City of Austin Council Message Board

Council— Pursuant to City Code Section 2-5-102 (C), yesterday, I filed a list of the membership of each council committee with the city clerk. This list also includes memberships on intergovernmental organizations. I’ve attached the list I provided the clerk. We still have open appointments on the m...

Colleagues – Thanks for everyone’s participation at the Audit and Finance Committee meeting yesterday. The discussion was really good. I’m writing to outline next steps. OFFICE SPENDING POLICY Yesterday, the Audit and Finance Committee recommended adoption of the proposed Mayor and Council office ex...

Council Members— I’m sharing a reminder of our discussion next week regarding the Council Committee and intergovernmental appointments. Attached is a link to the current appointments below: http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincouncilforum/0D-20260112173425.pdf If I don’t hear from you by Thursday, J...

Happy New Year! I’m presenting a proposed “Decision Tree” that can help guide our decision making while we think through the bond process. This was developed with the help of our professional finance staff. You’ll recall that we developed a Decision Tree to help us last year with the TRE. There are ...

Council Members, As we get ready to start the new year, I want to start organizing Council Committee assignments and the assignments from the Council to intergovernmental bodies for 2026. I’ve attached links to the Council Committees and Intergovernmental body appointments for 2025 for reference. Of...

Council, I promised that I’d get the first draft of a proposed City Council Office Expense Policy to the Council for review by Friday, December 19. Here it is http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincouncilforum/2D-202512353120426.pdf. How’s that for adding to your holiday happiness? The goals of this p...

Council— Here is my plan for the special-called council meeting tomorrow. We will begin promptly at 9:00 am. Please note that the meeting starts at 9:00 am. We will start with a presentation from staff. Followed by questions from Council. We will then hear public comment on the items. Speakers will ...

Colleagues – I wanted to share that the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs Board voted unanimously to approve an award of $48,420,179 to The Other Ones Foundation to support the expansion of Esperanza Community. Coupled with today’s City Council action to commit ongoing operations and...

Council— After discussion with the City Manager and our Labor Relations office, I am requesting that we hold a special-called meeting on Thursday, December 18th, at 9:00 am to consider the collective bargaining agreement between the City and the Austin Firefighters Association. http://assets.austint...

Council Members: I know you share the belief that it’s important for City operations to run as efficiently as possible to provide the excellent services the community expects and for us to best utilize every tax dollar. My goal has been for us to put affordability first and that includes delivering ...

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...