Mayor Pro Tem

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Natasha Harper-Madison
Posts: 64
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2019 12:52 pm

Mayor Pro Tem

Post by Natasha Harper-Madison »

Good afternoon colleagues,

As someone who was born and raised in Austin, I’ve seen this city do more talking about its progressive values than putting them in action. Now that we have one million people living within our famous city limits, I see no better time than now to finally resolve the major challenges we’ve spent decades dancing around.

The ordeals our community faced in 2020 underscored the breadth of problems we face. There is tremendous prosperity in Austin and for some it’s growing every day. But for every story about a corporate relocation, there are countless other untold tales of food insecurity, children hurt by the digital divide, financial illiteracy, undiagnosed and untreated mental illness, and more and more families giving up and looking for housing they can afford in the far fringes of our region.

I am confident all our offices are committed to resolving these challenges and more. I believe the best way to get to where we want to be is through pragmatic solutions reached through collaboration with Austinites from all parts of the city and all walks of life. But I also have heard from my constituents and others that lived experience is an essential aspect of the leadership needed in the work to be done.

As a matter of signaling to our community that we are serious about not only following through on the important work we have collectively started but also recalibrating our efforts to achieve more consensus based outcomes, I would like to make it public my interest in serving as Mayor Pro Tem, an interest that I have expressed privately to several of you for many months. The role is largely ceremonial role, but I do think how we fill it is a decision steeped in important symbolism that our constituents notice. At the same time, I hope we as a body can make this decision amicably and pivot to the actionable solutions Austinites so badly need.

Happy Holidays to All!

NHM
Natasha Harper-Madison
Council Member District 1