City of Austin Council Message Board

Dear Colleagues, I am sponsoring a resolution to facilitate the implementation of projects approved in the recent AISD bond. This resolution streamlines the site development plan process for AISD schools by promoting collaboration between City staff and AISD project teams to review site plan applica...

Dear Colleagues, I have revised my proposed amendments to Option B. The link to the new version is posted below. This document continues to be redlined distinguishing my proposed changes to the staff drafted resolution. https://drive.google.com/file/d/17yoUIgIvbH9Jk1Z0zgwDO0f5KZao14Fz/view?usp=shari...

Dear Colleagues, For Item 10, I intend to propose amendments to Option B at tomorrow’s Council meeting. Please find a link to a redlined version of the proposal below. The purpose of these amendments is to provide greater clarity and create a removal mechanism to bring the composition of the Plannin...

Dear Colleagues, At work session we agreed to a late start for our council meeting this Thursday. As this is not our normal practice I thought it might be helpful to share some additional logistical information via the Message Board. I am hopeful that we can begin promptly at 11:30 a.m. I intend to ...

Dear Colleagues, As promised, below you will find a link to the letter from Stanford Professor Roger Noll outlining the information he believes we need to evaluate the proposed stadium project. Dr. Noll has studied sports economics for decades and is a recognized expert. I think we will find his sug...

As promised today in work session, I am posting my proposed amendment to the first bullet of the "Be It Resolved..." for item #99. - An economic analysis of direct and indirect benefits, "opportunity costs, potential liabilities and substitution effects"; [quotation marks indicat...

Thank you, Council Member Pool, for bringing this opportunity to Council. Gun violence is a serious and devastating issue that demands immediate action. I will proudly join you in supporting the fee waivers. In addition to challenging current laws allowing largely unrestricted access to high-capacit...

I also want to bring to your attention the recent letter from One Voice. I will be passing out the letter in its entirety when we return to the dais. Below, I've included the letter's closing, which further clarifies the purpose and intent of my proposed amendment. "As we support the ordinance ...

Colleagues, Thank you for the work that you’ve all put into creating a paid sick leave policy for Austin. Our nonprofits are dedicated to furthering social good and helping those in our communities that are the most in need. Many 501 (c)(3)s depend on fundraising to meet their financial needs and pl...

Dear colleagues, I am glad that we were able to set aside the 13th to hear public testimony and consider the police contract on a single day. I understand that we set a start time of 3 PM to allow those who cannot attend in the evening to speak to us before traffic gets bad. On the flip side, I am h...

Mayor, thank you for raising this issue. I think adding a special meeting on the 13th devoted to the police contract is a good idea.

Dear colleagues, In reviewing item 17, our proposed meeting calendar, I wanted to suggest that we consider holding one or both of our budget hearing sessions separate from our regularly scheduled council meetings in August. It was unfortunate this year that we did not get to hear from the public reg...

At our meeting tomorrow, I will be requesting a one week postponement of Item 19, the audit plan. This will allow us to have a conversation in work session with Corrie Stokes, the auditor, present. She was out of town this week at a conference. I had a chance to speak with her today and she indicate...

Dear Colleagues, At last week’s Audit and Finance Committee meeting I shared with the committee a handful of audit topics that I hope make the list for the FY18 Audit Plan. I am posting them here so that you also may have access to them. For your context, each item on my list was identified as a pot...

I appreciated the productive conversation on item 55 at Tuesday's work session. Thank you Mr. Casar for incorporating the Austin Asian Chamber and the other groups highlighted by CMs Houston and Flannigan into the invited participants list. As I mentioned in work session, I also would like to see AI...

As multiple colleagues have expressed, I too would welcome the opportunity to examine the many elements in item 52 more deeply. I sense that there is discomfort over more than just the process here. Fundamentally, we have not had a chance to craft either the frame nor the elements of the vision for ...

Mayor Pro Tem, I agree that it would be helpful to schedule one or more sessions before the 2nd draft of CodeNEXT is released on Sept. 15. I would prefer the 7th afternoon given an option. Based on recent discussions at the Planning Commission, we should spend some time reviewing the timetable as we...

Dear Colleagues, I posted the below opportunity during a break in a Council meeting and I wanted to draw it to your attention again in case you missed it. I have heard directly or indirectly from 4 other offices that would like all of their staff to attend the Beyond Diversity training recommended b...

Dear Colleagues, As we well know, the violence we have seen nationally in the past few days, our community’s struggle with SB4, our local history with segregation (http://bit.ly/2v1cuLs), and the situation faced by children and families in our region (http://bit.ly/2uHXVku) are strong indicators of ...

Tomorrow I plan to propose an amendment to the job responsibilities that uses different language to accomplish the intent of the Mayor's original suggestion posted above. Before posting here, I shared the language below with the Mayor and Mr. Newton. I understand that the Mayor has communicated with...

Colleagues, I have the following questions related to Imagine Austin implementation and the Growth Concept Map: 1. On page 118 of Imagine Austin, LUT P4 states that we should, “protect neighborhood character by directing growth to areas of change that include designated redevelopment areas, corridor...

Dear Colleagues, Item #43 on the agenda this Thursday is to "Approve a resolution reflecting changes to the review process for adoption of a new Land Development Code, commonly referred to as CodeNext, to provide for additional drafts and commission review" - [http://austin.siretechnologie...

Here is a link to the new proposed language governing the coordinating committee's composition.

http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 91225.docx

As mentioned in work session, we added two Council appointed ESD4 Community Representatives.

At last week’s CodeNext session, the consultants suggested that T3 on a 50'x135' lot would produce 3,300 s.f. vs. SF-3 yielding 2,700 s.f. That suggests a 600 sq feet increase in entitlement. I know these were calculations done on the fly so I am requesting further clarification. Specifically, I wou...

Dear Colleagues, This morning at work session I proposed that we consider adding a fourth version of the draft code / maps to our CodeNext process. Since two of our colleagues were out of town on city business and we also adjusted the agenda timing for the CodeNext discussion, I wanted to take a mom...