City of Austin Council Message Board

Council,

Please note that we made an error in our previous message board post regarding Council Work Session schedule for the FY24 Budget.

The Budget Work Session scheduled for July 19th is set to begin at 9am in Council Chambers.

Thank you,
Kirk

Posted on behalf of Mayor Watson

Council Members: This morning, I consulted with the City Manager and we agreed the City needs to suspend the DPS partnership because of serious activity in the last few days that doesn’t correspond with Austin’s values. This statement has been released. https://mailchi.mp/austintexas.gov/city-of-aus...

Council, I want to thank the Budget Office for holding FY24 Budget training sessions with our offices. Now that those sessions are complete, I thought I would review the proposed FY24 Budget calendar and set out an outline for a process the Council can follow to accommodate our discussions, assure t...

Council Members: Attached please find a general timeline for the search for a permanent city manager. It is meant to be general to allow for flexibility. It sets a target for a new manager to start on September 1, 2024. The thinking is that the new manager starting on September 1 allows for the comp...

One last thing: tomorrow is when we draw for new seats on the dais and we will do this at the top of the meeting.

On behalf of Mayor Watson

Council, Here is my proposed plan for the Council meeting tomorrow. We will begin promptly at 10am. We will hear public testimony on consent and non-consent items. Speakers will have 2 minutes. We will then vote on the consent agenda with brief remarks from Council. Please let Colleen know if you wo...

Council, Thank you all for having a robust and productive conversation at yesterday’s work session meeting about addressing our housing emergency. This issue is clearly a top priority for all of us, and I hope that we continue to find ways to work together to foster affordability across Austin. To t...

Council Members: As I promised, I am taking the steps to begin the search process for a permanent city manager. I committed that we would start in the June/July timeframe. I have asked Mayor Pro Tem Ellis and Council Members Pool, Vela and Fuentes to serve as a sub quorum/committee to help with the ...

Council, Here is my proposed plan for the Council meeting tomorrow. We will begin promptly at 10am. We will hear public testimony on consent and non-consent items. Speakers will have 2 minutes. We will then vote on the consent agenda with brief remarks from Council. Please let Colleen know if you wo...

Council, Below is my proposed plan for our Council Work Session on May 30, 2023. We have three items related to Project Connect on the Work Session agenda. I would like to take these items up together. After calling the meeting to order, we will go into Executive Session. Following Executive Session...

Council, The Special Called meeting of the Public Safety Committee will be held tomorrow, May 22nd at 10am. We will begin with the staff presentation and briefing on the Austin Police Department and Texas Department of Public Safety partnership. Following the presentation and briefing, we will hear ...

Council, Here is my proposed plan for the Council meeting tomorrow. We will begin promptly at 10am. We will hear public testimony on consent and non-consent items. Speakers will have 2 minutes. We will then vote on the consent agenda with brief remarks from Council. Please remember to let Colleen kn...

Council, Please see my statement on the APD / DPS partnership. The Texas Department of Public Safety has determined that it needs to deploy additional resources to the border because of the expiration of the federal Title 42 border policy. At the time the partnership was announced, the director of D...

Council:

I want to give you an update on the APD / DPS partnership.

DPS officers will work supporting APD through tomorrow and then all officers will be sent to the border.

This will be for a minimum of two weeks.

Thanks,
Kirk

On behalf of Mayor Watson

Colleagues – I want to update you on a significant development with House Bill 3899, which is the legislation aimed at killing Austin Light Rail. House Bill 3899 was heard in the Senate Local Government Committee on Monday, and Chairman Paul Bettencourt has raised a new argument directly related to ...

Council, I am calling a Special Called Meeting of the Austin City Council on May 16th immediately following the conclusion of the Work Session to canvass the May 6th Election results. While we only need two members present to canvass the Election results, all members are welcome to be present. Pleas...

Council, For your information, I’m sharing the statement I released regarding today’s election. The Austin City Council did not adopt the four-year police contract in February primarily because we wanted to protect the right of voters to be heard on police oversight. With the passage of Proposition ...

Council, Here is my proposed plan for the Council meeting tomorrow. We will begin promptly at 10am. We will hear public testimony on consent and non-consent items. Speakers will have 2 minutes. We will then vote on the consent agenda with brief remarks from Council. Please remember to let Colleen kn...

Council: This is a follow-up to the discussion we had about the next in person briefing we will receive re the APD/DPS partnership. I worry I may have caused confusion yesterday when I suggested moving it up from the Special Called Public Safety Committee meeting scheduled for May 22 to the Council ...

Council, Here is my proposed plan for the Council Work Session tomorrow, May 2, 2023. We will begin with the briefing on the five-year Financial Forecast. This presentation is expected to be two hours. We will take up the briefing on the partnership between the Austin Police Department and the Texas...

The automated speaker registration system used to sign up to speak at meetings, including the Public Safety Committee meeting on April 24th, will be down for maintenance this weekend. To accommodate for this, the kiosks will be open to register for the Public Safety Committee meeting earlier than us...

Council, Here is my proposed plan for the Council meeting tomorrow. We will begin promptly at 10am. We will hear public testimony on consent and non-consent items. Speakers will have 2 minutes. We will then vote on the consent agenda with brief remarks from Council. We will then take up the non-cons...

Council Member, After our telephone conversation, I took immediate action so this requested briefing will be on the Work Session agenda on May 2nd. I appreciate your sense of urgency. We will keep the Special Called Meeting of the Public Safety Committee on May 22nd so that we can have continued bri...

Council, Our Work Session today was very productive and informative. Thanks for all the good questions. I recognize that there are unanswered questions, a desire from Council to hear from the Department of Public Safety, and the need to stay up to date on this partnership. For these reasons, I’m cal...

Council: I’m proud of the work that we’ve accomplished together, and I’m looking forward to our continued work. As we seek to achieve our shared goal of conducting effective and efficient City Council Meetings, I want to propose a couple of ideas. In trying to be efficient, but I don’t want to miss ...