City of Austin Council Message Board

Colleagues, Thank you for engaging in conversation yesterday about the resolution related to City-owned land that I have brought forward with co-sponsors Mayor Adler, MPT Alter, CM Fuentes, and CM Kitchen. On Monday, I had the opportunity to help open the latest park at Mueller, an incredible skate ...

Thank you, colleagues. I share your sense of urgency and your commitment to hearing a plan of action at this briefing. CM Kitchen has set out a clear list of questions; to those, I would add a request that the City Manager provide us with detailed information about staffing levels over the past 5 ye...

Dear Colleagues, We just had a really productive meeting with City staff to sort through some remaining issues with regard to the real estate resolution. In the interest of the best use of everyone's time, I will be postponing this item until next meeting to afford an opportunity to continue working...

Colleagues, Included below is a link to a revised draft of Resolution 40, establishing policies for the City’s management of its real estate assets. This draft maintains the significant actions articulated in Draft 1 that posted on 9/23 as well as reflecting many edits that respond to feedback we’ve...

Dear Colleagues, This Thursday, we have an opportunity to make a declaration: Downtown is for everyone. Before we vote on Item #12, I want to take a moment and reflect on the huge amount of work that has taken place since we strategically acquired the HealthSouth property, a prime piece of Downtown ...

One more I forgot to include related to the Rainey Historic District Fund. Not sure if this link will actually work, so I'm pasting the relevant text below. http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincouncilforum/06-20220813214706.xlsx One time: $408,246 from the Rainey Street Historic District Fund. This ...

Dear Colleagues, Please find below the amendments and budget direction I intend to introduce next week. As I mentioned on Thursday, I am still evaluating Austin Code's proposal, our progress toward in-sourcing, and some information about PARD rental venues. I will likely revise Amendments #1 and #11...

Dear Colleagues, Thank you for your thoughts on this important agenda item and the timing of the discussion. I strongly support this resolution and regard it as very much in line with the way we have approached our third-party agreements in the context of other city work -- namely, making sure that ...

Dear Council Member Vela: Thank you for your post. As the sponsor of the action to amend our Downtown Density Bonus Program to allow for fee-in-lieu dollars to be used for low-barrier housing vouchers for individuals experiencing homelessness (formerly these fees were designated for creating Permane...

Council Member Fuentes,
Thank you for your leadership on this important issue. I would like to co-sponsor your upcoming resolution.

Best,
Kathie Tovo

Council Member Kitchen:

Thank you for bringing forward this important resolution. I would like to co-sponsor.

Best,

Kathie Tovo

Apologize if this is a duplicate post - thought I'd posted yesterday, but I don't see it online. Colleagues: I support the request for a Special Called meeting this week if the situation has resolved and staff will not be pulled from water distribution or other responsibilities key to the emergency ...

Colleagues, Today the Austin's Monitor published an article ("Library Commission pushes for fine-free books") about a recommendation that from our library commissioners to remove late fees for adult library users. Over the last multiple months, my office has been working with library commi...

Colleagues:

I would like to co-sponsor this concept, which as the message board post notes, Council has discussed in past LDC conversations and has always had broad consensus on the dais and among the community.

Best,

Kathie Tovo

CM Kitchen, Thanks for your leadership. I look forward to supporting this work. I believe your areas of focus align nicely with the work I previously posted about with regard to ADUs. I intend to bring that resolution forward in the near future as well, and I look forward to the conversations. Best,...

Dear Colleagues, Several times over the last few years our dais has discussed how ADUS could prove to be a meaningful tool for us to deploy to help address the need for additional housing options and to help enable residents to remain in place by generating additional income. As you may recall, in A...

Thank you, Council Member Ellis. Please add me as a co-sponsor.

best,
Kathie Tovo

Dear Colleagues, Below is the motion sheet I will introduce for Item #26 as additional to the one CM Casar intends to bring forward. This direction will be circulated by the Agenda Office soon. I appreciate the work of so many community members that have brought us to this exciting moment! http://as...

Colleagues, As we enter a challenging budget season this year due to the State-imposed revenue caps and other legislation, I want to take the opportunity sooner rather than later to highlight a few priorities and investments I plan to focus on and advocate for in the upcoming budget. This list may g...

Colleagues, Below please find amendments that follow along the points I raised in my message board post and our conversation on Monday. I am bringing forward these amendments with Council Member Alter, Council Member Kitchen, and Mayor Adler. I regard this direction as a critical component in my sup...

Dear Colleagues, I look forward to today’s discussion. A few quick thoughts: I share the commitment to investing a significant portion of the American Rescue Plan Act funding in housing and services related to ending homelessness (ie. achieving “functional zero”); it is also critically important to ...

Hi all - just posting this information from the Public Information Office with the dates of the remaining Community Task Force sessions. Best, Kathie For immediate release: May 10, 2021 Contact: Bryce Bencivengo, bryce.bencivengo@austintexas.gov, 512-766-6178 Winter Storm Review Task Force Seeks Pub...

Colleagues, Here are some of the questions I have related to areas of discussion on today's Council session agenda. A good number of my questions about AE and AWU have received attention in previous sessions, so you'll see just a few in those areas. I am still reading through the Hurricane Harvey Af...

Good morning Colleagues! Today marks our second of two Council work sessions to discuss the Winter Storm response. The conversation today is scheduled to focus on: Sheltering (1:00 - 2:30 p.m.) Austin Energy (2:30 - 3:30 p.m.) Austin Water (3:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.) Council identification of next steps...

Colleagues, Here are some of the questions I have related to the topics identified for tomorrow's work session. While I don't expect we'll have time to discuss many (most?) of these, I'm sharing them in this space in case it's useful and in the event that they help prompt additional questions from o...