City of Austin Council Message Board

Thank you to the law department for a quick review. Below please find slightly updated language for my WUIC Item #40 direction... The model international Wildland Urban Interface Code (WUIC) includes rules governing vegetation management and fuels mitigation not yet adopted into the Austin code. The...

Note the direction should read "Include extensive stakeholder engagement".

Dear Colleagues, Austin is one of the nation’s top cities at risk of wildfire. It’s not a matter of if, but when. I am happy that we are moving forward with the adoption of a Wildland-Urban Interface Code (WUI code) for Austin (item #40). This code represents years of effort on the part of the wildf...

Dear Colleagues, As Chair of the Audit & Finance Committee, I’ve been working with the City’s Budget & Finance offices on the state of city finances and how they may be affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The good news is, Austin’s financial policies and fiscal health mean we are in a...

Dear Colleagues, My office has been working closely with the City’s digital equity team and the Digital Empowerment Community of Austin (DECA) to coordinate efforts throughout the city to ensure all Austinites have access to home internet, devices, and the necessary skills to conduct day-to-day life...

Colleagues, Thank you for your work on this issue. It's an important matter we must address and with limited tools I believe this will help address some of our challenges. However, it would be helpful if we also could consider and address the ripple effect of this issue on landlords operating on sma...

CM Kitchen and Flannigan, it is my understanding that the current suggestion would be 9 months for the contract term with a report back to Mobility committee in August. I wonder if additionally we could authorize a one year extension, but only with council approval. This would save an unnecessary pr...

Thank you CM’s Tovo and Pool. I think you offer an excellent path forward for item 2. The working group and AE have produced an innovative approach to achieve our environmental and economic goals simultaneously. As we enter a period of economic uncertainty, I believe the flexibility built into this ...

Two more amendments to share.... Our choices moving forward should seek to leverage information in the community on needs and solutions. The following two amendments to the last Be It Further Resolved are meant to begin to speak to that issue. *Exploring using 311 to gather real time needs assessmen...

I appreciate all the collaboration and great ideas from my colleagues. I have two more additions. The lack of supply of PPE and the shifting environment that has created financial uncertainty is affecting medical practices, especially smaller ones. I would like to include an item that addresses this...

I would propose the following amendments: In the 3rd Be It Resolved section after the HOT bullets, ask the City Manager to consider: * Repurposing HOT funds in the convention center reserve funds to support the hospitality sector and its workers, seeking as necessary state exemptions to allow such a...

CM Flannigan,

I appreciate the broader posting language and hope to share some additional options for consideration soon.

Regards,
Alison Alter

Dear Colleagues, Please find below a V2 for Item 47, the resolution I’m sponsoring regarding biomethane and reducing leakage rates. The backup should post shortly, but I wanted to make sure everyone had ample time to review it prior to tomorrow’s meeting. Link: http://assets.austintexas.gov/austinco...

Dear colleagues, I would like to suggest that we adjust some of our planned timing tomorrow for our and our staff’s health and safety. I am concerned about an 11 pm end time with a 9 am restart on Thursday. Instead I would like to suggest a 9 pm end time on Wednesday with a 9 am start on Thursday. W...

Colleagues, Below you will find amendments I intend to offer next week. These amendments relate to matters of public safety, missing middle zoning criteria, and facilitating certainty in our zoning and planning processes. My constituents and I have had an extremely limited number of days to review t...

Colleagues,

Please see this additional amendment that I distributed yesterday on the dais.

Link: http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 85046.docx


Regards,
Alison Alter

Dear Colleagues, Below please find the link to the amendments that I have ready to post today. As we discussed, I fashioned mine as general direction. I look forward to hearing from the public tomorrow and may have additional amendments based on what we hear. http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincoun...

Council Member Harper-Madison, Thank you for bringing this resolution and for creating the opportunity for us to acknowledge that we have a problem and take action. I would like to propose some amendments (linked below) with the goal of helping ensure we achieve the outcomes we desire and also allow...

Dear Colleagues, At the most recent council meeting I was honored to present a proclamation celebrating Austin’s first annual Digital Inclusion Week (DIW), which aims to raise awareness of solutions addressing home internet access, personal devices, and local technology training and support programs...

Colleagues, As I mentioned on the dais, item 142 has an inter local agreement that was just posted at 3 PM today while we were in our special called meeting. I’d like to request a postponement of this item to our next meeting. Please do let me know if this request is amenable to the majority of coun...

Thank you, CM Flannigan, for advancing this item. I agree that the AARC master plan adoption provides an excellent opportunity to initiate a deeper discussion about how we can leverage the Rutherford Campus and/or a P3 model to achieve multiple city goals at these sites. I support this item and woul...

Good morning, You may find a brief description and the links for my formal budget amendments below. Funding wildfire preparedness and mitigation: By delaying the implementation of the Command Tech program, the associated savings (around $2.1m) can be used to fund investments in wildfire mitigation. ...

Dear Colleagues, As I mentioned at last week’s budget work session, as a city we need to be prepared for wildfires, arguably Austin’s greatest natural hazard. To help Austinites understand their individual risk from wildfires, the Wildfire Division at AFD has put together a Wildfire Report for each ...

Below, please find the link to the revised resolution # 78, declaring a climate emergency and associated actions. It was posted earlier today to the agenda back up, but I wanted to make sure you were alerted. https://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=324720 I look forward to us taking action...

Dear Colleagues, As we grieve with the families and communities impacted by gun violence in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, we must recognize that our country is in the midst of a public health and gun violence crisis. With two mass shootings within 15 hours of each other, we simply cannot continu...