City of Austin Council Message Board

Colleagues, At next week’s Public Safety Committee meeting we will discuss the ongoing and planned work to address homelessness. This issue touches so many major areas that the Council oversees, primarily in housing and health and human services, but also in public safety. My goal of this meeting is...

Thank you, CM Harper-Madison and MPT Garza for bringing this item. Would be honored to be included as a co-sponsor.

All, I am so proud of the work this council has done – a truly unprecedented amount of teamwork and collaboration on what may be the most challenging reform work the city has ever contemplated. Thanks CM Casar, MPT Garza, and CM Harper-Madison for synthesizing the immediate proposals into a single w...

At the request of a constituent, here are the definitions for acronyms used in my proposal: CTECC = Combined Transportation, Emergency & Communications Center – essentially the 9-1-1 call center https://www.austintexas.gov/department/combined-transportation-emergency-communications-center-ctecc ...

Thank you for your continued dedication, CM Tovo, during a difficult time. Please know that you are in my thoughts and prayers and I also want to offer any help you or your staff needs with city business. We may fight, but we fight like family. Please consider District 6 at the ready to assist.

Colleagues, Here are two significant proposals to consider as part of the budget process. These are not small ideas and will take time and strong commitment to implement, but I believe we can adopt this formally as a whole and/or as budget riders in parts to ensure the public knows our intent while ...

Thank you, Mayor... there is a lot of this that I agree with. I am committed to limiting our council-approved property tax increase to 3.5%, which would be the lowest for the city in 15 years. While that is not a long-term sustainable level (until we implement reforms on public safety budgets), the ...

Looking forward to learning more about this proposal! I'm also very interested in the role Central Health and the Counties play, since there are some separation of roles related to which jurisdiction is responsible for covering the costs of building and managing our community health systems.

- Jimmy

Good afternoon colleagues, Our next Public Safety Committee meeting is scheduled for July 20 at 2pm. The format will be more traditional with conversation primarily between city staff and council. We will use this meeting to work on public safety metrics (MPT's item 50 from June 11) and get a head s...

As the Mayor explained, the rules give 3 minutes to the first group of speakers and 1 minute for all remaining speakers. In order to give speakers an indication of how much time they should prepare remarks, here are the 3 minute speakers according to the City Clerk. All other speakers will have 1 mi...

Thank you colleagues for starting this thread. Even prior to this past weekend, this group of council members has been taking a close look at systemic inequities in our city and through the Judicial Committee have engaged in many conversations, briefings and actions to advance racial justice work. L...

http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 164551.pdf

Here are a few amendments of my own related to this item, including sustainable development and regionalism as parts of resilience.

And thanks MPT for your amendments, which I also support.

http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincouncilforum/36-20200506162927.pdf This amendment adds a requirement for tenants to respond with acknowledgement of hardship. It is important, as we discussed when the original ordinance was passed, that tenants with the ability to pay continue to pay their rent. ...

This is a great idea and I'm looking forward to seeing this posted on the addendum today! I checked with some contacts at RRISD and they said they had not been contacted. There are a couple of RRISD Title 1 schools in District 6, some on the Wilco side, which are often left out of otherwise great su...

A number of our offices have been advocating for a comprehensive approach. It guided our initial draft before passing item 91 more than a month ago. So glad to see agreement on the principle that we should consult with and include staff in this way. Let's agree, however, to avoid processes that furt...

I can also be available if before 11am or after 2pm.

Thanks for the great info, CM Kitchen! So glad to see more senior wellness calls getting done across the city.

For those interested in NW Austin, our program with Rep. Bucy is at http://bit.ly/HD136FoodVols

- Jimmy

Great! Looking forward to seeing those revisions.

- Jimmy

http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincouncilforum/BD-20200325132239.pdf Here is the final version being posted for Item 91. Thank you to my colleagues and the many community groups and advocates who contributed their feedback to this effort. This resolution represents one big step forward for address...

Thanks CM Ellis and Kitchen for the dialog... I'm really valuing the transparency of debate through the msg board!

I’d be okay with 9 months as a compromise, as CM Ellis suggested.

Thanks CM Kitchen! All of these are good ideas and we will incorporate them into the final draft.

Thanks CM Tovo! We had spoken with some labor folks, as have some of the co-sponsors... exciting that we are all building consensus as a team on this! Your amendments 1, 2, and 4 look great. On amendment 3, while I support the direction, I don't think it's necessary to start detailing different grou...

CM Casar et al., Thank you for bringing the ordinance change during this unprecedented moment. It is critical for our efforts to keep our economy afloat that people stay housed as we get through this as a City. I am however, interested to know if there is any consideration or provision for folks who...

Thank you CM Kitchen, although this is not so much about my interest in BCycle, but is a question of fiscal oversight and the use of public dollars on a system that had otherwise not needed such investment. It is not clear to me how critical this infrastructure is since we haven't been given any dat...

On Item 31, which is a software license renewal for BSA, the posted item allows for an up-to-2 year contract term. I'm concerned about approving a 2-year agreement using public dollars (from the parking fund) when we haven't been able to really dig into this as a Mobility Committee. I spoke with sta...