City Council Regular Meeting Transcript – 03/01/2018 Title: ATXN 24/7 Recording Channel: 6 - ATXN Recorded On: 3/1/2018 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 3/1/2018 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== [10:11:22 AM] >> Mayor adler:all right. I think we have everybody here. So we're going to go ahead and get started. We're going to begin before we start the meeting with the invocation. Is pastor Cynthia kepler-karrer here from memorial united methodist church. Everyone please stand up. Thank you. >> Will you join me in spirit? Gracious god, this is a room thick with opinions, knowledge, egos and hope, which is entirely appropriate because Austin is a city also thick with opinions, knowledge, egos, and hope, including my own. This morning we pray that out of this mix those we have elected to help us live together in community will be able to chart a path that fosters peace for those that fully emnitty, encourages flourishing of all people and provides justice for those who wonder if it exists anymore, especially those who are marginalized and often without voice. May a common good which seems increasingly less common these days become more so under their leadership and through their decision-making process today. We ask these things from your wild and wise spirit, whose presence I invoke here. Amen. >> Amen. >> Mayor Adler: Let's go ahead and call this meeting to order. >> Houston: Mayor, could I have a quick point of personal privilege? >> Mayor Adler: Sure. >> Houston: I want to remind everybody there's voting here at city hall today, copies of league of women voters, nonpartisan and sample ballots. Before you leave, please go [10:13:24 AM] vote. >> Mayor Adler: All right. Thank you. It is 10:12. Today is March 1, 2018. This is the city of Austin city council meeting here in city council chambers at 301 west second street, Austin. We have a full dais. Let's go ahead and take a look at the changes and corrections we need to read into the record. We'll get to pulled items in just a moment. We have late backup on items 5, 15, 16, 17, 23, 39, 40, 41, and 43. Today's consent agenda goes through items 1 through 22 and also includes items 43 and 44 as they appear on the addendum. With respect to the consent agenda we have two items that have been pulled by councilmember Houston, and they are item number 17 and also item number 22, pulled by Ms. Houston. We have two items that have been pulled for speakers, and those are items number 5 and item number 15. We have people to speak on items 7 and 21 when we speak on the consent [10:15:25 AM] agenda. Anything else on the consent agenda before we go to the public to speak on the consent agenda and get a motion to approve? Councilmember alter. >> Alter: I don't need to pull anything but I would like to add [indiscernible] I would note for my colleagues they still have quite a number of fees that are not covered, if anyone else would like to join me in adding to that. >> Mayor Adler: I would like to join you and my office will add 300 to that item number 18. Yes, councilmember pool. >> Pool: And, councilmember alter, I will offer $150 as well. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: I'll also add 150 from my office budget. My fee waiver budget. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Anything else before we -- >> Alter: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Is there a motion? Let's get a motion, second and then we'll go to the public. Councilmember alter moves approval of the consent agenda. Is there a second to that? Councilmember Garza seconds that. Mr. Casar. >> Casar: I just want to highlight for the dais and for the public item 2, which I'm supportive of and it seems like it's going to go on consent, which is us moving $150,000 to the housing trust fund that was paid for by the law enforcement's successful work against repeat offender on 52nd street. As you recall it came at city expense for us to take care of the tenants that had to be moved from that property because it was deemed too dangerous for people to live there so I want to appreciate the legal department's work on recovering some of that money and look forward it having it in the house trust fund so we can take care of more folks in similar situations. >> Mayor Adler: Sounds good. Let's ask the public to speak on the consent agenda. Gus Pena. [10:17:25 AM] Mr. Pena? You signed up for two items, item number 5 and item number 7. Item number 5 has been pulled so we'll call for speakers on that in a second. >> You said seven and 43, right? >> Mayor Adler: Yes, 7 and 43. >> You got it. I got it too. Mayor, councilmembers, good morning, Gus Pena. To my baby Sophie watching on TV, behave, don't clap too much. Anyway, I know she's say Tata, I love you mama. Item number 5 is having to do with multiterm contracts with Mccall, parkers, Horton. I'm asked by people to speak and question, do we not have attorneys that are fully knowledgeable about this particular item of the agenda? It seems like we should have attorneys that are fully knowledgeable about that instead of having to go out there and getting contracts from outside legal. This has been ongoing since I started speaking in front of mayor Jeff Friedman, may he rest in peace, as to why do we not have attorneys competent on this type of legal issue, issues, instead of spending taxpayer money. I'll leave it at that and you can answer it later on. That's number -- but, I mean, I'm for it, but it's just a question of prudence from my community, and the veterans for progress. Item 43 is having to approve an ordinance, blah, blah, blah, et cetera, extending minority-owned and women-owned business enterprise program. Anything we can do to support women, they are -- they're not equal to us. They're more better than us. I know women are, you know, my wife keeps telling me everyday in Spanish too, [speaking non-english language], that women are better than men, and I know that for sure. I say it with respect to men because my veterans are [10:19:26 AM] going to question me when I leave here, veterans for progress, but I want to say anything we can do to support women's minority programs and businesses, we're all for it. I'll keep it short, but, mayor, please, if anybody can explain number 7 and why we do not have the appropriate legal employees on staff attorneys that are fully vetted and fully intelligent about these type of matters, it's wise and prudent, I guess is what [indiscernible] Anyway, thank you very much for allowing me to speak. I got a lot of items to speak on. Baby soph if I, I love you. Give me strength and players please. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Mr. Hirsch. Mr. Hirsch. I say that, you're called on item number 5, which we pulled, so I did that wrong. I apologize. It's kinesha wells. Is Ms. Wells here wanting to speak? Those were all the speakers we have on the consent agenda, council. There's been a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. The items pulled are 5, 15, 17, and 22. The consent agenda goes from items 1 through 22 and 43 and 44. My comments? Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: I wanted to make a couple comments about item number 3 and just to thank the staff for bringing this forward. This is to enter into an agreement with the university of Texas for water technology innovation and, you know, this is -- climate change is certainly one of the most pressing issues facing our community and our world today, so I appreciate the water utility's continued action and in looking for innovative ways to use our water resources and to plan better for the future. [10:21:27 AM] So that's. . . >> Mayor Adler: It's been moved and seconded. Those in favor of the consent agenda please raise your hand. Those opposed. Yes? >> Troxclair: I just want to be shown voting no on items 3, 6, 7, 23 and 43 and that's it. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. So noted. Then we'll take the vote. Those in favor please raise your hand. Those opposed raise your hand. Unanimous on the dais with those notations. Thank you. That gets us then to the pulled items that we have. We have speakers signed up to speak on item number 5. Mr. Pena do you want to speak to item number 5? The fee waivers for mobile loaves and fishes. >> Yes, sir. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Hirsch, you're on deck. >> Item number 5, an ordinance waving and reimbursing 13,000 et cetera for community first village. I know Allan graham very well. He has done outstanding work. Having known homelessness myself, we know it's much support from the community, from the city council, the commissioners court, even the length. By the way I'm a Democrat but I admonish the government for what he's done as -- has not done enough for housing for homeless veterans and homeless women and children that are homeless. I got 15 minutes with him, which is -- and I'm a Democrat but I ragged him about it. Anyway, Allan graham and community first village is outstanding. I have supported them from the beginning. And I will continue to support them, any kind of support outside from the city council that is available for these type of developments is outstanding. We need it because there's a lot of homeless people out there. Mayor, mayor, there are a lot of homeless veterans still out there. You've made a erroneous [10:23:28 AM] statement at the city state address, you said there are no more homeless veterans. There are. Please don't do that again. That's a disgrace to me and a slap in the face to me and my veterans that are homeless. I can fill this room with veterans that are homeless. I choose not to do that. Anyway, I respect you, but please don't say that again because that is erroneous, even the state senators called me and said admonish him. You're a good guy so I'll leave it at that but please don't say that again. That's erroneous. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Mr. Hirsch. >> Mayor, members of the city council, St. From district 2. I wish I had money to buy three billboards outside of Austin for those of you who have seen the movie. If I did, they would say mobile loaves homes in Austin, why not. The fee waiver item this morning doesn't waive any fees for building inside the city limits because they're not allowed to based on what they do in our rules. Some of us were on the staff when we identified a site inside the city limits where they could have done it but the neighbors didn't want them to so they had to move out of town. If we can't do that for them, please waive the fees. And they deserve a tribute song so from this old man,. ♪♪ Mobile Lopez, they build one but they are not one and done with a knick-knack paddywhack give some fees away, mobile homes some lives will save. Mobile homes they built phase two with some help they ask of you with a knick-knack paddywhack give some fees away, mobile loaves some lives will San Francisco. Finally mobile loaves could build phase three with some change of fees from thee with a knick-knack [10:25:29 AM] paddywhack mobile home some lives-lives will save. Thank you for item 5. Please make it possible for them to come in town. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Those were all the speakers we have. Is there a motion to approve item number 5? Ms. Houston makes that motion, seconded by mayor pro tem. Councilmember Garza. >> Garza: I was wondering if staff could -- when this item was first on the agenda, it was a significantly larger number, and so I'm trying to understand why the change in that number? Because this isn't the first time this has happened with development service fees. >> [Indiscernible] We were part of the fee calculation. Capital recover fees are the biggest part of the fee. Capital recovery fees are very detailed driven. I think when this first came to us for fee calculation it was listed as a 350 unit development so when you approach a fee calculation like that if you assume every unit has a meter, that's 350 meters at 7,000 a meter, that leads to two or $3 million fee versus as we worked through the details, contacted the client and their engineer, it became apparent they would be served in part off an existing meter as well one other master meter so the number of meters and associated capital recovery fees dropped by 90% so that's what changed the fee structure from our side. >> Garza: Okay. Thanks for that explanation. I absolutely support this. You know, there's only a couple levers we can pull to help these kinds of -- these issues we face in Austin but there was a -- you know, a big project just outside of my district where the initial numbers were very large, of the fees we were waiving, which caused a lot of controversy and there again it was I think at that time, again-- later it was said that, oh, okay, it's not going to be that much. There again, it was an opportunity to help with affordable housing. [10:27:29 AM] So I'm happy to support this item. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. There's been a motion and second to approve this item. Those in favor please raise your hand. Those opposed. It's unanimous on the dais. Five is passed. That gets us to item number 15. Item number 15, we have speakers present. Is staff here to speak to this? Would you speak to the valuation that you have made? There's some conversation about the two candidates, I guess, that are in question here, the one that got the award and the one that did not. If you could add -- if you'd explain to us why. >> Good morning, mayor, council, rondella Hawkins, telecommunications and regulatory affairs officer. I'd first like to begin with the objective of this contract and solicitation. And it is to -- really to enhance and increase the investment of direct client digital literacy trainings at the seven core city facilities identified in the solicitation. We want to leverage the city computers that -- and internet that are going to be provided in these facilities, which is a change from the current situation. The goal is to serve more unduplicated clients with more -- say more enhanced [10:29:30 AM] training in the community. And the evaluation team, it was -- it was a consensus from the evaluation team between the -- from the two proposals that the recommended vendor, ctm, provided a more -- provided a emphasis -- a solution to really increasing the training. We have a number of public access computer facilities throughout the city. There's currently I believe -- we've got -- I think we're about 30. We want the core facilities to be staffed with instructors and really providing direct client training services. And the evaluation team looked at the proposals. There was -- there was four members on that team, and recommended CTN. >> Mayor Adler: Can you explain why it is that you councilmember tovo conclusion that the recommended vendor would do better at training people at the seven location? Why? What led to that conclusion? >> Well, there is -- in the solicitation -- we know that trainers -- I mean, you know, that is a costly -- it's a costly expense, and we are -- we envisioned having -- we want to build up the number of trainers in our community at these labs. One on one training is much more, I think, empowering to individuals that we're serving, and we -- the train the trainer model, the proposer, recommended proposer, has a real strong train the trainer program, which is intended to increase the amount of trainers in the community, and that was a strong point. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. [10:31:32 AM] Any further questions before we get to public comment? Ms. Houston. >> Houston: Thank you so much for those comments. I've got a couple of questions. There was some items in the matrix of the scoring that were omitted by one of the bidders, and I'm wondering was that due to an oversight or by mistake? Because if you read the proposal all the way through, they did in fact do those items. So I'm just trying to figure out, is it they didn't check a box? But if you read the content of what they say, they're doing the services that you were requesting. >> I'm sorry, I don't quite understand. Were you -- >> Houston: Okay. So under sections 0615 requested that the bidders check the goals of the strategic plan addressed by this proposal. There was seven goals listed. The recommended contractor checked seven out -- out of seven, the other contractor checked only five out of seven. But if you read through the documents they're doing some of that work. So is it that they had to check the boxes and their written comments weren't taken into consideration? >> In the evaluation, I think the narrative and -- you know, the narrative and the proposed solution would be taken into consideration. I think if it was a matter of an oversight of not checking a box -- I'd have to look actually at the solicitation, but I do not believe that would have been a penalty against a proposer. >> Houston: Okay. >> Mayor Adler: Yes, councilmember pool. >> Pool: Ms. Hawkins, thanks for being here today. I was reading through some of the backup materials and [10:33:33 AM] it talks about 200 refurbished computers would be provided to CTN. Would those computers also be provided to free net? Or what is the value added with those 200 refurbished computers? >> So currently we have the -- the computer labs are equipped with our -- with Austin free net computers, and we -- and this solicitation, prior to issuing the solicitation, we planned on actually replacing the computer labs and the internet services in the city facilities with city computers and city internet connectivity so that the contract dollars are not going -- from this contract are not going towards the computer hardware and the internet service but more can be applied to trainers and staffing. So that would have a -- so those computers would -- are made available to either. That was in the solicitation, that these 200 computers and the internet services from the city would be made available to either. >> Pool: That's really good to have clarified because that's not at all clear in the backup in the answers to the various questions. It only says that the refurbished computers would be provided to CTN. So it gave rise to the question of wondering how fairly are we offering the various assets. Mayor, I think there's probably some more questions but if we have some people who would like to speak to us I'd be happy to step back and let that happen. >> Mayor Adler: Council, any further questions before we go to public speakers? Okay. We have some people that have signed up. Is Elizabeth kintonia here? Is Debra Boone here? You'll have five minutes to speak with her donated [10:35:34 AM] time. Jessica luni will be on deck. Go ahead. >> Thank you, council, for allowing me to speak. I believe you remember me speaking last time, sharing some of my personal stories. What we're speaking to in terms of the population -- I just want to remind people, we're talking about the lowest is they do the -- lowest income, the people who have to make hard choices, the bone soup people. Lower Americans are increasingly smart bone depart so they have to choose whether or not they have a laptop, internet access or smartphone and data plan to apply for a job. Or do they have these access -- access to these sites where they go to so that they can go apply and have the skills? One of the numbers I wanted to bring out because I questioned and I'm going to ask you to wear your cost accounting hats for a moment, we're talking about a $860,000 contract divided by five years. Now for the average computer lab having 20 computers, what we're talking about now is seven sites versus Austin free net is prepared to continue at 31 sites. When you divide the number of 860,000 divided by five years divided by eight hours for a lab to be open divided by 20 computers for CTN, those seven sites, that means that the average price for a user session cost is $153. When we divide that 860,000 divided by five years divided by 31 sites, both the seven sites and the other partner sites. I'll talk to in a moment divided by eight hours, 20 computers, you're talking about a cost accounting to run a user session of approximately $34.68. So you're -- if we have those computers, assuming all of the other costs are [10:37:34 AM] equal, we're able to extend the city impact by partnering, by going into the homeless shelters. These homeless shelters, they may not have a smartphone. They have to get up and into a position so that they can have the skills, have a Gmail accounting to apply for a janitorial position, to get off their feet and out of the homeless shelter. We partner with programs and going to the refugee centers so people who have left their countries under terrible circumstances, who have nothing to come in so that they can come in. We partnered with the housing authority, and in that housing authority we're able to bring women who live there and give them the skills and through partnership programs have skills that they were able to go off out of the housing authority and get real it jobs of 45,000 and $60,000 a year from that. That's the impact that Austin free net is making. This is your provider of 20 years who are here. And so I just want to make sure that you guys understand the real cost. So when I look at this and I'm asking for the proposed cost, were you looking at just the bottom line? Of who is the lowest cost provider? Or who is the best value? Because we do have programs where we train the trainer. We've actually hired people who have come from and into the endure lab and actually become Austin free net employees. Training people in their neighborhood and their community at these sites. What I'm asking you today, when you keep in mind you're asking CTN at their seven sites in their proposal, now that we know we have those 200 computers that could possibly be made available, you're asking them are you running a user session for $153.57 versus [10:39:36 AM] what we're able to do with the extended impact with our partner programs, including partnerships with the housing authority and Texas workforce commission. To run a user session for approximately $34.68. I have 48 seconds left to answer any questions. All I ask is to really think about this from a cost accounting point of view. What does it take? Because our metric for success is number of distinct new clients and number of distinct user sessions at these sites. So if our metric is running the number of distinct user sessions as a distinct metric, are you wanting to pay $153? Are you wanting as a city to pay $34.68. That's all I'm asking. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: I do have a -- >> Mayor Adler: Hold on. >> Tovo: I have a quick question for you if you're the right person to ask this question of. >> Yeah. >> Tovo: I'm not sure if you've had an opportunity to see the question and answer that was posted for today's council agenda. But it does -- there are excerpts posted in response to one of my colleague's questions, and it excerpts from some of CTN's proposal and it talks about one of the -- the proposal, I'll read you -- CTN's proposal offered new ideas and proposed many new connections and partnerships, including using clients as ambassadors to go in home by helping people apply for existing services and address this special population of homebound we're trying to reach. I wondered whether you could speak to whether free net has done that kind of an outreach or whether you could do that kind of outreach in the future? And if you were signed up to speak and you want to address this question later, that's fine too. >> Answer the speaker. >> Yes. We actually work with -- >> Tovo: Mayor, is it okay if Ms. Bud answers the question or would you [10:41:37 AM] prefer I directed it to her. >> Mayor Adler: If you can answer that question now, someone can answer, fine, with someone anticipationing your question. >> I may speak? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Thank you so much. Yes, we did a pilot program actually with the city library where we went working with Easter seals because some of those clients are homebound so we have a model like that that we have used just as -- just this past session so we could expand upon that absolutely. Thank you. >> Tovo: Thank you very much. >> Mm-hmm. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Mayor adler:jessica luni. Is Ms. Luni here? Come on down. While you're coming down is Tina Franklin here? You'll be up next. >> Hi, thank you for being here, city, and for letting us -- city council, for letting us be here today. I actually spoke the last time I was here and feel you've heard my story. I am behind ctn100% and would prefer and intended on donating my time to kimy Griffiths for speaking. So I would like to offer that as -- I would like to just donate my time if that's possible. >> Mayor Adler: Actually, once you come up and speak you've used your time. >> Oh, okay. >> Mayor Adler: But since you didn't speak, I'll let you do that. >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Because you didn't -- >> I appreciate that. >> Mayor Adler: Is Tina Franklin here? And while Ms. Franklin is coming down, is Michael Mendoza here? You'll be on next. >> Good morning. >> Mayor Adler: Go ahead. >> My name is Tina Franklin. I am an austinite for the past 34 years. I have a now 15-year experience in digital literacy, accessibility and training. [10:43:37 AM] That's not always the case. I myself was one of the homeless population and one of our clientele for four years in Austin. I did at one point in time have no skills. I had no idea how to operate a computer at all. And I spent many times going to various labs, which were available, however some were not open at the times when I could go. I had no transportation, I had no way to get where I needed to go. Some of the labs were restricted to seniors. Some are restricted to various populations so it was very frustrating. One of the reasons that I was drawn to this proposal was the volunteer training module, was the opportunity to do trainings on the evenings and weekends when a lot of these clienteles have the time and availability to do so, when they're not running around trying to take care of social services, getting to their doctors' appointments or any of those necessary items. This model offers an opportunity for us to go out into the community and to homes, into the existing labs, as well as partner with new opportunities that some of us are already aware of. CTN is a local and national nonprofit, so while Austin free net has run this for a long time and they've done a wonderful job, I think this model offers us an opportunity to expand even further in providing digital literacy to everyone who needs it. And that's pretty much all I have to say today. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. >> Any questions? No? >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Men -- Mendoza, you'll have three minutes. >> Thank you, mayor, good morning, good morning to the councilmembers. I'm a small business owner in district 1. I'm also a past master of [indiscernible] Lodge. I've started a small little [10:45:38 AM] project that's barely scratched the surface on trying to bridge digital divide with the school that we have a relationship with through my masonic lodge. The reason I'm here today is to ask that you not award item 15, community technology access lab services to the California company community technology network CTN and award the contract on sole source basis back to Austin free net. The city of Austin has been recognized as leader of digital inclusion and broadband adoption because the city understands its value to the community and Austin free net has been the city's premier partner and champion in that recognition. One of the reasons I'm here is because they reached out to us to try to find a different way to teach people that are more visual learners. I'm an augmented reality publisher and designer. They reached out to us to try to bridge that gap beyond just the digital divide. Now, over the last five years, between 2012 and 2017 Austin free net provided both computers and trainers to over 33 community computer partners, including Austin area urban league, Google fiber, glimmer of hope, eight health and human services neighborhood centers, front steps and Trinity homeless centers, shelters, Connolly oak springs, lions, and garden senior centers, housing authority properties, refugee service centers, southwest keys program, boys and girls club of Austin, aisd schools and a host of other community- based organizations. If they didn't exist here, they wouldn't have known to reach out to a small business community. If CTN ever needs some kind of extra services to try to bridge the digital gap or maybe try to do something different for digital learners who are they going to reach out to? They're going to reach out to a California company to do that. Austin free net reached out to a local business to try to such them? Is that going to happen if you outsource this kind of [10:47:39 AM] service? They also provided 189 free computers in community partner labs, provided over 8,000 computer classes and beginner clinics, provided 273,000 hours of training, served 51,000 students, provided 759,000 free access computer hours. They're already embedded in the community and the city council is wanting to rip that out of this community and put the dollars somewhere else. They can try to reapply this way. It just doesn't make any sense. Now I'm going to jump identifier and state that the telecommunications and regulatory affairs recognized Austin free net as a premier digital inclusion partner and lead agency of digital inclusion and digital literacy. Telecommunications and regulatory affairs also recognized and garnered support for [indiscernible] As lead agency support the digital empowerment community of Austin. [Buzzer sounding] One thing I'm just going to add your best practices of the city council encourages Austin free net to maybe follow, maybe encourage them to do that. They're already here in the community. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Bud, you have five minutes. >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Is Dale Thompson here? You will be on next. Ms. Bud. >> So good morning, mayor, councilmembers. Thank you once again. You heard us speak back on February 15 about this same issue. I really want to highlight three points regarding the scoring of this proposal. Number 1, Austin free net supports 31 sites compared to the seven sites. Had we only bidded on the seven sites we would be remiss because we're already providing services to those organizations, and we didn't want to pull back. I understand why CTN would get a higher score. That makes sense in that area. Secondly, as was just provided to us for the very first time, CTN was offered [10:49:40 AM] 200 computers. We were never offered that opportunity and so there were costs incurred in the proposal. Again, I think that's rather unfair of the staff to dough that to Austin free net. Finally we do and continue to pay for the internet access for the dewitty center that benefits Austin free net but the city of Austin human resources department as well as Tara and, again, want to go resize it for a California company so they can have a better bid wasn't fair. We didn't have those benefits. And so I would ask that with all of these changes that have just been introduced to us, that there be some response to that. Councilmember troxclair, thank you so much for your question last week about wanting to support the city's recommendation, and I agree with that. However, when there's an outcry from an existing community, I think we really need to pay attention to that. And so thank you all for letting me have the time to speak. Moving down the line, I just want you to know that we do have partnerships in this community. IBM, Google fiber, shields airs, Texas workforce commission, Austin community college all have invested in this organization. Once again because they believe and appreciate the work we do. If we were only to support seven sites, I guarantee that we can create programs that would really help expand whatever the city's desire for us to do would be. We'd be glad to listen to any information that y'all want us to include. You could train us and we're open to any opportunity. But also we have advisory members in this community, again, that love the community. For example, the legendary state member [indiscernible] Was here talking about her support of the organization. Evan Smith is on our advisory board. He is the president of the Texas tribune and Hugh forester, if you don't know [10:51:40 AM] this organization called south by southwest, he invests his time with this organization because he believes in it and understands the power of Austin. We talked about some of the places that I've spoken. I'm sure cami has as well, she's an amazing speaker but I want to bring you back to 2013, when Google fiber and four foundation came to the housing authority of city of Austin and Austin free net was honored to be a partner with them. The brilliant thing we did, we became a model for the nation, not Austin, not Texas, not California, but the nation. And the Obama administration then added funds to create this program called connect home. That model, that digital literacy model came from Austin free net and the support of other organizations in this community, that national model. Austin free net has also supported many of you up on this stage. We've canvassed your community, not to vote for you or to talk about petitioning anything, but we went into the neighborhoods and we talked about digital literacy and broadband adoption and importance of that. We walked with some of you very members. We're invested in this community. This planes something to us. We're here to stay, we're planted, we're here for the community. We have the austinites' best interests at heart. Again, we know and appreciate the community technology has some really great work. I'd love to maybe copy some of the stuff they do. And I think that would be wise on my part, to look at some of the things the city was impressed with. Being here as a city there was no reason the city couldn't talk to us in our contract to say, hey, these are the things we really want you to improve on, these are the things that are important. And they did not. Again, I ask that you not make us go through this bid process again. [10:53:40 AM] It was arduous. I believe it was not fair because we weren't aware of all the benefits that the other company had, and we award the sole contract back to Austin free net for a five-year period. And after that time when CTN, if they're still here, I think it would be a fair competitive opportunity for us to challenge one another in a bid process. Thank you. [Buzzer sounding] >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Bud, I didn't understand what you said about the dewitty. Would the -- the first point that you raised. >> The first point I raised was that Austin free net supports 31 sites. >> Mayor Adler: No. The one after that. You had talked about a facility, dewitty. >> That we pay for, Austin free net pays for out of its contract the internet support for the dewitty center where we're housed, which is a city facility. We pay the internet for not only Austin but the city of Austin human resources department and some of the benefits also go to the Tara commission. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Mayor Adler: Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: One of the speakers talked about access after hours and on weekends is that something Austin free net provides or could you in the future? >> Thank you for asking. Tina was an ex- employee and we helped her move forward in her career. Congratulations. Really loved seeing you come through the organization and being successful. We could if we saved some of our models. We've tried it in the past and because the community wasn't used to us being open and our community wasn't as digitally open as others they did not come to the site. >> Tovo: You were responding to the need and the need was not at that point for weekends and after hours. >> That's correct. [10:55:43 AM] We were open weekends because she was our trainee for that. We did try that. >> Tovo: And do you use a model of training the trainer, and if you don't at this point, is that something you could incorporate moving forward? >> We do a little. Something we can enhance on. I think we can do a better job on that. >> Tovo: Thank you. Thank you for all your work in the community. >> Pool: Ms. Bud, you said some of what you were hearing had taken you by surprise. If you were falling short in some areas that our telecommunications and regulatory affairs office was looking to have enhanced, did anybody talk to you about that and give you an opportunity to step up your game, so on to speak? >> Anything the city asked as our financial provider we will do. >> Pool: But that had not been raised with you or discussed? >> I didn't say discussed, were resolved. I don't want to get specific or global because -- anything that was brought to Austin free net's attention whether it was about anything, we ensure that we addressed those items. >> Pool: And I'm not trying to get into sensitive areas and I'm just trying to understand if there were things our Tera office was looking for that ctm was offering but free net did not. Did the Tera staff talk to you about that? >> Not 10 much. >> Pool: That you might voluntarily fill it. >> I don't, no, ma'am. >> Pool: Okay, great. Thank you so much. >> Mayor, councilmembers, James Scarborough, purchasing office. We just want to share with you procedurally it's not our process to share the [10:57:45 AM] contents of one offer with another offerer and have them adjust their proposal or adjust their technique or their pricing to match that of another offer. So that may very well be a part of the discussion today, but that's not procedurely how we would typically handle negotiations with offers. So just wanted to clarify that. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Flannigan. >> Flannigan: I was going to jump in on exactly that issue and thank you for laying that out. The reason why we do this process is to make the businesses providing services work harder and do better for the taxpayer dollars. It is likely a gray legal area even to take the response from one vendor and share it with another vendor. You just can't take one company's intellectual property and share it with another to make that other company move profitable. That's just not how it works. It certainly doesn't work that way for the government and not being fully versed on the state codes, I would imagine there is even a prohibition against it. There's a lot of really information coming out in the testimony, but I still struggle with this notion of doing sole source contracting is generally a bad idea. And for the very reason of if you are a sole source vendor and the city comes to you and says we want you to do five more things, they can just say no. Opening up a process for multiple bidders then makes it valuable for our vendors in all areas of the city to come back and say I'm going to work harder, I'm going to do more because that are other competitive bidders to make the job better. It is not necessarily a fair process from the perspective of the vendors, but this is how we are the best stewards of the resources of this community. [10:59:45 AM] And I'll just end by saying as awesome as the work from free net has been over the years and setting a national model, it doesn't mean you automatically get the next contract. Worker harder and working smarter is a consequence of competitive bidding. And if there are issues in the rfp, it would not be the first one that came to this dais or we've had these questions, but I remain uncomfortable making changes to a purchasing process ad hoc based on who is the most politically connected as opposed to really investigating how we're going to do purchases. -- Purchasing. >> Mayor Adler: We have five more people in the public to speak. Do we want to hear from -- I would suggest to the degree we can we try to get back so the public doesn't have the advantage or disadvantage of speaking earlier and later based on comments. >> Pool: Mayor, I just wanted to respond to what councilmember Flannigan was saying because it made it sound like I was trying to delve into empties of the purchasing process that may not have been legal and that wasn't at all what I was trying to get to. What I was talking about is if our Tera staff looked at how free net was offering its services and wanted them to do more, did they then go to free net and say we want you to do more. I'm not talking about what ctm may have offered as part of its proprietary information in its contract. This is outside of the contract. I wanted to know if there was any consultation with the city staff and our vendor in the working of their contract to do different things or to step up a game they may have been falling short on. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Let's conclude. Let's move through the other people, give them a chance to speak as well. Dale Thompson and Gus peña is on deck. [11:01:45 AM] >> Hello, my name is Dale Thompson, I'm an Austin resident, district 9. And I've lived here for 33 years and I'm here to support community technology network. CTN is a great national organization with offices in Austin and San Francisco. I'm proud to have been involved in community technology in Austin since 1998. I worked at Austin free net -- I worked in Austin free net for 13 years. Four years were as acting executive director. I stayed involved with community tech after leaving free net by volunteering with another great organization, the literal Sitzman coalition of central Texas. I was a volunteer literacy coach about two years for them while I was building my own accounting service. I stayed on all the email lists to keep my toes in the water. I came to know and admire cami Griffiths through years of traveling in the same circles and watch her grow CTN into a strong, sustainable, dynamic organization. She's an intelligent, innovative and impactful leader. She's [inaudible] With a great passion for this work and putting partnerships together. She's just got the knack. Now I'm going to join CTN's staff in Austin. I would like to point out the work in this contract is quite different from the contract held all these years and now that CTN's expertise to a tee. Reading from the rfp, an objective of this solicitation is to develop sustainable partnerships with service providers located within the dec, the digital empowerment community of Austin, to convene, facilitate and develop open source guidelines processes and tools. These partnerships shall be centered on a plan that shall engage partners for expertise in meeting the needs of a diverse set of services offered within the [11:03:46 AM] seven city facilities as well as diverse audience of potential target participants. CTN has all of this expertise. As a result of their work in San Francisco, they've created a model that fits Austin very well. We're particularly good at creating partnerships. Our proposals scored very well on that part. The rfp asked us as respondents to offer solutions for issues discussed in the digital assessment survey of the city of Austin conducted in 2014 in partnership with the technology at university of Texas at Austin. The survey sought to understand residential technology usage and identify unmet needs. One of those was digital literacy as well as access to computers and the internet. The city of Austin has a digital inclusion strategy developed by the dec. It's a plan to utilize our own community assets to overcome these barriers to access and to ensure all residents have access to the skills and devices necessary to engage in our very digital society. [Buzzer sounding] It's a very good plan -- and we want to play a part in it. May I finish? >> Mayor Adler: You can finish your thought. >> Okay. In closing I would like to say this council has a chance to make things better and meet documented needs with the contract. CTN's solution are better and scoring shows it does have the best solutions. It wouldn't be the first time Austin has borrowed a program or idea from another city because of its excellence. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Mr. Peña. >> Houston: Mayor, I have a question. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Thompson. >> Houston: Thank you for coming and sharing. I have a question. You mentioned diversity. What are the demographics of the computer technology network of the staff? >> The staff is actually very diverse. They actually teach classes in Russian and -- >> Houston: No, no, I'm talking about the demographics of the people who are here in Austin. [11:05:47 AM] That will be doing this program. >> Oh, so far we're a bunch of white ladies. I'm sorry. >> Houston: Thank you. >> But we have one person of color and we'll be hiring more. >> Houston: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Cami Griffiths is on deck. Mr. Peña. >> Mayor, councilmembers, city manager, Gus peña, president of veterans for progress. I've heard enough already. I've heard discrepancies here and I love Rhonda, she's been a friend of mine for a long time. Home born, home grown. Has a better quality of service. I'm not going to slander or defame anybody else, that's not my way of doing things, but I do my homework. I'm a former irs investigator, investigate civil and criminal matters for department of treasury, irs, and I'm supporting Austin free net. I've heard a lot of stuff like, for example, they work harder and better and smarter. Well, so does Austin free net. By the way, councilmember Jimmy, my wife says to cut down on the talking. She's listening to you on the TV. Anyway, but I'm not going to do it today. Maybe tomorrow. But anyway, veterans for progress, we need to stay local. A lot of things are being outsourced to some other companies or whatever, excuse my bad English, it ain't right, it ain't good. I taught at ACC and my school district Johnson high school. I'm an instructor, a teacher, a darn good one. Graduated 31 -- haca city of Austin has said this is a good entity. Austin free net. You know, I know you are going to differ on this, we're all going to be different, but let's stay local. There's too many things going on outside of Austin [11:07:49 AM] already. Too many contracts. Things have been said about community technology, they are providing already 31 site, 31 sites. [Speaking in Spanish] 31 sites. That tells you they are doing a good job. Politically connected it was mentioned by my good friend Jimmy Flannigan. You know, let's set that aside. The community wants Austin free net to stay. They are here, let's continue. Said it more properly and I ever will be and my wife says you need to quit talking because sometimes you come out like a dummy. I got to say that, you know, Austin free net has been here. We need to support them. Mr. City manager, this is combat. This is combat. That's what what is said in the Austin chronicle about me. I'm a Marine Corps veteran and I said there are things not good stated against Austin free net. I just want you to know as a former educator, and I've been a lot of things, you know, we're -- bless you. We're supporting Austin free net to continue. The great work they do here, and I also taught at dewitty in the 1980s when I came back from the Marine Corps. [Buzzer sounding] Let's keep it local and keep Austin free net, you know, on contract. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Cami Griffiths. You have five minutes. Is Calvin Klein here? You'll be on deck. >> Good morning. My name is cami Griffiths and I have lived in Austin area for eight months. Executive director and co-founder of community technology network, not a California company, that partners with northern profits and government agencies to provide free digital lit literacy [11:09:52 AM] training. We have grown to 50 locations, training in low-income communities throughout the bay area. We have a presence in Austin with several partners, three full-time staff and one part-time contractor. Here are background on our work in the bay area. We have partnership with the department of aging and provide 5500 training hours each year at a network of senior centers. Many of the seniors are mono lingual so trying Texas -- providing trainers. We have several partnerships to provide training and devices to over 1,000 residents. The Oakland public library is another partner. Together we train 20 young people each year who volunteer in the library and help over 1,000 patrons each year with their technology questions. The theme here is partnerships. We only work in partnership and we focus on under served communities. We know that our partners have the trust of their clients and it's because of this trust that we're able to reach as many people as we do. I've been planning to move to Austin for many years so we could be closer to family. I made this announcement to my board in late 2016 so we could plan for my transition and develop a strategic plan. It was around this time that I saw a newsletter put out by the city's office of telecommunications and regulatory affairs stating the city was going to put out an rfp. It seemed like a great fit since providing digital literacy training has been a focus for decade and execs expanding nationally has been part of our long-term plan. Here's what we've accomplished in Austin since July. We've established a partnership with haca to train apprentices who provide training in their communities. We are currently seeking funding in partnership with family elder care for a program that will bring training, a tablet and internet to 40 of their homebound clients. We have dozens of conversation with local nonprofits who are eager for us to offer services because their clients desperately need digital access and training and we've had [11:11:54 AM] dozens of people sign up to become volunteers because they want to make a difference in their community. We have delivered one volunteer training and in the process of placing volunteers at haca properties to assist residents in their computer center. Some of those will be helping tomorrow when we along with several nonprofit partners will give away 300 computers and 150 hot spots to low-income families. We are committed to building strong, long-lasting partnerships with organizations and government agencies that serve people who are on the wrong side of the digital divide. We are committed to building a robust network of volunteers who can provide their time, talent and treasure throughout Austin. We are committed to building a ecosystem of learning and to help residents identify and reach their goals through technology access and training. Our proposal was selected because it provided the best solution for the best price. We keep costs low by utilizing volunteer trainers whenever possible. Last year volunteers gave 4500 hours which is the equivalent of over $100,000. Community technology network is a nonprofit with expertise building trust and strengthening under served communities. We are looking forward to starting this contract and begin replicating the success that has happened in the gay area. Thank you for -- bay area. Thank you for your consideration. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Gavin kleits. Is Marvin Dover here? You'll be on deck. >> Good morning, mayor and councilmembers. My name is Calvin kleits, a full-time employee, development coordinator for community Austin network. I have been a resident of Austin six years, live in district 9, and I grew up in white house Texas. There wasn't a lot of opportunity for an impoverished son of a single mother and the only reason I'm in Austin is benefit of [11:13:55 AM] full-time scholarship that allowed me to go to U.T. I've been doing my best in Austin to repay that investment in my future. And I'm doing that through CTN now. While at the university I built a stunt organization that linked a dedicated group of volunteers to Austin area nonprofits that helps refugees get settled including digital technology training that is essential to help them find jobs. I have learned of the need in Austin through this work of digital literacy especially the sort of work that involves training the trainer projects like CTN. And the way it brings technology home not through labs but also through the ever present mobile devices that we have that help us access the internet today. Our model is designed to empower individuals that are trained to go into places we simply cannot access as a small team and bring them even further with volunteer work. I come to you as an austinite who believes in my nonprofit and the city -- and city staff's recommendation for backing us. Thank you so much. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Colleagues, this is our last signed up speaker. >> Mr. Mayor, city councilmembers and welcome new city America. My name is Margo Dover and I used to be the executive director of skill point alliance and in that position from five to 2016 I worked shoulder to shoulder with Austin free net. I'm not very aware of all of this. I got back from a trip and someone sent me a chronicle article. When I read that article, what it struck me -- what struck me first was that this was an article about the he telecommunications throwing out Austin free net. I can tell you from working with telecommunications and Austin free net for all those years they fought and fought and fought to keep Austin free net going. [11:15:55 AM] Telecommunications was the biggest cheerleader that Austin free net had and often I was not cheerleading for Austin free net. Good people, good intention, lots of sites without a lot of people there often, lots of programs that didn't have outcomes that I felt or my staff at skill point alliance felt delivered the best outcomes for the people we were all trying to serve. I believe that writing a story about an iconic organization and turning what should be a simple decision about who can deliver the best services for people in poverty in this community that need them is doing a tremendous disservice to those people. I don't believe that this is the story. A story that has any racial meaning whatsoever. This is just good people from two different organizations trying to deliver services and I believe that you did the right thing in delivering the contract to CTN. Again, I don't know a lot about them and I subpoena pose there might be people in here surprised I'm standing up and saying all this, but I have been saying this privately for 13 years. I was told by Mike Gerber at haca that I have to stop saying things about trying to get Austin free net to do better because it makes me look like a petty person. I have tried without being Margo aggressive, she talks too much and goes at this all too hard, but I was asked so many times please support Austin free net, help us make this look better. When Google came and put a lot of effort and energy in working with both skill point alliance, we had an ambassador a Google -- I don't think that was the word, but Google was paying. The person with free net was coming to skill point to work with our person to get our data to get what she was doing to figure out how to make this work. Again, it's a consistent story of very good [11:17:57 AM] intention, not a lot of follow-through. 33 sites need to be having all kinds of outcomes and I would suppose that you looked at outcomes, but I think over the years -- I think 20 years was great and it was a great run and it's time for great new energy and excitement about being in Austin -- [buzzer sounding] -- About bringing services. Thanks. >> Mayor Adler: That gets us back up to the dais. Councilmember pool. >> Pool: Mayor, I'd like to make a motion and then make some remarks about my motion. So I will move to -- and I the contract to Austin free net. >> Mayor Adler: There's a motion to move the contract -- award the contract to Austin free net. Is there a second? Ms. Houston seconds. >> Pool: I would just like to speak to my motion. I want to say miss Quintanilla make some good points and I wonder perhaps the lens should have been -- that Saturday of a lens should have been used in the cost assessment. More centers 20 versus 31 and existing network that Austin free net last built over 20 years versus having to start brand spanking new. Further note I would like to look at reassessing some criteria weights where on the matrix we have local presence given -- local business presence is 10 points. And if indeed the city of Austin wants to make good on policy directions that this council and previous councils have put forward in the past, then I think we need to reassess how we weight our criteria. So I wanted to draw everybody's attention to some previous policy direction back in 2014, and I'll just read the first paragraph of it. [11:19:59 AM] Resolution number 201408 on 7113, August 2014 resolution. It says whereas Texas law recognizes the importance of preferring local vendors in public procurements as an appropriate method of encouraging local economic growth and sections of chapter 271 of the Texas local government code allow for a municipality to use its discretion in awarding contracts for certain categories of purchases to local vendors who are not the lowest bidder but within certain percentages of the local bid, and then it goes on to talk about the value of local vendor preference. My understanding is because this is an rfp we are able to choose a different vendor from the least expensive. This is different than if it were -- what is the other -- there's rfp and then there's solicitation for bid, I think. The two different statutory foundations. So that's why I'm moving to award this to free net. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Further discussion on the dais? Councilmember Garza. >> Garza: I just have some staff questions. Can someone -- I've heard several different facts on both sides. I don't know which ones are true. There's one -- can someone address the -- oh, the cost difference? That the first speaker spoke about. And I think councilmember pool, you just quoted it. What was the cost difference? >> Pool: Miss Quintanilla had done some math and division and came up with $34 versus $153. [11:22:00 AM] >> Garza: Have we done any -- >> The way the cost is -- I'm sorry, analyzed in this case we're trying to do the best we can as far as comparing apples to apples. In this indicate we had stated it was to provide services to the seven facilities and that we were providing a certain number of computers for the facilities as well as the internet. And so the cost that was compared was based on that foundation. >> Garza: The cost of $30 to -- >> No, we didn't -- all we analyzed was the total cost to provide services required in the scope of work to those seven facilities. And that was how it -- compared. >> Mayor Adler: The rfp you sent out said give us a bid to provide services to these seven centers. >> Correct. There was attachment to the solicitation that listed each center and the number of computers we were planning on providing in each of those facilities. >> Mayor Adler: So you brought back your recommendation to who, what is the best choice to provide services to these seven centers. >> That's correct. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> Garza: I'm sorry, is the cost to the recommended -- was the cost higher than the second place? >> The cost -- I mean based on the points, yes. The lowest cost always gets the most points. Again, it's to provide those services directly related to the scope. >> Mayor Adler: If I understand correctly, the bit was to provide services to seven centers. >> I'm sorry, recommended company was lower. >> Mayor Adler: One -- Austin free net said while we bit on the seven, we also provide services to 4 others. If you divide by the total number of centers, our average cost goes down. But the bid wasn't for 31 centers. The request was provide services to seven centers. Why -- why was this bid out to provide services to seven centers as opposed to 31 [11:24:02 AM] centers? >> Prior to issuing the solicitation we did a needs assessment, looked at the utilization of the sites, of the 31 of the sites. And those 31 sites were lit up were expanded at a time where Austin free net was the recipient of a federal stimulus grant, the broadband technologies grant. Prior to award of that grant we had seven or nine -- we had seven or nine core sites. And that was -- and then the stimulus funding gave the ability for an expansion of the sites by Austin free net. We replaced the hardware, it expanded the locations, providing staffers and trainers and enhancing training. The funding was a three- year grant period and we were looking at the utilization of those sites and there are some sites that -- they may be more geographic and more in quantity, but the training services were spread, I think it's a spread rather thinly. And so the purpose was -- it was intentional to go back to looking at our -- at the seven locations, core city locations to enhance and really to provide the services to have operating hours, you know, in the evening and on weekends. And that was -- that was intentional. Did not prohibit, solicitation does not prohibit for expanding more than seven sites, but it was intentional for seven sites and then once we get -- then the whole train the trainer, you expand the trainers and you can grow and expand. In the locations. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Garza. >> Garza: So if it was for the seven centers and free math based on the 31, if -- if free net doesn't get this [11:26:03 AM] contract, does that mean they will -- because my understanding was they are providing services to 31 locations? That's why they did the math like that. So if free net doesn't get this contract, this was a free net question, does that mean they are no longer serving all 31 or just the seven of the solicitation? >> Under this contract it would not be -- Austin free net would be not offering services, but I would defer to Austin free net to answer the question for those sites. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Scarborough. >> Councilmember, just a quick point of clarification. We might be speaking prospectively because as of yesterday the current contract has expired. So we could answer as to what was required under the current contract as of yesterday, but it was not extended last night so we would be speaking prospectively about any future contract if there were questions about how that might be applied. >> Garza: What was the contract? 31? >> Was the current contract 31? >> Yes. >> Garza: If this is just for seven, if I can do the math quick, what happens to the 20 -- those 21 centers if this contract is just for seven? >> My understanding is that the -- those labs -- when I say labs, there would be see sites that have one computer, two computer and it's not -- those would not be operating under this contract. >> Garza: Okay, so regardless of who wins this -- whoever gets this contract, there will be 20-something sites that will be no longer serviced. >> Uh-huh. With the goal of, you know, expanding beyond the seven. And also expanding another -- we want to expand in the dove springs area, want to have a computer lab expand in that area based on the needs that were identified in our tech survey. >> Garza: I'm just trying to understand this. [11:28:04 AM] Can free net answer the question? If they were awarded this contract, would you still be serving the 31 or just -- >> Not totally. We will have to reduce the number of sites we serve because we were leveraging the funds from the city with our in kind contributions from other people. We will -- our goal is continue to expand with volunteers, however we will be reducing our sites but not all of them will be closed because of the city's contract. >> Garza: Do you know what it will be reduced to? >> We're doing an assessment right now. I can't give you that specific answer because there's a lot of variables in this situation and we have to talk with our partner sites about are they able to help contribute to the usage of the site and the computer labs. I know I'm not giving you a clear answer because I don't have one at this time. There will be a reduction in service. >> Garza: I was just trying to get to the bottom of that cost comparison. And so I appreciate people passionately advocating for their sites, but that's not true there will be 31 sites now funded through this contract. >> We leveraged the 31 sites with funding from the city and funding from other organizations that supported our digital literacy contracts. If we do not receive the contract from the city of Austin, those funds cannot be -- cannot be leveraged because there is no funds to be leveraged. So we'll have labs we'll have to talk with each of our partners about how to continuousing them. If that's not answering your question, I'm sorry. >> Garza: If you do receive the contract, the answer -- >> Then we can get matching funds from other organizations that will help us continue to sustain most of the sites. >>>> Garza: Most of the sites. >> I'm not going to stay all 31. >> If I could quickly clarify, I think it may help to understand no matter who is awarded this contract, it is for the seven sites and [11:30:06 AM] there was a Q and a that came in during the process that we clarified yes, it was for seven sites and the city would consider adding additional sites in the future only if proposed by the contractor at that time. It should be seven sites. >> Mayor Adler: The Q and a, you are talking about among the bidders. >> During the solicitation process before we received the proposals, there is a time they can ask questions and that was one of the questions and answers provided to the vendors at that time. >> Mayor Adler: Further discussion? Further questions for staff? Ms. Houston. >> Houston: Yes. I have a question about the situation at dewitty center. Can you explain a little more about the relationship between Austin free net, the city and dewitty and the funding? >> So dewitty, there are several offices are co-located including I have a couple of -- my digital inclusion program team. Austin free net staff, the city is providing office space, the computer labs and administrative space to free net. We've got parks and rec staff, we've got -- I think that -- I think that covers all the staff there. Yes, hrd. The employment, the employment lobby. For hrd. And currently -- well, we actually are in the process of installing the city's internet into the Austin free net managed public computer labs. Again, our goal is to allocate the contract funding not to I.T. Support and network but more to the direct client services. The -- my office has -- we actually -- center internet provided currently, the human resources employment lobby, Austin free net has main tainted and managed the computers in -- maintained and managed the computers on behalf of hrd and provided [11:32:08 AM] support. But that is now all converting to what's going to be city computers, city internet. >> Houston: Thank you for that, but I got confused in the conversation. My question was the contract that has expired with some of the funds we were giving to Austin free net to provide certain services also paying for internet services for human resources and parks and all the other places. I'm trying to figure out the money right now. >> It's my understanding that the Austin free net was paying for internet service for internet to Austin free net staff and to the public computer labs. It was not for city departments. >> That is not accurate. >> Mayor Adler: Ma'am, ma'am, it's okay. >> Garza: Go ahead. I'm going to defer to -- >> John spears. To clarify what Austin free net pays for is the internet service connected to the organization, Austin free net, so they can administer operations for their labs. The hrd employment lab where we have jobs testing and the three public access computer labs. And that is internet service that is currently rendered by their current expired contract through this process of this solicitation was the ability for all respondents to gain access to city refurbished devices. That number of computers was indicated within the scope of wk materials under exhibit B. And the access to city network infrastructure and internet connectivity. So I hope that answers your question. >> Houston: Mayor, I'm the least technology savvy person on this so it didn't [11:34:10 AM] answer my question, but if somebody can tell me in English if it answered the question I would appreciate it because that's very got the right answer. They pay for some things, but they are not in the old contract, but we don't know how much that was out of their contract that they would use to pay for hrd, the public spaces and the other space that you mentioned. >> The current line item per month for the contract is about $776 for general operating expenditures. That is a bucket of funds that includes internet service that is paid for by Austin free net from their AT&T service to dewitty center. I don't have that specific amount, but it is within that bucket of the expenditures. >> Houston: Thanks. >> Mayor Adler: Let's stay on this question until we understand the answer. Yes. >> Tovo: I don't know if I'm understanding this correctly. Austin free net pays for internet service at the dewitty center and there are other city programs that benefit from that internet service. Is that the substance of the dialogue we just had? >> That is correct, represented by the human resources department employment lab. >> Tovo: Okay. So those two city divisions -- >> One program. >> Tovo: One city division and one other program benefit from the same internet service that Austin free net receives which they pay for. >> That is correct. >> Tovo: Okay. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: So the hr department's computers are paid for or the employment lab that's open to the public? Is paid for? >> The employment lab for the human resources department, I see joy hays up here and she can probably help me out. >> The compute -- Joya hays. [11:36:13 AM] The computers utilized by the human resources staff is funded by the city of Austin. The employment lab that hr staff utilizes to assist citizens in using the information to gain employment is paid for and sponsored by Austin free net. Q.and as part -- >> Mayor Adler: As part of this solicitation, all of the bidders were told internet access would be included as part of whoever won the bid. >> Correct. >> Mayor Adler: Further questions for staff? Councilmember troxclair. >> Troxclair: I wanted to ask about the local business presence. I mean obviously, I'm sorry about my cold or allergies or whatever it is, but the C tn obviously has people that live here that are working for CTN, but they didn't get any points for local business preference. How is that, I guess, decided or awarded? >> The way that we apply the local business presence program globally is to apply if the company has headquarters located in the full purpose jurisdiction of the city. Or if they have a branch office that performs the work that will be associated with the contract, and that office is located within full purpose jurisdiction of the city and has been so for five years. So if those one of those two criteria are met, then the company would receive the entire ten points. If they have subcontractors and those subcontractors can achieve that local presence, then depending on the amount that of the subcontract included in the proposal, we can give them a smaller proportion of the 10-point preference so it could be [11:38:13 AM] two points, four, six points, depending on the size of the contract. >> Troxclair: So the is it about -- CTN obviously has a branch office here or I don't know if it's headquarters or branch office, they obviously have some presence here, but sounds like they didn't qualify because they had to be here for five years? Is that why they didn't qualify? >> Without firsthand many of that part of the proposal I couldn't answer, but if it was not applied for, then the preference would not be granted. Or if the offer applied for but did not meet the criteria, then the preference would not be granted. In this case I don't believe any of it was granted, but I'm not sure if it was applied for or not. I don't know, I'm sorry. >> Troxclair: In their application they didn't apply for the local preference? >> I don't know that. I don't. But they did not receive any, I know that. I don't know if they applied or not. >> Troxclair: I see they didn't receive any, that's why I was confused. One of the speakers mentioned give it to Austin free net and in another five years they can open it back up for solicitation. But I -- it sounds like based on what you are telling me now that CTN would qualify and receive local presence points in five years. So thank you. >> Sure. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Yes, councilmember alter. >> Alter: So I want to make sure that I'm understanding why staff went for this focus on the seven centers. Because it seems like we've had a vendor who has done a good job for I guess it was 20 years. There's a decision times have changed, something shifted, we need a different approach totally apart from who is providing that which is the job of staff to say we need to shift in what we're delivering and a decision was made to focus [11:40:14 AM] on the seven centers first, build those up, create capacity with the train for trainers and then there would be the potential to move beyond. Is there more about why you chose to move to the sort of seven center focus which seems to have been very clear in the rfp that of why that shift? Because we seem to be assuming more sites is better and actually more sites might not be better and seems like obviously there was a reason you thought more sites was not necessarily better totally apart from the vendor, but that there was a need for seven. We've had a lot of technological changes over the last 20 years, we have smart phones, lots of things where our old models about digital literacy might not be the same and we would want to adapt and move on. So can you help me understand that decision totally apart from which contractor that went into choosing an rfp with this different focus? >> Again, we -- we looked at the utilization of the sites, and in this solicitation we were aligning -- excuse me, aligning the sites with our self-sufficients programs and -- sufficiency programs and these are the sites that have been utilized for a long time. St. John's and arch and dewitty, I mean these are like the core services sites. And that's -- that is how we got back to these seven sites. Looking at the utilization and the programs offered and tying in and aligning the digital literacy skills training to clients already served there at the sites. >> Alter: Was it just you wanted to focus on the sites or something about the seven sites that delivers a [inaudible]. >> We approached it that by [inaudible] It's going to -- [11:42:15 AM] going to offer more training. It's like we're -- I don't know the term. The training, it will be enhanced because you are focusing and defining on those locations rather than many. And then you -- your trainers, you can really focus at those sites and work to expansion. So capacity -- >> Alter: So we were make too thin for what we need to deliver and we're not delivering enough services at the sites and we wanted to deliver better services at those sites? Is that -- >> Yes. >> Alter: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Any other questions for the staff? Ms. Houston. >> Houston: Can you give us the seven? You've named several during the presentation. >> The facilities we are speaking about today are St. John's community center, Connally Guerrero center activity center, the dewitty center, east side, our south Austin neighborhood center, rosewood Zaragosa, blackland neighborhood center, the seven facilities including the Austin resource for the homeless. >> Houston: And [inaudible] On the weekend, you are saying none of those are open at night or on the weekend now? >> That would be an intention of the negotiations of this contract that we're serving all of our residents' needs to -- flexible hours for what that looks like the contractor. Yes. >> Houston: But that's part of the solicitation. >> That's correct. We don't -- outside of normal business hours. >> Houston: And on weekends at any of those [11:44:15 AM] sites. >> That's correct. >> Houston: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Further questions for staff? Thank you very much. There's a motion in front of us to award the contract to Austin free net. It's been seconded. Further discussion? Ms. Houston. >> Houston: Mayor, this is really difficult because I think the issue for me is that Austin free net has established those partnerships and community connections throughout a spectrum of our community, and -- and I think when I hear about a very good, I'm sure, northern profit coming into -- nonprofit coming into town, sounds like they are going to build their partnerships on the backs of things already built and people who are, again, part of the community, who have been in the community, who have worked in the community to try to get this -- when digital literacy -- we're not talking about that. Austin free net was not only talking about it but trying to execute on that. And so I don't know how we -- how we fix this. This is one of those things we've had several of them in the last couple of meetings, but I'm going to be supporting Austin free net and if that's on seven locations and then the -- the staff needs to get with them to figure out how to do the kinds of things that they didn't think they were doing, but I will be supporting the motion to -- to award the contract to Austin free net because of their Austin flavor. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Further discussion? Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: Yeah, I'll be supporting the motion as well. I appreciate ctns both their strong program as well [11:46:16 AM] as their willingness to share some elements of that application in our -- for our question and answer, but I'm -- I really support Austin free net's work and I think they have a solid plan going forward and on the strength of their application as it's been described, I'm going to support the motion. [Clapping] >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Renteria. >> Renteria: Mayor, I'm also going to be supporting Austin free net. You know, I do believe that maybe they might have expanded a little too soon and might have gotten into a little bit of overloaded, but I think that, you know, through all their past experience, I think they will be able to do an excellent job if we award this contract to them. [Clapping] >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Garza. >> Garza: I'm conflicted about this because I agree with councilmember Flannigan about digging deeply into these solicitations. And concerned about how we -- how we do that. But when I look at the matrix and I listen to everybody, it was a six point difference, and the prior experience and personnel, Austin free net got 20 and CTN got 25. And I just don't quite understand how some -- an organization that was already doing this in our community has the connections in the community got such a significantly lower number on prior experience and personnel. So for that reason I will be supporting Austin free net. [Clapping] >> Kitchen: I will also be [11:48:17 AM] supporting Austin free net for the reasons that were mentioned and, you know, I share the concern about remaining with our selection process, but in this case there is really a small difference in the points, and the difference makes -- it makes a difference to me the long-standing participation in the community and it's hard for me to see how they were scored the way that they were. So -- [clapping] >> Mayor Adler: Further discussion on the dais? Councilmember troxclair. >> Troxclair: I just have a question for the maker of the motion. It's to award the contract for -- as a sole source contract for how many years? What's the term? >> Pool: Let me go back and look at what the posting language said. It says up to five years. >> Troxclair: Is that -- I guess can staff tell me if that -- I don't know where they want. Was that -- is that the term -- was that the term of the previous contract as well? >> I believe the - - this last contract with Austin free net was two year initial with two year extensions. I'm going to defer to Mr. Scarborough. >> Councilmember, I don't believe we can answer the question with regard to the current contract. The recommended contract was for an initial term of three years with two one-year options. >> Troxclair: Okay. Would that come back to council in three years or it could be automatically renewed by staff? >> The authorization would be available to staff. So if staff -- at the end [11:50:18 AM] of the first three-year period, the contract was still meeting the city's needs and the objectives of the program, then the staff would be authorized to proceed with the extension. >> Troxclair: Okay. I think it sounds like there's the will on the dais to award the contract to Austin free net. I don't agree with that decision because I think that we have a responsibility to award contracts to the best provider, and we have staff, we have committees, we have a lot of people who are really trained in the details of reviewing the rfps and making a recommendation to us, and I don't know that I heard anything, you know -- there wasn't a factual change or a factual difference from the time this contract was suggested - - recommended to us to today. So I worry that just continuing in the -- just because it's the thing that we've done in the past it's not ultimately going to provide the citizens of Austin, the best -- access to the best resources possible with our limited budget. And I guess now I've talked, but it seems like three years would be a more appropriate time period for Austin free net to take the, I guess, input that they've heard from the staff and the council and see if they can make improvements to the services that they're providing and have the council reevaluate in three years rather than five years, if that's still the direction that the city should go. >> Pool: Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: I would support some kind of limited -- the difficulty with this contract for me, this whole question for me, is that this is an organization that always I've supported for a long period of time, the city supported for a long time, the city created this organization and it's done [11:52:20 AM] ground-breaking work. It has a lot of advertise in the community, but it's doing work that we have rewarded and awarded. At the same time I'm hearing staff telling us it's not meeting the effectiveness or efficiency or the goals that staff believes that this program should be meeting. So on the one hand we have the people in the community that were -- that we're wanting to provide services to and you're saying we could provide better services to those folks in our community and to the degree we can provide better services to those folks, that is ultimately the goal of what it is we're trying to achieve. I have an organization that in good faith has been trying to do this and has received recognition for having achieved it. There's a discontinence we're hearing up on the dais. We have the organization itself that has said they've heard things they might be able to incorporate into their program to be able to do a better job to meet the criteria that are presented, and I guess the organization that's been with us that has received the work that has context in the community, I would like them to be given the opportunity to be able to meet those standards but then I would also hold those standards and make those standards very clear. And then have it come back to to us if those standards aren't being met. The five- year contract seems long, shorter period of time seems better, short enough time to be able to implement the program, grade it, respond to it, however short it could be to enable that to effectively happen seems to be the way out of this for me. Yes? >> Pool: Mayor, if I could speak to that, I think Mr. Scarborough said that [11:54:20 AM] the contract was three years with two one-year extensions, and I would anticipate, in fact would look to our telecommunications and regulatory affairs staff to let us know if there were any reason not to continue the contract after three years. I think there's been ample conversation here today that shows that the community would like to see free net continue to provide this service in our community. I understand staff would like to see some perhaps different approaches, and I think it is now the responsibility, if we award this contract to free net, for that group to work closely with our telecommunications and regulatory affairs staff to ensure that in fact the spirit and intention of the contract to deliver the services to our community are carried out the way that council would like and the city would expect. Three-year contract with two one-year extensions and there likely would be an opportunity to come back to address the concerns that councilmember troxclair and the mayor have voiced. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember alter. >> Alter: I would like to ask the city manager if you could find a way for us to investigate how we can improve our procurement process so we don't find ourselves continually in this type of situation. I'm not sure legally what we can do in that, but I think I would feel more comfortable. I'm not going to be able to support this. I'm going to abstain. I think our procurement process is about more than just one contract and I'm uncomfortable with this but I'm also uncomfortable with the notion that we would have a homegrown organization and not support them through the transition in some way. But legally I'm uncomfortable with this [11:56:21 AM] switch and I'm going to abstain on this vote. But I would like to hear from the city manager if we can find some ways with our procurement process. Before you came on we had a similar situation with respect to the airport and there we have aviation constraints from the federal government that we also have to take into consideration, which are not at play here. But it seems like there's a broader policy question that needs to be resolved because what we've seen here with free net is something that Austin likes to do and has done in the past and so I don't think this will be an isolated incident. . >> Councilmember, certainly I've been taking notes already and talking with staff about this on that topic so I will take your message into consideration and bring back to council, if there are any improvements that we can make to that procurement process as a result of this dialogue that we've had as a body. >> Mayor Adler: Is there a period of time, Mr. Scarborough, shorter than three years that would make sense in this instance? >> Mayor, typically this is where I would say that we compete -- based on the one year term and initial options. Because we're contemplating an option other than what staff recommended I believe it would be within council's discretion to determine another period of time. So if you wanted to do a one-year or two-year or three-year, that would be your determination. Ms. Houston. >> Houston: Mayor, what I would like to suggest is that we do a three-year but come back in two years to let us know what progress has been made because I think in order to ramp up you're going to need at least more than one year. I mean, that's -- the contract is expired as of last night, and so they've got to reramp, they've got to downsize some of the things that they're [11:58:21 AM] currently doing. So two years come back -- come back to the council in two years so three years to me seems like a reasonable option. >> Mayor Adler: Would it be two years then with a -- an extension at the end of the two-year period of time when they came back to the council? >> Houston: I'm saying three years, make sure they come back to the council in two years to see how they're progressing. >> Mayor Adler: But with no decision? >> Houston: With no decision until that third year but at least we know what the process is. >> Mayor Adler: Just an update at the end of two years. >> Houston: Mm-hmm. >> Mayor Adler: Anybody else on the dais want to speak to that issue at install where we left it with councilmember pool is she's saying a three-year contract? Is that what you instead I guess that's what the motion was. So right now what's in front of us is three years with two one-year options and Ms. Houston is just saying for staff to bring back in two years an update, which can happen outside of the granting of the award of the contract. Yes? >> Troxclair: I mean I think that there is a difference, though, between what councilmember Houston just said and what councilmember pool said. The three years with two year extensions generally those are continued. They don't come back to council. So I think if we're wanting to -- if you're wanting to support the option that councilmember Houston raised, the appropriate thing to do is a three-year contract without the additional extensions. If we -- >> Pool: Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: We could also instruct staff to come back to us at the end of the three years before they would grant the option. We could ask for staff to bring back in two years the update and come back to us before the option is granted. >> Pool: That was my understanding of what we were intending. There's some interest from councilmember Houston, [12:00:21 PM] maybe from councilmember troxclair, to get a report after two years, which as the mayor points out does not have to change the term of the contract but could give us some insights leading up to that third year. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Scarborough? >> Pool: I would not be opposed to that. >> I believe all of those options would be available to the council. You can authorize the -- up to the full five years and ask that staff come back for a performance update during that period of time or you can authorize an initial period of time and require subsequent authorization for the extensions, either of those two approaches would be feasible. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. The motion is three year with two one-year extensions with the understanding that you're going to come back and give us an update. I would ask for an update not at the end two of years but at the end of one year and two years because we've identified a concern with respect to providing services to the community. So with an annual update and then come back to the council before there's a grant of an option period. I understand that to be the motion. It's been seconded. Mr. Casar. >> Casar: Mayor, I hate to do this to us but I've had a different issue I've been waiting for this to get wrapped up on but I think it's important to I'd like the Tara strap to pop up real quick they're still here. I have a concern with the specifics of the seven locations. I don't want to be directive in the contract, but councilmember Renteria has been very vocal about the fact our nboooghd centers are clustered in the area of historic areas of poverty but because of where we're at we have really pushed poverty to other areas that are not the places those neighborhood centers. So our zip codes with the highest rates of poverty are east of Springdale, and these are largely west, are north of 183 and these are largely south of 183 or are east of 35 and south of the river. And the one that you've selected is west of 35, one [12:02:22 PM] at south of the river. I'm not trying to stake out here that we should pick for council to strike any particular neighborhood center and move it to somewhere else. I just want to express concerns that maybe y'all have already thought about that many of these locations are clustered knee by one another and seems to be missing opportunities to hit dense housing where we currently have the highest concentrations of poverty, beside the arch. I'm not talking about the arch in this situation. How did y'all pick those seven given those current facts about our geography? >> Again, those sites have been in existence for a very long time, and there is -- there are certainly goals and plans for expanding the locations. One particularly was identified in our solicitation was dove springs. We are updating our residential technology survey, which is going to help us identify where the needs and gaps are in our community, where to expand and provide our digital literacy training skills, and that is going to be a map to help us align when we expand into -- we know that there's certainly underserved areas we need to expand into, but, you know, with training that we can deliver more in a one on one fashion. >> Casar: I think the hard thing is that there are several of those sites that are blocks from one -- you can walk from one to the other. So it just seems odd to not go to some of the census tracts that have much higher poverty rates know and instead choose to put multiple in the same census area where there's still need but it just seems odd. This doesn't have to be included in the contract but maybe as a very strong suggestion that the staff think about this as they work together with whichever contractor we select. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Thank you. [12:04:23 PM] And as you draft the contract, if you could put something in the contract that ties -- makes sure we have objectives that the contract awarding has to be [indiscernible]. Ms. Houston. >> Houston: This actually is a question for assistant -- interim city manager Hensley. You don't have to rush. Just for my clarification, is there a computer lab at Alamo? You can -- >> Good question. >> Houston: You can get back to me if there's not. >> I believe there is, Sara Hensley, interim assistant city manager. Let me look into it just to make sure, but I believe there was at least, and I'll double-check. >> Houston: If you could check on that because that triggered something that councilmember Casar said. We've got one at the black land center and -- on Selina and we've got something at Alamo. >> We have something, but. . . Okay, the answer is no. He says no. I know that pard. >> Houston: At Alamo? >> Not at Alamo. Parks and recreation had set up some as well at some sites but we must not have one there now. >> Houston: If somebody could verify that. >> I will do that, thank you. >> Houston: When I walk over there there's some computers in there. I don't know what they're doing. >> I'll double-check. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Councilmember Garza. >> Garza: Okay. I want to thank councilmember Casar for bringing up that. I meant to bring it up in my initial comments, the concern about very little in southeast Austin. I guess I'm slightly comforted by I know there's other nonprofits doing similar work in the dove springs area. Most of those are concentrated on students rather than adults, so [12:06:23 PM] whatever happened with this vote, I hope that whoever is awarded this contract, please, as you're leveraging funds to build further labs, please take note of the concerns of the seven locations. >> Casar: Mayor, sorry to belabor this. >> Mayor Adler: Go ahead. >> Casar: Did y'all see both [indiscernible] Those are right door to each other, the two right next to each other. One of them is not working? >> I was going to say rosewood, aragoza, you're talking about the -- go ahead and tell us where it is. >> Councilmembers, John spears, digital inclusion program manager. Most of you understand that rosewood aragoza is going through changes. We as well are evaluating how we are providing public access computers so that can assist with residents' billing needs and their ability to access online financial statements. That is next door to Guerrero, serving a senior population. So I -- >> Casar: You'll be setting up a lab in each? >> Yes, sir. >> Casar: Okay. >> That is correct. There are currently public access computers located in both facilities serving different populations. >> Casar: I guess I just have concerns about if we're only going to put them in seven places, I had concerns about them being blocks away from one another but putting two in two buildings literally next door to one another as opposed to -- I'm not trying to minimize at all the need in that particular area. It's just it doesn't seem strategic to me to not serve areas with even higher poverty rates in the city is high concentrations of need where Austin free net and others already provide service and choose to do it in two buildings one next door. I understand one is a senior center and the other is not but that's just -- that seems odd to me but [12:08:25 PM] maybe y'all have thought this through and have a strong reason to do so. >> If I can respond to that one question. >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Before -- >> Pool: I was going to say and perhaps our staff will answer this but it's possible that size is a consideration and the size of the community that needs to be served and how many desks and computers are available in each of those two different locations. >> Right. So, council, staff would want to provide the assurance that we are serving those highest-need communities first. And so through the information that is yielded from the concurrent residential technology study, as was identified in the scope of work for helping staff understand what that core need is to also support a concurrent evaluation of our facilities and ensure they are appropriately located. And that background was included within the solicitation materials, that that's a constant evaluation that staff conducts with relation to what is coming in from our residential technology study data, the utilization rates at the current public access labs, being integrated into contract recommendations for where we are placing those public access computers. I hope that helps. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Let's take a vote. Those in favor of the vogues please raise your hand. Those opposed. Mr. Flannigan voting no, troxclair voting no. Abstinences? Councilmember alter abstains. Others voting aye. That passes. Before we do community -- can we -- how quickly can we do the Austin housing? Can we do that quickly? We have high priced bond council. If we let them fly home that might be good. >> We can do it quickly, Austin housing finance corporation -- >> Mayor Adler: I'm going to recess the city council meeting here at 12:10. I'm going to convene the [12:10:28 PM] Austin housing finance corporation meeting. [SEE AUSTIN HOUSING FINANCE CORPORATION MEETING PAGE FOR TRANSCRIPT] Mayor Adler: All right. It is 12:13. I reconvene the Austin city council meeting here on March 1, 2018. I'm looking at the items that we have left on our agenda. We've taken care of five and 15. That leaves us two things, 17 and 22. And 23. I don't know how long it's going to take us to do these, if we could get rid of these quickly we don't have to come back after executive session until after 2:00 if we could get to them quickly. >> Houston: Could we do citizen communications and then take care of those two? >> Houston: I would appreciate that. >> Mayor Adler: Good idea. Let's go ahead and do that. Call citizens communication at this point. First speaker on citizens will be William flowers. Come on down. [12:14:30 PM] Patrick ebomwonyi is on deck. Mr. Flowers. >> Hello. My name is William flowers, and I'd rather be at the house gardening than here to be honest with you. I'm a little bit nervous. But I have to come up here. Got a couple of issues that have come about. We lived here for 30 years and I have not had any adverse dealings with the city until now. We had an abatement at my house a while back, and got an issue with the bill on that but that's not what I'm here for. When we had the abatement, we had a dozen workers there, had half a dozen code enforcement, two police, and animal control. And when they had taken the trailer off and we were standing around talking with these people, they mentioned that, you know, if you don't do something with this area that your roommate is just going to mess it back up again. And one of them had suggested that we bring our horse here. And I had spoke to code enforcement and they told me that it was okay. Matter of fact, I had a code enforcement officer step off the distance from the house to where I would have to put the fence. And I asked animal control, I said "What do I need to do to do this?" And they told me what I would have to do to build the shelter enclosure, food, water, shelter. I thought about this for a few days and called 311. They confirmed it was okay for me to bring the horse here. So I spent several thousand dollars building this enclosure and only to find out from the health department that I'm not allowed to have this horse here. I went to court yesterday [12:16:32 PM] and was found innocent, not guilty. There was no criminal intent found. So what I would like to do is see if there's not some way we can come to an agreement that allows me to keep this horse here. And I've got an idea that I can have this horse certified as an emotional support animal, which would in my view, take it out of the livestock arena and put her into a different area. This horse is 16 years old. It doesn't make any noise. If you didn't know she was there, you wouldn't know she was there. I don't know who has called on me, but apparently they followed the court and have called again. So now there's going to be a new case on me. And Nicole, her father is very ill, her mother just died recently. We're going to try to sell -- close up the house in Round Rock and sell it. [Buzzer sounding] And buy some property out of town where we are, you know, fully able to have the horse. What I'd like to do is get a deferment on this action for a year or so until I can get this taken care of. >> Mayor Adler: Manager, is it possible for you to have someone on your staff visit with these folks? >> Absolutely. I'll have interim city manager, Sara Hensley, talk to you afterwards. She's right behind you. >> Okay. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you, sir. >> Thank you for your time. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: Next speaker, Patrick ebomwonyi. [12:18:38 PM] >> How you guys doing? My name is Patrick. Again, the topic is loving our police officers. I know you got to see me here before. I want to thank some of the officers like officer Nan, Richardson, Dan griffin, doing a good job, helping me, helping a situation I'm going through. I'm seeing enforcement from here to cob, I'm still going through craziness. With craziness, you know, enforcement is always a firm foundation so I'm praying that, you know, you guys, you know, take up the issue or I continue to get help in this situation and, you know, the community grows in this situation as well. I'm -- it's more of a professional ask -- aspect of just making sure police are doing their job. Again, I told you I was born in a family in [indiscernible], it was a military enforcement and police aspect of the family, so, you know, I take living structure the right way. Austin is the capitol, we're in the capitol, so live in Austin, we have to realize that law enforcement, you know, protection, little things like that be taken to an unbelievable higher level. I feel like if I live in this city or live in pflugerville that this location itself should be, you know, known for its correction -- facility and correction of helping, you know, and stopping criminals from doing evil things. So like said, please don't stop here. We still need help in our city, going from here, pflugerville, Round Rock, Austin. I even wrote down my phone number. If anybody knows any -- anyone that can, you know, guide me in this situation or help me in this [12:20:39 PM] situation or, you know, me going out and getting help for others as well. My phone number is 512-375- 5948. I stay in pflugerville. James [indiscernible] Greatly through this. Police need to take their hard work to higher grounds and funding, funding for officers, man. If anything is left, you know, I feel like if [indiscernible] Help the officers see change in their lives first, and ultimately you'll see a change elsewhere. But we have to make a point of a facility to say, okay, you know -- or the government -- or government or you guys have to make the point of facility to say, okay, through funding we want to see X and X progress. I'm pretty sure the progress would be seen. So I'm running a nonprofit organization called exploring the royal heart. It's to build churches in Africa and also helping enforcement. [Buzzer sounding] I'm looking towards a brighter future for seeing police work being done. Last couple works I wrote was "Please, please, please take this seriously." >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> God bless you. >> Mayor Adler: Next speaker is pat valls-trelles not coming? Okay. What about Janna horn? Is Janna horn here? What about Robert mills? What about Malcolm Yeatts? Mr. Yeatts? Rebecca Kahn is on deck. >> My name is Malcolm Yeatts, I'm the chair of the east Riverside [indiscernible] Combined neighborhood planning area contact team. [12:22:43 PM] On October 30, 2015, the only east to west trail connection for the southeast central Austin was cut when the pedestrian bridge over country club creek was destroyed by erosion. This disaster could have been avoided with a small amount of remedial action. History is about to repeat itself. The only north to south trail connection for southeast central Austin is in danger of being destroyed by erosion. The country club creek trail is the primary goal of the E rock neighborhood plan. This trail connects our neighborhoods to the three major parks in our area, Roy Guerrero, Davis and country club creek greenbelt. The erosion is occurring near the l1 drive trail entrance. This section of the trail is on public recreational easement on private property. The trail was built by volunteers with private funds and has been maintained by the E rock neighborhood volunteer organization for over ten years. The erosion is happening in a drainage ditch that crosses the trail. This is a photo showing the depth of the erosion and vertical wall of the ditch. This is a photo showing how close the erosion is to the trail. The Orange ruler is 4 feet long. The neighborhood volunteers have completed the first phase to repair this erosion. We need to add a second layer of rock cages on top of the first layer to finish the erosion repair. However, watershed protection department has told us to stop the repair work until they can evaluate the erosion. We met with watershed and reached an agreement. Our group of volunteers [12:24:43 PM] would create a detour of the trail around the erosion site. This detour will keep the trail from being cut for one or two years. During that period, watershed will design and build a more permanent solution to the erosion. We are here today to ask council to support watershed with the resources needed to complete this project. The E rock volunteers and city departments need to work together to complete this critical repair project before the trail is damaged and this critical link is cut. Thank you. Any questions? >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. [ Applause ] Rebecca Kahn and then Karen sironi is on deck. >> Hi. I'm Rebecca Kahn, owner of not anymore, abia's long standing massage and wellness company since 2002. On December 14 you voted to authorize a ten-year contract with xpresspa despite unanimous vote from your vote to -- if this contract is signed with xpresspa my successful stable, highly regarded 15-year business will be put out of business by my own city council and Austin, Texas, of all places. As a 100% woman-owned acdbe the city's failure to value us is shameful. Our 100% process was scored the same as our competitor's minimum 12%. If this deal goes through, Austin will have one fewer woman-owned acdbe on its roster. I'm here today nearly three months later because this is not yet over. In fact there's a growing [12:26:45 PM] course of disbelief and dissatisfaction I must report back to you. Your airport advisory commission addressed this issue just two weeks ago because they are not happy with the outcome of xpresspa. Our employees are not happy. The traveling public is resoundingly unhappy and I suspect that many of you are unhappy with this as well. So what's to be done? A clarification on the complaints that councilmember alter just mentioned. I was not asking you in December to choose not anymore because we are local. That's not what the advisory commission -- why the advisory commission recommended us either. I recognize that can run afoul of preventing you choosing a local business based solely on locality. We provided many other reasons we were the best choice. Second I'd like to give you follow-up questions to please ask airport staff. Ask staff why we weren't offered an interview with a possible tam 25 more points in the scoring. It's an aallowance clearly spelled out in the rfp. Ask staff why this courtesy wasn't offered to their partner of 15 years. Ask staff why they applied a retail and restaurant scoring methodology to the rfp's only service concession. Ask staff to explain why we scored the lowest for previous experience. And, finally, ask staff how installing a big box multinational xpresspa meets the published purpose of this rfp, which was to select, quote, concessions that distinguish austin-bergstrom international airport from all other airports. Your constituents are incensed over your December vote. I will leave some San Francisco their comments with you if I can. They know that relationships and track records count in the service business and they see how the scoring failed to evaluate that here. While the massage business is a modest revenue generator for the airport it is high-profile and it generates a ton of goodwill. You may have underestimated just how beloved our [12:28:47 PM] independent massage company has become to the traveling public. [Buzzer sounding] Council I'm not asking for you to overhaul the entire process. I know that's not your job. I'm simply asking for you to reconsider this small part of it through the lens of equity that you have been known for. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Tovo: Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Tovo: Ms. Kahn, thank you for being here today. I appreciate it, I share your sentiments on the designates. As you may know, we did ask -- my office asked along with councilmember pool that our economic development reach out and work with you and see if there are any options, any programs that would be of assistance. Thank you for the questions that you asked us. I'm happy to pass those on and get answers back from aviation but I'm not sure if we can talk outside this forum. >> I understand. >> Tovo: I'm not sure where we are with contract negotiations so I need to ask you to go through those questions again. I caught the one about the interview -- >> I have my talking points. If appropriate can I leave them with you? >> Tovo: Is that allowable? I'm not sure where we are with the rfp process and whether they have signed contracts. >> Mayor Adler: Calibrate it's given to us as part of this process -- >> It's my talking points and customer feedback I had mentioned. >> Tovo: That would be great. Maybe we can make copies for different council. >> I have 12 copies here. >> Tovo: Super. Thank you so much. >> Mayor Adler: Manager, this is one of the contracts that councilmember alter referenced just a moment ago. Thank you. After Ms. Sironi, Anna Villalobos will be the next speaker. Go ahead, please. >> Mayor, councilmembers, my name is Karen sironi and I'm not here to talk about speed cushions. I will be back, but not now. Based on recent happenings in this country, I thought I'd give some safety thoughts for schools. I realize you're not aid, but you are the governing entity within the city. In my opinion, aisd schools should have one entrance, all other doors to be locked with keyed entry. [12:30:50 PM] First period aisd schools should be called for us. Pta members to be located at the front door to assist in welcoming the students and searching backpacks. The goal is to make them feel safe and to feel good again. I also think it would be a great idea to have A.P.D. To have a satellite office at our schools. This is done in other locations. It would be a deterrent. The students would, I think, feel much safer. Response time, if need be, would be faster. It provides a less expensive alternative for A.P.D. And other office situations. You know, teachers wouldn't feel the need to carry guns. I know there's a lot of discussion about that. I also think that all schools need to face the dathers of the possibility of a shooter. Training teachers is the best way to protect the students and themselves. I know for a fact some schools have not done that. I don't know that they're just afraid. I don't know how to start the conversation. And we ask parents to help. Parents would be the first to step up, but without communication to them, that cannot happen. Making automatic weapons like ar-15s, which are not sports guns, they are killing machines, please make them illegal to be sold in Austin or even to own, if that's possible. And now I'd like to move on to Ada lack of information for some of the staff. I think we need to educate atd city employees about disabilities and how to communicate. Train how to speak to a disabled person so that they know what is discriminating and what is acceptable and what is not. How to understand the effects of what they do and how it affects the disabled [12:32:52 PM] community. Start with communications with Austin citizens, ensure that they listen to us and have a two-way conversation that actually results new some sort of action. And we also need to educate the citizens of Austin with possibilities prior to implementation of something atd thinks is best. Thank you for your time. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Ms. Villalobos is up next and then Pedro Hernandez is on deck. >> Good afternoon, councilmembers. Anna Villalobos, community member, long-time community member. I'm also president of the montopolis recreation center advisory board and involved with a lot of the issues happening in our neighborhood. I'm going to read something to you because we had a standing room only meeting this last Tuesday with the parks board, and we hope that you support us because we have gained a lot of support. Now, therefore, it be resolved that the Austin parks and recreation board recommends the Austin city council direct the city manager to remove Roy Guerrero park as a possible location for a major league soccer stadium and the Austin parks and recreation board further recommends that future projects that propose use of parkland for nonpublic parks purposes be reviewed by the parks and requisition board and if appropriate the Austin environmental board prior to formal review and discussion at the city council to ensure that the council has all pertinent information at hand to make their decision. Thank you. And I hope you support us. The public has spoken. We've got a lot of support, [12:34:54 PM] and I hope that the council follows the public's lead. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Hernandez. Is -- Pedro is not here? Thank you very much. Thank you. Council, it is 12:35. There are some things we're not going to be able to take up until 4:00, when we have a public hearing. We have some zoning things we can't take up prior to 2:00 but most of those things are going to fall off, I think, by postponement. So we don't have any real zoning stuff. We do have the -- some items to come back, the sick leave issue has been pulled, the nonemergency medical franchise has been pulled, and really then we get into the two public hearings. So I'm going to recommend that we stop now, go to executive session, because they're going to be rather lengthy and then we could just come back at 3:30 if we wanted to. That would be another way of picking up those items. Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: Mayor, if we can hit those other consent items before executive session, that would allow the staff who are here to kind of go about their day. So that would be my preference if it's not going to take us a long time. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Feeling on the dais? We want to let -- keep staying here? Let's continue. >> Houston: My questions are not going to take a long time. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Let's call them up. We'll call up item 17, Ms. Houston. >> Houston: Thank you, mayor. And thank you for the the version two. My question is to the city manager, just so that I'm clear, that at this moment we don't have a fiscal impact of what this will do but if we vote yes on this today, an amount of money will be baked into the base [12:36:55 PM] of all salaries. Is that correct? >> Councilmember, that is correct. It is our current understanding, if there's anything that our assistant city manager would like to add to that, but that is my understanding. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> Mark Washington, D.C., assistant city manager. We'll look at all of those as cost drivers as we prepare the financial forecast and budget for fy19. >> Houston: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Further discussion on this item? Let's get a motion. Is there a motion to approve this item 19 Mr. Casar makes that motion. >> Casar: I move to approve the updated version in backup which has the two changes posted on the message board. They're in backup. I've got a highlighted copy here if anybody needs the very small tweaks that were made. >> Mayor Adler: I'll take a copy of that if you have it. It's been moved. Is there a second to that? Ms. Kitchen seconds that. Any discussion? Ms. Kitchen? >> Kitchen: I just want to follow up on something I raised at the work session, and that was in regard to our small business office being available to work with -- I guess that's -- yes, it is in response to an item in this particular -- in this particular resolution. So I thought that -- I thought I understood from the work session that staff was going to get back to reaffirm that the small business office could help with the consulting assistance aspects of this resolution. >> Joya hays, department of human resources. For clarification I believe the conversation was around our economic development office and so if that is correct we have a -- >> Kitchen: Sorry, finish your thought. >> We were focusing that on the work already available through economic development, not small minority business office. We were using those terms interchangeably. I wanted to confirm those [12:38:56 PM] questions were relative to economic development department, correct? >> Kitchen: I'm talking about the small business office which provides assistance for small businesses and I think you're correct. I think they're in the economic development department. >> Yes. >> Kitchen: I probably don't have the right title for the office. Sorry. >> No problem. >> Rebecca giello, interim, do you are actually correct. We do have a small business division and we are positioned in functionality to take on that. However, we would anticipate additional resources in order to execute increased workload in that area. And currently right now we are anticipating moving forward one fte in the budget process. >> Kitchen: Okay. In order to be able to do that? >> That is correct. >> Kitchen: Okay. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: This item has been moved and seconded. Item number 17. Any further discussion? >> Houston: Mayor, I know this is going to be awful but I'm not going to be able to support this. There's too many things that are not finished yet. There are too many unknowns and I can't endorse something that I have no idea about what the outcomes are going to be so I'm going to have to vote no on this one. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Any further discussion? Those in favor of this -- yes, Ms. Troxclair. >> Troxclair: I'm also going to be voting no on this. I think it's hugely irresponsible for us to be voting on such a major decision that's going to impact our budget before we have any idea of the fiscal implications. This is a -- I mean, normally this is the kind of decision that the council would spend a lot of time trying to understand how this would impact our budget and how it's going to impact taxpayers and other priorities that we have. I'm really disappointed that this process has moved so quickly. I feel like our staff -- it's put our staff in a really difficult position of not having the time that they need to make sure that [12:40:57 PM] they're prepared to implement this, and they haven't been given the opportunity to provide us with the information that we need to make an informed decision. So I hope that this decision doesn't come at the expense of other city programs and that as we continue to hear about affordability and cost of living and rising property taxes as the thing -- as the thing that is causing economic segregation and gentrification and pushing people out of our city that it's decisions like these that are made without the complete picture of information of how this will affect our budget, that these are the decisions that are driving people ultimately out of the city. >> Casar: Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember pool. >> Pool: I think what I'd say about that is if this passes here today what we are doing in fact is prioritizing the spending over some other spending when we get to our budget. This will be part of the document that the city manager brings to us and that will change the levels that may be available for other things. It causes me some concern as well. On a policy basis, as far as the principal involved, I think if this is moving forward a policy initiative that the council had requested we move forward on last year, so I think we're doubling down on that. But it does not go unremarked for me we will be reducing the amount of money we might spend on something else, putting it to benefit our employees, however, is pretty much top offer my list, because I care about our employees and this will be something that will be a benefit to them. So I'll be supportive. [12:43:00 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: I'm supportive also. I recognize that has an impact on our budget but as a policy matter, it is an affordability issue for our workers. If our workers cannot have a job where they can be home and paid if they're sick, then we are sacrificing affordability for them and that's just not the right thing to do. It is also a public health issue for our workers as -- you know, as we have discussed before. So I'm a strong supporter of making sure all of our workers with the city have access to the health benefits they need, which includes sick leave, and I consider it an affordability issue for our workers. >> Mayor Adler: I would just -- Mr. Casar. >> Casar: Yeah. I'd just -- two words on the terms about expense. First, I think that we are currently by not offering sick leave to our own employees, putting that expense on them. I think there's a huge expense to the community when folks have to go to work sick and get other people sick. Second, as far as this impacting any city programs, those city programs are executed by our staff, by our employees, and I wouldn't want to have city programs that come at the expense of employees who don't have access to sick time. I don't believe we're acting too quickly. I think we're acting too late. I think our staff should have all had sick time long before anybody on this dais was elected. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. I would just point out as an aside and I'll probably do this every time we talk about property taxes as a lead up to next legislative session that 71% of the property tax increase that people are feeling here in most of Austin is the state property tax. It's gone up 288% over the [12:45:01 PM] last five years and it's something that the city has no control over. Nor the county. Nor the school district. Nor the hospital district. When people say that their property taxes have been going up over the last five years here, that is the tax that is -- overshadows all the other increases. Any further discussion? Councilmember troxclair. >> Troxclair: If you're going to bring that up every time we talk about property taxes then I'll have to bring up the fact that 20% of your property tax bill is the city property taxes and the city has increased your property taxes 8% year over year, which is the minimum allowed by state law, meaning that your city property taxes will double every nine years. >> Houston: Mayor, I just want to remind us all that there has been comments floated that there's going to be a cap put on property taxes. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Let's take a vote. Those in favor of this item number 16 -- >> 17. >> Mayor Adler: 17, item number 17, thank you, please raise your hand. Those opposed. Ms. Houston, Ms. Troxclair voting no. Others voting aye. It passes. That would get us to item number 22. Nonemergency medical franchise. >> Houston: And, mayor, this is just a question. There are nine members of this austin/travis county ems advisory board, as I understand it, five that the mayor appoints and four from Travis county. I would just ask that we look at the demographics of the advisory commission. It doesn't reflect who we say we are as a city or who we say we are as a 10-1 council. It's pretty heavily male and white males at that. So I didn't have anything for you all. It's just the next time the [12:47:02 PM] mayor has an opportunity to make an appointment to that advisory board, to please look at the demographics and try to make it more inclusive. >> Mayor Adler: We'll do that and check and see next time that happened and we'll ask for your input. Thank you. Anything else on this item? Yes. Mayor pro tem moves approval of item 22. Second to that? Councilmember pool seconds that. Any discussion? Those in favor please raise your hand. Those opposed. Unanimous on the dais. That gets us through all the consent items. The only thing we have that we could cover is the tif matter, item 23. Mr. Flannigan has hand out an amendment on the dais. Do we want to take this before we break for lunch? Sounds like people want to keep going. >> Casar: I'd move councilmember Flannigan's amended version for approval. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Casar moves Mr. Flannigan's amended version that's been handed out on the dais. Is there a second to that? Mr. Flannigan seconds that. Is there any discussion of this item number 23. Councilmember Flannigan, do you want to explain what it is you did here? >> Flannigan: So we made a couple of language tweaks in the be it resolved, just for some clarity and but, more importantly, bullet points related to how -- any analysis that staff does around this include the broader financial impact to the general fund and its impact to the future of the general fund. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Those in favor please raise your hand. Those opposed. Ms. Troxclair voting no, others voting aye. Passes 10-1. I don't think we have planning staff here but best as I can tell you're not going to -- so I think most of these items have been pulled -- I mean, have been postponed or are going to be postponed. [12:49:03 PM] I know, Mr. Flannigan, you want to speak to item 38. I don't -- >> Flannigan: I'm willing to speak on consent. >> Mayor Adler: On consent on 38? I think that will work. We can't pull up the public hearing items until 4:00. So I'm going to suggest that we come back, you know, just before 4:00 so that we don't come back and leave and come back. So with that said, we'll come back -- it looks like we'll have basically just the consent agenda so maybe ten to 4:00 we'll come back. We'll have a long executive session because we have personnel matters in front of us. That said then we're going to go ahead and go into closed session to take up four items, pursuant to 551.074 of the government code, council is going to discuss personnel matters related to item 26, 27, 28, which are the performance reviews of the city clerk, city export court clerk. We're also going to take up pursuant to 551.071 of the government code item 31, legal issues related to planning commission. If there's no objection, we will now go into executive session. Hearing none, it is 12:50 and we'll retire to executive session. [ Executive session ] [4:37:02 PM] >> Mayor Adler: All right, council. We have a quorum back here. Today is still March 1st of 2018. We're still in the city council chamber here at city hall. We're out of closed session. In closed session we discussed personnel matters related to item 26, 27, 28, legal matters related to item 31 through 36. We are back. You want to take us through the accident, planning and zoning matters? >> Sure. Today's zoning agendas should be pretty easy. First case item, for which the public hearing is closed, 32, npa- 2016-061. The applicant is postponing this item to your April 20th meeting. 33, case C 2016 -- the applicant is requesting postponement of this item to your April 24th meeting. C14-2016-02121, recommended for approval on third reading. For those items for which the public hearing are still obtain. 35, npa-2017-0016.04, the staff is requesting a postponement of this item to your March 22nd meeting. Item 3, npa-2017-0021.01, postponement to March 22 meeting. C14-2017-0141, staff requesting a postponement of this meeting to your April 12th meeting. Item 38 is case c14-2017-0146, staff is recommending approval of this item on all three readings. Item 39, case c14-2017-0152, postponement of this item no March 22nd meeting. Item 40, case c14-2017-0067, [4:39:04 PM] staff is also requesting a postponement of this item four March 22nd meeting. That concludes the zoning agenda. >> Mayor Adler: Just real fast, 35 and 36 was to do what? >> 35 and 36 were to postpone to March 22nd. >> Mayor Adler: And 37 was... >> To postpone to April 12th. >> Mayor Adler: And 38 was the -- >> Approve all three readings. >> Mayor Adler: Did you want to say something about item 38? >> I did. Mr. Rusthoven, do you know why staff added the four additional cos while it's removing sales? >> I'll have to pull that up and take a look at it. >> Flannigan: I just wanted to data this for the council, this is a really interesting example where food sales was added as a restriction in a co. It's been very difficult to ascertain when cos are added for a legitimate policy reason, and so as someone who I imagine is trying to start a small business in food sales, the cost to start that business is now increased because we have to put them through this process. So my hope is that, moving forward in our rewrite, that we're thinking about how to enable this type of change without forcing a long, expensive hiring lobbyists type of process. That's all I really wanted to say and I'd like to be shown voting no on this case. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Mayor? I had a quick question. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> Mr. Rusthoven, item 32, what was the postponement date on that? >> 32, app 12. >> And 33? >> The same. >> Okay. Thank you, that's all I had. >> Mayor Adler: Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> And close the public hearing. >> Mayor Adler: And close the public hearing on items 35 through 40. Councilmember Garza makes the motion. Councilmember kitchen seconds that motion, discussion on the consent agenda? Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: I'm trying not to talk [4:41:06 PM] about conditional overlays at this meeting, but -- [laughter] -- I would also just say if there are members of the public watching, they also always have the option of selecting a site that has the zoning and entitlements they need to open the kind of business they want to so that's always another option open to a small business that wants to open, say, food sales. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Any further discussion on the consent agenda? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Those opposed? It's unanimous on the dais with a notation Mr. Flannigan made is to that one item. Thank you. >> Thank you, council. >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Alter: I wanted to clarify that there are some items that are being postponed to the public hearing so we're not closing those public hearings. >> Mayor Adler: That is correct. The items in 35 through 40 that were not approved -- in fact, item number 38 was approved on third reading. The other items are being postponed so the public hearings will remain open on each of those cases. >> Alter: Thank you. >> Yep. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. That's much clearer. Okay. I think that gets us to the last two items we have, which are public hearings. Item number 41 and item number 42. Staff wants to come down and talk to us about item number 41. Looks to me like we have 11 people signed up on this one. Seven of them to speak. >> Good afternoon, mayor and council. >> Mayor Adler: Hang on one second. Your mic's not on. >> Good afternoon, may and council. I'm Carrie lane the assistant director for the ems department. This is regarding the allegiance mobile health application for non-emergency transfer franchise under city code chapter 10-2. Allegiance submitted application to and you know Travis county ems in at the present time 2017. [4:43:09 PM] -- In 2017. With it was September to the advisory board on November 1st, 2017. The advisory board has recommended allegiance for five-year franchise, 7-0. The currently has two franchise agreements for non-emergency transports. The addition of allegiance would make that a third franchise agreement to manage approximately 19,000 calls annually. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Council, I'm going to go ahead and call the citizens to speak on this issue at the public meeting, public hearing. First up would be Mike Kelly. Mr. Kelly, you have three minutes. Steven drail is -- >> I'd like to donate my time to Steve druhl. I didn't know how to do it electronically. >> Mayor Adler: You did it fine. Mr. Druhl, you have five minutes with the donated time. >> Thank you, mayor and councilmembers. I have handouts, I don't know if I can give these to somebody to hand to -- my name is Steve [indiscernible], with the American medical response. We're the largest ground ambulance prior in the united States and primary FEMA ambulance prior for Texas and 47 other contiguous states. We've held a franchise for non-emergency services since the 1990s. Nationally we provide all manner of ambulance services from emergency 911 responses to non- emergency service. Just the past year alone, we're the ambulance response team for Las Vegas in reaction to the shootings, the tragic mass shoot, as well as being heavily involved in Texas and the united States as part of the FEMA response team to tropical storms and hurricanes this past fall. I'm here today to ask you to either delay or deny or refer to the public safety commission to [4:45:09 PM] review the granting of allegiance franchise to the grounds it will be harm to the citizens, especially the citizens of Austin, which depend on the non-emergency transport system. I respectfully direct you to page 3 and 4 of the October 2017 austin/travis county ems staff findings document which states the city council decision to grant non-emergency ambulance transfer franchise must be based on three criteria, proximity to franchisee's operations to Austin hospitals, nursing homes, facilities and other health care facilities, a proven track record in meeting operational and performance standards, and whether granting the franchise will adversely affect existing services to lower standards of existing service and cause public inconvenience. This staff report clearly documents through a fact finding allegiance fails greatly on two of these three requirements. Specifically, the staff records find 38.4% of allegiance's patient care reports were incorrectly documented per the Texas administrative code and requirements of medicaid, medicare, and children's health insurance program, and that allegiance does not have a compliance program as required by the affordable care act. This clearly documents that by granting the allegiance franchise, the city would be lowering the standard of care to the citizens of Austin. Also, as noted in the same October 30 finding report, they're pursuing this the he request of local clients, implying they will cherry pick the system in a way it does not benefit the public. Austin's population is growing and to existing and proven franchise non-emergency ambulance providers which provide 24/7 citywide non-emergency ambulance transport. Adding a third-party provider to the system is not relevant to the city's population growth. As the current providers have increased and will continue to increase the transport as the [4:47:11 PM] city continues to grow. In this regard, granting another franchise will not add to the total of transport. This will harm the general public and seniors in particular, because it will diminish the efficiency of the current franchise system to serve the whole city, and compliance coordination of a response -- complicate coordination of responses during times of disaster at the expense of allowing a third provider to cherry pick certain regions or time periods during the day. For these reasons, the city of Austin would be lowering the standards of care for the citizens of Austin by granting allegiance this franchise. Again, allegiance fails on two of three of the requirements as required by the city's requirement. In closing, I ask the council not to treat the symptom of a city with a rapidly growing population. Instead, you address the specific needs of your current non-emergency delivery system. For example, the traditional discharge time for local hospitals is between 1:00 and 4:00 P.M. This is often when the demand for non-emergency transport is at the highest, but to allow a lesser standard third franchise, non-emergency provider to cherry pick selectively for its clients during this window at this time would be at the expense of nursing home and our outpatient care for the remaining 21 hours of the day. Instead of adding a franchise, the city needs to develop a specific solution to this specific discharge window. As such, we stand ready to meet openly with city staff and nursing home providers to ensure the providers non-emergency ambulance solutions meet needs of all citizens 24/7 across the whole city. I respectfully ask you to consider delaying for more study or to deny this franchise request by allegiance. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Next speaker. Troy mare? And while you're coming down is [4:49:13 PM] Jan here? >> My name is Troy mayor, I'm the vice president for arcadian ambulance S. I want to thank you for allowing me to be here to make a few comments. Without going into excessive detail, you've heard quite a bit of information from the first speaker. Our organization also opposes the idea of adding another franchise holder to the process currently in place. Our ems system has been in place here in the city of Austin successfully for over ten years now. We've been able to meet the challenges and demands of the area and we feel that we're qualified and capable to do that well into the future. We have the capacity to increase the services currently being provided based on the needs and necessities of the area, so growing population is not a large concern for us. Recent satisfaction surveys which were conducted in the area have shown that our organization has received a greater than 90% approval rating from our customers in the city limits of Austin. That attests to our capabilities to provide the service that is being provided for here by a third provider. The current system also has in chapter 10 the review of application which you briefly heard previously about the number of providers being able to provide service in the area which applicant proposes to furnish service, and whether granting the franchise would adversely affect existing service have as to have a lowering of the standards of existing services and calls public inconvenience. While we feel definitely that a two-provider system is definitely meeting the needs of the area, we don't feel that a third provider would serve the benefit in accomplishing a task that is being proposed here. We don't want to see any negative effects on the quality or level of service that is being provided, and without having a definitive impact study conducted, we will never know the negative effects that could have on any of the organizations, specifically the current franchise service providers that are in place now. So we also are respectfully requesting that the request be denied or delayed until further [4:51:14 PM] impact study could be conducted. Thanks. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. You have some time that had been donated to you. Is David Lee here? And is Ricky Powell here? You have seven minutes. >> Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen of the council, I appreciate your time this evening. My name's Dan Gillespie. I'm president and chief of operations for allegiance mobile health. I'd like to thank each of you, the city staff members and ems advisory board for the time and consideration for this opportunity. We've spent the better part of a year to year and a half meeting with health care providers, the hospital systems in Austin to determine the need of additional services. As such, they did perform surveys which came back conclusive that a third service would be beneficial. And to answer the concerns about the billing, it was a software issue that we were able to identify with industry experts from your staff, correct immediately, and move forward. And I believe in reading their review, they had a similar issue as well with a few of their mileage reviews on their charts. So this is -- that's not something that's uncommon in the ems industry, with mileage -- fractional mileage billing. We feel strongly, and, you know, certainly don't want to, you know, get into the weeds on this, but we feel strongly, and as did the ems advisory board, that there would be a great benefit to adding a third service to the city. This does not cost the taxpayers anything to do, and it simply puts the onus on us to compete [4:53:14 PM] successfully, on us and the other two providers. It is -- there's been clear evidence and determination that the services are not being met in a timely fashion, and the austin/travis county ems system is actually being burdened for the -- for the overflow transport requests that the current franchise holders are unable to meet. We've done -- we have searched researched that through multiple public open records requests. So myself, our executive team, our board of directors, we are all here tonight to answer any questions or concerns that you guys may have from us. We are certainly appreciative of this. We're a growing company. We're proud to be the largest texas-owned and texas-based provider of ambulance and emergency medical services, and we are grateful and honored for this opportunity. With that I'll yield my time and answering any questions or concerns the council may have. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you very much. Richard suttle? Looks like you have some donated time, is Amanda balm here? Thank you. Is Stephanie Roth here? You have seven minutes, Mr. Suttle. >> I'm going to give most of it back to you. I'm here on behalf of the applicant today. I just want to tell you, to reemphasize that this has been a lengthy review process. The staff, the advisory board has determined that there is a need, that we do comply with everything. That not everybody agrees with the other two providers, that everybody's happy with them, so we're hopeful that the council on first reading today will approve this and increase competition and increase service for the ambulance services. Never thought I'd be here chasing ambulances. I kind of fancy myself as a little better than that, but I'm chasing ambulances today. Be happy -- our whole team's here and be happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. [4:55:14 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Is keeland Robinson here? Do you want to speak? Okay. Is Gus peña here? >> Right here, mayor. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Colleagues, this is our last signed-up speaker. >> Councilmembers, y'all look tired. I'm going to make it real swift. Just because Richard suttle represented his company, I'm going to vote against it. No, just kidding, Richard. [Laughter]. I won't tell my wife will you. Mr. Cronk doesn't know what to make of Gus peña. At least he laughed. Anyway, Gus peña, native east austinite, back in the 1990s, when Bruce [indiscernible] Was mayor, we had some similar type issues about ems, and I had spoken to Tony [indiscernible], and chief Ernie Rodriguez, and, you know, I'm -- after speaking to Mr. Powell, I'm quite comfortable with -- like I said, a third server will be beneficial and meets the criteria, proximity to hospitals, et cetera. They've been doing it already so I won't bore you with my lack of excitement, but, you know, we're supportive of allegiance and so do the appropriate thing and, you know, I respect councilmember Garza when she was a firefighter, still is at heart. All of y'all, we're not experts, but did the best you can and I'll keep it short. We're supporting allegiance and do the right thing. As I said, I was concerned about transportation and I was educated by the assistant chief. I thought it was going to be emergency transfers, but no, he told me it's not emergency, so I'm cool with that. Just -- I'm okay with [4:57:15 PM] allegiance. So veterans for progress, ask y'all to support and endorse this company. And I've done my investigation. I'm a former irs investigator, and I hear good things about this company. Anyway, no disrespect to anybody, but please vote appropriately. Thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Is there a motion to close the public hearing? Is there a motion to close the public hearing? Ms. Houston makes that motion. Ms. Garza seconds that motion. Debate? Those in favor of closing the public hearing, please raise your hand. Those opposed? Unanimous on the dais. We're closing the public hearing. Hearing, with councilmember Renteria is gone. That gets us back up to the dais. Councilmember pool. >> Pool: I have a question, maybe for staff, about the review process that this contract went through. I understand that the public safety commission didn't -- can you just give us some information about why public safety commission didn't have a look/see at this contract? >> We historically have not provided or forwarded this to the public safety commission for approval. It has gone through the eight austin/travis county advisory board -- >> Pool: Just the ems advisory board? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Pool: So you don't, under normal circumstances, send it to the public safety commission. >> No. >> Pool: Huh. And why is that? >> I'm not sure why -- >> Pool: Historically. >> Do you know? >> Jasper [indiscernible] Staff Austin county ems. I believe in the way it's written in the code it has to be approved by the advisory board. Since it's a non-emergent transfer that doesn't real fall under public safety commission. If it's the will of the council we could certainly go that route but we've [4:59:15 PM] never done that before. >> Pool: Okay. I apologize I've got the cold thing, too, that councilmember troxclair has. I don't know if anybody can understand what I'm saying. >> Mayor Adler: So that I understand, this is not awarding a contract, right? This is awarding a franchise? >> It's awarding a franchise provider. >> Mayor Adler: So only those companies that have been awarded franchise have been allowed to transport folks, nonemergency transport. >> There's two in town. >> Mayor Adler: The question is should there be a third. >> Yes. >> Mayor Adler: Can you explain why it is you think there should be a third franchise just so we have that. There's no contract with that. They're just able to compete is that right some. >> Correct. They're able to compete. When allegiance applied for the franchise, the staff goes through and reviews their application to see how they have run as a company historically. And with them not being within the city we looked at their calls and their information from their other locations at the -- to get an idea of how they were established as an organization. Our staff finding shows the things that we came across in their application and the issues that we thought were needed to be addressed. Allegiance did address those issues upon our bringing it to their attention. As staff what we do then is just give it to the advisory board for them to make the final recommendation based on the reporting and investigation that we do as a staff. >> Mayor Adler: And did you conclude -- one of the elements was to make sure that having an additional franchisee doesn't adversely affect the existing service. >> Correct. So prior to their application, staff did have a customer service sway that went out to -- we distributed to all of the hospitals and organizations that use the current franchisees and asked for their feedback. Based on some of that feedback they did ask those -- some of the feedback from the surveys did suggest a third franchise and when we looked at the numbers on how we've grown over the last several years, the [5:01:17 PM] number of transports have grown for nonemergency transfers to about 19,000 annually. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Further discussion on the dais? Councilmember Garza. >> Garza: I just have a question about -- so do these nonemergency ambulances have, like, private contracts with hospitals? How do they pick up and how does that all happen? >> They can have contracts with the hospitals. But they also have to provide services even if they do not have a contract. So some of the franchisees have contracts with specific hospitals. But they'd have to be available for any nonemergency transfer that is requested within the city. >> Garza: So ems would dispatch them if it's a non--- I'm confused. >> So if it is a nonemergency transfer, for example, from hospital to hospital or from a nursing home to hospital, then the nonemergency franchise is called and they do have their own dispatch. And they should -- they're to be made available to anyone who requests those kinds of transfers. If a transfer comes in to the 911 call, we do have the opportunity to forward those to the nonemergency transfers. >> Garza: And so there's not -- there's not a staff recommendation because this is a process where -- I guess the process is laid out that allows them the ability to apply to be one of the franchises and it's not normal for there to be a staff recommendation, right? >> In the chapter 10-2 it talks about staff reporting finds and the advisory board making the official recommendation. So our charge has been to report to -- research and look at the applicant and then make the finding and allow the findings to be known to the advisory board so that they can make the final recommendation. Historically that's how we have moved forward in the process. >> Garza: Okay. Thanks. >> Mayor Adler: Okay? Councilmember alter. Then Ms. Houston, then [5:03:19 PM] Ms. Kitchen. >> Alter: Insider there were a few issues noted in the initial staff report but may have been resolved. Could you speak to how they've been report? >> When our staff looked at patient care reports we did identify some knowledge that was increased when requested for reimbursement. And we brought those items to the attention of the applicant, and they immediately looked into their cad system, gave us a response and reimbursed either whoever the provider was and -- so they told us what solution they put in place. As the gentleman said they looked at their system and made changes to their system to better catch those things before the reimbursement is required. Once we are aware of any discrepancies, we report that so that we can give full disclosure but the applicant does have an opportunity to fix those things. My understanding is once they made the correction, the reimbursement was less than $20 that they had to reimburse. >> Alter: Thank you. Is there anything else in the findings that you -- >> At the time of our staff review and the staff findings, the applicant did not have a compliance program, and we noted that to the advisory board. The advisory board prompted the applicant to create a compliance program, and they since have given us documentation that they have created that program. >> Alter: Great. Thank you. Ms. Houston. >> Houston: Thank you. And thank you for that information. I'm going to be supportive of this franchise because the closest hospital to my district is, like, 10 miles away and I've got licensed boarding homes and they complain about the response time, getting somebody from a hospital back to where they're living. They also do -- take people from those standalone emergency rooms, I think you call them, back to [5:05:21 PM] their locations. And so there is a need. The city growing too fast, of course it's growing into specific geographical area. This is a plug if you have a standalone emergency room and would love to put it in eastern Travis county we'd love to have you because that's be the closest hospital we'd have except Brackenridge, Dell now. Ms. Kitchen. >> Kitchen: Just a quick question about the scope of the review that you all performed. Is there any kind of -- I couldn't -- I read the report but I just wasn't sure. I can see that you review the patient care reports, but are you also looking for safety issues or any kind of medical-related issues in terms of how the -- if there were any incidents or any kind of safety issues with regard to the patients? Is that within the scope of what you review? >> So just so I can make sure I understand, you want to know if we reviewed the safety of the patients? >> Kitchen: Yeah, that they transported. >> We look at the patient care reports. We look at the -- how well it is documented and how it falls into approval based on CMS regulations as well as based on Texas code 157-11, regulatory code for ambulance services. >> Kitchen: So it's the state law that governs how well they perform their services? >> Yes. >> Kitchen: And whether or not there's any kind of safety issues with regard to how they handle the patients? Right? Is that what you're saying? As opposed to our responsibility. >> Right. >> Kitchen: Okay. >> Mayor Adler: Any further discussion on the dais? Is there a motion to approve this item number 41? Ms. Houston makes that motion, seconded by [5:07:21 PM] councilmember Garza. Any discussion? Take a vote. Those in favor please raise your hand. Those opposed. Unanimous on the dais with Ms. Troxclair gone. It passes. That gets us to the last item on our agenda. Item number 42. Staff want to come down on this one? We have one speaker signed up in favor. >> Hi. >> Mayor Adler: Please, hi. >> Councilmembers, mayor Adler, I'm amber with the development services department, case S -- case for tasty spoon, located at 1413 south first street. The applicant requests a minimum from the minimum distance requirement of 300 feet in section 4-9-4a of the Austin city code because they intend to sell click benches which shares a property line with a public code. The section allows city council to waive this requirement if it determines the enforcement of this requirement in this particular interest is not in the interest of the public, constitutes waste or inefficient land of resources, creates undue hardship on the applicant, does not serve intended purpose, is not effective or necessary or for any other reason the council, after consideration of the health, safety and welfare of the public and equities of the situation determines it is in the best interests of the community. There are a few establishments that sell alcohol less than 300 feet from this location. It is staff's understanding that two of these businesses were approved in the '90s when the method of measurement between a business selling alcohol and a public school was door to door, not property line to property line. Council granted a waiver to snarf's sandwiches located at 1400 south first street in November 2016. There are written letters of support that have been received from -- staff recommends approval of this waiver. Your backup includes staff report on this case and exhibit map. Development services staff is here to answer any questions you may have regarding the case. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> Thank you. [5:09:24 PM] >> Mayor Adler: We have one person signed up. Is this the applicant that's signed up? Okay. Do you want to come on down? >> Kyle hill. >> Mayor Adler: You have five minutes. >> I'm council for the applicant, also here with Jeff McDonald who is with tasty spoon and can answer any questions about gel jelato or any other fine offerings we have. We just want to make ourselves available for questions. We're hoping you follow staff's recommendation for approval of the waiver. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Any discussion on the dais? Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: Yeah, I'll ask you just to -- if you could provide us some rationale for requesting the -- >> We've been open -- the business has been open for about a year. The intent is still primarily espresso, gelato, based on customer feedback we wanted to provide an accessory, mom's wine, there's a bray ground, moms and dads having pints. It's really an accessory offering for our customers. As far as the school, one, they're not opposed. Two, while there is a shared property line, it's fenced and it's aroya really behind the properties. The practical next entrance is up the road and around -- it's a secured campus, a secured entrance. Whereas the reason for the restriction in the first place may be to try to deter minors to alcohol, which is a valid ordinance, it's not applicable in this case is our reasoning. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Is there a motion to [5:11:25 PM] approve this item number 42? Ms. Houston. >> Houston: I don't want to make a motion, mayor, but I do want to say that it's really -- I am concerned that the school for the deaf takes no more consideration than they have in the cases that have come before us. This must be the third one that we've come and -- is it third or fourth? And they have no -- they don't seem to want to engage in the conversation at all or maybe their parents association or maybe like with Austin independent school district they were going to the wrong people and once the joint subcommittee started getting the ask to the right people then aid started responding differently. Maybe it's not -- we're sending it to the wrong people. I just find that -- because these children are from all over the state and they're not adults, they're from little kids all the way up to high school, and is the fact that nobody even cares, says -- or it's okay with them is concerning to me because there is an opening back there that kids go all up and down that street. So I'm just concerned about the lack of engagement with the school for the deaf. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Yes, councilmember Garza. >> Garza: I don't know if there's going to be a motion, there -- for the other three, so I'm assuming that there will be, but I have opposed I believe every single one of these or abstained from them because there's a rule in place for a reason. I don't know if we need to lobby the state and ask them to change the rule or we'll continue to vote for most of these. I have similar concerns. I know the location. I know there's a fence. I'm trying to figure out if people even -- if these students even ever walk that way, but I just -- it seems like when we allow one then the next one asks [5:13:25 PM] for it and that's happened on congress as well. Thankfully there was a very good effort but I think Fulmore to stop a recent one, the business right across the street from that middle school but it was the same argument, well, they got it, they got it, and for me it's a safety issue and I will continue to vote against these. >> Mayor Adler: Further discussion on the dais? >> Renteria: Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Renteria: I voted against the first one because it was right there in their entrance to the fence, I mean right there, their entrance to the school. And it still passed. And I -- I know this location very well. It is pretty far away from the entrance to the school. It's -- I do believe that particular area, it's further up closer to the -- to the other restaurants and businesses that are located there. So, you know, even though I would vote against it, but this one is just a little further away from any of the school itself than the previous ones that we have voted for, and I did vote against the torch because it was caddy corner to the middle school and they do have a outdoor setting where all the students would have been coming through there. But I guess I'm going to support this one this time. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Further discussion on the dais? Is there -- Mr. Flannigan. Mr. Flannigan makes a motion toproof it. Is there a second? Mr. Casar seconds it. Any further discussion? Yes, mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: Yeah, I agree with councilmember Houston's wish that the Texas school for the deaf engaged with us on this conversation and perhaps we can -- perhaps we can figure out how to start those conversations. May staff did reach out to [5:15:27 PM] them and spoke with the executive assistant of the superintendent, and as has been relayed, they are not taking a position on this. But it -- it seems to me it would be worth talking about. This is, as has been said, the third. I didn't support the first one and still think it was a bad idea to allow that waiver to move forward, as councilmember Renteria said, it was right across the street from their entrance and we have a responsibility, I think, to make -- you know, even when the school doesn't weigh in to consider the various factors which at the time councilmember Houston pointed out, as she did today, that most of the students are residential students, away from their communities and their families may not have much involvement or awareness of what's going on here in the city of Austin. But having said that, I agree that this is positioned differently. I did support snarf's. This is adjacent, across the street from snarf's, closer than that one was, but having looked at the site and evaluating, you know, the fact that it is fenced and across the creek I am going to support this one. But I would definitely support, again, more outreach and more discussion with Texas school for the deaf. >> Mayor Adler: There's been a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Those in favor please raise your hand. Those opposed. Houston and Garza opposing. Abstentions. Councilmember alter abstains. Others voting aye. Troxclair off the dais. This passes. Councilmembers, those are all the items I think we have on our agenda. Good job. Music starts in 14 minutes. And then there are a couple proclamations. I certainly invite my colleagues to stay and enjoy that, but subject to those two things, this meeting is adjourned. [5:29:28 PM] [ ♪ Music ♪ ] >> Mayor Adler: You can tell who the diehards are and the real groupies. When the council meeting ends and the music lovers stay. You know, this is the live music capitol, and we have live music at virtually all of our city council meetings because it's who we are. Quite frankly, when you're sitting on that dais and you start at 10:00 A.M., around about 2:30, 3:00, 3:30 you're ready for some music. So we are lucky and fortunate here tonight to have Leslie Reynaga with us. She learned her first song at age four in Monterrey, Mexico. And was tapped for a national Mexican television reality show as a singing talent at age 14. Today she is creating a buzz as a rising singer-songwriter in Austin. Lesly took her first bow in the U.S. As an aaward winning mariachi vocalist in McAllen. Before captivating and yous [5:31:29 PM] as a featured soloist, the university of Texas mariachi Paredes de tejastitlan. On the stages of Austin's club circuit she is noted for her passion-filled showmanship and extraordinary vocal range, a bilingual song catalog, as a multi-instrumentialist. Her debut EP, fools paradise, was released last November. And she has also helped me out, my office. Please join me in welcoming Leslie Reynaga. [ Applause ] [ ♪ Music ♪ ] [5:35:53 PM] [ Applause ] >> Thank you guys so much. >> Mayor Adler: That was great. Thank you! >> Thank you! >> Mayor Adler: Not every summer intern my office can play and sing like that. So if someone is in this space or watching you on TV and they want to find you, do you have a website? >> I do, yes. So my website is leslyreynaga.com, and I'll spell out my name, Lesly, last name is Reynaga. >> Mayor Adler: If they wanted to get some of your music, where would they do that? >> My music is available on all streaming platforms from Spotify to apple tunes to [indiscernible] >> Mayor Adler: If you want to play here they come here because this is the live music capitol. Where's your next gig or too? >> I'm currently working towards my next recording, so to be determined, as far as new gigs, but you guys can follow me on Facebook, insta gram, Twitter, I'll keep updating the audiences about what's coming up. >> Mayor Adler: Very cool. All right. We have a proclamation. Be it known that whereas the city of Austin, Texas, is blessed with many creative musicians whose talent 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 to support our local artists, now, therefore, I, Steve Adler, mayor of the live music capitol, do hereby proclaim March 1 of the year 2018 as Lesly Reynaga day in Austin, Texas. [5:37:56 PM] Congratulations. [ Applause ] [5:40:08 PM] >> Mayor adler:all right. We have a -- an important city of Austin distinguished service award that we're privileged to be able to give out. For her untiring service and commitment to our citizens during her 23- year tenure as a dedicated employee of the Austin municipal court, Sandra Ortiz is deserving of public acclaim and recognition. During her years of service, Sandra has brought a bright and cheerful presence to the city of Austin and municipal court. Her can-do attitude and overall spirit of positivity has brought joy to internal and external customers alike. Her coworkers, over 20 plus years, have benefited immensely from her knowledge, support, and her ability to make work a more plenty endeavor. Her dedication to the municipal court and the city of Austin are awesome examples for others and she will be incredibly missed. This certificate is presented in acknowledgment and appreciation this first day of March in the year 2018, signed by Steve Adler, mayor on behalf of the city council of Austin, Texas. Thank you so much for the gift of your service. >> Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mayor Adler: Do you want to say something no? >> No. Thank you. I just want to say thank you. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Picture. >> Okay. [5:42:48 PM] >> Mayor adler:all right. I've got a proclamation here for kids day America and international but where before we do that I want to invite Dr. King up and tell us a little about what this event is about. >> Thank you. Thank you. I want to start by thanking mayor Adler and councilmembers and specifically councilmember Flannigan for allowing us to do this today. My practice is looking forward to our role as official representative for kids day America international. This is an event that is an international health safety and environmental awareness day for children. Over the last 23 years over 25 million children have benefited from kids day America, and on may 19 of this year there will be hundreds of cities worldwide that will be participating and we're excited Austin is going to be one of those cities. This event is free to the whole community and we're also going to be raising money to benefit Sammy's house, which is a local nonprofit agency that provides services for children with and without special needs. At our event we'll have local law enforcement providing child identification cards, a local fire department to share fire prevention safety information. We're going to also have car seat, bicycle safety and internet safety information. There will be free health, death, spinal screenings and drug awareness information, food, characters, balloons, lots of fun for all the kids, and I wanted to personally invite everyone here, bring your kids, bring your grandchildren if you have them. This is a citywide event but it's only possible with a lot of the hard work from my office, specifically Jessica Lanman and also donations and volunteers so if anyone is interested in volunteering the day of the event or donations please see us afterwards. We'd be happy to talk to. >> Flannigan: Thank you, Dr. Keene. Let me read the proclamation. Be it known whereas the health and well-being of children is our responsibility and whereas the safety of our children is a significant concern for parents, community leaders and health care [5:44:49 PM] givers, and whereas the welfare of the environment is of universal concern and deserves the utmost attention and whereas if started in childhood proper health, safety and environmentally conscious habits can be maintained for a lifetime, producing a valued member of society and enhancing our community. Now, therefore, I, Jimmy Flannigan councilmember for district 6 for Steve Adler, the mayor of the city of Austin, Texas and entire city council do hereby proclaim as kids day America in Austin, Texas. [ Applause ] [ ♪ Music ♪ ] ♪♪