City of Austin Council Message Board

Colleagues, Earlier today, at the Audit & Finance Committee meeting, I gave a brief presentation on potential reforms to the use of Mayor and Council Office Budgets https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=463448. Following my presentation, we heard comments and feedback from sever...

Council: I just want to call to your attention that the City Manager’s office has withdrawn items 48, 49, and 50 related to the potential contract with the Austin Firefighters Association. The memo detailing this decision is linked in this message board post. http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincoun...

Council-- In consultation with Austin Water and colleagues, I am asking the City Manager to withdraw Item 54 on the Council agenda. The item is a collaboration agreement with Bastrop County entities to advance field testing of water and soil samples in a laboratory for a possible future Aquifer Stor...

My plan for the meeting tomorrow: I will call the work session to order. I will announce on the record that the PUD discussion will be postponed until a later date. Then, we will recess the work session so that Chair Vela can call the AE Oversight Committee to order. At the conclusion of the AEOC me...

Council, Our first budget presentation from staff will be on Tuesday, November 18, 2025. Although I previously indicated the deadline for budget amendments would be this Friday, to accommodate for the anticipated discussion on Tuesday, the deadline to submit budget amendments will now be Wednesday N...

Council-- As you all work through your potential amendments that you plan to present during the budget revision vote on November 20th, I wanted to lay out a process. To ensure we are working from the same baseline, amendments should be written based on the City Manager's Revised Budget Recommendatio...

Council— As promised, I’m sharing a copy of the IFC I’m bringing to the council during the November 20th Council Meeting relating to reform of council office spending. I want to thank my current co-sponsors for this item, along with those who posted on the message board, and invite any council membe...

Colleagues— As I promised on Tuesday night, I’m laying out a proposed timeline for adopting a revised budget after the voters’ decision on Proposition Q. This timeline is intended meet the mandate of our voters and builds upon my Tuesday night statement. I said that we should meet the voters’ mandat...

When the Council put Proposition Q on the ballot, I said, “It’s time to trust the voters”. Tonight, the voters spoke by rejecting Prop Q. Austin voters made their decision, and they did so clearly. I trust their decision. And I hear them. Voters prioritized affordability. They’re worried about their...

Council, I will be appointing Steve Rivas to serve as my appointee on the task force. Steve Rivas is a current LGBTQ Quality of Life Advisory Commissioner, and I look forward to his input on this task force. Like I mentioned above, please let us know your appointee via message board. Thanks, Kirk On...

Council Members: As you know, the details of the tentative agreement between the City and the Firefighters are still being finalized. The tentative high-level agreement was announced just over a week ago. We all are hopeful that the public and Council will have the proposed text and analysis of the ...

This expands on my previous message board post regarding the edict to remove certain painting on roadways, including crosswalks. The federal guidance states that “Word, symbol, and arrow marking on the pavement” are to be “used for the purpose of regulating, warning, or guiding traffic”. Those words...

I wanted to let you know what I was thinking for the work session tomorrow. We will start promptly at 9:00. The first thing we will do after calling the meeting to order is to go into executive session to interview three candidates for City Auditor. The Charter declares the Audit & Finance Commi...

Council Members: I know we are all concerned about the recent state declaration that crosswalks and roadways can't have certain so-called messaging, and that such messaging should be removed within 30 days or face a loss of state funding for projects. City staff has been looking into what this could...

Colleagues: I’ve seen Council Member Duchen’s post and his proposed motion to delay a vote on a navigation center that we all know we need. We need a city operated navigation center. Unlike the quote in the post, our highly professional staff and this Council aren’t putting “parties in a real estate...

Council Members, Prior to passage of House Bill 2802 during the recent legislative session, the mayor was statutorily required to be a member of the Austin Firefighter Retirement Fund (AFRF) Board of Trustees. HB 2802 now gives the mayor discretion to either serve on the board or appoint a member of...

Council: Last year was the first year of a new process for selecting the Board of Directors of Appraisal Review Boards in Texas under the new process, some of the board positions are elected by voters. For Williamson and Travis Counties, there are five members that are appointed by various local tax...

Council: Here is my plan for the Council meeting tomorrow. We will begin promptly at 10am and then hear public comment on consent items. Speakers will have 2 minutes per item. Speakers will be able to donate time. Speakers wishing to donate time must coordinate with the City Clerk prior to being cal...

Council Members: Before tomorrow’s work session, I wanted to share a schedule outlining the plan for the meeting. I’m unavailable tomorrow. Mayor Pro Tem Fuentes will preside over the meeting. I will be in Washington, D.C., on city business related to transit and likely also participate in some meet...

Council Members, I intended to send this to you yesterday, but the Message Board was down. So, here we go with a Saturday morning post The Pension Review Board (PRB) has officially determined the Austin Firefighters Retirement Fund’s 2025 Funding Soundness Restoration Plan (FSRP) is in full complian...

Council: Here is my plan for the Council meeting tomorrow. We will begin promptly at 10am and then hear public comment on consent items. Speakers will have 2 minutes per item. Speakers will be able to donate time. Speakers wishing to donate time must coordinate with the City Clerk prior to being cal...

This is to outline how I think we’ll proceed tomorrow. So let me start by saying that tomorrow will be complicated with lots of moving parts. I will do my best to keep things orderly and consistent with rules and procedure. I may ask for some flexibility in specific circumstances that we might not a...

Council: I want to be clear about my last post. I indicated an openness to using that proposal as part of the primary motion tomorrow. However, there needs to be a true up from financial staff to assure the numbers work. The true up would need to be what we use, otherwise, we might start with someth...

Council Member Vela: Thanks for this post. I’m open to using this as part of the primary motion for the budget tomorrow, even though there are aspects of it that don’t correspond with some of my thinking on the final budget. If this is what we use, it would only be as a starting point. It would not ...

Council: Thanks to all of you for your detailed efforts on this difficult budget. I've said consistently that Austin needs additional revenue to meet the quality of life needs of our city. I've also said that we need to make our city's affordability the top priority of city government. Of course, I'...