City Council Work Session Transcript – 10/12/2021 Title: City of Austin Channel: 6 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 10/12/2021 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 10/12/2021 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. [11:03:09 AM] >> Mayor Adler: Ok. I'm going to go ahead and call to order the work session of the Austin city council here on Tuesday, October 12, 2021. The time is 11:03. We have a quorum present. Um ... Colleagues, the first thing we're going to do is take care of the one action item we need to take care of relative to the election. It is a housekeeping matter. We have to get that done. Then we'll ask if there are any pulled items or things that are coming up on Thursday that people need to address or talk about. At this point, I'm unaware of anything that we have pulled in that regard. But I'll call for that. When we're done with that, we're going to go into executive session. We're going into executive session to make sure that we talk about the two items that [11:04:13 AM] may very well be timely for us that we need to take and consider in case someone wants to take action this week on those things. That would be e3 and e4. Then at the end of the executive session on those two items, we'll have -- we'll take a look at the clock. We have a presentation on the lgbtqia+ report. That will allow 60 minutes for. 30-minute presentation, 30-minute discussion. The presenter, the third- party facilitator in that process needs to leave city hall here at 2:00. So no later than 1:00, we will call that item. To have that 60 minutes. We can certainly call it sooner if time allows for us to do that. [11:05:15 AM] And then we have an additional presentation to get on music and entertainment funding programs. I had asked that to be put on the agenda because I had a question about the live music fund. That I just wanted to air for colleagues because I'm -- it's given the open meeting rules, it is not something I could directly address with you guys otherwise. And we also have an additional executive session item on cybersecurity. And we have a 5:00 hard stop. The reason I'm taking it in this order is from the comments that I got from people saying hey, let's call up earlier the things that are really timely that we have to act on during the week so that we're not finding ourselves pulling up those items at 4:00 and then we're rushing through them and we're tired. [11:06:17 AM] So without objection, we're going to follow generally that order all the while looking at the clock and we can adjust as we need to. Council member pool. >> Pool: Did you mention the other item in item 4, the executive session. >> Mayor Adler: Yes those are items that are timely, 3 and 4. We'll do those right after this poverty part. >> Pool: Ok. I think I mentioned to you yesterday that I will have to leave about 3:45. Thanks. >> Mayor Adler: Ok. Colleagues, let's begin with the action item that is in front of us. It is on our agenda as item -- action item number 1 from law. It is to prove an ordinance amending an ordinance related [11:07:18 AM] to the election in November, housekeeping matter making corrections, changes. Is there a motion to approve item 1? The mayor pro tem makes the motion, is there a second to the motion. Council member Renteria seconds. Any discussion on this item? Hearing none take a vote. Those in favor of passage of item 1, raise your hand. Those opposed. Council member Kelly you are -- I don't know if you are in the doctor's chair or not. It is a unanimous, yes vote from council member Kelly. That makes it a unanimous vote with council member Casar off the dais. All right. That is our action item. Do we have any pulled items for us to consider? [11:08:20 AM] I'm unaware of any. Council member tovo. >> Tovo: Mayor I neglected to pull items I wanted to discuss, likely the staff aren't Teed up to do that. I will signal what they are. I did have an opportunity to meet with our economic development staff about the wayfinding system and I want to ask our manager if there are any updates. I know I encouraged them to look at ways to phase that project so we can move forward with, you know, especially signage for the Mexican American cultural heritage district. Two years ago, my staff forwarded on to economic development staff the work that the community had done to identify at least a first pass of sites that could be on that signage. So that work is -- we do have identified sites from the community that could be in that first wave of signage. And really don't require an [11:09:21 AM] extensive community stakeholder process. >> Mayor Adler: Council member tovo which item number is this. >> Tovo: I need somebody to help me out with that. If there is an update to get at some point today whether there were any possibilities for that phasing or after our meeting, if staff are able to identify some faster paths, that would be really helpful. The other item I've been tracking is the Lincoln property management contract. At the least meeting I requested this be postponed and ask questions. We did get a memo this morning that I haven't had an opportunity to read because we have been in this meeting. It does have additional information. I want to signal I may have follow-up questions after I peruse and absorb that info. >> Mayor Adler: Manager I don't know if you can pull that up or get somebody up to speak to it. [11:10:25 AM] Kathy let us know if you have the Lincoln property issue. Council member alter? >> The wayfinding item is 31. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Any other things pulled? All right. What we'll do now is go into executive session to take up -- I'm going to list all three items so we have the opportunity to do that in executive session should council decide it wishes to do that. So I'm going to call pursuant to fif 06 and 55809 pursuant to government code discussion regarding e2. I'm not sure if we will get to that in this first executive session, but we will at least cover the next two items, pursuant to 55071 and 55072 of city code we'll discuss real estate issues and real estate [11:11:25 AM] matters related to e3. And pursuant to 55071 of government code discuss legal issues related to e4. Um, which council member pool is the city's agreement with Austin pets alive. E1 is withdrawn. So not on this call. Without objection, then, we're going to go into executive session on the items announced. It is right now 11:11. Let's take five minutes to work our way back to the office. We'll do executive session entirely by remotely. Per our custom and practice. We'll see you all in five minutes. [Executive session] [11:13:51 AM] [Executive session]. [1:04:13 PM] >> Tovo: Give me just two seconds. I think we're waiting on one more. >> Ellis: I see you council member tovo, thank you. If we have one more person confirmed, I can get us started with the presentation. [1:06:08 PM] I see the mayor pro tem is joining us. Are you there? Welcome, mayor pro tem. And I am joined here on the dais I'm council member Ellis. I will steer this work session while the mayor is off the dais. I'm joined by the city manager Thomas and others. In closed session we discussed real estate matters related to item e3. We have not taken up e2 or e4. And e1 was withdrawn. Without further ado, I will turn it over to Spencer cronk for the lgbtqia+ quality of life study. >> Thank you council member Ellis and good afternoon council, this item includes briefing and discussion on the final report on the lgbtqia+ quality of life study. [1:07:10 PM] The lesbian, gay, transgender, queer intersects community is estimated to constitute the third highest percentage of a major metropolitan area. This is conducted through the equity office presents findings derived from community stakeholder engagement and hma's recommendation spanning seven quality of life outcome areas. Each recommendation is further aligned with the outcome of sd2023. Introducing hma will be Neal F. One of the city attorneys and one of the liaisons to the lgbtqia+ quality of life commission. Neal worked with the equity office and consultants during the study. I will turn it over to Neal. >> Good afternoon, my name is Neal F., my pronouns are he, him, thank you for having me here this afternoon for this presentation. We're happy to share with you [1:08:13 PM] the results of the comprehensive study of the lgbtqia+ quality of life and in conjunction with national coming out day recognized yesterday. In 2007, the council created and appointed members to the lgbtqia+ quality of life advisory commission. As the commission began work they realized there was not data available to them on the lgbtqia+ community in Austin on which they could base policy recommendations for council. They identified an opportunity within the city to first, begin collecting demographic census style-type information and to conduct an intersectional analysis of the lgbtqia+ community. In 2018, council approved $200,000 in funding for this study and in 2019, commissioners began work with the equity office to put the vision into reality. From the beginning, the commission wanted a study based in equity and focused on [1:09:14 PM] the lived experiences of lgbtqia+ individuals. Commissioners began their work by attending the city's undoing racism training and conducted a day-long retreat with the equity office to determine a scope of their work. This work recognized the power present within the community and sought to center the voices of queer people of color, a group you will see from the presentation that often bears a disproportionate burden of negative outcomes in our community. Hma community strategies was selected as the consultant in 2019 and began work in early 2020 as we entered the pandemic. The briefing represents years of planning and months of focused community outreach. I want to acknowledge the work of the equity office, especially Joshua Robinson and commissioners Melissa Taylor, canoe K. And charl Murray in their work on the project. I will hand it over to Charles Robbins from hma community [1:10:15 PM] strategies for the presentation. >> Thank you for the privilege to be here. I'm delighted to preside -- or present the information from our study. I'm going to try to do this quickly because I know your time is really important today. So let's dive in. I'm Charles Robbins. My pronouns are he, him. I'm a principal with health management associates community strategies. We're a national consulting firm, steeped in health and human service organizations. Ok. It's not working. Next. This is our team, the research team consisted of five individuals. Next. And we want to also give acknowledgment to the equity office for their support of the project. [1:11:16 PM] Next. And the commission. And all of their participation and support throughout the project. Next. We engaged community partners. This was a really important part of being able to conduct a research study, so these partners came together to help promote the study as well as help us to identify individuals to participate in some of the community engagement activities. So we engaged the research advisory board as well, these were volunteers to provide feedback and guidance throughout the project. The application process was widely promoted. We received 35 applications and 11 finalists were chosen. And of those finalists, 73% identified as people of color. And 45% identified as [1:12:18 PM] transgender. The advisory board met four times at key stages during the project. And they were provided a thousand dollar stipend for their participation for the four meetings. This gives you the photographs of this diverse group of volunteers who supported the effort. I want to just take a moment, because you will hear me reference some of these terms and it is really just important for context setting. You know what the acronym for lgbtqia, but I want to explain intersects which is a general term used for a variety of conditions which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual autonomy that doesn't seem to fit typical definitions of female or male. You will hear us talk about [1:13:19 PM] sogi. Sexual orientation and gender identity. And I want to give a little context about gender identity or expression. These are internal expressions of one's gender how one identifies or expresses one's self. Cis gender, I was born male, that is what was assigned to my birth certificate and I identify male. Transgender is a person whose current identity differs from the sex they were assigned with at birth. And gender expansive is a term that we use to express identity along the entire gender spectrum that could include gender queer, gender nonconforming, nonbinary, nongender, two spirit. Finally prep. Prep is a medicine that people take at risk for HIV to prevent from getting HIV from sex or injection drug use. [1:14:20 PM] So a little background. As mentioned previously, there was no official citywide data collection effort to understand the community. And this is really important point. Official demographic data definitions do not typically account for sexual orientation and gender identity. The twin public health emergencies really underscored the fundamental need to reconceptualize the meaning of community and quality of life. And of significant note, people of color represented 43% of the individuals who completed the survey, which I'll talk about during the time of when there was growing mistrust of government institutions. So we're really proud of that. The study was centered in equity, a key component of it. And it really represents the underpopulated populations, [1:15:22 PM] so we have gender expansive populations, lbgtq youth and older adults. This was conducted during a pandemic and racial unrest so that presented many challenges. In normal research we would do a lot of things in person so we had to pivot. Our methodology, we utilized the world health organization domains quality of life. We adapted a framework that was developed by habitat for humanity. We identified seven outcome domains and that was through community input. They decided what those seven domains we would focus on. We utilized a mixed methods community-based participatory research approach. And for our qualitative data we had 30 key stakeholder interviews. We held two community town halls that were virtual, there were a total of 152 [1:16:22 PM] participants. There were four focus groups that consisted of 38 participants that included African- American, asian-american, older adults and transgender individuals. And that were a lot who attended the older adults and gender transformation. You will see this as an appendix. So our quantitative data included 156 questions online survey. We were able to obtain 249 completed responses. The average duration was 30 minutes and it was available in print and in the threshold languages. So it was available online and you could also request a [1:17:23 PM] print version of it. It represented 89 zip codes in these five counties. So let's talk a little bit about the lbgtq population in the United States, Texas and Austin. So the Williams institute is a think tank out of UCLA and the total U.S. Population is lbgtq. Now, in Texas they estimate that only 4.1 percent of the total population is estimated to be lbgtq, however in a 2020 study they looked at the Austin, Georgetown, Round Rock population area and saw it has a higher population of lbgtq people of nine% or [1:18:24 PM] 90,000 individuals. And thus metro Austin is home to the third largest percentage of lbgtq people in the country and that's behind the bay area and Portland. So with a total population of almost 2.3 million in the greater Austin area, between 100,000 and 118,000 are lgbt. So we came up with a definition of quality for life and this was also based on the world health organization. Quality of life is the general well-being of individuals in societies outlining negative and positive features of life, consist of the expectations of an individual or society for a good life, and these expectations are guided by the values, goals and social cultural context in which we live. These are the domains that [1:19:25 PM] were selected for the focus of the study. So community and social connectedness, economic opportunity and work, education opportunity and access, health, housing, personal safety and social and public services and benefits. And out of that we created -- it not working. Can you hit next for me? There we go. We developed our rainbow of outcomes. So as you can see from this diagram we provided definition for each of the domains that we worked on and then worked with our research advisory board to describe what a sense of community is, social infrastructure, social cohesion and collective action. All of that leads to the residents, the community [1:20:27 PM] organizations and government, which in the middle are the gifts, dreams and concerns of the lgbt community. So community survey, this was a really impressive response and I'm happy to say that 43% of people of color participated in the survey. And as you can see with the graphs there was equal disbursion of different gender identities as well as sexual orientation of all the respondents. What was interesting was that nine percent of the individuals identified as intersex and most population, amnesty international estimates that about two percent of the world is intersex, so there was a high participation of intersex individuals in this study. So these are the key themes and I always want to start with the things that are positive about the community here. It vibrant. [1:21:28 PM] So we estimate it to be about 100,000 to 118,000 individuals with many influential organizations and activities that I'm sure you all are very aware of. The study found that there is a high degree of acceptance by chosen family and friends. Two-thirds of the respondents indicated a high satisfaction of overall quality of life and three-quarters, which is really impressive, feel their life is meaningful. There's a great desire and need a community center led by community members that provides a safe space for people to convene with their chosen family. These are -- the other thing that we looked at, societal stressors, structural racism and discrimination impact the quality life for members in the community. Half reported the diagnosis [1:22:28 PM] of neuro divergence, so anxiety, depression, PTSD, ADHD. Increased living and housing costs are a concern, gentrification and poor public transportation also impact quality of life and drive racial and ethnic disparities. Four of five respondents believe racism is a public health crisis, half knew someone in Austin who experienced a physical threat or attack and half reported experiencing verbal abuse or harassment in Austin because they're lgbtqia plus. It's challenging for the lgbt community here and the organizations to bridge social, racial and socioeconomic divides that are within the community. So there was recognition and a need to address racism within and outside the queer community with more thought [1:23:28 PM] and intention. It was noted that it's not always us versus them. A need to lift and invest in smaller and less influential organizations, and that was through our power analysis, that provided services exclusively on behalf of queer people of color. There's a need for more intentional investment of queer people of color and trans gender individuals and community building and organizing. Another theme that arose, there's a need for high quality affordable, culturally responsive integrated health care and the questions in our survey included sexual health, emotional health and physical health. Most respondents worried about their health. There's a need for more culturally responsive and gender affirming providers. 41% of the respondents did not share their lgbt [1:24:30 PM] identity with their provider. It was kind of astounding to find that 41% aren't even out to their health care provider. 19 response of the respondents had never heard of prep and there is an increased of health care literacy in community and a need for substance abuse disorder harm reduction strategies, really alarming. Of 141 respondents who indicated they had injected drugs, 80% of those shared needles or injection equipment. And we know that hepatitis C can be shared with needles. 12%, another alarming statistic of respondents, had thoughts of suicide. Personal safety and intimate partner violence are also issues highlighted which are [1:25:33 PM] a concern, so personal safety. Only six percent indicated a high degree of acceptance in schools. Sexual abuse and harassment of prevalent within community. One more if you could click it. Nearly half experienced verbal abuse or harassment from strangers, and queer people of color, youth and trans gender expansive individuals are disproportionately have experienced negative interactions with law enforcement. 41% are somewhat uncomfortable or very uncomfortable seeking help from the police. Community members seek affordable housing, economic stability, access to education and equal rights. Affordable housing and economic opportunity ranked as the most important areas of concern. Two- thirds report spending 30% or more of their monthly income on housing and [1:26:34 PM] 17 percent report spending more than 50% of their income on housing. 10% reported currently being or having experienced homelessness. And over half reported some level of financial difficulty. 11% experienced significant financial difficulties when completing the survey. This was important finding. Protecting trans gender and gender expansive people from discrimination in hiring and at work was ranked as the most important policy priority for the city of Austin. So there are a segment of community members that are systemically more affected by social structures, barriers, lack of security and health care access. People of color, gender [1:27:34 PM] expansive individuals have greater disparities. Transgender people of color experience the highest burden of that disparity. So we came up with some recommendations and as mentioned they do align with the city's strategic direction. In the plan, in the report, each recommendation actually lists the specific strategies that are in alignment. So our overall recommendations, number one, enhanced sexual orientation and gender identity data collection. Develop affordable housing opportunities. Address health disparity and create a pipeline of culturally competent providers who reflect the community. Lied with anti-racist -- lead with anti-racist policies, and strategies. Bolster support for queer [1:28:36 PM] people of color. Prioritize the needs of transgender and gender expansive individuals and invest in the establishment of an lbgtq community center in Austin. There are 314 community sisters centers in the United States and the url there is the lgbt center's association. These are just a few pictures. So Houston, Dallas, Tulsa. And then las angles which is the largest community center. When we look at a domains there's some key recommendations. So for diversity, equity and inclusion, you know, continue to center equity in all policy and financial resource allocations and be inclusive of the lbgtq community. Continue to provide representation and [1:29:36 PM] visibility of people of color within city government and enforce and hold agencies accountable to the mayor's mandated training, undoing racism. For community and cultural connectiveness, empower and provide resources for the lbgtq commission to bring and convene lgbt organizations and stakeholders together in workshops and town halls. We heard that the constituents that we interviewed either if they were in the focus group or if they were part of our key stakeholder interviews, they were really delighted to be asked to be a part of something. And so that kind of momentum could continue. Form a gender and transgender office through the office of the mayor. For economic opportunity provide low cost loans or grants to lgbt [1:30:38 PM] entrepreneurs. Increase the minimum wage to a wage where all people, I will say, can not only survive, but thrive. And enact employment non-discrimination ordinances with really strong, clear personalities and robust enforcement for those violations. For health, fund transgender health care that is accessible, especially for youth. And prioritize and really align your policies with the HIV planning council's integrated HIV prevention and care plan. And I say that because we saw the high number of individuals and harm reduction strategies that need to be implemented. And develop a pipeline, you know, like internships, and establish financial incentives to really attract lgbtqia plus Asian, black and hispanic health care providers to the city of [1:31:38 PM] Austin. Housing. And I'm sure you've heard this in many of your meetings. Increase awareness and access to rental assistance programs. Create a plan that supports and invests in developing housing inventory and protects and incentivizes black and hispanic-owned businesses. Investigate and review all contracts to long-term use of public land. Invest in the building of low and middle income housing and divesting from luxury developments. And then, enforce housing non-discrimination ordinances with stronger penalties for violations. And then for safety, changing policy and focusing on models that provide a broader range of social response. Create a cadre of community liaisons for the Austin police department that represent the community, especially black, Latino, Asian and other [1:32:39 PM] subpopulations. Mandate ongoing lbgtq cultural competency training that addresses stigma, implicit bias and racism for APD and all public safety personnel. And also advocate -- this is something the city could do is advocate for a state law that would ban the use of the gay panic or trans panic defenses. And that concludes the presentation. I'm happy to entertain any questions. >> Mayor Adler: Council member, thank you for taking over. Colleagues, questions on the presentation? Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: Yes. Thank you so much for doing this work. It's very helpful and long overdue. So a question that I have, [1:33:39 PM] you mentioned -- I'm curious thinking about the data collection. You had mentioned I think it was 10% of folks had been homeless at one point. And I don't know if you've looked at this, and maybe councilmember tovo would know the answer, but I'm curious whether our echo dashboard captures demographic information and information related to gender in this way? Do you know, councilmember tovo, if they do? Actually, I'm not sure if our consultants would know that. >> I don't know what that effort is. I don't know if sogi is included in that. >> Kitchen: Yes. Echo is our community collaborative that is charged with tracking information related to homeless individuals and services provided to homeless individuals. And they've got a dashboard. [1:34:40 PM] And they collect data so that you can stratify how we're doing as a community along different lines and different populations that we're serving. So I will do some checking on that unless councilmember tovo already knows. >> Tovo: I think the answer is yes and I think they collect some of that data as part of the point in time count too. I'm trying to double-check my memory by looking at their side but I believe some level of that is definitely collected in the tonight in time data as well as in other data. >> Kitchen: Okay. The 10% seemed like a very significant number so we would want to circle back around when we're talking about services for people experiencing homelessness to make sure we're thinking about any unique needs that we need to be aware of. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Casar and then [1:35:40 PM] councilmember Fuentes. >> Casar: Thank you for the presentation, Ron. It's good to see you after getting to celebrate yesterday. Thanks to your work, I also appreciate so much what our commission did. Thank you, Neil, for keeping this on track. And I'm just really impressed by the work that you all have done. It's really clear to me that you got such a wide swath of the community, but really focused in on the communities that need our support the most as a city and been left behind the most. I feel like too often issues when we talk about the lbgtq plus community or issues in east Austin when they are separate issues when they so clearly are the same issue when you go and talk to people. I think it's really clear you spoke with people extensively. That's a -- it goes to show that people wanted to talk about this if they wanted to do a whole 30-minute survey with you. And that you brought leadership from our queer community of color folks like kb and rocky and other great people that served. And I think that -- I really appreciate the study because [1:36:40 PM] I think it talks about some of the issues we talk about here, but from the perspective of the lbgtq community. We can't talk about gentrification unless we're talking about career issues, we can't talk about police inform unless we're talking about those issues. We can't end homelessness unless we talk about the folks who are lgbt living on the streets and I think this report really centers that. So I was looking forward to today, but I think that what you've presented surpasses my expectations and puts a real call to action for our work. One thing I also want to raise for the manager, staff and for council's attention is one of the issues raised is about worker's rights and my understanding soon our new civil rights office will be bringing forward ordinances to strengthen our enforcement of those non- discrimination rules in housing and at the workplace. Again, that was for everyone, but I think the focus that we are hearing from our community that you've brought forward here is just really important. Soy really want to say [1:37:41 PM] thanks for looking at this in an intersectional way and I no at the it was you, but also our commissioners that pushed that. >> It was a group effort and we were honored to be the facilitators of that. The one thing I will say is that we often get these rfps to do either health or quality of life studies from public health departments or health care consortia. This is the first time we saw the city put out an rfp to study a marginalized community with centering equity. It was really quite groundbreaking. You all should be very proud of that. I would like to see this study replicated in other cities of similar size and down the road do some comparisons. But again having the sogi data is really important and so anything that you can do to move in that direction to make sure all of your data [1:38:43 PM] acquisition includes sogi will only prove to include better research in the future. It was such an honor to include such a diverse group of people. >> Casar: I appreciate it. In reflection of our years of time here we talk about mental health issues, we talk about family violence, and in the community we know those are so important in the lbgtq to be addressed but we don't always think about them as those issues hitting there the hardest. And you are a reminder to us that's going on and we should keep that in our minds and that data will work as well. I appreciate everyone that worked on the data. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Fuentes. >> Fuentes: I want to echo what my colleague councilmember Casar [1:39:44 PM] mentioned by this because it shows how intersectional our issues are and how as leaders the Austin community and we address the challenges they are extremely intersectional between huge nationallized communities. It is helpful to have this kind of study available to us as policymakers and it is a starting point. I appreciate the way you laid out the key findings. Some were very alarming but then also how you laid out the recommendations. So I'm particularly excited about the potential possibility of bringing a community center to Austin and joining the ranks of other big cities who have invest understand that type of commitment. And then also wanted to share, to note the finding of how racism is a public health crisis and certainly I know that through the work that I've done and the past previously and with my work on council. I believe mayor pro tem harper-madison you brought [1:40:46 PM] that resolution forward and you've been doing a lot of great work and leading on that front. One of the recommendations that you provided was was providing incentives and how we can best improve or -- invest or improve a pipeline of providers. I wonder if you could speak to what type of programs or incentives have you seen other municipalities or communities take on? >> Yeah. And you have Dell medical university here and it is to keep here. So the incentives for a queer person of color who is graduating with a medical degree to stay in Austin and be of service in Austin. So some kind of incentive around that whether it's loan forgiveness program or financial compensation, but really what we clearly heard and this is especially true [1:41:51 PM] for our Asian transgender individuals there is not a provider that reflects them in the community. We heard that people were going to Houston for health care so again that's the kind of thing I think a city could do to really influence a pipeline that would be a benefit. >> Fuentes: Yeah, the relationship between a patient and provider is so important, so critical to address the health disparities and long- standing issues. I really appreciate that feedback. And thank you for all your work to bring this study together. >> Mayor Adler: You know, it was a few years back, I think 2015 going into 2016, when I, together with colleagues, issued the first call to create a commission to elevate the status of the intention. Recognizing that you don't actually address challenges that you aren't defining and [1:42:51 PM] if it's not stated and it's not there then it never seems to to get addressed. Appreciative and I stepped aside so council member Flannigan would make the motion and the work has been so appreciated. This is like the crescendo of a lot of efforts and a long time in coming. And there are so many things that are going right in the city right now, an economy that's off the chart and so many people want to live here, maybe too many people want to live here and businesses and two observations associated with that. The first is that this is a magical community, I think. And we were early among the folks to score really high in the indices that measured communities not only acceptance, but respect for [1:43:54 PM] people, all peoples that live in a community. When I see the report here this is replete with so many things that we need to be doing, doing better, but just to take a pause for a second to recognize that this is still a very special place or we wouldn't have the third highest population per capita in our city if this wasn't welcoming a good place for people to come. And just to celebrate that. And I don't know if that's your experience as you've been going around to different cities to see things? >> It is. And Austin is unique in that regard, and you all have a very special opportunity to continue to nurture and cherish the community, support them, but also take a moment to understand that there are people within the [1:44:55 PM] community who still are experiencing disparity and you want to focus on lifting them so that the entire community let's lift -- gets lifted. A community center can do that because it brings together older adults and youth who can learn from each other and feel identified. Yesterday the ceremony with the crosswalk so empowering, especially for a young kid who sees that and goes oh, I'm represented, I feel a part of myself in this city and that's important. I was the CEO of the Trevor project, a hotline for lbgtq youth, and that was a tough job. I was there five years. Adhering the respondent voices of youth that wanted to take their lives and speaking with mothers and fathers who lost their kids to suicide, it's so important. It's really important work. I'm getting a little emotional here. I'm an out gay man, cis [1:45:57 PM] gender, hiv-positive. I've been doing this work for a long, long time. You would have thought that marriage equality and things would change, but there's still work to be done and I really applaud all for taking a stand, for lifting those voices, for including them and being a city that really shows your true colors, all kinds of colors. So thank you for the opportunity. >> Mayor Adler: And that I think is the second half of the point. The first one is there's so many things going well and this is a community that's doing a lot of things right, but because of those things we are in a position to actually be able to focus attention on disparities that exist and on the challenges that we have. And it's an ability because we're not having to deal with large systemic challenges. We don't have the big crime issue relative to other cities or the unemployment issue that other cities have and they need to focus other [1:46:59 PM] attention on. We get to actually focus on things that are often overlooked in other communities. And for us the disparities that exist, the people in our community that are not enjoying what is happening in our community then becomes our most immediate charge. And you have certainly laid out here a lot of things for us to be able to work on and I welcome that opportunity. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Renteria and then councilmember tovo. >> Renteria: Thank you for that report. I've seen -- living here in Austin I've seen some of the families that when they -- a person comes out or opens up to them, some of the parents kick their kids out. Is there an area, a place here in withdrawn those young kids can actually go to and get support? >> Out youth is your [1:48:00 PM] outreach providing organization and they try to connect youth in the best way possible in housing resources. A lot of these kids are couch surfing or sometimes unfortunately working the streets. But out youth is that critical organization that can be a lifeline. >> Renteria: And I noticed on one of the pictures there on the centers that there was a lot of office -- it was like a 60-story building there. Are those actually rooms where people can actually go and -- >> Yeah. And I would highly recommend you look at the southwest center for HIV in Phoenix, Arizona. What they've done is they have a large space where half of the building are physical offices for the different lbgtq organizations, the gay chorus, the youth organization. I think there's six different organizations. And then they have the large community space where people [1:49:00 PM] can come and do special groups or large convenings, town halls. That kind of model is really great because it provides a great incentive for a non-profit organization to get a really good space and be visible. And it allows them to take advantage of the larger space, which many of them don't have access to. >> Thank you. And this is in Arizona? >> Yeah, Phoenix, Arizona. Southwest center for HIV. >> Renteria: Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Mayor Adler: It councilmember tovo and then councilmember alter. >> Tovo: Thank you. Thanks for this report. This is really -- it's good to have this level of data collection and assessment and also the list of next steps that are very interesting. I think mayor, you and I were across the street at the W when there was a community wide discussion [1:50:01 PM] that gave rise to the recommendation to form a commission. So I'm really -- it is really great to think back to that conversation and to see this work together and to know how valuable this commission has become and will continue to be in the future. I'm really interested in some of the conversations around the community center and I wondered if you could give us an assessment of how different community centers are funded. Just in looking over that website that you showed us, it wasn't clear without going to each individual one how they're funded and kind of who created them. So I wonder if you could give us an assessment. In your presentation you had one from Houston. Is that the mantra center? >> Correct. >> Tovo: So maybe just starting with the one that you just described in Phoenix which sounds like a really interesting model and the mantra center and the one in Dallas, how are those funded? Just in your experience how are they typically fund and [1:51:01 PM] who are the financial partners in those endeavors? >> Phoenix is a little unique because the building was donated, it was a large warehouse space, was donated by an individual philanthropist. So what they've done is by creating the different offices they're paying rent for the space and then it's a collective of non-profit organizations. So we have a separate 501(c)3 for the collective organization. That's one model. Most of the -- >> Tovo: In that model no municipal participation? >> They do receive city funding, but it's usually through grants for peak programs. >> I see. Gotcha. >> I -- so the majority of them are 501(c)3 organizations that start up as a focus for being an lgbt [1:52:03 PM] community center and then they get a mix of public and private funds to fund them, primarily philanthropic funding, which is really difficult. And to the best of their ability they try to negotiate to get contracts whether it's through the health department or through the city to operate their programs and services. So there's just a myriad of ways in which a center could be established. >> Tovo: Can you tell us a little bit about the montrose center and the center in Houston? Their range of programs and to the -- >> Very extensive. A lot of health programs, transgender health programs. They provide primary care, sexual health services, behavioral health services. You can see a mental health therapist there. A lot of social connection programs, so community engagement activities. And then of course sexual health prevention efforts. >> Tovo: Thanks very much. [1:53:04 PM] I know once or twice there have been conversations on council about community centers. I would be real interested in seeing this idea move forward. I think it's an interesting one. And I appreciate you describing how at least the ones you're familiar with how they arise and the relationship to this city. It sounds like the non-profit formation and community driven processes really -- is really kind of the best path to success. >> Yes. And something else the city -- if there is city property that could be repurpose would be an excellent start. >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Sounds good. Councilmember alter, and I think we have six minutes left before he gets whisked off to the airport. >> Alter: Thank you. Councilmember tovo asked one of my questions, which is about the models of funding for the center, so I appreciate that. That was useful information. I have two other questions. [1:54:05 PM] One of the things that I didn't hear you talk about has to do with representation and the creation of the commission itself was one of the first votes I took on council. And I'm part of a project, an appointment project with project we with the mayor pro tem and the mayor to have more women on our commissions. And I'm just wondering if you looked at all -- at the representation of the community on boards and commissions or whatnot. >> Yeah. Thank you for bringing that up. By the way, in the community survey we had an equal amount of cis gender men and cis gender women filling out the survey. So that was good to see. There is always room for improvement in boards and commissions on the make and membership. I know through the interviews we did with the community members as well as [1:55:09 PM] the resource advisory board that we put together, especially people of color or people of different genders or non-gender, are very interested in getting involved in the community. So you've got people out there wanting to make a difference in community and I think you can find them. >> Alter: Thank you. I was also struck by the section on safety and I think it's worth noting some of the things that you said. Again, I want to ask you about that. Someone in Austin who experienced an attack or verbal harassment or attack in Austin because they're lgbtqia. People of color, youth, transgender expansive individuals disproportionately experience negative interactions with law enforcement. 41% are uncomfortable or very uncomfortable seeking help from police. Those are pretty strong statements in large numbers [1:56:09 PM] and they speak to some of the concerns that have us thinking about how to reimagine public safety so that everyone in Austin can feel safe. Can you tell us more about what you learned from 78 or what the survey -- from the survey or what the survey reveals on that or what they were uncomfortable about? Or more about experiences and how the attacks were handled? >> Yeah, we didn't -- the survey didn't have skip logic questions after they reported if they were verbally abused or experienced harassment. In hindsight I would have loved to have dived down into the rationale or the reasons why that occurred. But I would say during the qualitative portion of the work that we did with the focus groups we had heard that individuals -- and especially transgender people of color had not had positive relates with the police department. As a matter of fact, they're very fearful for any [1:57:11 PM] interaction with law enforcement. So we heard it both qualitativety and quantitatively that that's a concern. >> Alter: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Council member. >> Thank you, mayor, I know we promised to be done at 2:00 and not take up too much of your day. I appreciate you being here to daylight the recommendations of the study. It was high opening to see all the community members that really wanted to participate in a complex survey. What was surprising to me was also on top of education and health care and safety issues is how much it's important that people have access to public transportation and affordable housing or market rate affordable housing and it just kind of daylighted to me that we can try to solve many, many problems, but if you don't have a way [1:58:12 PM] to get to work or a roof over your head, it will be different experiencing that. I think the city manager also did an unveiling of one of his budget presentations at life works, which I know specializes in minors who are at risk of being on the street. And so I know that that's another resource that's available in our community. But I really just appreciate you coming and daylighting this for us. I did have another question just about the background of the community center. I don't know if that's something you could speak with about public participation versus private or if that needs to be Mr. Falgo. That happened before my time so I just wanted to know if there were initiatives for us to try to do one at the city or if we've ever talked about bonding for -- going to the vote stories do voter-approved bonds. Can you kind of fill me in a little bit because it happened before I got here? >> Yes, council member. So there has been some discussion within the community. There are some community members who have been talking about raising money [1:59:14 PM] for a 501(c)3 to implement a community center. And I think maybe for the past year to two years that's been really sort of put on hold to see how this study, some of the recommendations that come out of that. But I do know from the perspective of the commission that this is one of their top priorities and there are conversations happening with the community. I don't know that there's been any funding discussion from council in terms of bonding or anything like that. I have had some conversations with city staff on what that might look like from involvement of library or public health, but I don't think it's risen to the level of council. >> Ellis: We won't decide that here today and I'm not trying to advocate one way or the other if that conversation has been happening. I've been really curious about how the other communities have been able to put all these personal [2:00:16 PM] resource and community into these centers and I think that would be a great thing for our city to achieve as well. Thank you for being here. >> You're welcome. And I want to acknowledge my colleague Ileana who is here also as part of the strategies team. Thank you for your team. Really appreciate it. >> Mayor Adler: Safe travels back home. All right, colleagues. It's 2:00. I missed, councilmember Ellis, when you pulled back together. The next work item that I think we have is to go into executive session to at least take up Apa and we need to do that before we lose councilmember pool who I think will be leaving a little after three, 3:45, I think. So I didn't know if you guys wanted to take a lunch break [2:01:18 PM] on the way to executive session or whether you wanted to meet quickly in executive session? Did y'all decide that? >> Ellis: We did not. I did not lay out everything else on our plate for the rest of the day until you got back, but I would be supportive of grabbing our lunch and then going to do executive session. >> Mayor Adler: How about if we do this then? I'll call us into executive session. Is 30 minutes enough? 2:30 would that give people a chance to gather? So we'll convene in executive session and at 2:30 we'll handle at least the Apa. We can make a decision on whether or not we want to do cybersecurity. We can do that on Thursday if we want to. And then we will come back out for the music briefing. And then make the call whether to go back to cybersecurity if we want to. We can make that call here in just a moment. Councilmember alter? >> I have to do a talk at 4:30 and I would like to be [2:02:20 PM] there for the executive session on cybersecurity depending on whether we do that. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. We'll keep that in mind and make sure it does not happen at a time when you're not here. Okay. So with that said then, we're going to go into closed session to take up at least one of two items, pursuant to sections 551.076 and 551.0189 council will discuss information related to e2. Pursuant to 551.071, council will discuss legal issues related to e4, which is the agreement with Austin pets alive. It is 2:02. I'll see you online at 2:30. [2:21:54 PM] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [2:25:42 PM] lgbtq ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [3:49:24 PM] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ music playing ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [3:55:54 PM] >> So I am going to call us back back. >> Mayor Adler: We concluded our discussion of legal issues related to item E 4, we have also concluded our information security and legal -- information security issues related to E 2, that being said, it is now 3:56 and we will take up here the last item that we have, unless the manager is ready to respond to Kathie's questions, at the end of it we can check and see if you are, but if not -- and I really appreciate you pulling staff together about the music issue. [3:56:56 PM] There is a presentation in the package and I appreciate that. What I would like to do I think is just identify the question that I have and then you can respond to the questions sin it is 4:00 o'clock 4:00 o'clock already. And the questions I have are related to the live music fund event program. Which as you recall, colleagues was the additional two percent, the 15 percent on the additional he when that fund was created as a body we created it with a very specialized and specific purpose in mind, and we had discussed this, it was an [3:57:59 PM] extended exchange between me and councilmember tovo, but other folks participated in it as well. And what we were trying to do was, in part, we were trying to resolve a decades long conflict between the music industry, the professional music industry and the cultural music, arts in our city, where the professional music industry was frankly trying to get into the cultural arts funding to get dollars, and every year there would be, it seem to me, a battle on that and it was something that working with a nonprofit organization I was involved in well before I made it on to council. And we ended up having pitting part of our community against other parts of our community and [3:58:59 PM] we finally got those groups together and as part of a bigger community process reached an agreement whereby the music industry would would no longer be looking at the cultural arts funding as a source of funding for the music industry, and we would create a separate fund for the music industry that they would always look, to and it kept everybody in their lanes, recognizing two things. That the cultural arts funding, the ability for people in our community to see lots of different kinds of genres, lots of different kinds of performers to provide opportunity for performers to be able to perform and be out in the public, the shows you see in public spaces and at libraries and with hundreds of artists in our community to keep creativity alive. That is really, really important work and it is something that we [4:00:01 PM] are kind of known for and it helps drive tourism as it needs to do with hot dollars because it is kind of what -- that's why people have come here, to be able to partake and be a part of that. The music session is different than that and they say, hey, we have a music industry in this city that is strong in part because we have some venues that are strong and some musicians that are strong, but we don't really have a real vertical that has been created in the music industry to really help our city. There is not really an easy way for somebody I think an example I gave at one point was the playing in their garage at 16 and a club at 21, but still in Austin in the music industry when there are -- they are 45 and taking care of a family at that point, how do we build that infrastructure, that vertical in [4:01:02 PM] the professional music industry that has become a part of our brand? And I don't know what those answers are, but we said it is more than just the musicians. It is the descri that that supports music venues and it is more than that. It is the promoters, it is more than that. It is barkeeps and the bars. It is all of that. It would be publishers and I don't know what those answers R I don't know whether it is creating additional venues. I don't know if it is creating a music label. I don't know -- I don't know what the elements are to really solidify a music industry in this city that is different from la and different from Nashville but provides that long-term ability for us. But, you know, I am anxious to see what the community and the staff would bring forward with respect to that industry vertical growth, that long- term [4:02:03 PM] investment that we would be making in that industry. There was some question when covid first hit us, as you will recall, taking that fund and cutting it into small pieces and making grants and this allowances for individual artists, because there is not a lot of work to be had and we wanted them to survive ands and we as a council we decided we would not touch the live music fund for that purpose and we created other funds to be dealing with that, so as to be able to preserve the integrity of that fund to be able to deal with the -- this kind of industry assignment. So here -- here is my question. The -- but first let me say what my question is not. Because what has come out of this is a focus on the live music fund from an equity [4:03:05 PM] standpoint. So what is being proposed is at its core and at its base is saying we are going to do with the fund what it said we are going to do but we are going to do it in a way that actually addresses historical injustices and institutions and systems that have for too long been stacked against communities of color in our community and I am supportive of that. And I am glad to see that that element became the overlay on the application of this funding, because I think that is critically important and we are doing it not only here but we are doing it in as many places throughout the city as we can identify. So I am 100 percent behind that and I want us to continue to make sure that we are do -- that we do that. I also want to recognize doing that involves a certain measure of disruption, because that [4:04:06 PM] means that it is not going the way that the dollars normally go for the things the dollars normally go to and that is going to create some anxiousness and that is part of disruption and that's something that this council on several occasions have said we are willing to accept that price and that cost in order to make this kind of advance. And I support that. But I do have a question about how these fund dollars are actually being used in that regard other than the focus on equity, and I note that in the packet -- because what it appears to me as I read this and I could be reading it wrong is that the focus on the dollars looks a lot like the way dollars are given out in the cultural arts program to artists, giving artist it is ability to be able to perform in public places and at libraries or whatever. [4:05:07 PM] There is talk about being able to rent venues but you really can't rent venues in this city. That is not something that really happens in this city if you are actually wanting to get a music venue. One use of these funds might be to actually create a music venue, to rent one or own one and use it as a grounds to only have performances by top artists and train managers and promoters and folks and give people a a chance to really blossom in an industry, vertical career, but that is not, as best as I can tell how the dollars are spent. It looks like it is small grants given to artists to help them be able to perform. Which I think is a really important thing, and maybe there is some part of this money that can and should be used that way, but the vision for this fund was, there is more than just [4:06:08 PM] that. It was about actually building -- this was the real long-term industry investment to create the long- term effort, I went back to some of the commissioners to say, you know, help me with this because we had set it up, I had thought it to be something else. I think in the report you said that the music commission unanimously approved this music program guidelines. I went back and looked at that. As I read the transcript, I don't think that was the case. I think what they formally did is actually talk about third party administration. I noticed that presentation, but I can't find the debate and the vote on this fund program in that conversation. If that hasn't happened I would like to see that happen. I would like to see this discussion happen at the music commission so we can get a feel back in council for what the [4:07:11 PM] really grand vision of this fund, which is a lot of money dedicated to this use and investment to try to preserve something that has become a big part of our brand in the city. So those were my concerns, and again spending some of the money on artists like this, spending the money on the artists and using those artists as a way to figure out what it is that happens to them next. I mean, once they perform at the library, then how is it that they actually get into the industry to support themselves the rest of their lives and support their families? One infrastructure -- what infrastructure are we building out? Are there institutions we should be creating or job categories or physical venues or technology platforms that become kind of the Austin music scene? [4:08:13 PM] It is not Nashville and it is not la but it is Austin. What is that? And it is because I had hoped that this fund would kind of inspire me that way when I saw this, I pulled it and said, it looks to me like I they are breaking this into -- and using the whole fund for five, ten or $15,000 grants. Would it immediately start creating an expectation that next year those people would get the grants or other people would get those same grants and we would then be creating a program that looked all too familiar to something that we were trying to be very different from. So probably there are a lot of questions in what I just said and I am happy to let staff respond and help me better understand. Good afternoon, thank you, mayor Rodney Gonzales the assistant [4:09:14 PM] city manager over -- economic -- thank you for voicing that sentiment and the questions and of course the concern. And we have not staff here from economic development, Veronica Briceno, our interim economic development department director as well as Erica shamly, our music and entertainment division -- and, mayor, to your point, the staff did put together a presentation, I think it also helps to explain some of how we got here. Including, of course, a working group that was formed by the music commission which is a systemic racism working group. And so the staff has worked in concert with the music commission, not just on the live music fund guidelines but also in the work of the systemic racism and dismantling some of those institutions of racism and so it may be helpful for sin advantage to go through some of that .. Background that might [4:10:14 PM] also reflect some of the responses to your questions and concerns as to how we have gotten here. One thing that is for certain is that we did totally understand the piece of this program applying to the commercial music industry which is where we believe that it lies. Now, there are those other parameters, though, that we looked at which of course connect to strategic direction 2023 with equity in mind as was the music commission's system of -- working group. So if you don't mind I will turn it over to you just to quickly go through the presentation and then we can dive into some more specific questions if you don't mind. >> It is ha. >> A. >> Mayor Adler: It is hard to hear you senfronia. >> If city hall can turn the volume up in the chambers, that would probably help. >> So -- deputy director, [4:11:16 PM] economic development department here along with Veronica Briceno, chief economic recovery officer, as well as Erica shamly to provide an update on the live music fund event program. Next slide, please. As the mayor mentioned the live music fund was established in September of 2019 and the music commission formed two working groups, the live music fund working group as well as the systemic racism working group, and from that, they came out with a core principle of the music guidelines a called pie, preservation, innovation and elevation, and this is one of the core principles of the program. >> That is investing in the past and investing in historic, underserved communities as well as innovation, providing innovation of business models to innovate, provide inclusive practices that build capacity. [4:12:17 PM] Elevation and collaboration, which will provide education and promotion of Austin's music from the historically underserved communities. The live music event program is a pilot, this is our pilot year and it will encourage, promote and improve and showcase Austin's diverse live music industry. It will support Austin's independent promoters, it will support Austin's professional musicians and bands that produce and promote live and virtual shows that can be marketed not only to local audiences but visitors and potential convention delegates. And the guidelines were reviewed by law and the equity office. We presented these guidelines to the music commission starting in July. The African-American resource advisory commission as well as the ard commission, the joint inclusion commission, and again [4:13:19 PM] we received 41 comments on our speakup Austin page about the live music, and yes, we have incorporated feedback from the music commission on their concerns that were expressed. And at this time, with the next slide the music commission I want to thank them for their many hours. They did not do this work in a vacuum but they worked with njr partners on how to set expectations to find, define racial equity as well as diversity and now I would like Erica shamly to speak to how this relates to the Austin commercial music industry. Next slide, please, hello council and mayor, this is Erica shamly .. I am the division manager for the music entertainment division in the economic development department. So I wanted to go over a little bit of how this could could and will improve the commercial [4:14:20 PM] music industry here in Austin. So there are three areas of -- that we see development improvement being possible, economic development, professional development, but also marking Austin as a music industry city that is based in diversity and innovation. So economic development. So these awards will pay for production expenses that typically go into shows. These are the types of expenses that promoters, artists or venues are paying out-of-pocket or by ticket sales or through whatever means they can. A lot of times credit cards, just to pay for the production expenses. And so what they try to do is sell tickets, they get sponsorships to kind of pay that all back, and a lot of times what happens is that either not a lot of money is paid by the end of the night or the money is just -- a lot of people don't get paid what they should get paid because not enough money was made. So by this program actually [4:15:21 PM] paying for those core production expenses and getting them out of the way you are taking a lot of the risk out of the equation. So musicians as well as small promoters can apply for this and they can propose their events and have those expenses paid for, and they don't necessarily have to perform. They are the producers. They can pay themselves as the event producer. They could perform and get paid also as a musician, but they are also doing a venue rental for that night of show. They are paying for whatever contractors and marketing expenses and all of the elements it takes to have a very successful event. So they can also at the same time still sell tickets, still get sponsorships, and more of that money will actually be you know, revenue, actual profits rather than money that just goes back into the debt of the show. So this is already level setting you know, taking it to another level that we don't currently have. And also we are requiring that [4:16:23 PM] through the guidelines that musicians and contractors have to be paid a fair rate for musicians that's $150 an hour per musician, and for contractors that is the city of Austin minimum wage of $15 an hour. So we already know then that through this program serve going to get paid well there is going to be marketing support, the venues will get paid so that there is no risk to them. They get to have their night with no risk and also get the bar sales while these new innovative events are happening. Now, professional development. So this will not be done in a vacuum, but the applicants will get technical assistance as will the contractors, because there are industry standards for advancing shows to do it in such a way it is appropriate, so we have marketing template and a production and budget template that the contractors will use in order to advance their events and they cannot only take into [4:17:24 PM] account the award from the city and the expenses associated with that award, but also ticket sales, sponsorships and how it all feeds in together for all costs related to the show so a lot of types what we see is musicians not understanding you know, how a contract works with a venue or with a promoter, and so this is providing that professional development to the a ward ds to understand .. And learn about the professional aspects of being a professional musician, again, kind of raising the bar of professionalism within our city. So we are not just getting to that gig show and you don't know how much you will get paid to the end of the night a lot of times it is not nearly what you thought it would be. You already know what you you have going in and what has been paid for and how much you will get paid and how much everyone on the bill will get paid. The other very important component is Austin is is the live music capital of the world and -- but the pandemic and all [4:18:24 PM] of the issues that we were having before the pandemic that was making it hard in Austin because of costs and everything getting more expensive, this is by prioritizing events based in pie this is an innovative way of like kind of Austin showing what we can do as a music city and as a live music city that is different, by prioritizing events about collaboration, diversity, equity, and bringing new people into venues that probably had never been there before, new artists of venues that have never been there before and so it is a win-win situation, not only for the collaborators working together and doing new things together, new types of events, but also bringing new audiences, venues to venues across the city, you know, maybe audiences that had never stepped foot into that particular venue before, and so it is a win-win situation not only for venues and the contractors getting paid but also the artists collaborating with each other to create new and interesting experiences that [4:19:27 PM] our audiences haven't seen before so again pushing the envelope that Austin always does of creating amazing and you know, unique experiences and that will further you know, just set Austin apart as an innovative music city so we see these three things kind of together really helping the commercial music industry so that people can afford the rent, they can afford their mortgage because this is a more sure way to pay those expenses and market them and get a lot of people to show up, and continue to collaborate with new partners. Thank you, Erica. And again, as the mayor mentioned, council has set aside funding for our live music venues again and as Erica mentioned we see collaboration not only from musicians but again promoters, those who can provide technical assistance and education, so, again, this is [4:20:27 PM] the pilot year to test and then it can be ex-pa anded as we move further into the future of the music program. Thank you, Rodney and thank you, council. >> I appreciate you walking us through the presentation. >> Presentation. >> Mayor Adler: Before I pass it on to my other colleagues in just a second, you know, I love the principles, the pie principles. I can sit and I can close my eyes and I can describe the la music industry you know, kind of the vertical, I can describe the national music industry. I have more difficulty when I try to describe what it is that is the Austin music industry. What is it that is unique about us? You know, I am not in the industry and I am not you guys and you guys have done a tremendous amount of work here and have met a lot of people and my sense is you are really close to getting to what I think might be like really special and unique and I don't know if it is [4:21:29 PM] a tie to technology in the industry vertical in a way no other city is doing that then becomes what we build on to build careers and professional tracks for people in the city. But I love to pie stuff and if whatever we do, when people talk about it they say you know, that deal in Austin, that vertical in Austin, you know, it is all about preservation and innovation and elevation, I mean, I love that. I love that and I am happy that is happening, but when that gets applied to in terms of the building blocks of building the vertical is different. Am I correct the music commission has yet to take an actual vote on the live music fund event program guidelines? >> So in July, they were presented with the first draft of the guidelines to very positive support, because they [4:22:30 PM] knew that we were presenting the first draft to them to then go through July and August and present some unity for additional feedback. And if you go back through the transcript you will see kind of the pro few receive praise for the guidelines because they were based on the guidelines from the systemic equity working group. We helped build these guidelines so across the commissioners we didn't hear any you know, trepidation around the guidelines. The agenda item was always put on their agenda for action, but no commissioners ever took a motion along with the lines of approval. And so each time we went back in August, September, we explained what the improvements were, what we heard from community and in September we showed the final guidelines and they were very supportive with just one tweak of moving the fair pay component to not be a sport question but an eligibility requirement of the program and that was that. [4:23:32 PM] And so the other working group that was just formed was around the third party solicitation, so that was more about like how the solicitation should look and how application questions should be asked based on the guidelines. But the actual guidelines were pretty much approved in September, although they did not take a vote on those specific guidelines -- >> Mayor Adler: And carry, I appreciate that, Erica, I appreciate that, my first ask, in fact my only real ask in this would be that you take it to the music commission and ask them to vote, because I hear differing views on where people are and you know, the commission is there, certainly they can come back to us and say we affirmatively don't want to vote but if they make that decision not to vote I would like to to know why not. But so that there is no ambiguity and so that this debate happens at the music commission in a way that everybody can see it, Rodney I [4:24:35 PM] would ask you take it to the ammunition can commission, get a vote and come back to us. Certainly you know, I could be wrong. They could unanimously say this is how you start to build the industry in our city. You know, in my mind when I look at this it seems to be kind of musician centric which may be the right way to go but there are so many other aspects of creating a music industry vertical, but I could be wrong. So would you take it back to the music commission and see if you get a vote there? >> Mayor, we certainly can if that's the will of the council to do so, of course we followed the council's direction of developing the program, as expected we did that concert with the music commission so I can appreciate the staff worked with the music commission over the summer. And would then respectfully ask them, because we did tee it up as an action item that we would request their specific vote on the guidelines. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. I would request and colleagues if you know differently, speak [4:25:35 PM] up, that you ask them to do that, so that when you say it is unanimously approved we actually have something that was a unanimous approval of something, and not something that was inferred. In part because I just really think that there is a really unique opportunity that this city has given ourselves, by calling out the two percent to do something that 20 years from now is -- has created an industry in our city, I love the buy pock focus on this .. But I think that I am a huge fan of making that core and central to what we do, but the program as described, the economic development, the professional development, the music industry, diversity, innovation sounds a lot like the programs do we in the cultural arts area right now, and I think the hope here was to do something that was different to build an industry [4:26:37 PM] in this city. But if there is the best way to do it, that will be great, I would like to see the music commission actually build on it. Yes. Councilmember Fuentes. >> Can you hear me now? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Fuentes: Thank you. Yes, I echo that support for having a vote from the music commission. I do want to highlight in the presentation on page 2, it does say the music commission unanimously approved the live music fund event program guidelines on September 13th. So I hope that actually happened but it seems like it didn't happen in which case I would ask why is it -- why is it included in here stating that it did happen? So if we can have that confirmed. I do want to take this moment to highlight a couple of other concerns that were bubbling up from the music community as part of this conversation that I think is related. Part of the concerns that I have [4:27:37 PM] been hearing include the timeline in how we are rolling out this, what I am assuming is the pilot program as well as the Austin music disaster relief fund. From my understanding the emergency funds, the one time expenses has not gone out yet and there is a need for those to be administered as quickly as possible. And so there was concerns -- I heard about the third party administrator and concerns were voiced on the process in which that is undertaken, and I know that certain commissioners may have some thoughts and suggestions on how we go about that process, and how that -- that fund is administered, but the concerns are the concerns that are bubbling up is the wants to the Austin disaster music relief fund out as quickly as possible, and this is [4:28:38 PM] what my question is, there have been talks of combining the live music fund with the Austin disaster relief fund and having those two funds I guess combined and having it administered as one process through that third-party. So I want clarification if that is the case because if so the concerns are that those two funds have distinct purposes and distinct scopes and serve different roles of addressing needs in the music community. For example, the Austin music disaster fund is a fund that's set up for all workers in the music industry. It's supposed to be set up as an attempt to do one-time funds to address emergency needs whereas the live music fund is for musicians and small companies and support livelihoods of our music company and understanding that they have separate and distinct roles there was concerns about the possibility of combining them. Occasionally it was my [4:29:38 PM] understanding that there is another working group of the music commissioners that have formed that includes the chair, vice-chair and the d2 commissioner, commissioner gold, that are actively working on this and have shared that they would like to see these two funds separated. So I guess my question is can you speak a little bit to -- are y'all proposing that we combine those two relief funds and have it administered by the same third-party administrator or is it -- how is that process related to this pilot program? >> Council member, if I could respond to your first question. In talking to staff it seems like the word choice could they had mentioned unanimously approved. It probably should have been unanimously supported. They recognize that the commission never voted for this and so as a word choice it should have been supported verse approved. But with that I'll turn it over to staff to respond to the question of the third-party. >> Yes. We are actually separating [4:30:39 PM] the emergency relief funds. As I indicated to the music commission at their October meeting that we would do our best to expedite deployment of those funds before Christmas. So we are working with our purchasing process to try to get that done before Christmas. But we are not combining the two. >> Fuentes: Okay, great. Thank you. I appreciate that. That helps to address some of the concerns that were coming my way and I'll be sure to relay that information. And can I share that that will be further addressed at the October commission meeting? >> They've already had their October meeting and that's where I expressed that we are working to get those funds out the door as soon as possible. >> Fuentes: Okay. Then maybe -- thank you. Thank you for hearing the concerns that were given and I appreciate y'all working [4:31:40 PM] to address them. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Colleagues, anybody have anything else? Yes, councilmember Ellis. >> Ellis: I'll just support my support for also taking that back to the music commission and letting them reevaluate and make sure everything is exactly how they would want to bless it in that way. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Councilmember kitchen? >> Kitchen: Yes. You had asked what we were thinking and I agree. I would like to see it go back. >> Mayor Adler: Great, thank you. All right. Then I think that we're done then with this item. Okay. Did we have answers to councilmember tovo's two questions? I don't see Kathie right now. Do you have answers -- >> If you could, I would like to talk with the city manager about those questions before responding to council. >> Mayor Adler: And I think she allowed for that. All right. I think that means now at 4:32 I think we've taken care of all our business for today so this meeting, work session, is adjourned.