayor pro tem vela moves
to amend item number 29 with vela, uh, amendment number
one. As he's indicated, it makes six different changes
all related to the two issues he's described. The motion to, uh,
amend by a council by member pro 10 vela is seconded by council member siegel,
is there discussion on the motion to amend vela number one
to item number 29? Hearing none without objection.
uh, vela amendment number one to item number 29 is adopted
with, uh, council member harper madison, absent that will take
us now to council member uchin proposed amendment number
one. Uh, it is labeled cm uchin amendment number one
on item 29. It is to amend the draft ordinance to
add a section 2 19 10 f.
council member uchin, you're recognized on uchin proposed amendment number one
to, to item 29. Thank you, mayor. Um,
I want to say a few comments, uh, just leading up to that. Um,
essentially this amendment is going to add some
additional language, uh, to subsection f
requiring additional reporting regarding this ordinance and its effect to the public, uh,
to public safety. So the amendment, or, uh,
sorry, the, the item actually has reporting in it, but it's regarding violation of civil liberties,
of misuse, of technology, of review, of other policies related to surveillance technology.
and that's, I'm happy that's in there. That's all vital.
what isn't included is whether the ordinance itself is slowing
down our adoption of reasonable technologies or preventing advances
in public safety to some unintended degree. And without
this amendment will only be reviewing what was permitted.
so I want us to know what was, what was the opportunity cost here for the city?
and, uh, and the specific concern, I think is just looking at other cities and how
they've adopted similar policies and recognizing that in some cases
it, you know, that has substantially delayed, uh, not even adopting, but even
just piloting technologies that might be useful, that may have taken many years
just to get to that stage. So I think it'd be valuable for us to know that.
I wanna further add, um, you know, I came this week
with every intention of supporting this
item. And, and I agree with my colleagues that, and, and often
frankly, it really the speakers that this is needed for our city.
uh, however, we've had recent outreach from various stakeholders that have given me
some pause on it. And that's one reason I want this amendment. And frankly,
I wish we had more time to discuss some of the details of this,
and I'm calling. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm very aware that for many of you, this is the first time you're hearing this.
in the future, I'd really like to be able to bring these issues to light in
discussions earlier. Part of what the challenge is, is I'm precluded from
discussing them with the authors by, uh, you know, open meetings act and sub quorum
policy. So while I'm broadly supportive of the policy,
um, that's gonna allow the city to employ technological
solutions for public safety interests, I worry that as it's currently
designed, it's gonna have some unintended consequences that may stymie our ability to adopt basic
technology for everyday quality of life issues that we deal with.
the current assessment process for minimal risk to civil liberties
appears in some cases overly broad. Um,
and that determines that any technology,
in essence may have greater than minimal risk that we're
talking about here. And I have a couple of examples to, to step through.
the presence of any one factor will weigh strongly against
this idea of minimal risk determination that's outlined in the
ordinance. Among those factors is whether
someone could associate anonymous data with quote a group.
and although not an attorney, logically, if any set of
data exists, by definition, that is a group
that alone could weigh strongly against the adoption of technology by city staff without
council approval. There are additional issues, however, pedantic
they may seem with grammar that we could be wise to resolve
before trying to implement this policy from a
privacy assessment algorithm. If the electronic device quote
can collect sensitive data, personal, uh, personnel information without
a warrant or quote, if technology allows for the
creation of data records that shall weigh strongly against a termination of
the technology is minimal risk. So can allow,
opens the doors for virtually anything you can think of.
and I can't think of many technologies that don't meet this threshold. Any database the
city has is collecting data and creating records,
and that could be captured in this process. One last example,
I'll move on. It shall weigh strongly against a minimal risk
assessment if a technology collects data that is disproportionately
associated with a particular demographic. I have to admit, I have no idea what
limiting principles would prevent this from applying to literally any data at all.
so I'm hoping that registered or, or made sense, but there's
language in here, and even per mayor pro tems
motion, we've been tinkering with this up until today. So,
uh, if we can't get this amendment passed, what I would then ask
is us to really consider postponing for two weeks. And
I wanna do that to make sure the language reflects both the community's needs and
the city's needs, because this is gonna be in place and working for us for years,
if not decades. And part of this, because the language has,
as I said, been tinkered with, and I think we need to strive to get it right,
this is gonna guide technology across many different departments.
we've seen the other cities like seattle struggle with unintended consequences of their comparable
policies. In some cases, we're seeing cities not even though, as
I said, pilot or understand whether there's an appropriate use that meets
the needs to adopt or purchase. And finally, the last thing
I'll say is we are already having to make tough budget choices and think
through those decisions, what to fund, what to scale back, recognizing
that we can't have at all. And that precarious balance
is also true for safety and our safety decisions. And we'll be short hundreds of
officers for several years. We, but at the same time, everybody here wants
more responsiveness. Uh, we want less crime.
and public safety professionals are gonna tell you the number one way to economically address
that gap is through smart, safe use of technology. So I'm just asking
y'all to take a little, either take a little longer to get this right or to consider the,
uh, consider this amendment, which just adds some additional reporting for us to,
to work on. Uh, so with that, I, uh,
uh, move for adoption council member uchin a moves approval of
uchin amendment number one to item 29. Is there a second? Council member? Ellis,
you're seconding the motion. It is seconded by council member ellis. Additional
discussion, mayor pro tim. Uh, and this is a discussion
on uchin proposed amendment number one to item 29. Uh,
a couple of, uh, of, of quick, uh, thoughts. Uh, we've
worked very closely with city staff to try to
minimize the administrative burden while trying to maximize, uh,
information, uh, available, uh, to the public. And again,
this item doesn't put the thumb and say, we are going to use this
technology and we're not going to use this technology. It just creates a framework
by which to analyze the types of surveillance technologies,
uh, that we do use. Uh, I don't have a problem
in principle for a review
from staff a year after this comes out, uh, to say,
hey, what kind of, 'cause the way I read it, uh, council member uchin, is that,
you know, is this too hard to implement? Is this causing too much of an administrative
burden or is this causing us problems in the pro pro procurement process?
my concern, honestly, I would, I would be supportive of
the amendment if it was direction and, and not in the actual kind
of court, 'cause you're here, we're amending the ordinance. Whereas I think direction
to, uh, have staff come back and, uh, report back after
a year of the trust act pending would be, uh, a more palatable, lemme lemme
just say, uh, that way, instead of putting it permanently in the ordinance, that I would, I would just offer
that as an amendment to the amendment. Could, could we make it direction instead
of, uh, instead of, uh, an an actual amendment to the ordinance?
I appreciate that suggestion. Can you help me understand the distinction between those
two options and what that looks like? Practically speaking, I just wanna also clarify really quickly to your point.
um, I think it, to me, it's less about the administrative burden
and instead capturing to understand if we are experiencing similar
challenges that I know you're well aware of that other cities have faced when implementing similar
policies regarding, uh, not the civil liberty side, but the technology
side. Are we, we being overly broad as per the examples that I listed
in our dragnet for capturing and reviewing technology that's in the city that may have
nothing to do with surveillance? Well, I would, this is a, a one time review. It's
not kind of an ongoing review that we're, I mean, it's basically divided into two parts.
one is existing technologies of which the city manager has, uh, oh
lord, I believe a year to return or, uh, uh, close to, uh,
a year to return with saying, hey, these are the existing types of surveillance technologies we use.
this is some basic information about them. And then for new technologies,
as we adopt them, again, just to take an example, the parks cameras,
there would be a before, again, four weeks before, uh,
it comes to council for, uh, the, the public where the, uh, privacy impact
assessment would be out there. So we could understand what data is being collected,
who is, uh, has access to it, how long are we keeping the data, you know,
those kinds of just relevant questions. And, and I put that out there, and I appreciate your comments on the
administrative burden because, for example, with the parks, uh, cameras item, again, not
to beat that, uh, uh, to death, but that, that's come forward a handful of times now. And, and
we didn't have the, the kind of the answers to some of the questions that we needed. This
is designed to, to make the, the discussion and debate and, you know,
adoption or rejection of those technologies more streamlined so we're not having to kind
of debate the same thing, uh, uh, again, and, and, and again. So,
uh, in, in a certain sense, even though we're creating kind of
a, a workflow around the adoption of these technologies,
I think ultimately it will reduce administrative burden in the sense that we're not
kind of having the same argument again and again and again, that that's the
goal of the, uh, uh, of the, the ordinance. So,
and again, we do, we're asking the city manager to come back with that report on
the existing technologies. Uh, again, I don't mind adding,
uh, your amendment kind of to that report to say that
are there are, are we tripping ourselves up in any ways or, you know, are there procurement concerns
and all of that? Like, I, I would just like it more as it's kind of a standalone report as
opposed, again, it's just kind of, it's a cleaner, I think, and better way to, uh, approach
what is ultimately a one time, like, it's, it's you're saying, hey, we want to, to
take a look at this. Uh, and I'm, I'm fine with that. I, I, I think direction
would probably be just a, a cleaner and better way to, to make it. So I would offer that as amendment
to the amendment. Mayor, I'm sorry, I don't have a, a document in front of me. I know you liked that, but
typically we wanna have a document. But let me, let me, um, I,
I'll, I'll, I'll try to provide a little help here. Um, what I would do is
I would take, for those that wanna follow along here, I would take, uh, uchin
amendment number one, strike the words additionally, one year after the
effective date of this ordinance and begin it. The city manager is directed to
work in coordination with austin technology services to conduct a review
of any procurement. Take that down to the third line from the bottom,
and then add at the, at the end of the sentence, that is
start, it doesn't start there, but it, it's completed. Uh, on that third line from
the bottom, this review should be conducted one year after the effective
date of this ordinance. And the findings of this review shall be provided as the public
safety committee. Uh, that would be what I would offer as direction
as opposed to an amendment of the ordinance. Uh,
yes. Council member walter, just for clarity, are we striking the add to
19 dash 10 f? Yes, of course. Thank you. Um, good
catch. So let me read this into the record and then I'll see
if, uh, there's a second to the motion to, if the vela motion
to amend is, instead of it reading, I move
to amend the draft ordinance to add 2 19 10
f it would read as direction to the city manager.
the city manager is directed to work in coordination with austin technology
services to conduct a review of any procurement, possible procurement or pilot
program of surveillance technology affected by this ordinance. The
review should assess impediments to technological advancement that may affect the
city's ability to serve the public. It will also determine if there are more effective
ways to use the technology and determine if it could improve efficiencies for other departments.
this review should be conducted one year after the effective date of
this ordinance, and the findings of this review shall be provided to the public safety
committee within 60 days following the one year anniversary of
the effective date. Is that your motion, mayor pro tem? I
I will second your motion. Mayor . Um,
all right. Um, the motion, uh, I guess it's
now wa I don't know how that happened, but, uh, yeah, I do, uh, became watson's
motion to amend the uchin amendment number one. Is there discussion
on that? Motion to amend hearing none without objection, watson.
motion to amend uchin amendment number one is adopted with council member harper madison,
absent. Um, so item number 29 is now
there has been amended, uh, by the vela amendment number one,
and then there is direction to the city manager. Uh, well, we gotta go back to the,
to, to, uh, I'm sorry. We gotta go back to the motion to amend by council
member uchin, which has now been amended to be direction to the city manager. Do you wanna
close? I'll just say very briefly, I appreciate
your, uh, accommodation on that and would look forward to the results.
and I think this addresses a lot of the concerns. I do think there's some language that still probably could
be cleaned up, but hopefully that can, that conversation
if need be, will happen in a year from now when we gather some additional information. Fair enough.
uh, members, the vote is on uchin amendment number one to item number
29 as it has been amended. Is there any further discussion? Hearing
none without objection. Uh, uchin amendment number one as amended
is adopted with council member harper madison being absent. That will now take
us to uchin proposed amendment number two to item number 29.
I'll go ahead and that. Alright, uh, council member uchin is pulling down,
uh, the, uh, motion to his, his second proposed motion to amend.
so members, that now takes us back to the main motion on item number 29.
item number 29, as amended. Council member siegel,
just brief comment before we go. What are you commenting on, on the
base motion? I guess, let me get, let me get it out there as a, as a base motion. Wonderful.
I'll recognize you right off the bat. Thank you, sir. Um, uh,
the discussion now is on the main motion, which is,
uh, the motion to motion to adopt item number 29 as
it has been amended by the vela motion number one
and uchin motion to amend number one as it
was amended. Council member siegel, you are happily recognized. Thank you, mayor, but, uh, mayor
pro tem, did you wanna go first? No. No. Okay. Thanks sir. Well, I just wanna say thank you, uh,
to mayor pro tem for your really important leadership on this and, and also the work of
your staff. The trust act is a critical procedural reform
that will provide public transparency and opportunities for discussion before the
city acquires new surveillance technology. And we've seen the need for the trust act
in prior votes where, uh, something was brought to us under the auspices,
for example, of license plate readers or park cameras, and we didn't have all the
information about the artificial intelligence backend and who could get access to that data.
and so this item, this trust act, really is gonna bring our procurement process
into the information age. It's a recognition that artificial intelligence and big
data present profound risks to our fundamental right to privacy and to our
civil liberties. Um, and I'm really thankful that the city is now becoming a
national leader in protecting our community from unwarranted surveillance and corporate
driven violations of privacy. Thank you, mayor. Thank you council mayor, any
further discussion? Mayor porter, I'll recognize you to close. Thank you, uh, very much.
uh, very excited to, uh, get this done. And I really want to thank
the, uh, stakeholders that we worked with, uh, very, uh, closely.
uh, grassroots leadership comes to montey hans out there, uh, uh, texas civil
rights project. There are too many, uh, to mention, but it was a, a really good collaborative
process to get here. Uh, I think this is, uh, a big step
forward, uh, and we, if we're gonna have good debates on
the diets, we need to have good information. We can't be guessing at things. We can't be
dealing with misinformation. We, you know, having that, uh, privacy impact assessment
in hand to refer to when we're debating, uh, the adoption of,
uh, surveillance technology, I think will really help center and ground our debates
in a, a more kind of factual and realistic and kind of weighing the cost against the
benefits. So, uh, very, uh, happy to, to see this, uh, move forward and, and
I think it will be a, a big step, uh, and a big change and, and serve as
a model hopefully for, um, for other cities. Uh, I just wanna
thank, um, uh, ko and, uh, from my office and, uh, emily
garrick from, uh, council member siegel's office, who have put in a lot of time
on this, uh, ordinance over the last, uh, six, eight months. Uh,
and, uh, it's a, it's a good document. Uh, I have to thank, uh, uh, deputy,
uh, city manager, john fortune, uh, the, the, the police department, the different
departments that have also kind of taken a look and given us guidance. We didn't want to
put something out there that was gonna, you know, make people just kind of go crazy and pull
out their hair about how difficult it is. We've talked to other cities where that was, uh,
that, that did, uh, cause major problems and, and gum up the work. That's
not what we're trying to do. And I just, I really appreciate their, uh, their, their thoughts and their guidance. And
with that, uh, close, thank you very much, mayor proti. Um, alright,
members there being no further discussion on, uh, this item on
item number 29 as amended, uh, without objection.
item number 29 is adopted as amended, uh, with
council member harper madison. Uh, absent, thank you. That will now take
us to item number 33. Uh, I'll turn
to the city clerk for comments, uh, by people. Well, I know we already had that,
we had that during the consent agenda. This item was pulled after we heard
the comments on the consent agenda, so I'll recognize council member ellis on item number 33.
we did, and I apologize if this is out of order, but I believe the applicant's, my
mic is way too loud. Um, I believe the applicant's representative is here
but had not signed up to speak. I don't know if it would be out of order to let them it be, do a brief
presentation. No, it would be out of order for them to, uh, to, to be able to speak
if they didn't sign up to speak. Okay, well, I've got a couple of the folks here. I know the
director of austin water is here, and I think our director of watershed protection.
oh, we've got liz. Okay. Our environmental officer is here. Um,
I just wanted to daylight this because I know a lot of folks had kind of asked me where I was at with
this wastewater service extension request. Um,
these are getting trickier and trickier as our city grows and
shrinks and we have properties released themselves from the extraterritorial
jurisdiction. Um, this particular case had the environmental
environmental commission unanimously vote to deny
the service extension request. This was one that had come to us about a
year and a half ago, but the timeline had expired. And so as this conversation
progresses around where do we offer our utility services and what
are some of the other environmental protection rules that different tracks of
land do and don't abide by, I just wanted to
flag, I am starting to lean on the denial of the service extension request simply
because the environmental commission had denied it and
the watershed protection staff had denied it. Um, but I
would like to flag for us as colleagues, um, that this conversation
around the service extension request in the drinking water protection zone continues to
get stickier and stickier as the years go by. And I know that former
council member and mayor pro tem leslie poole had started to open up this
conversation around when and how do these come to council
and when do they get administratively approved. And so right now it is split
kind of west austin versus central and east austin. It's the drinking water
protection zone. And then the other side is the desired development zone that
was set a number of years ago. And I'm finding that these are getting more complicated as
they come to us, and not every council office has to deal with them, but I did
want to just flag for staff that I think we need to open that conversation
back up and figure out a smoother way to, uh, better right
size our utilities and make sure that we are getting as, as many environmental
protections as we possibly can out of these service extension requests.
so I know this had already been postponed once or twice, um, but I'm
having a hard time continuing to extend wastewater service into an
area that is getting less environmental protection as the years go by and
also has more demand on our wastewater utilities. Um, so I'm,
I've struggled with this. I'm sorry for keeping folks here all day to be able to talk about this one particular
item. Um, but I'm gonna move denial of the service extension request.
members, uh, council member ellis has moved denial of item number
33. It is seconded by council member alter, uh, discussion
with regard to item number 33. Hearing none without
objection. Uh, the motion by council member ellis to deny item number 33
is passed, uh, with council member harper madison off the daes.
alright, members that will now take us to, um, other
non-consent items. Uh, the first ones we'll take up will be items 42, 43, 44, 45,
and 46. Uh, those are items that are related to
imminent domain, and I will turn to the city clerk, uh,
for calling out the names of the people who have signed up
to speak on item 42. We
have no speakers on item 42.
all right, uh, members what I'm gonna do is, is I'm gonna put those together as a
packet after we've heard the speakers on all of them and just take them as one motion unless
there's an objection. Alright, item number 43 is also an imminent
domain item, and I'll ask if there are there any speakers on item 43, no speakers
on item 43, uh, item number call up item number 44,
no speakers on item 44. Um, item number 45,
no speakers on item 45. Item number 46, no
speakers on 46 members. Uh, those are all of the imminent domain items.
so I will entertain a motion that with respect to items 42, 43, 44, 45,
and 46 being non-consent condemnation items,
the motion is to the effect that the city council of austin authorizes
the use of the power of imminent domain to acquire the property set forth
and described in the agenda for the current meeting for the public uses that are described
therein. Council member velasquez moves approval of that motion.
is there a second? Seconded by council member siegel. Discussion,
hearing none without objection. Items 42, 43, 44, 45,
and 46 are adopted members that will take us to the public
hearings. The first one will be item number
48. Uh, this is I've indicated as a public hearing. So without
objection, we'll open the public hearing on item number 48. The public hearing is now opened
and I will turn to the city clerk, no speakers on item 48.
members. There are no speakers. On item number 48, I'll entertain a motion to approve the ordinance
in item number 48. It's made by council member cadre, seconded by the mayor pro tim. Discussion,
hearing none without objection, item number 48 is adopted with council member harper madison.
absent that will take us to item number 49, which is also a public hearing without
objection. We'll open the public hearing on item number 49, and I'll turn to the, the
public hearing is now open and I'll turn to the city clerk speaking on
item 49. Bill bunch. Mr. Bunch, do you wish to be heard?
all right, all we have to go on is you signed up.
all right. Uh, those are all the speakers on item number 40, the public hearing on item number 49.
so without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 49. The public hearing is
now closed. Is there a motion to approve the ordinance?
motion made by council member velasquez is seconded by council member siegel
with, uh, uh, any discussion? Hearing none without objection, item number
49 is approved with council member harper madison, absent. Item number 50
is also a public hearing. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 50. The
public hearing is now open. I'll turn to the city clerk
speaking on item 50. Bill bunch. Mr. Bunch, do you wanna speak on 50? No. Thank
you. Mr. Bunch is not speaking on 50, that's the only speaker signed up on item number 50.
so without objection, we'll close the public hearing on item number 50, the public hearing
is now closed. I'll entertain a motion to approve the ordinance in item
number 50. Is there a motion? Motion is made by the mayor pro tem. Seconded by council member
siegel. Uh, is there any discussion? Hearing none without objection. Item number 50
is adopted. That'll take us to item number 51, which is also a public hearing
item. Uh, without objection, we'll open the public hearing on item number 51, and the
public hearing is now open. And I'll turn to the city clerk, no speakers
on item 51. Members. There are no speakers on item number 51. So without objection, we'll close the
public hearing on item number 51. The public hearing is now closed. I'll entertain a
motion with regard to the ordinance, uh, in item number 51.
is there a motion council member coder removes approval of the ordinance. It is seconded by the mayor pro tim,
is there a discussion on item number 51? Without objection. Item number
51 is approved with council member harper madison off
the daes members. That will now take us to item number 52.
item number 52 is also a public hearing. We'll open the public hearing on item without objection. We'll
open the public hearing on item number 52. The public hearing is now open and I'll turn to
the city clerk's office. Thank you, mayor. We'll begin with remote speakers.
kevin koch on item 52,
mayor council members, my name is kevin cook. I speak only for myself and on behalf
of any commission, association or body, I appreciate your taking a new
tack on this very complex subject regarding the directors stated on the message board,
the suggested directors presume a need to make it easier to relocate billboards.
please consider directing staff to first define the public need for flexibility and
relocation or any ordinance change at all, and communicate that justification
publicly before proposing any changes. At this point, we have questions as to how this need was
identified to begin with. Since the account of billboards impacted by project connect wasn't
even yet available for planning commission, I appreciate the stated goal of removing billboards
from residential areas and scenic areas, but consider as we successfully created denser and more
interconnected city, there is not a good place for billboards anywhere. If the directive is
to find easier ways to relocate. We need to know exactly where and why the
potential impacts of any change need to be clear and publicly communicated. I ask that
the 40 year goal of ultimately eliminating billboards from the city be considered a starting point for any
analysis. Please do not dismantle any part of that, including the 25 year moratorium
on the one-time only relocations that are currently allowed. And I suggest staff start
from an understanding of the issues around all the billboards that have already been relocated. There are 25
year terms coming up very soon. I ask that interested citizens be involved in the
process such as scenic austin and the cherrywood neighborhood association, at least on par
with business interests. Most importantly, I ask the city allow all billboards condemned
by the state along I 35 to be permanently removed by the state. This is a
state issue on state land. We should not be facilitating retention of any billboards condemned by the
state or their relocation back onto city land. Finally, please consider billboard
companies are not like housing developers, restaurants, music venues, health providers, offices or
industries offering a significant number of jobs or retail establishments serving public
needs. They offer only visual pollution and light pollution driver distraction. And
as noted earlier on the message board, they complicate housing development and lower property values,
which is why we wanted them gone for decades. That should remain our ultimate goal, like
our pure cities across the state. Texas is a big state with plenty of room for billboards.
we don't need them in the city of austin. Thank, thank you very much.
next speaking remotely on item 52 is robert schmidt.
yes, hello, my name is bob schmidt. Um, I've lived in austin since 1986.
that's 40 years. And over this time I always thought and
believed and assumed that the austin city council, which is a council for a progressive
city, is different than that that's going on in washington dc and
in the texas legislature. And that you all actually represent
citizens and real people and not just money. Special interest.
honestly, that's why I'm so disappointed that with this item 52 and
mayor pro tems vela, um, his initiative involving billboards
only the billboards company's interests were being represented. The
mayor pro tem and his office met privately for months with billboard company lobbyists
and no other stakeholders. The lobbyists also met privately with members of the
planning commission. There's an article that was published in the statesman that details
some of this special interest involvement. The first proposal that was put
out on this literally called for amending the code to allow billboards
to be zero feet from residential property. Only by luck
did somebody from our neighborhood spot this on the planning commission agenda. And because
we testified against it, the proposal was changed to be a little better, 150
feet or basically a half a block from residence instead of the 500 feet
that's been in place since the 1980s. We pushed back several times
now and honestly spent countless hours fighting this. And we understand it's
to be indefinitely postponed, and we are truly grateful for this. If
this issue comes back, we hope this time the interest of regular citizens
who don't want a billboard moved in their backyard are brought into the discussion and
take into account. Um, I'm concerned that this item will somehow pop back up on the
agenda. And regular people like us who don't check these agendas
of planning commission to see council are just gonna miss it. I believe that that was the
hope of the billboard lobbyists and perhaps the mayor pro tem when this item was first
brought up. We ask that that not happen this time. I thank the mayor
pro tem for changing course on this, and I ask you and that the city staff
include and notify groups like the chair. Thank you very much. Association. Other
moving to in-person speakers on item 52, maria rosa
morales, betsy greenberg and bill bunch.
bill bunch, uh, district five executive director save our springs alliance.
uh, definitely hope that, uh, you'll listen to all that you've heard from the
previous speakers. It all sounds really very reasonable to me. I haven't followed
the details on that this so far. Uh, I admit completely.
um, but we're just inundated with commercial messages everywhere.
we do not need to be accommodating billboards anymore than,
uh, we're required to by state law. Uh,
so please take your time. Uh, if anything, go and
take action to reduce billboard clutters in our in our city.
thank you. That concludes all speakers on item 52 members.
um, those are all the speakers on item number 52. So without objection,
we'll close the public hearing on item number 52, the public hearing is now closed.
that will take us to the ordinance. Uh, captain mayor peram, you're
recognized for a motion on item number 52. Uh, thank you, mayor.
uh, I have a, a motion, it was, uh, posted on the message board
a few days ago, I believe. And, and, uh, council member ellis made a, I
think a very, a good suggestion. And that's, uh, a reflected in in my motion.
uh, I just wanted a little bit of background on this. I know it's, uh, been a long day,
but 20 years ago, a little bit, maybe more
than 20 years ago, uh, actually billboards, new billboards were
banned in the eighties. Uh, the, uh, ordinance
that, uh, essentially tried
to push for their removal was passed about 20, 21
years ago. Uh, there are more billboards today in the city
of austin than there were when the ordinance was, uh, originally passed.
and I think that the, uh, number of billboards that have been, uh, removed,
I could probably count them on, on, on both hands. Uh, so the reality
is that we're, we're not in a good status quo.
uh, the, a lot of billboards that were put up
were in different areas that were in different parts of the city that had different goals. I
think about manor, uh, road, uh, I think about the old,
uh, airport where there are so many billboards, uh, right around
that area because that's used to be where the airport was. Uh,
and they really don't even serve much of a purpose anymore, but
they linger there and they will linger there indefinitely, kind of in
the heart of the neighborhoods and in, in the middle of the city. Um,
the, the goal of the original, um, item was relatively
modest, uh, to, uh, reduce, uh,
any costs for when we have to remove a billboard because of
eminent, uh, domain. I don't wanna be spending money, uh, city money
on buying out, uh, billboards when we have a road project or,
uh, as project, uh, connect, uh, bills out. Uh, but ultimately
I think we need to look again at how we
are handling billboards in austin and, uh, take
some kind of, right now we just use a stick approach and we've kind of tried to just force
them out and that has not been successful. They are grandfathered
in. They can stay where they are for, you know, decades, uh, if they want.
very few of them have been removed. Uh, so I, I don't
consider the that 2000 and I believe a 2006, 2004,
uh, ordinance to have been successful. Um, other cities
have been able to provide some kind of combination of, of
carrots and sticks, uh, to be able to get to a better
place. Uh, we have not done that. And with
this direction, uh, uh, I want to open the door to that as
a, a possibility. Uh, it's a, a very short, uh,
direction and, and I would move to postpone that indefinitely and then provide direction
to the city manager to go out and kind of, uh, talk to all the stakeholders
and see where we can get on, uh, this, uh, very kind of tricky
and, and, uh, difficult, uh, item.
um, and one of the things, this is not in the, the motion itself, but you
know, it's kind of the, the elephant in the room is, uh, digital billboards.
uh, I know a lot of people, you know, fiercely dislike, dig digital
billboards. I, I, I don't see a
huge difference between a regular billboard and a, and a digital billboard. And to
the extent that there's some kind of, uh, negotiation that
can happen to reduce a overall number of billboards, if we allow
a certain number of, of billboards, for example, a long, major highways to
do, again, I, I, I don't know where that will take us, but I do think that
it's important that we open the door to some kind of discussion
and negotiation that could potentially get us to a place
where we are, uh, in a win-win situation where we're pulling
a lot of, uh, the billboards that are lingering in our residential neighborhoods out,
uh, and, uh, and, and, and leaving the ones that are more kind of along
highways, again, in line with the 2006 ordinance. But unless we do
something, the status quo is not gonna change. And that's more than anything the
point that I was, uh, trying to make. So with that, I would, uh, move passage of my,
uh, direction members. You have been provided a copy of item number 52,
uh, mayor pro tim velas, motion sheet one, version two.
uh, he moves approval of that motion. It is seconded by council member
velasquez. Is there any discussion? Yes, council member
uchin. Uh, just really a question for, uh, mayor per tem,
we've been struggling with this also in terms of how to find what the right balance
is. And you've heard frustration from speakers today about what that might be.
and trying to think about this in a way that's perhaps more, I don't
wanna say sophisticated, but maybe more granular than the city was currently
thinking with just a blanket one 50 feet from dwellings, and even if
that's the right or wrong distance, but thinking about, you know, which side of a
corridor, for instance, might a site be, might, might a site be sign beyond and, and,
you know, does it need different, uh, measurements based on that corridor?
which side it's right? Um, is there a distinction, say between taller,
multifamily and single family? I, is the intent
behind what you've got here, the, in the, the investigation, the
direction to staff to go help explore those options and come back with
a better sense of what we could be voting on, whether it's height or
distance or whatever the circumstances are, knowing that we need to identify some locations,
uh, to potentially prevent some other scenarios from coming to coming to light.
I, I would say, in answer to your question, customer reduce all of the above. I,
I, I'm not trying to say, you know, just this or just that. Just go
see what would potentially work, what would be acceptable
to the different, uh, stakeholders, again, whichever side that
they're on. Uh, and see if there's a better path forward.
uh, I don't want to be prescriptive and say, you know, list a, a bunch of
items that they should. That's why it's, it's a, it's, it's very broad language to give staff
the ability to go out there and, and take a look at it. And, and again, just to be frank,
if there's not the desire, and if, if no one wants to change it and we just wanna stick
with the status quo, so be it. Uh, but I just wanted to open that
up as an opportunity. If folks can come together and we can get, uh, to a
place where, uh, uh, stakeholders, various stakeholders are happy and we move
forward, great. If not, then so be it. We'll just stick with the status quo.
uh, my concern is that I think we know what the status quo is gonna be. Actually, I don't,
what is, is the status quo the one 50 feet proposal? What is the status quo? No,
I mean, the status quo is that the billboards are where they are
and they're not gonna move from where they are because there is no incentive
for them to move. They're kind of really dug in and, you know, just
extending leases and just kind of really just trying to, to stay. Our,
our ordinance, uh, is designed where once it moves,
you can move the billboard once, and then it starts this kind of 25 year
clock where, uh, purportedly at the end of the 25 year clock,
the billboard is then supposed to, uh, end. Uh,
I don't think that's gonna happen. I mean, just to be perfectly, uh, blunt, I,
I, I think that, again, I'm speaking for myself here, not on behalf of law. I think that's a taking.
and if we want to, at the end of that 25 year period, remove that billboard, we're
gonna have to buy that billboard. And, and that's a, just a concern. I don't think
that the, the current status quo is, uh, is going
to change. I would just put it that way. Uh, and, and that's my concern
is that we're just gonna kind of, no one wants to mess with it. And so we're just gonna continue with, uh,
with everything in the same place, uh, indefinitely. And, and I don't think that's
what anybody wants, honestly. Alright, so you're thinking more broadly than even just getting
back information about the condemnation process. You're thinking
about all billboards and what happens there? Am I dancing a line
here? This would be broad direction to staff to go out there and again,
see what's possible. Okay. Alright. Thank you for clarifying that.
thank you. Um, members, the motion has been made and seconded. It's the, it's,
uh, the mayor pro tim's motion. Uh, is there any further discussion?
hearing none without objection. Uh, item number 53
as, uh, sorry, 52. Item number 52, as motion
was made by mayor pro, tim vela is adopted with council member harper madison
being absent.
um, that'll take us item number 53 is also, which is also a public
hearing. Uh, without objection, we'll open the public hearing on item number 53. The public hearing
is now open and I'll recognize, uh, the city clerk's office,
no speakers on item 50. There are no speakers on item number 53. So without objection, the public
hearing will be closed. The public hearing is now closed and
there is no motion to be made
on this item. Item number 54, uh,
is a public hearing without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 54.
the public hearing is now open and I'll turn to the city clerk. We
have one, uh, speaker for item 54, ali tharp.
that concludes all speakers, maam. Alright, there are no other further speakers on item number 54.
so without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 54. The public
hearing is now closed members. This was to conduct a public hearing in accordance
with four,
um, with texas park send wildlife code. Um,
I will now entertain a motion with regard to the resolution on item number 54.
is there a motion? Motion is made by council member alter. It
is seconded by council member uchin. Uh, is there any discussion
on item number 54? Hearing none the motion
without objection. The motion is adopted with council member harper madison being
absent.
members that will take us to our 4 46
and 34 second time certain zoning items.
and ms. Harden has been waiting patiently, knowing
full well that at some point we would get to ask her
questions. It's all yours, ms. Hardin ? Absolutely. Thank you mayor
and counsel. I'm joy hardin with austin planning. Your zoning and neighborhood
plan amendment agenda begins with item 55 in pa 20 25 0 0 2 6
0.02. This item is offered for consent on all three readings.
the related rezoning item is 56 c 4 20 25 0 0 9 9.
again, this item's offered for consent on all three readings with the following motion, which
reads, remove research services from the list of prohibited uses
in part two a of the draft ordinance. And with that, again, this
items offered for consent on all three readings. Item 57 is c 8 14 20 18 0 1 2 2 0 3.
this item is offered for consent first reading only.
uh, this item has two staff motion sheets that includes language
to be added to the ordinance when this item returns. May 21st
for second and third reading consideration. These motion sheets are in your backup
and the language reflects ongoing discussions with the applicant concerning
parkland and cocktail lounge use. Again, this item is offered for
first reading only and will return for second and third reading
consideration on march. March may 21st.
um, may 21st. Um, and consent. First reading. Thank you. Item 58
c 14, 20 25, 1 21. This item is offered as an
applicant postponement to your may 21st council meeting. Item 59
is c 8 4 2 8 8 7 2.
this item is offered for staff postponement to your may 7th
council meeting. And lastly, item 60 c 1 4 20 25 0 0 8 0.
this item is offered for a neighborhood postponement to your may 21st
council meeting. This concludes the reading of the zoning and neighborhood plan amendment portion of
your agenda. And as always, this is at your discretion. Thank you. Thank you ms. Harden. First
of all, does any, any, any council members have any questions of ms. Harden? I wanna
make sure I understand something. On item number 57.
the staff have two proposed motions and you read both of those,
uh, they're in your back, I understand. Yeah. So they're in the backup. Two
different motions. Yes. Two different motions. One deals with the cocktail lounge use and
one deals with, uh, parkland. I wanna make sure that everybody understands that. And council
member fuentes, it's my understanding you also have a proposed direction to
staff, is that correct? So what I'm gonna do, unless there's objection is I'm gonna
ask that we take up item number 57 off the consent agenda, just
so that there's no lack of clarity with regard to that. And we make sure that council member
fuentes has the opportunity to provide the direction that she wants to provide on that.
is there any objection to that? Alright, then the consent agenda that I'll entertain a motion
on will be the following item number 55, all three readings. Item 56,
all three readings subject to the motion sheet that was read by ms.
harden. Uh, item number 58, a postponement to
may 21st. Item number 59, a postponement
to may 7th. And item number 60, a postponement to may 21st.
uh, that is the consent agenda. Is there a motion on the consent agenda?
uh, motion is made by council member walter, second by council member lane, and I'll turn to
the city clerk and see if we have people signed up to speak on those items. Thank you, mayor.
item 59, bill bunch. And malcolm yates,
what? Postpone with nine. Um,
not clear on that. Are you wa I, I I can't hear you. Did you say you're waiving or what are you?
I just said support to postpone. Oh, okay. Well, um, alright.
we don't have a postponement for 59. We do, we do on 59
staff postponement to, uh, to may 7th. Oh,
perfect. It looks to me like there were some changes
made today, so that's why you may not have that in your notes on item
60. David ruddick,
mr. Ruddick, david ruddick doesn't appear to be here. That
concludes all speakers on the consent. Thank you very much. Members. That concludes all the speakers
on the consent agenda as it was read. Is there any discussion on the consent agenda
as it was read? Yes. Council member 59 and
65 said 59 is a postponement to may 7th
and 60 is a postponement to may 21st. Thank you.
any further discussion? Hearing none without objection. The consent agenda is adopted
with council member harper madison. Absent that will take us back to item number
57, uh, members. I'll entertain a motion on item number 57,
uh, which includes the motion sheets
that were read by ms. Harden. The two items that I, I asked her about just a
minute ago. And then I'm gonna recognize council member fuentes for direction
to staff motions made by council member velasquez. It's seconded by council member
alter to approve. By the way, this will be, uh, on,
uh, this is on first reading only, second and third reading. It will
come back for second and third reading on may 7th. Council member fuentes, you're
recognized. Thank you colleagues. I move to, this is a motion sheet
that's in your backup for reference. Um, the city manager is directed to collaborate
with the property owner, cap metro and travis county on the future expansion of
public transportation services to the pud, including identifying
a location on the property for a future bus stop.
members, council member, sorry. Council member fuentes moves to
amend item number 57 to add the direction that she just
read into the record. It is seconded by council member siegel. Is there discussion on
the, uh, fuentes motion to amend item number 57?
hearing none without objection. The motion to amend is adopted.
that will now take us back to the main motion. Before I call for the main motion,
I want clarity on when this comes back for second and third reading.
yes, this item will be returning at your may 21st
council meeting. Okay, very good. Uh, may 21st for people that are interested in that, it will come
back on may 21st. Alright, with that being said, uh,
we go back, we now, I, I guess what we need, we, we have
a motion and now we have a motion to amend item number 57.
so we will go back to the main motion as amended on item number 57.
is there discussion on item number 57 as amended? I'm signed up to
speak on this. Uh, mayor. Yeah. Okay.
well then come on down. We've been waiting for you. Nobody called me,
I don't think. Mayor, we pulled that off
consent, so I didn't call speakers for that. I, I'm teasing. I was teasing mr. Bunch. He, he doesn't take the
joke very well, but I was teasing him
and mayor, I had, uh, I I'm fine. We, we we're getting ready to call speaker.
so, uh, you're right, mr. Bunch is right. I, I jumped the gun.
thank you mayor. Council members bill bunch, executive director, uh,
district five, uh, I first, I have a whole raft of points of order here.
um, you can't do first reading when on of an ordinance, when there is no such
ordinance. You can't amend an ordinance when there's no such ordinance, uh, that
you're violating the city charter. Uh, there's no ordinance in the backup.
I don't know what you're talking about. Uh, secondly, um,
you have all the posting violations of the texas open meetings act that
we still have on litigation, uh, with the states of hud.
uh, you put this as zoning. There's all kinds of things in here that
are, uh, have nothing to do with zoning. Uh, I don't know why you
would continue to do this. Uh, the, the posted notice says we're
mending from pud to pud, which tells people nothing.
unlike our traditional zoning categories, we say sf one to
multifamily, you know, mf people understand that
pud to pud amendment basically tells the reader
who's not an expert, he's not y'all, that there's no change at all.
um, there's dozens of items in here. You can't do this.
I'll say it again and only give somebody two minutes. That's completely
unreasonable given the complexity. But it's also illegal because there's a whole lot more
than one item. Uh, the summary of what you're talking about
that just gives us an outline is, uh, amendments
to a putt ordinance that are not just a to z, but they're a to
z plus. A to double a to double I.
and some of these are horrible. You're losing 79 acres, 78
acres of open space. You're saying we're gonna put a, a golf course in
the critical water quality zone with all the fertilizers, pesticides,
herbicides. Um, that's nasty. Um,
you're talking about getting rid of a commitment to build, uh, two.
so, uh, fields, thank you mr. For the public. You're cutting me off at
two minutes. Yes, sir. Okay, thank you. Can
I have someone donating two minutes? Well, did they sign up to speak sharon blythe?
yeah, you'll have four minutes. You'll have four minutes, yeah. Okay. Thank you very much.
uh, I very much approved this and thank you, uh, uh,
council member fuentes for bringing this forward. This fits very nicely
with trying to do as much economically and what we can
out there in that district. When I was reading the backup, I have to agree
a lot of it I didn't understand. So as I started looking at it, I said, you know, really,
what is code? What, what are we looking at here? And so
I thought I'd point some of these things out to, during the covid
crisis, uh, they were shut down. You said the council
shut them down. Like they shut every other business down. And
all of a sudden, unfortunately, this was when f1 was coming
and they were in a serious situation. They had to lay off people because unlike
the government, if you don't have money coming in, you can't pay your people. But you know what they
did in, in covid, despite the serious layoffs
and the financial problems, coda donated 2 million
meals to the food bank. 2 million meals.
how many people did not starve? Because what
coda did then, of course, there was a pro problem of how are we getting these
people shots? And coda had the first
drive through shot and it, and that, that went on and on.
and so they came to the community even though
they were hurting with everything else, goodwill
was getting things and they couldn't store them during this area. Coda said,
bring them up to us. You can bring your trucks here and you can and
store them here during weather crises. And there's a lot
out in that part of town. Coda always has been open
for the governments to come in and use their facility as
a staging area. They're more than just trees
and things like that. This is a major impact, not only
on the money. I mean, we know how, how important f1 is,
and we know what they bring in, but there's a lot more out there.
another thing I would like to point out, and that is when the police
were on their knees, when we were defunding police, and you know, I hated that, um,
the a pa decided that they would have a picnic, a morale picnic for
their people. And someone called me up and said, would you mind calling coda and see if they
donate $500? And I did that. And you know what? The answer is $500.
they can come out here. We will host them. They came out to coda.
they've been doing that for, for I think it's four years. Um, that children
of police and the police free hot dog for each kid a a
drink, they could ride free on the little rides. And
one of the people said to me, they invited me and I was happy to go. And she said, they're
treating us so well here. And it kind of made me feel bad that
people think that they shouldn't treat our our police very well.
the other thing is, when jorge past one of our police officers
was tragically killed police all over the state of texas
wanted to come to the funeral, and coda opened their door. And that's
where it was. And even more touching to me was, and I
think bobby paid this for himself, this huge flag on the back of the, of
the amphitheater, the american flag. And when you looked up there and
you saw that officer, he gave his life and that flag, that's
the kind of organization that coda is. And they have done
countless things for the dell valley district. So I just wanted you to look
at that. Is this, it's more than just numbers. It's what are
they doing for our community? And, and this, we, we are blessed
to have this. And you combine this with this new hotel convention
center. I mean, it's a win for everything. And I thank you so much for bringing
it forward. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Starro. Switching to
remote speaker luke charlton.
thank you. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, uh, council member fuentes and, and other council
members, um, for taking this up. And, and also all the hard work you've
put in today. Know it's been a long day for everybody. So I'll make it short and sweet. Um,
speaking in, uh, favor of item 57,
my name is luke charlton. I'm the chief operating officer of rita development.
we are proposing to build the hotel, um, on the coda
premises and, and in favor of this pod because we believe it clarified
a lot of, um, unclear drafting in the original pod. And this
amendment is necessary for us to be able to construct the improvements.
thank you all for your time. Thank you. Moving
back to in-person speakers, willie gonzalez. Gus trujillo,
marquita presley. Jania marbury,
michael waylan, daniella silva.
good afternoon, mayor and council. My name is daniella silva. I'm a resident of district three
and here in my personal capacity for the record, I am a union member
of n-o-l-s-w-u-a-w, local 2320, an active participant
of the central labor council through my day job. And I'm generally a massive supporter of
unions and union jobs. What really keeps me up at night is that capitalism,
billionaires and lawmakers have created a false dichotomy making us feel like we
either prioritize union jobs or prioritize our collective
future by protecting the environment. Since this pud was approved back in 2023,
amendments have been made and each one was used by developers to make incremental requests
as a tactical way to get away with devastating changes. What was originally
a project with land set aside for affordable housing, soccer fields and parkland has morphed
into a luxury resort for out of town visitors, a 1000 room luxury hotel,
helipad convention center practice race trek golf course in the critical water quality
zone, two buildings in the floodplain swimming pools illuminated signage at
night and no noise barrier. To protect the nearby community from the additional racetrack.
there are at least six other golf courses within 10 miles of this project. Do
we really need another one in town? Built in a critical water quality zone, that means it's
positioned right next to a creek and all the pollutants will leach into it. What is
being offered in exchange for all of this destruction is just 0.87 acres
of wetland mitigation. Think about 0.87 acres on a
thousand acre lot. It's a pitance. We are on the cusp of stage four critical drought.
for the first time in recorded history, corpus christi is running out of water. Texas
is at the forefront of data center colonization. We must protect what little
water we have and using it on golf courses and luxury hotels for out of town. Ultra
wealthy is not it. No amount of hotel occupancy tax funds will help solve
our water crisis. I understand the amount of money and jobs this project will bring into
the city, and both of which are deeply needed in today's economy. But selling off
tomorrow in order to pay for today is the extractive and scarcity mindset that billionaires who control
our economy have conditioned most of us to make decisions through. Please
consider taking the time between now and may to think about these ecological
ecological devastations. Thank you. That concludes all speakers on item 57 members.
that concludes all the speakers on item number 57. Um,
you for the motion is to approve item number 57 on first reading
only. It will come back on second and third reading on may 21st. It
is as it was amended with the direction, uh, with what was read
by ms. Harden and the direction in the motion to amend by
council member fuentes. Is there any discussion? Yes. Council
member fuentes. Thank you and colleague. Just wanna again, emphasize this is on first
reading only. The ordinance is in the backup starts on page, uh, 62,
uh, of the staff report. Uh, this has been a very long process
to amend the putt has gone through several, uh, zoning and planning
commissions, environmental commission and uh, and parks
and rec board as well. And through that work and through the recommendations and the
feedback from our volunteer commissioners and through the work of our
district two office, um, the way the p stands before us is in a really strong
place. And so I think there've been a lot of efforts to ensure that the community gets the
benefits that our dell valley community deserves. And certainly there have been
a lot of modification and improvements to the original proposal. So I just wanna highlight that
and flag that my motion that I added to it really hones in on the transportation
piece. Uh, circuited america's cap metro are all in agreement
that we need to get a bus stop out at coda, especially with us having
this type of activity in the area where we're gonna have 900 people
in and out, uh, of the hotel activity. So we wanna make sure that we get that long
awaited bus stop. And so I'm really pleased to offer that motion to ensure that conversations
move forward and that we're able to improve public transportation access. Thank
you. Thank you. Any further discussion on item number 57
as amended without objection? Item number 57 as amended is adopted
on first reading only with council member harper madison, absent
members. That concludes all of the items that have been posted on the agenda for the austin
city council on this april 23rd, 2026 regular meeting. So
without objection, the austin city council is now adjourned at 5:05 pm
thanks everybody.