City Council Regular Meeting Transcript – 09/01/2016 Title: ATXN 24/7 Recording Channel: 6 - ATXN Recorded On: 9/1/2016 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 9/1/2016 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== [10:19:16 AM] >> Mayor Adler: Are we ready to start this up? Let's begin with an invocation from reverend Rick diamond, journey and perfect faith community. Sir, thank you. Everyone please stand. >> Thank you. I speak for journey imperfect faith community which meets in crestview neighborhood. It's an experiment in following the scripture of our elder brother, Jesus. He tells us to love god and human beings and to serve and to wash feet. And as the jewish prophets say, to create sight among blindness and healing among brokenness. In that spirit then I invoke god in many ways. And on behalf of the journeyers, this is our prayer. Please pray with me. First take a deep breath. In the book of genesis god makes a human out of mud and then breathes the breath of life into its nostrils. Breathe. You may not have taken a breath today, so now is a good time before you guys get to work on important things. We ask god to give this council courage and compassion. We ask god to protect this council from possible self-interest, either your own or that of other people, which might get in the way of the highest good. We ask god to watch for the dangerous messages of empire which can be seductive and which are ever where and which can cause people to dehumanize and oppress each other. We ask god to give this council hope when you are bogged down in minutiae and complaints and fear and bureaucracy. We ask god to be in the middle of your governing and deciding process and we ask god to reveal to you what is good and what is best in your oversight of so many important things that impact the lives of so many people. [10:21:27 AM] We ask god to help you see your neighbors and to help you see that we are all neighbors and we ask god to give you peace and confidence when you reach decisions that are in the best interest of all, but especially whom Jesus called the least of these, my brothers and sisters. Amen. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and call to order the city council meeting here of Austin, it's September 1st of the year 2016. It is 10:20. We're in the Austin city council chambers here, 301 west second street in Austin, Texas. We have some changes and corrections for me to read into the record. First is that item number 33, the suggested date and time for the public hearing is September 22nd as opposed to being September 1st. September 1st. The items that are being pulled today I see as being item number 2 has been pulled by law. Also items 4 pulled by Mr. Zimmerman. Item number 10 pulled by Ms. Houston. Also item number 14, 15, 16, all three pulled by Mr. [10:23:32 AM] Zimmerman. Item number 22 pulled by Mr. Zimmerman. Item number 25 pulled by Ms. Houston. Item number 29 is being pulled. That's the expedited permit item. We have two different groups of councilmembers that have asked for time certains, but at different times. Both at 2:00 and at 6:30. So 29 will be pulled. So the items I have pulled are items 2, 4, 10, 14, 15, 16, 22, 25 and 29. >> Zimmerman: Mr. Mayor, a point of inquiry here. I showed item 23 being pulled, has no one pulled 23? >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Houston had I think originally pulled that, but I think that pull has been withdrawn. >> Zimmerman: Unpulled, thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Unpulled. >> Houston: Unpulled. I got the information that I was requesting. >> Mayor Adler: We have some speakers -- as a council we will have to decide about time certain. There are two items where there's been a request for things to be set for a time certain. Obviously this item number 29, which is the expedited permit issue, as well as item number 50, which is the tenant relocation issue. >> Kitchen: Mr. Mayor, may I speak to item 29? Item 29 is the item that I brought forward with some co- sponsors, and I appreciate -- normally I would be happy to accommodate other councilmembers in terms of an earlier time certain, but I asked for a time certain of 6:30 because there are people that want to be involved and want to come speak who won't be off work until then. [10:25:47 AM] So I'm hoping that 6:30 will be fine and I'm happy for that to go after the other item that is requested for 6:30, depending on how -- how the day proceeds. That would be my preference as the sponsor of that item. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> Gallo: And mayor, I think we requested the 2:00 just to get to a time certain, and that's fine. I certainly would honor councilmember kitchen's request. >> Kitchen: Thank you. >> Gallo: But to be clear, we would set it for a different time than 6:30? >> Kitchen: We can say -- I'm happy for the tenant relocation to go first and I don't know how long that will take. So if we want to set 29 -- >> Mayor Adler: Let's set them both at the same time and let's see how it goes. That means it gets called no earlier than that. And we will call the tenant relocation one prior to calling the other one. Okay. We have some speakers to speak on the agenda. On the consent agenda. Stuart Hersh is the first speaker. Gus Pena is the second speaker. >> Tovo: I'm not sure if robin [indiscernible] Or Joe Langley are here, but if so items 1 and 13 would be pulled. >> Mayor Adler: Say that again? >> Tovo: Item 11 has two speakers -- >> Mayor Adler: It did, but they signed up after the time period, so it stays on consent. Thank you, though. But you had two numbers. Was it -- what was the other one? >> Tovo: The other number was 13. >> Mayor Adler: Same issue. Is Joe Langley here? Joe Langley? That's why we just have one speaker on 13. [10:27:48 AM] >> Mayor and members of the council, my name is Stuart Harry Hersh and I'm still renting, but getting closer. In 2014 item number 204 of the last agenda of the former council was an attempt to increase the size of the building standards commission to 11 members and create two panels, theoretically one of six and one of five, but as often happens with legislation, those of us who support a change end up on a very late hour with something being approved from the dais that wasn't what we intended, so as a result we ended up with two panels of 11 instead of one big commission of 11 with six and five members divided between single-family and commercial and multi-family cases, with the hope that they would be able to go to neighborhoods and deal with substandard rental property without people having to drive down here during rush hour. But we failed, but today you're about to succeed. So I support item number 6 in the hope that we can have a subsequent discussion at some point about creating a six and five-person panel that will be able to hold meetings in the respective council districts so that when we have repeat offenders in the rental market who aren't addressing things and it's impacting the community, not only the tenants, but the homeowners who live near these properties, that we can actually as a city hold those hearings where people live instead of forcing them to drive all the way downtown at 6:30 at night. So I commend your efforts on item number 6 and hope that you will approve it on consent. Thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Mr. Pena? Is Gus Pena here? Okay. Is David king? Mr. King, this is on item number 28. [10:29:50 AM] >> Thank you, mayor, mayor pro tem, councilmembers. I'm really glad to see this item on the agenda about this morning fraud that's been perpetrated on some of our most vulnerable citizens in our community here. So I'm glad that this initiative is happening. I would ask that you make it an emergency item so that it can get acted on as soon as possible. And that that we take all measures necessary to hold these people accountable. In coordination withholding these folks accountable I think there should be an education program so that other families can be aware of this situation and they won't get caught in this trap because this won't be the last time this kind of thing happens -- is perpetrated on our community. And I hope we can educate and provide information so that folks can avoid this. And I really hope that you will hold these people accountable and use every tool possible to make sure they are brought to justice. Thank you for doing this and thank you for watching out for our community. >> Mayor Adler: Robin Payson? >>> Good morning, city council members. My name is robin Payson. I'm the executive director of communities for recovery. We're here in relation to item 11. And my board chair Valerie Milburn has joined us and we want to say thank you so much. We provide recovery supports and services to individuals who are in recovery from substance use or substance use and mental illness. We want to say thank you so much for your support. [10:31:52 AM] >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. Those are all the consent speakers that we have. Item number 2, the revised draft ordinance, is in backup. So therefore that item does not have to be pulled. That is unpulled. Mr. Zimmerman, do you want to read into the record your -- >> Zimmerman: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to be shown in favor of the consent agenda with the following exceptions: Abstaining from items 2 and 3, abstaining from item 5, against items 11 and 12, abstaining from 13, against 17 and 18, abstaining from 19 against 21, abstaining from 24 and against 28. >> Mayor Adler: Anyone else want to read anything into the record? Ms. Pool moves to approve the consent agenda. Mr. Zimmerman seconds. Those in favor please raise your hand? Those opposed? It's unanimous on the dais with Ms. Troxclair off. >> Tovo: Mayor, later at 4:00 we'll take up the imagine Austin -- number 51, which is the public hearing to consider an ordinance amending the imagine Austin comprehensive plan. And I wanted just to bring to the council's attention that we did receive a postponement request for at least a piece of it. There is a recommendation to change the piece of Guadalupe to designate as a activity corridor. We have received a postponement request from some individuals associated with canpac because that neighborhood was not notified of this change and would like to provide feedback. We've consently heard from others in the area that they too would appreciate an opportunity to provide feedback. [10:34:04 AM] So I wanted to alert people that at 4:00 he will be asking for that postponement. And if there is anyone with a serious objection it would be great to know about it now because otherwise we want to have people who want to come down and talk about it. >> Mayor Adler: And then I also understand that there's also a postponement request for item number 46? Which is also set at 4:00, the garages and carport issue? Is there anybody that would be resisting that postponement? I think they were trying to have that reset for September 22nd. September 22nd is the day we have the grove. So my suggestion would be that we push that back one week to the 1st. Mayor pro tem? >> Tovo: I also support the postponement because I understand it's a first request and while it's not a hard and fast rule it's our practice. I would say it's been in progress for so very, very long that I really hope we will be able to take it up on October 1st if that's the date that we're setting. And make that recommendation that our commission has recommended to us. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> Casar: And mayor, I would be open to postponement on the comp plan revision. I just might want to get some information about how long that postponement might be because while I certainly am interested in hearing folks' concerns about the activity corridor designation on Guadalupe, I thought I read somewhere, and maybe I just read it from the monitor and not from staff, those get confused in my head sometimes, that part of it was a mistake that had been left out of the original adoption. So I would -- if that is the case, I would like for it to come back somewhat swiftly. If it's not then I would be interested in hearing why it's not. So I'm fine with the postponement as long as it's swift. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. All right. [10:36:04 AM] So now let's take a look at the agenda that we have. One of the items that we have on the agenda is item number 34, which is the interim city manager. There are people signed up to speak on this. I'm going to call this item number 34. Person number 1 is Gus Pena. Is he here? Is Joe Langley here? >> Kitchen: Mr. Mayor? Should we be voting on consent first? >> Zimmerman: Already did. >> Mayor Adler: We just did. >> Kitchen: Sorry. I'm not all here today. >> Mayor Adler: That's okay. Joe Langley here? Is David king here? Do you want to speak on this issue? This is the interim city manager issue. >> Thank you, mayor, mayor pro tem and councilmembers. I'll be real brief. I think we should consider Burt Lumbreras as the interim manager. He knows the city, he's loved the city. He's helped the neighborhoods with lots of different issues and I think he's respectful of neighborhoods and he knows the ropes and he can keep the process moving along. So I think that would be a wise choice to consider him as the interim manager. And I would support that and hope that you do too. Thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Those were all the speakers that we had on this issue. Council, we wanted to hear what the public testimony was on this issue. My suggestion would be that we take a 10-minute recess and go back into executive session -- before we leave, there's a staff recommended postponement on item number 37, the champion's tract, so that people can leave if we postpone this. [10:38:21 AM] Do you want to address that real fast. >> Yes, sir. Staff is requesting postponement of item 37 to September 22nd. We are still working on some legal documents on the case. >> Mayor Adler: To postpone until when? >> September 22nd. >> Mayor Adler: So that puts it on top of the grove. Do we want to do that? >> I believe we have to because Mr. Suttle has a deadline with regard to a contract. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> So while the grove may be complaining they've been in the process, I think this case has actually been in the process longer than the grove. And we are ever so close, due in part because I didn't get my legal work done and your law department didn't quite get theirs done we had hoped to have the discussion today with finalization on the 22nd, but now we're up to the 22nd and I'm here just to tell you that my client, we're out of runway at the end of September. So it's imperative that we are done on the 22nd. Either thumb's up or thumb's down, one way or the other. >> Mayor Adler: Gotcha. Thank you. Is there a motion to postpone this to September 22nd? Ms. Gallo so moves. Is there a second to that? Mr. Zimmerman. Those in favor of postponing to September 22nd, please raise your hand? Those opposed? It's unanimous on the dais with Ms. Troxclair off. We're now going to go into closed session to take up one item. This is item number 42, the appointment and duties of an interim city manager. Without objection, we'll now go into executive session. We'll be right back. Why [11:09:08 AM] >> Tovo: I'm mayor pro tem Kathie tovo. We are now out of closed session. In closed session we took up personnel matters related to item 42. So we're going to get back to our council agenda and we're going to start with item 4. Councilmember -- we have four speakers. Councilmember, would you like to hear from the speakers first? >> Zimmerman: I would like to hear from the speakers first, and we've got a couple of overheards from the backup material that he could cue up, but I would like to hear speakers first. >> Tovo: Sharon Blythe, you are up first. Is Mr. King here? >> [Inaudible - no mic]. >> Tovo: He did, but I'm not seeing David now. Ms. Blythe you will have six minutes. You will be followed by Katherine bullock and you will have three minutes. Welcome, Ms. Blythe. >> Thank you. My name is Sharon Blythe, long time cemetery advocate. I'm here to speak on the oakwood cemetery public funds being used for the restoration 2011. There was a memo -- do I have a clicker? In 2011 there was a memo sent out, still on the website, that they're not going to use public funds for that restoration. That they're going to privately gather those funds and restore it. In those days it would only be 500,000. With inflation, that price could have inincreased, but not to 1.1 million. So the important thing to remember is that I have no problem with the restoration idea. I do have a problem with public funds and over half of the bond money, the two-million-dollar bond money being used for one project. In your backup today there's a -- it says that once restored the building will be programmed for adaptive reuse by the parks and recreation department as recommended by the council in the approved homework master plan. [11:11:21 AM] Yes, the council did approve the master plan, but there was no discussion about what adaptive uses there would be, none whatsoever. So I have found on websites, activities that are going on in oakwood cemetery that I think are inappropriate. Is this going to be the adaptive use? This is off the save Austin cemeteries, who are a cult. In the fall they have zombies running around oakwood and they cachets a cultural -- they couch it as a cultural presentation. I don't have a problem with it, but I have a problem with them pulling out skeletons and having zombies running around the cemeteries. I think that is inappropriate for the loved ones who have entrusted their loved ones for the city of Austin. Currently the parks and recreation does not have a regular presence in the cemetery. Failure for this contract would delay the department to have a presence on the east side. I think that this is really the presence they're going to have. Another picture of the inappropriate activities at oakwood, they have their zombies out and they have their skeletons running around. And this should not be happening. There has been no definition of adaptive reuse. So it's up to you all to find out before you work on this what is adaptive reuse. No one knows. We don't know what that's going to be, but I think that's what it's going to be. It says on an backup analysis and additional information as the funds were previously authorized by council there is no analysis or additional information required for funding. When did the council approve the ability to use over half the bond funds for this one project. You never voted on that. You never voted on that appropriation. It was never discussed in the public that I know of. [11:13:21 AM] I didn't know there was a bond advisory committee until Austin neighborhoods council just last week -- maybe it went before them, but it was not publicized to the cemetery advocates they were discussing it there. So this was all done kind of behind closed doors. And I'm just asking y'all to think before you vote. There were never any public meetings that I know of on the bond money, how the bond money should be spent. Public meetings were promised by pard, but did not happen. Where is the transparency in this process? And also, you really need to get a handle on these disrespectful activities at oakwood. I don't think there should be any skeletons, no zombies, no parties, no weddings. Cultural tourism is just fine. And you should instruct the city manager to mandate to pard that these activities will not take place. I know the parks department is here today. They're going to tell you that there's lots of public meetings with the master plan. Actually, most -- most of the people in my group were stifled in those meetings and not allowed to speak. In fact, actually threatened to not speak. So there really hasn't been much discussion, any discussion as far as I know on how that bond money was supposed to be used except internally with the parks department. So please before you vote, please take this into consideration, the public has not been informed. And so please vote your conscience, but please do not allow skeleton zombies in the city cemeteries. I think that is disrespectful. Thank you very much. [Applause]. >> Tovo: Thank >> Tovo: Councilmember Zimmerman. >> Zimmerman: I'm going to put up a couple of over heads from the city of Austin parks and recreational board. The matrix of March 31st, 2012. [11:15:25 AM] If you would sit tight I'm going to get you to comment. But I want to hear from the other speakers, then we'll get back to this. >> Tovo: Thank you. And our next speaker is Katherine bullock. Is Ms. Bullock here? All right, then our last speaker is Dustin Gadberry. You have three minutes. >> Thank you, council. Dustin Gadberry, Gadberry construction company here today excited about this project. I signed up just to answer questions if need be. I am very familiar with the project. I know the layout. I can't speak to the use, the end use. I don't know about the programming, but as far as the state of the -- how the building is, what's going the happen to the building or anything else the council would like to know, I'm here to answer any questions. >> Tovo: Thank you so much. Are there any questions for Mr. Gadberry? >> Zimmerman: I just have one quickly. So you are aware that I think there's -- no one is really opposed to the rehabilitation. It's work that needs to be done. I think the issue brought up is how was it going to be paid for. >> Right. >> Zimmerman: I'm not sure we would even be having this debate if the money were raised privately and donated, I don't think any of us would be talking about this. That's all I wanted to add. >> Tovo: Thank you. Ms. Bullock. Katherine bullock. That concludes our speakers. Is there a motion on this item? Councilmember Houston moves approval of this item. Is there a second? Councilmember pool seconds. Councilmember Houston, would you like to speak to your motion now? >> Houston: I actually have attended many of the public hearings. Oakwood cemetery, both the annex and cemetery located in district 1 and I attended several of the meetings and they were very well attended at the carver and the -- carver library. [11:17:39 AM] And so I have to say that there was a lot of engagement. People participated very well. I'm not remembering the adaptive reuse, but I think we talked about having green space, having people -- having it being a park-like setting where people could come and read their books and just be a meditation area. So I'm not sure where the zombies -- it's an open park, a public park. I'm not sure who the zombies are that come through there with their skeletons, but I don't know how we keep people from using a public area like a cemetery except if it's closed and after hours, and yes, we can say that's illegal, but I'm not sure how we would manage keeping zombies out. We could say something that some people don't think this is a very respectful way to honor our dead, but I think that the fact is that this is an historic chapel. It's in total disrepair and it needs to be upgraded so that it's a part of that community for the families that gather there and for the people who have services there so that they can have a chapel service in the chapel prior to interring their family members. So I'm in support of the restoration of the chapel at the cemetery. >> Tovo: Thanks very much for those comments. Did you want to speak to your second, councilmember pool? >> Pool: Thanks, mayor pro tem, and I just -- I am in full agreement with councilmember Houston's comments and I also support this item and I think that the staff has done a really good job pulling together the master plan for the cemeteries and I look forward to the ongoing work because it is needed. Thanks. >> Tovo: Councilmember Zimmerman, I think you said you had something you wanted to share, maybe we could do that quickly before we take our vote. >> Zimmerman: Thank you, mayor pro tem. [11:19:42 AM] I wanted to call attention to your backup material because the information I'm putting up is in the backup material. There's a five-page report in your backup material title city of Austin cemeteries working group, issues matrix, dated March 31, 2012. The issue here -- I agree with councilmember Houston on the fact that it being an open park, I agree with my constituent, Ms. Blythe, that I don't think it's respectful to have Halloween parties in a cemetery. My neighborhood has an annual Halloween party in our park. Have kids come up dressed in costumes. It's a public park and we schedule it. But cemetery, it's a different context to have a cemetery with memorials. I agree with her, but I also agree with councilmember Houston. I'm not sure how we police the public cemetery and I would not be in favor of stationing police officers to arrest anybody who showed up in a zombie costume on Halloween at a cemetery. I guess maybe I fall in the middle of this. And I think there's a consensus that no one is opposed to restoring the building, the question is where the money comes from. So part of what this working group was about, if you read it, it tries to level the gauge of support and it tries to suggest where the money might come from. So if you look at the -- the first one is kind of hard to read, but on item number 5, it says pard needs to allocate funds, bonds, for repairing, updating or installing new irrigation at all cemeteries. Let's flip to the next one, exhibit B. This is item number 25 when it comes up here. Item number 25, it says irrigation improvements are a higher priority than road and drainage improvements. Now, it's not -- the building we're talking about, but the point is we have limited dollars, right, limited public money. And there was a robust discussion about this. [11:21:43 AM] Over in column E where it says document, bond election and budget process. That's another place where irrigation improvements were highlighted. At line 26, inadequate tree care under current contract. It says include tree watering under the possible solution. It says there's general support and the intended outcome is improve tree health. The reason I'm going to vote against this is because I think it is a misguided priority. I think we could find private money for the restoration of that building, but the care of some of these trees are 50, 100 years old and I think we should prioritize the care of some of those heritage trees in the context of the cemetery. I would rather see the money spent on irrigation. >> Tovo: Thank you U councilmember Houston. >> Houston: Mayor pro tem, I'd like to invite Ms. Mcknight to come up and address some of those concerns. Or whoever from park is here. You've done an excellent job on this master plan, it's taken many years to get it done. Can you address some of the concerns? >> Certainly. The 2012 matrix which councilmember Zimmerman was referring to was a special work group convened by parks board to try to understand a multitude of issues our cemeteries were facing. It really wasn't specific to the bond. We had a cemetery contract at one time, that was the focus of the issues. So while it was a very instructive and helpful exercise, it was a working group convened by our parks board chair and two members of the parks board so I just wanted to provide some context. Are there any questions specific to programming that we can answer? >> Houston: If you could help us with the programming issue. >> Sure. , Well, the chapel is a 1940s chapel. Little in our most historic cemetery in terms of age. [11:23:46 AM] I would like to just remind everyone that we're a very culturally diverse community and that people have different ideas and customs related to grieving loved ones. And so we at parks -- the parks department recognize that there's a variety of ways that people commemorate the dead. You may have heard of Dia de los muertos is one example. The festival that we're referring to here is something one of our friends groups holds and I recognize out of context those photographs might seem disrespectful and I understand not everyone will agree but there is a tourism festival, they hold tours of the cemeteries, interpret the lives of the people that were there, it's very well attended, members of the public, hundreds come to see the cemetery for the first time. It's the type of partnership that we would like to continue. And cemeteries, we would like these public spaces that are funded through capital dollars and general fund dollars to be available to more than just the people who have loved ones there. So activating them for the rest of the public is very much part of our mission in the master plan. Any other questions? >> Houston: Could you speak to public-private partnerships? >> Certainly. We do have a really great friends group that's helping us a lot with various aspects of the cemetery including documentation, holding these festivals. At one time they were interested in seeing what they could do to support the chapel restoration. When they became aware of what a very large project it was and what a grave condition the chapel was, this little nonprofit group is really not geared towards raising over a million dollars. We have some friends groups that do a lot of great volunteer work and do cleanups in our park, but not every group is a sophisticated conservancy with a lot of sort of high profile volunteers. The folks that we have with our cemetery group are interested in preservation, interested in heritage tour rim. [11:25:47 AM] They are trying to raise money to put a kiosk in, if that tells you what they have the sort of capacity to do right now. To the extent we could get additional grant dollars, we're certainly looking at that. The acvb heritage grant is something we looked at at one time and I think we would like to have further conversations about that as heritage tourism assets, I don't know if that's clear to the community they are. The idea there's a lot of preservation grant money out there is actually -- it's just really not out there. It's very difficult and this is a very competitive community for raising money for restoration projects. >> Tovo: Thank you. I'm glad you mentioned the heritage -- I had a conversation with my staff about that because it is oakwood cemetery is really a great example I think of a project that could be very compelling as a heritage tourism grant and that's something as you may know we're discussing during the budget and one of the things I'm going to propose is reserving a piece of it for some of our civic buildings or sites within the city of Austin. But thank you so much for all of your work and thank you for talking about the importance of activating the space and having it continue to be an open one for the public because most 19 century cemeteries were designed with that in mind, they were community assets for people who aren't just visiting loved ones to kind of walk through as we do with our public parks and I think the project is really in keeping with the historical and cultural and very personal importance of that cemetery. Councilmember Zimmerman, did you have a -- >> Zimmerman: I do have one more question. I heard a comment about seemed to kind of divorce the working group from the bond process and where the money was coming from. And I want to -- I didn't understand the comment. Could you clarify what you were saying about how this really didn't connect to the bond? >> No, that's not what I said. What I was spraining it was not a bond advisory committee that was set up to talk to us about -- it was a special working group. [11:27:54 AM] The information gleaned from that process absolutely helped inform decisions about how the bond was going to be allocated. If I could explain why the chapel was prioritized, that might answer your question. >> Zimmerman: Well, let me -- it just -- I felt a little bit misled by that remark because the bond is all over this document. If you please put that exhibit B back up. Every page talks about money and financing. Bonds -- if you look at the document when this comes back up, bond election and budget process. Item number -- column number E, bond election budget process, line 25, line 26. Bond election budget process. Budget process. Item 34, bond election budget process. It's all about the money. >> Tovo: Councilmember -- >> Zimmerman: I'm sorry, it's all about the money. >> Tovo: Remember, we're on sort of a new path in terms of how we're -- >> Zimmerman: So these meetings were input to the bond advisory committee. >> That wasn't their specific purpose. What I'm explaining they did give us a great deal of information as did the 11 cemetery master plan meetings that we held. >> Tovo: Thank you for all of your work on this and on the cemetery master plan. >> Thank you so much. Appreciate. >> Tovo: All in favor? And those are councilmembers Garza, Renteria, kitchen, pool, Gallo, tovo, Casar and Houston. All opposed? Councilmember Zimmerman is opposed and mayor Adler and councilmember troxclair are off the dais. Our next item, item 10 -- we're going to stipulate that until we have a full dais. The next item 14. We have speakers. Mr. King. [11:29:55 AM] Followed by Sharon bright. -- Blythe. >> Thank you, mayor pro tem and councilmembers. My comment about this is that, you know, I used to work with the state of Texas and state agency and we purchased off of this dir contract and one of the things we encountered, we were required to purchase off the contract and yet I could get the same equipment for less money on -- based on the current price of the market. And those contracts lock in those prices for a year, maybe longer. And so I just want to make sure -- you know, it makes sense if we're buying big volume off of a big contract and we should get the best price possible. That makes perfect sense. But when I use the contract working for the state agency, he could get the desk top computers for less money by going directly to the local vendor than through that contract. And so it may -- on the surface appear that you could get a better price by doing this large purchase, but in fact that's not always the case. And so I'm not criticizing using the contract. What I am suggesting is that we make sure and look at that when we're talking about $26 million here and these couple other items on the agenda related to computer services. Those are also available off the contract. My point is is that there should be a way for the purchasing office to go and see if they could get a better price maids on current mark pricing and not be forced to pay a higher price because it's on the dir. I just think there needs to be some question to make sure there is this option to say I can get the product or service at a lower price by not buying off the contract and allow that to be an option. And that will sort of create an incentive for that contract to be updated regularly more than just once every year, but regularly so we can get the best pricing going forward. That's my only comment. I know we need this technology and services, but I want to make sure we're getting the best price for them. [11:31:58 AM] >> Tovo: Thank you, Mr. King. Councilmember Zimmerman. >> Zimmerman: I appreciate your -- very quickly let me ask you this. I really appreciate your remarks there, but you could kind of appreciate how city council trying to deal with high-level policy issues. You know, how could we possibly do something about fixing those kind of spending decisions? I'm with you, I'm fearful that we're not using our money efficiently, but what could this council do practically speaking on these kind of smaller monetary decisions that we've delegated to staff? I just don't see what we can do. >> I have a suggestion. Maybe there would be a policy directive to say the purchasing office will check and report back to you these prices are lower or maybe they are not, but if they are lower to report that back to council so you would be informed by that information. >> Zimmerman: Wouldn't the presumption be that they are already doing is? >> I'm not sure they are doing that. That would be a good question to ask. >> Tovo: Mayor Adler suggested that we watch our interactions with our citizens and be careful about rhetorical questions which that bordered on one. Our next speaker is Sharon Blythe. >> Now we're in my wheelhouse about dir contracts. For a good portion of my career I was an internal auditor with the stacks directly dealing with dir and the purchase -- the state agencies purchasing off those contracts. I can affirmatively tell you that the purchasers around the state of Texas, and I'm guessing the purchasers in the city of Austin, can negotiate a lower percentage price than what's on the dir on contract. But they don't do that because it's easy for them just to pick off the contract and pay a higher price than they really should be. [11:34:01 AM] So I think these amounts for the city of Austin, if you look, the city of Austin is the biggest purchaser off the dir contract in all of the state of Texas. Any city, Houston, Dallas, whatever. They are far -- spend far more money. Why is that? Because the purchasers probably are not negotiating those prices down to where they should be below the discounted rate at the -- off the dir contracts. You might be able to save $15 million right here today to not take a vote on it and have your mayor -- I mean your city manager instruct your purchasers to go back and see if they can't get a lower discounted price on those I.T. Products. And I'm speaking as a certified public accountant and a certified information systems auditor. I know exactly what I'm talking about and you can save a lot of money if those purchasers would do that. Thank you very much. >> Tovo: You, Ms. Blythe. Councilmember Zimmerman. >> Zimmerman: Thank you, Ms. Blythe. Let me -- I want to ask if the atx broadcast will put up my exhibit a here on the item 14, 15, 16. If you would please put that up. Thank you. I wanted to call attention to the top item and how we have these huge, huge authorizations in the first column, we got this through Q and a from our staff. And there are some kind ofy-popping numbers as to what we authorize for expenditures versus what was actually spent. Maybe, Ms. Blythe, could a take a look at this overhead and I know it's just something to glance at, but can you think of any explanation why we would have these huge, huge differences between what staff asked us to authorize and what was actually spent? To me those are -- >> I'm sorry, going across the headers on those columns. >> Zimmerman: The first is the authorization, the next is expenditures and I've put in a column of the difference between the authority that council granted and what was spent. [11:36:11 AM] And the one that's highlighted is 41 million. For fiscal year 15 city staff asked for 113 million, they spended 172 million which left a difference of $41 million. So in other words we allocated $41 million more than was spent, according to this data. >> Renteria: I think they are -- >> I think they are asking for too much. I think they are asking for retail price and it gets in their ask column and they just spend on of the dir contract and makes them look good they are saving $41 million, but they could probably save a lot more money by negotiating with the vendors. Get the vendors off the dir contract but negotiate a lower price. >> Zimmerman: Thank you for the comment. >> Tovo: Does anyone have any questions for staff? Councilmember Gallo. >> Gallo: I do. We actually have some amendments prepared based on what you just saw up on the screen but I want to make sure as we're talking about the amendment sheet that's getting ready to be passed out. The column that's talking for the 16 year to date, could you share with me is year to date today? Is year to date projected through the end of this fiscal year? Help me understand kind of where that number is coming from, please. >> Mayor pro tem, councilmembers, James Scarborough, purchasing. The year to date information was based on our spend data through about -- I believe it was the beginning of August, August 5th. So it was -- a couple weeks ago that we collected the information in preparation for council today. So -- >> Gallo: Okay. >> As the remainder of the fiscal year concludes, we have about 150 orders now under the current authorization for additional spending. [11:38:13 AM] So the percentage of actual spend against last year's authorization or this year's authorization will continue through the end of September. >> Gallo: So the year to date figures that we're looking at on the chart that was posted and also the potential amendment that we have because we wanted some clarification on the year to date because I think that's critical whether we're talking about to this point or projected through the year. Do we have based on what you just gave us or you just stated there is some additional spending that would occur between now and the end of the fiscal year, the end of September, do you have those numbers available that you can project for us based on what you currently have? >> I don't have the amounts, ma'am. But I was told as of this morning we have about 150 orders that are waiting to be processed so -- quantities but not amounts. >> Gallo: You know, I would make the suggestion, I think there's such a huge difference if you look at this chart, but once again I wanted to make sure that our conversation was -- was comparing apples to apples and comparing the spending for this year compared to the budgeted, projected budgeted spending that I think it would be worth delaying this to the next council meeting so that we can get that information. Because if you say 150 projects or 105, whatever you said, I need to know the dollar amount of that to know where we are. My -- my sense would be that it would be appropriate in what we vote on in these three items to vote on something that was tied more closely to actual spending this year versus what was budgeted. Because if you look at over the past five years, the spending each year was below what was budgeted and I think we all want to be very careful with our spending this year because we have so many unmet needs in so many different departments. So this would be -- this would be at this point the amendment that I would put out, but having heard from you the year to date is through the first part of August, that would be important to get that information from your department that says we have these projects that will be spent on before the end of the fiscal year and we need to know that dollar amount. [11:40:24 AM] Then we look at adjusting the amendment that we passed out to actually be based on what the spending would be for this fiscal year and making sure our budget -- making sure we are not authorizing over that amount for this next budget. I guess I'm going to roll into a -- I don't know if there's been a motion. >> Tovo: We don't have a motion. >> Gallo: We did pass this out which is pretty much what Mr. Zimmerman put up with a little more information at the bottom that talks about the amount that was spent which was under what was budgeted for each of the five years and we have a history of overbudgetting for spending in this area. >> To provide additional background on just the approach used for the dir items -- >> Tovo: Mr. Scarborough, would you talk into the microphone? >> I'm sorry. Height friendly. We have a number of the I.T. Management and executives here today in a could give you a little bit more of a context for how these authorizations are used. And maybe differentiate the discussion with regard to contract authorizations as it pertains to amounts budgeted or amounts appropriated. The authorizations would allow us to spend moneys that were appropriated, but the authorizations themselves don't create appropriations. When we create these dir estimates -- and these have been occurring for years and before my time with the city, but when these are created, they are based on projects and activities that the respective departments contemplate happening in the coming year. Sometimes if they have happen in the coming year and sometimes they are delayed or sometimes the major spending does not occur in that year, it occurs in the next year, but these authorizations are not for a single contract, they are for multiple attitudes of contracts. Last year we used approximately 100 of the dir contracts. [11:42:25 AM] So these authorizations would just be for spend on those contracts within the fiscal year. We also request authorization on an individual case basis for larger contracts, individual contracts for specific amounts for specific periods of time. But if you have questions about how those amounts are estimated or how we collect that data from the departments, we have staff here now that could speak to that process if you would like. >> Tovo: Thank you, Mr. Scarborough. Councilmember Houston I think has a question for you. >> Houston: Yes, and I have a question for staff. So in prior years when there was that -- like in the first -- well, we moved that, but it's like a $41 million difference in fy 15 between what was -- you all had the authority for and what was spent, what happens to that $41 million? That you don't spend. >> It is either -- it is not spent or it is -- it is consumed within the amounts appropriated by council. In some case the appropriations weren't not sufficient to cover the contract authorization. The contract authorization does not appropriate funds, it just creates an authorization to spend appropriated funds so it doesn't actually reserve funds. When the fiscal year ends, the contract authorizations just dissolve. There's no money tied to those authorizations. >> Houston: But does it then go into fy 16 authority? >> We come back to council and we ask for new authorization for the following fiscal year. That's for contract authorization. The budget request is a separate process. So when departments request their individual budgets from council, that's the amount of money they are appropriated to spend, they are allowed to spend. The contract authorization is just an estimate of what we think we're going to spend under these contracts, but whatever that amount is, it's going to stay within the appropriations. [11:44:25 AM] >> Houston: Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Tovo: Councilmember Casar. >> Casar: To provide -- I think I understand Mr. Scarborough's point. I think the intention of councilmember Gallo is one that I would be open to which is are there potential unspent funds in a budget line item that could either flow into the budget stabilization reserve fund or be spent for some other important capital purpose? What I think I'm hearing from Mr. Scarborough if we want to do that we should look in the budget line items to find out where some of that spending should be decreased or reappropriated? But the contract authorization actually doesn't save us the authors because we could authors the contract for $100 billion and if the budget is allocated for $100, it would not -- that wouldn't occur. It's just providing that level of flexibility. I think if that's contract, I understand there's a correlation between the two and obviously if we authorize the contract downward, then that's the most -- then you are kind of pre-empting the budget line item. It seems to me potentially what has been discovered here is that on the hardware and software we don't always spend as much as we bunch out out and maybe -- budget out and maybe there's savings in the budget we're deliberating right now. If that is the case, it seems to me we can move forward with this and then have that deliberation in the budget, and I am sincere in saying that if there are savings to be found in hardware and software and information technology budgets, just like anywhere else in the budget, that's something that I would be open to have us look into. >> Gallo: It seems like as we try to pull together all the flowing pieces in both the authorizations and the budget as we're talking about budget now, I think it is important for us to understand the connections. [11:46:30 AM] And I guess -- I guess what would be a good connecting point with this is it just seems -- it feels a little strange to me that we would authorize over what we're budgeting. I understand that gives you more flexibility, but making the connection to where this authorization is coming from in the budget, what part of the budget gives you the ability to authorize more than what we have budgeted for, you know, I understand this concept that gives you more flexibility, but at the same time I think as we're trying to really understand our budget and where numbers and expenses are coming from, it's important for us to make that connection. So that -- that is part of where this conversation came from is we're looking at authorization that, number one, far exceeds or exceeds what the actual spending has been if we're using the column that says software spend, hardware spend, I.T. Services spend. So we're -- we are approving an authorization that's higher than what our habit has been in the last five years, but it would help me understand how that impacts our budget and where when people are saying we're only budgeting for less, then I think I need to be comfortable in knowing we're actually doing that and I don't know that I'm comfortable in looking and reviewing our budget process that I truly understand that because my fear is we're authorizing something that also -- good, here comes our budget person. >> Elaine hart. >> Gallo: I'm just trying to make the connection between the two, between an authorization obviously higher than what we are spending and how that compares to what we are putting in the budget this year. >> Elaine hart, chief financial officer. I'm sorry I missed part of the discussion. I think the way you need to look at these dir contracts is similar to a supply agreement. And each department has -- so that authorizes contract dollars that can be spent. And each department puts together their own budget for technology items, and as they want to spend against that contract, they -- we have a particular kind of document that you have to process through purchasing and accounting. [11:48:46 AM] And so it creates an order against that contract, and with the order comes the budget dollars. And so to be able to spend, you have to have the contract authority and the budget. And so we may have contract authority left, which is something that may happen from time to time on our construction contracts too. So your contract amount may not always match your budget amount, but your appropriation is your controlling factor. So your contract can be more than your appropriation authority, but you can only spend what you have in appropriations. So the appropriation is the control, the budgetary control. Did that help clarify? Because I didn't hear all the questions. >> Tovo: Thank you, Ms. Hart. I think that was the substance of the questions. >> Zimmerman: I want to follow up -- >> Tovo: Councilmember Zimmerman. >> Zimmerman: Thank you, mayor pro tem. When we talk about budget controls, I see this differently. I see this as a way for the city council to lose budget control. If we allocate -- I'm going to go back to fiscal year 14 that I just put up a second ago. We authorized 89 million. Staff said they spent 64 million. But here's the key. Under our city charter, and correct me if I am wrong, under our city charter, it expressly gives authority to city management to spend those dollars that have been allocated as they see fit. And hang on, I'm going to -- in item 22 coming up, it has to do with overhead garage doors. The way I see this is we're being asked for a staggering increase in item 22 up to 750,000. We used to spend 300,000, now staff is asking for 750,000. So if we authorize that money, they don't have to spend it all on garage doors. If they spend less, that money has been authorized to be spent and it can be used in different ways. Isn't that true under our charter? [11:50:47 AM] >> The appropriation is the authority to spend. So if you have the appropriation in a particular department, they have different line items that make up their budget. They include personnel, they include contracts, travel, they include commodities for for instance like the water department it would include chemicals, it would include maintenance and software contracting and those sorts of things, so they have all the line items. The charter says that as long as the department stays within its departmental appropriation, they may reallocate among the department. They cannot move money from one department to another. And so there are restrictions there, but as -- the budget that is adopted by the council authorizes the appropriation for each department. Not necessarily at the line item level. But then you are further limited beyond just the authority to spend by the contracts that you approve. And so if the contract was with a vendor for overhead doors, you can't -- you can't spend that - - have you to buy overhead doors from that vendor if that's what you are using the appropriation for. You can't buy books from a that vendor is my example. >> Zimmerman: But if you only spend 300,000 on the garage doors, you have an authorization for $450,000 of spending authority for something else. Because things come to us constantly, millions and millions of dollars, and it says there's money in the budget. Right? There's money in the budget. What they are talking about, that's the difference. That yes, there's money in the budget, but it's not money we approved as a council. And so the motivation to overestimate and to ask for more money than what you need is because the city management has authority to reallocate that expenditure in other ways. That's the point I'm trying to make. >> Only on the operating budget within the current year, and they cannot overspend their departmental appropriation. [11:52:54 AM] We do provide council monthly budget to actual reports for all funds and that's what we use to monitor whether folks look like they are going over budget. Our quarterly financial reports to the audit and finance committee as well as council indicate as early as we can in the year where we see that we might be going over budget. We alerted the council I think in the last one about the potential for the fire department overtime to cause them to be going over budget. But we do have the controls in place on the appropriation side, but there is built in some flexibility as well. >> Mayor Adler: My sense is the point has been made and -- >> Zimmerman: Everything you just said is absolutely true. Everything you said is absolutely true and my remark, but it doesn't have a bearing on my remark but everything you said is true. >> Casar: I would like to move passage. >> Mayor Adler: Was there a question? No? Are we ready to take a vote on this item? I think we are. >> Gallo: I just want to put some closure to that. So I'm not going to propose the amendment to a motion for this item, but I do appreciate the explanation because obviously it's concerning when we as a council and we're interested in being fiscally conservative and we look at something where it appears like we are authorizing substantially more than what we're actually spending that it has the ability to be a place that we can tighten our belt. But what I'm hearing with your really good explanation of it is that that's just authorization that we really need to look more closely at the budget because that's the place we do that. But this type of information when we look at it and get it can be a little confusing because we are all looking for places, like I said, that we can tighten our belt and keep our property taxes from going up. So thank you for the explanation. It really helped clarify the concerns we have and we'll just look at this more closely in the budget then. So thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Has a motion been made on item 14? [11:54:57 AM] Made a motion. Casar motion to approve seconded by Ms. Pool. Further discussion? Those in favor? Those opposed? It's unanimous with Mr. Zimmerman voting no and Ms. Troxclair off the dais. That gets us to the text number. Do we want -- you skipped over number 10. If everybody is in line to stay where we are, let's stay where we are. >> Tovo: 15 and 16 are similar. >> Mayor Adler: Let's do 15 and 16. Is there a motion to approve? Mr. Renteria moves, Ms. Pool seconds. Any discussion on 15 and 15? Those in favor of 15 and 16, please raise your hand. Those opposed? Mr. Zimmerman no, Ms. Troxclair off the dais, the others vote I. Do we want to do 10? >> Houston: I would suggest we do that after lunch. It's almost 12:00. >> Mayor Adler: Let's hold on that. What about number 22. >> Zimmerman: If you would to tackle that, I've got one more overhead prepared for that. If we could maybe put that up. If somebody wants to speak to this first, I would be happy to hear from it. But this is going to be the overhead I'm going to refer to in my questions. Especially -- look at the bottom of the page, I had some numbers down there. Fiscal year 17, 18, 19, 21, 22. At the very bottom of the page. It's cut off on the -- okay. Thanks. >> Mayor Adler: Do you know generally what your question is on this one? >> Zimmerman: Yes. The general question is there's an exorbitant increase in the expenditures compared to last year's. [11:57:06 AM] When we put this up, what we are going to show is fiscal year 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 varied respectively from about 1,970,000 up to 324,000 over that five-year period. The next six-year period increases that 525,000 and up to 750,000 for five more years. It is a staggering increase. And traditionally in what he we've spent. The point I was making from the last conversation we had that a motivation for doing this is to sand bag these items and put staggering amounts of money in because if less is spent, the money can be spent elsewhere because the allocation has already been granted. >> Mayor Adler: Let's go ahead and ask that question then. Can staff explain to us, the question is why is it more this year. >> Mayor, councilmembers, James Scarborough, purchasing. This particular item is to authorize a contract for repair, maintenance and parts and supplies for overhead doors used throughout the city, multiple departments for multiple applications. In the past the scope of the contract was limited more to repair, supplies and preventive maintenance. Whereas the new solicitation and new contract contemplates an increase in customers. We are adding additional departments to create additional quantities and improve pricing leverage. We are also adding additional parts and supplies to the contract. A number from what we're told by departments a number of doors are older and damaged and have not had the routine maintenance that we would have liked to provided. So they need more repairs. They need greater improvements. So we're anticipating a higher incidence of repairs on those doors. [11:59:12 AM] And the out years are based on estimates provided to us by the departments as they predict the extent and quantity of the additional repairs they are going to need on these older doors. These numbers come from what we receive from the departments when constructing the authorization amount and we're glad to answer any questions. We also have representatives from our largest using customer departments here who could perhaps provide examples of how they would use the resulting contract. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: Mayor, I would like to move passage of this item. >> Mayor Adler: The motion to move passage on item number 22. Is there a second? Ms. Pool. Any further discussion? Those in favor please raise your hand. Those opposed? Mr. Zimmerman votes no, Ms. Troxclair off the dais, 22 passes. Thank you. >> Mayor, if I may again, staff is always willing to come up and explain why we have the contracts and items that we have before you. Again, I would ask the council's tolerance in terms of not assigning characterizations to the questions that asking in terms of sandbagging because that's not what we do here. We try to provide professional recommendation on the conditions that we bring before you. Again, we will do our best to provide explanations for anything that we bring before you and respond to council questions. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Let's go ahead and get the next item. We have item number -- >> Zimmerman: Mr. Mayor? Point of privilege on this. I appreciate the city management position, but I think that what we just witnessed is a perfect illustration of my objection to items 14, 15 and 16 where we have huge staggering numbers applied that are grotesquely out of balance with what's needed. So there is a lack of attention, there's a lack of clear communication for why there's a staggering increase. [12:01:18 PM] I heard nothing other than we need money. This makes my -- we don't have any fiscal discipline here. That's a message for council. We need some fiscal discipline. >> Mayor Adler: You've made the point. Let's go on to business. The next item is item number 25, I think. Citizens communication at noon. Thank you. All right. Let's move to citizens communication. After citizens communication, we're going to probably go into executive session to talk about the budget, some legal issues which have arisen and then we'll come back after lunch. So citizens communication. We start off with Carlos Leon. >> Kitchen: Mr. Mayor, I don't know if it's possible to estimate -- never mind. I was thinking for the public estimating what time we would be back. >> Mayor Adler: My guess if it takes a half hour to go through citizens communication, 12:30, 1:30, 1:45 is what we're shooting for. Mr. Leon. >> Soy Carlos Leon in Austin, Texas, September 1st, 2016, to speak what's right. [Speaking in Spanish] First and foremost -- [speaking in Spanish] -- For letting me warn of danger. Harvard globalist Kenneth Rogoff's Wall Street journal please, sinister side of cash. Wrongly calls to get rid of all bills $20 and up because they allegedly fuel corruption and terrorism. But he's the corrupt terrorist. [12:03:20 PM] Who wants to enslave all of us to the central banks we should control or abolish. He said to defeat negative interest rates where the bank wrongly takes a cut of your money, your lending to them instead of rightly paying interest on it. Savers protect themselves by withdrawing their funds, converting them into cash so their money doesn't shrink. So he said take cash away and central banks would be free to drive rates as deep into negative territory as they need in a severe recession. That's insane. Banks exist to serve us, not steal from us. A cashless society would mean your electronic money is not yours but theirs to control and could be frozen, reduced or zeroed out in a single computer key stroke. For anything less than total sub serviencce or currency devaluation or for being labeled a law breaker like the new tabc app that allows anonymous accusal of businesses selling alcohol or tobacco to minors. That's how east Germans in the stasi police state spied and snitched on each other to target and disappear one another. Under the demonic guilty until proven innocent mind set, that's all wrong. Here in Texas and the united States of America cash is king, and each of us is innocent until proven guilty under constitutional law. [12:05:32 PM] May god help us defeat evil and destroy its works to make America great and lawful again. [Buzzer sounding] In Jesus' name I pray. Amen, thank you, lord, god bless Texas and the united States of America. >> Mayor Adler: The next speaker is Carol Anne rose Kennedy. Is she here? I don't see her. Is Susan Morgan here? Please come on down. And Amanda Royston is next. >> Mayor, city council, thank you so much for your time. My name is Susan Morgan and I'm here to introduce you to one of the newest if not the newest neighborhood associations. The clicker. How do I start it? How do I start --. >> [Inaudible]. >> Whoops. Okay. Our boundaries are the same as the Rainey street historic district and -- but we represent -- what makes us different from the H and a, the Rainey neighborhood, we represent homeowners, not buildings. We have resident members and we also belong to the ANC. This is our representative unit count that we have and then this is the list of our board members. High density, we'll discuss high density on the next chart. We have seen rapid development without sufficient planning, scheduling and budgeting for infrastructure to the needs of the Rainey area. [12:07:41 PM] We promote participation of residents with the city's commissions, committees, staff to look at out year impacts of decisions made today which affect our livability in the central business district. This chart is the density chart. Our representative group is the top group, the condos, which we have 779 condos, roughly 1,200 people. Next would be the apartments in the area. And then followed by the hotels in the area that are currently built. There's more coming. Then the future development, waller place, east avenue with more condos and two small hotels coming up, we're estimating another 1500 households in the neighborhood bringing us to 3,800 by the time we get to, say, 2017-18 time frame. This is a picture of the neighborhood taken from the towers at town lake. You can see the shore in the distance, which is one of the condos we represent, but the milago across. The other buildings there are rental properties. And this is east avenue you are looking at. And east avenue has got room for three more highrises, it's got two hotels going on it. There is lamby street right beyond the garage, that's scheduled for a highrise to go in there. On the other side of that there's going to be a public utility that would be the electric substation and a water chiller on that lot. And what we're trying to do here, we have problems -- [buzzer sounding] We would like to work with the city to fix our problems but they become acute: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. The next speaker Amanda Royston and after that will be Judi Edwards. [12:09:45 PM] >> Good afternoon. I'm Amanda Royston, executive director of Austin clubhouse, a local nonprofit that provides a welcoming supportive community and programs that assist individuals with mental health diagnoses to achieve a -- [inaudible] And today I want to talk about something I have seen both firsthand personally and in the 12 years in this field. And that is the devastating effect of mental illness on individuals, on their friends, family and the community as a whole. The often silent struggle beyond managing direct symptoms are overcoming the pervasive stigma, but many times hinders a person's adult to maintain employment, live a healthy life or finish educational goals. And often threatens basic human needs such as food and shelter. One in five adults in the U.S. Struggle with mental illness, approximately 235 Travis county residents. Untreated mental illness results in loss of wages, productivity, hospitalizations, homelessness and frequent contact with the criminal justice system, this costing Travis county hundreds of millions of dollars annually. For the past six years Austin clubhouse has worked to fill the gap in mental health treatment in Austin and we have seen incredible successes. With over 200 members securing employment through Austin clubhouse as well as ongoing support for the work started because we realize mental illness does not go away when someone finds a job. The need is pressing. We currently have over 600 members and ready to expand and we are doing just that. I'm proud to announce that Austin clubhouse will be opening its first satellite location January 17th. Many of you or members rely on public transportation, two hours on bus or if they have a car. [12:11:47 PM] This explanation will allow us to offer much needed services in south Austin. I would like to strongly give support and urge council to adopt agenda number 11 by providing funding for the clubhouse this is acknowledged for securing long-term employment and improvement of life. The city council's adoption of the funding recommended by hhsfd will send a strong message to your constituents that this council truly cares about the well-being of its citizens and takes steps to realize the vision it laid out four years ago with imagine Austin. I'll close by saying we would absolutely love to host any of you at the clubhouse and so you can see firsthand the results of our efforts and the improvement of our members' lives. And, of course, we would love for you to join us for a healthy, delicious prepared daily lunch by our membership. Thank you for your time. [Applause] >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Next speaker is Judi Edwards. And after Ms. Edwards, Judi Edwards, it is Lovie Edwards. >> Good afternoon, mayor and councilmembers. My name is Judi Edwards and I am the daughter of Lovie Edwards. My sister fay couldn't be here today. I flew in from New York to speak on behalf of my mother who is 80 years old. She's lived in Austin more than 50 years and I recall my mother advocating to bring services to montopolis, lights, streets, buses and more and now I'm here to advocate for her and others in her situation. [12:13:48 PM] My mother's home was electrical destroyed and received major damage during the flood last October. She almost lost all of our belongings so here we are. First we're trying to help my mother rebuild her home but she has not been able to get the funding. My mother has worked hard all of her life in Austin homes, schools, hospitals and retiring from the Travis county sheriff's department. She earned slightly too much to qualify for city, county, state and federal services and doesn't qualify for special grants or low interest loans to rebuild and rebuild homes. And I'm sure there are many austinites in her position and I'm asking the city to consider granting an exemption or exception to assist my mother and those others who are in similar situation. She needs to be able to return to her home as soon as possible and we desperately need your help to make it possible. Secondly, I'm urging the city of Austin to provide funding in this year's budget to correct flooding and drainage problems that cause my mother's home to flood as well as others on the street and the community. To flood and lose almost everything. There is evidence that the drains are too small and they should have been changed or enlarged way back in the '70s and that the city had known or should have been aware of the problem. But being predominantly African-American and hispanic neighborhood, we have been neglected and no capital improvement projects have been taken in our neighborhood, but along and outside our neighborhood, Riverside drive and 183. Given the urgency of this matter we urge the city help us before this is too late because the rains will come again. Mayor and city councilmembers, put yourself in our shoes. Please don't forget about montopolis. We can't afford to wait. And finally, this year in April, councilmember Renteria threw me and my mother out of his office. My mother is a senior citizen. We came to ask him to help, wanted my mom to stay may her home, safe, just like his family. [12:15:52 PM] And I believe that's what he would want if that was his mother. And she has not been able to return to his home and he was rude and disrespectful. Councilmember Renteria, I believe you abused the power of your office and treated my mother and I with total disrespect and disregard. It was unacceptable for you to show the monumental lack of concern for my mother, your constituents and the montopolis neighborhood you were elected to represent. I am asking on behalf of my mother and the residents of montopolis, please don't do that again. Do the job you were elected to do. [Buzzer sounds] And help the constituents and do not disrespect your senior citizens. We need your support for the items I've requested. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [Applause]. I think you said that your sister, Lovie Edwards is not here. >> My sister ant here, but my mother is here. >> Good afternoon, mayor and councilmembers. I am Lovie Edwards and I am 80 years old plus. Now, identified lived and worked here for over 60 years. My home is in the montopolis area where I have lived for over 50 years. My home is now unliveable and awaiting repairs due to the flood that occurred last October. Which caused major damage to my home. Almost everything I worked for and owned was lost or destroyed, and I'm coming to the city to please ask for your help. First I'm begging the city to provide funding in this year's budget to correct flooding and drainage problems that caused our street to flood. And which caused the damage to my home and other homes on our street. Second, I'm asking the city to consider granting exemptions to enable me and other people like me to qualify for low interest loans or grants to help us rebuild. Aimed trying to rebuild my home, but I have not been able to do so because the damage is so bad and I have not been able to get any help to rebuild from the city or state agency or FEMA. [12:18:06 PM] Over the years along with other members of our community, I worked tirelessly with the city and state, including Mr. Doggett, to help bring library services, street lights, paved roads and buses and community sources to montopolis. I'm asking the city of Austin to please, please do not forget about montopolis. Finally I want to tell you how disappointed and hurt I am about the way I was treated by councilmember Renteria in April of this year when he threw me out of his office for simply asking for help for our community after the flood that caused major damage to my home and resulted in the loss of almost everything I own and worked for. Please councilmember Renteria, we need your support. Don't disrespect any more the people you're supposed to protect. And please don't disrespect any more senior citizens. I sincerely thank each of you for your time and consideration. >> If you do need any information we have diagrams from the city that show this flood happened in our particular neighborhood as a result of the convergence of the water caused by the inadequate drains that are currently there. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [Applause]. Next speaker we have is Jace STA -- Joyce STA St. Z. And then on deck we have Joe quintero. >> Thank you, mayor and councilmembers for this opportunity to talk with you about two items that are critical to our neighborhood in northwest hills. One of them is the old quarry library in our area. As you work through the difficult task of allocating Austin dollars to all of the competing interests, I ask that you fund the renovation of the old quarry library. This 40-year-old library is way over due for refurbishing. [12:20:10 PM] It's got well worn equipment, well worn bathrooms, well worn furniture and well worn finishes. Its layout is congested with a lot of space occupied by out of date shelving. And without renovation that removes the asbestos from the initial construction we can't really rearrange what's in that library. Visiting other libraries throughout the city as I go to meetings of various kinds I see the kind of promise we have for a library like ours. We could have much better meeting space. We could have much better places for kids to do library programs. We could have much better computing facilities and checkout facilities. Our neighborhood is now in a generation turnover where folks like me are selling their homes and families with young kids, preschool and school age kids are moving in. And we also have a large population of refugees from the Middle East and Africa. All of these folks can benefit from a revitalized library. They need your support. Your draft budget includes a large amount of money dedicated to the new central library which is a commendable thing, but we shouldn't be ignoring our neighborhood libraries. We know there are prudent and creative ways to rearrange the funding that's been allocated so that you can accommodate both the central library needs and the neighborhood library needs, and I urge you to please make that happen. The library facilities process manager, John Gilliam, estimates that it will require $696,000. So please make that money available. My second concern is a very small budget request of $10,000, which is also very important to our northwest hills neighborhood. Like the residents along shoal creek and in south Austin, we live in coyote territory. About 12 years ago we faced a crisis with habitual coyotes that were moving through the streets and playgrounds and snatching pets from their owners and yards. Our concerns were addressed through a collaboration of the city of Austin with Travis county in an interlocal agreement for managing those troublesome animals. [12:22:16 PM] By trapping a select few animals that year and on rare occasions since, the problems have been kept in check. Starting about a year ago, incidents of coyote sightings on streets as people were taking their kids to school, on playgrounds and around our backyards have resurfaced. Despite a lot of work by the residents to haze the coyotes, the incidents persist. We need help for the removal of the coyotes when they become too habituated. [Buzzer sounds] So I ask you to keep that 10,000-dollar contract with Travis county. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. I'm sorry, hang on, please. Ms. Gallo. >> Gallo: I want to mention, I think you spoke as an individual here, but Joyce is the past president of the neighborhood association that is the quarry library is in. So I just wanted to make that connection. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Next speaker is Joe quintero. After that, Valerie Romness. And then the last speaker will be Linda messier. >> Good afternoon, I'm Valerie Romness, a business owner in south Austin and I am the director and editor for the challenger street newspaper. And it's come to my attention, I want to talk about our budget and mental health needs. I have seen Utah help work on their budget by housing the homeless, and so I've been studying it on my own and I have seen anywhere between 17,000 to 35,000 a year per homeless person to run them through the courts and the jail and the police and tickets and hospitals, and shelters. [12:24:24 PM] And that it's a lot cheaper to put them in apartments. So I want us to think about our moral bankruptcy and do the fiscally responsibility and house the homeless. Then I interviewed 20 of our distributors and I have primary source data. I've given each of you a paper, on page 4 is a comprehensive list. I'm going to read some of them here. They said we need more counseling, more case workers, liaison advocates without judgment. They need to know homeless people have severe trauma, invisible disabilities, cognitive disabilities, head injuries, associative disorders. We need more training with empathy. Counselors and case workers shouldn't ask a homeless person "Why are you homeless? ". Someone really told me that. And it's because they don't look or act mental illness. Homeless. -- Look or act homeless. And we need to stop interrogating the clients like policemen do and take out the barrier between client and counselor. We need the officers to be better trained in deescalation and mental health. I understand there's 160 officers now in crisis intervention teams. And to reach one people need to know you can call 512-472-help to get a mental health officer. We need more treatment, seriously, tranquilizer darts. It needs to replace the torture and traumatizing police spray, which makes it worse if you try to rinse it out. [12:26:27 PM] And I did a little research and if a person is using hard drugs they can die within an hour with that police spray. So tranquilizer darts can sound pretty harsh, but it's probably a good option. And then I want to -- I know some of you have subscribed to the challenger newspaper and some are subscriber right now. I want everybody to go to challengernewspaper.org and support this group that's helping to find solutions about homelessness. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Is Linda messier here? Take your time. >> Good afternoon,. >> Mayor Adler:, mayor pro tem and esteemed councilmembers. I'm Linda messier, an Austin residents. I come to you today to talk to you about the public safety budget and approximately the A.P.D. Budget. And by the way, I left my rose-colored glasses at home. I am -- I would like to consider myself an educated resident. Specifically when it comes to A.P.D. I graduated from the citizen police academy in 2015 and the transparency that I've experienced and seen firsthand, it was very, very eye opening and very, very -- I was very happy to see that. Chief Acevedo, A.P.D. Staff and Mr. Richard Brady have all credly presented A.P.D. Staffing and resource needs and highlighted the shortfalls to the council on August 17th. I attended the budget work session on the 17th and listened to Mr. Brady present the matrix study on community policing. The study was insightful and fair. It identified staffing and process deficiencies, provided constructive solutions and suggestions. [12:28:31 PM] It identified the need for additional district reps to walk the beat and going forward I'll refer to them as Dr's. And it identified the need for additional patrols, patrol officers, civilians, corporals and beyond what the chief had asked for in his budget that he's presented. Along those lines there are other Texas cities who have adopted the community policing model, who have resources that surpass Austin's headcount for Dr headcount. When discussing the community policing study on the 17th, Mr. Mayor, you asked how do we get there from here. I respectfully encourage you to start by walking the talk. Unburden a.p.d.'s budget with health and human services expenses. Keep them separate. Fund A.P.D. Equipment which on the concept menu item you have listed already. Again, provide funding to process the backlog of sexual assault kits. Fund Dr positions citywide, not just in north Austin for foot patrols in all hot spots in Austin. And strengthen a.p.d.'s patrol headcount and leadership resources. A.P.D. Dr's strive for success in spite of daily constraints. The Dr's are severely understaffed and Dr's in other cities have different follow the same community policing model. Austin's Dr headcount is 37. There are two vacancies and one retirement. Dallas has 80 neighborhood response team officers and Houston has 120 differential response team officers. A.P.D. Has added, as chief Acevedo has communicated, A.P.D. Has added a third shift -- [buzzer sounds] It consists of five to seven officers, it means that literally there are no additional officers that have been added to any shifts. There are less police officers on the sheet with more you shifts. [12:30:34 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> I've given you handouts. I have some fact sheets for you. And I ask you to please increase the A.P.D. Budgets for patrol officers and district reps and staff resources. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> Thank you. Are there any questions? >> Mayor Adler: I think we're set. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Carolannrose Kennedy has arrived, so we'll bring her up to speak. She'll be our last speaker. >> Thank you for waiting. I went around that parking garage for 20 minutes. >> It's hard sometimes. >> I don't have to do that on the bus. I could have gotten here quicker on the bus. Okay. Good morning, everybody, and thank y'all for serving. And the five of you that are leaving, I'm going to miss you. I hope you're all trying to run again. And Kathie tovo, those two little red chairs are for your little girls. And the load limit is 200 to fit my wide ass in it. I wrote this song many years ago when capitol hillary was the secretary of state. And wild bill was reverting to his boyhood days. Here goes. It's actually a girl scout song that I adultrated. Don't worry. ♪♪ God bless my underwear. My only spare pair. Stand beside me, and guide me through the rips, holes and runs through the tears. ♪♪ From the washer to the dryer or left hanging in the air, god bless my under wear -- I'm sorry if I'm offending some of y'all. [12:32:49 PM] -- Any time, anyhow, anywhere. ♪♪ On the clothes line, through the wringer, and the last time through the mill, god bless my underwear, and god, what will I tell bill? ♪♪ On the clothes line, through the wringer, and the last time through the mill, god bless my underwear, and god, what will I tell bill? Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [Applause]. >> I really appreciate you waiting. I can't tell you how much. >> Mayor Adler: Absolutely. Council, we'll now go into closed session to take up one item, pursuant to section 551.071 of the government code, city council will discuss the following item: Item number 36, it's legal issues related to the council budget concept menu. Without objection we will go back to executive session and we will be back out, we predict, at about 1:45 after lunch. Thank you. [Executive session]. >> [1:36:29 PM] [ music ] [2:27:15 PM] >> Mayor Adler: All right. We're out of closed session. In closed session we took up and discussed legal issues related to item 36. So we're now back. We were in the process of going through the agenda. Do we want to start with wild horse pud, item number 10? >> Houston: Mayor, if I could scug 25, I've talked to the -- could suggest 25. I've talked to the people in watershed. >> Mayor Adler: Let's pick off 25. >> Houston: Good afternoon. Thank you for coming this afternoon. If you could explain to me about the salamander and why it would take two extensions to get this done, I would appreciate it. >> Good evening, Chris Airington or good afternoon. The contract with -- the interlocal with U.T. Is for a small amount. We're basically using them for a contract laboratory. We'll just be collecting the samples and submitting it to U.T. For analysis. Because they have the genetic sequencing techniques and they are here locally, they have the capabilities of any lab located farther away. >> Houston: So the city of Austin would be doing the collection? >> Correct. >> Houston: And then sending that information to the university of Texas lab for the sequencing. >> Correct, yes, ma'am. >> Houston: Three years to do? >> We anticipate this will all be done within one year, but we've added optional extension years because we've never done this type of work, no one has done this type of work on our salamanders so we want make sure we get sufficient power to ensure the results are actual results, not false positives or negatives. [2:29:18 PM] In case there is too much variability we weren't anticipating, we wanted to provide flexibility in that contract. If this were a private lab we wouldn't be bringing it to council. But since it's a smaller amount -- >> Houston: What are you looking for? >> This will enable us to get a better estimate of the total population size, help us understand the ecology and connection between the water quality and the aquifer and our creeks that feed the aquifer and salamanders. It will inform our captive breeding techniques and help us meet our regulatory obligations with fish and wildlife service through our habitat conservation plan. >> Houston: Thank you so much. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Zimmerman. >> Zimmerman: Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman. My mime phone died suddenly. -- My microphone died suddenly. That's a crisis for me. I'm really struggling how we can understand how we can consider the DNA of a salamander the higher priority of the rape kit we need to do? Is there anybody that can enlighten me that the salamander is more important than the DNA rape kits? >> Mayor Adler: I'm sorry, is that really a question that you -- >> Zimmerman: Yes, because there's a priority question. [Multiple voices] >> Mayor Adler: The staff member is not going to give you an answer to that priority questioning. >> Casar: Mayor, we'll find the funding for those and we should move on because I don't think this is taking away funding for that. >> Pool: And we'll count on Mr. Zimmerman's support for that initiative as well sense he's brought it up. >> Zimmerman: It's priorities, mayor. It's a question of priorities. We're struggling to find money. This is a great place to find money so I'm going to enthusiastically vote against this because I think the DNA for the rape victims is far more important than the DNA for the salamander. [2:31:19 PM] >> As the mayor mentioned, I can't speak to prioritization, it is not coming from the general fund. >> Zimmerman: Then that money could go back to our overtaxed taxpayers. >> Mayor Adler: Let's go on. >> Houston: I move adoption. Of item number 25. >> Mayor Adler: Number 25 has been moved by Ms. Houston, seconded by Ms. Pool. Ms. Gallo. >> Gallo: I just want to ask a question, thank you. You know, we have lots of really good relationships with U.T. And the universities in our community and so U.T. Is known as one of the top research communities, universities in the country, probably in the world from our standpoint. And so I'm trying to understand at what point the university takes on projects like this because it's helpful to the research and students. As we collaborate with U.T. I'm just trying to understand when it is appropriate for U.T. To fund that, you know, as they fund a lot of things at that university and do that as a relationship with the city rather than asking the city to fund things that basically they are doing as part of their research. >> And just for clarification, we collaborate with universities without exchanging money. This is actually using the university of Texas facilities as a contract laboratory and so this is not a university of Texas research project, this is just like we would be doing if we had contracted with any private lab or with a private lab. And so we are collecting the samples from the salamanders, submitting them to U.T., U.T. Is using their equipment to yep rate the sequencing and giving us the sequencing back so we can analyze it. >> Gallo: Part of any question is we talk about limited resources to fund the gazillion needs in this community. It seems like when we have the opportunity we have substantial research that are doing projects like this, I want to understand and hope that we can move in a direction where yes, we may be using their lab, but why would this not also be a project a professor could take on as research and U.T. Would do the whole project for us and get us the information we needed. [2:33:35 PM] So how do we -- it sounds like you have a lot of relationships built up with university and colleges and we're so blessed we have such a resource, how do we move in the direction of trying to collaborate with higher education in this community and say these are the things that we need help with because we need to get the statistical data, we need to get the research and what can you take on as a institute of higher learning to do that as a project within your school and then what you do because we're building this relationship and hopefully it always goes both directions, not just one direction in this community that we can get that information without the taxpayers having to pay for that component. Do you have suggestions on that? >> I think it's a fantastic feedback and that's a relatively broad question. Narrowing it relative to the area in our purview, we actively collaborate with universities, U.T., Baylor, such there is no actual exchange of money between us. We have a scientific advisory committee specifically for salamanders that includes professors and so we do actively collaborate with them. We would love to do that and expand it, but it doesn't necessarily involve a fiscal obligation of the city of Austin to do that. >> Gallo: But when we're looking at a fiscal obligation like this and I really appreciate the collaboration you do. I just think there is an opportunity if we step out and begin to ask for the fiscal part of it to be able to include that and our office would be delighted to help you with that. The city keeps a tracking system with the money that -- that doesn't transfer but is owed each direction with different universities and I think that would be really important and we would love to help with that. I think we have a whole wealth of ability. We just need to take that next step so we can help with some of the funding so we can use money for other things. >> Yes, ma'am, we'll continue to look for those opportunities. [2:35:38 PM] >> Gallo: Thank you. >> Houston: Mayor, I move the question. I think we already had a motion and second and I move the question. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. If there's no further debate, we'll take a vote. Those in favor of this item number 25 please raise your hand. Those opposed? Mr. Zimmerman voting no, Ms. Troxclair off the dais. Others voting aye. How about if we go to the wild horse pid. And Ms. Gallo abstains. The vote was 9-1-1-1. No, no, 8-1-1-1. Eight ayes, one no, one abstain, one off the dais. >> Zimmerman: Mr. Mayor, a point of information. The total amount, why -- I thought city staff had authorization for an expenditure this small without bringing it to council. >> That's right, but this is an interlocal agreement and therefore it has to come to council. >> Zimmerman: So it was the Ila part of it. >> That's correct. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. I'm going to call this next item, item number 10, wildhorse pid. I think everybody on the dais has a copy, it's been handed out, item number 10, says initiated by me. Dated 9-1-6. This contains the language we had talked about in the work session. [2:37:38 PM] There's also a second version I think on the dais. Is that right? There's also yellow sheets -- >> The yellow certification we passed out, that's the language after the work session. The mayor has made a good suggestion to the page that's white with 10 at the top is the second version. So I think you have both. >> Mayor Adler: So two versions, the yellow version and the white version. The yellow version, the issue when we were at the work session was did we want to commit ourselves financially before we knew what the ultimate deal was going to be. And we asked if there was an opportunity to be able to allow it to proceed but not commit contingent on our financial agreement until we see what the final deal is going to be. The initial version handed out this morning gives us the ability to sign off on housing. The white version is more broad than that. It just says we have to sign off. Those were the two things. I think we can consider this in work session. Does anyone want to make a motion? And I would move adoption of item number 10 on the white sheets. Is there a second to that? >> Zimmerman: I'll second. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Zimmerman seconds that. Is there any discussion? Ms. Houston. >> Houston: Yes, mayor, I have some comments to be considered. This is a city that prides itself on compact and connected for any number of valid reasons, and yet there's a disconnect in that we also allow a property owner to come and say annex my property. Instead of reducing sprawl, we have now created sprawl. Historically when we first started this conversation years ago, the sprawl was about urban sprawl was about people moving into the country. [2:39:45 PM] Now it's the sprawl relates directly to poor people and people of color being pushed into the country. And so the sprawl is a different kind, but it's sprawl nonetheless. Sprawl into places where there are no amenities, where there are no things we take for granted. There are three things that I want to talk about this afternoon. First of all, I continue to think that this sets a very bad precedent for the city of Austin to come -- to enter into an agreement with Travis county and the developer in our full-purpose jurisdiction, and in that -- in that agreement we will be observers, not have any control over anything that happens once we pass a resolution this afternoon. Although we can say that we are, we have no -- we will not have any ability to control some of the outcomes. We had a conversation the other day about bribery or incentives, so if we put incentives into this -- into the term of agreement, they haven't been negotiated yet. We don't know whether we pass this today whether those terms will be negotiated, so again we lose control over anything that happens after we pass this resolution this afternoon. And then the third thing has to do with our conversations about housing affordability, and just for everybody's -- just for everybody -- oh, give me one. Give me one. Just for everybody's information, I'm passing out a sheet on the dais that talks about a $200,000 home in wildhorse public improvement district and what their annual bills will look like. If we take into consideration their tax bill from Travis county, the city of Austin, Travis county health care district, manor independent school district, Austin community college district. [2:41:54 PM] So those -- those -- those taxes add up to over $5,000, plus a $700 assessment that is levied by the public improvement district. Now, that does not include anything about principal or interest nor insurance nor homeowners association fee. So the whole conversation about whether or not affordable housing can be captured in this public improvement district is a nonissue to me because I don't see how on a 200 -- you heard everybody say last time we met that the cost of these housings were going to be above $200,000. I don't see how this could be affordable to the developer. So I am -- those are my concerns. The precedent we set, the lack of control that we have over anything after an ordinance is passed today and the affordable -- affordable -- any kind of affordability in this project, which they have said from the beginning that it's not. It was never intended to be an affordable project, it was always intended to be market rate. And I admire them for making those statements. So thank you, mayor, for your -- your white sheet. It just looks like that's pretty broad and not as specific as we talked about on Tuesday when we had to put in something about a commitment to affordable housing and that would be contingent upon our reimbursement for the wildhorse connector road, which we didn't agree to in the first place, but now is being imposed upon us. So the terms -- I hate to always sign something before I have the full terms and we don't have the full terms on this. >> Mayor Adler: Just to clarify, Ms. Houston, the change from the yellow sheet to the white sheet was not intended to minimize at all the fact that I would anticipate this council is going to want to see provisions that relate to housing affordability here. [2:44:08 PM] It was -- it was to make sure that we just weren't limited to that one thing. But I certainly wouldn't mind putting, you know, elements to include housing affordability. I just didn't want us to be limited to that one thing. If there's a possibility for us to put something in there with food deserts, I didn't want us to be precluded or whatever benefit. I just didn't want us to be limited in that and that was the intent. It was not to remove at all what we had talked about with respect to housing affordability and I wouldn't mind putting that back in. I just thought that we would want to have more control than just limiting ourselves to one element that we could bring up. >> Houston: And I appreciate that, mayor, and thank you for that clarification. The issue for me is once we make an affirmative vote on this resolution, we don't have any more control. Because then the agreements are negotiated because the terms -- the terms of agreement in this packet don't have any of this in there about housing or affordability, and so once we make an affirmative vote today, that's between the developer and Travis county. Not -- that doesn't have anything to do with the city of Austin. We can kind of monitor it, we've asked staff to monitor it closely, but we've lost all of our knowing power at that point because we don't have anything. >> Mayor Adler: I think the intent was they have asked us to -- the proposal has us participating financially with respect to helping with some of the infrastructure. And what that provision says is you don't get any of our money unless there's an agreement that we accept. So the whole purpose of that provision is to, in fact, give us control. If all we said was we don't object and we didn't put that language in, then it would move forward, we would be financially responsible without regard to what the ultimate agreement was. So the comment you made definitely applied to this tract as it was presented to us at work session, but what I was trying to reflect was the will of our council not to be left into that position so that we would not bear any financial commitment unless and until the city council approved or agreed to a future agreement -- future document. [2:46:28 PM] If we don't agree to it, they don't get any financial thing from us. That was the whole purpose of in a was to put us back into control as concerns our financial involvement. >> Houston: So the term special benefits to be described in a future document is what you are meaning we could put in affordable house, put in other kinds of things that would be communicated to the developer later. >> Mayor Adler: Absolutely. And if we communicated things to him or even to Travis county, whichever one, if the things we want in exchange for committing financially weren't there, then we're not bound by this to -- we're not binding ourselves financially. That was the whole purpose of this. Now, if they do agree, I mean if they give us what we want and we do agree, then we can sign the document and say we agree and then we would be financially -- but that amendment was intended to give us exactly the control that did not exist on Tuesday. It's to give us that measure of control. >> Houston: Thank you for explaining that. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Further comment? Yes, Ms. Garza. >> Garza: It's says shall be contingent upon the city's approval of the developer's commitment. Can that be the council's approval? Or is that what you meant there? >> Mayor Adler: That's what I meant there. >> Garza: Okay. And I guess my concern is is having dealt with a few puds , my experience has been the developer offers 3% affordable housing and then that's always coincidentally staff's recommendation and then council pushes for more and says what about 4 or 5? I want to make sure that we can still -- >> Mayor Adler: Is there problem with putting city council's approval? I would take that as a change to say city council's approval of the developers. [2:48:30 PM] Everyone okay with that? Then let's make that change. >> Garza: And I have one more possible. Can we do commitment to special benefits such as but not limited to affordable housing? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Garza: I would really like to see affordable housing in there. >> Mayor Adler: I don't have a problem with that. I meant it to be inclusive and pore broad. So the developer's commitment to special benefits -- >> Garza: Such as but not limited to. >> Mayor Adler: Such as but not limited to. >> Garza: Affordable housing. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Affordable housing. There's no objection, we'll make that change as well. Okay. Any further discussion on this item? Let's take a vote then. Oh, no, we had speakers. Thank you so much, sir. So this is number -- number 10. Our first speaker, Mr. King. >> Garza: Roy is while -- while he's on his way down, when we got the initial recommendation, originally there was no recommendation on this but we will not approve any future pids, to put a moratorium on future pids. When we got the second presentation that said there was a staff recommendation to not -- to do to does not object, are we still on the path there's a moratorium on not approving any further pids? >> Mayor Adler: And by the way, that's a good point. The blank at the top needs to be filled in with does not. >> Yes, councilmember, we did not bring that back as a recommendation as staff we are not accepting any additional petitions at this point for new pids. Until we have our policy brought back to council and vetted by council as well as detailed procedures on prior to procedures prior to creating the pid, what our due diligence would be as well as fleshing out the due diligence process for after the pid is created and prior to the pid bonds being issued. [2:50:49 PM] So we have that staff work that we really need to do before the city accepts any additional new pid creations. >> Garza: Does that include -- I remember you speaking with some pedestrians in the pipeline that would -- pids in the pipeline -- I guess my hope is to send a message that we're not going to -- next time this would come, it would say the city council does object to the creation of insert whatever pid. Do we have a staff recommendation on that? >> I think that would be our position. We have talked to Travis county staff about the four pids that they have received a notice of intent to file a petition, one of which they've actually received the petition and opened the public hearing. And they continue to want to work very closely with city staff and on this pid financing. For wildhorse we have said we are welcome at the negotiating table with the developer. But yes, I think our next step for these other pids would be that city staff would object. >> Garza: Thank you. >> And that would be our recommendation. >> Mayor Adler: Mayor pro tem, then Ms. Houston. >> Tovo: I'm sorry, if the council were to vote today to object, would the developer then have the option of coming to the city directly and continuing the process that began last year of asking for a city created pid? Or is there some kind of waiting period that would be immaterial imposed? >> My recollection statute does not require a waiting period and that opportunity would exist, but again I would -- I would recommend that the staff go do our work and review the 2008 policy and strengthen that policy and bring it back to policy with our recommendation prior to us entertaining any new pid creation. >> Tovo: Even if [inaudible]. >> Yes. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Houston. >> Houston: Ms. Hart, would it be appropriate for council to memorialize the fact we're not accepting any more pid applications? [2:52:55 PM] >> If that's the will of the council, that's fine with staff. >> Houston: That's I guess a legal question then to the city attorney. Does -- the staff is saying they are not going to accept any more public improvement district applications. Does it make it safer for them to memorialize that as a council after we take whatever vote we take today? >> Think you can give us that direction right here today, that would be fine. >> Houston: Through a motion or just by stating that we agree with -- >> You can say that you are in agreement and when you pass this you can just make that as a record. I think that would be fine. And we'll be happy to come back with something else if that would be preferable to you. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Zimmerman. >> Zimmerman: Thanks, Mr. Mayor. I was going to suggest that we go ahead and create a resolution and find out officially how many pids are in the pipeline right now and exactly what those agreements are. We need an inventory of what's in the pipeline and I think it's up to the council to debate and potentially pass a resolution to the effect of what councilmember Garza had said about a moratorium. I think we need to provide that direction and we need to know, you know, as of now what pids are in the pipeline that are coming along. Because these things take years to percolate. >> Mayor Adler: And my suggestion would be that we give the community notice if we're going to take that action so they have an opportunity to come and express a view. So the resolution in front of us does not object with the changes that were made with the additions that came from councilmember Garza. Ms. Houston. >> Houston: One more thing and I want to thank councilmember Garza for those suggestions, language, they make it a much better document except I'm still going to vote against it. >> Mayor Adler: Those in favor of this resolution -- >> Casar: We still had speakers. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Hirsch. David king first. >> Mayor, I will remind you we need the language for the blank. [2:54:57 PM] We need does or does not. >> Zimmerman: We put it on the overhead. >> Mayor Adler: We said it would be does not. Mr. King. >> Thank you mayor, mayor pro tem, councilmembers. I really appreciate this discussion but, you know, I don't know why we can't say, you know, we object to this one and say -- and then say let's go through our due diligence with a public hearing. Just as you mentioned about having a public input on whether or not you are going to establish a moratorium, I think the citizens of the city should be involved in a public hearing about a pid before it's approved by the county and, you know, then now we're faced with, hey, you've got 30 days. This is a backwards process. If we are really partners you a three should be at the table, not we've mate this agreement, take it or leave it. Now we're ham strung and I think that's a bad policy. Why can't we say no, we object to this one. Now let's sit down and go through the due diligence, have our public process and make a decision? What's the harm in doing that? If we do it this way we are limited in what we can do and what will stop the developer from saying I don't want your money, city, that's okay, keep your money. I'm going to do what we're going to do and we have no influence on what happens in this big development in our city. And I think if we're serious about saying, hey, it matters and we have a right to have input before the deal is cut, then this is the time to do that. Why are we going to let this one go through and say all the rest of the pids have to -- now they have to go through this process but not this one. I think it's inequitable and we haven't had the fair opportunity to have a full public vetting of this. We're just learning about these details and I feel like you are forced into a decision you yourself have not had time to look at. I think this is bad policy to say we don't object to this one. I think you should object to this one and set the policy now and say this is what we want going forward. And if we are going to do this, I just can't believe we don't need affordable housing in this part of our city. [2:57:01 PM] It doesn't make sense to me. I don't see that. We now we have an affordable housing crisis in this city and our opportunity to really put a dent in that through approval of these types of projects is gone. We lost -- we've lost our leverage. So I think we should say no to this and then say now let's go -- let's sit down together all three entities, work through the agreement that works for everybody, then bring it back for a public hearing for approval. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Mr. Hirsch. >>> Mayor and members of the council, after reading the backup this weekend, I signed up neutral on this, but after watching your good work on Tuesday, yesterday and today I've changed my mind to support this. We have as a city an affordable housing strategy that says we're supposed to have in ten years 35,000 affordable units. I'd like to call them smart housing, income restricted units. Must be improvement districts -- public improvement districts, zoning can all contribute to the potential that in 2017, 35,000 more of our brothers and sisters can have the kind of housing that they can't have today. So I encourage you not to object, to add the language that you've been discussing since Tuesday, and I want to commend your outstanding work in taking what was goings to be just a market rate development with a city contribution and no affordable housing outcome and turning it into something that guarantees we're going to get the public benefits we want or we won't be contributing in a cost participation way for the infrastructure. We always haven't done that as a city and I'm glad this council is doing it now and I want to say thank you very much. [2:59:05 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Further discussion? Ms. Garza. >> Garza: So will this come back to us to vote on when we know the final agreement? Okay. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Those in favor of this please raise your hand. Those opposed? Ms. Houston voting no. Mayor pro tem voting no. Ms. Troxclair off the dais. The rest voting aye. This passes. That's number 10. I would point out to council in addition to other items postponing until this evening, we have a little over three hours worth of citizens signed up to speak on the budget at our budget public hearing. >> Casar: Mayor, I didn't want to mention it during the item, but it is coming up as another item. My understanding this project -- that Travis county has been working on the following those better building standards that we're discussing later and I think that's important and I appreciate it especially for such a large project that's largely stick construction. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Thank you. That gets us up to now I think item 29 is going to be put off until later. Item number 34. This is the interim city manager item. John Michael. We're going to consider item number 34, which is the interim city manager item. The city of Austin stands at a unique moment right now and we need a strong and capable leader to help guide us through this interim phase. The Austin city council has chosen Elaine hart, the city's current chief financial officer to serve as city manager subject to a vote in just a moment. [3:01:08 PM] Elaine was our choice for many reasons. Including that she brings an enterprisewide view and very broad experience with all our city departments and operations. Elaine began her long career with the city of Austin in 1980 as an audit manager in the auditor's office. The council's priority so to move deliberately and quickly to have a new city manager in place in six to nine months, and in this short interim period and under Elaine's leadership we know our city will continue its forward movement. Austin faces critical challenges with regard to mobility and affordability and in our action today we are choose to go keep our assistant city managers in their respective positions so that we can best accomplish our collective goals without interruption, including immediate initiatives such as the possible implementation of a large and important transportation bond. I want to thank Marc Ott for his unwavering to the city. Is there a motion? Ms. Houston. >> Houston: Mayor, I move that the city council appoints Elaine hart as interim city manager to become effective upon Marc Ott's departer and to serve until a new city manager is pointed and serving. Our coin takes other actions consistent with this resolution. >> Mayor Adler: Is there a second to that motion? Ms. Garza. Are we ready to take a vote? Those in -- those in favor of the motion please raise your hand. Those opposed? It is unanimous with those sitting at the dais. [3:03:10 PM] Congratulations, Elaine. Thank you. [Applause] You know, we have our leadership team also sitting in the first row here and elsewhere throughout this building. I want to also have a hand for our leadership team. [Applause] Ms. Hart. >> Mayor and council, I'm really honored by this opportunity and look forward to working with the executive team that is very capable in working through this transition period with the help of them as well as all city employees. As you know, we have fabulous employees. We're all very dedicated to public service and moving forward the goals of this city. And I just thank you for the tremendous opportunity to be part of that and thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. I feel like almost we could go home. [Laughter] >> Houston: Is there a motion? I'll second it. [Laughter] >> Mayor Adler: We'll quickly move past that one. >> Kitchen: So this was a prelude to letting all of them know we're leaving and they can just -- [laughter] >> Mayor Adler: All right. Let's continue on. Permanent city manager. Dr. Washington or joy, do you want to come up and talk to us? >> Good afternoon, council, jewel 82 hays, director of human resources. As backup information to this particular item on council agenda, we provided you the requested information as was discussed during the work session. After looking at the information provided by council relative to the elements of engagement that you see and prefer in the recruitment process, in addition to the documentation we provided you relative to the proposed time line, what we provided here for you and I have copies if you do not have those available from what we put in the backup information is a relative draft of what the scope of services would like like. [3:05:34 PM] As I briefly take you through those -- this information, just note what we've tried to incorporate in this draft document is the level of community engagement that you have requested and communicated relative to the documentation relative to the -- we've also taken common language. You asked us to look at recent recruitment processes to include Dallas, Killeen and Charlotte, North Carolina, all of which who have had recruitments in 2016 to try to be somewhat consistent with that information. If I could just bring your attention very quickly to the scope of services information that we have included that also identifies the opportunity for the development of community engagement strategies, the creation of the candidate profile, public meetings and stakeholder processes that would be incorporated in the scope of services that would be included. Council also discussed the opportunity to ensure that this would allow different types of search firms, not just those who focus purely on municipal government and so we've tried to create special requirements to ensure our broad scope of opportunities to receive competitive bids for this process. We've also tried to incorporate all of the key information provided in the elements of engage. Information that you provided and with council's permission, if this information is successful and you are comfortable with it, we would recommend using some information to begin now drafting the rfq to go out so we can maintain consistent with the time line that was presented to you last week. >> Mayor Adler: The next step in the process would be for you to send out a request for qualifications from firms that would be interested in being the search firm. >> Yes, sir. >> Mayor Adler: And your description of what these folks would be applying to to do is what has been attached as the first twoes of what is in the backup now. [3:07:45 PM] >> Yes, sir. >> Mayor Adler: And you would then send this out, you would get back the folks you thought rose to the top and would you then be bringing those back to council? >> Yes, and if you refer to page 5, with the possible time line, the solicitation would go out in September. We would then be having evaluations at executive search firms beginning in October, facilitating meetings with you and the designated groups would also take place in October and finalize the process and the profile for advertisement and recruitment which would again in November. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. So the search firm -- the final would come back, council would pick search firms and the first thing the search firm would be would be to help us identify what were the -- what we wanted the city manager to be. And at that point there would be that first real significant community involvement in whatever form it takes place so the community would also be involved in shaping that. >> Yes, sir. We've tried to take the information you provided us. You'll see in this description detailed opportunities for stakeholders and/or designated input at the beginning stages in the development of the profile and also including meetings to characterize what you wanted an ideal candidate and possible one on one meetings with each councilmember and the development of that prior to that recruitment and advertising beginning. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. What you are looking for right now is direction to say go ahead and prepare the -- the request for qualifications of search firms so that you could start seeing which search firms would be wanting to participate with us. >> Yes. >> Mayor Adler: I'm prepared to give that nod to staff and say go ahead and proceed with that. [3:09:48 PM] Any discussion on the dais? >> Casar: Mayor? I had one question looking at backup. I agree with it, with the way it's been outlined here. My one clarifying question is under the section that explains each group's role, the council's role, the council designated group and the public. Under the council's decision making authority have selection of the search firm which is obvious, but does that include direction to the search firm, retention and ending the contract with the search firm -- does the council have the authority delegated to it to engage and direct the search firm exclusively at our pleasure? >> Mayor Adler: Yes, not delegated to us, we have reserved that. We have reserved the ability to direct as much as we want to direct. >> Casar: That answers my question. >> Mayor Adler: All right. So I think you have that direction to go ahead and proceed. Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: I really like the process that's outlined here and the other information that's contained and I just want to be sure that our staff will also be integrated into this process as well in terms of providing feedback on -- both on the candidates and perhaps earlier in the process. I would like for staff generally to be considered among the stakeholders who the search firm are in contact with. >> Duly noted and we'll add that to the proposed time line and process. >> Mayor Adler: I think that's important as well. Good catch. Ms. Houston. >> Houston: Could you just describe very briefly to me what the council designated groups you will do. >> Well, as the information provided us from the council for the elements of engagement, you all can identify a group as identified in the final page of the document, the council designated group shall have on page 4, three key roles and responsibilities. [3:11:52 PM] It° 11 members comprised of one appointment by each of the councilmembers with the mayor's appointment and that details there for you what the committee will be comprised off and they will be the ones everywhere throughout our time line and scope of services will we identify council or designated group engagement, they would participate. To directly answer that question relative to our process, you will see in October when we are evaluating the recommendations for executive search firms, they will help facilitate those meetings. Those meetings will be with those designated people you've identified to help ask key questions relative to what you are looking for and an ideal candidate. They will also participate in the evaluation of what goes in the actual profile of what is the advertisement that we communicate out relative to the position and what we're looking for in terms of our roles and responsibilities and minimum and preferred requirements. And they will also participate in provides you feedback once we've identified those candidates through the semifinalists, you will then have an opportunity to create opportunities for engagement from stakeholder or designated groups. Their role will be to also provide you directly with feedback relative to the candidates for which they've seen and heard. Those are the key areas where the designated group would be participating in terms of their formal role in the process. >> Houston: Thank you. Mayor, do you have some idea how that process will work in reality? Because it sounds like we've got a mini me group that's going to be doing a lot of the work and then they come back to us and brief us and then they go back out -- I don't want them to get confused about what their role is. >> Mayor Adler: And I think before -- I think we should talk about that on the dais as a group and I would urge all of us not to make that appointment yet or to promise that appointment to anyone yet until we can get together collectively. Of course everybody will have their own discretion to appoint whoever they want, but we should talk about making sure collectively we've ensured that the skills or people or representation we would want on that group are represented. [3:14:04 PM] So we should have that -- and I know that our H.R. Staff probably wants to talk to us about the type of person that might be good on there or the skill set that we would want to have there or the like. So I would urge everybody to hold off at this point. But what it is, Ms. Houston, it's just a group other than us that can field a lot of the community thoughts for us and so that we're not trying to do our council job and this job at the same time. >> Houston: And I guess the process is and we can talk about this later, then how do we get that information? From that group, how often do they meet, do they just go out in the community when you are having stakeholder groups? It's an authority thing and I think there's a balance between what they are charged to do and what we have the responsibility to do and I just want to make sure that we're clear before we appoint that group so that the authority the really clear. >> Mayor Adler: Right. And in the deal that we had had, the very first thing lest anybody be confused is that ultimate authority decision making rests with the council and will not be delegated. >> Houston: I realize that, but we've also gotten a lot of emails about a nominating committee made of community folks. I don't want them to believe this is their nominating committee. >> Mayor Adler: This is a different kind of function than that. We'll put it on the agenda. While they're sending out the rfqs for the search firm, sometime this month, mid to late, we need to have that longer conversation as a council to talk through all those elements and make sure we're getting what we want. At this point we're just telling them to proceed with that rfq process. Yes, Ms. Pool? >> I have a couple of questions for Ms. Hays. Let me get myself organized here. I am looking at the page that's the elements of engagement. Can we talk about that? I have a couple of questions. [3:16:06 PM] And it's page 3. Under the first set ever bullets the council makes the following decision on the following matters. And council designated group. I'm just curious when we have input from employees and the interim city manager and the ability for them to talk about the candidates and give them their good insights and information about how they view the job and what they know about the city? >> We accepted the engagements from councilmembers and utilized it, but based on the feedback we've heard today we'll add another element to the process that will include feedback from staff as part of the process. >> Pool: And the last bullet on the back on page 4, council designated group shall be -- and then it has three bullets, and on the second one it talks about adding conflicts of interest. No one can serve as a committee member if in the past year they've worked for the city, had a contract for the city or were a registered lobbyist? Can you describe work and does worked be having received compensation from the city and would that include current and former boards and commissions members? >> Our current boards and commissions members, most of them do not receive compensation for their work. I would have to get some clarity from the law department to whether or not that would be there. But based on the criteria that council has established with this particular bullet I will assume that those who are on boards and commissions should be able to participate since they have not form almost worked for the city, had any contract with the city and/or registered lobbyists. But there may be some on boards and commissions now that are registered lobbyists, so we'll get some clarification and confirm what the criteria would look like based on what you all have provided us for some additional discussion before we reach that point. [3:18:08 PM] >> Pool: Thanks. That's all I had. >> Mayor Adler: Ultimately that would be our decision as well, just like everything else on this. Okay. So I think we've given you direction to go forth and do the rfq to move us down the process. >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Okay? That gets us then to the next item, which is item number -- well, 37 has been -- the attorney has recommended that we take a vote on item number 35. Is that to take action? Is there a motion to approve 35? Mr. Renteria. Second, Ms. Pool. Those in favor please raise your hand? >> Zimmerman: Give me 15 seconds? >> Mayor Adler: I'm sorry. Oh, we have speakers on 35? I'm sorry. I don't have any speakers shown on 35. I'm sorry, 35, is Gus Pena here? Is Joe Langley here? David king, do you want to speak on the process? >> [Inaudible - no mic]. >> Mayor Adler: Debbie Russell? Cynthia Mara senior is on deck. >> As a school board trustee I sympathize with the brevity of this job before you, this task. I know how serious this is. I'm having my main job in my job as a school board member being to hire the superintendent, and continuing to manage that person. I wanted to mention a few things. What I'm hearing so far sounds actually quite good. I'm impressed with the level of community involvement y'all are already discussing at this point. Usually it's pushed off towards the end of the process after the consultant arrive and everything like that. [3:20:10 PM] So that's great. And I'm really impressed with the mayor actually talking about working together on these appointments such as there's a diverse base. I've been yelling about that for years about boards and commissions. Everybody picks in silos. And I don't know -- most of you probably don't know me long enough to know back when we hired the police chief I helped organize a coalition of about 30 different organizations to try to get community involvement into that selection process. We had to kind of force our way in. We weren't invited quite as much as you seem to be doing now. So I have a lot of ideas and experience from that, if y'all need any resources from those days. And also learned a lot through the 10- 1 process and how we chose the auditors who helped choose the commissioners. And just in the crafting of that 10-1 charter amendment, and thinking through how exactly to really, really include a diverse group of people to weigh in. And my point is, and this is what I want you to continue to think about and discuss, is the community folks that you have at the table, at the end of the day they need to have quantifiable input. That is the most important thing. If what they say doesn't actually enter into the scoring of how you choose the new city manager then all of the people will have wasted their time. Please think about how to quantifybly do that. And a lot of the consultants that you pay to come in are not paid to think outside of the box, but I know you guys are able to do that. There are ways for a consultant to think about how we can really include the community in a quantifiable manner in terms of the scoring, in terms of actually developing the profile for the manager first and then in terms of the ranking of the applicants for the job. [3:22:20 PM] Thank you. >> Mayor Adler:. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Next speaker is Cynthia Mata, senior. And the next speaker is frank Ortega. Those are all the speakers we have. Back up to the dais. Mr. Zimmerman? >> Zimmerman: Mr. Mayor, thank you. I wanted to raise a point of order. Maybe I missed something in my backup, but I thought it was just going to be a briefing because I didn't see a sheet that had, I guess, a resolution for passage. I just wasn't clear. That's why I kind of slowed things down. >> There was not a resolution. I think the only piece of backup was the piece of paper that you all were just talking about a minute ago. It's posted as a discussion and possible action. >> Zimmerman: Yeah. I just thought we were going to have a briefing. I didn't know we were going to have a vote and action. >> Mayor Adler: If people are uncomfortable with that, we don't have to move forward. >> Zimmerman: I thought it was an informative briefing and I don't think we need to take action right now, do we on this? >> Mayor Adler: Let's not take action and come back on this because it's not in resolution form and I think that's fair. >> Houston: So let me ask a question. What will that do to the timeline that we were just talking about? >> Mayor Adler: Nothing. They are going to continue to proceed. We've given that instruction. I'll just bring this back in a little bit different format so that it's clear that there's a resolution associated with that and it will track that. >> Pool: Will that be later today in the other format or next week when we have one of the two special called meetings? >> Mayor Adler: I'll probably post it on one of those two meetings when we're together so we can get that done. >> Pool: Thanks. >> Mayor Adler: All right then. We'll move off this item 35. Item number 37, which is the champions tract, has that already been proposed to the 22nd? [3:24:28 PM] Okay, good. We have a briefing on development services. Rodney? >> All right. Mayor and council, Rodney Gonzalez, the director for development services department. I think the presentation is queuing up and I think that council has a presentation booklet in front of them that has been distributed this morning. As a bit of background you are aware that the development services department put forth an action plan last year and that action plan implements key recommendations with the target of delivering our services. The purpose of today's presentation is to provide council on a briefing of the progress to date of those implementations and to highlight key accomplishments since my last briefing in February of this year. Quickly going over the topics for today's presentation, we will cover success metrics. You may recall that in August and September of last year that we had developed and discussed the success metrics following the release of our department action plan. We'll be covering the pillars of our action plan and showing council the progress to date on those pillars, ranging from technology to quality reviews, to investment in employees to coordinated reviews. We will be discussing partnerships that we have established. We have collaborations with other key city departments to make improvements to various areas within the city's permitting and development process. And then we'll wrap it up with some key initiatives, pointing out those key initiatives that are underway that are significant either to the way that the department operates or the provision of our services. Starting off with success metrics, as I had mentioned in the previous slide we had developed our success metrics and you may recognize that graph on the lower left-hand side, in August and September of last year. [3:26:31 PM] At council's request the success metrics were reviewed by Mr. Paul Zucker. The success metrics were also reviewed by industry stakeholders at an industry stakeholder meeting held in January of this year. The success metrics are both quantitative and qualitative in nature. With respect to quantitative we look at items such as counter wait times, plan review times, and with regard to qualitative metrics that focuses really on the character of the work that we do and the grade of excellence in how we do our work. We have developed a one-page sheet of success metrics that come directly from the document that we had developed. And we've developed it in an easy to read and easy to interpret format. We use color coding such as Orange for not meeting the metric, green for meeting the metric, and we also report on other department's performance metrics as well. You know that we do our job in concert with 12 other city departments so we are reporting the performance of those other departments as well. The metrics as I mentioned are in alignment with the document that we had developed in August and September of last year and in front of you in your booklet you have historical presentation of metrics going back to April of this year. April is when we hired the bulk of the new positions that council had approved in the fiscal year '16 budget. And as we had mentioned last year we needed some training time as well. So this presentation of course is to present those success metrics that we are posting every month online as well as the progress to date. Moving on to the next slide, technology is key for improving the delivery of our services. For far too long we did not use technology in a way that we could gain efficiencies and to solve problems that we had encountered, and that has changed. We have embraced technology as a way to improve the delivery of our services and we're having great success in that regard. [3:28:32 PM] One of the key areas and one of the pillars that we had mentioned back in August of last year was wait time. Specifically the wait time at our service center on the first floor of one Texas center. Excessive customer wait times in our lobby areas had been a problem for far too long. The old way of doing business was that if you were a customer you would come to one Texas center and you would sign up and you would wait to be served. And we had approximately 130 customers doing that everyday. Our lobby, which we'll get to shortly, was overflowed with capacity. The new way of doing business, of course, is that we use the qless software which is used by department of registration, which you as a customer can put yourself in a virtual queue using your home computer, laptop, cell phone, and you're notified 15 minutes in advance when you should make your way to one Texas center. And if you need more time you can request more time via text message. All of the wait time and queue time is back in the customer's hands where it belongs and the customer is not of course subjected to the wait times at the one Texas center anymore. Another large initiative underway, and I know it's one bullet on here, is electronic plan review. Electronic plan review is going to fundamentally change the way that we do site plan and subdivision planning and commercial and residential plan review in the city. As you know, we work with 12 other different departments to do plan review. The old way of business is that if you are a customer that you print off multiple companies of plan sets and you either drive those down to one Texas center to deliver to us or you pay a courier to go and deliver them to us. The new way of business is that you submit those to us electronically with the click of a button. We receive those, we simultaneously distribute those plan sets to all the partners at city departments. Everyone gets to collaborate and simultaneously review the plan sets and it's all done electronically. [3:30:35 PM] We submit the revisions back to our client, those come back electronically. We anticipate that we will gain significant efficiencies through the use of electronic plan review. And as I mentioned it will fundamentally change the way we've done plan review in the department. Also through the use of technology we are approximate making more of our information readily available to residents of Austin. We have partnered with the Austin code department to make code violations and building permit approvals available for any customer online via map. You can pull up this map, you can pull up maps by neighborhood, you can pull up maps by council district and you will have all the historical data with regard to code violations and permits approved. That data is then also linked back to our Amanda system where you have more detailed information available and ready at your disposal. >> Gallo: Mayor, before you move off that, we've gotten positive response off that entire office. Thank you for getting that launched. >> Thank you. We've heard the same thing. I was at the Austin neighborhoods council last week and they had the same response that our customers like it. >> Pool: I have a question too. >> Mayor Adler: Yes, Ms. Gallo. I'm sorry, Ms. Pool. Haven't done that in a long time. You know, this is when it happened before, as I recall. >> Pool: Real quick question for you and I keep getting feedback on my microphone so I'll try to stay away from it so it doesn't feedback. One of the things that I've been interested in developing as far as monitoring system for the system was the ability for people like 25 years from today, no matter what the internet looks like, no matter how we are communicating electronically, to go back and look at covenants or variances or whatever aspects, overlays that we attach to a particular property so that like in a really complex development, for example, 15 years, 20 years down the road, people can look back and say these were the promises and the agreements that were made on passage. [3:32:45 PM] Here we are a decade and more down the road and things are finally being built out and we're looking at things on the ground. And is the development following and making good on the promises that were part and parcel on the agreement for passage. Do you think we have something that you're talking about here, could that be expanded to include that kind of tracking of essentially the rules of engagement for a development that would be robust enough for monitoring decades down the road? >> We can certainly look into it. I can't commit that that would be something that we could implement, but we could certainly look into it. I've got our I.T. Manager with us in the audience who I'm sure is taking copious notes about the requests, but we certainly can look into it and see whatft ware might be available or look at our existing software, both Amanda and project docs, which is the software that we'll be using for plan review to see what capabilities might exist. >> Pool: That would be great. Because if all of these different systems could coordinate and talk with each other and have an easy access point, like the tenants of Austin and open date, so people have good access, but the other key point is decades down the road we don't know what the internet will look like or even if we have an internet, it might be something entirely different. So it also has to be robust and compatible to be shaped by whatever forms we communicate with down the road. So it's just a prospective thought and we can talk about it later, but it seems like you have a resting place for that kind of expansion. >> Yes, we certainly do. The project docs software in particular is a very well used software by a lot of large cities such as Austin, so we feel that we've chosen the right software with regard to electronic plan review. And speaking of electronic plan review, over the next 90 days this slide presents the other technology initiatives that we will accomplish within the next three months. [3:34:52 PM] We fully intend to roll out all of the aspects of remaining electronic plan review and as I mentioned that will fundamentally change the way we do site plan review, commercial and residential plan review in the department. Mayor and council, you may recall that earlier this year we had announced that we had implemented over 20 of our permits, including standalone permits online with great success. And our equipment is to always assess our applications and see which ones we can then also put online. Over the next 90 days we will be putting our residential express permits and tree permits online. To give you a sense of scope, we do approximately 3900 residential express permits and 2800 tree permits annually. So all of those applications will be available online for our customers. Wanted to do earlier is to be as transparent as possible in the work that we do and make the information that we have as readily available to our customers as possible. We have embraced the city's open data portal initiative. We have plan records going back to 1991 and we have posted those on the open data portal. Once again to give you a sense of the scope, we have 1.7 million records and permit data that we have posted through the open data portal. Also with regard to our geographic information systems viewers and maps, we have a lot of maps that we make available to our citizens in Austin. Unfortunately the old way of doing business was that if you used your web browser that you had to download specific software in order to access that -- the map information. You no longer need that. We are converting to a new type of environment that you don't need to add software to your computer, you can just use your web browser. That's good for folks who accident on necessarily trust installing new software on their computer or don't know the process that you don't need that extra step in order to view a map that you would like to see. [3:36:59 PM] With regard to accountability and to the commitment to meet certain targets, we realize we need additional staff resources in the work that we do, but we can also create efficiencies in the work that we do. This particular slide speaks to some efficiencies that we created in the volume builder process. Volume builders are an important asset to Austin. They bring forward multitudes of affordable housing to Austin. We've listened to the organizations such as home builders association of Austin, the Austin board of realtors, volume builder community, and we've heard about the the issues that they've encountered and we've devised a way that we can reduce the amount of distribution time that it takes from plan delivery to distribution to plan reviewers. And we've had great success. We've decreased our distribution time from one to two weeks to one to two days. The total turnaround time has decreased from two to three weeks to one week or less. The graph on the right can show you the previous distribution and turnaround time and the current turnaround time as a result of changing that process. And we've had a great response from our volume builders. They like that it gets their permits approved on a much more expedient basis. We are also expanding our intake appointments to production bolders and that also reduces the distribution time. In the past reduction builders would have to come to one Texas center and drop off their plan sets. We would then take a look at them. If something was missing then it would stall the process because we would have to go back to the applicant to ask for more additional information. Through making intake appointments available that proclamation builder can speak with our staff, they can readily assess whether the plan set is complete, and if it is then it gets to immediately get distributed to our plan reviewers, therefore shaving time off of the total time for permit turnaround. [3:39:04 PM] Mayor and council, you may recall that we had a pretty robust conversation about polling during our department presentation in early August. We listened to the questions that you raised as well as the concerns and mayor, we certainly did hear you when you had said you wanted to see the poll questions before they go out. And that will be done. This slide talks about some of the questions and concerns that were raised back during that presentation. Specifically with regard to the survey and design we are using etc institute, which is the same consultant that does the citywide survey. The primary poll questions that we are developing currently with etc include questions that were highlighted in the successful metrics. The poll is intended to be repeatable by design. We will randomly -- the consultant will randomly select and distribute surveys or these polls to 5,000 customers. The goal is to get approximately 400 completed surveys, including phone surveys. And to achieve a 95% level of confidence with regard to the results, plus or minus 4.9 percent. The results will be presented to council in the october-november time frame through an executive summary that includes a detailed list of all the methodology used, major findings from the polling, charts, draft, et cetera, as well as benchmarking related to other communities. Whoa also discussed the use of day-to-day surveys and we have implemented exit surveys in every single function of the department who are the five different functions that are listed here. These are very useful for us to get immediate feedback from our customers. The next step, of course, is to link these exit surveys with the completion of an application such that when an application is completed our system automatically sends the survey out to our customer. Moving on to expedited permitting, there's certainly been a lot of discussion both past and present with regard to expedited permitting. [3:41:12 PM] Just for historical purposes, back in August of 2013, the city council had asked us to consider expedited permitting. The types of projects that would be available for expedited permitting, whether or not new fees needed to be created for expedited permitting and whether new position needed to be added. The council asked us to do the analysis of expedited permitting into the Zucker analysis, which was completed in may of last year. And then in April of last year this council had asked us to explore options to achieve more affordability and community benefits through expedited permitting. And in February of this year my briefing then had highlighted that we did intent to bring forward an expedited permitting program within the fiscal year '17 budget. And in June of this year council asked that we also bring forward options with regard to expedited permitting that could achieve both affordability and requirements similar to better builder requirements. And then in the August time frame, of course, we provided those options to council. >> Houston: Excuse me, mayor? May I ask a question? Were there stakeholder input prior to you bringing this back to council? >> Yes, ma'am. When two stakeholder meetings. I believe one was June 16th and I believe one was the 24th. We can get you the exact dates. We've also made available the complete information online and we've collected stakeholder feedback online. That information, I believe, was contributed to council as of questioned yesterday. We're going to keep that online portal open for another week and we'll send that additional feedback that we've collected on to council. So you should have in your offices a frequently asked questions regarding expedited permitting and you should have all the comments that were submitted through the online portal in your offices as well. [3:43:13 PM] >> As you are aware, customer service has been a high priority in the department as pointed out in the Zucker analysis, our department received some of the lowest summer service scores. Customer service is certainly more than a greeting, certainly more than saying hello and thank you. Customer service is about the customer's total experience at every single touch point in that spectrum. Touch points of course include our website, it includes transparency, it includes engagement with the customer. It includes the material that we provide to our customers. It also includes online services, whether they're available or not. And summer service is certainly a culture. You can certainly have a bad structure or you can have an excellent one and it's our intention to have an excellent customer service culture. In December of last year we defined our culture of customer service, including the values that support that culture as well as the guiding principles. We are implementing a model that we deem service first. It's a service-centric business model that is intended to enhance our customer service experience at every touch point. We intend to provide consistent, prompt and relevant information to our customers. Here are some highlights and things we've done in that regard. Finding access to us at our website can sometimes be a little bit difficult without multiple clicks. We've developed one single url where our customers can find us, development at atx.com. We've gotten the getting connected, a small business event. Most recently the Austin habitat for humanity hosted a home improvement seminar that we participated in. We've conferences with the electrical association. As well as the American institute of architects. We've produced videos and conducted trainings of our online services. And we've certainly embraced social media as a platform for outreach and engagement. [3:45:19 PM] Moving forward it's really important that our print materials, not just print, but also the online materials, are easy to understand in that we actually do them in the first place. Too often we don't have enough information that describes the work that we do and how best to access our services. So we are going through a complete redesign of those education materials. Our processes can be complex and so we want to make sure that we have some pretty simple graphical illustrate immigration administrations of those processes. For our customers who don't ordinarily use our services as well. Maintaining relationships with external stakeholders is key. In the past few months we've done presentations to -- there's a whole list of acronyms ranging from Austin neighborhoods council to real estate council of Austin to Austin board of realtors to the American home builders organization. It's our intention to get as as much as possible to as much as of the community as possible. We certainly intend to engage the public in every opportunity. We are doing a lot of that through the use of online tools and I'll be speaking about one of our most recent online tools called smart start, which is specifically geared for our small businesses. Wrapping up with the website once again, development@atx is where you can find us. We have embraced social media as a platform for pushing out information. We understand that with today's customers, most of them like to receive the information versus trying to find it on our website. And when they do for go to the website we've improved the navigation including updating all the content and including frequently asked questions. We've improved the online search tools as well as the check in process. To the right you will see the use of what we call promos. These are large features that you see on our website which are easy to find so that way you're not looking for some small fine print text with a hyperlink to it. [3:47:26 PM] You can click on the button for Austin code and permit tracker and get navigated to that tracking tool immediately. Back in February I spoke about the plans to renovate the first floor areas of our customer service areas. The Zucker analysis aptly pointed out that the appearance and the condition of the facilities really was not conclusive to providing excellent customer service and it actually imposed a negative work environment. By way of example our service center had capacity for approximately 12 customers, although we U.S.A. 130 per day. We added more customer service capacity, we had approximately 40 plus seats, seats and benches, so that way our customers can work if they need to. We've got charging stations, we have a digital information wall that of course provides information on their estimated wait time as well as year using the digital information as a way to push out information to our customers who are there. And a whole host of other customer amenities. We've had a lot of great summer comments with regard to the customer service center. Our customers feel like they're treated very well with the accommodations. We've refreshed the center with prominent signage. Wayfinding had been a big issue in the department because the signage wasn't there. Now when you come to one Texas center you can immediately see where you need to go. And we've revamped the customer reception centers there as well. Our employees are working everyday at their very best in plan review, inspections, consultations and permit issuance. And with hundreds of employees providing customer service and using both the city local code and international codes to do their work, it's really important that we provide the training that they need so that way they can be consistent in the work that they do. [3:49:32 PM] We've utilized Amy's education program which is performed by Amy and Steve Simmons with great success. We've taken a couple of our work units through there. The focus once again is not only on hello, how are you doing, but it's on team building, it's on empowerment to our employees so that way they feel like they can make the right decisions on customer experience and it's on reward and recognition of positive accomplishments. We've had great success. It's really improved the morale of them working to have gone through the Amy's Edu program. We've partnered recently with the Austin community college. As you know, Austin community college is very nimble in their curriculum and how they develop that. They tailor curriculum specifically for our department needs. By way of example, our site and subdivision team identified two specific training needs. One is introduction to blueprint reading and the other was math for industry. And we've had great success. Our team enenjoyed working with ACC. They enjoyed the classroom setting. The curricula was spectacular that was put together by Austin community college and we intend to do more of that. With regard to certifications and licensures, we want the very best trained staff and in this competitive environment it can be really difficult to compete for labor. We are now reimbursing our employees for specific credentials that are related to their work. And that's really important for our employees in a tight labor market such as this. And it's really important for our customers that they have the most qualified, most professional, best trained staff that is looking at their plan reviews. Moving on to training, our staff implements several different codes, including the international and national codes. And those codes can change every two years and our staff needs the training on those changes as well as new hires that we bring on to development services. [3:51:33 PM] The codes can include the international residential code, international building code, the uniform plumbing code and electrical code. We've completed course straining for code administration in planning, life safety and the updates to the 2015 international building code. We've listed the additional staff that our staff will be participating in in the coming months as well. The overall development process is much more than development services department and it's important that we have a coordinated process with all of the partner city departments in that we establish how we work together. The Zucker analysis had pointed out that many of our partner department agreements needed updating or that they were nonexistent in that they needed to be created. Mr. Zucker in 2015 his initial thoughts were that all of the reduce should fall under the review services department. On his second analysis his thoughts had shifted for our department to be the coordinator of the development process as regards to the full owner of the development process and for us to implement of course coalition agreements with all of our partner city departments. Four of those have been executed. They're listed on the left. We have eight more remaining that we anticipate getting completed within the coming months. By way of example, the tenants in the agreement of course include a standard of 90% ontime performance. We will annually assess the performance standards as well as the resources needed to meet the performance standards. We do require that every single department participate in the electronic plan review process so that way we can work effectively. And we have talked about getting into a new facility and making sure that those development related review staff are located with us to provide a true one- stop shop for our customers. Speaking of partnerships, we want to welcome all partners that want to improve the city's development process. [3:53:34 PM] We'll start with some examples. The atx act for change is in the office of innovation. Our staff developed a permit wizard at the hack-a-thon with great success. We will be working with the office of negotiation to fully explore that permit wizard. And I liken it to any individual who is using our permit service for the first time. They are unsure as to what permit they need to apply for. The permit wizard will take them through the steps necessary so they can apply for the correct permit and not having to guess as to what permit as probably get it wrong as to what permit they need to apply for. The office of innovation recently implemented a fellows program and we are going to partner with them to redesign the permit process to improve the applicant experience. Specifically we want to improve the access to our services for our customers. We want to make sure that our language that we use is very clear. Sometimes we speak in language that only we recognize. We want to make sure that our customers language as well. We want to make sure that the online services that we put online are used and we want to make sure that we have developed a process that helps our customers use those online services. And we also want to make sure that we're giving the staff the ability to create and develop their own solutions. So we're going to work with the fellows program in that regard. Most recently council received a memorandum in response to the council resolution to look at Austin code and development services department. We are going to collaboratively look at efficiencies and cost savings that can be achieved by the department taking over the expired permits program as well as the work without program. We have partnered with the city's small business program of the economic development department to develop smart start. It's a digital solution that's available for all of our small business customers. It's an interactive question/answer session where our customers can ask us a question rather than having to phone us, we will get that response to the customer as quickly as we can. [3:55:45 PM] Our intention is to build a knowledge database of those Q and As such that our customers then may not have to ask that question, they can have that same knowledge available from a previously asked question. Of course mayor you know the omnibus resolution called for the overall permitting process for the music industry. The economic development is putting together a working group we intend to participate in the discussions. There are over eight city departments that are part of the permitting process that affect the music industry and we will participate in that to help streamline the process. On the horizon these are key initiatives that the department is implementing. Of course we will do a comprehensive fee study in September and December of this year. So that way by the time that the budget rolls around for '17-'18 we will have our estimated revenue available to look at converting to an enterprise fund status in '17-'18 as well. In conjunction with the development services department we are identifying new facility requirements and space programming. We anticipate of course to work with the real estate office as they progress to releasing a request for proposal in that regard. With regard to project manager system, this is something called for in the Zucker analysis as well. It was a system that the department had implemented years ago. A failure of that system, as I understand it, is that the project managers were not true project managers that they actually did plan review as well, and caused the system to fail. We've heard loud and clear from industry stakeholders that they would like a project manager system. This is not by any means a tie breaker system because the code assigns responsibility to different departments to enact. Our department does not have that responsibility for certain provisions of the code. [3:57:46 PM] However, that doesn't mean that we cannot in a collaborative way make sure that we are working together. And we believe that the project manager system can be one of those ways. Mayor and council, that concludes the update on our progress and certainly we'll take questions at this time. >> Houston: Mr. Gonzalez, I want to say again that you've done a remarkable amount of work, you and your staff in a short period of time. As I came on to this council, I got complaints about the process. And now I've had none. So I want to thank you and your staff for the work you've done. >> Thank you. And our staff appreciates that. They are working hard everyday to make improvements. >> Mayor Adler: Anyone else? I want to echo that as well. I think this was an area, as evidenced by the Zucker report that the city had challenges. And even your path has another year, year and a half to run on it. But I think that it's -- there's been a considerable amount of work done and output progress made. And this is important. Not only because, as I travel around the entire city, this is an issue around the entire city wherever I am in this city, but also because I think that the permitting process that costs too much and takes too long begins to distort the market. It makes things cost more expense active than they should. So I think that fixing our permitting department is one of those base fundamental things that we need to do in order to be able to deal with affordability issues in this city. So I commend you and your staff as well. >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. [3:59:46 PM] Kitchen? >> Kitchen: I want to thank you also. It's been an incredible amount of work and a lot in front of you all. So I certainly appreciate that and the work of all your staff. On the expedited permitting I appreciate the feedback you've given us on that. I wanted you to know that that's -- whatever processes that appear to be appropriate for actually getting the permitting faster and in a way that's not a barrier for people, I mean, I don't have to tell you I'm hearing the same things that the mayor referenced and we all are. And I know you are too. And I'm also hearing definitely improvements have been made so I wanted to give you that feedback. >> Thank you. >> Kitchen: So wanted to let you know that and I want to be -- we want to know how to continue that improvement. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Gallo? >> Mauled our office early on got lots and lots of calls of different issues throughout the department and those have been reduced substantially. So thank you. And also I wanted to echo what the mayor said, affordability in this community, housing prices both from a rental and housing, are the supply and demand. Right now the supply is much higher -- the demand is much higher than the supply. The process to actually get new projects and supply on the ground faster is the direction that we need to work towards. So thank you for helping be a partner in that. Not to add to your workload, but we'll continue to push and hope that the code department will continue to come under your guidance at some point and that we can see the same good results in that department that you are providing in your department. [4:01:49 PM] So thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Anything else on this? >> Mayor and council, I management for their support. We felt fully supported by management in everything that we do, as well as the staff. The staff has been fully supportive of all of the changes that need to be made. They certainly want to be the shining star, if you will, on how to provide development services. And our partner departments have also come on board. They want the development process to be very good for our customers and so I think there's a round of thank you's to go to a lot of people. >> Mayor Adler: Sounds good. Thank you. All right. Back to the agenda. I thank the assistant city manager on this, sue Edwards. You've done a really good job on this as well. Thank you. Item number 36, budget concept menu we're passing by, as we discussed yesterday. That got us to 38 we just handled. Item 39, 40, 41, 42 are the executive session issues. We've already been in executive session. Ms. Houston? >> Houston: Mayor, could we do items set for public hearing, 31, 32, 33 and get those set? >> Mayor Adler: We did that on consent. We did those on consent. So we could knock off the Austin housing finance corporation stuff. Let's go ahead and call that. We're getting you up in record time today. I'm going to recess the city council meeting and convene the meeting of the Austin housing finance corporation. In that regard today is September 1st, 2016. [4:03:50 PM] It is 4:00 P.M. Do you want to walk us through our agenda? >> Sure. David potter with Austin housing finance corporation. We have one item that is to conduct a public hearing, that's item number 3. Items 1, 2, 4 and 5 are housekeeping items related to appointments to the corporation. So you may want to take up the minutes of last time's meeting from August 4th. >> Mayor Adler: Is there a motion to approve the minutes? Mr. Renteria moves. Ms. Pool seconds. Those in favor please raise your hand. Those pass with Ms. Troxclair off the dais. >> Thank you. And next we have an item to appoint Rosie truelove to my left as treasurer of Austin housing finance corporation. >> Mayor Adler: Is there a motion to make that appointment? Mayor pro tem makes it. Ms. Houston seconds it. Discussion? All those in favor please raise your hand? Those opposed? Unanimous on the dais with Ms. Troxclair off. >> Thank you. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Congratulations, you're drafted. >> And item 3 is to conduct a public hearing regarding the issuance of up to $20 million of multi-family housing revenue bonds to be issued by the Austin housing finance corporation to provide financing for proposed affordable senior housing development by villages at fiskville lt or an affiliated entity located at 10,017 middle fiskville road. Aside from the public hearing, if there are any technical questions on private activity bonds, we have bond counsel here. If there are any questions about the project we do have the developer here as well. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Is Joe Langley here? [4:05:55 PM] Mr. Languagery is not here. Is there a motion to close the public hearing? Mayor pro tem moves. Is there a second? Mr. Renteria. Those in favor of closing the public hearing please raise your hand. Those opposed? It's unanimous with Ms. Troxclair off the dais. The public hearing is closed. Does anybody want to ask any questions? About the bonding program? Yes, mayor pro tem. >> Tovo:,I was just going to movepproval. >> Mayor Adler: Is there an action item associated with this? >> It just is to conduct a public hearing. That's it. >> Mayor Adler: I think it's just a public hearing. Okay. Is Gus Pena here or Joe Langley? Okay. They were the speakers on number 2. I was going to give them a chance to speak. They're not here. That gets us to the next item, item number 4. >> The next item is to appoint Rosie true love to the board of directors of several foundations. >> Is there a motion? >> Is there a second? Mr. Renteria. Ms. Houston? >> Who is qualified to be on the board of directors? >> For these particular deals the -- customarily it has been the assistant city manager that neighbor housing reports to. The director of neighbor housing. And the assistant director. It's qualification based on their position. Like for example, the director of neighbor housing being the treasurer of the housing finance corporation, customarily. [4:07:57 PM] >> Houston: Is that written in code or law someplace because that's a pretty narrow group of people making those decisions? I'm just asking. I see -- >> I wish I had an answer. Thank you. >> Good afternoon. David suralda with the law department. I'm looking at the bylaws for one of the corporations involved and I'm confident that the same wording is used for both, but it basically states that to qualify and to serve as a director a person must be an employee of ahfc or of the city and be at least 18 years of age. Thank you. So we could have other people on the board of directors other than the people directly. >> Yes. >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Houston: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Zimmerman. >> Zimmerman: Along those same lines, were there a pool of candidates to choose from and some criteria that said who was better qualified? >> These appointments are made by the Austin housing finance corporation. >> Zimmerman: Those are people who make it, not an amorphous corporation. There are people that do that, right? >> Yes. >> Zimmerman: So who are those? Could I ask what these people are and what the criteria are and if there were candidates considered or was it kind of an acclamation, here is the person we want, rubber stamp approved. >> Mayor,bert Lumbreras, assistant city manager. As the mayor just noted, this is primarily how the officers are brought before the city council. If the city council wants the staff to look at a different process and bring you something else for your consideration you are certainly welcome to do that. I think the qualifications you heard were very clear in terms of an employee and meeting a certain age requirement. These are employees that are accountable not only to the city, but to the corporation as a whole. [4:10:00 PM] And each one of us take our role and responsibility to that degree of making sure that we're doing what is in good faith. And at the end of the day anything we do obviously has to come before this body as a board and this board certainly ultimately has a consideration just like you would as a city council body to take anything under our representation and make a recommendation accordingly. So it's really up to count, but I think this is what is before you and we're certainly open to looking at a different process if you so chose. >> Zimmerman: Thank you. Fair enough. I want to open it up to my council colleagues. Does anybody here have any idea what we're voting on or what this process is or how these people are or how they're picked? Does anybody on the dais know anything about it because I don't? >> Houston: Mayor, I know who the people are, but I would entertain at some point a consideration of being able to broaden that group of people who are always appointed to the same thing. I think it's important when we talk about transparency and inclusiveness to be able to have more than the same people serve on the same committee. And sometimes there may be a differing opinion. I'm not willing to do that today, but I would be willing to have that conversation about how wick get some other city employees on who have information about housing that would be able to make sure that we're not being narrowly focused. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Is there a motion to approve these appointments, number 4? Ms. Pool, seconded by Mr. Renteria. Those in favor of the appointments raise your hand? Those opposed? >> Zimmerman: Abstaining. >> Mayor Adler: Preliminary abstains, Ms. Troxclair off the dais. The others votingee aye. >> Item number 5 is essentially the same thing, however it's reappointing Mr. Lumbreras, Ms. Rebecca giallo and Ms. Truelove to the directors of the harbors of creek side corporation, the Austin inner city redevelopment corporation, the villas on sixth non-profit corporation and the ahfc village on little Texas non-profit corporation for terms expiring on July 31st, 2019. [4:12:14 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Is there a motion? Mr. Renteria so moves. Seconded by Ms. Pool. Any further conversation? Those in favor please those opposed? Mr. Zimmerman abstains, Ms. Troxclair off the dais. The others voting aye. That concludes our business of the Austin housing finance corporation. Thank you very much the the meeting stands adjourned. We are now back in the Austin city council meeting. It is after 4:00. A postponement request for item number 46 to postpone this item to October 1st. It's a garage and carport item. Motion to postpone this to October 1st. Ms. Garza. Second by pool. Those in favor of the moment please raise your hand? >> Tovo: Sorry, mayor, we don't have a meeting on the first. That's a Saturday. >> Mayor Adler: Oops. >> Tovo: So the motion should be, I believe, the 6th. >> Mayor Adler: The 6th, October 6th. Okay. Thank you. That could have been awkward? But I would have enjoyed seeing you all over the weekend anyhow? Those in favor of postponing it to August 6 please raise your hand? Those opposed? It's everyone on the dais with Ms. Troxclair off. That takes care of 46. We have the public hearing on both the budget and the tax rate, which has considerable number of speakers. Item number 29 we were going to put until after dinner. We were going to put item number 50 until after dinner as well. [4:14:15 PM] Do we want to try and work our way through the budget public hearings? Yeah. Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: Mayor, we do have item 51, which a piece of which was going to potentially be postponed, and I believe staff might be -- might want to weigh in on whether if we're going to postpone a piece, whether we should postpone the whole thing, but that only has four individuals signed up. And I think we have two public items, public hearing items that also have no citizens signed up that we might be able to dispense. >> Mayor and council, Greg Guernsey, planning -- staff's preference is that you postpone the item in its entirety rather than breaking it up into two pieces where we would have two ordinances and two public hearings. We would suggest that you keep it altogether and have a single public hearing and consider it as a single item for the amendments to imagine Austin. I think that the request was from canpac. I think it is the association that asked for the postponement and staff would not object to the postponement that you are granting today. >> Mayor Adler: We have four people who are here to speak. Our practice in the past is to give people a chance to speak if they came here and something got postponed this way. Or you can reserve the ability to able to speak when this comes back. So let me ask. There are four people. I want to know whether you want to speak now or whether you want to wait until this comes back to speak? That would be Jessica Limon. Is Jessica here? Okay. Peter artencian? Okay. Theresa Ferguson? And Stephanie trint. Okay. When would you postpone this to? [4:16:22 PM] >> I think your next meeting is September 22nd. Knowing that the grove is going to be on that night I will be there all night. Also there's October 6. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. October 6. Is there a motion to postpone item 51 to October 6. Middle school so moves, mayor pro tem seconds. All those in favor please raise your hand? Those opposed? It's unanimous with Ms. Troxclair off the dais. >> Casar: And mayor a comment on that item. I know that canpack has worked hard on the planning of that area and I'd just be interested in hearing between now and then the issues with Guadalupe being designated an activity corridor, it seems to me that if we're going to have activity corridor that's the one that already looks like one in many ways to me, so I would be interested in hearing your input on it. And I'm happy to talk with you directly. Thanks. >> Mayor Adler: And I look forward to that coming back in part because it has things like colony park being listed as an activity center of the city, which I think is appropriate for all the things that come with being listed as an activity center. So that's postponed to October 6th. What about 48 and 49? We have no citizens signed up on those. >> Kitchen: Mr. Mayor, 49 is withdrawn and according to this, a postponement -- >> Mayor Adler: Do you want to take us through 48 and 49? >> Andy listhein, development services. You're correct, the applicant has withdrawn 49 and 48 we've requested a postponement request. I believe that I was just trying to reach my case manager to make sure we had the date right because we had changed it on 48. [4:18:25 PM] It's proposed at the request of the appellant. >> Mayor Adler: Do you want to say a date or hold off? >> I would have to come back. >> Mayor Adler: We'll hold off on taking a vote on 48, and 49 is withdrawn. So we'll hold on 48. What about on 47, on the think east apartments? >> Today's action is to conduct a public hearing and consider a resolution for an application that will be submitted by the developer to the Texas department of housing and community affairs for think east apartments. A multi-family development located in district 3 at 1143 shady lane. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. This number 47 has two citizens signed up. Mr. Pena. Is Susana Almanza here? Is there a motion to close the public hearing? Mr. Renteria moves. Is there a second? Mr. Casar? Those in favor of ending the public hearing please raise your hand? Those opposed? It's unanimous on the dais with Ms. Troxclair off. It was also to consider action. >> That's correct. To consider a resolution. >> Okay. This is a original supporting the application. Is there a motion to approve the resolution? Mr. Casar moves. Seconded by Ms. Pool. Any discussion? Those in favor of supporting the application please raise your hand? Those opposed? Mr. Zimmerman abstains, Ms. Troxclair off the dais. The others voting aye. This item passes. >> Thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. That's item number 47. [4:20:25 PM] Okay. Item 29 and 50 we'll take after dinner. Item number 48 we'll wait until staff comes back. 47 we just handled. That gets us to the public hearing on the budget, and on the tax rate. I'm going to call those together. There's only one person speaking -- asking to speak on the tax rate. That would be Mike Rodriguez. If you're also identified on the other I'll give you more time if you want it. Let's go ahead and call the public hearing on item number 48. I'm sorry, number 44 and 45. So we're going to take up -- can I do these concurrently? We'll do them separately. First we'll take up item number 45, which is the tax rate matter. Wire going to take up agenda number 45 to conduct the second and last of two public hearings to receive comments on the proposed maximum property tax rate $44.18 for $100 of valuation from 2016-'17. The actual property tax rate will be adopted on September 12th, 2016 here in city council chambers at 9:30 A.M. Or on the 13th or 14th continued to those days if needed. I'm now going to call the identified speaker on this issue, and that is Mike Rodriguez. Is Mike here? Does he wish to talk? >> Hello mayor and councilmembers. Thank you for allowing me to speak on this. [4:22:26 PM] So on 45 our proposed ad valorem tax rate is at the roll back rate, if I'm not mistaken, and -- it's the maximum rate. It's not the actual rate that we'll adopt, but we set it as the maximum we could do. >> Right. I understand that to be what's euphemistically referred to as the rollback rate which if higher than that would require an election. So in point of fact, Texas is the highest of eight states on property tax, eight states that don't have a state income tax and I suspect that Austin is probably the highest in the -- highest city in the state. That's for understandable reasons, but every year our home approvals continue to go up. What would be a more common sense approach because people's income doesn't continue to go up, is to instead be at an effective rate, in other words, the tax rate that we had last year. Even if that were adjusted for inflation it doesn't get back to the rollback rate, doesn't even approach it. The city is one of five taxing authorities. The city has control, however, of more than 20% of the taxation rate that we experience in ad valorem taxes and that's because we also control the utility rate. We control the fees that are in the utilities on top of that, we take taxes from the utility incomes both in water and in electric. And we also have a vote on as you well know what happens with the central health authority which was part of the city budget and then split off. So really you have control, councilmembers, on really a lot more than that 20% or more than the city tax rate looks like. Every year when we take property taxes from people we have to estimate their ability to pay. That should be a starting point, especially if you're interested in affordability as we have said many times. So I'd like you to take a second look at this proposed roll back rate and keep that rate a lot closer to the effective rate so people can actually afford to stay in Austin. [4:24:37 PM] Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Mr. Zimmerman. >> Zimmerman: Thank you. Mr. Rodriguez. Before you go. I think I heard you say if we go over the rollback it requires an election. I don't think that's true. We're allowed to petition for on an election. Isn't that true? So it doesn't -- I wish, I wish it automatically triggered an election, but unfortunately even if we went past that it would be up to the citizens to organize a petition drive, which is expensive and time assuming and in the best case all you can do is get it rolled back to the huge eight percent increase, which is very unaffordable. So taxpayers are in trouble here. But thank you for coming here. >> I appreciate it. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> Casar: Mayor, I do think while I don't know the updated numbers for this year, last year, but I do recall in a budget presentation that indeed Austin has a lower property tax ratty than many cities in Texas, but of course our high average valuation and the rapid growth in valuations leads to some of the higher property tax bills, but it is cheaper to own property and pay the property tax bill as a rate here than owning a property of the same valuation somewhere else. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Zimmerman. >> Zimmerman: Quick comment to follow up. It's one of the most amazing critical bait and switch arguments is to talk about tax rates instead of tax levy. What is driving folks out of their home is government spending, not tax rate, not evaluations, government spending is what's driving everyone out of Austin. So any time you hear tax rate say tax levee three times. Tax levy, tax Davey, tax levee. It's the spending that drives the unaffordability. >> Mayor Adler: Is there a motion to close the public hearing? Oops. Back here. Is there a motion to close the second and final public hearing on the city's proposed maximum property tax rate? [4:26:45 PM] Mayor pro tem S there a second? Mr. Zimmerman? >> Zimmerman: Wait a minute. We closed the hearing. >> Mayor Adler: We're closing the public hearing. Yes, I'm closing the public hearing. >> Zimmerman: Closing the public hearing. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Pool seconds the motion to close the public hearing. All those in favor of closing the public hearing please raise your hand? Those opposed? It's everyone with troxclair off the dais and Gallo off the dais. The final public hearing on the proposed maximum tax rate is closed. Council will vote to adopt the actual property tax rate for 2016-2017 on September 12th, 2016 at 9:30 A.M. If we don't adopt the tax rate on September 12th we'll continue the budget adoption -- the tax rate portion of the hearing to September 13th and 14th in needed. So we have closed the public hearing. We're now done. We're now going to call -- take up item number 44, conduct a public hearing, receive public comment on the city of Austin's 2016-2017 proposed bum. We will close the public hearing and comment at the end of this meeting. We are scheduled to adopt the budget on September 12th, 2016. If we don't adopt the budget on September 12th we'll continue the budget adoption portion of the hearing to September 13th and 14th if needed. I'm now going to call the speakers that have signed up. And let's see how this goes. We have several hours of speakers that have signed up. So while everyone has three minutes, don't feel compelled to take all three minutes if you don't feel like you need it. Let's start with Paula marks. Is Ms. Marks here? And on deck at the other dais will be Christy [4:28:59 PM] >> Any time. >> Mayor Adler: You can go. >> Good afternoon, my name is Paula marks, native austinite currently residing in district thine. My daughter goes to maplewood elementary. I'm here to stand in opposition to the budget in its current form and -- you'll a sexual assault nurse examiner, forensic exam center, I have the privilege of providing compassionate, patient-centered care to brave survivors that come to our clinic. This includes collecting DNA evidence. I don't know if everyone knows what happens during these exams, but it is invasive to say the least. After having been deeply violated survivors voluntarily come forward in the prosecute of justice. They're asked to get undressed, give up their clothes to the lab, are the me examine their bodies and collect evident, asked to submit to taking pictures of injuries in their most private areas, I ask detailed areas such as do you have any recollection of anything penetrating your vagina during the assault? A penis, hands, an object? Have you had any consensual penetrative sex in the last two weeks? This whole process takes three to five hours. I inform them that the exam and questions are needed by the lab because they are. The lab needs this personal information, body and genital swabs for analysis of their sexual assault kit and the question always comes up, when will I get my results? For that question I have no acceptable answer. They're told the exam will help them see justice for their case and prevent future assaults. How do you think they feel when I reveal the truth? It will probably take at least two years, maybe more. We just don't know because our LAN is not functioning correctly. I'm ashamed to tell an already traumatized person who came to us looking for assistance through this awful chapter of their life we realistically have no idea when their results will come back. They may never see justice because far too often the legal system cannot perform the necessary prosecutions without the analysis of this evidence we are tasked with collecting. [4:31:02 PM] Our goal is to create an environment that removes obstacles for more survivors to report. How can we feel confident about asking a survivor to come forward with their when they might -- it might be put on a shelf, left to collect dust for an indeterminant amount of time. Would you put yourself through this process? Before closure in June the lab analyzed for the cases per month, cared for 50 rape survivors in the last six days, the latest audit stated even if these amendments passed it would still be four years until the lab would be able to catch up, four years. Without these amendments they will never catch up the the math simply does not work. We all work for the service of justice. Join us in our fight, process the kits, pass the amendments, help us do our job. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Ms. Tingle, you signed up with two people donating time to you. Is Kevin curic here? Is Melissa [indiscernible] Here? You have nine minutes if you want to use it. >> Thanks, I don't think I'll take the whole thing. I'm Christy, I live in district 9 and I'm here at a advocate sexual assault advocate. My desire to help survivors of assault was borne during my service as a witness for the state of California and the successful prosecution of a serial rapist. I've seen first hand how DNA evidence can take a predator off the streets and I'd like to share with you the facts that have case. Back in 2013 in Los Angeles a man committed a sexual assault. His victim immediately went to a place similar to safe here in Austin, a place where sexual assault forensic exams are conducted free of charge. She reported the crime to police officers that same morning and was interviewed by a detective five days later. After the interview with law enforcement the case slows down, in this case the detective wanted to wait for DNA evidence to be processed before proceeding. [4:33:04 PM] It took eight months for the DNA results to come back. This was in a city where the rape kit bag log had been eliminated entirely in 2011. 15 months after the case was -- an Ada made the decision to prosecute based on DNA evidence. Prosecution rates are low for sexual assault cases partly because it's very difficult to build a case that did meet the evidence of beyond a reasonable doubt. The perpetrator said he never touched the survivor but the DNA swabs taken during the forensic exam showed did he. That is the way that DNA can build a strong case. Often [indiscernible] The Ada wasn't willing to offer a deal and told me this was for two reasons, first it was a strong case and, second, he wanted a deal that would keep him off the sex offender registry. Someone else had reported he committed the same crime. He was a serial offender. 27 months afterward the assault, the trial began, the jury found him git in about an hour, he was sensed to a year in jail, five months proambition and sex offender length administration for life. That's nearly a thousand days from the crime to sentence and that's actually fast for a sexual assault case but it wouldn't have moved that quickly without the DNA evidence. So know that you know the time line of this case I want to remind and remember eight months out DNA results were returned. Right now in Austin we can't tell a survivor how long it might take. If these are approved in four years the DNA lab will be processing kits in a timely manner. If the amendments are not approved the delays will continue to get worse. Not processing kits in a timely manner is bad for many years, first because we're failing a survivor, failing to provide them with safety, recourse, so many other things that could facilitate healing. But I also want to highlight the other problem with not testing DNA evidence quickly. Most rapists don't just strike once. If you ren the reason the assistant district attorney I told you about didn't want to offer a deal was because there was another victim and report. [4:35:09 PM] 21 years before the sexual assault case I was a witness to have occurred, a 14-year-old filed a police report against the same man. I know this girl and her mother cooperated with police but no charges were ever filed because there wasn't enough evidence. I know the descriptions of the 1992 and between crimes were nearly identical and for this reason the Ada tracked the woman down to ask her to testify. When the Ada told me the woman described her to speak on the record she described her as unstable and not in a good place. It is horrible to report a crime and find out nobody will be done. I can't imagine what it feels like to report a crime and over two decades later find out the perpetrator is still out there committing it despite your efforts to stop them. I often feel angry this predator wasn't stopped in 1992. That was why it is important for me to tell you all this story now. His felony conviction may have taken a long time but it's there now. He's been punished, ma rehabilitation program and hopefully will be deterred from committing future claims crimes. The main point is this, timely and effective use of DNA evidence can lower the crime victims in Austin. Ada expects to find when tested half of the kits will contain samples to match a perpetrator linked to another crime since the rape kit was checked. Simply put if the DNA evidence is processed quickly a rapist can be prosecuted soon per however, if a crime [indiscernible] Identified rapists, play an important role is ignored, the already low rate at which assaults is prosecuted is going to get even lower. We're eliminating the possibility of a trial based on DNA. I ask you to prioritize protecting this city. A.P.D. Sought and secured funding to address the backlog and this contradicts that mission. Some of the 91% of the assault survivors cite lack of confidence and response as the reason for not reporting multiply a survivor comes to safe for forensic exam they're doing it because they want to report the crime or have the option to report the crime in the future. [4:37:15 PM] It's difficult to do and they are trusting the legal system and community to respond. I'm here to ask you to please honor that trust. Thanks for your time. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: The next speaker is Anna [indiscernible] And then Thomas Mendez. Take your time. You have three minutes. >> Okay, thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Anna [indiscernible]. And I'm here just as a community member, but also as an appointee to the commission for women, the Austin commission for women. I'm an appointee for Pio Renteria, thank you. It was in that capacity that I first started looking at the issue of sexual assault from a broader perspective. What can we do better in our communities? And like an onion we started unfolding a lot of problems and came upon this one, the fact that a.p.d.'s DNA lab has been closed since June. I think to take a moment to just clarify something because I know that there are two backlogs essentially, and one of them is an old, old backlog, with cases and evidence stemming back to the 1990s. That is a backlog of approximately 3,000 cases that are all sexual assault related and this body has gratefully issued their approval to support a grant, a Danny grant, that would help clear that backlog. That is not what we're talking about today. What we're talking about today are two specific opportunities in the form of budget amendments, ps1.04 and ps1.07 to clear the current backlog. [4:39:17 PM] The current backlog of over 1400 cases, over half of them sexual assault, who are sitting at A.P.D. Because the lab has been shuttered. We have a limited capacity to test those exams. We're doing so at a rate of about 20 a month through an arrangement with the department of public safety. Despite the fact that 100 different cases come before Austin lab monthly. We will continue to be backed up if we don't invest in a found lab. And even with these investments, it would still take three and a half years to clear it. San Antonio does tacos better than Austin. They also do this lab better than Austin. They have a turn- around of 44 days for evidence to be processed. And they have 26 staff people at their DNA lab. I love Austin. This is my community for 20 years. I'm grateful for the time each of you have spent with constituents in the weeks leading up to this on this very issue. I urge you to fulfill your end of the bargain if we're gonna ask survivors to speak out and report and share their story and end the stigma, then you have to do your part and so does the Austin police department. Thank you for your time. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Thomas Mendez. And then after Thomas Mendez is Jessica. >> Jessica is on her way. Can you call her when she arrives? Good afternoon, my name it Tom Mendez and I'm an Austin entities faith leader, member of St. I guess nauseous catholic church on the south side and attorney at the equal justice center. [4:41:18 PM] Austin interfaith with a coalition of 37 member institution that's includes ongoing obligations, schools, labor unions and associations. I'm here today on behalf of Austin interfaith to speak in the name of my neighborhoods, many of whom are left out of this budget. We are glad to see the increase of the city's minimum wage to 13.50 per hour in the base budget. As y'all know, we have taken time to meet with each one of you and discuss our budget priorities. There were many things that we wanted to include, but we chose not to. These budget priorities that we carefully selected are not just once -- wants, they are needs. To do justice for our families this, budget must include budget priorities for families that are not in the base budget. This budget must include $600,000 to capital idea, which will train 200 more of our neighbors for high-paying jobs that exist in our city, and these are people that want to live, work, and spend their money in Austin. This budget must include $500,000 for safety lighting, for parks identified by our neighbors. And $147,000 for corner stores to carry healthy food. This budget must include 1,282,485 for parent support specialists at our schools. This budget must include $950,000 for afterschool programs, so that our children will be safe while their parents are working hard to put food on the table. This budget must include at least $42,000 for the victory tutorial program to help our kids keep up in school. The cost of our Austin interfaith budget priorities is approximately $3.5 million. This is only 1/10 of 1% of the city budget. [4:43:23 PM] This council chose to be genesis with generous with the wealthy homeowners with the homestead exemption. Please do not pay for this generosity on the backs of my neighbors, the working people of this town. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Jessica avalar we'll call later. Jessica Laura. Sutamina Villalobos. Acram muhi. >> So this is acram, I'm a tutor at victory. I started working last year ago, and I'm a bio major premed at UT. Victory was, like, great opportunity for me to, like, experience new, like, experiences I didn't try before. I was always a science person but now, like, once I started working with victory I tried -- I changed my manager to education premed, which, like, was -- something that I would never think that I would do until I tried working with victory and I saw, like, how great effects it did on the kids and not only, like, for academic like-wise but also on the, like -- be like their friend and talking to them was great opportunity. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. >> Hello, my name is Daisy San she's I'm a student at victory. My experience with victory this five years has been great. I'm really thankful for victory. I was able to pass fifth grade. I was in danger of not passing but look at me now in tenth grade. The fact that I don't give up on school is thanks to victory. Other tutors have been great and helpful. Victory has helped in many ways sump as getting better grades and learning new things. I appreciate victory for all the hard work on trying to make us kids and teenagers a better environment and not letting us give up. [4:45:30 PM] If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be the person that I am right now. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. [ Applause ] Is Gus Pena here? Joe langly here? Kelly white? Is Victoria braler here? You have six minutes. >> She donated. >> Mayor Adler: She did. >> I was gonna say good evening because all of my prior experience has been evening, so my name is Kelly white, and I live in council district 9. I am the CEO of the safe alliance, the primary organization providing sexual assault and exploitation, child abuse and domestic violence prevention and intervention services here in the community. Beoperate he will -- through this program we conduct forensic exams and provide immediate advocacy and support for teen and adult survivors of sexual assault. I'm here with a very simple message. When several thousand sexual assault kits sit in a backlog at the DNA lab, it is unconscionable that we would even consider not passing the city budget without amendments ps1.04 and ps1.07. Yes, we have a grant to help clear up some of the I wouldn't oldest backlog but in the meantime that backlog is continuing to grow every single day. You have heard from some of our wonderful, amazing forensic nurses about the fantastic work that they do. As you heard a forensic exam after a sexual assault is a very invasive and trying experience. It's difficult for the survivors and it's also very difficult for the nurses. Each exam takes about four hours, and it is not unheard of for us to see a dozen survivors in a single weekend. [4:47:30 PM] This last weekend, we saw 12. 12 survivors came to Eloise house for forensic exams and there was one who could not get the exam because her physical injuries were so severe. Our nurses and advocates do this work because they believe in providing compassionate care and justice for the survivors of sexual assault. I believe that our city administration, our council, and our citizens also hold this same belief. I have to believe that. Our nurses and advocates know that collecting and properly processing evidence is an essential step in securing justice for the survivors of sexual assault. Everyone in this process has a job to do. It's our nurseses' job to conduct a thorough, professional, and compassionate exam for a survivor. It's a.p.d.'s job to have the kit properly tested, and it's the city council's job to find funds in the budget to get these kits tested in a timely and professional manner. Amendment ps1.04 would provide resources to secure seven additional analysts and one supervisor consistent with the recommendations of a recent audit of the lab. Ps1.07 would provide funds for the immediate outsourcing of 500 kits to get a jump start on reducing the backlog. That backlog currently includes 3,000 rape kits awaiting testing as part of the old backlog and at least 1400 current untested DNA samples. And that backlog grows every single day. These amendments at the bear minimum are meed to get the lab properly staffed and the testing process adequately functioning. Even with these resources, including the grant to clear the additional -- the oldest backlog, estimates are that it will talk four years for the DNA lab to process all the kits now sitting on a shelf. Without these resources the delays in providing justice to survivors of sexual assault could be much, much longer. [4:49:34 PM] Safe's program provided support and exams for 304 sexual assault survivors in just the first six months of this year. So while we battle over funding, the backlog continues to grow every day. Research in our experience -- and our experience tell us a few things about sexual assault. We know the majority of sexual assaults, certificate% of those report ready perpetrated by an acquaintance, family, or figure of authority. Given the victim profile, victim perpetrator profile, it's more likely that more police officers on the streets would make a difference in this critical public safety issue. A 2015 prevalent study done in Texas found that only 9.2% of sexual assault survivors even reported the crime to the police. And too many offenders Sans intervention go on to reoffend. In others" where they have cleared up rape backlogs 50% of the samples matched a perpetrator who was linked to another crime since the rape kit was collected and shelved. Think about what all of this means about our ability to hold rapists accountable for their actions. Quite simply we don't. Because of my position with safe I can tell way too many horror stories about what a survivor experiences after a sexual assault, and I'm gonna just limit myself to one. I have a very close relationship with a young woman who was raped with the use of a date rape drug prior to safe's opening of Eloise house. She's a level-headed young woman found incoherent in the early morning hours wrapped only in a sheet with no memory of what occurred. I personally sent her to the hospital emergency room for an exam. She chose not to file a report at that time so she subsequently received an unexpected hospital bill. And that further traumatized a young woman that was putting herself through college. The last time someone checked, her kit had not been tested. [4:51:37 PM] And given the way the rape unfolded there's not a one of us that thinks that this guy has only raped once. He knew what he was doing. Someone else has been raped and that could be you, your daughter, your niece, your neighbor, or your friend. The fact that it's likely many rapists could be taken off the streets before raping again is never far from my mind. [ Buzzer sounding ] I hate that. And -- I'm almost done. >> Mayor Adler: Finish your thought. >> Thank you. And it should stay in yours as you consider these amendments. We hear from countless survivors that the way the criminal justice system treats them is even more traumatizing than the rape. One last note, we heard from several supporters that in their meetings with their councilmembers many of you acknowledged that this should be a priority but it's a tight budget year. I don't envy any of you having to make these decisions. You're trying to balance a budget with many, many competing priorities. Why this priority over another? Well, because it's the city's job to protect its citizens from predators. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> Our system and our city aren't doing what needs to be done to prevent and intervene in sexual assault cases. We have a system that has allowed an open season for sexual predators and it is an abomination. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. White, thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Next speaker is David king. David king? Andrea [indiscernible] Will be next. >> Thank you, mayor, mayor pro tem, councilmembers. My main theme here is I hope that our budget is going to be increased to help those in our community that need it most and have not been helped by our -- the growth in our city and actually have been harmed by the growth in our city. [4:53:41 PM] So that's my main thing, let's help those folks out. I have some specific ideas, too. You know, I think it would be important to increase the funding for housing, health and health and human services, medical care, access to healthy food, afterschool, child care and quality of life programs that help people of color and low-income families. Funding for the spirit of east Austin, to help our low end -- funding to help our local musicians and artists and for the go-home repair program and for the upper onion creek flood buyouts, for the feasibility study for development of Johnny Trevino metropolitan park, for umlof garden and museum, Walter E. Long park and baum road park, that can help our neighborhoods across the city, for a nexus study, for the housing linkage fee so we can have a new tool in our tool kit that really help us with our affordable housing crisis and will provide this city with the money it needs to really go and buy vacant land in our neighborhoods of opportunity and build affordable housing and where we set the rules that they are gonna be affordable to families at 50% or bromine family income in perpetuity, in both apartments and single-family homes because our low-income families and our families of color, they don't want to just live in apartments in the urban core or they at the edge of our cities. They want to live in single-family homes too. I think you probably already know this. The real estate industry has survey after survey that those that 75 to 80% of families, ma lynnials and young families and families of all types want to live in single-family homes so I hope that that's reflected in our budget, that it's not one -- the only tool we have is affordable housing in tiny, cramped apartments in the urban core or you move to the edge of the city. [4:55:43 PM] I think that's a moral issue. And so I think this linkage see if essential to that strategy. And then we should make sure we're taking care of our seniors who are on fixed incomes and increase the homestead exemption for them to $91,000. And then when we're talking about salary increases for our city employees, you know, I hope that we don't have anymore city employees who are making below minimum wage or making below a living wage in our city. I hope we have none that have going on. And they do need a raise so what I would suggest is we retain the 2% performance bases salary increase and add a 4% cost of living adjustment for employees earning 40,000 or employees, 3% for employees earning 40,000 to 60,000 and a 2%. [ Buzzer sounding ] Cost of living for those earning above 60,000. My point here if you're on the high level of income of our salaries you should get a little increase but we need to make sure we're looking at those in the middle and the low range of our salaries and taking care of those folks. And one last point, mayor, if I may, I think we should cut back on these incentive agreements, and if a company is not paying their fair share for property taxes, commercial property taxes, if they're playing a game with us, they should not be getting these economic incentives and I say cut that off. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [ Applause ] Andrea [indiscernible]. Is Selena Xie here? >> I don't think she's here. >> Mayor Adler: Then you have three minutes. >> Four minutes? >> Mayor Adler: Three minutes. >> Okay. I'm here to speak to you about funding the crime lab. I'm Andrea [indiscernible] And the perspective I bring is from an advocate's perspective. I volunteer as a first responder on our team of forensic nurses and sexual assault advocates and we are very much the boots on the ground working with law enforcement, supporting survivors through the reporting process. [4:57:50 PM] And the stories that we hear, this would be a no-braun per you saw what we saw. So to talk about sexual assault is extremely difficult and it's extremely challenging for people to come forward and many do not because they feel like there's no point, there's lack of justice. And I'm coming you to today to urge you to pass these amendments, to fund our DNA crime lab and I'm speaking you to not only as an advocate but as a survivor of sexual assault. I cannot begin to describe you to the effects of this type of crime. And we need to do everything in our power to work together to prevent them. And just think about the culture of Austin. You know, it is really inexcusable for a city of our size with our culture and within our geography to not have a fully staffed and fully operational DNA crime lab. We are a college town in a party city in a border state and this is a really dark topic but that's what makes it so hard to talk about and the reality is that rape, sexual assault and human trafficking are going on in our city and people are doing this with impunity because we are not addressing it all the way. We've already done a great job of making the reporting process a lot easier if you look at what we've done with Eloise house, we bought a mobile home and converted it into a forensic clinic to make reporting free, faster, less traumatic for our survivors so we need the city's help to reach the rest of the solution. We need to be able to take our rape kits and process them. Not only for identifying perpetrators who may not be known to the victims but also the expectation of jurors, largely what we call the CSI effect. They have completely false conceptions about how crimes are actually solved and in what time line. This creates a situation when a crime like this goes to trial the jurors are expecting the evidence from that DNA kit in order to put a person in jail and hold them accountable for these crimes and we also know that people who commit these crimes, you know, it's not about people getting drunk and regarding sexual experiences. It is about predators who take advantage of people and do it in a repeated manner for power. [4:59:52 PM] We know the majority of these crimes are committed by repeat offenders so the longer we allow these kits to sit in our backlog it means people are out there committing felonies and not being held accountable. The effects are devastating, this is a very real and dark problem our city faces and so I urge you to consider the funding of our fully staffed DNA crime lab with seven technicians so we can address the backlog and be able to process kits in a timely manner going forward. I'm on call tonight opinion if I get dispatching to help a survivor through this process, I pray to god she does not ask me how long it's gonna take for that kit to get processed because the answer used to be pretty bad but now it's unacceptable. I will end by saying this is not missoula, mt.. This is Austin, Texas, a Progressive and innovative city and we can do a better job to address violent crime. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Next speaker is Jacqueline crush. >> Coresh. Is Amanda Bennett here? Amanda Lewis. You have nine minutes if you want to take it all. >> Thank you. Members of the council -- first of all, warm thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Jackie and I've come to speak on a matter incredibly important. I'm a sexual assault hospital advocate with the safe alliance, graduate student and educator of young minds at the university of Texas at Austin and also a survivor of the same sexual assault that I call on you to protect my city from. My role as an advocate with safe is to end sexual and domestic violence. My particular role is to support survivors in the immediate aftermath of sexual assault. My role as a graduate student and as an educator is to help my students develop into the best, brightest and happiest people they can possibly be and to do the same thing for myself. My role as a survivor is to speak up and make sure people understand what it's like to be afraid in your own community. To help ensure that others don't have to feel that same fear. [5:01:53 PM] That's why I'm here today to fulfill my responsibilities and explain to you why you must pass these budget amendments. Right now in the fight to keep the people of this community safe there is potential that we face major setbacks. We have the option to arm ourselves, recently the option to carry a concealed weapon has been made able to us. The truth is while we prepare ourselves for a type of catastrophe that's rare we are still not doing all we can to protect. A very real predator exists and is attacking innocent people on a day-to-day basis and I am more concerned than ever. I have a class of freshmen students who have come to learn and grow. I can see in them enthusiasm and their questions and their expressions though not always their punctuality how much they want to be there. I sacrificed a lot to make sure I'm available during the day and to answer their questions be present on campus so I do my hospital advocacy primarily during overnight shifts and whenever I go on call at night I wonder if they will be the next survivor I'm dispatched to help. I wonder if I'll be dispatched and see one of their young faces distorted by fear and confusion. I wonder if I, the person who is only expected to be their Ta will have to explain the harsh reality of the city that we live in. That our 1278 is broken and their perpetrator may not face justice. A.P.D. Expects to see a 50% rate on crimes committed after the backlog rape kits are tested as we mentioned previously. This means half of the samples will match a perpetrator linked to another crime since the kit was checked only a few miles from where I'm standing right now I went out jocking on a sunny afternoon in the middle of the day almost half a year ago, confronted by an individual who tried to take my sense of safety because that person didn't believe I mattered, didn't care about how I would be affected, about how that person's actions could change the course of someone else's life forever. Luckily in my case justice didn't hinge on DNA evidence, in the end it hinged on the license plate I remembered and was able to communicate to police. [5:03:56 PM] Now that person is in jail, less than a year after that person committed a crime. There are survives out there who are salted years ago and still awaiting the DNA evidence. There are survivors whose perpetrators are still free, perpetrators who commit these heinous crimes need to be in jail as soon as possible because we cannot under any circumstances subject innocent people to dangerous red materials. Keeping the lab closed and not passing these amendments is doing just, that subjecting innocent people to dangerous predators. Your reason for denying this request, if you do, is that you claim to not have enough money in the budget. Let me tell you a lig lesson I've learned as a policy student. There's enough never money. When something is important enough you make it a priority because you recognize it's not easy but it's right. If you're familiar with this city, then you are no doubt aware that all the statues and memorials -- of all the statues and memorials we have to commemorate Barbara Jordan's life on national television during the civil rights era, she stood up to critics as well as colleagues and friends and urged people to do what was right over what was easy. That's a legacy that we cherish in this city and that we're proud of. Austin prides itself on being an oasis where forward thinking and innovative ideas grow and become a model for the rest of the country, rest of the world. Imagine the impact that you stand to make right now. This is your chance do the right thing and to protect the people of the city, protect my students and my peers in a way that I can't. Make sure that rapists and sexual offenders are held K accountable for their actions, accept amendments ps1.04 to staff the DNA lab and accept amendment ps1.07 to test those first 500 rape kits. Thank you. [ Applause ] [5:06:03 PM] >> Mayor Adler: MARIA Connor is the next speaker. Is MARIA Connor sneer -- here? And Veronica -- tin? >> What did lexy Garrett? You have six minutes. >> I'm a third year student it the university of Texas and my rape kit hats been in the backlog for one year 22 days. I moved to Austin from a very small town in central Texas. I never felt like I belonged to the city, and I never felt like I fit in. I didn't feel like those around me had the same ideas and opinions as I did. And when my parents moved me to college three years ago, I couldn't believe that I got to live in this amazing city. I couldn't believe how open-minded and Progressive everyone around me was, and I just felt warmth and I felt the spirit of the city, and I knew that I had found my home. And that was all taken from me in a single night a year ago. My sense of safety and security were ripped away from me as a man slammed my head against a parking garage wall and proceeded to rape me. And that's why I'm standing here before you speaking, because myself and every other survivor in that backlog, we deserve our city back. It's very hard for a lot of us to take the next step in our healing process without seeing our court cases all the way through the judicial system. We deserve to be able to cope with this trauma without the fear that our assaulter is still at large in our home. I, for example, have a very difficult time attending class because I know that my rapist has been on my campus since my assault. And I have panic attacks on my five-minute walk home from class because I don't know when I'll run into him. And, you know, Austin is a very supportive and beautiful community, and I think the community is showing you today that this is something we're taking a stand on and that we're standing with survivors and I wake up every morning and think today is gonna be the day that I get a call from my detective and that I get to move forward with this process, and so I'm just asking you to please help me get that phone call. [5:08:24 PM] Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Is Monica Garrett here? Monica? Monica Garrett? >> Yes. >> Mayor Adler: I'm sorry. >> I'm Monica Garrett. >> Mayor Adler: Katie Anderson will be at the other dais next. >> Thank you, councilmembers, for allowing me to speak to you today. I know you must already be aware that out of 50 to 60 rape survivors a month, only 9% report the sexual assault to authorities for various reasons. My daughter makes up a part of that 9%. The brave survivor you just heard from is my daughter. When I packed up my daughter to send her off to this beautiful diverse city of Austin, I never anticipated the phone call of her heart wrenching tears crying out "Mom, I was raped." I went to the floor, crushed by the pain my daughter was forced to experience by her rapist. I am forever grateful she survived the horrific night. The days following, she had to and is still finding ways to cope with the permanent physical and psychological trauma from that night. Please imagine how helpless it feels when your daughter has to have ongoing medical visits and counseling sessions. Our calls with continued night terrors and panic attacks so severe that I swear I can hear her heart pounding through the phone. But she was determined that the rapist was not going to take away her dreams, that after so many setbacks and delays with the rape kit analysis taking so long to process, the lab closing, the reopen date saying June and now it's delayed to possibly February of 2017, it's understandable for the victims' hopes and strengths to wane when so much time has passes. [5:10:39 PM] I am thankful for safe alliance being for her there that night. I wasn't. I couldn't be there. But they were. And for A.P.D. Taking her statement and for the detective that has been assigned to the case but is now temporarily closed because of the -- there's no way of the DNA testing. But they've done everything that they can do. The healing, closure, and hope for justice so desperately needed by my daughters and many rape victims hinges on the processing of these rape kits. If your daughter, son, wife, or any family member of yours was in this kind of traumatic pain, I have to believe that you would make them priority. So please make your community family members priority too by passing and including these amendments in the city budget to meet this need. Thank you for your consideration. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Greg. >> Casar: Before the next speaker comes up, I want to thank you all for come and for sharing your story and I'm sorry that you are in the backlog. I clearly care about this a lot. And we're gonna find the money. We're gonna do it. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Katie Anderson. Is Ryan Gallagher here? Ms. Anderson, you have six minutes. >> Thank you. Good evening mayor, mayor pro tem, members of city council, my name is Katie Anderson and I support the stage hands at Zack theater and their right to organize their workplace. [5:12:40 PM] At the August 18 budget hearing, representatives of iatse local 205 and some of Zack's stage hands spoke to you about the existing problems at Zack theater, the low unsustainable wages, the arbitrary pay structure that allows disparity in pay between genders and races and the revolving door environment created by the absence of a fair disciplinary process. We also informed you of some of the negative actions taken by Zack's management in response to its stage hands' efforts to stand together in solidarity and how we feel these actions are inappropriate for an arts institution receiving an estimated $260,000 a year in city funding. 400 -- I'm sorry, 40,000 of which is contained in this budget. Today we're here to ask you for your help in achieving a more neutral stance from Zack's management so that the stage hands at Zack may exercise their protected right to unite and speak up together to shape their workplace and affect positive change. As artists and Austin community members we're grateful the city gives public funding to support our industry and the arts in our city. As stated, Zack receives hundreds of thousands of dollars from taxpayers annually, and these public funds allow for continued maintenance to its theaters and grounds. Grant monies afford Zack opportunities to educate our children and delight Austin audiences with stung productions. This work is important to our community and it is our desire to see it continue. However, the Austin Zens who work on production crews at Zack are struggling to sustain a living in this increasingly expensive city and this needs to be addressed. When we, Zack stage hands, stand together for equitable wages at our theater, we are met with hostility from our managers. Zack management has painted union members and supporters as bullies and stalkers, and many stage hands are fearful they will lose their jobs if they express interest in forming a union. While we are gave to see public money awarded to Zack to fund its program and maintenance, we feel strongly that Zack's management should be held to the standards that uphold city of Austin's values of responsibility, accountability, sustainability, ethics and integrity. [5:14:55 PM] Therefore, when he award tax dollars to arts organizations such as Zack, we ask that you include labor neutrality conditions to ensure working artists have a chance to stand in solidarity, to ask for equitable wages and fair treatment without management harassment. To conclude, I would like to thank you all for your time and interest in our goal of achieving neutrality from Zack's management regarding their stage hands' interests in joining together as a union. Again, I would like to reiterate that our objective is not to withhold funding from Zack theater, but to ensure that Zack's managers act with integrity when funded with our tax dollars. We want to see Zack act as the good community member it professes to be and respect the theater workers that make its success possible. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Paul arabello. No. Is Rachel Mcgee -- >> I am, but Katie said everything we need to say. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Martin blacker? >> Not here. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Adam room. Adam? Rume. Come on down. What about Jeff Cohen. You'll be at the other dais. >> All right. We on? Hi, Gavin, Adam ruma, here on behalf of the group Austin justice coalition and I'm coming to speak to you all today regarding the program that we're introducing to the council known as our better before more program. The better before more program involves the hiring of $13 million worth of personnel towards the A.P.D. Budget for the upcoming year. [5:16:56 PM] Our group proposes instead of focusing on more officers currently, we should focus first on trying to work within our own system to make sure we're getting the best results for everybody involved. Examples include stopping jail -- well, it's a 2-tier approach. The first approach by halting hiring allows us to take a better look at situations that occur and how we can help prevent them. David Joseph comes to mind. Having more officers surrounding David Joseph is not going to help protect a young man in the throes of personnel trauma. For Bryan king, more officers are not gonna help one officer body slam a citizen more effectively and the own chief of police staff -- chief of staff police Brian Manley himself has halted different departments' progress until they can get all of their staff trained, yet they don't promote this across the board. What we want are ideas, just like we heard art as -- police chief mention yesterday in y'all's internal budget hearings about the idea of the new psa, to help women come forward, obviously, there's some other issues we need to address when they do come forward, but to help promote the idea to bring women forward to be comfortable or at least willing to say they have an issue with sexual assault. Right now it's an issue for him to see they're not even coming to the police department because they're afraid of how it's gonna be managed. We need to take a clear look and be 100% focused on how we can more effectively police our own city so that situations like David king and briane king don't come up, so incidents when we've had a chance to talk this week with a number of different councilmembers who have been very gracious with their time, lied like to say, councilmember Zimmerman talking about solving more crimes in district 6, mayor pro tem talking about the challenges A.P.D. Faces downtown trying to manage the overflow from the art center, which has a very low job placement program and low support for the mental health issues obviously a big challenge to the entirely homestead community here in Austin. [5:19:08 PM] So before my time runs out I want to ask you all as we all know in in of our jobs, whether you're on a dais in your job or out here, one of the things you want to try to do is be the best you can do and what's that we went for our Austin police department and I feel personally better before more is an important way to reach that because this is a moment we have -- [ buzzer sounding ] -- To look in the mirror at incidents that have happened here in Austin and create a foundation of change and start that by stopping the hiring until the police perform better. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Next speaker is Jeff Cohen. And then James Shi would be at the other podium. Go ahead. >> Mayor, mayor pro tem, members of the council, my name is Jeff Cohen. I'm executive director of the Austin history center association. The ahca is an independent nonprofit organization that promotes and supports the Austin history center of the Austin public library. On behalf of Charles BETTs our board chair, our 24 member board of directors, our past mayor's advisory council, we are excited to continue advocating for inclusion into the budget the position of digital records arc vis for the Austin history center. We appreciate the support and your consideration of this. The Austin history center has identified to date about 270 gigabytes of unprocessed foreign digital records, a mix of official city of Austin records and community archives. In plain language 270 gigabytes of documents is a massive amount of digital material that relatively and individually are small file sizes. The Austin history center has also identified about 20 terabytes, a much larger metric than gigabytes of digitized records, also a mix of city of Austin and community archives including material from atxn and the Austin music network. [5:21:23 PM] You of course and your staff have the material that we've submitted and we appreciate your support for this. Do you have any questions at this time? >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. >> Okay. On that note, I certainly finish and thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you, sir. James Shi. What about Amy alanas? Kristin linou will be at the other dais and weaver at almost four hours of testimony to go. >> Good afternoon, I'm Amy alanas from district 8. I'm here today to share my support of proposed budget amendments ps1.04 and 1.07, which would help reopen and staff the A.P.D. DNA lab. Part of my personal interest in this matter is due to my connection with the safe alliance. I do volunteer there at safe's Eloise house as a sexual assault advocate. When survivors come in for a sexual assault forensic exams we see first hand the trauma that they're experiencing. As advocates, our priority is to show survivors that they are the priority. That's a message many survivors haven't heard. Many survivors lack confidence in their public systems. The backlog of sexual assault kits waiting to be tested and a DNA lab which has been shut down and understaffed, resources the -- reinforces the lack of confidence, tells survivors they are not a priority. That statement has consequences. It's part of why in Texas only 9.2% of sexual assault survivors choose to report to law enforcement. 9.2. That is appalling. Safe is working to change that and they have suck exceeded through Eloise house. We're now seeing a 22% increase in requests for exams just in the last year. That is huge. Our message to these survivors of "You are our top priority" is being heard. [5:23:27 PM] You have the opportunity to capitalize on that momentum, to continue to increase reporting rates by telling survivors that they are the priority. Passing ps1.04 and 1.07 will tell survivors that they are, that they can trust the systems in place to bring them justice. Not passing these amendments could very well undo all the work that we as advocates have done to increase public confidence and increase reporting. Not passing these amendments will tell survivors that you don't care about the violent crime committed against them, that the 700 current austinites who were traumatized by a swallow predator, 700 of our Austin neighbors, our community members, are not worthy of justice. But even if I didn't volunteer at safe, I would still feel personally vested in this issue as we all should. This is a matter of public safety for all Austin residents. If these kits can be tested in a timely manner, offenders can be identified sooner. That means a safer city for everyone. Survivors of sexual assault have no choice in the violence that they've experienced. But they do have an opportunity to take back some control in their lives by making the courageous choice to receive a sexual assault exam. And you have an opportunity to help take back some control too. Choose to make these survivors a priority. Choose to make the crime of sexual assault a priority. Choose to make the safety of the greatest city on Earth a priority. Choose to make these amendments a priority. Please vote yes to these amendments ps1.04 and 1.07. I do appreciate this opportunity. [ Buzzer sounding ] -- To speak with you and thank you for your consideration and your service to your community. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Alba serrano. Go ahead. >> My name is Kristin [indiscernible]. I live in district 5. I am the sexual assault response and resource team cooperator for austin/travis county. [5:25:31 PM] That stands for the start. It is a collaborative body of agencies that are charged with responding to sexual assault in this community. We're comprised of hospitals, advocacy groups, law enforcement agencies and prosecutors curious and I'm here todays to ask you to support amendments 1.04 and ps1.07 to fully staff a functioning crime lab. Even before closing its doors, the lab could not handle the volume of cases it received on a monthly basis. According to current estimates, if both of these amendments are funded, we will see the lab operating at current levels and current cases within three and a half to four years. If we reopen without these additional provisions, we will forever be behind. We will always be operating in a state of crisis and in a state of backlog. This translates to less cases being cleared and a continuance of long-term, negative impacts for the community as a whole. We work with survivors of violent crime on a daily basis and it is our responsibility as a community and as a city to keep faith with the public and to pursue justice on their behalf. When the community can identify and prosecute a rapist we very likely prevent future crimes from occurring. How can we continue to ask victims to come forward when we are not provide -- when we are not prepared to provide this basic service for them? By allowing untested evidence to sit and collect dust, we are allowing for a miss marriage of justice to occur. The city meads to send a message to its citizens that they matter, that their cases matter. Justice should not just be for the few. Our city is certainly not alone in struggling to allocate the necessary amounts of funding to this issue but rather than aiming to meet the minimum standards, we want Austin to be an example, a model of the prosecute of justice for -- pursuit of justice for all people weapon we realize you are under an incredible amount of pressure to make funding decisions, and we appreciate that. [5:27:42 PM] What we are asking will have tangible, immediate, and measurable impacts on people's lives. And this will require assisting long-term commitment from you. It's not a band-aid. We can begin this process by ensuring that the lab is adequately staffed when it reopens. Thank you for listening. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Council, we have three minutes until we break at 5:30. We can dispense real quickly with item number 48. We now have a date for that to be postponed. So what we're going to do is go to the next two items set on the agenda, music and proclamations, while the council gets dinner. We have literally 240 minutes left of testimony on the budget. Before W get to the other items on our agenda that also have speakers also on the expedited permit review and the tenant relocation issues. We called those for later so there is just under an hour for one and just over an hour for the other, but we had called those at 6:30 so I would anticipate those numbers to go up. [5:29:45 PM] So why don't we do item 48. >> Andy listen Heiser. We would like to postpone item 48 to your November 3rd meeting. >> Mayor Adler: It's moved by Ms. Houston, seconded by mayor pro tem. Discussion? Those in favor please raise your hand? Those opposed? It's unanimous on the dais with Ms. Troxclair off. >> Thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. We're now going to take that -- go to the 5:30 item and to the proclamations. What time, council, do you want to come back. That usually takes us until 6:45. Do you want to come back at 6:45, 7:00? What's the time? 6:45? Or 7:00? >> Garza: Can it be a hard 6:45, in your seat 6:45? >> Mayor Adler: 6:45. 6:45 hard. Thank you. And then we'll continue with budget hearing. This meeting stands -- well, we're going to move into music and proclamations. [5:38:17 PM] >> Mayor Adler: In case anybody is here for a proclamation and you haven't checked in yet, you need to come down here to Deena and check in if you're here for a patriotic. But before we get to that part, we get to what is my favorite part of city council meetings. Any of you that have been here watching the budget sessions know why it is so important that we stop councilmembers to get the live music. This is Austin, Texas and live music is our spirit and our soul and our city council stops every meeting in order to be able to help remind us about our city. So today joining us we have aj Castillo. Aj. [Applause]. Aj is a Latin artist known for his unique accordion sound and style. His energetic live performances and his extraordinary custom accordions. Aj is a native of Austin, Texas. That makes him a unicorn. And he is a graduate of the university of Texas at San Antonio. Born to a musical family, he was introduced to the accordion by his grandfather. He started playing the accordion at the age of 10 and began his professional music career at 13. Today this young talented musician is reaching at that time -- Latin music fans all over the world and is being recognized by professionals in the Latin music industry. Please help me welcome to our chambers, aj Castillo. [Cheers and applause] >> Thank you so much for having me. [5:40:18 PM] I am known for my [speaking foreign language], but I am going to play a polka. As soon as I hit the first note I need a yell. Can we throw a grito? There you go! [♪Music playing♪]. [5:42:40 PM] [Cheers and applause] >> Mayor Adler: That was really good. Thank you so much. So if people were watching us here or on TV and they want to find your website, do you have one? >> You can find me at ajcastillo.com or find me on Facebook or Instagram. I know a lot of people have Instagram. You can hit me up on Instagram. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. And if they want to buy some of your music, how would they go about doing that? >> They can download it on iTunes or CD baby. Or any Walmart. I think H.E.B. Plus has it. >> Mayor Adler: Cool. And then if they want to go hear you play where's your next gig? >> If you want to travel, if you want to drive a long way this Saturday, I'll be in Amarillo, Texas, this Saturday. That's the next show. I'll be back in Austin October the 1st. It will be a free show at a local church here in Austin, south Austin, San Jose church. They're having an annual day. It will be a free show and tons of people. If you're here and want to watch, come out October 1st. Then we will be back in Austin October 21st at the okay corral celebrating my birthday, so we're excited about that. >> Mayor Adler: Very cool. All right. We have a proclamation. Be it known that whereas the city of Austin is blessed with many creative musicians whose talents extend to virtually every musical genre. And whereas our music scene thrives because Austin audiences support good music produced by legends, our local favorites and newcomers alike. And whereas we are pleased to showcase and support our local artists, now therefore I, Steve Adler, mayor of the live music capitol, do hereby proclaim September 1st of the year 2016 as aj Castillo day. [5:44:44 PM] Congratulations. [Cheers and applause] >> Mayor Adler: We have a proclamation. Be it known that whereas the global March for elephants and rhinos atx has marched for two years with thousands in the world's largest grassroots movement to save wildlife. And now joins in solidarity with other cities worldwide to March against extinction on the opening day of the committee of the international trade and endangered species effort to influence the vote to end the ivory and rhino trade. And whereas the global March atx has raised awareness of threats facing species. [5:46:45 PM] It has raised funds to support top wildlife organizations, provide tools to the public to take action and demanded ambassadors and law and policymakers take action to end the illegal trade in endangered species. And whereas the global March atx has made significant impact by making laws and policies around the world to save and protect and secure future for wildlife for the benefit of future generations, now therefore I, Steve Adler, mayor of the city of Austin, Texas, do here by proclaim September 24th of the year 2016 as global March for elephants and rhinos day. Congratulations. And then I think we have Kia or Ty here to talk. >> Hi. >> Mayor Adler: Do you want to say something? >> Good evening, everybody. I'm Kia newton and today I'm representing March for the elephants and rhinos atx. And in the media I think a lot of times you only hear negative things, and especially for kids that can be discouraging. We learn from our environment, and when the only headlines we hear are either some irrelevant form of celebrity gossip or some tragic event that just occurred, what do you think that teaches us? I'm not saying we should ignore bad things. As a society we should be aware of what's going on in the rest of the world, but it should be more balanced because in real life there are more than just bad things. The media is one of our most powerful tools, but it is often misused. Instead of focusing on the end result of a problem, we could focus on what is being done to address the issue right now. People can use media to inspire others and unite a lot of people for a big cause. The media is a vital tool in our fight for the elephants -- and since elephants symbolize so many traits that are important to our global community, such as strength, unity and resiliency, even a few Instagrams or tweets could help this cause because people don't want to see something that embodies all of these traits just disappear. [5:49:03 PM] Spreading the word of what you can do to help will encourage people to speak up, shout out and get involved. You could get involved right now by joining Marchs, peaceful protests, signing petitions, writing articles that talk about the danger of elephant extinct, posting information on social media and sending or sharing flares about local events that are hosted by local companies like this company working to save elephants in our area. And in general you should just use your voice or the media to generate positive ideas about helping our cause. Or you could just mopac about right now -- hope about right now how you're sad that the elephants are disappearing and later you could hear about how it's too late. So you can decide what fate you want for the elephants by speaking up now or crying about it later. Thank you. [Applause]. >> Thank you very much. What about wc fields say about following children and animals? I have short remarks. First of all, let me tell you what an honor it is for me to stand here in the heart of the great state of Texas and accept this proclamation on behalf of the global March for elephants Austin and my own company, art for elephants. It is a single honor and I am singularly grateful. This is something truly remarkable about the people of Texas. They are, generally speaking, a forthright and committed group, a state full of people not afraid to speak up when their rights are at stake. Not afraid to take an unpopular stand when they see an ingentleman, and I've often heard if you want something done ask a Texan. Well, today I stand before you in the strongest terms possible to tell you that the elephants of the world desperately need the power, strength of Texas to save them. The situation for African and Asian elephants on this planet is critical. Just yesterday this new great elephant census released the data and it is shocking. [5:51:04 PM] Since 2007 there has been a 30% decline in the population of African elephants. At this rate they are being killed at the rate of 96 per day and they have lost the ability to breed fast enough to overcome the population loss. There are some subgroups in Africa that are less than 24 months away from absolute genetic ex-extinction. The writing is on the wall. If these things keep happening the way they are, we in this room will be the last generation of human services on this planet to share the Earth with elephants. The global March for elephants and rhinos is an international movement of activists and ordinary citizens that moves to make awareness of the approaching crisis, pressure local and international governments to implement strong legislature and to protect endangered species. This year the global March takes place on September 24th, as the mayor kindly said, in order to coincide with the international meeting on endangered species. By making this proclamation the state of Texas is sending a strong message that extinction is not an option. That Texas is taking a firm stand against the international ivory trackers and their documented ties to terrorist organizations. And those that seek to gain a profit from a trade in endangered species, by supporting the global March for elephants and rhinos, Austin is once again leading the way, doing what's right to make a stand for the elephants. So on behalf of the global March for elephants and my company, art for elephants, and on behalf of your children and your children's children, I want to say thank you, Austin for telling the world that elephants are safer on your watch. Thank you. [Applause]. [5:53:58 PM] >> Houston: I am Ora Houston and I have the good pleasure of serving the people of district 1. And we are on September the 17th have our annual take a loved one for a checkup day from it 10:00 to 2:00 at the Delco activity center. Helped me I have members of the -- behind me I have members of the Austin health and human services department staff and all of our lovely partners that help put this on. I went last year, got my flu shot and my blood glucose tested, and what else did I do? I did a dance or something? I told y'all not put that on the YouTube. Be it known that whereas a serious health gap exists between racial and ethic minority populations and the general public, showing that there are more -- they are more apt to suffer from such problems such as heart disease, stroke, cancer diabetes, cids, sudden infant death syndrome, infant mortally and hiv/aids whereas early detection of disease for prompt, quality health care and immunizations and disease are central steps towards reducing such health disparities, and whereas the national take a loved one for a checkup day campaign is aimed at encouraging individuals, especially those most in deed, to live health -- in need, to live healthier lives and to visit a health care professional. Now therefore, Steve Adler, mayor of the city of Austin, Texas, proclaim September 17, 2016 as take a loved one for a checkup day. And here to accept this proclamation is Adrian stirrup -- no, I guess it will be Stephanie Hayden. [Laughter]. Assistant director of health and human services. [5:55:58 PM] [Applause]. >> Good evening. First of all we would like to thank councilmember Ora Houston for her support as well as mayor Steve Adler. And our director Shannon Jones was not able to be here this evening. And as Ms. Houston stated I am Stephanie Hayden and we are just very excited. This is our 11th annual event and it is so important for us to get out and have a presence and encourage folks to take a loved one for their annual checkups and do preventive work so you can avoid health disparities. It is very important for to us also emphasize that health alone has to go hand in hand with the social determinants of health. So we have to look at things like poverty and education and have a full snapshot where we're looking at it from a holistic lens. We like to -- as stated earlier, we have the staff here, Adrian stirrup is the manager of the team, but we can really not do this work without our partners. Our partners are just there and they show up and they don't miss a a beat. And sometimes they beat the staff there. So I really want to commend our partners because they have been here with us. So we are most appreciative as well as thanking our city manager and our assistant city managerbert Lumbreras -- Burt Lumbreras. Thank you very much. [5:58:49 PM] >>> >> >>> >> >>> >> >>> >> Mayor Adler: We have a distinguished service award. It's always a real honor to award something like this. This distinguished award is being given for untiring service and commitment to the citizens of our city during a 30-year tenure as a dedicated employee of the city of Austin. Anthony flood is deserving of public acclaim and recognition, and this certificate is presented in acknowledgment and appreciation thereof this first day of September in the year 2016 by the city of Austin city council, mayor Steve Adler. Congratulations and thank you so much for your service to this city. [Applause]. >> I don't have very much to say. As I told someone earlier, I've pretty much said it all already. But I do want to thank my E.M.S. Colleagues who came out today, my amazing wife jack who despite her questionable taste in men still wakes up beside me every morning. It's been an honor to serve a great city. It's nice to know we're out there taking care of people. I thank you for your support of police, fire and E.M.S. [Applause]. [6:01:40 PM] >> Mayor Adler: So now I have the pleasure of being able to award some certificates of congratulations. Austin, city of Austin is pleased to honor several recipients of grants. This is a grant for technology opportunities program for the year 2016. The city's grant technology opportunities program, top grants, provide matching funds for projects that have been reviewed and found to show potential for benefiting our community. The -- each of these grants are a little bit different. This is the digital media arts education lab at the arc of the capital area and it provides student center technology training in both an intensive lab setting and as part of a professional artist program to enable people with idd to master digital and pre-employment skills that will increase their employability. And this certificate is issued to the arc of the capital area with our congratulations and best wishes for much success with this technology project, and it's presented this first day of September in the year 2016 by the city council of Austin, Texas. Congratulations. [Applause]. [6:03:50 PM] >> Mayor Adler: This top grant is being given for the head exchange that offers professional development for educators working with Austin's low income, culturally diverse youth. The spring thinkery delivers experiences to strengthen 300 plus students' knowledge of technology-related skills by learning coding and digital fabrications, 3D printing circuitry, robotics and more to advance their academic and professional futures. And for those reasons this certificate is issued to Austin's children's museum with our congratulations and best wishes. [Applause]. So this recognition of the gtop grant, this projects include the getting it done program, which will provide critical needed adult basic education support and digital literacy training for the homeless and transient populations at front steps Austin resource center for the homeless. And this certificate is issued to Austin free net, again with our congratulations and best wishes for much success with this technology project. Congratulations. [Applause]. [6:06:02 PM] These are actually called the city's top awards. And this top award for projects include the Austin science technology engineering, arts and math, which is stem scout camp. It's a collaboration of the council, the boy scouts of America, the girl scouts of central Texas, Anderson high school. It's going to fund the cost of food and transportation and a portion of scholarships for up to 187 low income and underserved youth. And funding will primarily go to low income youth coming to the camp as part of the new year- round stem scouts program. And this certificate is issued to the boy scouts of America, capital area council with our congratulations and best wishes for much success with this technology project. Thank you. [Applause]. We have another gtop grant awardee. These projects, the Easter seals central Texas in partnership with Austin free net will provide computers, internet access and computer training for economically disadvantaged and low income people with disabilities. These items will be provided as part of the self sufficiency package, require each household enrolled in the Easter seals central Texas tenant-based rental assistance program. So this certificate is issued to Easter seals central Texas, inc. With our congratulations and best wishes for much success with this technology project. [6:08:09 PM] Congratulations. [Applause]. So this next gtop grant is for programs that include the lab apprenticeship program which employs a train-the-trainer model that provides 17 blousing residents -- public housing residents with training in computer management and facilitation. Program participants apply these skills by assisting public housing residents, utilizing computer-based computer labs located on haca premises. The certificate is issued to haca scholarship foundation, inc. With our congratulations and best wishes for this technology project. Thank you. [Applause]. And we have another top grant awardee. This one @star is an online professional development training course for educators. Its purpose is to improve educational, social and vocational outcomes for students with disabilities. [6:10:12 PM] @Star teaches multidisciplinary school-based teams to make evidence-based decisions about at solutions for their students. This certificate is issued to nobility inc. And our best wishes and success with this project. Thank you. [Applause]. >> Mayor Adler: In case you haven't guessed it, we have a gtop grant awardee here. This matching funds grant is for meals on wheels and more. It's going to fund a pilot program, technology for seniors, which helps homebound elderly adults connect with the internet. It provides tablets, internet sign-up and tech support for eligible and interested clients. Moan is meals on wheels -- mom is wheels on wheels and more. And this certificate is issued to meals on wheels and more with our congratulations and best wishes and much success with this technology project. Thank you. [Applause]. [6:12:22 PM] And we have a final top grant, matching fund awardee. This one is for programs like stories from the deep in the heart. It's a collaborative project of Texas folk life with Austin independent school district and Kut 90.5 F.M. Austin that provides in-depth communications technology and audio documentary training to students and teachers at aisd schools. With a focus on low income communities. Now, participants create broadcast-quality documentaries on local or family traditions. This certificate is issued to the Texas folk life resources with our congratulations, best wishes for much success with this final technology project. Congratulations. [Applause]. And I think we said the council would be coming back after dinner at 6:45. [6:55:08 PM] >> Mayor Adler: All right. We're going to go ahead with testimony here on item number 44. The next speaker we have is -- is Jessica avalar here? >> Good evening. My name is Jessica avalar jaimez: I'm a student with capital I.D.E.A. I would like to thank the councilmembers support of capital idea so far. Without that support I would not be here talking to you today. When I first heard about capital idea's program I was a single mother of four working at a dialysis center, barely making enough to make ends meet. I didn't have any certifications or trainings for my job so I was at the lowest position. We were living from home to home because I could not afford rent by myself. I wanted to make a change, but I knew that I wasn't able to pay for the training and certifications that I needed to make a better wage and change that situation. Then one of the nurses at my workplace told me about capital idea. She had been through the program and explained that they would pay for my tuition to go back to school and get the training and degree needed to get a better job. I looked into it and applied. It was the best decision I've ever made. The changes to my life and my children's lives have been tremendous. Because I couldn't afford to go to school without also having an income, my career navigator helped me get a job with Seton as a clinical assistant, which paid much more than the position I had at the dialysis center and it helped me get the experience in the field that I want to work in, nursing. So far I have earned the credential of a licensed vocational nurse and I will be starting the nursing program to become a registered nurse in January. [6:57:10 PM] This while I'm taking the nursing skills course to prepare for the beginning of the program. I have already gained a lot of knowledge and so many skills. I see my kids look up to me and I'm proud to be their role model. I'm on my way to achieving a better career and life for me and my family and I could not have done this without the support of my career navigators and capital idea. I'm looking forward to finishing my degree, my husband and I are looking forward to being able to buy our own home, being able to save for my children's college education and plan out our futures. The funding that we are here to request tonight would allow capital idea to sponsor 200 more students just like myself. It would create opportunities for 200 more families and individuals struggling to make ends meet and realize their dreams here in Austin. 200 more people who want to get started on their journey to a better career and begin to give back to their communities where they live. Thank you for considering this opportunity to improve the lives of 200 more people like myself through capital idea. [Applause]. >> Mayor adler:is alba serrano here? What about Carmen Yanez Polito? >> Good evening, my name is alba, I'm the community director for [indiscernible] In 78445. The coalition works in two southeast and south Austin zip codes, 8744 and 78745. Some of the school as school has started could not be here so we have some videos and I'll be translating for you [ video playing ] [6:59:27 PM] >> She says good orientation my name is Gloria [indiscernible], I am a resident of district five and part of the community team [indiscernible] Or the strength of west gate. In my neighborhood there was previously no store where we could buy Prouse produce but now thanks to the healthy corner store initiative funded last year bred basket corner store has produce and this is a picture. We would like your continued support for access to healthy food and also for green spaces -- green space improvements so that our kids have actual parks and green spaces with amenities to play. [Video playing ] >> Good evening, my name is Jessica Rodriguez, I live in district 5 and I'm also part of the strength of west gate team. I ask for your support for the corner store initiate for access to healthy food for our neighborhood. [Video playing ] Mari. >> Good orientation my name is mariber, and I'm live in district 5. We ask for your continued support for the healthy corner store initiative. These several residents have been working in their area as you heard them talk about they have no access outside of this healthy corner store to healthy produce in proximity to them. The pictures you see here are from a recent event. They were last Friday, where residents were helping to promote the new produce in their stores, working with the store owners on pricing and negotiating those prices and also offering coupons for those -- that produce now available at their corner store. [7:01:39 PM] We thank councilmember Ann kitchen for visiting us that day in the neighborhood and hope to have the support of the council for the continued funding for parks and healthy corner stores and also farm is stands in the neighborhood. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Carmen, and then [indiscernible] Denver will be at the other podium. Hello. >> Good evening. Thank you, mayor, mayor pro tem, council. As my counterpart just did for residents of 78745 who live in districts 5, 2, 3, I'll be interpreting for a dumb of videos some residents in dove springs who have also been engaged in efforts to bring healthy food including fresh produce to their neighborhood and I think if you click on that thing, the video may actually come up. Oops, it's sideways. [Video playing ] >> She says my name is [indiscernible], I'm a resident of 78744, and speaking in name of and on behalf of my community, in support of the farm stand, neighborhood farm stand project, which is very important for us because we don't have any close by place to buy fresh produce. Soty -- soty for your support. Those were her board and I'll add that the farm stand, which is set to launch in dove springs this October will be one -- it will be the only source of local fresh produce in a retail space at that rec center and we're even looking at sourcing from a local nearby garden farm in the area, as well as from farm share. [7:03:49 PM] The two that have been running in 78745 have been extremely successful and we have over 130 neighbors surveyed in dove springs about their desires for the farm stand so we're really excited about that. Go ahead and play the last video. [ Video playing ] >> So [indiscernible], she says I am also a resident of 78744 and speaking in support of the healthy corner store initiative. One, because it benefits me and my family, having fresh produce closer, but also and more importantly it gives every person in the zip code who has a store nearby the ability to walk to get produce for whatever reason that they don't have a car and can't get to the grocery store, which in dove springs is very, very far from almost everyone, that they're able to get fresh produce. Thank you again for your support and we are also supporting the ask for -- and I also wanted to mention these two healthy food initiatives are part of the -- they are both included in the healthy food access initiative recommended by the austin/travis county sustainable -- sorry, austin/travis county food policy board in response to councilmember Garza's food access resolution. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Next speaker is cardon [indiscernible] Denver. Gabriella Rodriguez. And then Lorena Soliz. [7:06:00 PM] Gabriella Rodriguez. >> [Speaking non-english language] [7:08:19 PM] >> I'm going to interpret real quick and if we go over time it won't be much. >> Mayor Adler: That's okay. >> [Indiscernible], and I'm a resident of 8744 dove springs and I also represent Franklin park in dove springs, which we want for our park light and also bathrooms. Light in the parks is incredibly important so that children have access to being outside in fresh air and are able to exercise and so they're not trapped in a house, watching TV or playing video games. When it gets really dark quickly outside, especially in the fall and winter, sometimes it's dark by 5:00, and they can't be outside because there's not light in the parks. So this is very important. Another important initiative is the corner store initiative. Thank you for supporting us over this past year. We already have eight stores participating in dove springs in 78745. I want the store close to me at pleasant valley and Terry road, the closest, I want them to participate first so that my daughters and I are able to walk to get healthy food and that's exercise, to and, second, because there in front of the store a school bus drops off kids to the neighborhoods. For us, in this area, the supermarket is very, very far away. It takes me 20 or 30 minutes to get there. For these children it's an opportunity to have the healthy food right there and healthy snacks so they're not just eating chips, Coca-Cola, junk food, that they can actually have healthy snacks like yogurt and carrots or celery or fruits. The farm stands also very important for that reason. So please continue to support these projects in dove springs in 78745 we have many, many children. Their health is important because they are the future of our city. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [7:10:20 PM] Next speaker is Lorena Soliz. No? Mike burnet. Mike burnet. And then Debbie Russell will be at the other podium. >> Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I want to thank Ms. Kitchen this evening. We had a little problem over a large geographic area in district 5 with a drug ring that had been distributing their product in, let's say, kind of an ingenius way, and she was kind enough to initiative a preliminary or a pilot activity with the community policing service and over a period of about six weeks, the problem disappeared. And so, fortunately, it hasn't come back, and I'd like to thank her very much and say anything I can do in terms of going forward with that class action, including supporting that type of community outreach program, where there's a little more direct line is both appreciated and, clearly, I would support that. I think that's all I have for this evening. So. . . >> Mayor Adler: Debbie Russell. >> [Off mic] >> Mayor Adler: When she comes back in, let me know. Robin hoffbauer. David witty. Jennifer mcveil. [Indiscernible] Will be next. And then Albert metz. >> I'm Jennifer mcveil, with the deaf of Texas. We wanted to come here tonight to urge you to support the recommendations from public works to fully fund as much as possible the sidewalk master plan. [7:12:27 PM] We support the increase in the transportation user fee. We really believe that it will help go a long way to keeping pedestrians at least safer in this community. And many of our members have paid a price for sidewalk connective if I being what it is. Most of us in the core group of membership have been hit, including myself. And I can tell you nothing is quite as sobering as being -- having your leg pinned under the bumper of someone's car who has run a red light as you're crossing the street. So I just urge you to support that funding. I know that budget decisions are tough, but these are tough consequences that people are paying for with their health and their life. The other thing that we wanted to emphasize is as you're funding housing projects to make sure to separate services from housing so that people don't have undue control over low-income people, especially people with disabilities' lives. We want to make sure that people are able to get the housing that they need and the services, but that they are able to maintain their Independence as well. Thirdly, I wanted to bring up that we've seen in the budget -- I mention -- a mention from the parks department that they have a ten year plan from compliance with the Ada. They're 26 years behind schedule already. So that will mean 36 years out of compliance. That's too long. Furthermore, about a year and a half ago they were sued by me because I was stuck on the trail. I had to call 911 to get out of the hole that I was stuck in. Teetering with only three wheels on the ground. Those kinds of things can't happen. People with disabilities deserve to be active in the community as well. [7:14:29 PM] Anything that you can do to make sure that they meet the benchmarks in the settlement for the lawsuit I would appreciate because I don't want to go to court. I wanted it fixed. It should be fixed faster than ten years, especially since they haven't met their agreement. They've committed to us that they would meet with us next week, but who knows what they'll say in the meeting? I don't want it to be that way, but if it's necessary, that's what's necessary. If ten -- ten years is too long. Thank you. [ Applause ] [Indiscernible] And then Albert metz and then we're gonna go back and pick up Debbie Russell. >> Good evening. I'm [indiscernible] Also with [indiscernible] Texas and as Jennifer said, we want you to fully fund the sidewalk master plan improvement. Housing should not just be optional and in certain neighborhoods, affordable housing. It should in all neighborhoods of the city, especially if developers get city money. There should at least be a percentage of affordable, accessible, integrated housing for deeply -- deeply affordable, 15-30% below median income. And, also, you know, as Jennifer also said, we -- she shouldn't have had to sue to make our parks accessible. Our parks are an create to the city -- asset to the city and all people that live in the city should be able to use them. [7:16:32 PM] Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [ Applause ] Albert metz. >> Good evening, my name is Albert metz I'm also with adaptive Texas. I want to ask you a very important question. How many more times do I have to get hit by a car? Before you realize sidewalks are important. >> [Indiscernible] >> I'm sorry, I didn't get that. >> [Indiscernible] >> Why don't y'all take my place and go in the street? [7:18:33 PM] Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Ashley flash Gordon here? >> [Off mic] Was Ms. Gordon here? >> I'm here. I donate my name. >> Mayor Adler: Got you. I wanted to make sure you're here. Debbie Russell, you have six minutes. Is rob hoffpauer here? Is Elizabeth Colvin here? Why don't you go ahead and start. >> I didn't realize other people -- okay. Hi. Debbie Russell. And you might have gotten a few emails today from some organizations or individuals supporting my ask of you, and my ask is this, that you keep in the budget the funds for the body cameras as they were planned a couple of months ago and instead of taser, we approve utility associates. They're the better product at the better price. And I just want to mention I can't quite tell if it's fully in there right now, in the budget, because I'm kind of confused. Councilmember Casar had asked a question about what -- where it is, and apparently it's in the communications and technology management portion somewhere in -- there's $1.3 million for the first year and 1.8 for the second, but I just see these two little small 70 and $20,000 bits. But I also noticed they didn't answer councilmember pool's August 25 question about doing in-house status storage yet. Curious about that. So I'm asking y'all to put on an item on the next council agenda that's available to do so to approve this proposal for utility. [7:20:40 PM] You've already actually approved the funds. You didn't actually approve the taser contract. You approved the funds. Here's why. The funds in fact were $12.2 million and now we know, because of the hearing, the tro hearing, that that wasn't near enough to cover what taser actually was going to charge new the end -- charge you in the end. And I want you to do this before the November trial date, which there's some rumors that it may be delayed, but at this point it's still set. So that that will be canceled, we save the money on continuing lawsuits and we get a better product at a better price. We're almost done negotiating a pretty good policy here for body cameras so let's just put this taser mess aside and go forth with a better product at, again, the better price. I sent you an email last night. This is all laid out so I'm just doing a summary. Do I want you to take time to look at that email because there's very important tidbits in there about how you were duped in June, seriously duped. By approving this body camera contract now you can avoid wasting more money on a lawsuit, which I think the city is sure to lose, and you can fund other public safety initiatives with the nearly $9 million in savings like the underfunded ems, libraries, parks, afterschool programs, and can afford to not cut from forensics as is currently proposed but invest in, again, better systems and better oversight and also we can be funding the DNA lab rape kit backlog, a separate funding from the A.P.D. Funding. Let's solve more cases and fund more prevention efforts. Again, you've already approved this funding, all right? And really I think it just would take another council agenda item to trans-- to officially say that utilities should get this contract instead of taser. [7:22:45 PM] According to the courts, they -- the utility met all of the mandates and as were seen in the tro hearing, taser did not. Very seriously. First evidence here, they did not fill out the required form using their own, and they were supposed to be disqualified for this, yet they were not. It doesn't show all the numbers. It doesn't show years 6-8. Secondly, they should have been disqualified forever not meeting the mandate 1.1. They did not have the mobile viewing device. They told you it was in there June 23, but it was not. Show the next slide. Procurement then lied to you about it being included. There's the email from taser to procurement saying that the price of the iPods was not included in the proposal. In fact it was in all caps, as the judge noted in the hearing. In the hearing Scarborough had a procurement also back and forth on whether this was a public safety procurement as the red herring legal strategy to knock out the tro. He knows it was not because that requires several steps that would have involved you, which you did not have to be involved in, but he testified against it anyway. As you can see, there's much more to this lawsuit than it being a pause in the process, as you were told yesterday. It is not juts that. You are still being seriously misled. Let's avoid more lawsuit costs, get body cameras much sooner instead of waiting a good year or so, and let's look at the savings. Next slide you approved 12.2 million. If you look at the real numbers, taser's corrected bid if you just include the iPhone with it, 20.4. If you include the iPod, 16.7. Again, in that email, they confirm that you can purchase iOS or android like the phones they already have, so you only need one or the other. [7:24:54 PM] The utilities bid was 9.6 million but up to year eight it becomes 11.5 million so if you approve that you still have money left over. And if you retract your iPhone approval in June, the savings comes up to 10.2 million. We could do a lot with ten plus million to avoid sending people into the obscenely expensive justice system. And next I want to, as an anecdote, show to you what happened at the -- I sat through the hearing. I know y'all couldn't be there, but -- [ buzzer sounding ] -- I would like very much to do a little quick tidbit from that. >> Zimmerman: Mr. Mayor, I know that misdebbie Russell was at the hearing because I was also at the hearing, and I want to just correct one thing. I heard testimony, Ms. Russell, that the contract with taser was signed. It was signed while Mr. Scarborough was on vacation. Remember the exchange that took place there? So he told utility that it would not be signed until he got back from vacation. Then they signed it while on vacation so I thought that was interesting testimony. I think what you're referring to is a transcript from that trial where the judge took the extraordinary measures, our mayor knows, it's extraordinary when a judge starts to interrogate a witness. That's exactly what happened during this case. So if you have that -- I have the remarks and this interrogation was about the email that you just put up and his testimony was that even though the email said that the iPods were not included in capital letters, not included, Mr. Scarborough's testimony was it was included. >> Right. >> Zimmerman: And the judge said but it says it's not included. So that exchange, I'll just -- let me just read word for word the judge said -- I'm specifically looking at the answer, it says the price of the iPods was not included in the proposal. [7:26:57 PM] That seems pretty clear that it wasn't included in the numbers they gave you. I'm just trying to understand, and then it adds the cost of 199 per iPod. I'm trying to understand where do you in that language determine it was included in the proposal? Mr. Scarborough says, your honor, I could certainly see how somebody could come to that interpretation. Now if you want to go on, but it -- >> Mayor Adler: And at this -- >> I think it's important to understand the significance of -- >> Mayor Adler: I think, you know, we have so many people here to talk. >> I'm sorry. >> Mayor Adler: We have four hours more testimony. >> Please do read my blog as you're considering my suggestion to approve this. >> Zimmerman: Just read the details. >> Mayor Adler: Council, I will point out we have two other items that are up tonight. >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: We have the tenant relocation matter and we also have the expedited matter. Both of those groups that have a lot of testimony to offer have -- are willing to limit themselves to four speakers on each side at two minutes if we would call them, they would limit themselves, which would be 16 minutes each of those, and then we could be done with both those cases. I don't know how many amendments we have on the dais, and I want to check because I don't want to call something up and then be -- thank you very much. >> Thank you for accommodating us. >> Mayor Adler: Yes. So I want to see whether or not there's any desire on the dais to accept that offer of -- four people on each side speaking two minutes. We want to try to do that? The -- there's the tenant relocation matter that I think councilmember Renteria is going to offer. There's some amendments he's agreed to that come from staff. There's some amendments I'm going to offer that are also agreed to by the author. [7:28:59 PM] But I think there may be a dumb amendments from the dais to be offered. Is that from Ms. Gallo? Are there any other amendments that people anticipate to the tenant relocation one? Okay. What about the expedited snub my understanding is the expedited was going to be offered by Ms. Kitchen. I have some amendments to that that I think Ms. Kitchen has agreed to as well. Are there any more amendments to that one? Then what I would propose to do is to then call those two -- call one, then go back to the budget hearing for just a little bit, then call the second one, and proceed that way, if it's okay. >> Zimmerman: Fair enough is. >> Mayor Adler: All right. Let's call -- Ms. Houston. >> Houston: Let me make sure. We're gonna pause the budget hearing -- >> Mayor Adler: Pause the budget hearing to take from two hours down to 16 minutes these other -- then we're gonna go back to the budget and call the second one and go back to the budget again. So budget people, I will -- I apologize for this. I know a lot of you have been waiting. Everybody has been waiting. Everything has been called for the same time, but this will actually get everyone out a lot earlier than they would have otherwise. Let's go ahead and then call up Mr. -- Mr. Rehabilitate, do you want to call up yours? Which I think is item number -- >> Renteria: 50. >> Mayor Adler: 50. >> Speaker2: Yes. >> Renteria: Mayor, thank you. You know, I'm gonna make this motion to approve all of the staff recommendation but first of all I really want to thank the staff for all their hard work. They really have reached out and helped us reach and worked with us on making this resolution here that this motion that I'm gonna be maybe on the tenant relocation ordinance. [7:30:59 PM] I move that we approve the motion with the staff recommendation. >> Mayor Adler: There's been a motion to approve the staff recommendation. That's with the amendments offered by staff. And then there is a -- is there a second to that? Mayor pro tem seconds that. I handed out a motion sheet. It says motion sheet, agenda item number 50. Those contain three amendments Mr. Renteria, are you okay with these amendments? >> Renteria: Yes, I am. >> Mayor Adler: This is a tenant relocation. You don't have a copy? Okay. Those three amendments, Mr. Were -- Mr. Casar were you okay with these three amendments? >> Casar: On the tenant relocation. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Are you okay with incorporating these into your motion, Mr. Renteria? >> Renteria: Yes. >> Mayor Adler: Any objection on the dais? >> Gallo: Mayor, I have a question. I know there's been a stakeholder process in this. Have all the stakeholders been supplied copies of the staff amendments and your amendment? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. Joanne. >> Gallo: Somebody back there is saying no. >> Mayor Adler: Well, we don't -- >> Houston: Can we put it on the overhead. >> Gallo: Yeah, can we put it on the overhead at least? >> Mayor Adler: Mayor pro tem is okay with them as well. Okay. So without objection those are incorporated into the main motion. [7:33:06 PM] What I would propose to do at this point, since that's the agreed set, I'm now gonna call the speakers to speak, four on each side, for two minutes each as a speaker, and then we'll be back up to the dais. Where we can take additional amendments. Tenant relocation, the -- let's go with the first side here, Robert dogget. You have two minutes. >> Ann Teich and I will share our two minutes. Robert dogget, attorney work at [indiscernible] Legal aid and I'm in my own personal capacity but I want to say this relocation ordinance is a long time coming. It's been me and ruby Roa and Stephanie Tran underneath a tree dealing with hundreds of people that are facing relocation with very little resources, with very little information. And we're talking mostly vast majority of families of color, lots of children, with few options, a lot undocumented, and scared and being told lots of different things. And essentially what happens is social service agencies are called, the press are called, Ann Teich calls me up and says have you done anything? Have you heard anything? Because of what the effects of children are in the middle of the school year, and at the end of the day, though, after all the press, very little is actually ever done. And so what this starts to do is it stops helping developers continue to hurt our community. Because that's what's going on. The city is helping them. How are they helping them? They give them permits, zoning changes, demolition permits, and they never check to see what's happening to the human beings on the ground. They check the trees. They check for the trees. They check for the sidewalks. We all know the importance of these various things, but do they check to see if the it is not' leases are still good and valid? [7:35:07 PM] No. Only got two minutes. Do they check those things? No. They haven't. Do they check to see if the deposits have been returned? Remember this complex is gonna be demolished. Shouldn't they return deposits? No. What have they done? Nothing. The city has turned a blind eye in the past. That's what this ordinance starts to do. We're on the right road. We're starting to realize it's not just about the trees, it's not just about the sidewalks. It's also for the people living there and rather than having the rest of us and all the social service agencies show up and spend a lot of time -- [ buzzer sounding ] -- Now it's the time to do something. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> I'm sorry, Ann what did you say. >> Mayor Adler: You also have two minutes. >> I just want to say my name is Ann Teich, district 3 representative for the aid aid and thank you, thank you, thank you for caring. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Robin will Kenson and Sandra torres. >> Good evening, I want to thank you for your time and patience. My name is robin Wilkins. I'm coming in front of you again. I'm a resident from lake view apartments that was demolished. It would have been so nice to have this ordinance in place when we were told that we had to leave. I had a lease that ran to December. I along back and I would go back the place I lived and I would look and there would be nothing. My lease was still active yet there was no building where I was living. This ordinance is a must and I'm glad you're taking the time to consider it because there's a lot of families being displaced as we speak right now and this ordinance is gonna help them. It may not help us but it's gonna help others and at the end of the day that's what we want. We want or community to come together and help each other. After all we helped build this city. We are taxpayers. We deserve to be treated as equals as you are. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Then Sandra torres. >> Yes, my name is Sandra torres, resident from lake view apartments too and my experience was that they had told us we had to leave and they didn't give us much time. [7:37:10 PM] We didn't have nowhere to go, no family, nowhere to go and they were still sending letters saying that they were gonna turn off water, lights, everything, and I'm just here telling everybody thank you for caring and for listening. I hope it's help for other people that won't go through what we did because we suffered. We cried, and we saw a lot of children crying and there's a lot of things that I could say, but it's not much time that I just want to say thank you again and I hope that another -- a the love families don't go through what we did. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Four other speakers, Greta Goldsby, Christy Sanchez. Greta is first. And Christy Sanchez and aggi Bingham and then Paul. Cadaro. I'm sorry. >> Good evening, mayor Adler, mayor pro tem tovo, and councilmembers. My name is Greta, and I have been working on this ordinance since I saw the first draft, and I would like to thank staff and everyone here for how far this ordinance has come to make it a clear, concise, and consistent ordinance that will hopefully be implemented. So I would ask that the staff amendments that are before you, as well as those that the mayor just made a motion to adopt, are accepted. I would also ask that the stakeholder process continue and that we continue to work together to make sure that this ordinance is one that landowners are able to implement and understand what the requirements are and it is not are able to understand and expect what they're to be entitled to. [7:39:25 PM] Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Christy Sanchez. >> I'm here on behalf of the Austin apartments association. We ref over 100,000 -- or a thousand diverse business owners that own, manage, and service over 200,000 rental homes in the greater Austin area. We've been around since 1964 so we also support the amendment and, you know, we feel that the changes are good for what we're looking for within -- for our members. We have several members here tonight that stand behind us. During the entire stakeholder process we've been involved and we support the tenant notification displacement ordinance, how it was envisioned and drafted. We have active stakeholders in the process that regularly submit listing of comments and questions and concerns for city staff to consider while drafting and redrafting the ordinance. We support all aspects of the ordinance but cannot support the entire ordinance as currently drafted. It's our understanding that several of the amendments of the ordinance offered are having -- pending the changes. With the changes that we sauteed and were updated on, we do support them, although we do ask that we continue in the stakeholder process and that we have input on several pending items. And those would lewd the nexus study -- include the nexus study and fees two of thousand dollars per affected rental unit assessed. We believe that any ordinance that create a new regulatory cost should only be passed and/or implemented after fees have been established and widely known. We value the role in offering insight and perspective on the rental housing issues and confronting the city of Austin and we continue our efforts during the administrative rule process making to help ensure successful implementation. [7:41:37 PM] [ Buzzer sounding ] >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. A.J. Bingham. >> Good evening, thank you for your time. It's echo be earlier remarks from Greta, first of all I'm with the real estate council of Austin. We had concerns about the draft ordinance, we have been tracking it and participating in the stakeholder process. We believe the amendments offered on the dais were -- are -- we're supportive of the amendments from the dais and we also want to thank staff for their time throughout this process. They've been very open and accessible to all of our questions. So thank you for your time. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Paul cadaro. >> Thank you, mayor, members of council, Paul cadaro with the Austin apartment association. Again reiterating what Christy said we support the amendments that were presented by staff, by the mayor and by councilmember Gallo. We did have a chance to see them in advance, not too far in advance but advance enough to feel comfortable with them. Quite frankly, we're, as Christy said we're going to really engage ourself in the administrative rule process to help refine any definitions, offer some insight and perspective, not to change any fundamental workings of the ordinance but just to make it better, make it easier, and to implement and clearer for the industry. I have full confidence in our industry and the members of the Austin apartment association will be able to issue notifications and do everything the city says that they have to do, but there's gonna have to be a lot of close cooperation with the city and, you know, it does change the ball game a little bit but we're prepared to deal with it and work through the issues as best we can during the administrative rule process. And one final point is -- as Christy said, we are a little uncomfortable that an ordinance is passed without fees being known. I don't know -- you know, it just makes us feel uncomfortable. We'd love to see implementation of this in the out months after those fees are known. [7:43:39 PM] We just would feel a lot better about the ordinance at that time. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Thanks to all the speakers. Council, before we discuss this on the dais, I don't know if you're aware from news just a little while ago but one of our mechanic officers -- moat cycle officers was involved in a serious crash while performing off-duty services today. He's in critical condition at this time. His family is traveling to Austin to be with him. At the request of his family, his name has not been released publicly. But let's just take a second here to keep the officer and his family in our thoughts and prayers. Puts all this kind of stuff in perspective. We're now back up to the dais. Are there any more amendments to be made from the dais? Councilmember Gallo? >> Gallo: Mayor, you were in my head. I was gonna say those exact words. It does put everything in perspective here. We've passed out -- I've passed out two motions. Let's start with amendment number 2, please. And I really do appreciate all of the staff efforts and the community and stakeholders' efforts to work together to try -- and council efforts to come up with a draft proposal that -- ordinance that addresses this issue. And I think all of us would be in agreement that who we want to help are the responsible tenants who are fulfilling the requirements of their lease, such as being current on the rent and not being in violation of the lease. And the reason that I've proposed amendment number 2 is I think that the ordinance as it reads now is silent to that. [7:45:40 PM] And my motion clarifies that in order to qualify for this program, that a tenant would need to be in good standing. So I'm being specific to that, is that I would make a motion to add an additional eligibility requirement that a tenant must be in good standing or in compliance with the rental agreement or lease on the date at which any relocation assistance is paid. The term good standing is intended to mean that a tenant is not more than 45 days delinquent in paying the rent and then at the bottom of the motion sheet there is some language that would be inserted at page 8, section 25-1-714b2a and that would add the following new paragraph to read for rental assistance to be paid under section 251715 tenant relocation assistance developer funded but not be in arrears on rent by more than 45 days or residing on the premises in violation of a properly issued eviction order. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Gallo offers amendment number 2. Is there a second to her amendment? Mr. Zimmerman seconds. Is there any discussion on this amendment? Mr. Casar? >> Casar: Mayor, I can't support either of the two amendments. I think that while I certainly understand the intention, I think that for both, some of these details could maybe be worked out better in the program guideline stage and I think there could be some unintended consequences of both. There can be tenant landlord disputes that result in nonpayment of rent but somebody may still be deserving of that assistance and then, on the second amendment, just so that I don't have to turn my mic back on for that, there could be some confusion about what month to month -- what would happen with somebody that is on a month to month lease and whether or not they're deserving of relocation assistance. [7:47:41 PM] I think in the end we've -- we have a good ordinance with your amendments and those of the sponsor, and I can't support either of these two, but I understand the intent to try to make sure that this ordinance is not abused on either the landlord or tenant side and I feel comfortable with where it stands out. But during that program guideline and administrative guideline phase that the staff will create I'm sure the staff can keep on getting to more nuanced points about if the programs need to be administered in a way that's tightened up so I can't support either the first or the second. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Any further discussion? Mayor pro tem? >> Tovo: Yeah I'll echo that and just underscore that I'm not going to support either amendment. I too understand some of the rationale and I think there are opportunities later on to address it, but it is a well-balanced resolution -- excuse me, ordinance, that really takes into account a lot of the feedback. Also, with regard to the situation in one of the amendments, I'm concerned that the notification -- again, I'm concerned, too, about the unintended consequences, that there could be a situation where a landlord kind of waits and times the notification for a particular time after those leases have finished and aren't renewed and so, again, I think that we have a well-balanced ordinance in front of us and I'm prepared to support what we've got and see how other refinements can be made later on. >> Mayor Adler: Any further discussion on the dais? Mr. Zimmerman. >> Zimmerman: So I'll speak in favor of the amendments. I don't think the amendments -- I appreciate the amendments you've made, Mr. Mayor, and others. I think the amendments make it less bad, but it's still not a good -- it's not a good ordinance, and I'm concerned with its legality. [7:49:47 PM] I wanted to maybe put up Mr. Bordel is an attorney here, I have an overhead to put up briefly. He raised four particular problems about this. He has some expertise in municipal law and I believe the -- Mr. Mayor, you addressed one of these, part four, the overall broad application of penalty. In some of the amendments I see some of these questions answered in part, but I'm still concerned that we're gonna end up with some unintended consequences that might land this back in court so I am gonna support the amendments, but I -- I'm afraid the whole ordinance is headed for trouble because of unintended consequences. >> Mayor Adler: Further discussion? Ms. Gallo. >> Gallo: I appreciate the comments by a couple of the councilmembers from the dais, and as this will be hopefully coming back for -- or in discussion with the stakeholders, that I think these are important areas to address. I think we want a program that helps responsible tenants who are fulfilling their lease be able to have a way to move to other properties easily. But we don't want the unintended consequences of a program helping people that are in violation of their leases so I do look forward, as they administratively talk about how this is handled, the support of both of you in doing that because I do think those are some potential places that would impact our ability to actually help the people that need to be helped, and I don't think we want to do that. So I think we want to do that, I should say. I appreciate your comments. I understand your concerns. But as we -- once, again, as we work forward in trying to come to some resolution with this, as far as the appropriate way to make sure we are helping people and helping people that are responsible tenants and deserve to be helped, I look forward to that additional conversation. >> Renteria: Mayor. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Gallo -- I'm sorry, Ms. Pool. [7:51:48 PM] >> Pool:. >> Gallo: We're training him but slowly. >> Pool: So the part about the -- being in good standing or compliance is a concern to me because I think it sets up a conflict with the tenant and the management that may not be resolved in the amount of time when the relocation assistance would be necessary. It would add an additional layer of complexity to a situation and so I cannot support either of the Gallo amendments. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Renteria? >> Renteria: Yes, mayor. I'm also not gonna be able to support that. You know, I have visited some of these sites, especially on some of these mobile home sites, and, you know, there's nothing in their lease agreement that -- I mean, that -- you know, it's not very well explained to the people that live there, you know, and they don't get to -- they could be in violation without them even knowing it. So, you know, that's -- that's the way -- when managers that run the -- some of these apartments and mobile home lots, you know, they use any kind of excuse, well, you don't -- you're not supposed to have a dog. Well, you have too many children in your house -- in your mobile home or your apartment and you didn't claim them. Those are the kind of things that, you know -- and my ordinance will take care of that, that concern by saying once you submit for demolition, then the people that are there, you noticed, you notified them, then they're eligible for assistance. So that's what I want to keep in mind in my ordinance. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: I'm not going to support either of the amendments either. I think they would be good conversations to discuss during the guideline period. I think the give and take with the other amendments got us to a balanced place to move forward. [7:53:55 PM] And when I look at the guidelines, in part I take a look at how eminent domain or condemnation cases work when a government is condemning property from a landowner and in those situations, a property owner is entitled to receive compensation even if they relocate before property is taken once they've been given the notice, the theory being that in that situation, you want tenants, if there is an opportunity to find a place, to be able to take it rather than having to stay in the lease to the very end, when there might not be a place available. So I think, you know, these are tough questions that you have identified here, because they're the ones that are close and then hopefully they can be discussed in the guideline process but at this point I'm going to -- for those reasons oppose both amendments. Ms. Houston. >> Houston: Mayor, I just have a question. Could somebody speak to me about what the guideline process is. If we pass this ordinance, then what happens? >> Mayor Adler: I read it to say that there's still a stakeholder process involved surrounding the nexus test and then how that would be -- what the fees are and how they would be paid would be part of that conversation. >> Houston: Okay. That clears it up. >> Mayor Adler: Is that your understanding too, Mr. Casar, Mr. Renteria? Yes. All right. Any further discussion, we'll vote on the Gallo amendment number 2, those in favor please raise your hand. Gallo and Zimmerman? Those opposed? Rest of the dais with Ms. Troxclair off. Any other amendments to be offered? Take a vote on the another one too. >> Gallo: We had amendment one and I think everyone has spoken to it. I would move to add additional eligibility requirement, that a tenant must have an executed lease with a lease term scheduled to end on or after the last day of the notification period required under section 251712. [7:55:56 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Okay. There's been an amendment. Seconded? By Mr. Zimmerman. If there's no discussion, we'll take a vote. Those in favor of the amendment, please raise your hand. Gallo, Zimmerman voting no. Against. Please race your hand -- raise your hand. It's the rest of the dais, with Ms. Troxclair off. The motion has been moved with the incorporated accepted amendments. Those in favor please raise your hand. >> Casar: Mayor, I wanted to make a quick comment and my comment will be brief to this and I'll actually speak to the next item a bit. Today is a really important day in a great -- and a great day to be part of -- for Progressive city council looking out for those people who have too often too little power in our communities. While creating jobs is really important in our community and creating new housing is really important in our community, it's also very clear that too often people don't get treated right at their job or don't get treated right when new housing gets built. I'll never forget in my first couple months as a councilmember getting a call about one of my own apartment complexes in my district being redeveloped and having constituents become homestead or I won't forget in my time at workers defense project rush to go a job site, having heard that one of our construction worker members had a big pile of rebar fall down on them on the job. So while we need more jobs and we need more housing, this council is taking really important steps to make sure that when new housing is built, that tenants have new rights that they so badly need and deserve, and that and as our city fixed its permitting process that we don't forget that workers need good jobs too and that people so badly in our community need a pathway to a blue collar or middle class job. [7:58:00 PM] So I'm really proud of us today for standing up not just for a booming economy, but a thriving economy that actually distributes as much of that benefit to every different person in our community because there's not much worth in having a booming economy if it's only benefiting a few people. So I'm really proud of this council. [Applause]. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Gallo? >> Gallo: Thank you, mayor. And I really appreciate the amendments you put forward. I think that helped clarify some of the issues that were of concern. Thank you for doing that. But you know me, I'm always kind of the budget person, where's the money going to come from. I'm reading the backup information on this and it says that staff estimates the first year implementation cost of this item is $1.6 million and funding for this item has not been identified. So could staff or someone help me understand where the funding for this is going -- do we have staff? Where the $1.6 million in funding will come from? >> Rebecca giallo, assistant director of neighborhood and housing development. Staff has not identified the funding. It is put forth on the concept menu as an item for consideration. >> Gallo: So it's not part of the proposed budget that the city manager brought forward. >> No. And that could have been the timing perspective of where we were at in the stakeholder process. And in addressing the item from council, but it is not. >> Gallo: Okay. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Yes, mayor pro tem? >> Tovo: I wanted to take a moment to thank people again. When I took office in July of 2011 I think one of my first meetings was with ruby row and Robert Doggett. [8:00:08 PM] I think I had been literally in my office three days and it was a situation where there had been a rezoning of an apartment complex and those tenants were not relocating, being asked to relocate to leave their apartments very quickly. And they hadn't identified plans. So that situation has repeated itself as we know multiple times in the years that -- in incident at the scening years. And it is, as Robert Doggett has said, it took a very long time to get to this point. And I just want to say thank you to all of the community members who have worked so long and passionately on this issue, especially ruby row and Robert and Ann and the many other groups. And I want to recognize my former colleague, councilmember Morrison who sponsored an early tenant relocation effort and thanks to colleagues Renteria and Casar for getting us to this point. I think this is much overdue for Austin. As we're changing and growing and seeing development we need to make sure that the families who are occupying those apartments are able to find housing, preferably in their neighborhoods, near their neighborhood schools, and are able to land on their feet in stable and safe housing. Thanks again. And to Heather way for all of her work on it as well. [Applause]. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Zimmerman. >> Zimmerman: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Other people have made some closing comments, I guess, so I'll add mine. I'm looking at the backup and the backup says under fiscal note, councilmember Gallo already pointed out there's no money for this so the council seems to be congratulating itself for spending $1.6 million that we don't have to spend in the budget. But it says here that a fiscal note is not required. That's part of the problem we have with the culture, with council. We think that we can pass feel good stuff window paying for -- feel good stuff without paying for this. [8:02:13 PM] I will be voting against it. There is no money to pay for it, and I don't think it's honest to be congratulating ourselves for a program that's not funded. [Applause]. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Let's go ahead and take a vote. Those all those in favor of the motion as amended, raise your hand? Those opposed? Mr. Zimmerman voting no, troxclair off the dais. The others voting aye. This item passes. [Applause]. Took us a little longer to do than I thought. We'll go back and take some budget people. >> Casar: Second and third reading. >> Mayor Adler: Second and third reading, it's passed. >> Houston: Mayor, I was interested in knowing why a fiscal note was not required. Why is that in the recommendation. >> Mayor Adler: I don't know the answer to that. If staff could get Ms. Houston know the answer to that, I would appreciate it. We're now going to go back to the public testimony on the budget, do this for a little bit and see if maybe we can get through the other one more quickly. I'm not sure there are any amendments from the dais on the next one. But that gets us back to item number 44. And the next speaker I think we have is Sally botch. Is Sally botch here? What about Elizabeth Colvin? Okay. Ms. Botch? >> Thank you. Thank you for letting me speak. My name is Sally botch and I live in district 5, below Ben white in 78745. Through generations my family has developed high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis as we age. [8:04:15 PM] Recommended treatment for all three is being active. So I join my neighbors at Jocelyn park walking the track, gardening and playing in the field. Unfortunately November through February it's too dark to be at the park after work. Because the field lights no longer work. I join my neighbors at garrison pool, but I see cracks and I know its time is short. The park is also dark in the wintertime. Deferred maintenance does not save the city money and people will not visit parks if they don't feel safe. We as members of the gave coalition urge the council to support the allocation of $500,000 to the pard budget in support of the 10 parks in 78744 and 78745. Your investment so far in dove springs has brought people to the park. I was there on a a Tuesday night this summer and it was absolutely packed with people. Please fund pard's lighting initiative in the other 10 parks of 78744 and 78745. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [Applause]. Suspect Elizabeth Colvin here? Cynthia vata? Frank Ortega. >> I've been called lots of things in my life, but Cynthia vata is one I haven't heard in a long time. I'm Cynthia Valdez. I want to congratulate each and every one of you for having passed what you just passed. I'm a former -- few people know this. I'm a fair housing investigator from the regional office of hud and I handle the state of Louisiana and some of Texas cases. And you wouldn't believe the stuff that I saw. So I think it's very honorable for you to take the position and support of the families that are often times left at the very -- it's just hard when they may not have resources or a voice to speak for themselves and they're left at the hands of whoever the property manager may be. [8:06:37 PM] So thank you very much. And I also want to say something about the adapt coalition. My daughter had a spill a couple of weeks ago and there was a crack in the asphalt, she was in her wheelchair. There was a crack in the asphalt. And where she fell you hit the very corner of the cement that's sticking up over the asphalt. And Tuesday she had her teeth removed from the upper part of her jaw. And these are the issues that those that cannot walk face everyday in trying to maneuver themselves through dilapidated sidewalks or no sidewalks and sometimes fighting the bikes that are on those same sidewalks. And it's just a transportation and mobility system that really needs to be upgraded and adapted to fit the needs of each and every one of our community members. So please consider that. I'm here basically to ask that you support the recommendations from the Latino hispanic quality of life and the other commissions that are putting forth recommendations that they have had to address now as they've created -- as you've created this opportunity for the citizens to go to these commissions and to talk about their concerns and their needs in community. And you have those commissions present to you all a need and budget recommendations that they hope you will adopt and put into your budget. So please consider those. And also, I have a brother who is a police officer and -- in Arizona. It's a tough place for a Latino to be as a police officer. And so it does bother me when I see problems arise not only on that side of the law, but on this side of the law. [8:08:42 PM] Or a country or whatever it may be. And anything you can do to make sure that there is adequate and ample and appropriate equipment for them to have access to, please do it. [Buzzer sounds] Again, I'm supporting the recommendation on the quality of life commissions and ask that you please, please consider the needs and the safety and the health and welfare of our citizenry here in Austin. Thank you. [Applause]. >> Good evening, mayor and city councilmembers. My name is frank Ortega. I am lulac district 7 director. You have received a couple of emails this evening, but basically this is what I'm about to read to you. Lulac district 7 respectfully asks that you approve the Latino hispanic quality of life budget recommendations. We have included a brief letter to each of you as mayor and city councilmembers of the city of Austin. We have also attached a copy of the state Latinos in Austin, Texas, solo tex, complete report that addresses the various determinants of health for our community and the executive summary. Thank you in advance for the consideration for your work in making Austin a better place for us all to live. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. Eddie Lopez? Susana Almanza? Darryl Smith? Michael Lofton. And then Wayne Williams will be on deck. Mr. Lofton. >> Good evening, mayor, city councilmembers. [8:10:44 PM] I'm Michael Lofton, I am the CEO of the African-American youth harvest foundation. I'm extremely pleased to be here today, but one of the things I came to talk about first is ask if y'all would support the amendment and the proposal from the African-American resource advisory commission. In addition to that, I just wanted to take the rest of my time to just share with you some things that have transpired with the foundation that I think is vital to our community. And one is I'm happy to say that we are now a subcontractor for austin-travis county integral care. And in our work inside of aid and inside of gardner- betts we are running into tons and tons of kids that have some type of substance abuse or mental health problems. I want to take my hat off to the city of Austin and Travis county health and human services because over the last eight or nine months they have produced a report that shows there's a disparity in the health and substance abuse programming and resources that's available for our kids. Over the last three weeks I went and met with about eight principals in our community, and every last one of them wanted one to two to three full-time mental health and substance abuse counselors. I am happy to say that today we have a resource center and we now have a health clinic. One of the things that we're needing is counselors. I have about 50 or so resumes of individuals that have -- that are licensed, certified to be counselors, but we truly need this. And mayor I say to you today, I know one of your initiatives is to focus on homelessness. And when you take a look at the kids that are -- that have these problems in our schools today, one thing that I know, the disease will eat the homelessness down the road. [8:12:44 PM] So I would ask that we take a look at that. And then I will go further to say we put together one of our 212 digital media teams down in manor ISD. And I say this to say it's sad when I ask the kids to put together a psa on some of the concerns that they have in their schools. One of the psa's that they did, I started to bring it today, but I said I would not do that. But this psa was focused around suicide. And to have kids today to feel like that they have problems and their only way out is suicide, that's a problem. That's a problem. And we have life coaches on five campuses, and every one of these life coaches are telling us that kids are coming to them and asking "I need help, I'm on drugs, can somebody help me"? And sure, we're working with a number of agencies, but you have to go through several programs in order for them to actually get the treatment that they need. So our kids today are asking for help and we ask that you all would take this into consideration. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you, sir. [Applause]. Wayne Williams and then sonta Henderson. Kia Wallace. >> >> Mayor Adler:, mayor pro tem tovo, my name is santa Henderson. We are working with substance abuse and a lot of the things the kids are needing in schools. This is so prevalent. We had a lot of children come in, about 15 years old who talked about substance abuse and not being able to sustain himself and thinking he needs help. Why this is important is because we have these children and they get into the schools and into trouble. [8:14:48 PM] Truancy, they don't show up. Then the school system says we'll kick you out on are you can't come back or the kids get into school and they act out because they're under the control of alcohol or drugs or whatever they're using at the time. Pills, prescription drugs. The it's one of those cycles that continues and what you have is kids who drop out of school, kids who are considered problematic and get suspended and then they're on the streets of Austin committing other crimes, trying to sustain the habit. They don't have the money. The parents don't have the money. We have mentoring for these types of children. Mr. Lofton talked about the substance abuse, but we have mentoring for them. We have life skills classes. I'm currently mentoring a child who is 17 and both parents were in prison for most of her young life. So she's 17, but you would think she's about 12. And she's been kicked out of aid. And it's a cycle. So when we talk about reaching out to children and helping them, it's something that's critical because we don't turn anyone away. We're called the African-American youth harvest foundation. Mr. Lofton started this non-profit a decade ago. We're celebrating a decade, but we don't turn anyone away. We've had all types of kids this summer as I've been with the organization, and it is just critical that we try to find a way to reach out to people who have these problems. If their parents had the money that would be one thing. We wouldn't be standing here, but we deal with people in the lower socioeconomic, the poverty rates, the poverty levels. So these are the people that don't have the money to do these things. So where are they? They're downtown. They're on sixth street, they're cruising your neighborhoods. They're doing whatever they have to do to sustain themselves and get what they want. So where do we step in? We can provide them with quality care, with substance abuse, with life skills, with mentoring. We have a computer lab that -- to try to teach them the skills, how to build a resume. [8:16:48 PM] We have a workforce development center because once they get into trouble, like the young boy today, he told me "I just want to work. I screwed up and I've used some drugs, I've used marijuana, but now I won't be able to get a job and I need to help my mother." All of these things go together in trying to get on the right back. I remember being 15, it was like five years ago. [Laughter], but we all have things that we've done. So you cannot give up on them at such a young age and that's why I think it's critical. Thank you. [Buzzer sounds] [Applause]. >> Hello, my name is Kia Wallace and I am the director for the harvest youth foundation. There is a great need for mental health and substance abuse services for low income individuals primarily in the northeast and east corridor. Not only is there a great need for access, it is important that the services are culturally competent and that there's a safe haven for the demographic we normally serve, which are normally hispanics and African-Americans, but we're open to all ethnicities and races. We are partners with many of the strong advocates and organizations in the Austin community, however our niche is providing services and programs by people that look like those we serve. We believe this proactive approach with funding from the city of Austin proposed budget would significantly reduce judicial issues and unthey will think interactions with law %-@enforcement, eliminate underage drinking. So aid in the support we are asking from the city to have skin in the game, we have a gala with a keynote speech made by Dr. Cornell west. 100% of proceeds raised from this event will be poured back into all of the programs and services that we provide for youth for free and their families that desperately need those resources and help sustain our foundation in the long-term. [8:18:50 PM] Lastly, they cannot continue to climb the ladder of success without the city. Thank you. [Applause]. >> Mayor Adler: Crystal Lofton. >> I just want to thank you for having me tonight be able to speak. Drug use at an early age is an important predictor of development of substance abuse disorders at a later age. Research indicates that a majority of those who have substance abuse disorders started before the age of 18 and developed their disorder by the age of 20. The African-American youth foundation goal is to provide substance abuse and provide emotional health to help students learn and succeed socially and emotionally. We need additional funding to provide home-based interventions and school length services that support high need students or the high needs of the students. And their families. Through drug education and social emotional learning curriculum. We have noticed that increase in the amount of youth that have to deal with the challenges of substance abuse. We need financial assistance to connect with this population and their families. With your help we can save lives, promote healthier family structures and create more accessibility for families and youth. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. [Applause]. Victoria Louis Dunn? And then Ebony Alexander. Impervious cover I'm with the African- American harvest foundation. I'm currently a life coach at one of the schools and I've dealt with kids that came to me telling me that they have smoked weed, did other kind of drugs. [8:20:55 PM] I would talk to them and talk to their parents, and it is a need at the schools that we have substance abuse so these kids won't go on those ramps and not scared of telling anyone else because some of the kids I serve they won't go to their counselor, won't go to the principal, they will rather talk to me. I think that need is there to give that awareness to the kids and to their parents because that's who is needing the support as well. So if you can help us tremendously, we would appreciate that. Being a life coach at the school has helped me get involved with the kids, let them know things I've been through and let them know that I'm there to help them. Thank you. [Applause]. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Elaine Lofton. >> Good evening, mayor and councilmembers. I thank you for allowing me to speak before you today. I am here to support the African-American youth harvest foundation and the budgetary needs to support a community out cry for assistance. The African-American youth harvest foundation has been in existence for over 10 years as you previously heard, with the positive track record to provide current and additional services to the youth in the community. It is important the needs of the youth and the community are addressed before they end up in the juvenile facility or in most cases their issues may not be displayed until they have reached their adult years. The harvest foundation would love to be proactive in helping those in need. Work to rehabilitate those that have an opportunity to be redirected. It is with your support that the harvest foundation can make an impact in the community while at the same time improve the statistics in the city of Austin. Thank you for your time and hope you will consider supporting the efforts of our present youth who will eventually be the future decision makers of this city. In closing, I would like to say someone once quoted, "Never let your past get in the way of your future. [8:22:59 PM] Your past can't be changed and your future doesn't need the punishment." With your support we can make a difference for someone's future today. Thank you. [Applause]. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Council, if it's okay I think we're going to try to double back and see if we can try to quickly handle item number 29. Again, we have over an hour worth of speakers and they've agreed to reduce down to four on each side, two minutes per speaker. Mr. Casar, do you want to make the motion on item number 29? >> Casar: I'll let the sponsor -- >> Mayor Adler: I'm sorry. Ms. Kitchen? >> Kitchen: I would like to move passage of item number 29. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Is there a second to that motion? Mr. Casar seconds that. Ms. Kitchen, I've handed out an amendment motion sheet on item number 29. It has mayor Adler B 2. Are those amendments acceptable to you. >> Kitchen: Yes, they are. >> Mayor Adler: Is it okay with the dais that they get incorporated? Without objection they are. We have some speakers to speak. Let me go ahead and call them. >> Kitchen: Let me -- I'd like to explain. I think that I'd like to make a few -- point out a few things, just that the purpose behind this resolution is to continue down the path that we started a few months ago and that is to make a policy statement that we need to consider the needs of workers and the rights of workers for safety and training. When we look at voluntary programs like this. So that's what this does. It takes a step down that road. It does not create an expedited permitting process and it doesn't finish the step. [8:25:00 PM] What it says is that when -- what it says is if there's going to be a future expedited permitting process that these protections, these worker protections, training, worker's comp, living wage, that those things should be included, and then it directs the city manager to come back to us. With program guidelines within 30 days. So I think it's very important for us to honor our workers, and do that in a way that we can look at worker safety. >> Casar: And mayor, just for clarification about what is in the resolution, again, this is some folks I think have picked up a story that this is adding extra requirements to our permitting process. That's indeed not the case. These are requirements for any new expedited permitting process that we would create, which would allow people an unprecedented amount of speed in the permitting process. Also some people have talked about whether this was excluding some of our government funded training programs for participating in the jobs. That is not the database. This is just the deeper level of training that can help people get to middle class jobs from construction jobs. And finally some folks have said that are we mandating that any one group gets paid by the city for this? And indeed what was in staff's memo was that monitoring could be competitively procured. That's what's in the resolution. And the developer's fees would be used to pay for the city's cost of complying with the standards. So just to make it really clear about what it is that we're talking about today. >> Mayor Adler: I think this going forward with this study group helps us figure out what the correct balance is between two elements here, both designed for me to point to helping with affordability in this city. [8:27:07 PM] We know that the permitting process in this city for years has taken too long and cost too much. It makes everybody's home more expensive. It limits the number of projects that get built that are affordable. We need to fix the permitting process and I know it's a goal for so many of us on the dais and we've put a lot of resources against that and we had a presentation today. And we're making great strides in that regard. And that's important. The expediting process is one more tool in order to be able to achieve that, and that's a real important goal for this city. It's also an important goal for the city, making thing more affordable by making things cost less, but by giving people more money to spend. By increasing job opportunities, by making jobs safer, by increasing the time that people can actually be at work. And we need to make sure that we in this city do both of those two things. So this initiates that process and initiates that study. And hopefully within 60 days the staff -- the this passes. Council is asking for the manager to come back -- >> Kitchen: In 30 days. >> Mayor Adler: It would be moved to 60 in my amendment because they really couldn't get it done in 30. The last line of the amendment. >> Kitchen: Oh, okay. >> Mayor Adler: Because as a practical matter they couldn't get that done in 30 in the middle of the budget stuff and we'll lose a lot of people. So within that period of time they need to come back in order to help us get to that -- get to that balance. But now we have speakers. And Mr. Zimmerman, do you want to speak to it real fast? >> Zimmerman: No, just point of order here. I don't think I've got your latest documentation. Maybe we should bunt on the overhead here and see where we are. I didn't have this one. Do you have an extra copy we could put on the overhead? [8:29:10 PM] >> Mayor Adler: I've given three copies to the clerk and passed -- I passed it down to you. And those amendments just said that the local hiring are goals are local not just to the city, but to the msa because we have a population that lives not just in the city, but outside the city that provides for the qualified pool of the competitive processes Mr. Casar just spoke about and it asks them to come back with a scope and scale of projects that were applied to. And then change the 30 to 60 days. All right, I'm going to call the speakers on this. Two minutes each, four each side. Bo Delp will start us off. Jeremy Hendricks second. Thomas Mendez and Felix jimendez. >> Good evening, council. I am here first and foremost at workers defense project to deliver a petition of 961 construction workers and their families who have asked for these worker protections to be minimum requirements for any fast track expedited permit review process. The city of Austin needs to reward businesses that are willing to invest in their workforce and ensure that every construction worker on that site receive the basic protections listed in this resolution today. By voting for today's resolution you are affirming your values that these worker protections are window think requirements a -- worthy requirements and should be minimum requirements for contractors on nonresidential projects. It also continues the construction. With your support city staff will develop program guidelines on approving third-party monitors, on possible exemptions for small scale projects, and will return them to you for your feedback and your approval or rejection. Now, we have heard a lot from industry and I have to admit I'm a little confused because depending upon who you speak to from industry they will say these things are already done or they're saying they're too burdensome. [8:31:21 PM] The first one is easy because if it's already being done this is about the easiest thing for contractors to achieve for an expedited permitting review process. The second one takes a little longer. If you look at a study done by the university of Texas and promoted by the real estate council of Austin, developers cite that hard costs in this city have been going up on average 12 to 15 percent per year. According to that study a developer would save about five percent on their hard costs by eliminating the city of Austin's typical three and a half month permitting delay. This is research promoted by reca. Conversely, foundation communities who have met these standards on two projects may have reached out to you and they have told you that their construction budget -- [buzzer sounds] -- On meeting these standards are between .25 and .5 percent. There is clear value for developers in this expedited process and I urge you to support this resolution to come back with guideline. [Applause]. >> Mayor Adler: Jeremy Hendricks. Will Thomas come down to the other podium? Is Thomas Mendez here? Why don't you come down here? >> Good evening, mayor and city council. I want to thank you for allowing me to come here this evening of and represent the building and trades and the thousands and thousands of workers that live in and around this community. That build this beautiful city of ours. Unfortunately far too many of them spend everyday technology in the most dangerous conditions without fair protections. Laborers and our brothers and sisters in the various crafts work hard to build this city but they've been seen as an expendable commodity on a ledger sheet. Far too many are subjected to unsafe working conditions, poverty wages and dead end jobs. Far too often construction workers that build these buildings surrounding this city hall are forced to live far outside of the city of Austin without access to training or the ability to advance their career. [8:33:22 PM] Tonight the Austin city council has the opportunity to advance item 29 and take a stand for workers. You have the opportunity to say no to poverty wages. You have the opportunity to say no to unsafe working conditions and you have the opportunity to say yes to a living wage, yes to worker's compensation coverage, yes to safety and skills training that's Dul certified to ensure that workers get the best possible advancement if their career and say yes to independent monitoring to ensure that workers are truly protected and receive community benefits through expedited permitting. I want to take just one second to read a snippet of a letter I believe you received from a signatory contractor of the laborers and several other crafts who is also a member of the agc. Don't be fooled by anyone telling you they can't meet better builder standards. These worker protections are common sense investments. Everyone in this industry has to look after their bottom line and knowing the business, I am certain that project owners have far more to gain financially from a fast track permitting system than they would lose by needing to meet better builder standards as minimum requirements. Austin can simply do better. And the last thing that Austin needs to be is like Dallas. Think about pay to play expedited permitting, we don't want that. This is Austin within we need to make sure we don't lose this community spirit. Thank you for supporting this. [Applause]. >> Mayor Adler: Is Felix Jimenez here? >> Good evening. My name is Tom Mendez and I am aer with Austin interfaith, a member of St. Ignacious catholic church. I'm proud to speak tonight on behalf of Austin interfaith. For over 20 years Austin interfaith has been working to better the lives of the working men and women who make up the backbone of of this city. These are the same people hit hardest by the affordability issues that plague Austin. [8:35:28 PM] Mayor, as you mentioned, this is a need for fast track permitting and as a community we all understand the need to protect these workers and their families that build Austin. Safety training, worker's compensation insurance, independent monitoring, a living wage and local hiring goals are all important and nestle.s of a holistic permitting system. Builders that get special treatment should not get a different standard, they should be held to a higher standard. The city should reward businesses that want to invest not just in a project, but in the people of Austin. We fully support the community benefit element for these standards on fast track permitting. In the future we hope to see a community benefit for residential permitting as well. Particularly with regards to making affordable housing an option. Austin interfaith is proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with community partners that have worked hard to make sure that we do not take working families for granted when we develop policies. Now city council, you have the opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to the workers who quite literally build Austin. Thank you. [Applause]. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Mr. Jimenez? >> [Speaking in Spanish]. Good evening members of the council and mayor. My name is Felix Jimenez and I work in construction. I am a member of workers defense project and I belong to the better builder committee. I myself had a work site accident and did not have worker's compensation coverage. [8:37:38 PM] As you know, Texas is the only state that doesn't require worker's compensation coverage. >> And we are asking you to pass this law that will require safety trainings and make sure that workers are better trained on the job. We're just asking for a living wage that will allow us to support our families and will allow our children to get ahead and to be good citizens of this city. And we need independent monitoring to make sure that those standards are met and to make sure that workers are not afraid to report problems on their work site in order to prevent fatalities like what we have seen previously in the construction industry. [Buzzer sounds] >> Mayor Adler: You can keep going. >> [Speaking in Spanish]. We also want to see a local hiring requirement to make sure that as our city grows it benefits everyone who lives in this city. And and we also want to make sure there are safety trainings for workers and for contractors. [8:39:42 PM] We won't stand for any more needless loss of construction workers and for that reason we are advocating for these better builder standards. We have faith that you as our leaders will take these steps to protect workers and to make work sites safer in Austin. Thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [Cheering] The next group of four speakers... Take your time. >> Councilmembers, again, good evening. Aj Bingham, real estate council of Austin. We've for a long time promoted or wanted to push for an expedited permit review program. We are supportive of the resolution the mayor has put forward and look forward to working with the staff and other stakeholders to find the [indiscernible] For all parties involved. Thank you for your time. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> Thank you, mayor and council. I'm Rebecca millionson, the executive director of the Austin independent business alliance. We represent over 800 locally owned businesses. Please make no mistake about our position on this resolution. Aiba stands with the construction workers this their goals to achieve safe working conditions, fair pay, security and justice. [8:41:48 PM] We have serious concerns about the resolution that's been put before us that ties implementation of this and these goals to proposed expedited permitting program, therefore we cannot support this resolution. We have a problem. Our permitting department has been dysfunctional for a long time. We're trying to fix that problem. It's going to take a little bit of time to fix it. Since the Zucker report and council are recommending expedited permits as a solution to the problem we're trying to fix, aiba supports this action, but without the conditions designed to solve a very different problem. We have another problem. Apparently some of our construction workers aren't being treated fairly and are being put at risk because of unscrupulous operators who cut corners and take advantage of their workers. But we already have laws to prevent this. If enforcement of those laws is an issue, then let's fix that problem. If we need different laws for that, then let's fix that problem. I'm going to pause. I have this really nice presentation for y'all, but we had an incident happen last night that I feel compelled to bring forward at this point. We were very much looking forward to working with workers defense. As I said, we've supported them in these efforts. Workers defense has created an environment of intimidation by going after some of our members and our board members. [Buzzer sounds] Which I seriously object to. [Buzzer sounds] Can I just finish this one? >> Mayor Adler: Finish your thought real fast. >> Okay. They publicly on social media attacked wheatsville food co-op because they are on our board. And I cannot think of another local business that is as community minded, as public oriented and as supportive of workers defense project as wheatsville. [8:43:52 PM] They recently gave them a 10,000-dollar donation because they support them and now they're being attacked. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> We're not going to do this. One second. Bo Delp ended this conversation with #you can do better than this. And I totally agree with that. Aiba and local businesses are better than that and I hope this council is better than that too. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Phil Bodin. And then Tracy Barry. >> Members of the city council, I'm Phil Bodin, president of the Austin associated general contractors. Proud member of district 10. Aagc -- I'm happy to come down and talk about construction safety because I'm really, really proud and ity think our council and community should be really, really proud of the -- personally the dozens of professional -- safety professionals, certified safety professionals I know who work each and everyday to protect thousands, tens of thousands of workers on job sites around here. The Austin agc has been in Austin since 1946. In 1974 we were one of the first organizations to have a full-time safety department to work with contractors who voluntarily wanted to get better and protect their workers. In the 90s we began offering a worker's compensation group so that contractors could voluntarily get access to worker's compensation. So I say that because I'm against the resolution and I haven't seen the additional changes, so I can't even speak to those. I know that the good news here is that there's a lot of good intentions, and safety is not the -- it's not exclusive to just workers. It's not exclusive to just labor unions. It's not exclusive to just industry. [8:45:53 PM] It's not exclusive to one group. It's a collaborative effort. So I can pledge to you that with our experience and with our resources and knowing of the resources of other groups here, the home builders, reca, goodwill and others, we can address needs for construction workers. I don't believe that it needs to be forced into action through getting an expedited permit. I don't think that's the way to go. Time will tell what the market wants to do, but I'm not confident it will work. [Buzzer sounds] Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Tracy Barry. >> Good evening, mayor and councilmembers. My name is Tracy Barry and I'm the senior vice-president for community engagement in education with goodwill central Texas and we are a proud member of the greater Austin chamber of commerce. I had a big prepared speech to give y'all, but we are against this resolution because we believe they're two separate issues. So for the past three years we have lost over $600,000 in revenue from not being able to open our stores, and our stores aren't for the sake of making money. They're directly funding job help and training programs for the people we're talking about here today. And so we strongly urge you to consider them as two separate issues. We believe in workers. We help many of the people that are in this room here today, and it's really important to look at it from the perspective of how do we help business employ more people. We're working with employers who want to work and have safe environments. We have our goodwill career and technical academy, and we provide training for construction and other disciplines at no cost to students, and under these provisions here that will limit that ability, and for our employers who are hiring those individuals into jobs that are on a career path, it's not just about that entry level wage, it's that journey. So let's tackle them separately. [8:47:54 PM] If worker protection and safety is an issue, let's give it its due process and tackle expedited permitting as one piece and workers safety and training as a complete separate piece. And let's get the economy going in a safe, responsible manner that allows all parties to be successful. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Hold on a second. Mayor pro tem? >> Tovo: I have a question for you. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Barry? Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: So you made a reference I didn't understand. You said something about $600,000 from not opening your stores. I couldn't follow the -- >> I'm sorry, due to delays in -- because of the permitting process and not being able to open our stores as scheduled that we lost not only revenue of over $600,000, but that also cost people jobs. So in those stores over 75 jobs for full and part-time employees, and again those are the people who need them the most. These are people who are given second chances. People with criminal backgrounds, all the things we've been talking about as a community of trying to solve those problems and employing our local workforce. >> Tovo: So not to get down into the nitty-gritty, but I just want to understand how you calculate that dollar figure. Do you sort of look at the average goodwill store and calculate it out? >> And when we do our budgeting process and we say we're going to open -- we're scheduled through the -- we look at a whole construction schedule. And when we say we're going to open, for example, on July 1st and because of delays in permitting, we now can't open until September 1st, that's now two months of revenue of looking at what other stores would have made and who we would have employed. >> Tovo: Thank you for that explanation. >> Yes, sir. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Zimmerman. >> Zimmerman: Thank you. It's a concept of holding costs, right? [8:49:56 PM] And people that have never run complex businesses have no concept of holding costs, which can be hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. Let me ask you quickly, how many -- how many companies have -- do you think have left Austin, they've moved to the suburbs, they're down in San Marcos, they're moving to other places because of the regulatory environment here. I have a lot of people come in and say that companies have left Austin permanently and won't come back, development companies, because of the regulatory environment. Can you speak to that? >> You know, I can't speak specifically. I would be guessing at that. But I can speak from the sense that we work with local employers, hundreds and hundreds of local employers who we are training individuals to work for them. And again, it's about a career path and sometimes it's an entry level wage up to we want beyond a living wage and we know that their struggles in order to do this and the regulations that are preventing them from hiring more people, and that's what this is about is how do we get more people jobs in our community. >> Zimmerman: Thank you. >> Kitchen: Mr. Mayor, because we seem to have started to talk about a few things, I'd like to just say something pretty quickly. And we can talk about it more, but I would have to agree with what several people have said that this is two different issues, but it's two different issues in a different way. I'm sorry, you can sit down. >> Thank you. >> Kitchen: I just want to say that I agree it's two different issues, but it's not two different issues between protecting workers and the review process. It's two different issues between expedited review and the regular review process. There is no question that we need to fix the regular review process, and we will have lots more conversations about that. But the expedited review process is a special process and in return for that I think we have the opportunity and the responsibility to look at the benefit to the community and to our workers. [8:51:57 PM] So that's the way I'm thinking about it. [Applause]. >> Mayor Adler: And I look forward to the process we're going to go through that weighs that. One of the benefits of having an expedited process is the ability to be able to get the kind of community benefits that you want. And there will be two community benefits that come out of this. One community benefit is one we're focusing on here this evening and the other community benefit we need to drive is to help improve the process. >> Kitchen: Right. >> Mayor Adler: And having an expedited process we're told is going to help us speed up permitting process for everybody in this city. We want to make sure that we drive both of those. >> Kitchen: Yeah. I'm just trying to say that I don't think -- I think we're on the same page. We don't stop at expedited. We need to fix the regular process, not just have an expedited process, but it's a whole different issue and process. >> Mayor Adler: But I think that's one of the ways we can fix the process. >> Kitchen: Not the only way. If it's the only way the only people that can participate in expedited would get that. >> Mayor Adler: No. If you increase the speed in the expedited process then you increase the speed in the non-expedited process too. So I think that there are benefits that can work back and forth and the group I think is going to have to try to find that balance. Anything else? Yes, Ms. Houston? >> Houston: Mayor, I'm not as familiar with this proposal. So I need to ask does this relate to small commercial remodels or small businesses? Is this for anybody that wants to get an expedited permit even if it's a small business trying to just do some remodeling? >> Mayor Adler: Hasn't been decided yet. >> Houston: When does that happen? >> Mayor Adler: That's what we're asking the manager to come back with. [8:53:59 PM] >> Houston: In 60 days. >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Houston: And the stakeholders, because like Ms. Malonson had some concerns about small businesses, that's when those issues will be taken up. I heard goodwill saying some really -- some of the same things. So I need to make sure that those voices will be heard in the 60-day process if this is passed because I didn't see where -- there may have been stakeholder participation prior to this coming to us, but I didn't see anything that referenced that. >> Mayor Adler: I agree. I think everybody in this room needs to stay engaged here as this is being worked through. And people who are not here need to stay engaged. Anything else on this resolution? It's been moved and seconded with the amendment incorporated. Those in favor please raise your hand. >> Houston: 60 days, right? >> Mayor Adler: 60 days. Please raise your hand? Those opposed? Mr. Zimmerman votes no, the others voting aye and troxclair off the dais. That passes. [Cheers and applause] All right. So where we are, I'll point out to the council that we cut off about two and a half hours by doing the exercise on those two, but we still have three hours of testimony to go on the budget. We are now back to the budget. The next speaker on the budget is going to be John Limon? Is John Limon here? After John I have Jennifer Goldstein. Is Jennifer here? No. What about Kathie green? Why don't you come down, Kathie green. Jennifer, Jennifer Houlihan will be on deck. [8:56:08 PM] You're up. >> All right. >> Mayor Adler: Can I ask the people who are exiting to help us get started quickly here? Thank you very much. Yes, please, Ms. Green. >> Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council. My name is Kathie green. I'm the chair of the austin-travis county food policy board and I am also the advocacy and public policy director at the central Texas food bank. I am here today in support of the reeks in the healthy food initiative. These recommendations were made in response to council's resolution and have been listed under the health and human services portion of the concept menu. Our working group met many weeks collaborating with stakeholders across the food system to study all aspects of food access. We know that although Austin is a very prosperous city with many food options, there are many people across the city who do not have consistent access to healthy food. We serve a lot of those people at the food bank. And inconsistent access to healthy food is more than just a hunger issue. It is a health issue and can result in chronic conditions such as type II diabetes, stroke and heart disease. There are also often people who use our public health system and our programs so it has an academic condition and consequences if we don't correct it. All of the recommendations and related budget requests would together significantly improve our food access in Austin. You have many items in the budget that you need to address and many needs that you need to look at, but these recommendations are proactive and they are a small investment for a great return. I encourage you to consider and support these recommendations for funding. Thank you. [Applause]. >> Mayor Adler: Next speaker is Elizabeth Colvin. [8:58:19 PM] Thank you. My name's Elizabeth Colvin, in district 9. I'm here speaking on the affordable care act run by foundation communities. I'm asking you to please approve the item in the HHS concept menu that were put forward by the councilmembers for district 3 and 7, which we greatly appreciate. In the past ten months, foundation communities has enrolled more than 5,000 individuals into health coverage. The return on investment for this program in the past 10 months is $13.8 million. That is -- those are federal premium calculus credit dollars that are subsidizing the cost of comprehensive health insurance for people in our community who cannot get insurance through work, medicaid, or medicare. And for us, enrollment is just the first step. We are open all year long to help people keep, maintain, and use their health insurance. As I'm sure you all know, insurance is a very complicated financial product, and it can be challenging to use, especially if you've never had health insurance before. So we are open all year to answer questions, to review bills when people get diagnosed and panic, we help them find in-network doctors. We're helping make this insurance work for people. So please I ask for your support of the concept menu supporting the affordable care act funding. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Jennifer Houlihan. Is she still here? Aletha Houston? Janet Thompson. Lauren goldbeth is on deck. Yes, sir. >> Good afternoon to this distinguished body of servants. My name is Kenneth Thompson, Sr. [9:00:20 PM] I am a lifelong austinite. And I've come to talk a little bit about the budget process. I am also one of the commissioners on the African American resource advisory board -- commission. Really, what I've come to ask is that, you know, you support the concepts that we have submitted to you as -- as a commission. You know, you have an opportunity. You know, you have an opportunity to say to our community of color, you know, that we will not be marginalized. You have this opportunity to demonstrate that your words has actions, and also you have something -- you have an opportunity not just to say something, but you have an opportunity to do something also. We think, you know, we have talked about this word called equity. We use that word, equity. And I think the reason why we use the word equity, because I think to some degree, we don't see it as part of our community. And it's easy for folks to talk about equity, but it's kind of difficult for some was to live in this inequity environment. And we always talk about just how wonderful Austin is as a city. And I say Austin is a beautiful place. I love Austin, Texas, with all of her flaws. But I would say that you should be the voice of equity. And the things that we see each and every day, you know, you talk about folks of color leaving this community. We don't -- we don't leave places where we feel accepted. We don't leave places where there's equity. And so you have an opportunity, and not only just talking about equity, but doing something about it. Right? You know, we are just somewhat frustrated that sometimes we seem to be a talking point for the dais. And what we're saying to you is that we're much more than a talking point. And when you do something, if you do something of value -- let me tell you what it does for us also. It gives us an opportunity to go back to our community and not have what we call the surface conversation, but have a level of deeper conversation saying that, you know, there's folks up on this dais that actually care about the folks here in Austin, Texas, and actually care about people of color. [9:02:35 PM] And so you have an opportunity to say what you mean and mean what you say, and so we ask you to give us something to go back to our community to talk about how wonderful you are in valuing these people in our community. And the way you can do that for many of us is support what we have, what you have seen the African American resource advisory commission put before you. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [Applause] >> Mayor Adler: S Lauren goldbus here? Karen Gonzalez. Ann Howard. You'll be on deck. >> Good evening. My name is Karen Gonzalez, and I am the program director for non-profit here in Austin called [speaking in Spanish]. I want to thank you for allowing me to speak to you guys today. I am here to ask for your support in funding the mental health as I was, particularly for come madre. I'm here not only as program director of come madery, but as the product. Myself and my mother joined the program when I was 12 years old as I was attending a school in aid. Come madre empowered me and made me believe that anything was within my reach. However, when I was a junior and senior in high school, I had a counselor who told me that because I was Latina, college was probably not the best choice for me, and that I should give up on my dreams. And, thankfully, I did have come madre with me, and I was able to receive individual counseling because I did, you know, go into depression and I lost my sense of motivation and self-worth during those years. But I'm not only here to speak about my case, but also because, sadly, I'm not the worst of the cases we had at come madre. [9:04:42 PM] We have girls who have attempted suicide, who have gone to mental health institutions because of the, you know, self-worth and low depression. And I'm just here to ask that you support the funding because come madre can and will help young girls like me continue on and move on to higher education. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [Cheers and applause] >> Good evening, mayor and council. I know that we're all tired, but I'm actually very inspired by all of these voices that I've heard here tonight. This is Austin, Texas, and these are people coming down here and exercising their -- their privilege and their right and talking to us about their need. And I'm here also just to echo their voice as the chair of one voice where we represent now right at 100 health and human service organizations to exist to make sure, as councilmember Casar and I have heard the mayor say it many times, we're not doing our job in Austin until all of Austin can enjoy that which is good and fun and rich and tasty. And we have got to share more of that, and that is the work of these organizations. That is the work of one voice, to get more people in -- thriving, and not just trying to survive. Your job is hard. You've got to find the money. I know you can do it, and I know it exists. That's what leadership is. It's hard. So dig deep and work together and find the money so that these folks fighting poverty have a chance. That's enough of that was written down, but you know what we stand for, there's money in the concept budget to continue your investment. [9:06:45 PM] Part of your job that's hard, you've already done some good, hard work. You've already passed resolutions that say increase the investment in health and human services. You've already contracted with organizations, and there's money in the concept budget to make sure you can fulfill those contracts. So that's sort of an easy one. Do what you've already said you're going to do. Anyway, none of it's easy. I appreciate your hard work. Happy to take your questions. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [Applause] >> Mayor Adler: What about Larry Elsner? Kathie Mitchell? Is Barry James here? Ms. Mitchell, you have six minutes. >> Hi. I'll keep it -- I don't think I'm going to need my -- all six minutes. We've been talking to y'all, and I think my main message here tonight is that we're suggesting a cut. You've heard a lot of reasons why you should fund a lot of things that sound awesome. As somebody who works and has spent 20 years in criminal justice, I have to say I've been particularly compelled by the testimony around the rape kit backlog problem. The DNA lab had some very significant issues, and I consider it actually a sign of good faith and good intention that it was actually closed down. But we do have to fix it. And that's going to cost money. The reason I start from that is not only because you all heard a great deal of very important testimony about that today, but because I think it represents a dialogue we need to have about what is public safety and how do you invest in it. [9:09:01 PM] We're suggesting today that you say no to all of the new staffing for APD, both the you've made and the civilian, and we're saying that because we don't think at this point that APD is the right culture, has the right culture, and that, in fact, before we hire new people, we need to make some very concrete changes so that that culture is the one we want before we bring new people into it. So on that front, I'm going to suggest just a handful of things. And, again, this gets to our -- my theme for the moment, which is that, actually, it's okay to make this cut. It's okay to allocate that 13 13 million, I think it is, to other things you've heard tonight, the way APD can show that they are actually walking towards a responsible, concrete approach to public safety to making us all safer, we think that there are some things that they can do right now. They can show that they mean to be a better department. We would like to see definitions around community policing and a process for saying what that's going to be. That gets directly to what this staffing ask was all about. We'd like to see some changes to the policy manual. I know you all have seen a number of those things and are considering them, so I hope that you, you know, continue to look at that. We'd like to see officers you'd more efficiently. Existing officers, what they're doing with their time. One of the proposals is to stop arresting people for non-jailable traffic offenses. Every time an officer books somebody for something that they really didn't have to take them downtown and put them in jail for, that takes hours. [9:11:09 PM] It often takes multiple officers' time. So let's use the officers we have more efficiently. Let's stop doing things that we don't actually have to be doing. All of those things will increase public safety because they will make all of us on the other end of those interactions feel safer, and when we feel safer, officers are safer. One of the things we want to point out is that when officers overstep, when they are too aggressive, when they don't deescalate, they actually can trigger reactions in civilians that might not have otherwise occurred. And all of a sudden, that interaction is not as safe on either side of the equation. We'd like to see, and we've said this. I think it's really important. We'd like to see mental health first response moved entirely out of APD. We know that's not something they can do right -- you know, with a wave of the wand, but again, the idea is, use the existing staff we have at APD more efficiently for the things that they're good at, and have them have other people do things that they may not be as good at. And finally, we think that once APD has reconsidered its model, has really defined community politician and created policies of deescalation, that there's a really need to reevaluate the training and change it so that when we, maybe in a year from now, bring a number of new officers into this department, they're coming into a culture that's different from the one we have now. So I hope -- I think I have undercut minutes. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Mr. Zimmerman. >> Zimmerman: Mr. Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Zimmerman. [Applause] >> Mayor Adler: So, Ms. Mitchell, I appreciate those remarks, and one of the reasons I'm sympathetic to the request you're making is that I've also been a little bit frustrated that as chair of the public safety committee, we tried to get deeply involved in the police body camera policy for, you know, how we're going to release video, under what circumstances, and we were told that APD had already decided, you know, what the policy would be, and there was no need for city council to be involved or to vote or -- so that's been my frustration. [9:13:41 PM] So I'm interested in talking with you more. Let me just ask one quick question on your way out. You mentioned about escalation. I think we're putting a tremendous burden on police to try to figure out what's a real life and death emergency and what is a mental health problem. I think that's an impossible burden to place on the 911 operators. And the other thought that goes with that, when we talk about deescalation, doesn't the public have some obligation, too? Don't call 911. When somebody picks up the phone and calls 911, it's the public that's potentially escalating the situation. Does that make sense? The public is escalating -- you're calling 911, that's an emergency. That's not mental health. That's an emergency phone number, and we should really be calling that number when we have a life-threatening situation, and we need, you know, serious help, potential use of deadly force. So I think the public is escalating sometimes by calling 911 when maybe they shouldn't. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Next speaker is Marsha stokes. Is Adam a conn here? Adam conn, you'll be up next. Ms. Stokes. >> Okay. Councilmembers, mayor -- >> Mayor Adler: Can you point that microphone a little closer to you? >> Okay. My name is Marsha stokes. I'm a Homer at arboretum park condos. I'm here to comment on excessive fees for small demand meter customers. Our community of 39 homes will pay three times as much for the same water usage as an equivalent multifamily commuter with an unmetered fire line. [9:15:50 PM] $3,100 a month instead of a thousand dollars for 129,000 gallons. That's about $600 extra per homeowner per year. After speaking to Austin water in 2011 then presenting to the water and wastewater commission in 2012, and the Austin public utilities committee in January this year, I was encouraged when this issue finally made it to the current Austin council budget concept menu as item fr 3.03. Members of my community, myself, have attempted to get your attention and support with various e-mails to each of of you since December last year, the last on August 21st, the contents in your handout. Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed when 3.03 came up in the budget work session yesterday and no one spoke for us. So once again, Austin water's recommendation to put us off another year until the next cost of service study was accepted. I understand that we are only one community and we have pushed -- been pushed aside every year for four years. However, I've listed four other communities and four other districts including an affordable housing property and smart housing community that are also impacted. Is this message of affordable renter housing but possibly double utilities the message that we want to send out? Austin water has said it is a complex issue. It doesn't have to be. I ask city council to implement fr 3.03 as a variance for this budget cycle for the five communities listed who have the greatest financial impact. The revenue impact to Austin water for the year would be about $74,000. This would represent equitable charges for these smaller communities. Thank you. >> Tovo: Thank you. Have you concluded? I'm sorry, was that the end -- I see that you have a question. [9:17:51 PM] Councilmember Zimmerman. >> Zimmerman: Thank you for being here. I believe my name was on 3.03 and we did bring that forward. We've been trying, but I do need more support from other councilmembers. So thank you for being here. >> Tovo: Thank you, Ms. Stokes. Mr. Conn you are next and you'll be followed by milk Rodriguez. After Mr. Rodriguez is B heirnca flores. >> All right. I will make my remarks pretty brief. I've been keeping an eye on this budget process throughout from the beginning about a month ago through where we are now and the next few weeks, and I just want to say what a disappointment this entire process has been. Every single one of you on this dais somehow, some way, campaigned on the issue of affordability, yet somehow, some way, this budget is going to raise numerous taxes and a whole bunch of different fees. Now, I understand, and a lot of you have made the argument, the mayor is the first one to comes to mind, that housing costs are the primary driver of the affordability problems that Austin has. I actually agree with that assessment. But, these taxes, these fees, and all of these various ways that the city government is nickel and diming its citizens doesn't help the problem, it makes the problem worse. And it just really seems that any effort to do anything to change business as usual in this building continues to fall on deaf ears. So in closing, I'm just extremely disappointed in this entire process, and I encourage you to take a much deeper look at the city spending. Okay, maybe it is not the primary driver of Austin's affordability challenges, but a big part of the equation, and I see, frankly, with a couple of exceptions, essentially nothing getting done to do that. [9:19:59 PM] The homestead exemption was a start, but this is going to eat away anything that gets done on that. You know, obviously Monday you did a small rate cut with Austin energy that is appreciated, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to how much more you are planning on spending this year. And if you want to do something to get housing costs under control, please do something to get houses costs under control instead of just giving us more of a runaround. Thank you. >> Tovo: Thank you, Mr. Conn. Mick Rodriguez. All right. Next is Bianca flores. >> She already left. >> Tovo: Rachel. >> She also left. >> Tovo: All right. Najar akief? And is cabayese Keith? Thank you. You will have six minutes. Kelly Coolman. >> She already left. >> Tovo: She has left? How about Essie Mccoy. You will be next. >> My name is anjera Keith, I'm here with the black and brown empowerment group. We're here this evening to advocate against the proposed $13 million budget increase for Austin police department, and for a freeze of that department's budget. There are several reasons APD's budget should be frozen, and even more reasons that an increase of $13 million is inappropriate and unjustifiable. According to the city's own numbers, there's no need to increase APD's budget. In 2015, APD's response to emergency calls was well under the national average at under eight minutes -- or at eight minutes, I should say. [9:22:00 PM] Violent crimes committed by the community are 4%. Let's talk about violent crimes committed by APD, though. Let's talk about brione king. Am I to believe that brione king was assaulted and brutalized because APD doesn't have enough money? Am I to believe that brione king was victimized by APD because it's understaffed? The additional officers APD claims it needs, supposedly for proactive community policing, what does that look like for my community? What does that mean? Does that mean more assaults on school teachers? Because what happened to brione doesn't indicate a need for more police officers or an increase in funding for APD. It is indicative of a need for more accountability, better and maybe less policing, and general regard for human life, specifically the lives of people of color. Does this council acknowledge that black and brown people together make up 63% of the people affected by excessive force incidents in this city? So with more police on the streets and with more time available to harass us, I can't help but see a budget increase for APD as a negative thing for communities of color. I hope that this council sees that APD is not ready for more funding, but homeless shelters are. Affordable housing initiatives are. In 2015, there were 7,015 homeless individuals in Austin. Only 34% of that population that's access to shelters. That's on the Austin city government's own website. As an Austin resident, I don't understand why APD needs more money, but I do understand why people need roofs over their heads. Do you know 42% of Austin's homeless population is black? It's a pretty shocking statistic considering that black people make up no more than 8% of this city's population. 42% of homeless people are black. [9:24:04 PM] Why is this council ready to support a department that is notorious for racial profiling around disproportionate force but not ready to allocate significant enough funds to care for a homeless population that is disproportionately represented by people of color? Not very long ago, I was canvassing in colony park, a predominantly black and brown neighborhood. The residents of the neighborhood complained that they couldn't remember the last time the city supported an initiative to clean up the area. They said he rarely see city employees there to which I hope the trees that are literally hanging overpower lines, creating a dangerous situation for the residents in the community. The black and brown people of colony park feel undervalued by the city and by this council. That came from them last week. Those were their words. Many members of the broader community feel the same. Allocating more funds to a department that has played a significant role in making them feel that way will not rectify the problem. Thank you. [Cheers and applause] >> Mayor Adler: Looks like the next speaker -- looks like the next speaker is -- >> Mr. Mccoy. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Mccoy. Mr. Mccoy. >> Hello. My name isusi Mccoy. I am a citizen of east Austin, here with my friend [inaudible]. I am a member of ccu. Ccu is communities of color united. What do we want? We want in the budget more than health care, we want more after school learning centers for more educated children, more housing, more parks in our neighborhoods, and we want no more money for the police. [9:26:19 PM] I mean, we have no reason because if the police wanted to do something, they could -- they don't need - - I mean, it looks like they have it, but they don't. They need it to buy more ammo and to kill more people. If they need to kill more people, is that worth money? If they would have killed 3,000 people, is that worth a million dollars? It's your turn. [Cheers and applause] >> [Speaking in Spanish]. [Applause] >> Good evening, mayor and council, my name is Marva Overton. I'm director of alliance of health and safety for central Texas and members of color coalition. We come to you this evening as a coalition just to reiterate our desire for equity in the city of Austin. Last year we worked together to pass a resolution asking for the implementation of an equity tool which hasn't yet happened. Therefore, we want you, as you consider the budget this year, to fund those items that can help bring equity to the city of Austin. We're in the process as a city of hiring a chief equities officer so we know there is a need for attention to equity. So you have just been handed the -- the signatures that we collected and asking for support of our ten-point plan. [9:28:22 PM] And just to briefly go over those, we're asking for increased funding to parks & recreation in underserved communities, transportation. There's a dire need, of course, for increased transportation to get persons from outside of the urban core into Austin. We want truly accessible housing for low income families, and education, after-school programs, which you've heard. [Buzzer sounding] -- Quite a bit about that so far. Also, increase for health equity programs, and for Spanish language programs, and of course jobs. I would also ask that you do consider funding for the equity, too. We don't see that that's in the budget, and it's going to be impossible to be an equitable city without a way to analyze the budget and decisions that you make with regard to equity. Thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. Thank you, everyone. I had Haley Cole. >> She's also gone. >> Mayor Adler: She's also gone? Engine ate Monsalve. >> She's also gone. >> Mayor Adler: Paula Rojas? Okay. Then Eric tang? And then Camino Rojas tang. Okay. And then jorne Coleman. >> She's gone. >> Mayor Adler: Gone? Uray Mccoy? >> He's asleep. >> Mayor Adler: Asleep. Michelle Mejia. >> She's gone. >> Mayor Adler: Gone? And then rasa hertz forgoer. That's okay. Nini amansalve. Kinsey Jones? Rebecca Callaghan? Is Rebecca Callaghan here? Okay. Then josu killan. [9:30:26 PM] Pass? Thank you. Zinobia Joseph. Would you like to speak? You're up next. Now, what was -- did you have other people here that had signed up? >> Just one more speaker, a group of about 30 of us. >> Mayor Adler: Why don't you give me that and they can speak now. >> Okay. That's me. I'm Anna Lisa plant. I'm core member of the [inaudible] Collective and ccu. I also work at the Dell medical school but I'm here as an individual. The children passed out copies of our petition, and we have a couple hundred signatures. It was, as Marva read, all the ten points that you've heard before. We did have about 30 people here, but we didn't want to take too much time. Some of them had to leave, but I want to stress that we have people from all of the districts represented in our group, including district 6 and district 4, myself, and I'll spare you the long version of the other point, but I wanted to make the point that context and history and power dynamics matter when citizens and residents of Austin are being spoken to. Some councilmembers and the mayor, yourself, have commented on respect from the dais already, and I appreciate that. I wasn't present here the last time and want to say that as a woman of color and the mother of a child, one of them behind me, I wanted to preempt any lectures that one of you might feel tempted to give our children and say that we let them know their responsibilities as residents and to bring the conversation back to the budget suggestions which is the 10-point plan. We know that there's a concept budget menu that you all are considering right now, and we are watching that closely. Ultimately, we want to see Austin's budget align with our ten points because it would be more equitable for everyone who lives here. [9:32:32 PM] Thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you, mayor, councilmembers. I'm zinobia Joseph. My comments are specifically related to police, education, and transportation. As it relates to transportation, I am opposed to the $720 million bond. Specifically, I want you to recognize, mayor, I know that you said on August 18th, 2016, that you represent all of the constituents, but respectfully, I think you are disconnected. I would venture to say that you've not been to Robert ham and [inaudible], dawn to dusk, you can't see the sidewalk. I would ask you to please consider taking the bus from the west side to the east side, then go north and south and so you how long it takes you. On or about may 21st, 2016, you made a comment on KEZI you do not see the constituents of district 1 here. Let me say it takes most people approximately four hours to get to and from work every day. So when they are on the bus, they cannot get down here. I will just use myself as an example. It will take me about 30 minutes to walk home tonight because the bus in my neighborhood stops running at 10:30. I want you to recognize that I have listened to the board meetings from capital metro and I've listened to the campo meetings and all of those meetings. They talk about interoperability and technology, and I want you to recognize that that interoperability does not relate to the everyday folk. If they have a free phone they're limited to approximately 120 minutes a be month. If they're calling capmetro and on hold, they are not going to come down here or be able to get the services that they need as. [9:34:39 PM] As it relates to education, I just want you to recognize many of us are overeducated and underemployed. When you voted last time, August 18th, 19 -- 2016 on item number 30 at the 11th hour, you had no information in front of you, yet you were willing to give 1$00,000 to the university of Texas Austin ray Marshall center. I want you to consider that huston-tillotson could probably do that work. I want you to recognize that you could read my information on the information here in Austin and Harvard journal of African American public policy. It is entitled I-35 divide, conundrum. Can a community partnership grant Austin's African American males access to college? We can do the work, mayor. We just need the opportunity. And I do appreciate ql 1.26, if I'm not mistaken, with which is your quality of life $3 million that you allocated or set aside yesterday, but it is not enough for you to simply go by the quality of life information that's provided to you. I want you to recognize that you need to give no-bid contracts to the consultants that are out here. [Buzzer sounding] And if you have any questions, I'll gladly answer it. The last thing I was going to say is about APD. I still haven't seen where you've addressed how many ftes they need for these body worn camera provisions as it relates to the open records act. Thank you. [Applause] >> Mayor Adler: Is Andrea black here? Andrea black will be the next speaker. >> Pass. >> Mayor Adler: Pass? Thank you. David shoulder? Shoulder? >> I pass. >> Mayor Adler: Priscilla hale? >> She's gone. >> Mayor Adler: Rose Pulliam. >> She's gotten. >> Mayor Adler: Elvis Mendoza. Cerabe kuke? >> She's gone. [9:36:41 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Joaquin he is Espinosa. >> He's gone. >> Mayor Adler: Marvin Overton. You already spoke. Amanda Williams? David Lopez. >> He's gone. >> Mayor Adler: Alejandro Casares. >> He's gone. >> Mayor Adler: Carmen zivieta. Chasmore. Is suki mcamann here? >> Here. >> Mayor Adler: What about Bob Clark? Mr. Moore, you have nine minutes. >> I won't need half of that. First off, it's late. Once again, thank y'all for being here. It's not easy, I don't think. I do want to start off with a few observations. I do think it's overtime that we at city hall, as a council, get a spanish-speaking translator. I think it's tacky for the city of Austin with a diverse community for people to have to come up here and have to translate for one another. I think that's a city we should provide as a city. Second of all, I want to take a moment to spotlight Ms. Houston's lovely hair today. I love her usually curly hair but I love that hair as well. In our community we would say that's laid. Before I get into what needs to be done, I do want to, you know, applaud you guys for pointing somebody that I think is worthy as the interim city manager in Duane hart. I think that's a good step in our direction. I also want to applaud you guys for -- especially the mayor, taking an initiative to making Travis county one of the few cities that has ended the veteran homelessness, even though we have a long way to go, applaud you guys for that. Taking a step in implementing are the initiatives to implement an equity office, even though we have a long way to go with that, just the thought that it's a real thing that we can see that's going to happen. [9:38:46 PM] And earlier, the tenant ordinance that you parked I think that was also worthy of applause. So I do think we're getting somewhere. Maybe not as fast as the people behind me and some of the other groups would like, but I think we are moving in the right direction. What needs to be done. Earlier, a group of ladies had to relive their traumatic experiences of being raped and being assaulted because we have a tremendous backlog problem. We have a DNA center that's not open for what I believe, like Kathie said earlier, the right reasons. We need to make sure it's adequately running and we need to make sure people that are running the DNA lab can do it at their best ability. However, it saddens me that these women had to relive that just to try to get some justice for that. And I stand with them. We have a group of disabled community needing better sidewalks. That is a community that is very much so left out of many of these conversations and that also saddens me as well. We had some groups up here earlier, I think ccu, some of them would also vouch for this, let's start investing in early childhood learning and after-school programs. I don't even have to explain to why that's important, I don't think so. Workers defense, I stand with them, too. It's some things we can do in the city budgetwise that just makes more sense. And I say all that today -- I say all of that to say, you know, earlier, Ms. Gallo asked a question, I think Mr. Zimmerman asked a question about the tenant ordinance, for example, where is this money coming from? Well, if we cut this $13 million from APD, then I think we have $13 million to play with. That money can go to after school programming, it can go to the DNA lab, which only needs, I think about two million bucks. So now we have 11 million bucks left. I think earlier you said for the tenant thing, 1.6. Now we still have $10 million left. I don't think the after school programs, I don't think these other initiatives need that much money. [9:40:49 PM] So that's $10 million we can put to some other sources in the city. That's just me thinking outside. I don't have all the paperwork and the staff running the numbers for me like you do, so I'll let you guys that got paid process that out. But I do say, if you look at the matrix report, it pretty much gave our APD department a D plus and I would even call it an F if you put the communities' eyes on it. The funny thing about the matrix point, it said -- in one breath it said we need more cops, but if you keep reading, keep flipping pages, it also says our police department is not able to bring in more people because the police department is not efficient, is not running right, and they need some internal things done. So I can't fathom -- and I think I'm a pretty smart guy, I might not look it but I can't fathom why would we invest in a police department that is sick? Why would we bring more people into a burning house, as opposed to putting the fire out, fixing the house up, then planning to add extensions or add more rooms or add more branches or what have you? I don't understand the need for APD to get $13 million to hire more people to put them in the police department, in a culture that is -- that is overtly racist, that is overtly overpoliced in poor, black, and brown communities. Doesn't it make any sense. So I'm asking this council that has done some really good things to go a step further and set a tone for a city that has police issues. We're communities of color and low economic communities, and say you know what, until we get this right, let's halt, and then let's take a year, with some community engagement, some community voices, community input, to come back and then present a report card to you guys, and then see if they need more money next year. But right now there's no way APD can justify a $13 million budget increase. Once again, thank you all for being here. Like I say, last, I'm going to go have a drink for you. [9:42:51 PM] Any questions? [Applause] >> Mayor Adler: I think we already had Richard Franklin no.? Nina sealy. And then Rudy Hinojosa. >> Here. >> Mayor Adler: I know, Nina. >> This is all we have left. Good evening. >> Mayor Adler: Hi. >> Thank you all tonight for allowing me to speak. I'm Nina sealy, executive director of the sculpture garden and museum. We're grateful for the opportunity to speak with you tonight, especially mayor Adler, mayor pro tem tovo, and to all of the city council. We appreciate your partnership. Today I'm here to talk about the future of the Enwall sculpture garden and museum located in district 5. We thank councilmember kitchen for reading the effort to support our proposal and those who supported this item pk 1.04. Listening to the many needs of our community tonight has actually been very heart- warming, and also heart-breaking, and looking at the needs that we have, reinforce even more greatly why the Umlauf must be supported. These reinforce why it is an important asset to our community, centrally located, the umwauf served as a peaceful space in the heart of Austin. It's a place for people to experience art in nature, and it is important to note that we serve many children and families and those who need a reflective place to find peace, to feel accepted and welcome in our garden. [9:44:56 PM] All through this inviting space, through people who work there and through the art exhibit at the Umlauf. When Angelina and Charles gifted this 30 years ago with his studio and over 270 works of art, the city accepted this and said, yes, let's do this together. Their vision was to make art accessible to all children, families, and at-risk youth, providing touch tours to the visually impaired and those with special needs, and free tours for every public school child. Daily, children are educated about sculpture, nature, and the artist, Charles Umlauf, through free public school tours. The Umlauf is a touchable garden and provides 42 schools in Austin with tours, 37 of these are title 1, and our goal in the next five years is to provide all 53 title 1 schools with this programming. Many of these schools are also provided transportation by the Umlauf because their budgets have been cut to be able to come to the Umlauf. Our total reach is 5450 aid school children each year and every district here is represented by the Umlauf in our community. In addition, another 1200 children are served in surrounding school districts. We also started an after-school program for boys and girls clubs called shaping space within the schools. This program started in two schools just three years ago, and has grown to 11 schools this year, serving 1500 children. In addition, the Umlauf provides free programming to 4750 families and caregivers monthly through our family day programming where they learn ways to enjoy time together -- [buzzer sounding] -- And a number of activities to expand their minds and createty. Today we need to garner support. At a minimum the actual maintenance and operation cost to run the city's facilities, the city's eight-acre garden and maintain the city's art work and preserve the leg say of Charles Umlauf are 536,416, resulting in an annual short fall this year. [9:47:01 PM] I have more to say if I have it. >> Mayor Adler: I don't know if you saw yesterday or not, but -- >> I did. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. I just wanted to make sure you saw that you probably should talk to Sarah as well. >> I did, and I want to make sure that I provide you all with the information. I think councilmember Houston had asked some questions and I provided all of that to send back out to all of you. >> Mayor Adler: Great. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [Applause] >> Mayor Adler: Rudy Hinojosa. And then joy kasnovski will be next. >> Thank you. Before anything, a mental health emergency is a medical emergency. Period. Ask any emt. Second of all, I usually would like to introduce myself as Rudy Hinojosa, but thanks to the solidarity displayed by councilwoman Delia Garza, today I'm going to introduce myself as Rodolfo Hinojosa, Jr. From Austin socialst coalition. [Applause] Austin finds itself at a transformative time in its history right now. We have approximately, the last time I checked, more than 100 people, on average, moving into Austin every day. Many of these people are not of low income. This presents a very interesting question when it comes to budget, which brings me here today. Who will change Austin? Austin is going to change, inevitably. We all know that. But will it be the austinites that have been here their whole lives? Do they deserve more of a voice than the austinites who just moved here? [9:49:09 PM] Do -- who deserves more of a voice? Who will change Austin? How will they change Austin? Let me remind you that I used to have the honor of actually interning for the city of Austin, and it was a great honor and a great privilege and one of the greatest endeavors of my life. But something I couldn't help notice that was quite --Ost cartoonishly ironic, on either side of city hall were buildings labeled silicone labs. And I find that indicative of the influence being put on this city. I've heard the term silicone hills being used more and more often as time goes by. And I don't find it particularly endearing or particularly a positive sign in its whole. We may have driven Uber and Lyft out. Let me backtrack. That's inherently inaccurate. We may have won the battle against Uber and Lyft's trying to strong-arm council -- [buzzer sounding] -- But that by no means means that austinites have the voice that they deserve. So with that, let me finish with this. I'm an after-school program professional. I know the difference every single percent of the budget has. Every single percent of the city funds, and every single percent of the budget, and the general fund happens. [9:51:12 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Fund has. In my district alone -- I'm sorry, not my district, found a district where a difference of one percent, they spent one percent of the entire district's budget to lead after- school programs. This led to numerous programs where students were allowed to take home plants that they grew. Parents would show up every weekend -- >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Hinojosa, you need to -- >> Absolutely. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> So every percent counts. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: The next speak is [inaudible], then the speaker on deck is sari abernos. >> Hi. Good evening. >> Mayor Adler: Good evening. >> Council. Thanks for allowing me to speak this evening and thanks for staying awake. My name is enjoy kovano ski. I am to talk about the food recommendations. Back in March you directed the city council to find solutions to the food access and food insecurity problems we have here in the city of Austin. Over several months working with city -- the food policy manager, Edwin Marty, and working with about 33 different groups, we came up with a list of six very cohesive, robust, what we thought were very solutions in the right direction to solve some of this. As you may well be aware, about 35% of students in aid between grades three and twelve are overweight or obese. There's a gap in people who are eligible for snap, previously known as food stamps, that don't have food stamps and we don't really know why, but they're eligible. [9:53:21 PM] Also, when people use their snap dollars, about five dollars spent in snap increases -- or has an effect about nine dollars in the economy. So where is all this going? Basically the food access recommendations are to expand healthy retail. We know that large grocery stores are not going to be able to to go into all communities, but there might be other solutions to get people access to healthy food. That might be healthy corner stores, that could be, we've seen success with farm stands run by communities on their own school campuses. This would be a way for folks to access healthy food. Another thing would be to pilot a nutrition incentive program. There's a lot of ideas out there to make punitive decisions on people's buying habits. But what if we incentivize people's buying habits on healthy food. Then the last one is campaign so those folks not on snap, can we reach out to them and galvanize them to take advantage of these funds. So, basically, what I'm asking is for us to -- or for you all holding the power to look at these food access recommendations, think about in terms of investing in health, investing in equity. We know that Austin is a -- is a healthy city, but when you look at our population, that a lot of people have been talking about tonight, inequities in our communities of color, we know that's higher. There's challenges accessing healthy food. And, finally, also an economic incentive, when people are working with small businesses, when they're spending this money and they're buying healthy food, they are investing in their community and they're investing in their health. Thank you. [Buzzer sounding] [Applause] >> Mayor Adler: Bob Clark and then Rodolfo Hinojosa. >> Hi. Thank you so much for allowing me to speak. [9:55:23 PM] My name is [inaudible] And I'm also with sustainable food center. Joy gave the background of food access recommendations very well. I just wanted to kind of emphasize that we're dinged we all share values of having a healthy community, and as ray mentioned, Austin is known as a very fit city. I think the food access recommendations that we are urging you to consider highlight the fact that health -- healthiness is not equal in all parts of the city, and so these access recommendations are really about equity. So I really urge you to consider the -- the recommendation to expand healthy food retail initiatives, so that's making it easier for corner stores that sell healthy food to come about in the communities where they're most needed, where food access is limited. The recommendation to pilot a nutritious food incentive program so that's allowing programs like the double dollar incentive program that sustainable food center has highlighted at farmers markets to exist at also, for example, those healthy food corner stores so he that we're incentivizing people's buying habits in terms of healthy food. And then finally to allow coordinated awareness campaign to happen to really figure out why there's that gap in snap enrollment, so to allow people who are eligible for those benefits that allow them to access healthy food and improve their health, to really take advantage of those -- those benefits. So thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. Is Bob Clark here? Bob Clark? What about Rodolfo Hinojosa? >> I was confused about that but I don't know if I can still speak. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. That's fine. That concludes the public comment portion of the budget hearing required by state law. [9:57:28 PM] We're going to vote to adopt the budget for 2016-17. On September 12th, 2016, if we don't adopt the budget on that day, September 12th, we're going to continue the hearing to September 13th or September 14th. The meetings will be here at city hall, 301 west second street, Austin, Texas, and will begin 9:30 A.M. On Monday September 12th, 2016, Tuesday, September 30th -- 13th, 2016, and Wednesday, September 14th, 2016. Is there a motion to close the public comment portion of the hearing and schedule adoption of the budget for September 12th, 2016, to be continued to September 13th and 14th if necessary? >> Zimmerman: So move. >> Mayor Adler: 4 Zimmerman moves, Mr. Renteria seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Those opposed? It's unanimous on the days with Ms. Troxclair gone, and Ms. Gallo gone. That concludes everything that we had on the agenda for today. Note that we -- before 10 o'clock. Note that we have set a special meeting for both Thursday and Friday of next week in case we need it, the 13th to go over the concept budget ideas getting ready for the following week when we need to actually adopt the budget. We'll probably also put a special item on there related to the serve process for the managers we discussed earlier today. With that said, this meeting stands adjourned.