City Council Special Called Meeting Transcript – 08/07/2020 Title: City of Austin Channel: 6 - COAUS Recorded On: 8/7/2020 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 8/7/2020 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [1:03:33 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Wade, do you want to call your meeting to order and then I'll do mine? >> Yes. Good afternoon, ladies and [1:04:34 PM] gentlemen, thank you for joining us for our ninth joint meeting of the capmetro board of directors and Austin city council. I'd like to call to order our capmetro board meeting. The time is 1:04. Mayor Adler, would you like to do the same? >> Mayor Adler: I would. Thank you, chairman. This is August 7th, 2020, virtual meeting of the city council to consider these items related to transit. We have a quorum of city council members with us this morning. So we are prepared to call our meeting to order as well here at 1:04. >> Thank you, mayor. A few logistical items. I know we've gotten good with [1:05:36 PM] these meetings over the last couple of minutes, but best practice, of course, keep your microphone muted unless you're speaking and mute yourself again when you're finished. As in the past when our voting items come up, we'll be asking both board and council members for a yea or nay on each item individually. Our first item of business today is public comment. I understand we have a number of individuals signed up to speak and some have joined us by phone. When I call your name, or Cheyenne calls your name, you'll have three minutes to speak. And a reminder, we will not be taking general public comment at today's meeting, we'll only be taking comments on topics posted on our agenda. Cheyenne, we're ready for our first speaker. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Anthony walker, you have three minutes. >> Thank you, ma'am. I also want to thank the capmetro board and city of [1:06:38 PM] Austin to be a part of this process. Just to make sure I'm clear on something, I understand project connect -- >> Mayor Adler: I can't hear. >> Yeah, speaker, we need to start and adjust the volume. >> Can you hear me? >> Cheyenne, we didn't hear you introduce the name either. >> Yes, sir, Mr. Chair. We're adjusting in city hall. Just one second. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Walker, your time will restart. Just give us one second. >> Sure. >> All right. Try that again. >> We can hear you, Cheyenne. >> Mr. Walker, you have three minutes. >> Okay. Thanks a lot. [1:07:38 PM] I'm glad you restarted it. I want to make sure they all hear what I got to say. First, I want to acknowledge the capmetro board and the Austin city council to be a part of this process. As I was saying earlier, I understand the importance of project connect is going to create jobs and opportunities. It will lay a foundation to be able to move people around Austin for years to come. That is beautiful. But my concern is just the timing, which I have said last time. You know, I understand you only get one chance at something. If you blow it, it might not come back around for many years, or decades or even if it comes back around again. When you're talking about a $7 billion project, you cannot roll no dices and hope it will roll out in y'all's favor. I just think that what you're taking right now, I think in 2022, there is a slam-dunk that is more likely to pass than a chance of y'all taking right [1:08:42 PM] now. I support it going a long ways, but I don't want to blow an opportunity because people are worrying how they're going to build their resumes on a project in 2020. You know, to me, this is going to be my last opportunity to speak to you all as a group, because I don't want to waste y'all's time and I don't want to waste my time. (Indiscernible) They're going to move forward on the ballot, one of the purposes of having public comment is you all is not going to do nothing about it. You're hearing what they're saying, but you're not going to respond, so it's like a game we're playing, is all we're doing, going through a process. I'm going to close with this note. Like I said, I think this is a great opportunity to get away. When the project was started, (indiscernible). I think a lot of people was onboard. We had the opportunity to do a lot of footwork and educating people. But since the Corona came, we [1:09:43 PM] had to do a lot of footwork. What are these different lines going to do, south, east, north and west. People are going to the ballot box confused, they're like a no-vote. On this last note, as it stands, nobody told you this, because I want to say, on November of 4th, as the saying goes, it ain't no fun when the rabbit got the gun. Which means for a certain period of time, people will have the upper hand on you. (Indiscernible) Whatever y'all says goes, and we've just got to go along with it. But the voters, the taxpayers are going to be the rabbit with the gun because (indiscernible). I'm just trying to educate y'all to my opinion that what you're doing is bad timing. If you don't do it right, we don't know when we'll get another opportunity for this again. So you have to understand if you roll the dice [beeping] Anyway, [1:10:50 PM] enjoy your day and project connect. >> Thank you, Mr. Walker. >> The next speaker will be Susan pentel. >> Welcome, Susan. >> Miss pentel, you might be on mute. >> Sorry. I was on mute. Please consider adding -- there's a really bad echo on my phone. Hello? Is everybody having that? >> No, we can hear you fine, if you want to go ahead. We can hear you, if you can. If you want to try again. >> It's really hard to -- >> Yes, there is an echo. [1:11:52 PM] The echo is bad. Please fix the echo. >> Yes, there is an echo. >> All right. Let's pause for a second. >> Cheyenne? Are you guys able to help her? >> Yes. Miss pentel, why don't you go back on mute and we'll go to the next speaker. And we'll come right back to you. >> Okay. Thanks. I heard a number of people say they had an echo. >> It was off on the previous speaker. >> We're working on it right now. >> Okay. >> The next time we get to do this, hopefully we'll get to do it in person. >> Okay. Miss Monica breaker, if we can [1:12:52 PM] hear you clearly, you'll have three minutes. >> Okay, I'm having the same issue with the echo. It's on everybody's call. When Mr. Walker was speaking, it was terrible. I could hardly make out what he was saying. >> We can hear you fine. So if you'd like to try to go ahead. >> Okay. I'm going to try to go ahead with the echoing to myself. I would like to say, currently we're in a pandemic and the future is uncertain for all of us, and this type of long-term commitment. I live in the Austin colonies area off of fm 969. And we don't have any public transportation. Capital metro has shown no desire to provide my community any public transportation. My needs are not met as a taxpayer. Why would I commit to a [1:13:55 PM] long-term investment increasing my property taxes for a project that will not be available until 20 years from now. With no guarantee that this will provide my community with transportation. I'm saying no to project connect. Because capital metro has made a lot of promises in the past, and they have received funds, and doing something else with the money. So today I'm saying for the city council, to consider that we are in the middle of a pandemic. People are struggling to survive. And this should not be on the agenda for us to be deciding at this time. So I'm agreeing with some of the other people that spoke earlier. This is not the right time to be presenting this. Maybe we should wait two years from now and then present it to the public for voting. Thank you, and that's my comment [1:14:56 PM] for today. >> Thank you, ma'am. >> You're welcome. >> Miss pentel, we'll try you one more time. The board and council can hear you clearly, if you can speak through the echo. >> Okay. Thank you. Please consider adding one or two community members to the atp board. That's a good reason -- that's a good idea for several reasons. One is that the community members who ride transit every day have a very good knowledge of the transit system. They know it like the back of their hand. And they can provide good input on the design of the system. For example, if you have an engineering expert who says, let's put the station here, you might have a community expert, a bottom-up expert as opposed to a [1:15:56 PM] top-down expert who says, yeah, but if we move it half a mile down, there's a store that everybody wants to go to. Or there's a library around the corner. Or there's a very steep hill near where you were going to put it, and it's hard for people to transfer. So that type of expertise would be really helpful. A second reason why it's a good idea is for equity considerations. Because if you follow the EPA standards and the fta standards, many people in the community can still feel that it's not equitable. And that's justifiable because those standards are really minimal as opposed to optimal. And what has happened in the past is, you make decisions and then the community members come later and complain about the decisions because they say they're not equitable. So if you have community members involved during the process and on the board during the process, [1:16:56 PM] they can raise those issues as they come up, and hopefully resolve them. Rather than waiting until after. Finally, you're asking the community to help pay for this system. So I think the community would appreciate also having a say in how it's implemented. At a minimum, you should include community members on the nominating committee that selects who sits on the atp board. Currently there are no community members. You could have one representative from the c-sac at capital metro, one representative from the utc and then maybe one representative from the disability advisory commission. They can help to evaluate and select the members that represent the community. I agree and appreciate that you're going to have elected officials on the atp board, but [1:17:58 PM] elected officials are hard to get ahold of. They're very busy. And also, the city council members only represent one district. So it would be really good to have community -- direct community representation. Thank you. >> Chair: Thank you, miss pentel. >> The next speaker is Mr. (Indiscernible). >> Chair: Councilmember harper-madison? >> Harper-madison: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask, miss pentel is the one I'm referring to right now, but during the course of this process, if we have questions for the people that are presenting, can we ask those now, or should we -- should my office connect to you all later to get that person's information? I had a question for miss [1:19:00 PM] pentel, and I might have questions for the folks sharing their thoughts this afternoon. >> I'm glad for you to interrupt and I suspect our folks, Cheyenne, and others have contact information as well. >> Harper- madison: Okay. >> Chair: Thank you. I heard member Stratton? >> Yeah, Mr. Chairman, it's more of a technical question about the issue related to the echo. I don't have a way of sending a private message offline through this technology that I know of, this webex messenger, whatever we're using here. It's not zoom. But a question for them, I know sometimes when an individual is both on a telephone and also is watching online, there can be that feedback loop. Is it possible maybe that the folks are getting the double feedback loop, could be because they have their audio up as they're watching it online? >> This is ctvm here, that's [1:20:01 PM] very possible. We had an echo in the room as well. >> It would help if they turned down their computer audio. Not muting themselves, but turning their computer audio all the way down to zero when it's their turn to talk. I'm concerned that people aren't going to be able to properly express themselves and get their public comments out the way they should, because of a technological impediment, not because of anything necessarily on their end per se. >> Thank you, chair, and board member Stratton. You're absolutely right. If anybody is listening to this, whether you're a speaker, councilmember, board member, just mute your TV and try and listen through the feed so that we don't have the echo. >> I will say, you just had an echo right there when you were speaking, by the way. That was Cheyenne. >> I'm trying to ensure that you can hear me right now. Am I being heard by the [1:21:01 PM] councilmembers? Can you all hear me? >> Yes. >> This is Douglas. We have solved the echo in the room. What you said is totally possible. And I'm going to reiterate what Teresa said, please mute all calls if you're not speaking. Please, if you're on the teams call, mute yourself. We should have the feedback in the room solved. If there's a feedback issue, it's on the other end. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Chair: All right. Mayor, you're muted. I think they may have muted all of us. >> No, I think we can hear you. >> I was just saying that the staff was very muffled then. I didn't hear what the staff said. >> I'm sorry. I'm taking my mask off. I'm speaking without a mask now. [1:22:02 PM] Do I sound better, mayor? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> I was saying it's possible, the feedback issues in the room have been solved. Please keep your -- >> Mayor Adler: Speak a little more slowly and get a little closer to the microphone. >> I think we might have been technical issues with this microphone. Give me one second. Do I sound better on this microphone, sir? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Okay. What I was saying was, what was just described sounds correct. We have solved the reverberation issue in the room. Anybody calling in who's got those issues, need to make sure that they keep -- >> You're fading out. We can't really hear you. Member kitchen, you had something you wanted to say. Why don't we take that. >> Kitchen: Oh, I just was going [1:23:02 PM] to echo what -- >> Mayor Adler: Echo is a bad word. >> Kitchen: Yeah, you're right. I was just going to second what councilmember harper-madison said. And I know that -- I just ask the staff to send to all of us the contact information for the speakers, so that we can get in touch with them afterwards. >> Mayor Adler: Very well. Thank you. >> Got one quick question. Are we going to have a transcript of the questions? Because there are a couple of questions that we probably couldn't have followed as well. And if we do want to talk to the folks, it would be good to capture the major points that were made. >> Cheyenne, did you hear that? >> Yes, sir, I did. >> Will we have a transcript? >> This is a council meeting, and so typically there's a [1:24:05 PM] transcript. However, and I see the clerk's nodding at me, so there will be a transcript. However, if any of you all have questions for speakers that you all want other board or councilmembers to be aware of, you can e-mail those to me and I'm happy to share them. >> Cheyenne, we've got about [lapse in audio] -- >> Councilmember kitchen. >> Now we've got background noise. >> Okay. If we're -- if staff is ready, we're ready for our next speaker. But we're continuing to have audio trouble. >> The next speaker is wade sanberry. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Hello? Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. My name is wade sanberry. [1:25:05 PM] I came up from San Antonio. I'm trying to make Austin, Texas, my home, my residence. I've been here for about two weeks now. Regarding the project connect, I don't know a lot about it, but what I was hearing from some of the speakers, it seems like it's going to consist of bringing new business, new jobs, the ones that come to Austin. And Austin is one of the fastest growing cities right now. Looking at about 2 million in 2020, I think they said it could be up to about 4 million by 2040. With that said, I think the transit -- because I've been riding the bus system. I'm on the public bus transportation. And I feel that the city -- not just the city of Austin, but some of the surrounding cities [1:26:07 PM] like Round Rock (indiscernible) Even San Marcos, I know the bus system is, you know, one of the main public transportations you have. But I think Austin would really benefit if they had like a train system. You know? Just like Dallas, just like Washington, and, you know, or New York has a subway. It just makes it hard for me to get to certain areas just on the bus system. You've got Uber, anybody can call up an Uber or Lyft, I'm sure, but with a train, or, you know, it would allow one to expand, venture out to further west, I know the -- I tried to get on the bus for like 9:49, 9:47, and it was all closed. I don't know if it was just they [1:27:09 PM] have them open at a certain time, just for college students, but it runs from UT going west. And I wasn't able to get to the location I was actually supposed to be in. I want to see Austin succeed, you know, advance, be one of the cities people want to come to. Just like San Antonio, just like some of the major cities, like New York, and Los Angeles. So if the project going to allow ones to benefit from the project, I'm all for it, you know, if it's going to bring jobs. If it's going to help with -- allow ones to open up new businesses, and allow people to effectively get to their destination in a more efficient time, then I'm for it. I don't know a lot about the city of Austin, like I said, I [1:28:10 PM] didn't grow up here. I grew up in the Dallas area, I grew up in the Fort Worth area. So dallas-fort worth metroplex is what I know. But I just wanted to make a change from that scene, and I heard Austin would be a good fit. [Buzzer sounds]. >> I want to see a lot of the homeless population to be eliminated as well. That's just something that I think plagues a lot of the city with the covid and everything going on. That's all I have to say. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Chair, I do understand that everybody is having this echo issue, and we are working on it. Would you like to recess for a few minutes and see if we can figure it out, or would you like to continue? >> Chair: Let's take five minutes and see if you can put us in a better spot on the audio. >> All right. Thank you. [1:29:10 PM] >> Chair: It's 28 after. We'll recess for five minutes and reconvene at about :33 after? (In Recess came back at 1:43 PM) [1:43:26 PM] >> Very good, mayor, do you want to -- are we live again? Are we ready to go? >> You are on the broadcast now, yes. >> Very well. Capmetro board meeting is reconvened at 1:43. Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: And the city council meeting also convening at 1:43. I got a message that the staff thought we could get this done in a few minutes -- >> I'm here to go, the presentation from the clerk. >> We can move forward. >> Mayor Adler: Let's move forward. >> So for all listening, we're going to come back to our speakers. In the meantime, we're going to take up our presentations, and then we'll come back to the speakers. Mayor, would you like to make any opening remarks before we go into the presentation? [1:44:26 PM] >> Mayor Adler: No, I think we should go straight into the presentation. >> Chair: Very well. We're going to talk about project connect planning process recap, Austin transit partnership review, contract with the voters and capmetro community commitment and the fourth item will be the original investment sequence recap. Jackie nurmberg will start us off. Jackie, are you ready to go? >> I am ready to go, if you can hear me. >> Chair: Yes, ma'am, you sound great. >> Wonderful. Good afternoon councilmembers, president Clark and fellow community members. My name is Jackie nurmberg and I'm with capital metro. I'll walk us through the evolution of project connect over the past two years. Next slide, please. Can someone advance the slide, [1:45:28 PM] please? Thank you. I think we've gone through the agenda already, chairman cooper did that, so we'll go ahead and move forward to the next one, please. One more, please. Thank you. Okay. So we began our work on project connect way back in 2016. And we're collaborating with the city's Austin strategic mobility plan team to engage our community on rethinking the way we move. With the help of our community, the project connect team identified the corridors where new transit options made sense for our community. And that effort culminated -- next slide, please -- in the unanimous approval of the project connect vision plan by capital metro's board in December of 2018. The result of a two-year community engagement process in collaboration with city council, and the Austin strategic mobility plan. [1:46:32 PM] The result of that -- can we go back? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pause there. The result of that was board guidance on the initial technical plan. We were instructed that the vision could be bolder, that the inclusion of the project connect corridor should be in the asnp plan and that we should be planning for new development and right-of-way. And the board also authorized staff to pursue preliminary engineering, the Nepa, or environmental review, and to continue our engagement work. Next slide, please. The next important milestone came in April of 2019, with the city council's unanimous approval of the Austin strategic mobility plan, an update of the comprehensive multimobile transportation plan with a goal to reach a 50/50 non-single [1:47:33 PM] occupancy vehicle mode share by 2039, and a 16% mode share goal for transit. The plan reads, and I quote, we should invest in a complete public transportation system with high capacity vehicles and dedicated transit pathways, because it has the ability to move the most people in the region. Next slide, please? Fast forward to June 2020, this summer. When in our seventh joint work session, both the capital metro board and city council unanimously approved the recommended system plan. At this point over 16,000 people participated in the process which included a series of virtual opportunities in may, and in July after one final virtual community meeting, the council and board convened for the eighth time. Next slide, please. [1:48:38 PM] Oops, one back. For the eighth time on July 22nd, 2020, not too long ago, and the result of that was unanimous approval by both bodies to approve the investment decision for the project connect plan. Austin city council directed staff to include the project connect initial investment plan in the city tax rate and prepare necessary documents. Capital metro board directed staff to fund project connect projects in the agency's fiscal year 2021 budget, and return with a detailed financial plan. As I mentioned, over 60,000 people had been engaged to this point, and we have had nearly 700 community events throughout this entire process. That leads us to today's ninth and most critical session. It has been a long and fruitful journey, and one that has brought our community together to contemplate a historic investment in our collective [1:49:39 PM] future. And now it's my pleasure to introduce Greg ka Nally with the city of Austin to talk about the Austin transit partnership. Next slide, please. >> Thank you, Jackie. I appreciate the introduction. And going through all the great work that has occurred in this community, and with the city council and the capital metro board over these last years. And I agree we're at a moment today of finalizing all that work, and really formalizing the partnership. I think that has come out of all that work. I want to spend a little time walking through that partnership again and highlighting the action item in front of both bodies today to finalize this Austin transit partnership. Next slide, please. Again, as we've talked about, really going back to the beginning of the year, as we looked at formalizing the relationship that has occurred, and all the community [1:50:40 PM] discussions, and again, the joint work sessions, helps the city and Austin and capital metro formalize moving forward and highlight some of those on the next slide, please. The Austin transit partnership will be an independent agency with the roles and responsibilities to manage the day-to-day project connect implementation and execution and design and construction of the investment that the city council and capital metro have approved on July 27th, along with the funding and financing of all of that. From a structure perspective, both the city of Austin and capital metro will be combining funds into this new joint partnership, and that new joint partnership will focus on governance of the implementation, keyly and very focusedly on all elements of the project connect program. And then planning and Imme plenting to make sure it integrates within our existing [1:51:40 PM] transit system in Austin. The assets built will be operated by the transit authority capital metro that we have. I think key to the responsibilities as this gets formed and again, today, the agreement, the action item in front of both bodies, our interlocal agreement and articles of incorporation and the bylaws that will form the corporation, and the partnership, key to that is transparency, with making sure there are quarterly reports back to the respective bodies, city council and capital metro. Annual comprehensive reports including comprehensive financial reports, back to both boards, and via joint meeting, we believe coining the great work that the city council and capmetro board has done together to make sure this investment is continuing to adhere to from a policy direction. Independent auditor is key to the creation of the transit partnership. And again, we want to make sure [1:52:42 PM] that as it is getting built out there is in close alignment. City and capmetro continue to have responsibilities in this partnership, first and foremost in approving the system plan, that has already occurred with the initial investment, and any policies surrounding implementation. And then after the creation of this Ila and articles of bylaws formally creating the Austin transit partnership, and then each year allocating the funding that would have been committed via the election and also the community resolution from capital metro. Next slide, please. One element we wanted to highlight again as we've talked about in the past, that is also part of the interlocal agreement before you today, for your joint action, is the board composition, as a recap. The board composition is a five-member board, a member of the city council, a member of the capital metro board, and what we believe is really a key element is having community [1:53:42 PM] experts representing the community, but bringing expertise in the areas of finance, engineering and construction, and really a key one we believe is the idea of community planning sustainability with a strong emphasis on community engagement to represent the community on this important Austin transit partnership. Nominating committee process laid out in the Ila, that is joint of both the capital metro and city council, to put forward a slate of candidates so that the Austin transit partnership can be formed by January 1, and get up and running, and lift all the projects off the map and start moving them forward into implementation mode. Next slide. What we have talked about, this interlocal agreement that is in front of you today, spells out the high level elements of how the partnership would work. Once the Austin transit partnership is formally approved here by the end of the year, [1:54:43 PM] there will be another round of very critical work, and the idea of creating and forming a joint powers agreement, and this would be between the Austin transit partnership, the city of Austin, and capital metro. And it will cover a variety of -- a range of topics. We wanted to show you some of those today. The general ones are around management and administration, keying on how we audit, keying on safety oversight that will be a key element to all the construction activities that will be occurring along the different project elements, community engagement, and the procurement that is outlined in the contract with the voters that the city has, but will also get expanded and looked at in the jpa. Financial management, and ultimately program development and implementation. Some of the details around how, for example, utilities and franchise agreements when you're beginning to do complex construction projects, that would all get laid out in a joint powers agreement that would come back to all the three entities for approval. [1:55:46 PM] And a key element of this as well would be -- that is, if part of the documents in tropt of you today, but would also be part of the joint powers agreement, again, we'd be looking at mitigation programs, sustainability and key as well as work force training and development as part of the detailed joint powers agreement. Next slide, please. So with that, we want to bring you to today's actions. We know we still have speakers to go through. But highlight for you where we will be. So the next slide. So again, recapping, I think what Jackie said, the decisions that-that the joint bodies have made about the investment package, and the direction to come bk with the necessary documents, that occurred -- one of those occurred last week when the city formalized the tax rate that would be adopted next week. And then here we are today on August 7th, the four items in [1:56:46 PM] front of the bodies are to, again, approving the interlocal and approving the articles of incorporation and the by laws that will formalize the creation of the Austin transit partnership. And then also very two key elements, the resolutions from the city of Austin with a contract from the voters, about how the tax revenue would be spent, and the same similar resolution from the -- from capmetro around their funding commitment for their ongoing funding as a participant and equal partner in funding the overall implementation of project connect. And then looking forward to next week, as the city council would be finalizing its budget, tax rate, and ordering the election. So with that, I will turn it over to the cfo with capital metro who can take us through the remaining part of this presentation. >> Thank you, Greg. And good afternoon. I'm Rene, I'm the chief financial officer of capital [1:57:46 PM] metro and I'm very pleased to be with you today at this momentous occasion. Like Greg was saying, this is a shared commitment by the city of Austin, and capital metro. On the agenda today is for the city council to approve a contract with the voters -- can we have the next page, please? So on the agenda today, for the city council to approve a contract with the voters to dedicated the tax rate election revenue to Austin transit partnership for the implementation, operation and maintenance of the project connect program. It also provides for a 300 million for transit supportive anti-displacement strategies related to the implementation of project connect, and to also address affordability along the corridor. The capital metro board will be approving a funding and xhumt [1:58:48 PM] commitment. To fund annual allocations for operations, maintenance and implementation of the system. Capital metro started the accumulation of a capital expansion fund in 2018, and that fund will now be fully dedicated to project connect. Capital metro will also serve as the fta project sponsor, and will transfer funds received from any grant or agreements related to project connect to the Austin transit partnership for implementation of the project. Like Randy mentioned earlier, it was good news to see that the fta final highed a 929-million-dollar co-funding grant agreement for the southwest light rail transit project in Minnesota. That is a two billion dollar light rail project and this represents an almost 47% federal match. [1:59:49 PM] This further validates our 45% federal match assumption in the project connect financial model. All contracts awarded by the Austin transit partnership will address a living wage and the health and safety protections in compliance with all fta requirements. Next page, please. Here is the initial investment sequence plan we approved last week and with the actions you are taking today your also committing to fund. Initially the Orange rail, light rail Line will be built. In segments with the City controls the right-of- way. Blue Line will be built as a light rail line and for the system plan. Included is also the Downtown Tunnel that will provide fast and safe way to operate in the congested Downtown District. And we also have Red Line improvements in the near term to improve capacity on that line. And the Green Line will be a new commuter line and going to Colony Park. [2:00:45 PM] Metro Rapid phase 1 includes the first three lines. The Express Center and Pleasant Valley Lines as well as the South Lamar 803 extension. Gold Line will initially start as s Metro Rapid Line and other components that are included: new Metro Express commuter lines with additional park and rides and with Metro Bus, Metro Access customer technology systems. Funding is also being provided with $300 million phased over time. With transit supported investments to prevent displacements on the Project Connect implimentation. And this concludes my presentation and I will hand it back to the Chair. <<Chair Cooper: Thank you. Thank you Jackie and Greg and let me pause for a minute and say thanks once again to staff on both sides City staff and CapMetro staff you have been working nights and weekends so some of you dealing with floods at home, [2:01:47 PM] and one year olds and all of us calling at all hours, of the night and over the last several days. So we are very grateful for all your hard work and hope that with our inclusion with our work today. You get a few days off. Thank you. Council Members, Board Members if you have any questions. For our presenters now would be a good time for that and just heads up for everybody. We will try to go back to our speakers, unless IT control tells us otherwise. And City Council will take up the ILA followed by CapMetro taking up the ILA and City Council will take up their contract with the voters and then finally CapMetro will take up it's contract with the community as well. So now would be a good time if anybody has any questions for Jackie, Greg or Renete. Council Member Kitchen I see you. [2:02:09 PM] >> I have a number of comments, but I'll make those later, and as we get to the documents, there's -- I think it's important to run through some of the things and explain some of the things that -- >> Councilmember kitchen, I hate to interrupt you, but I'm hearing reports that the atxn feed is down. Can we confirm that with staff? >> I haven't heard that. Let's fuse a moment. >> -- Let's pauses for a moment. >> Flannigan: I'm seeing it in social media and in my own inbox. >> Ed or Cheyenne if you will let me know the status. >> Atxn is checking on the closed captioning. That is the status. >> We have a message that Ed is checking. [2:03:34 PM] >> Flannigan: I'm not able to pull it up on my own computer. >> I'm getting the spinning wheel of death where something went wrong during native play back. >> Same here. >> It looks like the -- give me one second. >> Anyone else want to meet in person again? [Laughter] >> Let's get rid of this virus. >> It's been 20 years. A few extra minutes isn't going to matter much. [Laughter]. >> I'm worried that Delia will start pulling out age jokes again. >> Mayor Adler: I think it's important that we're voting a transportation system and not a comms system. [2:04:36 PM] [Laughter] >> If we can't get this resolved are we looking at a back stop like to recess and reconvene and maybe allow the speakers to come to palmer auditorium like we're doing for budget next week? Somebody thinking in terms of how we -- how do we save this meeting? >> I want to talk to Ed and find out what's going on at city hall real quick. >> Mayor Adler: It's 2:05. Wade, do you want to take a 10 minute break and let people come back? >> I make an executive [2:05:37 PM] decision as vice-chair, yes. >> Let's see if wade is getting a call here. But if he takes too long I'm going to vote for you. >> Are we going to take a recess? >> Mayor Adler: Hang on a second. I don't know if wade is -- >> I just talked to Eric. They're having pretty significant issues apparently. I think we're best to take a quick recess. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Let's do that. The city council meeting is adjourned at 2:06. We'll -- wade, does it make sense for us to make a recess here and come back? >> Staff would like to -- let's take a 10-minute recess. Just by way of update what I'm hearing is that we're able to see each other, but there may be a problem with the atxn feed out. [2:06:38 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Should we come back at 2:30, wade? That's about 20 minutes. >> That sounds good. >> Mayor Adler: Let's all come back at 2:30. >> Question. Does that mean we should log out and come back in or -- >> Mayor Adler: I'm just going to mute and turn off my camera, but you can do whatever. >> Gotcha. Thanks, y'all. >> The cap metro board meeting is recessed. >> Did the mayor recess? >> Yes. I recessed until 2:30. It's 2:07 now. >> Sorry. I thought you got interrupted. <<( In second and final Recess until 2:55 PM ) [2:55:10 PM] We'll gavel in city council meeting here at 2:55. We're going to proceed. [2:56:13 PM] This is being broadcast on cable channel 6. The internet is down right now, but it will be added to the internet, the closed captioning will be added to the internet just as quickly as we can get those functionalities employed. Mr. Chair? >> Thank you, mayor. Cap metro's reconvened at 2:55. Cheyenne, if you're ready, we'll take up the speakers first and then go back to commentary from board members and councilmembers on the presentation and council will take up the Ila. If you're ready with speakers, we'll go ahead. >> Thank you, chair. I am ready. Just a reminder to speakers to please stay on mute until your name is called. We really appreciate your patience and working with us and we hope that we can get back together and live board meetings soon. The next speaker will have three minutes, Zenobia Joseph. [2:57:14 PM] >> Welcome, Ms. Joseph. >> Thank you, mayor, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mayor, councilmembers and capital metro board members, I'm Zenobia Joseph. Mayor and Mr. Chair, I'm not sure if Mr. Easton had a chance to send you my updated document. I inadvertently sent the wrong one yesterday. It's title six of the civil rights act of 1964 and I sent it to the highway department. I wanted to speak to page 53 of your document as it relates to the resolution. It talks about maintaining the existing local bus network and that it says specifically that it will be equitable connections to all members of the community and that it should be maintained. And so Mr. Chair, I know you know that federal transit administration circular dated October 1st, 2012, section 4-16 requires you to [2:58:15 PM] reanalyze and implement reasonable indiscriminatory alternatives and I would ask you to go according to those regulations. As it relates specifically to page 17 that's where you talk about the 300-million- dollar displacement mitigation. I just want to call your attention to Riverside corridor, specifically as it relates to the microunits that are being proposed by presidium. They call it innovative affordable housing and that's for people who make 81,000 and $96,000. That was before Travis county commissioners' court in July twice. I want you to recognize that no amount of money will help mitigate this problem unless the council is willing to revoke or repeal, rather, the vote that they took on Riverside to move the students and the low income residents from there. I want you to also understand that there are already some ways that you can actually help individuals, low income tax credits that could repeal that provision as well. [2:59:15 PM] Right now we have capital metro's off the hook because the developer can actually get a waiver for the transit in the smart housing. So transit oriented is just a farce. I would also ask you to recognize that on [indiscernible] They are still playing propaganda. I would ask you to look at that. So it is ingenous for they to talk about George Floyd because black people still wait 60 minutes for the bus. It's 15 minutes in other parts of the city. I would also ask you to recognize that there's a picture in the document [indiscernible] In the road on fm969. So if you care about everybody, not just black people, but low income white riders, I would ask you to look at that. Please stop pinching poor people and do the right thing. As it relates to the area that's north of U.S. 183 I do want you to recognize that poor people who could not afford one dollar, now [3:00:19 PM] ride 801. [Bell ringing]. And if Mr. Couch could give you the information that shows the data before and after the fare went down by one dollar. If you have any questions, I will gladly answer them at this time. >> You're muted, wade. >> Thank you. The next -- >> Thank you, Ms. Joseph. Cheyenne. >> Mayor Adler: Next speaker. >> The next speaker is Mike Andre. You have three minute. >> Hello? >> Hello, go ahead, speaker. >> Go ahead. >> Can everyone hear me? >> Yes, sir. Go ahead, please. >> Hello, Austin. It's Mike. Very nice to hear from you all again. [3:01:23 PM] I see that you all may have needed to make some adjustments to your project connect metro plan mainly as a result of the covid. While those adjustments are needed to be made, I still appreciate that you all are thinking very strongly about transit improvement. When I spoke before I mentioned that I'm very -- especially very excited for blue line between republic square and abia. I'm even more excited for it to open today. More excited now than before. In addition, I would like to suggest that you all collaborate with txdot in [3:02:28 PM] making sure that the capital express on I-35 in your city includes express exits and entrances. More specifically, an express entrance northbound, an express entrance southbound into downtown Austin from the highway. As well as an express exit northbound and an express exit southbound from the [indiscernible]. If this is done your metro express will function much stronger because it would be awesome to get from the express lanes into downtown Austin and also into the express lanes from the same and have the option of doing so without having to deal with the local lanes of the highway. [3:03:29 PM] Keep up the good work. Once again, I'm very ready to see the Austin metro become stronger. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Andre. Cheyenne, our next speaker, please? >> The next speaker is Jessica wolf. >> Welcome, Ms. Wolf. >> Hi, good afternoon. Hi, thank you. Good afternoon, mayor, city council and cap metro board members. My name is Jessica wolf, deputy policy director at workers defense. We at workers defense believe in increasing public transit in our city and making it more accessible, especially for working families, is an important step for Austin towards becoming a more sustainable and equitable city. If the transit bond pass it will create thousands of jobs for construction workers, transportation workers and more. At workers defense one of our biggest priorities is to ensure that workers have access to good, safe jobs in our community. We applaud council for [3:04:31 PM] including the better builder standards along with the city of Austin's hiring goal as it will raise wage and safety standards and create construction career pathways for thousands of construction workers in our city. With that being said we also believe it is critical for the board who will be overseeing project connect to have their representation and include community members with experience advocating and representing working people and transit users on the board. We support the recent language included that allows for alternate forms of experience or qualifications from the requirements listed in the revised interlocal agreement. We need to ensure that our community will have a voice on the board. Thank you so much for all that you do for our community and our city. Thank you so much for your time. >> Thank you, Ms. Wolf. >> Thank you. The next speaker is Shane Johnson. >> Welcome, Mr. Johnson. >> Hello. Can you hear me? >> Yes, sir, go ahead. >> Thank you. [3:05:33 PM] I am a native austinite recently moved to district 4 specifically. So thanks for hearing me out. First of all, I appreciate the movement that has occurred so far on the commitment towards equity and trying to mitigate future displacement caused by project connect, but we still need some significant improvements and community representation and oversight in three areas. Number one, community representation and oversight. Two, the equity, goal planning and implementation, and three, anti- displacement funding and allocation. We have to fully center equity in all aspect of project connect and in doing so these three strategies must be done first. Otherwise project connect will be in violation of strategic direction 2023's equity framing and project [3:06:34 PM] connect will continue to have harmful [indiscernible] Of institutional racism in Austin. So I really want to pay attention to the professional worker requirements and expertise for the atp board of course we need engineering and finance and sustainable planning expertise, but we also need as the earlier speakers mentioned, community expertise. And without adding additional fees that are specifically community experts in what the communities who would be most impacted by this project without that expertise, this project will displace people. And so I think we need at least three additional seats on the atp board specifically for that. And to -- as -- I haven't read the most recent plan, but the previous plan where, [3:07:35 PM] you know, it was slated to have the planning person also be the community engagement and that quite frankly is a farce. You can't sort of shunt community engagement to the side of a sustainable role planning expert. I really want to uplift that. In addition, there needs to be a community advisory committee with legal standing to direct and provide feedback on the decisions and work done by the atp board. And the community advisory committee must be representative of the Austin community, as I was saying a moment ago, particularly folks who will be most -- people living in areas that will be most impacted by the projects and the potential displacement who are of low income and black and brown folks. [Bell ringing]. And that's my full time, so thank you for hearing me out. [3:08:35 PM] And I want to leave y'all that it's still up to the voters and I don't think the voters will approve a project that doesn't center equity. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. >> The next speaker is Collette pierce burnet. >> Welcome. Dr. Burnette? >> Dr. Burnette, you might be on mute. We can come back to her, chair and mayor. We'll move on to the next speaker. The next speaker is Dave Dobbs. >> Thank you. Welcome, Mr. Dobbs. >> Thank you. Yes, thank you, mayor. Thank you, Cheyenne and greetings councilmembers and capital metro board members. I'm Dave Dobbs, the executive director of the [3:09:36 PM] Texas association for public transportation and I'm speaking today in favor of the Austin transit partnership, atp, to facilitate and fund the project connect vision for building and operating a comprehensive regional rail-based public transit system for the capital of Texas. While there are multiple reasons for doing this ranging from social justice to environmental sustainability, it is the economic impacts of urban rail and the increased tax base that will bring to the city that makes the Austin transit partnership the right thing to do. In a peer review paper for the transportation research board, the national academy of sciences that we did last year about new United States light rail systems built after 1981, we found that where studies were available, the return on investment was positive. In other words, new [3:10:37 PM] development, new tax base around light rail station more than offset the cost of building the light rail line. Here are three examples in 2018 that can be easily found on the web. Ridership numbers are for the first quarter of last year. In 1996 the Dallas area rapid transit system, or dart, began with a 20-mile starter line that is today a 93-mile system with 64 stations and more than 92,000 riders daily. According to a 2014 dart study, the capital costs for this was $7,034,000,000 that would produce 10.8 billion dollars' worth of economic development for a 150% return on investment. Twin cities metro rail, operating in 2004 as it is now a 23-mile system, [3:11:38 PM] connecting downtown Minneapolis to the mall of America and to downtown St. Paul. It has 75,300 daily riders and 37 stations. A 2018 [indiscernible] Council study put the capital investment at $2,600,000,000 that have created $8.4 billion in economic development, a 400% return on investment. Valley metro rail in Phoenix opened in 2008 with 19.6 miles of light rail to Tempe and now has extended to 22.2 miles with 48 stations and 47,000 riders daily. The capital costs were 2.9 billion, which leaded 11 billion in economic development according to the [buzzer]. 379% return on investment. Councilmembers and capital metro board members, I commend you for your hard [3:12:38 PM] work to reach this point. I urge you to put this before the voters on November 3rd. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Dobbs. >> Thank you. I believe Dr. Collette pierce Burnette is back on the line now. You have three minutes. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor Adler, councilmembers K chairperson cooper and members of the cap metro board. I'm coming to you this afternoon wearing many hats as an Austin resident, a person of color, an educator, a university president, an activist and someone with lived experience depending on public transportation in various chapters of my life. And we ever one of those has contributed to being a supporter of project connect. I'm a staunch believer that education is a civil rights issue of our time. Case are unfortunate barriers and with respect to affordability is one of those barriers. Many of my students live off campus. Many of those students have [3:13:39 PM] to work to pay for college while in college whether they live on campus or not. Before covid-19 when I would come to campus in the morning between 7:30 and 8:00, I would see students who live on campus at the bus stop on Chicon. I once asked one of them where they were headed so early in the morning. She told me that she was going to work. She told me she has to take three buss to get to her destination and it takes her two hours. We surveyed the campus and found that access to adequate transportation is a barrier on many levels. In addition to the students, a large percentage of my staff, my faculty and staff, live outside of Austin with a commute of up to 90 minutes and many would prefer public transit. In addition to improved and efficient access which is promised by project connect, I believe, there's another element of this project that I would like to amplify. Various large scale transit projects of this nature across our nation did not adequately address the issue of displacement and the impact was that they sadly destroyed proud, vibrant [3:14:41 PM] neighborhoods. I believe that Austin must be intentional and dogged to hold ourselves accountable to guard against that happening here. Displacement is a problem. The iconic American Arthur Maya Angelou wrote when we know better we do better. And I think we are demonstrating we know better here in Austin by committing $300 million to anti-displacement in this work and we will do it this time. It is our duty to have equitable, safe modes of transit to all folks of Austin. As a strong advocate for civil rights and justice for all, I am a strong advocate for a transit system with equity as a core principle. I thank you again for your hard work as public servants and I recognize that we are at a crossroads. And I'm hoping that you will embrace what Maya Angelou taught us that when we know better W do better. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Pierce Burnette. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. The next speaker is Lyndon [3:15:42 PM] Henry. You have three minutes. >> Welcome, Mr. Henry. >> Mr. Henry, you might be on mute. I'll move on to the next speaker and circle back. The next speaker is Katherine Gonzalez. >> Welcome, Ms. Gonzalez. >> Hello. >> Great. >> Hello. >> Hello? Is this Mr. Henry? >> Hello? Yes. >> Mr. Henry, go ahead, please. >> You have three minutes. >> I'm sorry, you can hear me okay? >> Yes, sir, go ahead. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. I'm Lyndon Henry, I'm an urban planner and transportation planning consultant, a former capital metro board member and a former data analyst for capital metro. The project connect plan centered on an urban rail [3:16:42 PM] system and anchored by a light rail spine along the key north Lamar, Guadalupe, south congress Orange line corridor would basically implement the mass transit vision I've been advocating for the past 49 years. In pursuit of that vision I participated in creating capital metro, served four years on its board and later worked for the agency for nine years. Starting in the 1970s I initiated and effort to acquire a rail transit use of the former southern pacific railroad branch line from Giddings to llano. The western part of which is in operation today as the metro rail red line. I've also been continuously active over four decade as a community participant in the urban rail planning process, including project connect. From its inception, capital metro was conceived as a regional system with rail transit to serve both suburban and central city neighborhoods of the Austin metro area. The project connect plan with its three light rail [3:17:42 PM] lines can be a new step towards fulfillment of that original intention to connect Austin's more outlying neighborhoods with one another and the central city. Expanding electric light rail is crucial to that regional vision. This can be done relatively easily and cost effectively. First, the metro rail red line and proposed green line can be converted to faster, more cost effective, high capacity electric light rail service from the northwest and eastern sections of the metro area. Second, the former Katy railroad right-of-way is a way to link the eastern and northeastern disturbs into Austin. -- Suburbs into Austin. The former Bergstrom spur right-of-way offers an excellent route for an additional light rail line directly linking the abia airport into the south first street, south congress area and neighborhoods east of I-35 along the Ben white U.S. 71 corridor. [3:18:42 PM] I strongly support approving the interlocal agreement. And incorporation measure to implement proposed Austin transit partnership and the funding commitments toward the goal of building the regional high speed electric light rail network that Austin has needed for so long. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Henry. >> The next speaker is Juan morelani. >> Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm a resident of d4 in the north Lamar [indiscernible] Area, happily represented by councilmember Greg Casar. I appreciate the opportunity to be part of this joint meeting and share my thoughts with you today. I have been engaged with the development of project connect for more than two years and I hope a majority of the citizens necessity this beautiful city, despite the current challenges, you need to make this dream of a modern and socially [3:19:43 PM] inclusive transit system a priority. I was I pointed to the north section of the Orange line from the [indiscernible] Plan as it will farther delay the public transit to the ongoing development of Parmer lane and surrounding areas. I hope the increase in rapid routes is complemented with proper sidewalk and bike and infrastructure to alleviate [indiscernible]. Today it is not possible to walk or bike safely on that section of north Lamar as far as the pedestrian and bike improvements by having the line there. It is impossible to completely satisfy everyone. Regardless of the personal disappointment, in the interest of coming here, I'm on board to support the project in its current form. As a homeowner I am very happy to contribute to the future of the city and invest in infrastructure that will decrease fossil fuel usage, alleviate traffic and move us towards [3:20:45 PM] electric tried transportation. These are challenges we face on a global scale. From my individual economic point of view, it will allow many to opt out of costly vehicle ownership. I know these are challenging times, but we must act now or continue to face the sequences of inaction. Lastly, as a recreational and urban cyclist I'm realizing this might be a separate issue, I look forward to see how the investment once it is passed involves keeping me and all the current and future Austin cyclists in mind. Despite our hot Summers, the topography of our city, it's ideal to continue investing in safe, shaded bike infrastructure and give our citizens the healthy option to move around on their bikes. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> The next speaker is Juan Paulo Connally. >> Hello, can you hear me? >> Yes, sir. [3:21:45 PM] Go ahead, please. >> All right. It's going to be just about impossible for me to say everything I want to say if three minutes, but that is actually kind of emblematic for the idea of real community participation has been allowed or welcomed in this process. So, you know, I'm going to say that a little while ago the [indiscernible] Center published a very famous report and looked at 42 neighborhoods and 12 metropolitan areas served by rail transit over 10 years. And focusing on the transit rich neighborhoods where changes were most pronounced -- were more pronounced than those in the surrounding metro areas. The due community advisory they found that neighborhood change could be discerned. They said with the addition of transit [indiscernible] Be expensive, neighborhood residents became wealthier and vehicle ownership became [3:22:46 PM] more common in those neighborhoods. We found evidence of gentrification, they said, in the majority of newly transit served neighborhoods. And they defined gentrification as a pattern of neighborhood change marked by a rising housing cost and incomes. So I wonder if that's the kind of return on investment that we're thinking of when we talk about returns on investment. So this kind of indirect displacement where we lose the reduction in affordable housing in an area is something we need to take very carefully. The center goes on to say that the research provides support for the conclusion that neighborhoods with a large number of renters are more susceptible to gentrification, and indeed we looked at neighborhoods more likely to be dominated by low income households and almost every aspect of neighborhood change was magnified by the transit projects. Rents rose faster and owner occupied units became less prevalent. I think that's worrisome [3:23:47 PM] when we look at where the lines of project connect are drawn and especially in light of covid. I'm not in opposition of transit by any means. How can I be? How can I be an environmentally conscious human being and oppose transit? I work for the Austin justice coalition, focused on housing policy, and so bringing in a real racial equity lens to this project is fundamental, but it has been incredibly hard to do. I have another report also that was put out last year by Karen chapel and I loved title of her report because it's called transit oriented displacement or community dividends? And I think that that question is a transit oriented displacement or something that returns to the community what it needs? That question looms, it hangs over all of our conversations about future transit in Austin. And this study specifically recommends the importance of [3:24:49 PM] community mobilization -- [buzzer] Did you for your time. I wasn't able to get to my conclusion, but thank you. And I do wish we had more real community participation and engagement in this process. It's unfortunate that we don't. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Connally. If you will hang on a second, councilmember harper-madison may have a question. >> Harper-madison: Actually, thank you for that, chair. I know how to get in contact with JP. Thank you for that. Actually, what I was going to ask, I know that y'all are the pros and you probably have it under control, but two callers ago the name Katherine Gonzalez was called, but was never revisited. I just want to make sure we didn't skip over somebody. >> Thank you. Cheyenne? >> Thank you, councilmember and chair. Actually, I was about to call Katherine Gonzalez right now. So thank you. Katherine, you have three minutes if you're there. >> Thank you, Ms. Gonzalez. >> I am here. Thank you, councilmember harper-madison. My name is Katherine [3:25:49 PM] Gonzalez. I use she and her pronouns and I am the operations director at out youth. For years we have served lbgtq youth, young adults and their families with life changing and life saving programs to ensure that these promising young people grow into happy, healthy adults. I'm speaking to you today on behalf of out youth to express our organization's support of project connect and the business that you are conducting today. It is far past time for Austin to invest in a comprehensive approach to public transit that addresses long-standing systemic inequities, allows for timely movement of austinites across our city and has the foresight to meet the population growth by region. Many of the youth that we serve rely on public transit to get to and from school, work, home, and out youth. We have the same issues come up again and again. There isn't a bus stop near my house so I have to walk 20 minutes to the nearest one and then I have to wait [3:26:51 PM] another 30 minutes for a bus because they don't ever run on schedule. Or to get to school I have to take multiple transfers. Or to get to out youth it takes almost two hours on the bus. And then I have to do it again to get home. The youth, young adults and families we serve deserve a public transit system that allows them to get to where they need to go in a reasonable amount of time so that they can access all of the fantastic things that Austin has to offer. And on a personal note, I think it's critical to underscore that no transit plan that is ever developed will be perfect but the opportunity to vote in multiple transit plans in my 20 years in Austin. These proposals have failed again and again because of concerns of community members that the projects are too expensive and the proposed plans don't address their individual needs. And yet here we are 20 years later and the cost of doing anything to improve our transit system will only [3:27:51 PM] continue to go up. In fact, I think I remember back [indiscernible] Something similar. Hence the systemic inequities persist. So project connect as proposed is not a perfect solution for our decades old transit problem. I see it as a necessary beginning and know full well this isn't the end to our commitment to provide every austinite access to a world class public transit system. Thank you for your time today. >> Thank you, Ms. Gonzalez. >> The next speaker is Nathan Stevens. You have three minutes. >> Welcome, Mr. Stevens. Mr. Stevens, you might be on mute. >> We will circle back. The next speaker is Yasmine Smith. >> Welcome, Ms. Smith. [3:28:52 PM] >> Hi, y'all. This is Yasmine Smith. I wear many hats, one being the vice-chair of [indiscernible]. One of my favorite hats is being a born and raised black austinite. I'm here today to discuss the lack of true community accountability within the legally binding documents as presented. Before you vote, you must ensure that the community advisory committee and the community at large has true teeth, whether it's in these documents before you or a commitment by this dais to have that articulation done in the joint power agreement. The community advisory committee must be able to pause the apt activities if it is found that those activities fall below the threshold of success in regards to equity. The community must be listened to. The community must lead. That is, if you truly want to create an ethe questionable transit. Why? I am speaking as an [3:29:52 PM] individual community member that is engage and quite privileged that this process has been absolutely horrid. I have felt utterly disappeared during this entire engagement and as a born and raised austinite I am ashamed at how this has unfolded. Shout out to Casar and kitchen for being very present during this process. It isn't about individuals. It's about the system in which this process is happening. If you don't know, have you tried to quote, unquote, provide equity, I would like to tell you this, that the patronizing of the community in those memos, the centering of power for those that historically have had that power and not investing in the community, the lack of cultural competent assessment heck, the posting of the edited language a mere hour and a half before I had to get on this meeting, those things are a manifestation of white oppression and an oppressive system. Those things need to be addressed. And so I say you might want [3:30:53 PM] to readjust how you believe your bargaining position is because as the first caller said, come November, once the rabbit has the gun, it ain't going to be fun. And I'm open for any of your questions. >> Thank you, Ms. Smith. >> The next speaker is Ali katel. >> Thank you. Thank you, mayor Adler, councilmembers, chairperson cooper and the capital metro board. My name is Ali and I'm a graduate of the university of Texas cultural school of engineering and the founder and CEO of info tech engineering. When I first moved to Austin the north terminus of mopac was Steck avenue and the southern end stopped short of lady bird lake. A little over 200,000 people lived here. That's not the case anymore. We are a major American city. We share the roads with two million of our neighbors and another two million are [3:31:53 PM] projected to arrive in the next 20 years. I say this as an engineer, we can't approach the following decade the way we've acted in the past, which means we can't, to use chairperson cooper's words, keep kicking the can down the road. Our current system is already stretched to the limit and we risk doing serious damage to our economy, our environment and our neighborhoods if we continue to kick that can. I am in favor of project connect for precisely those reasons. Our economy, our environment, and our neighborhoods. In my judgment, the price tag for project connect is actually a very prudent investment. For every one billion we spend on transit system, we create more than 9,700 jobs. At project connect's present size that means we will create nearly 10,000 jobs. It doesn't really bring into full force the multiplier [3:32:54 PM] effect of that that occurs with better, more efficient transportation and more mobile workforce. We also -- we must also consider the demands of the new generation of workers. They will demand a modern, more efficient transit system. I'd like to close on a personal note. I have children and I'm very close to my family. And I want to do everything I can do to ensure that continuing to live in Austin is an option for them. When I talk about next generation I am talking about my children, their dreams and aspirations and my hope that we can be together in the years and decades to come. They are patient. And they recognize the project connect is that commitment. What they don't want is for us to keep putting things off. They don't want us to abandon our commitment to the next generation. They don't want us to keep [3:33:55 PM] kicking that can. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> The next speaker is David gains. You have three minutes. >> Thank you. Can you hear me? >> Yes, Mr. King. Welcome. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for including $300 million for displacement mitigation in the project connect bond proposal. Mitigating displacement, however, does not prevent displacement. Mitigation is defined as [indiscernible] Seriousness or painfulness of something. Prevention is designed as stopping something from happening. We need robust, sustained displacement prevention funding in project connect. This must be prioritized to help sustain thousands of low income families, scores of small local businesses and communities of color located on or adjacent to project connect transit [3:34:57 PM] corridors. Please earmark at least $225 million for displacement prevention cash payments directly to low income families, communities of color and small local businesses. Please prohibit the use of project connect anti-displacement funds for market rate, mixed use density bonus developments. These developments facilitate involuntary displacement of low income families, communities of color and small local businesses while they produce very few housing units and virtually no businesses that are affordable to families earning at or below 60% area median family income. Please expand the proposed local government corporation board to include three community based residents from low income communities to [indiscernible] And small local businesses in the eastern crescent. These community- based residents should have full voting rights and authority to oversee and facilitate [3:35:58 PM] equitable investments and anti-displacement funding in project connect. These ensure that all transit related anti-displacement programs use area median family income requirements that are equitable to low income families of color. The area median family income for black and Latino families in Austin is roughly $45,000, which is less than half of the area median income for Austin. Income restricted housing programs based on area median family incomes at or above 60% do not serve or benefit most low income black and Latino families in Austin. This is a prime example of institutional racism and systemic inequities embedded in our income restricted houses programs that are ostensibly designed to equitably serve families of color. Please ensure that at least 90% of the bond funding is for perfects R. Persons that earn 50% or below area median family income. Please require the board to comply with all city and state open meetings, open [3:36:58 PM] records and lobbyist regulations. Thank you for considering my comments. And for your service. >> Thank you, Mr. King. >> The next speaker is chiffon ontero. >> I am chair of people united for mobility action and I live in district 3. We have been working with Austin justice coalition and mr.inging our community to ensure equitable outcomes for project connect. The offices of mayor pro tem, Garza and kitchen on this item. However we must acknowledge that this process upholds white supremacy and systemic suppression. This process has continued at such a rate that it risks harm. We have the privilege to advocate for better. Fighting a system from within to reach true racial equity and justice is [3:37:58 PM] exhausting by design. It shouldn't be that difficult to build equity and accountability into project connect's process and procedures from the first line of commentary on passenger transport publication by Randy Clarke is we must act now to end racial injustice and equity. We have to guarantee that project connect does not displace communities from heir homes. Mr. Randy Clarke you have the opportunity to operational lies your language and commit on the words to ensure that project connect's governance includes disenfranchised populations. Mayor pro tem, you need a contract with the voters to gives decision making power to those who have been excluded from the transit projects and from economic stability. Acting now to end racial injustice and inequity is about shifting power. If we do not move forward upon this resident, then we [3:39:00 PM] are digging up our roads and tearing up the city to lay down empty promises in the historic injustices and inequities built into the fabric of our current system. It is about trust, trusting that communities are their own experts to their own lived experience and it shouldn't take demonstrating 16 or 10 years of highly technical experience to have a seat at the decision making table as partners. We are asking that the agreement include accountability measures. The board should work with the community advisory committee to develop an action plan using the equity assessment tool to present to city council prior to the construction of project connect. The atp board should create a quarterly board to have an outline for the equity plan. Since public involvement is key for community values per the Nepa process, it should also be part of the decision-making process. If we do not act now to end racial injustices and inequities as Mr. Randy Clarke has stated and take the opportunity to help our city, then we are not [3:40:00 PM] helping the workers who are driving an hour to their job. We are paying attention to your commitment to equity and accountability with your vote today and so will the voters come November. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> The next speaker is mikala jose. You have three minutes. >> Hello, councilmembers and Cheyenne, thank you for your continued trying to get us connected today. So I'm actually calling today as I tried to call last week and was disconnected from the Dahl and was not able to get back on after three emails back and forth between myself and Ms. Goodall. It was completely unprofessional. I wanted to mention that from the very beginning that I know that this is going to be a continued learning experience for all of us. We just really need to address the reality that we are in a very pivotal time of changing our worlds [3:41:03 PM] forever. And we need to decide to be the Progressive city that we've always claimed that we were. Mayor Adler, pardon me, I think it's completely tone deaf, this little game you have about going around on the internet about doing like a bingo game, considering these are what your constituents are talking about and begging the calls for action. I really hope that you guys remember that just two weeks ago a man was murdered in the streets and APD released that said murderer. We still have a lot of issues going on in our society, both in and off of the streets. These conversations are happening and need to continue. I tried calling my city member, an kitchen. I've called your office twice, emailed you twice and I've had no response back. The accountability falls more than just the police department. It falls on the city councilmembers, the city manager, the mayor, all of us are involved in making this world better. That includes giving access [3:42:04 PM] to the transit system. It needs tons of work. And we're one of the most Progressive cities, but we fall so far behind even Dallas. Dallas has a better transit stap than even us and it's completely unacceptable. I really hope that you guys consider that with your future decisions and anything you plan on talking about in the future. We need to remember that there's civic unrest happening every single day in Austin downtown, right around where you guys are going to work everyday. And I just appreciate your cooperation in hearing your -- the cries of your community. And please just remember that we're all wanting to make this world better. And that stops with ending the systemic issues on racism, on voter suppression and things like that. We really need to come together and we need your help to make these permanent changes to our society. And where is that point in history where you guys can choose to be the leaders and changing the way or you can be stuck in the past and look at ourselves shamefully years down the road. It's just one of those things where I really look [3:43:06 PM] forward to hearing you guys speak more about this and hope that we can come to a conclusion to where these ideologies of racism are completely eradicated from our society. I think that Austin can be the city that leads the way in that, and I hope, mayor Adler and Spencer cronk can please approve Casar's budget proposal. [Buzzer]. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ms. Jonse. >> The next speaker is Nathan Stevens, circling back to Nathan Stevens. Are you on the line? All right. The next speaker is David Edmundson. You have three minutes. >> Thank you, Cheyenne. My name is David Edmundson. I am executive director for Texans in the southeast. [Indiscernible] Is a bipartisan network of CEOs [3:44:07 PM] and executives that promotes the growth of innovation economy. It's American businesses ranging from start-ups to the most iconic companies on the planet, a number of which had have a significant presence here in Austin. I want to thank all of you for your bold leadership and [indiscernible] For project connect. This is truly a generational investment that will create a transportation system that is safer, cleaner, more efficient and more equitable. Within the tech sector there is real momentum and support for project connect. We recognize that Austin faces a very real choice, whether to build for the future and continue to be among the great cities and cultures world or to shrink from the challenges we face and gridlock our city, damage our economy and diminish our quality of lives. Project connect and the robust transportation system that it would create [indiscernible]. Part of the [indiscernible] Of project connect is how it leans into the power of having options. [3:45:07 PM] Austin's tech sector includes people who want to ride the train as well as folks who want to drive or ride on an all electric bus fleet and in many cases bike or walk. Project connect will allow them to choose. And of course, tech employees are very concerned about the water we drink, the air we breathe and the state of our fragile central Texas environment. A significant experience of total carbon emissions come from transportation and we can make a real impact on those emissions by supporting project connect. The bottom line is that support of a new citywide transit system that's essential to our community's economic success and environmental stewardship. Thank you again for your support for bold action for the city today and future generations. We owe you a debt of gratitude. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Mr. Edmundson. >> The next speaker is [indiscernible] Azhar. >> Hello? >> Hello. >> Yes, ma'am, welcome, go [3:46:08 PM] ahead, please. >> Thank you very much. Mayor, board chair, councilmembers and board members, my name is [indiscernible] Azhar and I'm on the leadership team of planning our communities. Project connect can provide communities of colors and working class communities in Austin with much needed transit access, lower household transportation cost and support community needs. However, in order to truly serve communities of color and austinites through project connect it will be integral to ensure that these communities are not displaced by the creation of the system itself. I thank city council for including 300 million in bond funding for anti-displacement measures as a part of project connect. If this bond passes this will be the largest amount ever devoted to anti-displacement measures this Austin. There is no doubt that traditional funding and policy measures will be required in order to address any transit- induced displacement. In addition it will be critical to ensure the 300 million bond funding for anti- displacement is used in a strategy that is developed with the involvement of the community advisory [3:47:09 PM] committee, the city of Austin equity office and the city of Austin innovation office. Furthermore, creating such a strategy will require true community input. I thank councilmembers Casar, Garza and kitchen for creating the future for representation on the atp board. Community experts as originally defined could not and cannot highlight or address community concerns by themselves. Without including the voices of those who would be most impacted by project connect and those who are most likely to use the new system, we cannot develop anti-displacement strategies and other qualities that can make this project a success. As a community we must go beyond mere words and prove that we are committed to providing opportunities to the marginalized communities and include them in critical decision making. The concern and fear of transit-induced displacement [background noise]. The comments about to read are from the community feedback collected from capital metro and posted on [3:48:10 PM] the project connect website. They're a lot more comments than time permits me to read but I will continue reading until the buzzer to highlight the concerns on displacement and the need to allow for community decision making at all levels and all stages of the project. According to one resident, if a high capacity line is built, property lines will increase as they have throughout the country. And unless there's a concerted effort to build and maintain affordable housing along the line many people will be displaced. It is not enough to consider affordable housing that is located along the line now. You should also consider how much affordable housing there will be once the project is built. Another resident said the eastside is gentrifying quickly and the blue line will only hasten that. Policies that protect affordable housing and residents must be enacted as the blue line is planned. If not, then the blue line will only serve the gentrifying and traveling populations. Another comment, in proved transit will increase land values around new stations and spark gentrification and [3:49:10 PM] displacement. [Buzzer]. There must be protection. Thank y'all very much. >> Thank you, Ms. Azhar. >> The next speaker is Sydney bueller. >> Hi. >> Chair, I hate to interrupt. This is -- it was Mr. Azhar. I just wanted to -- >> I'm sorry. Thank you. My apologies. Councilmember harper-madison had her hand up as well. >> I believe my colleague has already made the correction I intended to. >> Thank you, councilmembers. >> Ms. Bueller, you have three minutes. >> I'm with district 8. I do support Greg Casar's proposal. I do wish it had more funding for black constituents or black owned [3:50:10 PM] businesses, but I'm also here to say that we need to take immediate action against [indiscernible]. I was one of those arrested on Saturday. I was arrested, snatched out of the crowd and taken to the middle of the street where four cops Enfield on top of my 130-pound body. I'm a white female. I can't imagine if I was a person of color and I was treated that way. And then I was put into an unair conditioned car for over and hour and finally whenever they switched drivers the cop was like oh, it's hot back here and opened the air vents for me. I was in transportation for four hours and made it to the jail and [indiscernible] A female had to cover up before entering the jail because she said she was indecent. They said the loud ones over here, the white ones over here. The black women were put with -- where the loud ones would go. That was ridiculous. And then I got -- when I finally got breakfast they forgot my breakfast. [3:51:11 PM] When I got it my bag was soaked and torn whenever I finally got breakfast. Whenever they railroad arrested me there was a female top on top of me. There's a female right there. [Indiscernible]. I thought I was going to die. I'm just asking y'all all to be aware of this and I'm asking y'all to please take action against police brutality because you see what's going on are in your hands. You have an opportunity to take action against this. This is not okay. And yesterday there was a man passed out in the -- passed out where I was running and then I called, the ems came and the police would not let me give him water. They should have water on them. He was -- he had a heatstroke. Needed water. They refused to let me give him water. Anyways, that's what I wanted to say. I wanted to let you know that these goings are going on and we need to take,. [3:52:11 PM] This is immediate action that needs to be [indiscernible]. So my attorney even said they were messing with my phone calls. They would not go through. So they're literally -- they look at the protesters as animals and we are peacefully protesting. They treat us like animals. [Indiscernible]. In an unair conditioned car in the 100-degree weather. That's all I wanted. You can have my time. That's all I wanted to say. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. The next speaker is Jeremy Hendricks. Jeremy, you have three minutes. >> Thank you very much, Cheyenne. Hello everyone, I'm Jeremy with the labors international union north America, local 1095 based here in Austin. I'm proud to represent workers who build, maintain and service central Texas. Thank you for allowing us to [3:53:12 PM] speak today. I'm here to represent the central Texas building and trades, which is comprised of over a dozen local trade unions and we're all in support of project connect. And the items before you today. With nearly three million people living in Austin and the surrounding counties we all struggle with our transportation nightmare and we know it's only going to get worse. I know I'm preaching to the choir there. Unfortunately we've neglected to make smart investments in the past and unfortunately that has mostly led to people of color and immigrant communities that are hurt the most. We work everyday to give people their first step out of poverty by providing real careers in the construction industry. And as a representative of these workers I know they are forced to build our 21st century city while relying on an aging transit system that doesn't meet their needs. Our forkers must live are far from their jobs and be in traffic or hours at bus stops and those are hours missed with their family and children. I thank you for your commitment to project connect and advancing the significant investment in the future of Austin and [3:54:14 PM] central Texas. It's an investment in a better quality of life for all of our current citizens. We're also proud to support this effort because we can do all these great things for our community while also creating thousands of good family supporting new jobs in the construction industry by guaranteeing the workers' safety, wage and other protections you've included. These protections are critical because Texas remains the most dining Russ state for construction workers with some of the lowest wages in America. So again thank you standing with workers. Lastly we believe it's important to stand for more diverse representation and community involvement on the Austin transit partnership. So please approve those changes to ensure equity and diversity as well. And just the men and women who build this amazing city we all love deserve better and the time for action is now. Please approve these measures and let's get to work on getting this passed. Thank you all and have a great day. >> Thank you. [3:55:15 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Chair, I think that councilmember harper-madison had her hand raised. >> Go ahead. >> Harper-madison: I did not, but thank you, mayor. I appreciate you looking out for me. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. The next speaker is bay Scoggins. You have three minutes. >> Hey, y'all. It's bay again. Good to talk to you again. Thanks, Mr. Mayor and council, Mr. Chairman, cap metro and Randy, even if he is an oilers fan. On behalf of the Texas public interest research group our members in the area and our student affiliate group, students for transit, I would like to thank you for your leadership in finally bringing project connect to this exciting final meeting. Y'all know from my previous testimonies that as a public interest issue, transit checks all the boxes. It's crucial for our climate environment, leads to cleaner air and it supports our essential workers who rely on transit at a much higher rate. Today I thought I would talk about our experience organizing young people and [3:56:15 PM] students in support of the measure. There's no question that students overwhelmingly want more transportation options. For one, you can just look at all the scooters zooming up and down as we sit in traffic on north Lamar, but two, threw the last' school year we collected more than 2600 zoning districts, more than 2600 signatures from students in support of the project connect vision map and we found that kids, young people are fired up and ready to go. [Indiscernible]. This is especially critical information as I think one of the biggest takeaways from the primary runoff election was an historic turnout from the youth vote. And we should expect that same turnout come November. The students for transit will be working to educate, energize the thousands of students who support the measure. So it's really clear our options are very simple. We can do nothing and stay in the same status quo or we can make a generational investment in our city. This has been a multi-year [3:57:18 PM] process with an extremely impressive community outreach program from cap metro. Y'all should be very proud of the work you do. And once again, we just want to applaud the leadership from all of you here assembled today. We're happy to support the passage of the contract with the voters. Next stop is November. Thanks y'all. >> Thank you. Chair, I would like to circle back and make sure that we got everybody. So I'm going to call the names that we have on our list just to make sure. And pause to see if anybody answers. Scott Morris? Also if you've already spoken, please make sure your phone is on mute, please. Scott Morris. Michael south. Carolyn Reynolds. [3:58:21 PM] Anna swanken? Frank necher. Mason Stevens? Tina cannon? Tina bowie? Council, that is all of our speakers. >> Hello? >> Hello. >> My name is Bianca, and I wasn't able to speak. I got on after the fact, I'm sorry >> You're calling to speak on the project connect meeting? >> Actually, I called in last Friday to speak on item 17 and the community input and I was pushed out of my two-hour slot. >> This meeting is actually about transit only. We're not posted to speak about [3:59:21 PM] items not on the agenda. >> Okay. [Lapse in audio]. Thank you. >> I apologize. Thank you. >> Have a good day. >> Chair and council, I believe that's all of our speakers. This line is going to end. You can continue watching atxn 1 and on cable channel. This will be posted after the meeting is over. We appreciate your patience and support as we work through the technical issues. Thank you again. >> Mayor Adler: We can't hear you. >> Kitchen: Cheyenne, did you already cut off the speakers? Cheyenne? >> Can you hear me? [4:00:23 PM] >> I apologize. I think the line is still connected. Let me confirm. >> Kitchen: I just want to ask the chairs, some people don't have cable. And so I thought it might be appropriate to allow them to continue to listen. >> Mayor Adler: I'm with that, if you could do it. >> Chair: That would be great. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> Thank you council member kitchen and chairs. We'll allow the speakers to stay on [lapse in audio]. >> Chair: We're getting background noise. Again, thanks to all of our speakers, and to our I.T. Folks for your patience and working through the issues that we've had to deal with today. It's been remarkable, actually, that we've had, with these nine meetings, as much success doing this remotely as we have. Councilmembers and board members, we've jumbled our [4:01:24 PM] agenda a bit. I want to pause for just a second and see if anybody has any questions. Can you hear me? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Chair: I'm getting voices in my earpiece saying I've been muted. We're going to pause for just a second and see if anybody has questions or comments related to the presentations. Then I'll turn it over to the mayor and city council to take up the Ila. >> Mayor Adler: Are you going to go back and have the presentation from maybe more briefly this time, but maybe have the presentations covered that were not recorded? >> Chair, the staff is ready to have Greg and Annette do their section over to make sure the cutoff of atxn didn't cut that off. We're ready. >> Chair: We can take that up now then, quickly. [4:02:27 PM] Reinet? Or Greg, I guess? >> This is Greg with the city of Austin again, and we would be happy to go back over there on slide -- a few more, advance, please? Advance please? Next slide. Thank you. Prior slide. Thank you. Thank you again, chair cooper and mayor Adler. I could go back over again what I think is kind of core and elemental moving forward on project connect. Really, formalizing the partnership that has existed between city council and the capital metro board and the staff over these months, as can be seen with the ninth joint work session that you're having today. The Austin transit partnership would be an independent agency that would manage the day-to-day project connect implementation, execution of the design and construction for the project that has been approved by the [4:03:28 PM] city council, and by the capital metro board. Both entities would bring into the partnership funding. The city versus the tax rate election, capital metro via its community commitment funding over time as well as very critically federal funds. The partnership will look at governance financing, and then the planning implementation. Any assets that will be Bild will be turned back over to [lapse in audio]. I think some key parts of the responsibility for Austin transit partnership would be quarterly reports to the board, comprehensive reports and audits, independent audit which is a key function, and also ensuring that the day-to-day, the alignment of assets and what will be built, the components with project connect are in [lapse in audio]. We'll have responsibility over system plan changes and policies regarding that system plan. What is on the agenda today that I will cover is the formation [4:04:31 PM] and approving the articles of incorporation and the bylaws that will form the Austin transit partnership, and the policies around that, and selecting members. And allocating funding from the various sources that will be coming in each year. Next slide, please? We talked about this, but I think it's worth highlighting that the board composition as outlined in the interlocal agreement and articles and bylaws reflect a five-member board with the city of Austin member of council representing the city. A member of the board from the capital metro board. And then as I think we've talked about, three community experts with one in finance, one looking at engineering and construction. As a reminder, this board will really be a construction oversight and implementation board. And then I think a really key element is a member focused on community planning and sustainability with a strong [4:05:33 PM] [lapse in audio] In engagement. To get to the three community efforts, the Ila outlines a nominating committee comprised of city councilmembers and capital metro board members. I think a key element of the interlocal that spells out the nominating process is that the nominating committee shall look towards nominating a slate of community experts that represent Austin, the diverse and inclusive community that we have. So one of the items in that Ila [lapse in audio] Nominating committee works through the nominating process. And again, I think a key element for comprising the new partnership for lifting these projects off the ground. Next slide? The interlocal agreement and the articles of incorporation and bylaws that would be -- are in front of you today for approval, [4:06:33 PM] would set the stage for, again, creating the Austin transit partnership. And then once that partnership is formed, by January, the goal would be for the three entities, the Austin transit partnership, the city of Austin and capital metro to really dive down through a further level through a joint powers agreement which would look at several topics that really need to be determined. A lot around management and administration and the auditing that we talked about, of the community engagement process, spelling that out in more detail than has been laid out. Financial management, how that would work, the funds would flow. And then looking at program development and implementation over time. Certainly the fta processes, the things we've heard about today, the construction mitigation program, work force training and safety and development, spelling that all out as we talk what would be approved today in the documents that you have in filling that out even further than it already has been. [4:07:34 PM] With that, I'll tern it over to reinet marneweck >> Good afternoon, I'm the chief financial officer with capital metro. >> I hate to interrupt, but I'm understanding that the folks that are on the line, they're muted, but they can't hear anything. So Cheyenne, I just wanted to let you know that. >> Thanks, councilmember. Reinet, go ahead >> Just to revisit some of the key dates we've had in this month, simply the resolutions and action dates, July 27th was when council directed staff to include project connect in the city of Austin tax rate and to prepare the necessary documents, and the capital metro staff also directed staff to fund the capital projects and the project connect in the fiscal '21 [4:08:36 PM] budget, and to bring back a final resolution on August will 7th. On July the 30th, the city of Austin passed a budget resolution and today we are here at August 7th, with four action items, both parties are to approve an Ila for the Austin transit partnership. And each entity has to approve the resolution. The city of Austin is approving a contract with the voters, and capital metro is making a funding commitment resolution. And then during August 12th through 14, there would be various city of Austin budget ordinances to adopt the fiscal 2021 budget as well as the council to adopt a tax rate, and for the council to order an election. Next page? The project connect is a shared commitment by the city of Austin [4:09:37 PM] and capital metro. And for the city council approval today, a contract with the voters to dedicate the tax rate election revenues to the Austin transit partnership, for the implementation of operation and maintenance of the project connect program. It also provides 300 million for transit supportive, anti- displacement strategies related to the implementation of project connect. The capital metro board will be approving a funding and community commitment to fund annual allocations for operations, maintenance and implementation of the system. Capital metro will also dedicate the capital expansion funds to project connect. Capital metro will also serve as the fta project sponsor, and will transfer funds received from any grant agreements related to project connect to atp for implementation of the [4:10:39 PM] project. All contracts awarded by the atp will address a living wage, and the health and safety protections in compliance with all fta requirements. Next page. Next slide, please. Here is the initial investment sequence plan that you approved last week. And with the actions you are taking today, are committing to fund. Initially there's the Orange line and blue line as light rail, including the downtown tunnel that will provide a fast and safe way to operate in the downtown district. Then we will have red line improvements, and the green line with a new commuter line going to colony park. It includes additional components like additional [4:11:40 PM] metroexpress lines, additional park-and-rides, and also customer technology systems. Here you can also see the sequencing of the 300 million provided for transit supportive investments to prevent displacements. And I will now hand it back to the chair. Thank you. >> Chair: Thank you, reinet, Greg and Jackie. Questions or comments regarding our presentation? We can take down the presentation so we can see hands. Any questions? Comments? Seeing none, very well. Here I'm going to hand the meeting over to you, mayor, as we take up our action items. >> Mayor, I have a quick question. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. About the presentation? Go ahead >> Yeah. It was actually about the very last slide. I just noticed earlier it was [4:12:42 PM] numbered like year one, two, three. And I wanted a little bit of clarification on, does the initial mark start when the voters approve it, or what does year one look like, according to this particular bar chart? >> I'll jump in for the sanctity of time for all the staff. There's an asterisk on that chart that says based on federal Nepa and funding approvals. >> Okay. So the beginning of that bar chart is when there's environmental approval? >> Exactly. Yes, exactly >> And then you start the environmental approval process? >> It's when it's approved and funding's approved. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Mr. Chair, I think that what might make sense for us to do is to have the discussion on the first item on the Ila, which includes the bylaws and the [4:13:45 PM] articles. And we could just open it up for both bodies, run that concurrently. And then we could call for a motion in each, and take the vote one after the other. That way people could just generally speak on it if anybody wished to. >> Chair: I think that sounds good, mayor. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Does anybody wish to speak to the Ila, and the bylaws and the articles before we have a motion and a vote? Councilmember kitchen? >> Kitchen: Yes. I have a couple of things to speak to. And they're two different issues. One relates to the community advisory committee, and the other one relates to the board composition. So I'll start with the community advisory committee and then stop to see if anybody else wants to say anything. And then, you know, after that, then I can go back to my comments on the board composition. [4:14:45 PM] So let me just say, on the community advisory committee, I think that -- I want to read the language that's in here, in the Ila, is 4.7. And I want to point to the fact that I need -- I think that we need, as both bodies move forward with the joint powers agreement, to lay out accountability measures that are developed with the community that make it clear that the community has an opportunity for accountability, and that that needs to be laid out in our joint powers agreement. So the language right here that's in the community advisory committee says that the parties will require the board to form a community advisory committee to assist capmetro and the city, so that is assisting all of us in policy issues, as well as other issues, to assist us in engaging [4:15:48 PM] the community and advising on anti-displacement and equity matters related to project connect. It goes on to explain that the joint powers agreement will further delineate the membership, the rules and the responsibilities. That's what I'm speaking to there. I think that I'm making a commitment, as I know my colleagues feel this way also, but I'm making a commitment to work towards putting the specificity in the joint powers agreement that makes it clear that the community is at the table, that we are listening to the community, and they have a role, and they have an opportunity to hold this implementation accountable for meeting the equity goals that we all have. [4:16:48 PM] And so this language, the creation of a community advisory committee which this language does, is an important step, and the specification that -- in this language that will set forth membership roles and responsibilities in the joint powers agreement, gives us all a path forward to work with the community to specify how this committee will operate, and how it will ensure that there's accountability. >> Okay. If I could -- >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember? >> I want to second the spirit of what councilmember kitchen just said. I want to remind us of a couple of things. Our challenge here is to confront our own history. Though none of us were sitting on council and none of us were [4:17:50 PM] sitting on capmetro's board when a lot of decisions were made that impacted equity in this community, we have to remember what has been done by our bodies. You know, where we put skip one together, skip two, skip three, when we put projects together in 70872. Those projects were sold as affordable housing equity projects for people who lived in those communities. The city participated by purchasing a great deal of land, and investing in smart growth programs. None of those programs produced what they were supposed to produce. When you look at those programs, nobody who went there hoping to lease and buy was able to buy those properties. And we thought they would be affordable over time, they went [4:18:50 PM] to market rate in one generation. We are challenged by our own history. A lot of the people that we talked to today, that we listened to today, they told us a couple of things. Number one, there are still parts of our community that are desperately hurting, because of what's going on with covid. And don't know when they're going to be displaced, whether they're going to be displaced, and they need to be assured by us. And then we had others that said, I want to be a part of the discussion. I want to be a part of what's going on. I want to have a measurable impact in what's going on. I think that we have to find a way to include those voices. Whether those voices come to us in the form of the community group with deliverables, or whether they come to us with an expansion of the atp, it's [4:19:51 PM] important that we understand that people want to be heard and want to be involved with the future of Austin. And we've got -- and though we are ready to go, we've been -- we know that our community needs this. We have to make sure that we are sensitive to the interests of the folks who are going to be impacted by this, who are also going to vote it up or down. So just want to make sure that we are sensitive to making sure that the community is involved, sensitive to making sure that there's a part of the community that is operating in fear because things aren't going great now. And maybe as we talk about how we're moving forward with the budget, how we're investing in this -- in anti-displacement, that we really take the time to make the community feel like they're a part of it. I think that everybody [4:20:52 PM] understands that if we're going to be a truly great city, we're going to have to have an excellent public transit system. And I think it's going to be important for us to explain that we're not only bringing new pieces to the puzzle, but that we are improving existing pieces of the puzzle. Especially those that represent an equity interest for people who use the bus as a car. So I support the general direction that we're taking, but I think that I have a commitment, an important commitment to make sure that the community that trusts me to represent them has their voices heard. So I just want to make sure that we're building in the process to have the voices clearly heard and involved and that they [4:21:53 PM] understand that we're all in this together. >> Mayor Adler: Well said. My personal commitment as well, commissioner. Mr. Stratton? >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Mayor. I wanted to echo what board member kitchen and TRE vin Yo said. In the lath draft released that we saw, I think it was late last night and early this morning of the Ila, the same section 4.7, the very last sentence says straight up, the recommendations made by the committee, and this is, again, the community advisory committee, related to displacement mitigation measures or social equity issues that impact vulnerable populations must -- must -- be considered at a public meeting of the board. That is a -- to me, a very key critical point here that wasn't in the previous draft. [4:22:53 PM] And I realize there were some folks that were very concerned that the latest draft of this came out really late, to hopefully assuage some of their concerns. This has been an ongoing process, ongoing trying to pull it all together. There have been a lot of negotiations behind the scenes. [Lapse in audio] Key language gets in to meet a lot of the concerns specifically of community -- of the community itself. And of the populations involved. I think that right there, I think, is very key. Because that's something that even at capmetro, we've got our advisory committees right now. But at our board meetings, we have the staff member come forward and provide us a report as to what the community service advisory committee and the -- and our -- the access advisory committee had done at their meetings each month. But we are not required [lapse [4:23:56 PM] in audio] Or operating agreements or legally under the transportation code to do anything specific with any of those reports. It's basically, hey, we're just trying to keep you updated and educated on what's going on. This right here is -- has the force of basically saying, and I realize that this Ila is basically a blueprint, and strongly worded recommendations for what we as the city and the capmetro board are telling ourselves going forward that we want to have happen. But this is pretty strongly worded saying that we want the atp, when it's formed, specifically to put in this language that you must, atp board, that anything that the committee comes up with is related to these issues. And I think that's something critic and should not go without notice and mentioning as well. Thanks. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember pool? >> Pool: Thanks, mayor. [4:24:57 PM] I want to weigh in and say, we cannot do this project without the community. And that means hearing the voices and acting on them and considering them, weighing them, and having them be a part of our decision-making. We can't do it without the community. So yes, we will be including the community. We need you. That's the bottom line. We need your voice. We need your involvement. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember Casar? >> Casar: Is this a time to ask questions related to the resolution or are we waiting on that until later? >> Mayor Adler: We're going to do the resolution next. Right now is the Ila, which includes the bylaws and articles of -- >> Casar: Thank you. I wanted to double-check. We heard from speakers who I think understandably were [4:25:57 PM] frustrated for getting things late. It's hard for us, I know it's hard for community members, but I want to tell those folks in the community that you still have our joint powers agreement left as councilmember kitchen mentioned, so places where we need more specificity, or continue to work on this, we absolutely will. Because the concerns folks have raised, are my concerns, are the concerns of both of these bodies, that's why we put together the anti-displacement money that I think is so important for this project. But as we work on details on how to deploy that and how to make this the best project it can be, I think that means we continue to work that's transparent, and I think we'll get the kinds of documents in the kind of time that people need to get that final agreement done. This is just the foundation, but we still have work to do. And I think we're all committed to the level of transparency and community input that people ask for as they testified. [4:26:02 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> Casar: But I do appreciate a lot of the most recent work, and the latest version, so thank you to the staff. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Renteria? >> Renteria: Thank you, mayor. I also agree we need to communicate input, because if we don't have it, it will not pass. And we've got to make a commitment up-front. You know, back in the past when we were having all these skip ones, skip twos, and housing development, the power plant development there, we were just building these houses for these people and selling them to interest-free 80,000 at skip one, 80,000 there around the holly power plant. But then what happened was that we didn't have the tools that we have here. We didn't have the land banking, the [lapse in audio] Preservation. We didn't have those kind of tools. The value of the property in the inner city grew and grew and [4:27:03 PM] grew, your taxes also grew. I was right in the middle of it. You know, my income wasn't more than $50,000 a year, and that's the max I ever made working [lapse in audio]. Every time taxes went up, I cut off giving to the church, giving to a nonprofit, and that's the way I had to survive in the community. And, you know, I was telling people, a lot of these people in the neighborhood here are told to hold on, you're going to have that equity loan so you'll be able to borrow money, and upgrade your houses, because we didn't have the federal money that they were giving out back then. The city of Austin never contributed anything to help out this low-income community. We fought for bond selections, we did a whole bunch to try to help save this neighborhood. And there were no tools. Now we do have these tools. And I can guarantee you that we're going to take advantage of [4:28:03 PM] every tool that we have in our toolbox to guarantee that we're going to build as many affordable units, as funding that we can get. And I know that being on capital metro, with the way that they plan, I mean, it never goes -- projects here lately in the city and metro have never gone overrun at all. We've come either on-budget or under-budget. And I think we've got the best people right now in the city, to get this thing done right, and done the right way. So I'm going to get 100% behind this and support it. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember harper-madison? >> Harper-madison: Thank you, mayor. I was hoping that I caught you all in time. My baby accidentally unplugged the router so I didn't hear a lot of what transpired. I did hear what commissioner [4:29:05 PM] Travillion said, and I wanted very much to echo that sentiment. And that level of commitment. I heard a part of what councilmember kitchen said and I think it was along the same lines as all making that distinct commitment. Just because it is so very important. And I'll say this, you know, we certainly didn't enter into any of this lightly. My team and I, as soon as this sort of got introduced to us, in addition to the transit trips we've been able to make, as councilmembers, I've just been doing a lot of research on my own about transit and mobility, and mobility justice, and the importance of really making that intentional effort and commitment. And so while I can sympathize with some of the sentiment that the people who called in, some of the concerns that they had -- not sympathize, that's the wrong word, I hear you, that's what I'm trying to say. We recognize what the concerns are, and there is no shortage of commitment to making sure we get as close to being able to [4:30:07 PM] accomplish what the goal is and being able to address those concerns, so I can -- for myself, at the very least, and I'm certainly some of my colleagues as well, we make the absolute commitment to not stop until we get as close to right as we can. We just don't want to -- what's that expression about, you know -- oh, perfection being the enemy of progress. You know, I do want to be clear that I don't want to find ourselves in that position. Also, you know, I want to just convey -- and I'm certain -- there's no question about the level of research that's been done on behalf of the community, and advocates. What we are about to do with the $300 million, that's over half a billion dollars. Nobody's ever done that for a displacement mitigation. I just want to make certain that we don't lose sight of just how massive what we're proposing is. It's so big, it's so important. You know, Denver thought they were doing something big when they did, you know, two digits [4:31:09 PM] of affordable housing -- I'm sorry, investment, and displacement prevention and mitigation. And their fund is only even gotten up to 150 million. That's over time. We're starting out at 300 million. Which gives me a lot of confidence and optimism for where we can get to when we continue to work on this. I just wanted to make sure to chime in and say that I also am making that firm commitment to members of our community, to keep listening, to keep getting it as close to right as we can. Like many others, I don't see it as an end-all be-all, I see it as a fluid process, a generational process, that while I have the opportunity to contribute to the policy-making part, I make that commitment. So thank you for recognizing me to speak for a moment. >> Mayor Adler: Yes. Mr. Mitchell? >> Just -- thank you all for your work thus far. I am absolutely in awe of the [4:32:11 PM] way this has come together, and people have created a structure that will allow to grow, will allow to govern. This is a historic time. And I also -- I'm not a politician, but I am a businessman who builds housing. And I -- we have to do this -- this 300 million, every bit of it is going to be needed to preserve housing around these transit stations. It is a known fact in my business that the great majority of people will want to [lapse in audio] Rather than far away. And so part of our task, one is approving this and getting it built. But as a city, we're going to have to plan around these transit stations to increase housing. You're just going to need to think about that. Because if we don't, the demand some day will strip out the supply and will start driving up the prices. And I just want you to be thinking about that, especially in the Greenfield area, it has a bigger chance, but in the infield area it's going to be [4:33:12 PM] harder. But you need to study that and make sure that we are proactive rather than being reactive. And we have a few years to do that, as we plan around it, but it is a critical part of this. It will be a direct unintended consequence if we don't. Thank you, guys, for all of your hard work. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember alter? >> Alter: Thank you. I wanted to just ask a clarifying question so that we're up-front with folks. There's $300 million for mitigation, but that's not $300 million on day one, that's about $100 million every five years, is that correct? In terms of how the model works? Or is it up-front when we're buying land? >> [Lapse in audio] Would you like to handle that? >> Sure, yes, councilmember, this is Greg ka Nally. I think the key part is that the displacement funds are part of [4:34:14 PM] project connect. They're the element to the overall project components. The way we've modeled out to make sure we can build this system and also look at the cash flow on the chart that reinet went through, there's a time frame and a time to continue to that, and we look at the $300 million being spent over the 10 to 13-year period, in about $100 million increment. There's focus early on doing land banking which the city is trying to do elsewhere with its other funds. We know that would be a key fund for the atp to focus on in collaboration with the council and the community. But yes, it is over that period as reinet spelled out >> Thank you for the clarification. And part of the reason that I bring that up is that I want to invite the community, you know, as we have the opportunity to have these community engagement advisory board and planning things out over time, this money [4:35:14 PM] doesn't have to be the only money that the city invests in mitigation around the transit lines. In four years we will have an opportunity to have another bond, and we will be judged by the success of our historic $250 million affordable housing bond. And I just want to invite folks to, you know, work with us towards that goal. We will need to make additional investments above and beyond the $300 million that's spread over the time period for the initial investment, if we really want to accomplish the goals that the community's rightly demanding with respect to affordable housing around the transit lines. So I think it's important that we understand that this is one step that the city is taking, but there are many other things that we are doing to work towards the -- to addressing the displacement. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Colleagues, I would then move to -- councilmember Flannigan? [4:36:16 PM] >> Flannigan: I think we've all got to take a turn, right? I would say at this point, at this stage, we've taken many votes over the last couple of weeks, and years, as the staff laid out, the asmp on the council side and other votes on the capmetro side. This today is another big vote. And next week the council will vote on ballot language. And then the community will vote in November. But as far as this particular vote is concerned, I am really impressed with the way the interlocal agreement and the articles of incorporation and the bylaws sit together in a way that I think is arguably better than any other transit system in this country, in a way that forms a body that will -- in the Austin transit partnership that will both be -- that will both be able to stay above electoral politics cycle to cycle which can be problematic for [4:37:21 PM] investment. [Lapse in audio]. It is an exciting prospect to think that we are saying as elected officials who we have our own process that means we represent the public and there's a lot of conversation about what it means and whose voice is what. But I at least know that when we got elected, we were following the voting rights act and reaching out to the public, and as we engage more members of the community there will be more conversation about whose voices get to be those voices. But at the end of the day, what we're creating is the type of body that will be able to make the best decisions, both the short and long-term, without having to worry about the next political cycle, but also leaning all the way in on what's best for the public, both for those who ride and for those who are paying. It is an exciting prospect. And I want to thank the staff, Randy, your staff, and Gina, and Greg canally, Spencer, your [4:38:23 PM] staff for working through all of the little details and all of the little questions to getting us to a place that I think will be looked back decades from now as having been the strongest position for success that we could possibly have made, given all of the various variables that we're presented with. I'm looking forward to digging into the contract with the voters which is the other vote we have to take today, but I'll say on at least these three documents, I'm proud of the work we have all done. >> Mayor Adler: All right, colleagues. Councilmember kitchen? >> Kitchen: I mentioned that I wanted to just point folks to a couple of other provisions related to the board composition and the board's selection. That's just for clarity, because we're all looking at the documents, and it may not be clear. So in section 1.1.5, where it speaks to the community experts, I want to point to the fact that [4:39:25 PM] the language now says that at the discretion of the nominating committee, city council and capmetro board, alternate forms of experience or qualifications may be substituted. The point there is to give us all the opportunity to appoint the best person. And the flexibility to make sure that we're doing that. I also wanted to point to the fact that there's a number of language additions throughout this that speak to the importance of composition of the board. So on 3.8.2, on page 5, it speaks to nominating individuals that represent our diverse and inclusive community. And then finally when we actually look at the language in the articles of incorporation, on page 3, there's language about -- that the composition of the board and the nomination process and running for the board members needs to consider Austin's diversity, and an [4:40:26 PM] applicant's ability to consider wholly project connect's benefits and potential impacts, particularly on vulnerable communities aimed to be served by transit. And then finally, an additional level of flexibility that's been built in now to the articles is the potential and future years to appoint directors, the city council appointment, and the capital metro appointment could be residents of the city of Austin, or of the capital metro service area respectively. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Thank you. Councilmember alter? And then councilmember Ellis. >> Alter: I just wanted to take a moment, and some of the staff could help me, I think it would be useful to diagram for the public a little bit more what is in the Ila, because we have three parts to the Ila that [4:41:26 PM] we're voting on before we get to the contract of the voters. We have the Ila. And then we have the exhibit "A" which are the articles of incorporation. And then we have the bylaws. I'll take a stab at it, but if somebody else wants to -- it's a confusing document, if someone picks it up and doesn't have the benefit of everything we've been doing. The Ila is an interlocal agreement that is creating the atp, and laying out the purposes of that. And providing some guidance. The articles of incorporation are not yet filed, but will be filed at a later date, and they're saying what the powers of that organization are, and what they are not. And then we have the bylaws which will be the rules of how the board of that is actually functioning. I don't know if there's anything that you want to add to that, but I think it is useful for people to have a sense of what this document is, because it's not something that we do every [4:42:29 PM] day. And I think it helps to understand that there are the next steps of the joint powers agreement which essentially we're agreeing to do the joint powers by six months from -- I guess by June 30th. We are agreeing that we are going to appoint the first couple people to the board for the atp. So this is setting in motion a lot of other things, and is providing us as the people who are voting on it the draft for the articles of incorporation and for the bylaws that would follow within the joint powers agreement. So I don't know if we need to add anything more, I would invite you to do that, but I think it's confusing and I thought that might be helpful to clarify, because it took me a little while to understand it myself >> I can just take a second and say I probably can't describe it better than you just did. So I think you're right, that is not a normal thing that the public is used to, not just the local government corporation, but by statute a joint [4:43:31 PM] government corporation. Hence we have a new funding mechanism, a new partnership model that's pretty innovative. But I think you did a great job of describing that, that yes, today documents are in front of both policy boards to say this is the frame woing, kind of the rules of the record to move forward, a new board would obviously be appointed, the goal is by January 1st to have that done, and filed with the secretary of state, the paperwork to get -- that board would be officially seated and the structure exists when that happens. And then as you mentioned very well, there would be joint powers agreement that we are calling the jpa. Of course, we have to get another acronym in. We have the goal is to have it done by next spring. I think reinet or Greg went over that slide, we'll go to a 300-page [lapse in audio] And the Austin transit partnership. I think you described it well. We're happy -- if there's any [4:44:34 PM] specific questions, we'll jump in if you need any more. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Ellis? >> Ellis: Thank you. I appreciate that clarity. It's always surprising to me when I know people are following our meetings and watching these videos after the fact. They may not know whether they're going to see a lot of debate and discussion, a lot of amendments, a lot of moving parts, or if things are going to have consensus, and I want to share my appreciation for not only my staff, but transportation and finance staff at the city and capmetro, because when we get to places where these documents are hefty, but pretty close to finalized, that's a lot of work that has gone into it. So I want people to -- these documents have been reviewed, and we've had chances to lend our ideas to capmetro and to transportation. When you see things moving forward together in unison, you know a lot of work is going on [4:45:35 PM] behind the scenes, and I just want people to know that's happening and we appreciate all the work that's going into it as well. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember kitchen? >> Kitchen: Yes. Thank you. And thanks for explaining that. I think it can be confusing. So just one other point to make is that the local agreement is an interim document that I think one of you said is the guidance, and says -- dictates what needs to go in the joint powers agreement. It goes away. And the joint powers agreement is the final document with all the details in it that we're agreeing to. And the joint powers agreement comes back to the city council and to the capmetro board as well as the atp board for adoption. So just wanted to make sure people understood that process, and the decision- making for adoption of the joint powers [4:46:36 PM] agreement. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Stratton? >> Thanks, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Chair, I just wanted to add one final note to that. Ultimately this all rests in the hands of our voters. Period. For those who are watching. That what we are doing here is providing extra assurance to the voters that we've got everything laid out and in place so that once the election -- and if we even define it a successful election as it is called in this document we're approng today, the interlocal agreement -- all the moving parts will start moving forward. That's the key to this. This is basically, along with what y'all are doing on the city side and what we're doing on the capmetro side is basically a promise to the voters that, hey, if you guys will authorize this going forward, in the November election, we've got all the pieces in place to make this happen. So thank you for the excellent [4:47:36 PM] explanation. I just wanted to make the final key point there, none of this will go forward, none of this will happen unless the voters authorize it in November. Thanks. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Colleagues, anything else? Looks like no. So we did that last motion last week unanimously. And I think that was an important message to send, and it was reported that way, and I think it was significant, from hearing people's discussion I think we might be in a position to be able to do that here as well. So is there anyone that would not like to participate together as a group in moving the authorization, the execution of the interlocal agreement with capmetro for the creation of the joint and local government for project connect, and include passage of the bylaws [lapse in audio]. Everyone agree with that? [4:48:40 PM] >> I just want to make sure it includes [lapse in audio]. >> Mayor Adler: We're approving all the documents. [Choppy audio] Let's take a vote then. The motion we're making collectively, raise your hand. [Choppy audio] I think that's all 11 of us. And with that, it passes unanimously. Mr. Chairman, I'll turn it over to you for capmetro >> Thank you, mayor. [4:49:40 PM] Congratulations. And thanks to all the councilmembers for your collaboration. [Lapse in audio] We have a motion with respect to the resolution >> Mr. Chairman, I would hereby put forward a motion to form the corporation with the city of Austin [lapse in audio] For project connect. >> Ask for clarification, would you like to do that -- >> Yes, sir. >> Very well. [Lapse in audio] Who object? None? Seeing none up, for clarity and for the record's sake, let's all indicate if we're in favor of the motion by raising our hands and I'll recognize them. Board member kitchen [lapse in audio] Stratton, board member [4:50:46 PM] Mitchell, Renteria and myself. It passes 7-0. Thanks to everybody. What a great moment this is. I remember specifically having a conversation with councilmember kitchen about three years ago, a great seedling of this project connect plan [lapse in audio]. About how in the world are we going to have a project type plan that capmetro and the city both came to agreement on. And here we are, nine meetings later, [lapse in audio] Inspirational that we have done the work in the organization for atp. So I'm super proud of what we've collectively accomplished. And as I've said every time, hat's off to the staff on both [4:51:46 PM] sides. Thank you all. I'm very impressed with what we've done. >> Mayor Adler: This is a historic vote. The next item, we have item 3 on the city council agenda. We'll call it both the city council agenda as well as I think capmetro. We talked about the contract with the voters, or that additional agreement. I don't remember exactly, chair, what it's called on the capital metro side. But we're going to open up the floor for discussion again on both, the same way we did on the Ila. Is there conversation among those present? Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: Yes, thank you, mayor. There's a couple items that I wanted to read. And I don't know if we want to -- yeah, I'll read these [4:52:48 PM] items first. And I want to make sure which document we're voting on. >> (Indiscernible) Resolution 3. >> Kitchen: Yes. Thank you. D-3. We've had some changes to one of the last "Be it resolved" related to the protections. So we can get to that in a minute. But what I want to do for clarity sake, and again, so that people can understand what's in it, as people said, this is a contract with the voters, and it's the promise that we make with the voters about [lapse in audio]. It does speak to additional levels of detail that will be put in the powers agreement, just like the previous document did. I just want to drill down for folks and just specify the [4:53:48 PM] provisions to the process for -- with the community, the creating with the community the strategy around displacement. And so there's a "Be it resolved" on page 7. That's the heart of it in terms of the process. And it's in terms that the joint powers agreement will have a provision that documents the procedure to create neighborhood level tools and strategies with the community. There's a listing of the different kinds of tools and strategies. It's not exclusive. But it's there to give an understanding to folks about -- it would at least include these things. I think it's important for the public to hear it, so if you'll bear with me. It includes construction or development of new affordable housing, preservation, repair and rehabilitation of existing affordable housing, financial [4:54:50 PM] assistance for home ownership, home repair, rental subsidies, right to return, assistance, let's see, and other strategies that build economic mobility opportunities for residents along the transit corridors. So that's language that's in there. It's designed to give at a minimum, and it's other strategies, too. And then that provision goes on to talk about the other -- to specify other provisions that need to be part of the process for creating with the community the displacement strategy. I won't read all of this, but just to tell you the [lapse in audio] First, within six months of voter approval, it will provide a process for creation of neighborhood level strategies, with community members and organizations. Second, create an equity [4:55:51 PM] assessment tool. And the key part of that is to analyze on a neighborhood level what needs to happen, you know, in terms of mitigating the impacts, as well as opportunities for investment, to build economic mobility. Third is, again, creating with the community neighborhood level prevention and mitigation strategies. And then fourth, specifies the professional assistance from the city departments, and I want to note that there's the equity office and sustainability office. And finally in that section is to make publicly available frequently updated performance dashboard to track progress. So basically that talks about getting started quickly, immediately, setting forth the process, and then engaging the community in that process. [4:56:55 PM] I also want to know that one of the things that's really, really critical and important about this process is it has to be proactive, and it has to be done as part of the planning process. For the transportation projects. If it's after the fact, we miss the boat. So there is language in here on page 2 that recognizes in the asmp the policy that we all voted on, on the city council. Austin's strategic mobility plan. That you have to proactively assess displacement impacts of transportation projects. And I'll quote, it is important that we it is important to recognize this fact during the planning phase. So I point that out just to emphasize the fact that what we're doing with this document is about a process for creating with the community neighborhood level strategies and we're saying we're doing that proactively. We're saying we're doing that as part of the planning [4:57:56 PM] process. So that we're not coming in later after the fact to plan. So I wanted to point out those things. And mayor, I don't know if you want to speak to the worker protections that are in draft 3 so that people understand that? >> Mayor Adler: I think the worker protections in draft 3, councilmember kitchen, reflect the ongoing policies that we have in the area, reflects those values and those practices. And I'm glad that this document reflects them as well. >> Mayor and Mr. Chair, one statement that I'd like to make is I would like to take a project management approach to our community efforts as well. It is common to take a project management approach with building anything and I think we only do the things [4:58:57 PM] that we document and measure. So when we put committees in place, when we put processes in place to identify who is going to be there, when people are seated with the expectations of what we need them to deliver back to the community, that we review that and evaluate the actions regularly and document them publicly. I think it will improve the quality of what is returned to our community. And it can be measurable and they can see that the work that they expect is being done. >> Mayor Adler: Well said. Further discussion. Councilmember alter. >> Alter: I was just expecting and appreciate the changes on page 10 with respect to the worker [4:59:59 PM] protections, but I would appreciate it if someone could diagram what change understand this version that we just got to make sure that I'm not missing changes that were made. I wasn't sure if there were changes that were made elsewhere. >> Councilmember, I believe it's only that section. Kerri, if you're able could you go through the changes in that one section, please? >> Hi, councilmember alter, this is carriry butcher. From the version last night the only changes in the worker protection changes, except for a technical correction in the reference to Nepa. >> Great, thank you. Appreciate it. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Councilmember Casar. >> Casar: I want to talk a little bit about jobs and this whole project here in a [5:00:02 PM] second as we pass this contract to the voters. Given that language, I want to ask really two changes, Kerri, that maybe for you or for attorneys. And they're just questions from the community and I think the answers are pretty clear, but I just want to ask them here before we pass it. We talk here about the better builder program or a similar program and a lot of our city documents we use the word comparable, but for me the word similar and the word comparable are about the same thing. It just means this is going to be a multiple decades long project so as things change we're just explaining that these are where we want to go above and beyond and making sure that workers get good jobs, but the word similar -- we just use the word comparable in a lot of our city documents, but similar and comparable generally mean the same thing, right? >> We viewed them as equivalent words. >> And then we have the wage requirements in a later be [5:01:02 PM] it further resolved and then later stuff in the earlier one. So it says, for example, this better builder program that includes things like hiring goals and osha safety training it doesn't include things like wages because we have the wages requirements in the next be it further resolved. But when you read the word includes hiring goals, includes safety training, I read includes as including, but not limited to those things because you have other things in the second be it further resolved. So do you read including hiring goals, including safety as kind of saying including, but not necessarily limited to those worker protections because of course there's others? >> That is correct, those are simply examples. >> Casar: Yeah, exactly. That's how I read it too, but because I got those questions and because they're changing quickly, I wanted to clarify. >> Happy to clarify. >> Casar: Mayor, I'm really supportive of the contract with the voters for a whole host of reasons, but I don't think we've taken that much time on the dais [5:02:02 PM] to talk about the job creation parts of this project, but we are obviously going to be able to move hundreds of thousands of people around carbon-free on electric vehicles. Either rail or on tires throughout the city. And that is the core mission of what we will get when this is done. But in a time where we're seeing a massive economic recession turning into a depression for so many families coming together as cap metro and the city of Austin, probably also with the federal government's investment as well to create thousands of jobs for working class people that will be living wage jobs and some -- lots of higher skill jobs that have higher levels of protection because they're public projects, reflects what the -- what local governments and the federal government did coming out of the great depression with the new deal, except in this case a new deal with fossil fuel-free transportation [5:03:03 PM] along with the affordable housing and investment that we're going to be making as well. So it's something that I think really benefits all parts of the community, but bringing these jobs and not just any jobs, but jobs with protections because it's being funded by our local governments and local leaders is something that's important and I think something we need to talk about. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you, councilmember Casar. There are tons of things about this that I think are pretty historic and quite frankly I think in a lot of ways I've been waiting three decades for this along with a lot of people in community. I spoke about it at length last night. This has traffic benefits and environmental benefits and job benefits. It has equity benefits. As we've gone through this virus in this time we see ever more than anyone could have before, the inequities in our system and in our city and this helps address [5:04:04 PM] some of those, including mobility deserts. Having talked about it so much last night and knowing we'll be back here next week taking the vote that actually puts this in front of the voters, I'm going to hold off until we get to that point. Further discussion, councilmember alter? >> Alter: Thank you. I just wanted to point out a couple of parts that were included in this versus an earlier version that I think is important given the kinds of questions that I've been getting from folks to highlight so one of the things that was added was a whereas clause that commits cap metro and this city to identify and pursue future opportunities, to leverage future state and federal funding for project connect. I definitely think we should [5:05:05 PM] move forward with project connect and we have a solid financing plan, but I'm going to hold out some hope that our state is going to step up and realize that we should be making investments in transit and I hope that, you know, that our state government will recognize that and I believe that the process we have set up here allows us to be able to leverage that and do more with the kinds of things we're trying to do. Related to that there's a be it further resolved on page 6 that has a section that says further, if funding from the city's transfer of the project connect's revenue is needed for additional components of project connect, council contracts with the voters that the project connect tax revenue may be used to fund those additional components. So we're setting out and saying the revenue that we [5:06:05 PM] have we believe should allow us to do the initial investment, but if we're able to leverage those funds or make the dollars go further we'll keep on track for the full system build that we have laid out. Then there's another part, which is another question I get often, which is if we do not realize the federal matching funds, that we are contracting that we will use the project connect tax revenue to fund as much of the initial investment in project connect as possible. And I just want to be very clear that this does not obligate they to take on the obligations of fully funding the rest absent the other funding. It says that we will invest in as much of it as we can get done with the dollars that we've asked for in the tax revenue collection. And I think those are important taken together because they're questions that we get a lot and what I'm really proud about with the plan and all the pieces and all the work that the staff has done is that we [5:07:08 PM] have a financially responsible plan that takes into consideration those things and allows us to grow and invest as our state and federal government further recognize the importance of transit as we have done by having all of these unanimous votes. So thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Any further comments before we entertain a motion. Yes, councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: I have some comments. I was thinking we would make comments after we passed it all or would you prefer that I did now? >> Mayor Adler: I'll give you a chance to make a comment after if you would like. All right, colleagues -- yes, councilmember Flannigan. >> Flannigan: Thank you, mayor. Just very quickly, and councilmember alter I think summed it up well is that the -- there have been a few questions from folks that have come into my inbox about the initial investment and it's all diagrammed in exhibit a that the initial investment is Orange and blue and a few of the metro [5:08:09 PM] rapid lines, that is the absolute first grouping of projects that go and there's no reallocation of that. If there is more, if as which councilmember alter put out, the federal match is higher or we have hopefully new leadership in state government that understand the value of transit and electrified [indiscernible] Or possibly even from ctrma or even the regional partners, that we're also saying we can keep going. But nothing supersedes the initial investment, which is the Orange line and the blue line together. And Randy, will you just confirm that that's true? >> Which part of that statement, councilmember? I just want to -- before I say yes, I want to be sure -- >> Flannigan: The initial investment goes first. Nothing can be superceded. We can do more if there is more, but we've got to build the initial investment first. >> The way you said it is correct, the sequence of the plan listed in the document. [5:09:10 PM] >> Flannigan: Thanks, Randy. >> Mayor Adler: All right, colleagues. Let's see if we can do this again. I think that the will may very well be there to do that. Does anybody object to collectively making the motion to approve the resolution that guides the dedicated tax revenue and the terms to be negotiated in the implementation of project connect for the November 2020 tax rate election. We're not setting that election yet. That will be next week. But these are our commitments to the voters as we move forward in that process. Does anybody want to participate in this motion? It appears that way. That said then, let's go ahead and take our vote to approve, then raise your hand. I see councilmembers Flannigan and kitchen and alter, the mayor pro tem Garza, councilmember Casar, councilmember tovo, [5:10:12 PM] councilmember pool, harper-madison, Ellis, Renteria, and myself. I count the entire council. This then passes unanimously as moved by the council in its entirety. Mr. Chair, I move it over to you for your cap metro deliberation. >> >> Congratulation, mayor and councilmembers. What a great step forward for our community. Board members of cap metro, we're posted, of course, for action on a resolution relating to guidance on funding and commitments by cap metro to the terms of an interlocal agreement to be negotiated for the implementation of project connect. And just by way of summary, in this resolution we make financial commitments to the community and to the city with regard to a future funding from our sources and from federal sources of funds that we anticipate [5:11:14 PM] being the applicant, as well as commitments related to provisions of the joint powers agreement. So our motion for the benefit of those watching, closely mirrors, but is different from the city's motion. It mirrors the city motion on a number of terms related to future drafting of the joint powers agreement. It's different from the city motion in that we're committing our own dollars to project connect into the future. So member Stratton? >> I wanted to point out one key clarification and difference between the two that applies directly to us in addition to -- cap metro, in addition to what you said, Mr. Chair, related to the financing. It's that very final resolved clause, be it further resolved that the service provided by project connect is intended to be additive to existing local and regional bus and metro access service and capital [5:12:15 PM] metro will not reduce service hours to support project connect. And this document is our commitment to our riders and to the public in general that while we are doing this and while we may be forming this separate entity atp, we as the members of capital metro board of directors and the responsibilities we have to run the existing bus and rail service, metro access service, is not changing, will not go away. That is still one of our primary commitments to the public and to the riders of our transportation system. >> Thank you, member Stratton. Any other cap metro board members wish to be heard on this item? Commissioner Travillion. >> I'll reiterate what my colleague said, that certainly bus services will [5:13:15 PM] not be diminished, they will be expanded on the basis of equity that we are talking about improving the system for all parts of town. And the equity is the cornerstone of what we're after. So I just wanted to say that I agree with my colleague. >> Thank you, commissioner. Any other comments from cap metro board members? Very well then, I want to move approval of the resolution relating to guidance on funding and community commitments by cap metro in the terms of an interlocal agreement to be negotiated for the implementation of project connect and I elect to do that by acclamation. Are there any of the capital metro board members that object to this being by acclamation? Seeing none, I'll ask then that we vote on it and just for the record if you'll raise your hands and I'll call out names. [5:14:17 PM] I've got councilmember kitchen, councilmember Casar, member Stratton, commissioner Travillion, councilmember Renteria, and myself cooper. Motion carries. And I'm sorry, member Mitchell late on video. And cooper. So motion carries by acclamation by a vote of 7-0 # thank you all very much. As I said earlier, this is a super historic occasion and these two votes, I talked last week about getting engaged. We've put in place the prenup with the Ila. We've created a roadmap as well as a specific structure with articles and bylaws that will define this independent board that we heard from our consultants as best practice. And as we go forward I hope we will hold ourselves to [5:15:19 PM] excellence best practices because we're now in the big leagues. This ought to be a world class project. We ought to be dealing with the best vendors, the best construction companies, the best engineers in the world, and we need to have a governance system equal to that task and equal to the expectation in our city that all voices are heard as we develop this project for everybody. So this is a huge step forward as we've all talked about with the joint powers agreement. There's a lot of hard work to be done between the independent body, the city and our board, lots of details, and there's a small thing of an election that we need to get through. So we need to persuade our fellow citizens that we've taken this in the right path. I'm really proud of what we have accomplished in nailing down this structure and providing a pathway to go forward. Once we get past the [5:16:20 PM] election, there's still work to be done and I'm going to ask Greg if you want to spend a few minutes talking about next steps for us. And we'll have some final comments. >> Thank you, chair cooper. I'll ask others to chime in as well. I realize the momentous votes that you just took and thank you for all the support you've given us over these meetings and the months to get you and the community here. Chair cooper as you said, now is, and the mayor mentioned, next week the city will go through its budget processes of adopting a tax rate and also as part of its normal ordering of an election, putting tax rate election ballot language on as well. After that the community will go forward on a vote [5:17:20 PM] and I think as was mentioned several times that is in the language of the Ila and other areas, that upon successful vote of the citizens of Austin, one of the tasks that is outlined in the interlocal agreement is for the process to formally nominate a board to stand up the Austin transit partnership by January 1st so the work can begin in earnest. And I think that would be one of the key things post election that that work of the Ila laid out. A few more things, I think [indiscernible]. We will let that vote happen and let the citizens have their voice in that. Randy, if you have anything to add. >> I think you did a great job on that, Greg. Thank you. >> Thank you, Greg, thank you, Randy. City manager cronk, any other comments you would like to make. >> Just that this [5:18:21 PM] collaboration between the city and capital metro is unprecedented. I really thank our staff and more importantly our elected officials in our community for getting us to where we are today. Thank you. >> Thank you, manager. Assistant city manager fin DACA, would you like to make any further comments? >> Yes, chair cooper. Just a debt of gratitude to mayor Adler, our council, your board for really providing us with the opportunity to do this great work on your behalf. So much has been said already, but really a final recognition for Randy and the capital metro capital team. True professionals really to work with. I can't say enough about the team on the city of Austin side, really put their heart and soul into this on your behalf. Am pleased with the products that we've presented with you today and really there's no I in team and really that's exactly how we approached this. So thank you so much. [5:19:23 PM] >> Thank you. President Clarke, any final thoughts? >> Yes, thank you, chair. Everyone knows I talk a lot. Today I actually made a couple of notes, but I will keep it short. I want to make a couple of notes because it is such a momentous day and I want to make sure I mention a couple of people specifically. But 883 days ago I started this job at cap metro. Not that I'm counting. And during the hiring process the board gave me a clear mandate to develop a data driven community supported plan. And I feel really good about where we are today. It's been a long, long process, a lot of you have given an enormous amount of time and I thank you for that. We've gone to different cities to do due diligence. We've had independent peer reviews. We've engaged over 60,000 people. I think over 300 events across the community. This partnership that you've all talked about is [5:20:24 PM] innovative. The funding model we've put together is innovative and new. And the plan that we have is like really transformational for the future of this city. And I feel very fortunate to have been given this opportunity to be the cap metro CEO at this pivotal time. I want to thank Spencer. He's been a great ally and partner. He and I got here right around the same time and I remember our first conversation about this. And I appreciate all his partnership and collaboration. I want to personally thank the chair. He's put a lot of time, both as daa and at cap metro, volunteer position that I probably take more time of him than his actual day job. I thank all the board members who put so much time into the organization, again voluntarily because you care about your community. Mayor, council, you are being pulled in a million directions, not just the last couple of months, but all the time for what we do, and you've always been there, always willing to have a phone call, an email, you really care and trying to move this forward and I [5:21:24 PM] really appreciate that. I want to thank the community for their engagement, specifically members of like the -- the can and now the can, the community advisory committee, the urban access committee, planning commission, all those community groups that actually put their two cents into this plan, advanced that and including a lot of individuals that spoke today that had an important role in not just the plan, but the documents today. I want to do a special thank you to the staff and all the consultants that put literally thousands of hours into this program. I can't overstate the thousands of hours they put in. And that's all the cap metro staff and all the city staff that was involved. I want to call a couple of names specifically for their public recognition. And on the city's side, Gina, couldn't get a better partner. My bean town partner right there. She's been fantastic. Greg canal I will, who you've all seen. Cheyenne, Chloe, Ashley. [5:22:25 PM] They have literally put all their blood and effort into this and I want to let them know how I appreciate it. Reinet, Jackie, Brian, Chris, Kerri, who had to endure floods and a whole bunch of stuff in the last week and still worked until midnight doing documents. Sorry that took a little bit. I wanted to publicly recognize all those people throughout this long process and I'll turn it back to you, chair. Thank you all very much. >> Well said and well deserved. Mayor Adler, any final thoughts or comments for us? You're muted. >> Mayor Adler: We had promised councilmember kitchen she could say a word so let me go to her first. If you still want to do it. >> >> Kitchen: You're welcome to go first, mayor, if you want. >> Mayor Adler: Go ahead. >> Kitchen: Okay. Well, you know, we've talked [5:23:26 PM] a lot today. So I just wanted to say a few things in closing here. You know, I think for me I'm really excited about this because I think it's really about building a better future for Austin? And by that I mean it's really what I see as our first truly comprehensive transportation plan and I'm glad to be in a position now where we can offer that to our voters. We can offer something to our community that I think that is trying to help people in their daily lives, whether that's getting to work or the grocery store or just going around time or just finding a safe and easy way to get home. So I'm proud to be able to offer them something that I think is of huge value. So the other thing I want to say is that from my perspective really also it's about building back and building back better after [5:24:27 PM] covid because I know we are going to get past this and we are going to beat covid and there will be life after that. And when we do, we're going to need a real transportation system that eases congestion because we don't want to go back to the past. We don't want to go back to being stuck in traffic as we were in the past. And also to the inequities of our mobilities, our transportation system that we are understanding better and better. So we don't want to go back to that. And you know, also as essential workers have taught us during this pandemic, we really must redouble our efforts to make sure that we are working for the entire community and that we have transportation that works for everybody because as a community, we need everybody. This is about taking care of the people -- of the people investing in the people and [5:25:28 PM] the city that we all love. So [indiscernible] We have all been talking about today. One -- a necessary, critical, very important way that we're going to do this and what is important to all of our work now is investing in equity. We've talked a lot about that today, about affordable housing, about other approaches to mitigating displacement and investing in our communities. And that's all about helping people and businesses stay in the community. An then I just want to highlight something that I think reinet said. I think we all have a duty and we recognize that community and I will recommit to that duty to do the best I can to really make good on the fact that we have to create equity, we have to recognize equities on our core principle. And as she said that will [5:26:29 PM] help us do better. So finally, as I said before, I view this, I'm excited about it because I think we're building a better future in Austin for everyone. And I really hope that between now and November we can have those conversations with our community and I hope that our community will join us in supporting this transportation plan. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Thank you. Mr. Chair, just real briefly -- mayor pro tem Garza. >> Garza: Thank you, mayor. I wanted to extend a thank you to everyone that's been involved in this process. I know it's been a really hard process. And I wanted to, you know -- I know there are a lot of people in our community and everybody has touched on this, but specifically wearing my hat representing a district that has often felt left out of many plans and I know that many of them [5:27:33 PM] feel that way now. And I just want to emphasize that this is just an initial investment and that it's going to take additional investments. And I also want to -- I'm grateful to be part of the community and we've seen it time and time again how we really do change our modes in many ways when needed. I remember when president Obama was in town and we were expecting really bad traffic and the mayor put a call out and it was -- you know, we wish we could have done that everyday. And just for -- in this situation that we're in how we've come together as a community and flattened the curve and seen how changing and working together is really saving lives. And even now as running errands people think there's no traffic now. There's still been traffic. I've been out there going to city hall and having to run some errands and there is still traffic even now as [5:28:33 PM] most people are home. So I want the community to know that it's called a mode change for a lot of ways. It's a culture change too. I remember telling president Clarke the story of me putting my bike for the first time on the 801 and I hope nobody ever finds that video because it's hilarious. I didn't know what I was doing. I would never have done that if I wasn't a board member. So it's going to take us having those kind of embarrassing moments and trying out transit and we're doing it for each other. So those of us close to the lines, we have to change our culture and use it because those of us who aren't close to the lines that means less traffic for them. So it means all these little changes we can make as a community that makes us all better and it is just an initial investment and future councils will be back for more, but that's just the nature of how these things work, but I'm very [5:29:34 PM] excited about this great opportunity in front of us. And of course, we'll be a big proponent when we win the election. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> I'll tell the board member I have that video in archive if she ever wants it. [Laughter] >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Chair, so I just want to thank everybody who was involved and too city manager, president Clarke. I especially want to thank chair cooper. You've done just a phenomenal job, I think, of leading both organizations through the nine community meetings that we've had together, and there's been something that has felt uniquely special about having the governing board of two entities meeting together and deliberating this way. And I just think that's an absolutely wonderful example and something that we should be working to and aspiring to be able to be on the dais together with colleagues [5:30:36 PM] like commissioner Travillion, county government and city government and capital metro board together has been truly remarkable and special. And then all the staffs that have been so involved in this. You know, today we're another step closer to Austin finally having a rapid transit system that reduces traffic and improves carbon emission and helps us to become the city that we aspire to be. We did two things today that were really important. We formalized our collaborative effort to create the Austin transit partnership, an independent body with a mission to oversee and implement the construction of the project connect rapid transit system. And then we adopted a resolution, a contract with voters making commitments on how we'll implement project connect in a way that really reflects our city's values and priorities. We outlined real meaningful investments, including [5:31:37 PM] $300 million for affordable housing and other attendant displacement strategies to ensure equitable outcomes. Next week, as part of adopting the council budget, hopefully we could take the final step to give voters a chance to vote on project connect in November so I urge everybody to stay tuned for August 12th. And then I would just say that, you know, after decades of delay, millions of conversations that I've had about traffic, as have we all, a heritage of environmental protection, the last several months have pointed us to supporting all in our community, especially our essential workers, a special need for jobs as we move out of the virus. I conclude my saying we need transit now. Mr. Chair? >> Thank you so much, mayor. Thanks for the kind words. It's been a special opportunity to collaborate [5:32:37 PM] in the way that we have and I hope that history will record that in this collaboration, we've set a new benchmark the way governments ought to work in our region. I hope that we will continue to hold ourselves to this high standard of excellence and collaboration as we go forward. This is a long steeple chase. We've gotten across a couple of the hurdles. We have a lot more to go. And our pledge to you all we will not slow down. We've got elections to go out and win. We have a board to recruit. We have community input to receive, we have a joint powers agreement to negotiate and then hopefully some time in the not too distant future we'll see shovels in the ground laying some track. So I'm gratified, I'm thankful and hopefully our staff will take the weekend off. Homes won't get flooded, [5:33:37 PM] babies won't cry and councilmembers and board members and presidents won't be calling. So thank you all. And unless we have any further business, our cap metro board will stand adjourned at 5:35. >> Mayor Adler: And Mr. Chair, the Austin city council meeting also adjourned at 5:35. Thank you. >> Thank you everybody. Have a good weekend. [5:34:45 PM]