City Council Regular Work Session Transcript – 11/16/2021 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 6 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 11/16/2021 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 11/16/2021 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. [9:16:22 AM] - Austin City Council Work Session ( Transcript ) >> Mayor Adler: We can go ahead and start. I'm going to go ahead and call to order today's city council work session on November 16th, 2021. The time is 9:16. We have a quorum present. Colleagues, work session today, thought that we would start with pulled items, get through those. And then since it's not set for us also to talk about on Thursday that we would take a few moments to address the -- kind of the council meeting efficiency issue that councilmember tovo talked about earlier and made sure was on our agenda for today. If we have time before noon, we'll start the storm presentation. The anticipation is we'll [9:17:23 AM] run through questions in a circular way so that everybody gets a chance. Manager, for me I would really like to here prospectively what it is we're now doing to make sure if there was a winter storm tomorrow what would be different tomorrow and I'd like to get a better feel for that than I have watching the tape so far. We'll do the storm stuff, figuring an hour, hour and a half on that. Taking a lunch break between 12:00 and 1:00, coming back and doing the storm and Austin energy meeting. A lot of things on that agenda. Trying to get them to blow through as best check, but to be so informative. Then into executive session. We do want to talk about the clerk, the other two items I think are just reporting to us, not real action items so [9:18:23 AM] I think we can move through those quickly. That gets us back out having done that for the final two presentations. We have a hard stop at 5:00 because we lose the capacity -- lose the room and we lose the capacity to get out to the public. So if that's okay, we'll proceed that way. And that means that -- and Alison texted me that she is on the way and has urged us to start in her absence. The problem with the two items that we have pulled is she's pulled those items. Kathie, do you want to introduce them -- kind of the meeting efficiency deal, let's talk about that. >> Tovo: There were a couple things I wanted to talk about as we transition back from wholly virtual [9:19:24 AM] into the virtual/in-person hybrid. I wanted to just be very intentional and talk through how we're handling speakers both those who have signed up online, but those who are here in person. And I also wanted to talk about proclamations. So the proclamations have now switched to Thursday mornings at 9:30 and it wasn't clear to me whether that's a temporary fix or if that's the intentional and I wanted to have a conversation among our dais about whether that's the right fit. I think that some of the appeal -- some of the excitement and appeal for people was coming down and being part of the council meeting and having it in this space it makes it really challenging in smaller spaces for multiple people to participate and so you are really just an audience now of those receiving the proclamation and those delivering it in a way that's very different. I really would like to see it moved back to its regular [9:20:25 AM] time and place, but, again, wanted to engage in that conversation here with y'all. >> Mayor Adler: Yeah, I'm not -- and I think that it moved that way in part because of the covid response and I think that was initial he we weren't doing it at all and that didn't seem right. I know they recorded and it plays and there's a video that organizations make use of. I'm amenable for it being different times. Doing it in the evening as we've been running our meetings, we've been having meetings ending sometimes earlier than 5:00. By setting it on the agenda and having people come there was a possibility we would be coming back just to do the proclamation work, which is certainly allowable for people that would want to come back and do that. I don't have a strong feeling on it any way but that's just the evolution of it. Councilmember Kelly. [9:21:26 AM] >> Kelly: I know sometimes our council meetings on Thursday start at 10:00. Would it be amenable to start at 9:00 on workdays to do those proclamations? >> Mayor Adler: It would if that was the will of the council. I know a lot of members like that last minute work and preparation -- a lot of people shaking their head no this is the place we are allowed to throw out ideas. Councilmember pool. >> Pool: I think the idea about that 10:00 A.M. Start time, it really is about the staff who are supporting the meeting and organizing themselves and getting the meeting organized. That's a question that recurs regularly, so yeah, it really isn't about us, it's about the staff. >> Mayor Adler: What dogies think about the [9:22:26 AM] proclamation -- do you guys think Mr. -- Think about the proclamation. >> Pool: I really did like the break at dinner time and the protocols and ceremony that went around it and I would be pleased to return to that approach. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Ellis. >> Ellis: I wonder if there might be benefit to doing them in chambers whether we decide morning or afternoon. I also miss the music. I know there's a lot of musicians that would love to come and play, I don't know when we could bring that back, but I miss it. >> Mayor Adler: I like that tradition too. Do we want to go back to the schedule before with music and proclamations running it the way we basically had run it before? >> Mayor, can you just go over what it used to be like just so that we -- [laughter] >> Mayor Adler: So we -- during the dinner break, and it's good to see more and [9:23:27 AM] more people participating in proclamations because it was a dinner break for everybody but me. During dinner break we invite an artist from the community from different genres and they come and play a music interlude, a song or two. It's relatively short, but it does give people some visibility, but it also -- we've also had some well-known artists perform. Just a way to bring music into the chamber. When the music is done, they clear the stage here quickly and then we would move then into proclamations. And it doesn't stop the practice of being able to deliver proclamations independent of those meetings or deliver them at meetings, but some proclamations usually two to [9:24:28 AM] five proclamations we would do from the podium. And then people would sometimes invite others to come and watch. So it happens during the lunch break. Usually the lunch break then goes for about an hour and a half, and the first half an hour to 40 minutes of it for those people that want to be here, a lot of councilmembers are retiring to do work and to do other kinds of things, but those that want to be here can be here for the music and the proclamations. Okay? All right. So if that's the will, manager is that okay if we can do that? I know it takes time to kind of set that up and schedule that, so I'm not sure it necessarily happens at the next meeting, but if the clerk's office could get us back to that practice. Okay? [9:25:31 AM] Other issues you thought would be good for us to talk about. You had also talked about grouping speakers. The way that it's happening now with people signing up, we take the in-room speakers first, then take the people that called in, and we'll continue the practice that was set up for us last week that we did in zoning but did not carry over to -- I didn't pick up on it for the first part because I actually had a list that broke it up by numbers and I didn't follow that. So we'll call the speakers in groups by the matter that they've signed up to speak on. >> Tovo: Yeah, and I think from the time we talked about having this conversation at work session to now it has right itself a bit. I'm sorry I'm having trouble following you, though. So let's kind of walk through the day if we could. When we take up the consent agenda, you have individuals who have -- so we pull -- say we have speakers who are [9:26:32 AM] more than two speakers on a consent agenda item and they've called in. Are they going to come up in the same way -- I think where it gets confusing is how are we -- how are we falling back on our former process with the virtual speakers? So in order practice we would pass the consent agenda, then we would take up, say number 9 because it had been pulled by speakers. Those two speakers are both online. Do they get to speak at the very beginning of the day before we pass the consent agenda or do we hear from them when we take up item 9 after we pass the consent agenda? >> Mayor Adler: I would suggest that we take them up in the morning as we have been so that people can show up and have the ability to be able to speak and then to leave. I know that there are some speakers that like to speak when an item comes up. I know there are other people who have said they like being able to speak in the morning because they don't have to sit here all day, and sometimes we've had people who have sat here for [9:27:33 AM] nine, ten hours waiting to speak. Which becomes its own kind of prohibitive thing. And we don't always know exactly when we call the consent speakers what's going to ultimately end up on consent or not end up on consent. I mean, we pull things, but oftentimes we'll pull things just before we take a vote. So absent the will of the council being differently, I would keep that part the same. I would invite people to speak in the morning, have the morning call for speakers and then have the afternoon call for zoning. >> Tovo: Sorry, I'm still not following. I think -- I agree with you. If people want to speak, get it done with and leave, they get to do that, whether they are on the phone or here in person. They can speak at the beginning of the day and leave. If their preference is to talk about it when -- I would just say it continues [9:28:33 AM] to be, I think, more impactful if people speak at the same time that we're actually discussing the item because then if we have questions we can ask them, but also it's very -- I think, as a community member, I would prefer always to speak at the time it's happening. But I get that -- I mean, it's a great option to have for people who don't want to wait and whatnot to be able to speak and leave. But that still doesn't answer my question what happens to those -- they've sandy up to talk about consent. They are going to stay and speak to item 9. Do they speak -- if it's on the consent agenda, do they speak at the beginning of the day or do they speak when we pull it -- when we are actually taking it up here on the dais? It's been pulled from consent, number 9 is pulled from consent and we're about to talk about it. Have we already heard those speakers tore do they have the option of speaking at that time if they are on the [9:29:34 AM] phone? >> Mayor Adler: The way we've been doing it before, they don't speak until the item actually gets called. >> Tovo: Right. >> Mayor Adler: There are advantages and disadvantages to that time. It's a lot easier to time manage a meeting when everybody speaks in the morning and then you can set an agenda and work through items and I think in this period of time we've been able to run meetings more efficiently and meeting sooner -- and end meetings sooner. Again, there are tradeoffs. I think as a member of the community I would always prefer to speak just before an item gets called. But I also as a member of the community -- members of the community are upset with how long meetings go. That becomes its own bar to people being able to participate. I understand the choice issue, but there's also for me I think we do better when [9:30:34 AM] we run a meeting that gets us out earlier than later. I think we make better decisions and work better. For me, I would keep doing it the way we're doing it now as I would have people speak. I don't know how hard it would be to go to the phone between numbers and to maintain that system. I don't know the answer to that. Certainly we could say if you don't -- if that presented an issue, we could say we'll ask people who are physically present if they want to speak during the day. If there was a problem with the phone, I don't know because I haven't asked that question. Or we can stay with the practice of saying let's have everybody talk in the morning. >> Tovo: So I think where it gets confusing for me, I mean it's six minutes one way or another, if we have two speakers on number 6, we're going to listen to that six minutes regardless when it is. I think the efficiency of the meeting is just having a clear plan and then kind of following it through. [9:31:35 AM] And so what I -- what I think I need to understand and the public needs to understand is if they want to speak, if they believe it's most impactful for them to speak when we call off the item, do they only have an option to do that when they are here in public. I think that's what it would become. If all of our virtual speakers speak in the morning and don't have an option, they don't have an option speaking when that item gets pulled up, they only have an option speaking in the morning, we need to broadcast that. Like if you -- if you are a virtual speaker, these are your times, this time -- roughly this time and roughly this time. But you won't have an option of speaking when the item gets pulled up. >> Mayor Adler: I think there are two questions. One is do we just say the rule is everybody speaks virtually or in person, do you speak in the morning. Then the second question would be if we're going to let people speak on items other than just in the morning, is that an option [9:32:37 AM] that's available both in person and by phone? Or is it an option that's only available to people who are in person? I think those are the two questions. I would -- for me, I would say everybody speaks in the morning. In part because it's hard sometimes to predict how long things are going to take. In the afternoon depending on how many people show up to speak or stay to speak or come to speak. We used to have a rule that let people come and sign up to speak until the moment that an item gets called. We also haven't been doing that here lately. People have been signing up ahead of time. I like that practice because we've been able to adjust our meetings based on people signing up ahead of time to speak. And I think that's helped us run meetings a little more [9:33:38 AM] orderly and a little bit more efficiently. So for me what I would do is I would keep that rule that you have to sign up ahead of time, either virtually or in person, but all the virtual people speak in the morning and then we have a better idea what the rest of the day looks like. If we wanted to have people speak before every item, then we could find out from the clerk if there's an issue with engaging people on the phone or the course of the day. Councilmember Ellis. >> Ellis: I have a couple thoughts on it. I have a little bit of a concern with folks who are able to be here all day. Nod understanding what order we're going the take things up in that get a different preference than folks who may not be able to. Over the past year and a half we've heard so many people juggling their kids, juggling their work because they can't take the day off to come with be us for an [9:34:39 AM] extended period of time that they don't understand how long they are going to be here. I would like predictability specially for folks in district 8. Getting here and not knowing how long you are going to sit here if you are going to speak at that moment would be difficult. I understand the benefit of hearing the commentary right when we're discussing the item, but I know how to email us. We know every morning before a meeting I get a rundown of all the information that's come in and what perspectives people are taking so we want that feedback and value it. But a lot of my constituents can't be here for an unknown period of time when they don't know when their item is going to come up and say we're going to speak up with the item comes and have to get their kids from school or run some other errand they have to get completed that day. I think doing it in the morning has been really helpful so we can hear all of it right up front so we understand perspectives [9:35:39 AM] before we take it up. I also would like to hear on the in-person versus remote, we need to have our years open to our clerk's office how difficult that. They hang up and maybe not want to call in at 9:30 or 10:00 and by 1:30 they've been on hold for hours. I don't know the implications of that and I don't know if anyone is prepared to speak on it. I know you have much more working knowledge of that system than what we're seeing up here. >> Jeanette Goodall, city clerk for a few more days. I will tell you the remote is the trickier part because of just being able to know when to call them, when to tell people we will be calling them. And just keeping them on the [9:36:39 AM] phone because many of them are on their cell phones and reception drops with the cell phones. And so, you know, we're -- what you all don't see behind the scenes is enduring that window that we have for morning and afternoon, we are calling people constantly and/or emailing them, helping them get back in because their call has dropped. And so the more you make that more complicated, the more it becomes more frustrating not only for them but for us as well. Now, that does not mean that we cannot add additional batches, that if you have a particular item that you all discuss, like on Tuesday so that we can plan, it's harder to add batches on the fly because there is some programming and some recording so that when the people answer their phone they know who the call is [9:37:42 AM] from. So -- but if we know that in advance and if there's an item that you want to take separately because you -- you want to set it for a time, you know you are going to have a number of speakers, we can add batches in addition to the 10:00 and 2:00 P.M. Remote meetings. We just need to know that in advance so we can plan and let the residents know when that item will be taken up. And so it does make it easier if we -- if we take them in the bigger batches so that we can manage them at one time. Because currently it takes at least three staff members to manage that remote piece and keep everybody in in the queue. >> Ellis: In my perspective how people engage with us publicly, I want to know the person navigating this for the first time understands [9:38:43 AM] what's happening. People have to plan days in advance to get the right childcare or to have a different spouse or grandparent pick up the kid from school. As we go renavigating getting things back to, quote unquote, back to normal someone navigating this for the first time the clerk can tell them what to expect and that is going to be the expectation moving throughout the process. So I do appreciate how much more accessible this has been to the public because I think that's a really good benefit Fort Worth for us. And thank -- benefit for us. Thank you for all that work. I know a lot of work goes into it. >> Pool: Two items. I like the batch idea and maybe we can incorporate that. I have a different issue that I wanted just to lay on the table for consideration and that is when we are going to postpone like in zoning cases, normally the conversation from the public is whether or not to postpone, that's the question in front of them, [9:39:44 AM] but we have been allowing them to speak to the merits of the cases and I would like to return back to the more yes, no on postponement. It does mean people come back or reengage at a later time when an item is postponed, but that's more proximate to the actual decision-making. I think that would be very helpful particularly -- >> If we know in advance, the problem is we don't know a lot of times in advance when a case is going to get postponed. But if I know in chance when we send out the notice to the residents, we have at least been informing them that from what we understand this case is going to be postponed. But sometimes we don't get those notices until, you know, late Wednesday night which I'm already asleep or on Thursday. And so we can't pass that along. But if we know, we do. >> Pool: Right. [9:40:44 AM] Well, and I think there are a couple layers to that too because the dais can choose to postpone and you wouldn't necessarily know that. But Jerry rusthoven could copy you. >> We get them, a lot of times we don't get them until late in the evening because that's when Jerry sends them out. >> Pool: That's the piece I wanted to massage. The message when we introduce the item, and mayor you have been saying this item has been postponed, but when people come in and start talking, I think we need to remind them the question in front of them is yes or no on postponement because we're not supposed to be listening to the merits. >> Mayor Adler: Part of that is the chair and maintaining that kind of discipline. If we want to do that, I need support from the dais to do that because we have people that show up. [9:41:49 AM] Sometimes people say you are postponing for two weeks I don't want to come back. So if I'm here, I would hike the chance to speak. I would be comfortable saying you can speak in and out but you can't speak later, but the problem is sometimes between now and then it changes. And what they want to speak to changes. So I'm happy to enforce whatever kind of rule you want to do so long as we're together on that. As the dais, I'm here, I would like to speak and we say sorry, you have to come back because the matter has been postponed so there's solidarity on the dais. >> Pool: I think the answer is how you described it, the fact is on postponement issues and details may change between the first date and the postponed to date and that is the response back to the resident as things are in [9:42:49 AM] flux and so hold your fire, we would like to hear from you but let's firm things up and see what the chances, the loan it's being postponed has to do with elements of the case that are in active consideration. Continue your engagement with the individual offices and it will be reset and we welcome you to return when we have a better sense of what the issues in front of us. >> Mayor Adler: I'm happy to do that so long as we're together in that because sometimes when someone wants to speak we have awkward moments on the dais with someone saying I'll recognize them to speak. So two issues that are on the table right now. The first issue is the first one Kathie brought up about speakers. And the question is first we want all the speakers to speak in the morning to speak in the morning or give people the opportunity to speak as their item is called if it was not handled on consent. I think that's the one question that's in front of [9:43:50 AM] us now. If we're going to have people speak as items are called, then we -- we have kind of the -- I mean it sounds like we could do it, the problem we don't know when it is it would be called. You would be calling people on the phone and saying you had signed up on item number 9, we're now calling number number 9, do you want to talk on item number 9? Or do people charged with watching as they had in the past and they could call in and say we're now calling number 9, do we have anybody that's calling in to speak to us. >> So I don't know if I can completely answer that question. We are talking with the vendor about some additional ways of keeping a batch open and whether or not that's possible and how we could allow people to come back [9:44:50 AM] into a batch. Because typically once we take the remote speakers, we close that batch so that we don't have people just calling in and hanging around for nothing. And so I don't know what might be possible going forward. I just know that creating a batch the day of the meeting for someone to call in five minutes before you take up the item would be virtually impossible. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. I mean, for me -- >> Without stopping your meeting and giving us 15, 20 minutes to get everything set. >> Mayor Adler: I'm hearing lots of positive kudos for how we've been doing it. And having the number of speakers in the morning, knowing what numbers they are signed up for has helped us set the >> Mayor Adler: Set the meeting in order, the day [9:45:51 AM] before, and even to come with a recommendation to the council with how much time speakers should have relative to the number of people that are signed up. So I -- I personally would keep what we have now, because I think it is working well. Kathie, and then council member Kelly. >> Tovo: At some point, I'm not sure that having people speak at the time of the item outweighs what is a challenging logistical process and already requires staff time. I agree, unless and until we have a different kind of portal, it makes best sense, if you are calling in virtually on consent items or any other item on the agenda that's not zoning, allowing those folks or requiring those folks to talk at the beginning of the day makes sense. If you are here in person, you have an option. Is that accurate? You have an option of doing it in the beginning of the day or later when the item is pulled? [9:46:52 AM] You have that option. >> Mayor Adler: You can decide that. That is exactly the practice we did before. It is not the practice we have been doing here for the last 21 -- >> Tovo: I suggest we keep that option. I agree, I think people are happy about the ability to call in instead of come down. I do want to preserve the option for people to talk at the time the item comes up, I just, as a community member I heard lots of criticism about another body in town that only allows, you know, you have to talk in a batched way in the beginning, it disconnects it sometimes from the conversation. I think preserving that opportunity makes sense to me. I also am -- would like to talk and maybe -- I don't want to go on and on too much today, but I do like -- I think it is important to preserve the opportunity for people to sign up later than we have been. I completely understand the necessity of doing it while we're virtual, making sure that we have that cutoff time. [9:47:52 AM] I think if you will talk virtually, that preregistration needs to apply. If you are prepared to come down here and talk, you should be allowed to sign up before we take up the item on the dais. There are multiple times -- can I explain before some of my colleagues are nodding their head no. There are multiple times where an issue, we may talk about an issue on Tuesday and it hits the newspapers on Wednesday, and so they may be only finding out for that issue for the first time on Wednesday. I know posting our agendas earlier has helped. But it just is the case that there are individuals in our community who will have missed that sign up deadline on Wednesday and want to come address their elected officials on Thursday. I think they should have the right to do that, if they are willing to come down here and do so because they already missed the electronic registration. I think all of these changes have worked toward providing more access for the public. I don't want to see that piece of it curtailed. That we had in place [9:48:55 AM] previously. And I don't think it was necessary because of the virtual. I don't see it necessary for the way we run our in-person. >> Mayor Adler: Council member Kelly. >> My question was answered. >> Mayor Adler: When we had items that were pulled we had people that were trying to set for time certain their items because they had people that were showing up to speak and they wanted to give them a time to show up to speak, which I understood, too. But that really also makes it so hard to be able to run an efficient meeting, because now you are working around a time when speakers get called. People were doing that, and they didn't know when their item would be called. [9:49:55 AM] And we had people sitting over the course of the day. Some people can do that. Some people can't. That never seemed fair to me. So I hear what you are saying, Kathie. Certainly the will of the council should governor. I would have people sign up ahead of time. We post our agendas two weeks in advance, as we're doing it. That lets us really be able to set a meeting, and I would have everybody speak in the morning that wants to speak, because again, that has enabled us to really juggle and dot -- do the items we were doing quickly because we work it out on the dais continue is a system that worked well for us. I recommend keeping it. But there are no good choices, there are advantages and disadvantages to anything that we do. Council member Ellis. [9:51:03 AM] >> Ellis: I think we have done great work over the past few years to make sure we hear from all people. One of the silver linings of having to do things remote was that we figured out the clerk's office figured out a system so people that can't take off a whole day of work to speak to us aren't here all day. So I would like the options to be the same for anyone, no matter if they can take the full day off or not. I really want to make sure we have a level playing field of public participation and communication with us. >> Tovo: Can I ask you to explain how allowing people to register after Wednesday curtails someone's abilities to participate? I'm not saying their wrong about that, I'm not understanding the connection. I just think it is -- you know, it is foreclosing an option for people that may have found out about an issue on Wednesday. >> Ellis: It is less about timing of people showing up, [9:52:06 AM] but when we hear the information. I don't know if we're still able to do it morning of if we allow the remote process. Whatever we're doing, I think we do it for everybody. I know a lot of my constituents can't sign up that morning and can't come sit here all day. I'm trying to advocate to make sure however we do public participation is something the clerk's office can handle and everybody gets the same access to us. >> Mayor Adler: Council member alter. >> Alter: I think we all want to make the meetings as accessible to everyone as possible. It is important for us to have a discussion about this. From what I heard, it sounds like we should have the virtual sign up be by the day before as the current practice. And that we could allow folks to come in on the day of, if they're in person to sign up. [9:53:07 AM] And the main question now is whether the people who show up in person can come and speak on a particular item at that particular time, if they're willing to stay all day. I'm fine with either way. I suggest whatever we do doesn't have to be set in stone. I think people are getting used to having to iterate and having to see where things are. So we could choose one way and see how it works. And if it seems to be problematic in one way we can switch it. I don't think what we do as our next iteration will be the final and perfect iteration. We will have to adjust to things. I think it is great to continue the virtual. I would like to be able to allow people to come and sign up. That will affect, you know, the amount of minutes that people get, if we get a whole lot of people that are showing up in person. But I do agree, people sometimes only find out about [9:54:08 AM] the item the day before or the day of. So I would like there to be a mechanism even if both are not possible. And I would support either one for the in person, but I think we just need to choose one and try it. >> Mayor Adler: Council member Fuentes. And then pob -- Pio will be next. >> Fuentes: I think it is important to have the same playing field for constituents. I think it is best if they come up one time instead of per item. >> Mayor Adler: Council member Renteria. >> Renteria: I agree with a lot. The concern I have is when we [9:55:09 AM] allow speakers to -- when we make speakers to speak when the item was pulled, they were attending in person, and we would go into executive session, and we would spend hours in there before coming back out. Now we have made people wait and if we had our music and they had to wait until night. And that's the only thing I have a concern. That we should also give the people an option to speak in the morning, on items on consent. So they don't have to spend all day. If they want to, they're fine. But we should allow them to speak. >> Mayor Adler: So we're all different places. [9:56:10 AM] That's ok. It is who we are. What we could do -- I propose that we have everybody speak in the morning rather than individual items, but we change the time that you have to sign up in order to speak. You keep it for day before for those signing up to speak remotely so you can program that and work on that. But if somebody shows up day of and wants to speak in the morning batch, we would let them do that. They have to sign up. I still suggest we cut it off like at 9:15 or something. Day of. That gives us 45 minutes to know the number of speakers, so we can then better program the rest of the day. I would propose that as kind of the next iteration or compromise that we try. [9:57:11 AM] People ok with that? All right. >> If I could? I think the easiest way for us right now -- and we're looking at a new online registration form that might assist going forward. But with our current process, if we had everyone register online from when it opened until noon on Wednesday, and we closed the -- so they could register like they do now for in person or remote. And then at noon on Wednesday, we could open the speaker kiosk here at city hall at noon on Wednesday or shortly after, once we have imported the list of in-person speakers into the system. And that way we don't run into any conflicts with trying to import the information and we still allow anyone who was in [9:58:12 AM] person coming down on Thursday and option of registering remotely so they didn't have to come down twice, once to register and once to speak. But then we can open it up for late in person registrations on Wednesday afternoon and then close it whenever you want it on Thursday. >> Mayor Adler: I think that is what we just described. O online registration ends at noon, either in person or remote. As soon as you can import the data in that, you will open up the kiosks which require someone physically here in order to sign up. Someone can come down, whatever time it is on Wednesday when the kiosk is up and running. And the kiosk would be up and running on Thursday morning until some point. And I want to leave enough time before 10:00 to close that. So that again, you can get the numbers out so we can see how many people are there. [9:59:13 AM] Does 9:15 give us sufficient time to do that? >> I believe so. But I will not be here when we do this. >> Mayor Adler: Does that sound good. >> I think so. >> Mayor Adler: The kiosk will be open until 9:15 and then the kiosk is closed and then our speakers are set for the day. Ok? Let's run with that for the next time and see how that goes. >> I will say while I'm up here and I have your ear, for like music and proclamations, I would request that you not set time concerns or come back at 6:30 that means the mayor doesn't get a break, the atxn, clerks office also do not get a dinner break with music and proclamations because sometimes they can last a while. >> Mayor Adler: I didn't understand. >> If you will have live music and procs, especially if you have five to seven proclamations, sometimes that [10:00:13 AM] can go until 6:30 and if staff has to be here for those and so if you say you are going to come back at 6:30 staff has to be here at 6:30 in preparation for you returning which means they do not get a break. I ask if you are going back to the evening you build in time for staff to have a break in between when procs will end and when you return. >> Mayor Adler: Ok. Let's also limit the number of procs to five. So the first five on get called so we don't have running and we'll make sure there is always at least 45 minutes from the close of music and procs before we come back so that staff can have a chance to be able to meet -- to eat as well. Is that ok? Kathie? >> Tovo: I'm thinking through that time. If we say five procs at five [10:01:14 AM] minutes, that's 25 minutes, adding 45 minutes puts us at a weird time. I mea -- >> Mayor Adler: Five procs at five minutes and music, it is 6:45. We're saying whenever it stops -- sometimes fewer procs and sometimes the band is on and off more quickly. What we're saying is it will exactly start 45 minutes after we stop, but we're saying that we will give staff at least a 45-minute break after procs and music is over. So if it ends at 6:30 we can't start earlier than 7:15. If it ends at 6:45 we can't start earlier than 7:30. We used to have a rule of 15 minutes after, which is probably not enough time. >> Mayor Adler: Say that again. >> Tovo: There used to be a rule of 15 minutes after [10:02:14 AM] procs, which never gave anybody enough time 45 is fine. It will be a mid mark. 7:15. 6:45. I know when we aren't coming back -- when we are coming back at a midpoint between an hour and half-hour we tend not to come back on time. Maybe that just takes a little thought off the dais. Maybe it is a 30 minutes after procs end because they gets us back at an even number. >> Mayor Adler: We're never exactly sure. >> Tovo: I think the limitation on procs unless there is a real wild situation where somebody needs a proc makes since. Because that is the limiting factor that I think gets us back on time. >> 30 minutes would be fine. >> Mayor Adler: We'll try to do 30 minutes. We won't start any more than 30 minutes after. I want us to be done as close [10:03:15 AM] as we can to 6:45. Because then we will be adding time on the back of that. Let's try five procs, so if we run into problems with that. We'll always have a 30-minute break that staff knows at the end of procs and music. >> With the live music if we can wait until January meetings to implement those changes, we have to get with the music offices and start scheduling things like that. >> Mayor Adler: I think that's fine. Ok? Alison? >> I wanted to ask genet if there are any other aspects of the functioning day that you were concerned about or make suggestions to us about? >> Oh, wow, put me on the spot. Um ... I will say one of the -- probably the thing that we hear the most is if you say you're going to come back at [10:04:16 AM] 7:30 and it is 8:00 by the time you get back and get started, that is probably one of the biggest complaints we hear from residents. Because especially if it is right before we had to call them, that is an extra 30 minutes that they're on the call hanging. So that might be something that as you go forward, you kind of keep track of. And monitor better. If you say you're coming back at 7:30, you're back at 7:30, if possible. >> Alter: Thank you, that is a source of frustration also for those of us on the dais. I was at a press conference and late today, I will say this recognizing we're late this morning. We all have some time when we're late, but when not a quorum is here, that is something we can change ourselves by showing up on time when we're supposed to be here. And starting, if there are six of us, you know, as [10:05:17 AM] appropriate or getting whatever we can get done with six of us, there will be, you know, a straggler or two. We all have a lot of commitments, but if there is a quorum on the dais, then we get moving and then that becomes the norm. I think that even though we haven't been doing that all the time, I think it is something we're all capable of doing if we're moving in sync and have a commitment to that. I think that would save us a huge amount of time throughout the day. We can probably save at least a half an hour every meeting if we all showed up at the time that we said we would be back. >> Mayor Adler: That sounds right. Colleagues -- >> Alter: Did Mirna want to add anything else? >> [Off mic] >> Mayor Adler: We have two pulled items, the first is [10:06:18 AM] item 10. >> We didn't mean to -- >> We had a miscommunication. >> Mayor Adler: That gets -- >> My apologies. I think we conveyed it to the staff. >> Mayor Adler: Item 35, to establish the city marshal this was pulled by council member tovo, alter and I pulled that as well. Let's real quickly, Kathie, say why you pulled it, what your concern was or what you want addressed and Alison, you can do that, I'll do that and then we'll go to staff. >> Tovo: In terms of the big picture of the questions I have, they range from what are the -- what would be the financial efficiencies -- let me know back up, I know we once had a marshal program, it was discontinued. [10:07:20 AM] I'm interested in understanding why the shift. I know that part of this is at least I thought part of it was about financial efficiencies and other kinds of improvements in line with our re-imagining policing conversation. Yet I know from talking -- you know, I know from reviewing some of the concerns from community members that that doesn't -- these would -- it is hard to understand exactly how this functions within that. It wasn't -- I guess I also have questions about the process of getting this and how much of a community process it has been. It doesn't appear to have been something that our re- imagining task force has discussed. So my questions range from really understanding how it would function, what the training is, what does oversight and accountability look like? What kinds of responsibilities they would have. [10:08:20 AM] And how it would fit into our existing system, including state registrations for peace officers. In my mind, this is a pretty big shift. There are a lot of component questions. I'm not sure that I will be ready by Thursday to take this big jump without really fully understanding exactly how it is going to work. Alison? >> Alter: Good morning. First, I want to say that I believe the courts have an undeniable need for security for the safety of everyone. What I am trying to grapple with and understand is whether the best way to meet the needs is by creating a new law enforcement agency, which is essentially what this seems to be doing. I have concerns about the transparency, the training, the accountability, the efficiency, as I mentioned. As council member tovo mentioned, also trying to understand how it fits in with [10:09:22 AM] the re-imagining. We would spend over $2 million to create this. I have questions about where the funds are coming from, what the budgetary commitments look like in light of the environment, you know, if we have an issue with security at our municipal courts, which we most definitely do, I'm not sure if there are better ways to address that and if the time and energy that is put into creating this new law enforcement agency might be better put into making sure the academy is running smoothly and we get APD recruits that can serve in this process in this role. There seems to be underlying assumptions. I have questions along those lines about how a new chief would be selected, et cetera. I think it may be more appropriate to just ask the questions when appropriate. >> Mayor Adler: I pulled this [10:10:22 AM] in part because I think it is a big change. And obviously of significant issue in several of the communities that are involved and kind of re-imagining policing. So I pulled it to better understand some of the elements. Obviously we have to take care of the increased security needs that's been demonstrated. The question is what is the best way to do that? You know, in first blush on this, there is a desire to try to download from our APD officers some of the things that we're asking them to do or focus on things that APD can uniquely do. So on that respect having Smith like this would make sense in that context. How does this get accounted [10:11:24 AM] for in relation to house bill 1900. Does this change under house bill 1900? My understanding is and I get confirmation is this is happening outside of the atp budget, it is not part of the legislative scheme. And the council can gear it up or gear it down. Or the council could. I also want to know, is this kind of like the arson investigators in the fire department? My understanding is there are some in essence police parallels within the fire department that don't report to the police chief. They report to the fire chief in that department. I think they're part of the fire department budget and not part of the police department budget. So I guess my question is, is [10:12:24 AM] this kind of a parallel thing to that? And the last question I had was with respect to training. Is the training that is required of someone in this position going through the full cadette class that we have for police? Or is there some shorter less-involved training that we would require of someone who was doing security in the courts? If that was the case, then that might be a reason to consider it. Because it would again download work from APD and let us take the existing officers we have and better deploy them on front lines to be actually fighting crime. So let's check and see if other people on the dais have questions they want to daylight before we go to staff. Council member kitchen. >> Kitchen: I have -- thank you. I do have the same questions. So I won't repeat those. But I do have a little bit, [10:13:27 AM] one additional question that is sort of related. First offer, let me say that I recognize the importance and need for security at the court my questions are not related whether or not it is needed. As you are answering the questions that others have asked. I would like to understand more specifically the time crunch. From my perspective, if I am reading this correctly, you are going to be continuing with APD officers over the next 18 months or whatever anyway because it would take a while to set up a city marshal office. So it just appears to me that we should do the analysis first before we reach the conclusion that we need a city marshal office. Because we're not able to make the change immediately anyway. I want to understand this, or see a better nexus that the [10:14:28 AM] need results in this approach. I also think that we need to engage with the community more to actually - - with the public safety commission. And I appreciate the suggestion that was made that working through operational policies is something that would be done with the commission. That is after the fact. That is after we created it. I think we need to be engaged up-front in the conversation, more engaged up-front in the conversation along with an analysis of what the potential options are. So those are the concerns that I had. >> I have a question so I'm up to speed. Maybe the municipal court clerk, I see some of the members of the public safety committee aren't here. I remember this coming up a long time ago. Can you give me a brief rundown of how the topic was [10:15:28 AM] approached and why it might have been deemed necessary through that process? >> Mayor Adler: Other questions from the dais? We'll hear all the questions -- daylight the questions and then go to staff. >> Sorry. I didn't understand. >> Mayor Adler: That's ok. >> I am curious, have you taken this issue to the council's public safety committee? I think that may be a good avenue for additional review and discussion. >> Mayor Adler: Ok. We'll add that to the list. Colleagues, anything else before we turn it over to staff? Council member tovo? >> Tovo: One thing, I didn't preface our comments in the same way my colleagues did. I want to really emphasize to making sure we have security at our municipal court. My questions are absolutely within that framework as well. >> Mayor Adler: I think we're all unified on that. All right. You heard a whole list of [10:16:29 AM] questions. You want to help us? >> There are multiple people that are going to need to answer multiple questions. But I'll start with the broad overview. This was not -- >> Mayor Adler: Would you introduce yourself, please, for the record. >> I'm sorry. I'm Sheri Staten, the presiding judge. This is Mary Jane grubs, she's the clerk of the court. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. >> This is not our first choice. As part of the re-imagining initiative, it was determined that the officers that have been at court are needed to go back to APD to perform other duties. So this is not what we wanted. We certainly do not want to be in the law enforcement business. We are a court. We're not a branch of law enforcement. This is something that is quite new to us. There was a marshal program in [10:17:32 AM] the past. Neither one of us have dealt with a marshal program. So we're starting from ground zero. The primary purpose is court security. Really, the only purpose is court security. I heard and respect the concerns of the public safety commission. They are concerned that having peace officers with the authority to arrest means that this is going to function like other marshal programs in other cities. We're Austin. We don't do what they do. We don't arrest people and bring them to court. We don't send them out on some kind of patrol to arrest people. We haven't done that in years. We don't want to do that. Anybody that comes to court with an active warrant can come into court. They're not arrested. Even if they aren't able to resolve it, they walk out. There are certain duties both at municipal court and the [10:18:33 AM] downtown Austin community court that can only be done by peace officers. That includes -- I will take this off. Taking people into custody. And one of the agreements on how to handle the camping cases is instead of taking people to the jail, the central booking facility, APD is going to bring them directly to dacc or municipal court and we will try to get them the services that they need at that time. And in order to do that, they are under arrest, they need to be taken into court by a peace officer at court. So we have to have them. There are a few other things that only peace officers can do. So that's where we are. And again, we hear and we respect the concerns of the [10:19:33 AM] community. We are willing and want to work with advocates to develop something that is like Austin, different, and upholds the values of this city. >> Hi, I'm going to address a little bit of the financial efficiency piece. There was $2.7 million approved in the fiscal year '22 budget for this. That is a little bit higher than what APD has been spending the last few years, because it does include significant start-up cost. Uniforms, equipment, cars, computers, things of that nature. In the long run, it is slightly cheaper, but there is not a significant cost savings [10:20:33 AM] for this. It is primarily, I think, most of the cost savings would be in the increased training that APD officers are required to have for their full breadth of duties, however, again, not significant. I don't have the exact difference. I can get that to you. I have it, I just don't have it with me. >> Mayor Adler: Ray, do you want to also speak? I know that you are here as well. >> Can we get further clarity on the budget? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. On the last thing? >> Yeah. >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> So where is that budget? Is it in the APD budget or the municipal court budget, because the municipal officers. >> Municipal court budget. >> I think the 14 officers were paid for out of the municipal court. >> That is correct. >> Ok. That's interesting. [10:21:35 AM] Ok. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Ray, do you want to speak to this? Are we ready to do this here? >> Tovo: Mayor, I had a follow-up question to the budget response as well. >> Mayor Adler: Ok. >> Tovo: I think you said it is a little bit more expensive in the beginning, and then over the long run it is a little bit less, but the main difference in cost has to do with the training curriculum for APD officers? But I didn't completely understand that remark. >> There are a couple of factors involved. Training is one. Overtime is another. Those are things that could likely be eliminated in terms of overtime. APD is having to utilize that now to fund the program. These would be full-time positions dedicated to the municipal court with very little overtime involved. And again, the training is less extensive. [10:22:36 AM] >> Tovo: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Ray? >> This is ray aryano, the city manager. I have been working closely with the municipal court to bring this item forward. By way of background, council will recall you approved several resolution in June 2020 that formed the city's re-imagining initiative. In particular, resolution 2020-0611-096 directs the city manager to explore options for reallocating positions and roles assigned to the Austin police department that can be managed by other departments. It is in this light we bring forward item 35. I will say a marshal program managed by the municipal court is a smaller and more efficient investment with peace officers with specialized training to operate in a court environment as opposed to the breadth of [10:23:39 AM] training for officers. I think that is what Mary Jane mentioned. Part of the focus we heard from re- imagine public safety advocates, the task force certainly was to try to focus on de-escalation techniques when possible. That can certainly be a focus of a marshal program developed under the municipal court. Certainly want to address that it is always daunting when we are starting a new program. And APD will be there providing security services along this path and providing advice. I think in terms of training, that has yet to be determined. I don't -- it hadn't occurred to me that they would be included in APD's training academy. I think one of the things that mayor Jane mentioned in terms of the training, is that marshals would not be required to get the full breadth of training that we return currently of our APD officers. [10:24:40 AM] That would be a time savings. Certainly they would be required to get the training to make them a certified peace officer under Texas statute tcol. And in terms of -- so mayor, your characterization of the peace officers would be similar to what we have for arson investigators within Austin fire department. Let's see, there was a question with regard to public safety committee hearing this item. We did both the committee chair and the public safety commission chair and in the case of public safety committee, they deferred hearing this particular item. We did get an opportunity, as you are aware to make a presentation to the public safety commission. Trying to see what other questions occur to me at this moment. Let me go ahead and pause there and see what questions you may have. >> Mayor Adler: Was there an item on this, ray, in the [10:25:41 AM] budget that we approved? >> As I'm understanding, there was an item that was approved to form the marshal program under the municipal court. And yes, perhaps either a law department or the urc could be more specific that is knowledgeable about hb1900. This would be outside of the hb1900 purview, if I am not mistaken. >> Mayor Adler: I haven't found it. But someone told me it was in the budget that we approved in June. Is that true? >> I believe it is. >> Mayor Adler: Ok. >> I guess Mary Jane can probably address that. It is in their budget. >> Mayor Adler: So the dollars were approved in the budget to stand up the marshal program for security? So this is a question in front of us now because we asked for this to come to us now is the [10:26:41 AM] simple answer to that question. >> Yes, from the budget perspective and the resolution back in June. >> Mayor Adler: Ok. So my sense on this is I don't know. This is a big decision, a significant change. It was something we asked for. Thank you for bringing it back to us. If our marshal program, if we were to have one is different as the presiding judge tells us in Austin, I think fleshing that out a little bit more about what it is that is different about this, what is the scope or scale, kind of what council member kitchen was talking about. Can we have a better feel for what it is? Specifically, what is the training, what is the training associated? What is the role and responsibility? What will we be saying specifically that they're not [10:27:41 AM] going to be doing that I think folks are concerned about? I'm very much open to doing this. I'm not sure we're ready to do this on Thursday, as council member tovo said for us to act. I think it is a bigger issue than that. But if it enables us to get 12 more officers on patrol under the existing kind of APD structure, then I think there might be a reason to take the officers out of there, if -- if that is not core to the crime fighting function that we ask APD to do. So long as they're not disassociated negatives with that, which I think are some of the concerns that I heard. I don't think you are standing up a program that would create those concerns. But I'm also interested in you [10:28:43 AM] guys being involved in that process so you are not coming up to us saying this is not our choice. I would like it to be something that was crafted that you said this is our choice and serves us well. >> So I want to speak a little bit to the timeline. And the process. The process is once -- the council has to approve the ordinance establishing authority for the office. For the marshal office. After that, then we would then apply for an agency with tcol and the dps and concurrently start recruiting for a chief marshal position. To do that and get a chief marshal onboarded, that person would be responsible for setting up the program, developing policies and procedures and hiring the deputies. Once the deputies are hired, then you have to purchase uniforms, equipment, the cars take a really long time. [10:29:44 AM] That is where we are getting to the 18, possibly longer months for this program. And I fully agree with having community engagement to develop the policies for the program. But I think it is extremely important -- honestly, I think it is required. You have to have an agency -- you need a chief marshal on board to be part of the program. The person needs to be in on the ground level developing it, first of all for buy-in and to provide input. We can't hire a chief marshal without an agency. We can't have an agency without the council approving that. So I understand the appearance and perception that is the horse before the cart, but there is certain things that we have to do before we can even hire a chief marshal. I think that is really instrumental. >> Mayor Adler: Council member pool and kitchen. [10:30:44 AM] >> Pool: This reminds me about the conversations we are having over on the capital metro board and the establishment of a specific corps with training in the details and familiar with transit oriented operations and providing safety for riders on the buses and the operators of the buses. I think in terms of the specialty -- special nature of the work that happens at our courts and I remember the incident a few years ago, where we had a shooting in Austin that was targeting one of our district judges. And that is why I very much appreciate the focus that you all are bringing to this. I recognize that this is a difficult concept for some to accommodate and think about. But the fact is this sort of distinct and discrete training [10:31:46 AM] for officers and deputies would provide a level of protection to our court workers, to our judges. To the community who is there for what can be very emotional reasons. And an overall sense of civil -- the civil society nature of the judicial work that you are doing. And the very real imperatives of protecting everybody who walks through those doors. So I recognize the difficulty of the conversation. I'm supportive of what you are hoping to do here. Not only because it was a direction in our budget from last summer, but because I think it is the right -- I think it is an appropriate approach, a right approach and it takes into the context of the current constructions that we're living through at this [10:32:51 AM] point. >> Mayor Adler: Council member kitchen. >> Kitchen: Well, I have two comments. So the first comment is this goes back to I'm not yet hearing why this is the approach. And what analysis was done that points to this being the approach as opposed to continuing as you are right now. What I'm kind of hearing is that the thinking is that you would be able to train officers with less -- not having to go through the full training, if I understood what ray was saying. I can see where that might be some value. But we're not saving anytime here. Because the APD as you said, it takes a while to set up an office. I'm not saying this isn't the right approach, I haven't heard an analysis that tells [10:33:52 AM] me -- city manager I'm not hearing an analysis that tells me this is the right approach. That is one thing. The second thing is a suggestion. If we move forward with this, and I agree with council member pool, that looking to what was done with cap metro, it can be informative. One of the things that they did, because same kind of questions were raised by the public as we go into that. They put in place, or we did, we put in place the parameters before we created the office. In other words, along with our action to create an office, we -- one of the things we did is stated we were going to create an community advisory committee and we had a timeline that that would be done by. I'm not suggesting that it's the same parameters to be used, I'm saying the issue you [10:34:53 AM] raise about having to create the office and then do the operational policies, that doesn't provide assurance to the public. I hear what you are saying, I trust that. I know that we operate differently with our municipal office. But that really needs to be in writing somewhere that is tied to the creation of an office like this. And so we can all be clear and understanding what would be happening going forward. There are options to do that. I'm not certain what all of those parameters ought to be. I think at the point this council decides to go forward and whatever point it is made, it ought to be done with very specific parameters that responds to the concerns that we're hearing from the public. But my first question is really, I would like to see an analysis about why this is the best approach. I'm open to it. Certainly open to it. [10:35:55 AM] I can guess what might be some reasons for efficiencies. But I haven't seen a piece of paper that is really telling me that. >> Mayor Adler: Kathie. And then Alison. >> Tovo: Yeah, I think I'm in exactly the same place. I think in looking through, really, in my fabulous staff member Ashley is looking through the q&a. We all had lots of questions about this during the budget q&a that are relevant I think to the conversation. It still lands me in the same place, I think you articulated council member kitchen, this may be the right approach, if so it will be right for other reasons than financial ones because there doesn't seem to be a cost savings there. The operational issue in the budget q&a that we had in conversations with staff about getting the 12 officers back [10:36:55 AM] to patrolling is something that won't happen quickly as council member kitchen mentioned. It is about how they function. It is the fundamental questions to ask. It is my understanding they're not in the office of police oversight, but there may be a possibility of making that change. So I do think those questions about accountability need to be answered as that further analysis happens. I want to highlight, I know the security officers right now, it is my understanding our contract is that a long-term plan, or is that just a transitional phase. We're moving, as a city, I hope, as our approved council policies, we're moving away from long-term needs met with contract staff. So that, too, you know, if any of our savings -- if there are any savings, that is a savings that is not reflective of how we want to staff our city. [10:37:58 AM] >> So I would like to answer that question. First, point of clarification is we don't currently have 12 officers there. There used to be 13 officers. APD has already reallocated seven to eight of them. Right now, I think we only have seven between the two courts. That is possible because we have done the majority of our dockets online and have reduced hours. All of that is increasing December 6. But as a stopgap, we did contract with a private security vendor. That contract is only through next June. So we will have to -- [siren] I'm sorry. I lost my train of thought because of the siren. But anyway, the contract security has supplemented the reduction in APD resources. But it is temporary. So that will have to be [10:38:58 AM] renewed. >> Tovo: Ok. The officers have gone from 12 slash 13 down to sevenish. You are supplementing with contract security, that is a different measure. There has to be a different plan for beginning in June to take you through whenever the marshals were ready to get to work. >> Correct. >> Tovo: Ok. And then the intent it to have marshals not contract security supplementing the marshallings. >> That's the plan. >> Mayor Adler: Council member alter. >> Alter: Thank you. I would like to better understand what your first choice is and how we might deliver that. We're talking 18 months and we'll have cadettes that will go successfully through the classes that we're anticipating. My understanding is you are doing some work virtually hopefully some of that may continue which does impact [10:39:59 AM] some of the level of need. I think there is broad switch in some of the choices that are made about bringing folks to court and other things that may also affect the overall best use of resources. So I guess, you know, I'm in the same place where I want to understand if this is what's meeting the needs identified. You say it is not your first choice. I would like to hear more about what the first choice is and ask the city manager if we exhausted every possibility to get to that. >> So our first choice would be to continue with APD because like I said, we're -- this is something new. It is a much bigger responsibility than has been our role in the past. This is -- the easier route would be if we could keep the APD officers that are already accustomed to court. [10:40:59 AM] I think Mr. Aryano can speak to the process and the analysis that went on and the determination that the marshal program was the best route to go. >> Thank you, judge. I will say briefly council member, that really this analysis and I know I heard from council member kitchen as well in terms of analysis. I think the analysis -- we can certainly go back and look at the cost factors and so forth. I would say the analysis is as simple as some of the decisions we made around -- somewhat similarly. Park patrol. That is an area where we believe the full breadth of capabilities that APD has is in the patrol functions. They can respond to park incidents, by beefing up the park rangers program who are [10:41:59 AM] vetted in and informed in terms of park programs is a better response and consistent with council direction 096 back in June. It is a little bit different. I will admit certainly that we're trading off, if you will, certified peace officers, APD officers for a marshal program which are also certified peace officers in the Texas state statute. Certainly glad to -- APD will continue to provide security services and ramp up as they need and as comebacks into the court as the judge is describing. This represents our best recommendation at this time, given council direction. >> I would like to add one more piece if I may. Ray, you didn't speak to this. There was a lot of research we conducted nation wide, statewide researches in jurisdictions and how they [10:43:01 AM] handle court security. There is a mixed bag, but most of them are using a hybrid approach of law enforcement and private security. So this is industry standard. >> So I'm just -- I'm concerned about the thing that was added on the end because of council direction. Because I'm still -- I'm still struggling with how, given the time frame that this will take, how this solves the problem. You know, we'll have 250 officers, you know, graduate by then. Granted there will be retirements, et cetera. I'm just sort of struggling without knowing how much training they need to do this role relative to elsewhere the emphasis that we're placing on deescalation and knowing the community and -- I just -- I [10:44:06 AM] need to see some further analysis that provides greater clarity that we have the guardrails, that we have been seeking elsewhere. So again, as folks said, I'm open if we can get it right, but I would like it to be the right choice with the appropriate guardrails that we have been working really hard to achieve in our community. And absent a full understanding of the security challenges that are within our court, you shared a lot in your memo about national trends, it is a little bit challenging to know what is the right solution and how much is precluded by just the APD staffing situation? >> Mayor Adler: Colleagues? [10:45:07 AM] Council member Casar. >> Casar: We have been on this topic for a while I wanted to provide my position to the dais, but for reasons articulated by council member alter and kitchens and others, not ready to approve this by Thursday. I think there is important discussion here today, but I don't think between here and Thursday it would be ready to be approved. >> Mayor Adler: That is my sense on this too. I would like to have it come back. I think it could come back to us, you know, pretty quickly. But some kind of statement that better explained what the guardrails were. What exactly will be the responsibilities? What will specifically not be their responsibilities. So that we know exactly what this is. It is helpful to know it doesn't count against hb1900 [10:46:08 AM] dollars. There was a budget approved for this in the municipal court budget. Was that dollar amount that was in the municipal court budget -- I mean, to better understand -- I don't know if you have to answer now. But to better understand we have in the budget now paying for APD, paying for the security that is happening and a line item for marshals. Does one of those go away if we implement the marshals? Do you know that? >> Once APD is able to remove all the resources that would -- it stays in their budget, it is in their budget now. That is an APD question on how the funds would be utilized. >> Mayor, what I would say is, again, we would reallocate the officers to patrol. I understand there is always a [10:47:09 AM] ramp-up period in transitioning from one program to another. In this particular case, we're trying to alwait APD resources to the full breadth of assignments they can do and create this separate program as much more focused as council member Poole is saying with cap metro's security solution. >> Mayor Adler: That is understood. I am trying to understand the mechanic of moving the officers out of court, back to patrol and what that impact is on house bill 1900. Because right now, the cost of those officers, I think, is charged to the municipal court budget as the arson investigators are charged to the fire department budget. If we take the APD officers that are there and bring them back to the APD budget to be doing patrol, then it's going to move those officers over. That doesn't necessarily mean an increased spending for APD because obviously we have a [10:48:10 AM] lot of funded, unfilled positions. I imagine that those 12 or 13ftes that are warn officers that are in the municipal court budget would move over to APD without an increase in the APD budget. That is my assumption. That would mean no house bill impacts by moving the officers. I would like confirmation in that is how it would be handled. Ed, are you here. >> We have to give you confirmation. The positions have been backcharged to the municipal court. What I don't know is we put money in the budget for marshal program, 1.3 million. I need to verify did we remove the backcharge already as part of the fy22 challenge. If we did, there were be no difference in regard to house bill 19. After the program is stood up, it would increase the budget. [10:49:12 AM] We could confirm that in short order. >> Mayor Adler: Even if it didn't, couldn't the 12 officers be moved to the already funded but unfilled positions in APD. >> We can make it work. >> Mayor Adler: There is a mechanism to do this without a 1900 impact. I want us to look at that. That is one of the concerns that I've heard. I think if you could give us a better feel for the guardrails on this and description of what they do or don't do, that would be helpful. Council member tovo and then Kelly. >> Tovo: I will note the conversation we're having now about where the costs came from does not accord with the information I got during the budget process unless I'm really having trouble aligning those. So ... Who is paying the cost of the APD officers is the first question that needs to be answered. >> Ok. We'll look at the budget [10:50:13 AM] questions and align can with the questions on the dais today and get you answers. >> Mayor Adler: Ok. Council member Kelly. >> Kelly: One of my concerns is that while putting the officers on patrol, a lot of the similarities in the two roles are there. What I would hate to see happen is lose additional APD officers by trying to fill this role in a different way. I want to daylight that possibility. >> Mayor Adler: Council member alter. >> Alter: As part of the follow-up, these were raised earlier. We need to understand if the officers are under the purview of the office of police oversight, what the transparency is, we will be negotiating a contract with the APD, Apa next year, so we need to understand how this interfaces potentially with that. Again I just -- I'm still [10:51:13 AM] wondering whether the resources to set this up might be better utilized to make sure that the came academy training facilities are ready to process as many officers as we need through that process. It seems very involved for 12 officers where those resources could be put into in terms of staff time and energy could be put into the academy revamp and academy re-up -- set up to allow us to meet needs of the city over time, which is some level a management challenge and figuring out. It seems like it is somewhat the same people to some degree that are involved. Again, if there is a way to do this, that is truly narrowing it, and we have confidence that we have the training that our community has been asking us with regard to [10:52:15 AM] de-escalation and knowing the community, I think we can have the conversations. I think the community has a lot of ideas, it would be good to pause and listen to those. I think we would be willing and able to provide the feedback quickly. We might find there is creative permutation of what is before us that might get us to a better place that addresses more of the needs that we have, recognizing that we need security. At our court. So thank you. . >> Tovo: Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: Yes council member tovo. >> Tovo: Something I need to mull over. I think if I understood you correctly, you feel this is not the absolute ideal structure. Given the questions, I need to sort out if there is a strong advocate that this is the best solution. We should continue the [10:53:17 AM] explorations. >> Mayor Adler: To me, what I heard was it is not ideal because it is not what we're doing. So it will be more involved. It will change the responsibilities. And we need to check and make sure that that is appropriate. I like, as a general concept, to be taking responsibilities away from APD that are not necessarily necessary to a sworn officer with the training that APD has as we do that with mental health, parks and other things. To me, the questions I ask go to that policy issue. Is this another opportunity for us to do that. >> Tovo: Ok. So it sounds like from the nods I'm seeing here and your comments that there is still an interest in exploring whether there is a system that is -- that offers some of the benefits that we discussed? I think that is a threshold [10:54:18 AM] question before we continue down this path. >> As the mayor put it, it is not ideal for us, because it is not something we have done before. And we have had the luxury of very competent officers who are familiar with court. As I understand it, the option to have APD there, that is not on the table. So all the research we have done, this is the best option going forward. With this option, we do have the opportunity to create something that does have those guardrails. That does have specialty training, and we believe can be a model for other courts. Is just going to be a lot of work. And things that are court management. We haven't had this before. There is going to be a learning curve. I would say, it is not a preference, it is a concern. [10:55:22 AM] Maybe a little anxiety about moving forward. But we can do it. And we will do it. And we have the research shows that this is the best option that we have. >> Mayor Adler: So I think that is part of the analysis you will come back, is that question as a threshold matter, is this consistent with, is there a policy basis to do this, which I think ways, doing what we have been doing because we know it or doing something because it drives a policy call of trying to get our police to focus on fighting crime as opposed to other ways we have been using APD. So if you can bring that back to us, I think we exhausted this topic. Po is -- Pio is next. >> Renteria: Thank you, mayor. [10:56:23 AM] I was getting ready to retire there. >> Mayor Adler: Sorry about that. >> Renteria: I'm in support of the marshal program. We will always be facing with officers having to be taken out. Because if there is any situation happening in town where they're needed, they will be called and they will respond. You know, in the future, we never know they might have to have a couple more reassigned to patrol. So now the community court is left with very few police officers. So I would really encourage my colleagues to maybe come up with some guardrails like was mentioned and pursue the marshal. Because now we don't have to worry. They'll be permanently assigned to the court. And I understand and it might be a little bit more work. But I think that at the end [10:57:25 AM] we'll have a successful program I believe that we have staff that really knows their job, what they're doing and the requirement that's needed. We can retrain the officers, you know, where they respond to the situation that is needed in courtrooms. And not what is needed in other situations in the city. So I like the idea of having a marshal program with all the safeguards. And I think that we can accomplish that. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Council member kitchen. >> Kitchen: I want to add as part of the information requested. I want the clarification of why APD is off the table. Again, I can guess as to the various things we talked about, adding that is helpful. >> Mayor Adler: Managers, are you ok? >> Again, open up the option [10:58:27 AM] for folks to provide that feedback, so if you have ideas that you are hearing from constituents or from community members on the guardrails or parameters, pass it to staff to incorporate it in our response. >> Mayor Adler: That said, we'll postpone the item on Thursday, so it is not on the agenda for Thursday, but bring it back as rapidly as you think you can address the questions that are raised. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Ray, thank you as well. Colleagues, and to the clerk, relative to our conversation earlier, we talked about doing a change. I don't think we're going to be able to do the change for next week. But certainly, if it works to do the changes for sign ups in December, do that. Mirna, if you can't do it then, let us know. So we're not asking you to do [10:59:27 AM] the impossible here. So you tell us when the appropriate time to do that is. It was also suggested that we bring back music that more people might be able to see the music if we did it during the lunch break as opposed to over the evening break. And I don't know if there is any interest on the dais in moving music to that lunch break and trying that to see how that works? That might actually be something that saves us time during the day. Might be able to be seen by more people. Without objection, I would say to the clerk, let's try that, to do that. That will also force us to take a lunch break. Ok? All right. Manager, can you start us on the storm discussion? >> Sure. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you, mayor, council, you know earlier this month, we [11:00:29 AM] received the after action reports onneury it is layered on top of the pandemic, city was Austin was unprepared for such a complex disaster. You heard from both the consultants that did the after-action report, working with staff and stakeholders you heard from Austin energy and water. We have Juan Ortiz director of home security management and director of Austin energy and director of Austin water highlight some of the key areas that we are focused on, the actions we have taken and we're asking, so if we know what it is today that we're better prepared from last February. That is an important place to [11:01:30 AM] start. We want our community to be just as prepared for this event. As our staff comes in -- I see Juan coming in the chambers right now. I wanted to acknowledge and appreciate all the significant work that went on during the storm by not only our city employees and also community members. It was a community response to take. We had so many individuals and organizations step up to the plate to help us do that response. We will need the next event, as we know that there will be more events like this in the future. To be done with a better response than we had for winter storm uri. We're -- we know and are hopeful that some of the actions that we have taken already will provide a better response than we have had. We know that we will continue to evaluate how we responded and how we need to do better in the future. But to begin, I will ask Juan Ortiz, the director of [11:02:31 AM] homeland security and management to summarize the key actions taken since the last event and things that we are working on internally and also are asking our community to do in the case that we will have a winter storm this year. Director Ortiz. >> Manager, thank you, mayor, council members, thank you for the opportunity to come back and talk to you on the progress we're making as we continue working through the after-action items with winter storm uri. I want to make sure I relay to you all, even once the storm ended at the end of last spring, preparedness is something that the city conducts year round. We're very quickly moving to look at what preparedness activities we need to be engaging to ensure that we're ready for the hazards that are going to impact or threaten our community over the summer, specifically as we went into this summer we were concerned with what if there was another [11:03:31 AM] hurricane this year. And what readiness levels we needed to be prepared for. The extreme heat conditions, making sure we had cooling centers established, ready to go. So those coordination activities, it is really a year-round process when we look at preparedness. As we go into now, into the fall and soon here into the winter season, our focus is shifting. So when we look at the recommendations from the after-action, it is important to realize that our focus is to ensure that we're ready for this upcoming winter weather season. That is what we're doing. That is what we have been doing. Working real hard with the different departments to make sure we coordinate and communicate. I want to give you a little report on some of the activities that we're doing. I mentioned some of these during the last presentation. We rolled out a new tool to communicate with those who are deaf, blind, hard of hearing because we wanted to make sure [11:04:32 AM] all of the communications are accessible to everybody in our community. And we're not stopping there. We're also working to ensure that we have translation services available to us for not just within our region, but also outside of our region. Because what we learned from the winter storm is that the companies or the services that we may use here in our region they may be impacted in future storms like they were impacted during this last storm. Therefore, we need to diversify our capabilities and make sure we have help available across the country and make sure we're able to move very quickly to mobilize in that area. We have rolled out our ready central Texas campaign, focusing to ensure the public has accessible information to know how to prepare not just for winter weather, but for all the hazards throughout the year. Every year. We have also upgraded the app [11:05:35 AM] that we have, the ready central Texas app that anybody can download from the apple or android store. That is available for free. We have added a winter weather component to that app so they have specific winter weather information. We'll be working with the companies that provide the service at how to make it available in multiple languages to also have it available in other languages and make the information accessible to all members of our community as well. We have relayed training required informations to our public information officers to ensure they are prepared an are looking at enhancing the prescripting of messages that would be translated in multiple languages. So we're trying to, you know, get ahead of the game as we learn that this information [11:06:37 AM] needs to be very quickly translated and made available in future incidents. As you know, mentioned last time, council approved funding for resiliency hub project. I can say that that work continues. That initiative is underway. During the public health sub committee, should have been a report provided on the status of that. And that's a workgroup that not just includes the city, includes Austin I.S.D., Travis county and working to ensure we have a robust group to look at how we can establish these resiliency hubs in the community and support them in the event of an emergency or disaster in the future. So that work continues. Again, as we go into the winter weather season, we have [11:07:38 AM] done some communications to our partners, and our departments to ensure that folks are preparing. We have communicated with the departments and make sure we look at what we see as a potential problem. And what we see as a supply chain management issue that is facing our country. So communications has already gone out, asking departments to evaluate their contracts, evaluate their supplies. Also ensure we have ample supplies on hand for services as well as for emergency response operations and to order supplies early so we're not awaiting for those in the middle of a disaster because of the challenges that the supply team management will create. In addition to that, tomorrow, we have our winter weather seminar, which we're going to have, where we're bringing in all of our city and county departments and community partners to go through winter weather preparedness activities and share [11:08:39 AM] information and kind of review the plan with them and make sure that everybody is aware of what is a proper protocol. How the streets get sanded, who has the responsibility to sanding the sidewalks, what to do, what not to do, what are the things that everybody needs to have in hand as we prepare for the winter weather season. That is an vent scheduled for tomorrow. We'll communicate with the departments on that. I expect full attendance from the departments, city and county as well. We have our monthly meeting with the single points of contact, meeting on Thursday. We meet with them to ensure we go through the list of items that we need to be working to prepare. Some of these preparedness activities that we will be discussing are some of the same preparedness activities that were identified in the after-action report that was presented to you at the last council meeting. [11:09:40 AM] Again, we're looking at updated inventory of facilities to be used for shelters and their infrastructure. One of the things that we're doing is we're not going to wait for the storm. We will go ahead and predeploy. What we're doing is predeploying the shelter supplies to go to each one of the shelter locations we're identifying. We're working with our community partners to look at what the capabilities are, in fact, yesterday, I had meetings both with the American red cross of central Texas as well as Austin disaster relief network. We have additional meetings with other community partners to make sure that we're reviewing the roles and responsibilities, looking at the impacts from the pandemic and looking at what the benefits now we have had almost a year of vaccinations almost underway and looking at what additional capabilities these departments and agencies will be able to put on the table to ensure that our community is prepared and able [11:10:41 AM] to respond as we move forward. I also want to let you know that we took these 132 recommendations from the after-action report. We got with our team that is working on continuity of operations plan migration. We have asked all the departments to update their plans, but we're also in the process, in the second phase of migrating the plans into a coop management system to have them more accessible and evaluate them in a more faster manner. We took that -- we asked this seem group to look at the 132 recommendations and look at which are the ones that have the highest impact on life, safety and health. And look at what is -- which ones are the ones that we can put in play in a fast manner and focus on the after-action priorities. We have identified 32 of those [11:11:43 AM] after actions that we're working to ensure that the work continues and very quickly are addressed. Let me say we're working on all 132, but focusing on those with the greatest impact of protecting our citizens' lives, health and make sure it makes us a more resilient comment as we move forward. That is action that is already happen and working to ensure all the departments continue to move in that direction. Again, you know, as it was reported, there are some enhancements that Austin energy reported last time. We're working with Austin 311 offices to look at critical load customers to safeguard against power outages from load shed events. There were other activities reported by Austin energy as well as Austin water. [11:12:44 AM] And again, Austin water, you know, Greg missario did a great job of explaining what they're doing, making -- the key part here is that we as the citizens of this community, we need to become more aware of our -- of what we have in our homes as far as how to safeguard our home and how to make sure -- how do you address water that is coming into your home? Identify your shutoff valve, identify the critical areas to protect your home, not just from power and water, but look at becoming -- help our citizens become more engaged in what things they can do that will protect them as well as ensure that the services that we're providing are available for everybody. And the specific example that I'm talking about is the example that Greg talked [11:13:44 AM] about. How do you drip a faucet, right? And I think that was an excellent example of you don't need to drip all the faucets, you need to just drip one. Recognize the fact that if everybody does that, there is a way of how to ensure that our water availabilities is more robust for everybody in the community. In addition to that, some of the reports are reporting back to me they're conducting internal reviews of the winter storm procedures. They're departments that have already conducted internal tabletop exercises, and some of them are going to be conducting them here in the next coming days, coming weeks. With a focus of having winter preparedness discussed and looking at what measures they can take to ensure that they -- that they're prepared. Another good example is the fleet services department has [11:14:45 AM] communicated with all the departments in asking them and continuing to work with them to identify the right level of training the departments need to have, for example, identify the number of chains for the different types of vehicles, different types of chains, in making sure the departments have personnel that are trained to know how to put the chains on in the field and not have to go into fleet services to get those chains SO THAT'S HOW WE'RE TRYING TO BE MORE FLEXIBLE IN THE RESPONSE. THERE'S A WHOLE LEVEL OF ACTIVITIES THAT WE HAVE WHEN WE HAVE A STRONG WINTER FREEZE WARNING. AND AS MUCH AS WE CAN PUSH OUT INTO THE FIELD SO THE DEPARTMENTS ARE PREPARED AND CARRY ON SOME OF THESE ACTIVITIES, THEN THE BETTER WE'RE GOING TO BE ABLE [11:15:42 AM] TO ADDRESS SOME OF THE OTHER CRITICAL AREAS LIKE, FOR EXAMPLE, ENSURE THAT EVERY GENERATOR THAT WE HAVE OUT IN THE FIELD, OUT IN THE FLEET, IS PROPERLY FUELED AND READY TO GO IN THE EVENT OF A POWER OUTAGE, AND WE HAVE FUEL TRUCKS AVAILABLE TO GO OUT AND TAP THOSE GENERATORS AS WELL AS LOOK AT THOSE FACILITIES THAT HAVE PORTABLE WATER TANKERS, MAKE SURE THAT THOSE WATER TANKERS ARE FILLED IN ADVANCE OF THE STORM SO IF THERE'S WATER DISRUPTION THAT WE HAVE PLENTY OF SUPPLY TO CARRY US THROUGH THOSE COMING DAYS. THAT WOULD ALLOW US TO BE ENSURED THAT WE COULD OPEN UP SHELTERS, COLD WEATHER FACILITIES IN THE EVENT OF COLD WEATHER NIGHTS, TO ENSURE THAT WE LOOK AT THOSE MASK CARE NEEDS AND MASS CARE NEEDS AND TO ESTABLISH IF THERE IS A [11:16:45 AM] NEED TO SUPPORT SOME OF OUR COMMUNITY PARTNER AGENCIES THAT THE CITY AND COUNTY ARE READY TO GO TO MAKE THOSE MAKE OURSELVES AVAILABLE IN THE COMMUNITY MOVING FORWARD. THAT'S WHAT WE NEED TO DO MOVING FORWARD WITH THIS WINTER WEATHER SEASON AS WELL AS ANY OTHER HAZARD THAT OUR COMMUNITY IS GOING TO FACE IN THE FUTURE. >> Cronk: THANK YOU, DR. ORTIZ, FROM AUSTIN WATER AND AUSTIN ENERGY, I THINK WE HAVE SANDY JACKSON IF YOU COULD COME TO THE PODIUM JACKIE SARGENT IS GOING TO HIGHLIGHT A FEW OF THE THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED SINCE THE LAST STORM THAT WE'LL PREPARE OUR COMMUNITY BENEFIT TO MAKE SURE WE'RE MORE RESILIENT AND ANY ASKS THAT YOU HAVE OF OUR FACILITY MOVING FORWARD. >> I'M JACKIE SARGENT, AUSTIN ENERGY MANAGER. I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST AND YOUR SUPPORT AS WE WORK THROUGH THE FINDINGS OF OUR AFTER ACTION REVIEW. PLEASE BE ASSURED THAT OUR AFTER ACTION REVIEW WAS AN HONEST, CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF WHAT WORKED WELL AND WHAT NEEDS FOLLOW UP. AUSTIN ENERGY IMMEDIATELY STARTED IDENTIFYING OBSERVATIONS AND FINDINGS DURING THE WINTER STORMS, THE ERCOT ENERGY EMERGENCY AND AFTER. ADDITIONALLY WE IMPLEMENTED IT INITIATIONS OF FINDINGS AS SOON AS PRACTICAL. AS MY MANAGER CINDY JACKSON PREVIOUSLY PRESENTED, AUSTIN ENERGY IDENTIFIED 19 OBSERVATIONS AND 112 FOLLOW UP ACTIONS. OF THOSE FINDINGS 29% HAVE BEEN COMPLETED. 50% ARE IN PROGRESS, MEANING THEY ARE WORKING TOWARD A DEFINED COMPLETION DATE, AND 21% WILL BE ONGOING, MEANING THAT THEY ARE MEASURES THAT HAVE BEEN OR WILL BECOME PART OF ONGOING OPERATIONS AT AUSTIN ENERGY. AS WE IDENTIFIED IN OUR SUPPORT, THERE ARE SEVERAL FINDINGS THAT WE EXPECT TO BE COMPLETED BY THE END OF THIS YEAR. I WANT TO ASSURE YOU THAT THESE RESULTS, THE RESULTS [11:17:45 AM] OF THESE EFFORTS, WE ARE MUCH BETTER POSITIONED FOR THE NEXT MAJOR INCIDENT THAT OUR COMMUNITY WILL FACE. WE ARE USING EVERYTHING WE LEARNED TO ENSURE THAT WE ADAPT, IMPROVE AND RESPOND TO BETTER SERVE OUR ENTIRE COMMUNITY. I WILL NOW TURN IT OVER TO DEPUTY GENERAL MANAGER AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER JACKSON, TO SHARE A FEW OF THE THINGS THAT WE HAVE COMPLETED, THAT ARE IN PROGRESS AND THAT WILL BE ONGOING FOR OUR OPERATIONS. SYDNEY? THANK YOU, JACKIE. MAYOR, CITY COUNCILMEMBERS, I WANT TO TAKE A FEW BRIEF MOMENTS TO HIGHLIGHT SOME OF THE COMPLETED ITEMS OF THE AUSTIN ENERGY AFTER ACTION REPORT. I'D LIKE TO REEMPHASIZE THAT WE DID NOT WAIT UNTIL THE REPORT'S COMPLETION TO START THESE ACTION ITEMS AND WE HAVE WORKED TO INCLUDE IN GREAT DETAIL THE ACTIONS THAT ARE NEEDED AS WELL AS THE DELIVERY DATES THAT WE EXPECT. LOOKING AT OBSERVATION NUMBER ONE AND THIS IS INCLUDED IN THE AFTER ACTION REPORT, WE HAVE COMPLETED SEVERAL OUTAGE MAP UPDATES, TECHNICAL ISSUES FOR OUTAGES NOT REFLECTED IN THE OUTAGE MAN HAVE BEEN COMPLETED. WE HAVE COMPLETED MODIFICATIONS TO THE OUTAGE MAP THAT SHOW SHADING THAT WAS CAUSING CONFUSION. THAT HAS BEEN REMOVED. WE HAVE COMPLETED INTERNAL TRAINING AS IT RELATES TO KEY INTERNAL SYSTEMS THAT POPULATE THE OUTAGE MAP TO ENSURE THAT WE HAVE TIMELY UPDATES. THOSE HAVE BEEN COMPLETED AS WELL. BUT WE DO HAVE IN PROGRESS ENHANCEMENTS WITH THE OUTAGE MAP VENDOR IN TERMS OF TECH ALERTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATIONS AND THAT IS EXPECTED FOR QUARTER 2 2022. MOVING TO NUMBER THREE, MEDICAL REGISTRY, WE ARE IN PROCESS, WORKING WITH OTHER CITY OF AUSTIN DEPARTMENTS, TO ESTABLISH A COORDINATED COMMUNICATION PROCESS TO ASSIST WILL MEDICALLY VULNERABLE AND THAT IS EXPECTED TO BE COMPLETED Q1, 2022. [11:18:42 AM] THE ERCOT MANDATED LOAD SHED OR OCCUR MAILMENTS ON AN ONGOING BASIS WE CONTINUE TO EVALUATE AUSTIN ENERGY SYSTEMS FOR UTILIZATION, ALSO FOR Q4 2021 WE'RE INCREASING OUR COORDINATION WITH COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL CUSTOMERS AND A LOT OF THAT WORK HAS BEGUN AND A LOT OF EFFORT HAS BEEN ALREADY EXPENDED IN THAT SPACE. ONGOING BASIS WE WILL ALSO CONTINUE ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT IN THE ERCOT PUC AND PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION IN THE ERCOT REGULATORY SPACE. AGAIN, A LOT OF EFFORTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS HAVE BEEN UNDERWAY IN THAT SPACE. LOOKING AT NUMBER 6, THE ERCOT OPERATION AND PLANTS ON AN ONGOING BASIS, WE CONTINUE TO ENGAGE OUR REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS FOR WEATHERIZATION FOR OUR POWERPOINTS AND THIS INCLUDES OUR POWERPOINT OBLIGATIONS AS THEY CHANGE OVER TIME. WITH THE Q42021 COMPLETION DATE WE WILL BE EVALUATING UPGRADES TO HEAT TRACING FOR SOME OF THE OUTSIDE WATER SUPPLY LINES. WE ARE REVIEWING OUR WEATHERIZATION PRACTICES TO INCLUDE CHECKLISTS AND PROCEDURES, AND THEN WE'RE ALSO CONDUCTING EVALUATIONS WITH THIRD PARTY ENTITIES, REVIEWING OUR WEATHERIZATION METHODS. MOVING TO OBSERVATION NUMBER 8, MANAGEMENT OF VEGETATION NEAR POWER LINES, WE CONTINUE ONGOING CONTINUED VEGETATION MANAGEMENT CYCLE PROGRAMS WORKING TO MANAGE LINE CLEARANCES BETWEEN TREES AND VEGETATION. AS MANY OF YOU ARE AWARE, WE CONTINUE THE COMMUNICATION WITH STAKEHOLDERS AND HOMEOWNER'S ASSOCIATION AND OTHER COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS AND STAKEHOLDERS AROUND THE IMPORTANCE OF VEGETATION MANAGEMENT. OPERATION NUMBER 12, FLEET MANAGEMENT AND VEHICLE TRAVEL DURING THE WINTER STORM, WE HAVE COMPLETED IDENTIFICATION OF VEHICLE TYPES AND NEEDED WINTER STORM EQUIPMENT. [11:19:42 AM] THIS IS A BRIEF SUMMARY OF ARR AFTER ACTION REPORTS. AS YOU KNOW, THERE WAS 112 FOLLOW UP ACTIONS AND THIS IS AGAIN JUST A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF SOME OF THOSE KEY FOLLOW UP ACTIONS. >> Cronk: THANK YOU. I KNOW WE WANTED TO GET TO QUESTIONS, BUT I WANTED TO CONCLUDE WITH SOME OF THE ACCUSES THAT AUSTIN WATER HAS TAKEN AS A RESULT OF LAST YEAR'S LAST FEBRUARY'S STORM. DIRECTOR MESZAROS. >> THANK YOU, MANAGER. COUNCIL, JUST TO FRAME UP AGAIN FROM OUR LAST CONVERSATION, WE REALLY EXAMINED THREE AREAS. OUR INCIDENT RESPONSE, OUR COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES AND WHAT WE TERMED A TECHNICAL REVIEW OF OUR INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEMS AND REALLY HAVE TAKEN AFFIRMATIVE STEPS IN ALL THOSE AREAS AS I DESCRIBED IN OUR BRIEFING ON THE INCIDENT SIDE. [11:20:40 AM] WE HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY INHANSED OUR STORAGE OF EMERGENCY WATER SUPPLIES, WE NOW STORE 10 TIMES AS MUCH EMERGENCY WATER. WE HAVE ADDITIONAL CONTRACTS. WORK VERY CLOSELY WITH JUAN AND HIS TEAM ON HOW TO DISTRIBUTE THOSE AND DEVELOP A MORE REFINED CONTRIBUTION SYSTEM APPROACH. WE'VE PURCHASED TWO WATER TRUCKS. ONE IS IN SERVICE ALREADY. WE HAVE THE SECOND ONE THAT WILL BE COMING AND WILL BE IN SERVICE BEFORE THE WINTER. ON THE COMMUNICATION SIDES WE'VE SIGNIFICANTLY ENHANCED OUR COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES, MULTIPLE LANGUAGE, MUCH MORE REFINED APPROACHES TO WHAT IT MEANS TO DRIP YOUR FAUCET, WHAT FAUCET TO DRIP, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DRIPPING AND STREAMING. [11:21:42 AM] HOW TO TURN OFF THE WATER AT YOUR CURB. VIDEOS TO SUPPORT THOSE. COUNCILMEMBER FUENTES, WE WERE AT DOVE SPRINGS WITH YOU HERE. HOPEFULLY YOU HAD A FLAVOR FOR SOME OF THE NEW CONTENT WE HAD OVER THERE. ON THE INFRASTRUCTURE SIDE WE'VE TAKEN SIGNIFICANT STEPS, REPAIRED ALL THE DAMAGE THAT WE INCURRED FROM THE WINTER STORM, STRENGTHENED OUR HEAT TRACING, BLANKETS, CHAINS, ENHANCED INSULATION THAT IS STILL UNDERWAY. ALREADY WE HAVE A NEW STORAGE TANK UNDERWAY, WE HAVE A STORAGE TANK UNDERWAY WITH THE DEVELOPER IN YOUR DISTRICT TO ENHANCE STORAGE. WE HAVE MORE COMMUNICATION OR INFRASTRUCTURE COMING. WE'VE TOTALLY REVAMPED THE WAY WE OPERATE IN WINTER. HISTORICALLY WITH TREATMENT PLANTS AND SURFACE WATER WE HAVE TO TAKE A LOT OF [11:22:40 AM] INFRASTRUCTURE OUT OF SERVICE FOR REPAIR AND CLEANING AND WE'VE REVAMPED THAT TO KEEP MORE INFRASTRUCTURE TO MEET PEAK DEMAND IN THE WINTER AND I THINK THAT IS UNUSUAL THAT THERE MIGHT BE PEAK DEMAND IN THE WINTER, BUT THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED DURING WINTER STORM URI SO WE'VE TAKEN BETTER STEPS TO BE PREPARED THIS WINTER IF WE HAVE A PEAK VENT DURING A SIMILAR TYPE STORM. THAT'S A FRAME UP OF THE AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONS WE'VE TAKEN. >> Cronk: THANK YOU. THERE'S A SLIDE IN THE PRESENTATION ON NOVEMBER 4TH THAT REALLY FRAMED IT UP NICE FOR ME BECAUSE WE'LL LIKELY HAVE A WINTER EVENT, BUT NOTHING THAT WILL BE THE IMPACT THAT WE HAD. BUT WE WILL BE SEEING SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN THE FUTURE BECAUSE OF CLIMATE CHANGE. WE NEED TO PREPARE FOR UNCERTAINTY WHENEVER THAT MIGHT TAKE PLACE. [11:23:42 AM] SO THIS WAS REALLY A PRECURSOR OF FUTURE EVENTS AND WE NEED AS A CITY, COUNTY, AS A COMMUNITY, TO BE ABLE TO RESPOND TO STORMS OF GREATER INTENSITY COMBINED WITH EQUALLY CHALLENGING EMERGENCIES. CONCURRENT EMERGENCIES AS WE'RE EXPERIENCING WITH THIS STORM, WHETHER IT'S A FLOOD ON TOP OF ANOTHER EVENT, BUT WE CERTAINLY ARE DOING THINGS NOW TO HELP US PREPARE FOR THOSE. WE NEED TO LOOK AT THIS EVENT WITH EYES WIDE OPEN. WE KNOW WE WERE UNABLE TO HANDLE THIS TYPE OF EVENT, BUT WE WILL NOT LET THAT HAPPEN GOING FORWARD. SO THAT WAS THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF DOING THIS AFTER ACTION REPORT. WE NEED TO EMBRACE IT AND KNOW WE NEED TO DO MANY MORE THINGS AND WE APPRECIATE THE SUPPORT AND DEDICATION OF OUR COUPE AND OTHER LEADERS TO BE ABLE TO GET THROUGH THIS. [11:24:40 AM] THIS WILL REQUIRE A COMMUNITY RESPONSE AND I KNOW THAT THE AUSTIN COMMUNITY IS READY TO HELP TACKLE THIS TOGETHER. WITH THAT I'LL TURN IT BACK TO YOU, MAYOR, AND WE CAN OPEN IT UP FOR QUESTIONS. >> Mayor Adler: THANKS, I APPRECIATE THAT. I HAD TWO QUICK QUESTIONS. THE FIRST ONE TO JUAN AND THE SECOND ONE TO JACKIE OR TO AUSTIN ENERGY. YOU RECOGNIZE THAT THE COMMUNITY BEING AN EVENT LIKE THIS, I KNOW IT WAS POSSIBLE IN THE CITY AND ALL THE THINGS THAT HAPPENED AND I APPRECIATE ALL THE THINGS YOU'RE DOING TO REACH THE COUNTY AND THE CITY TO DO THAT KIND OF STUFF. BUT HOW ARE WE BETTER WHAT'S WHAT ARE THE STEPS THAT ARE BEING TAKEN. WHAT ARE THE INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES THAT ARE BEING MADE IN ORDER TO BETTER HELP FACILITATE, ORGANIZE, SUPPLY, COMMUNICATE WITH AND RESPOND TO, RECOGNIZE THE COMMUNITY EFFORTS THAT ARE HAPPENING ALL THROUGH THE CITY, ALL THROUGH THE REGION WHEN THEY HAVE THIS KIND OF AN EVENT THAT GOVERNMENT CAN'T MEET ALL THE NEEDS BY ITSELF? [11:25:54 AM} >> GOOD QUESTION, MAYOR. WHAT WE'RE DOING AND WHAT IS VERY POSH IS THAT WE CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT OF COLLABORATION. THE CITY AND THE COUNTY CAN'T DO IT ALONE. THE NON GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS CANNOT DO IT BY THEMSELVES EITHER. THE PRIVATE SECTOR CANNOT DO IT BY THEMSELVES. IT REALLY TAKES A GROUP EFFORT. AND SO WHAT WE'RE TRYING TO CREATE IS THAT OPEN LINES OF COMMUNICATIONS, REACHING OUT PROACTIVELY WITH ALL OUR PARTNERS, LOOKING AT THOSE METHODS THAT GAVE US SUCCESS TO OUR PANDEMIC RESPONSE. THAT PROCESS DID NOT END WITH WINTER STORM. IT CONTINUES AS A CYCLICAL WAY AS WE LOOK AT ALL THE DIFFERENT HAZARDS AS WE MOVE FORWARD. >> Mayor Adler: SHOULD WE HAVE IDENTIFIED 100 PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY AND DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE CITY THAT ARE LOCAL VOLUNTEER COORDINATORS THAT ARE AND YOU HAVE A LIST OF 100 PEOPLE WHO ARE GEOGRAPHICALLY OR INSTITUTIONALLY INTEGRATED INTO THE BROADER COMMUNITY BUT HAVE GONE THROUGH EVERY YEAR, MORE THAN OR AN AFTERNOON DISCUSSION OF WHAT IT WAS THAT WE SAW. [11:26:52 AM] I HEAR THE GOAL, I'M WELL IN FAVOR OF WHAT I'M MISSING, MANAGER, IS HOW THAT ACTUALLY BECOMES ACTIONABLE. AND I WOULD REALLY LIKE IF YOU COULD FOLLOW UP WITH A MEMO OR A NOTE TO SAY WE RECOGNIZE HOW BIG THIS WAS AND THIS IS HOW WE'RE GOING TO ACTUALIZE THAT BECAUSE I THINK IT'S THAT IMPORTANT OF A COMMUNITY. JUAN, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. MY QUESTION FOR AUSTIN ENERGY REAL FAST AND I APOLOGIZE IF YOU ALL ASK THAT QUESTION WHEN I WASN'T THERE AND I MISSED IT. WHAT CAN WE DO IF THERE ARE MORE ROLLING BLACKOUTS THAN WE WERE ABLE TO IMPLEMENT BEFORE? >> MAYOR, AGAIN, JACKIE SARGENT, AUSTIN ENERGY GENERAL MANAGER, COUNCIL MEMBERS. ONE OF THE THINGS THAT WE HAVE DONE IS LOOKED AT ARE THERE OPPORTUNITIES TO FURTHER SECTIONALIZE OUR CIRCUIT SO THAT WE HAVE SMALLER AMOUNTS OF LOAD THAT ARE ABLE TO BE SHED AS WE ASSERT WHAT WE HAVE TO DO TO MEET THE ERCOT MANDATED LOAD SHED REQUIREMENTS. SO THAT WILL HELP US TO FURTHER ISOLATE CRITICAL LOADS SO THAT THERE'S MORE LOAD THAT'S NOT CRITICAL REMOVED FROM THOSE CIRCUITS AND THEN [11:27:50 AM] PUT INTO THE LOAD SHED CIRCUITS GIVING US GREATER FLEXIBILITY AND ADDITIONAL LOADS THAT CAN BE SHUT DOWN BUT STILL ENSURING THAT CRITICAL LOADS ARE MET. ANOTHER THING THAT WE'RE DOING, AND I WANT TO REALLY GIVE A SHOUT OUT TO OUR INDUSTRIAL AND OUR COMMERCIAL CUSTOMERS, THAT ARE WORKING WITH US ON VOLUNTARY PROGRAMS WHERE THEY WILL REDUCE THEIR CONSUMPTION AND INTERVALS BASED ON CERTAIN REQUESTS FROM ERCOT. SO WHEN WE GET TO A CERTAIN AMOUNT THAT ERCOT WAS ASKING FOR LOAD SHED ON THE GRID, THEN WE WILL HAVE A PROGRAM IN PLACE AND WE WILL HAVE A PROCESS IN PLACE TO ASK THOSE CUSTOMERS THAT HAVE THOSE TYPES OF LOADS THAT CAN BE VOLUNTARILY TAKEN OFF THE GRID THAT THEY WILL DO THAT AND THAT WILL HELP US BY GIVING US MORE LOAD, YOU KNOW, NOT HAVING TO USE ALL OF THOSE LOAD SHED CIRCUITS. >> Mayor Adler: THAT'S HELPFUL AGAIN AND I THINK THAT THOSE ARE KIND OF THE OVERARCHING GOAL. IF YOU COULD FOLLOW UP WITH A NOTE OR A MEMO THAT ACTUALLY TELLS US THAT WE'VE DONE THAT OR WE CAN'T DO THAT OR HOW WE'RE DOING THAT. [11:28:52 AM] WITH THE FIRST WE KNOW WHAT THE GOAL IS, THAT WE CAN FURTHER SECTIONALIZE IT SO THAT WE CAN CREATE GREATER OPPORTUNITIES FOR US TO BE ABLE TO TURN OFF AREAS BECAUSE OF THE CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE, THAT KIND OF THING. I THINK THAT'S THE GOAL. >> THAT'S INCLUDED IN OUR AFTER ACTION REPORT. IT IS ONE OF THE OBSERVATIONS ERCOT MANDATED, LOAD SHED AND OUR LOAD SHED AND WHAT WE'RE LOOKING AT AND IT TALKED SPECIFICALLY ABOUT SECTIONALIZATION AND 32 ALSO A FINDING ABOUT WORKING WITH OUR COMMERCIAL CUSTOMERS. >> Mayor Adler: HOW MANY SECTIONS >> THOSE AREN'T GOALS. THE THINGS IN HERE ARE ACTIONABLE ITEMS. >> Mayor Adler: THAT I GET, SO I'M NOW ASKING FOR THE FOLLOW UP. I'D LIKE TO KNOW HOW MANY SECTIONS WE HAD BEFORE AND HOW MANY SECTIONS WE'VE HAD AFTER WE'VE TAKEN THAT ACTION SO WE CAN SAY TO THE PUBLIC NOT ONLY ARE WE GOING TO BE WORKING IN THIS AREA AND THAT'S OUR GOAL, BUT THIS IS WHAT WE'VE BEEN ABLE TO ACHIEVE IN REACHING THAT GOAL. [11:29:48 AM] >> SO WE HAVE TAKEN ACTION SINCE THE 2011 STORM. IT'S MY UNDERSTANDING THAT WE INCREASED THE AMOUNT OF CIRCUITS THAT WE COULD INCORPORATE IN THE LOAD SHED BY 350%. AND THAT'S AN ONGOING ACTIVITY. SO AS YOU LOOK AROUND THE CITY AND YOU SEE ALL OF THE DEVELOPMENT THAT'S TAKING PLACE AND WE ADD CIRCUITS, THAT BECOMES OPPORTUNITIES FOR ADDITIONAL CIRCUITS THAT CAN BE PART OF THE LOAD SHED PROGRAM. SO I HEAR WHAT YOUR REQUEST IS AND WILL TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT WE CAN PUT IN A FORMAL RESPONSE. >> Mayor Adler: AND IT'S GOOD TO DO THAT PROSPECTIVELY WITH THE NEW AREAS COMING ON, KNOWING HOW MANY MORE WAYS WE'RE ABLE TO SECTIONALIZE THE EXISTING SYSTEM AND THE EXISTING CIRCUITS WOULD BE HELPFUL. >> I WANT TO ASSURE YOU THAT IS AN ONGOING EFFORT THAT WE DO CONTINUOUSLY. IT'S NOT SOMETHING THAT'S A ONE AND DONE. BUT AS OUR SYSTEM EVOLVES, GROWS, DEVELOPS, IT IS AN ONGOING THING THAT WE DO. [11:30:46 AM] >> Mayor Adler: Should we have identified 100 people in the community and different parts of the city that are local volunteer coordinators that are and you have a list of 100 people who are geographically or institutionally integrated into the broader community but have gone through every year, more than or an afternoon discussion of what it was that we saw. I hear the goal, I'm well in favor of what I'm missing, manager, is how that actually becomes actionable. And I would really like if you could follow up with a memo or a note to say we recognize how big this was and this is how we're going to actualize that because I think it's that important of [11:31:47 AM] a community. Juan, thank you very much. My question for Austin energy real fast and I apologize if you all ask that question when I wasn't there and I missed it. What can we do if there are more rolling blackouts than we were able to implement before? >> Mayor, again, Jackie Sargent, Austin energy general manager, council members. One of the things that we have done is looked at are there opportunities to further sectionalize our circuit so that we have smaller amounts of load that are able to be shed as we assert what we have to do to meet the ercot mandated load shed requirements. So that will help us to further isolate critical loads so that there's more load that's not critical removed from those circuits and then put into the load [11:32:51 AM] shed circuits giving us greater flexibility and additional loads that can be shut down but still ensuring that critical loads are met. Another thing that we're doing, and I want to really give a shout-out to our industrial and our commercial customers, that are working with us on voluntary programs where they will reduce their consumption and intervals based on certain requests from ercot. So when we get to a certain amount that ercot was asking for load shed on the grid, then we will have a program in place and we will have a process in place to ask those customers that have those types of loads that can be voluntarily taken off the grid that they will do that and that will help us by giving us more load, you know, not having to use all of those load shed circuits. >> Mayor Adler: That's helpful again and I think [11:33:51 AM] that those are kind of the overarching goal. If you could follow up with a note or a memo that actually tells us that we've done that or we can't do that or how we're doing that that. With the first we know what the goal is, that we can further sectionalize it so that we can create greater opportunities for us to be able to turn off areas because of the critical infrastructure, that kind of thing. I think that's the goal. >> That's included in our after action report. It is one of the observations ercot mandated, load shed and our load shed and what we're looking at and it talked specifically about sectionalization and 32 also a finding about working with our commercial customers. >> Mayor Adler: How many sections -- >> Those aren't goals. The things in here are actionable items. >> Mayor Adler: That I get, so I'm now asking for the follow-up. I'd like to know how many sections we had before and how many sections we've had [11:34:53 AM] after we've taken that action so we can say to the public not only are we going to be working in this area and that's our goal, but this is what we've been able to achieve in reaching that goal. >> So we have taken action since the 2011 storm. It's my understanding that we increased the amount of circuits that we could incorporate in the load shed by 350%. And that's an ongoing activity. So as you look around the city and you see all of the development that's taking place and we add circuits, that becomes opportunities for additional circuits that can be part of the load shed program. So I hear what your request is and will take a look at what we can put in a formal response. >> Mayor Adler: And it's good to do that prospectively with the new areas coming on, knowing how many more ways we're able to sectionalize the existing system and the existing circuits would be helpful. >> I want to assure you that is an ongoing effort that we [11:35:53 AM] do continuously. It's not something that's a one and done. But as our system evolves, grows, develops, it is an ongoing thing that we do. >> Mayor Adler: And that's great if we could pick a point in time. I'd like to be able to go back to the public because that's what we heard from so many people. So the more specifics we can give to community to say we had 10 circuits before and now we can additionally shut down 100. So we've taken the existing circuits and have figured out how to cut them up into two, three or five or 10 pieces so that we have greater flexibility to be able to rotate power outages. I understand it's the goal and I understand that you will be constantly working to do that over time. I would like to be able to report to the community success or achievement in that way. And I don't know how that would be described because I don't know enough about what it is. I would like to be able to report back to the community [11:36:55 AM] in a way they would understand that we're in fact in a very different place either now or as we meet the goal, than we were back then. Thank you. Councilmember alter. >> Alter: Thank you. I want to first of all invite my colleagues and the public to review a recent audit committee's report from the her on the winter storm actions. The topics covered were somewhat different than what was in the after action reports. The three reports that were presented to us from the city manager. I also want to let the city manager know if all four reports are in the backup for this item on today's and on Thursday's sessions. [11:37:57 AM] The auditor's report highlighted how many actions were not implemented after prior disasters and it identified many that would have made a huge difference had they been implemented. So I think it's really important that we have a clear way forward on so that we can prevent the same situation from are happening again from the recommendations that are coming forward in these reports. And I appreciate that there were some effort in the discussion to date to lead with that, but it is still kind of hard to follow, which means that three years from now we don't know if we've made progress on the things that we have not made progress on. So I want to ask the city manager how do we prevent that from not happening again, but it is heart wrenching to read through the recommendations to understand that we had 400 recommendations from the [11:38:57 AM] lcra, water boil situation, many of which weren't implemented, some of which were repeated in other after action reports for other things that had we had them in place would have helped some portion of the community would have helped our employees to better weather the storm. So how are we going to prevent that from happening. What is the management structure that we are using to put the priority on these items moving forward so that we know the things that have to be done get done this time. >> Cronk: Appreciate that, council member and we have certainly been focused on that incertainly in the executive team and looking at the tracking mechanisms that we have internally. So looking both at the recommendations from the past, but more importantly what we see in front of us now as director Ortiz said, he's already prioritized a number of them going forward, but I have not requested, demanded that we [11:39:58 AM] have an ongoing reporting structure, not just within the executive team, but within the council, so there's some transparency around how we are able to show that progress and to be very eyes wide open about what steps need to still be taken so you know what work has been done and what hasn't been done. So I think the way that we're tracking internally on our own work, the way the auditors are tracking the recommendations that came from that, which is an ongoing basis, and they will have follow-up reports for the audit and finance committee. And then the demand that I made to staff to ensure that there's a feedback loop so that we can be transparent with the council and community on our progress on those recommendations. >> Alter: Thank you. As part of that if you could also make sure that we're seeing what has been prioritized so that -- because by my last count there's like over 600 recommendations, some of which overlap. And we know we have to [11:40:58 AM] prioritize and not everything will give us the same bang for the buck in terms of preparedness, but we do have to be able to see that so that we can track it and have that transparency. I want to make one more comment and then ask one other question. So in the ae report it does make clear that the storm really started on February 11th and in the material that I've seen from ae there were two storm events. There were the ice storms and the cold weather that happened before the ercot load shed and then there was the ercot load shed and the various parts afterwards. I did not see that reflected in the Hagarty after action report and I think we missed that in the discussion at our peril because all of the things that happened afterwards I was experiencing -- like 40% of my district was out of power. We experienced everything that everyone else [11:42:00 AM] experienced the next week, three days sooner. So that wasn't activated on the night of February 11th when we had so many people out of power with the ice storm that we were looking for shelters. I have texts with the city manager where I'm asking we need to set up shelters and none of that was happening and rolling out. So I'm concerned if our after action report doesn't recognize that piece that we're missing some key insights. And it may happen again that you have a portion of the city-experienced event before the rest of the city. And we have to learn from that. >> Council member, you know, we'd like to sit down to know exactly what specific point you're looking at indicating that the after action report did not go far enough. You know, my understanding [11:43:02 AM] is that we did have some interactions prior to the 11th, and we do every winter season, whenever certain criteria is met to open up what we call a cold weather shelter, we open up a cold weather shelter primarily serves those that are homeless that need a place to spend the night. And that night on the 11th, actually the night before that, we had already activated cold weather shelters prior to that weekend happening. I believe the 11th is the -- >> Alter: Thursday night? >> Thursday? So we did activate that Thursday night a cold weather shelter. In fact, because of the pandemic a lot of the volunteer agencies were not available to provide staff. We actually utilized hesom [11:44:04 AM] staff to go out there and assist with registration, making sure those folks that needed to get to a cold weather shelter that night got to a cold weather shelter location. The challenge here is that you have a series of events. In fact, I think there was a total of three winter storms that came through that series. The main part of the citywide impact did not start happening until that Friday. And I believe maybe that's why the report might concentrate that on -- starting on that Friday. >> Alter: I guess my experience of that weekend was very different from any of my colleagues and I remember having texts and comments to my colleagues about what I was going through and none of them were going through what my district was going through at that point in time. And it was exactly what everyone else went through the next week. I just had already been through it. And every piece of what happened with the outage maps and every other thing we already knew was going [11:45:04 AM] wrong over the weekend. And then we had the other on top of it. I don't think we will get to it in this forum, but if we can have follow-up conversations. There are lesson and things to be learned where we saw what was happening and we didn't adapt and adjust in ways. And I understand hindsight is 2020, 2021 these days, but I just want to ensure that we are not viewing these events as if they started on February 15th at 1:00 in the morning. Because it's not what most -- a good chunk of the city experienced. And I don't see that in the report. I had a second question -- that was our observation, but wh I understood from the auditor's requests that were made by hesom in the budget that were not granted, but I [11:46:06 AM] didn't get a grasp on what those were. And I -- this is part of the budget process that happens every year and this is the city manager's role to determine with departments what things advance and what doesn't, but never having seen what hesom asked for and didn't get, I don't know. Clearly from a lot of the reports we need a slightly different infrastructure. At hesom is not prepare us for the kind of climate disaster with 13 people that we're facing and the choices we're facing. I would like to show about what now and in a follow-up what hesom was asking for and what they were given and not given. And as I express understand audit and finance I'm really concerned with this notion that we will wait until the [11:47:08 AM] year '03 budget process to get them the resources that they need and not consider a budget amendment. We do have some funding from the four million that we put aside from development services. This has got to be one of our highest priorities. And yes, we have a budget process, but if you can't do your job at the level we need you to do it because we haven't resourced you, then we have to have the discussion about those resources and they need to be prioritized as we're trying to fulfill the recommendations over what will give us the best bang for the buck. So I think that process needs to happen and it needs to happen sooner rather than later because it's already November. >> Let me assure you we will not wait for the next fiscal year. If there are recommendations made by hsem, there are recommendations in the budget, and I will follow up on the audit question because we had to get that from the auditor on other previous recommendations and [11:48:09 AM] many weren't funded so I'll follow up with you on getting that answer. >> Councilmember Kelly and then councilmember tovo. >> Kelly: I agree with councilmember alter about not wanting to wait. Disasters are not what you plan to happen, they happen when they do. I wonder how many departments have emergency roles that they deal with on a regular basis? >> That's a hard question. Let me say the larger departments would be Austin energy, Austin water, Austin police department. We -- but every department in the city also has identified emergency management single points of contact, which we meet with them to coordinate diverse management activities. But as far as civilian positions, those are the three that stand out. >> Kelly: Okay. [11:49:10 AM] And earlier when you were answering mayor Adler's question you had talked about letting volunteer organizations probably go out in active disaster leading on specific things during a disaster. Could you gave give me maybe a little more insight into that because my understanding is all disasters are local and Texas government code 418 really directs what we need to do as a city in order to respond to disasters. And what I want to make sure is that we're not giving away authority to voluntary organizations when it is -- when we are charged by the state to lead on that. >> That is absolutely correct, council member. The chapter 418 and my practice and research said that disasters are a legal responsibility and whenever we have the state or the federal government we want to make sure that they can assist us, but we are not passing the authority or the responsibility to any on- site agency. And our emergency operations plan, our city charter, kind of spells out that disasters [11:50:11 AM] are local and I'm here to assure you that we recognize that and we see that and we see the value of that and we're committed to making sure that we are involved in the decision and in the ultimate responsibility of how emergency management is handled at a local government level. That being said, I think that we also recognize the fact that we need the entire community -- because the emergency operations plan is not the city's plan, it is the community's plan. And it also provides a structure of how all the different private sector non-government agencies, volunteer organizations active in disaster play in the sandbox in the event of a disaster. So we want to make sure -- what I wanted to make sure that the message got across is that we are actively engaging and we're going to continue to actively engage with these volunteer agencies and making sure that we identified the [11:51:13 AM] proper role that they play as well as understand the limitations of what they can do so that we can be prepared if we need to to come up with a joint solution for everybody. >> Kelly: I appreciate that whole community approach. So my last question is what is the timeline for the resiliency hub rollout. You mentioned it earlier, but I would like to know more about when we could expect to see that occur. >> For that I'm not sure if la Shea is available. Let me get back to you on that as far as the timeline is concerned. We are meeting every other week and we have an active team that is meeting to come up with a rollout. And I don't want to steal the thunder on that, but I think it may be better if I can have Lucia, the districter for the office of sustainability, to provide you a better answer than I [11:52:14 AM] can. >> Cronk: Council member, it was brought up at the last public health committee meeting so there's a presentation and a discussion among council members on that committee member on the hubs. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember tovo. >> Tovo: Thank you, mayor. I assume that we're having just a short -- what's your parameter here today for this conversation? Are we looking to take a break at lunchtime? >> Mayor Adler: We're going to lose one at 2:30 so that's our constraint. So part of it is getting an assessment for how much more people want to go. To see if people want to continue this conversation or at what point. >> Tovo: I have a lot of questions that probably are better submitted through the q&a. I just want to step back and talk a little bit about the difference between the different kind of reports that we got. So to my colleagues who haven't read the audit I concur with councilmember alter's suggestion, I think it's helpful to line all of these up together and I am [11:53:15 AM] particularly interested, manager, in the question of why some of those really specific implementation recommendations were not being -- had not been implemented from language access to some of the cross-training among staff to the staffing plans for non--- for departments that aren't necessarily within hsem or part of the emergency operation center. And I think that my goal is to make sure that the actions that we take on this council are really aimed at addressing what is a priority in all of these reports, which is to make sure that our community is better prepared, that we're building a city structure that is able to respond to the disasters of 2021 and beyond, which are very different from the disasters that may have experienced in previous years, and that we are doing everything we can to equip not just the city to be able to respond, but to equip our community. So thank you for talking [11:54:15 AM] about the resilience hubs, which is in response to the recommendation I brought with my colleagues' support. I think this is an important component and I think it is not -- certainly there is a lot more we need to do. So in trying to understand -- one, I'm interested in understanding in a bit more detail why some of the recommendations did not move forward, did not get implemented. Was it a resource issue as councilmember alter identifies? Was it a need for a different kind of structure? Was it a need for stronger management connection to some of that work? It is not so much an interest in trying to figure out where the gaps were, but to make sure that we really understand -- we really understand it and can be better prepared next time. It's my understanding the after action report is something that is done in conjunction with the consultant and so is just a different kind of report from the independent audit [11:55:15 AM] and I think we need -- we really need both of those. I've identified a couple of areas. We saw such a need, in my opinion, during this disaster for those other department staff to become involved and so some of the recommendations that I think are really important ones in the after action report are how is the broad array of staff at the city trained to participate in disaster response? How are -- what is our infrastructure like here at the city to support those community organizations, not that we believe it's their responsibility because as you all have just talked about, it is the city. The city has a particular role in disaster response that's mandated by law and is in a position to do it, but many of the comments from the community resilience, the community resilience work, to the task force that our community task force members, to the [11:56:18 AM] comments that were in various other reports, identified that need for better communication with those community volunteer efforts, more communication within the city. And I think to do that is probably going to require a real focus on how -- what your structure looks like at the oec in terms of that communication -- eoc in terms of that communication. As I approached this today and last week, it's unclear. There's a lot here. We can handle specific questions through the q&a, but I also am very interested in how we as a council follow up. So colleagues, I -- I know there are several of you on the dais who are interested in this work, especially. To me it's looking more and more like there might be a real need to have an ifc kind of laying out where and when we will get reports back about some of these areas of really highest importance. I really appreciate Jackie sergeant, the way you [11:57:19 AM] approached your report in particular, and told us exactly when those were going to happen. And mayor, you've filled in that we should get some kind of report back. I think if we can do that with the totality of these recommendations, I think we would then as policymakers really understand where there might be a need for additional policy direction to our staff or additional resources. But it's going to take some time to sort out. I never want to be in a position where I'm looking at an after action report again and looking at the comment here. I know several of us have talked about this off the dais so I'll talk about it here. There is an after action recommendation about providing training for the city council and better communication with the city council. A lack of training for some city councilmembers and eoc processes contributed to challenges in coordinating the response to field operations. At the same time some city [11:58:19 AM] councilmembers observed gaps in the preparation and capabilities of departments to provide solutions that addressed the needs of the community. You know, the problem as I see it, as I experienced it, as probably some of you did too, was not that -- was not that we didn't understand we were getting out of our lane. We didn't know who else was meeting those really critical needs of making sure that our constituents had access to water, that they had a safe place to go within walking distance, that they had buckets to flush the toilets in one of our congregate shelters. So I am concerned about this kind of an observation, even being in an after action report, because it is -- that is not where -- that was certainly a product of that week, several of us stepped way out of our lanes, most of us stepped way out of what you would [11:59:20 AM] expect of your elected officials because of some of the other issues, the communication, not knowing where to forward needs to and whatnot. So I think -- I appreciate the conversation we've had today. I appreciate these reports. I think we are going to be better prepared for the next disaster. Thank you for beginning today's conversation by talking about some of the things that have been implemented. I really want to figure out how we as a council kind of get that additional level of details about it and are especially really just up to date on when those recommendations are coming forward. >> Mayor Adler: Yes. Hang on one second. Councilmember Ellis and then councilmember kitchen. >> Ellis: There's been a couple of things I definitely identify with. When councilmember alter talked about her district and the energy lines, we definitely saw it with the water infrastructure. And so I really hope -- and we have had good conversations with Austin water over the past few months so these are things that we've been able to [12:00:20 PM] communicate and they've definitely been responsive and are working towards things like when people look to them for potable water, what's that looking like moving forward. So I'm confident those action items are definitely taking place. I just know that in some of this situation, we had, you know, folks in my district, I'm looking at you even though I know there is water infrastructure issues going on. But understanding who will be offline and last back on. A lot of my districts, the roads and highways were melting or clear, there were portions of the district that were highways and bridges still covered in ice and snow in some of the locations that were without water for a whole week. So ... I know that moving forward we need to be much quicker about how to understand what the expectations are for a lot of the items, water instruction, you know, electricity repair lines, resilience hubs, things of that nature. But I will agree a lot of us, [12:01:23 PM] as council member tovo was saying, we were stepping up doing what we could because we didn't know what to do. People were sharing information saying I have this or can you find a person with this skill. I agree, if we will rely on city departments to do certain things we need to understand more how that working. I didn't know who to look at or turn to. Most of the information I got was after I already knew it was a problem. I want to know that we are moving forward especially because we know that floods, wildfire and winter storms, other natural disasters will be happening more frequently. I know you mentioned, city manager, I tell people the issues of not having energy, not having water are going to happen no matter what the natural disaster is. It is not just a storm that will do it. Floods have caused water infrastructure problems [12:02:25 PM] wildfires will have impacts. A lot of my districts have the wildfire interface that we talk about. I appreciate the leaning on understanding when we will get updates and how to communicate that information back to our constituents. Because I do think it is an appropriate and one of the most important tasks of government is to step up when things are going wrong. And there are things that aren't nice to have, they're need to have, like heat and drinkable water. I know there is a lot of departments stepping up in this, but I want to make sure we know what's going on and how to communicate that to our constituents. A lot of us can also have that communication to understand who has access to the neighborhood list who do we look to on next-door? Where can we store water? Where are roundabouts that water distribution is helpful? [12:03:26 PM] Some of us know it because we see it and know how communication works in our district. It felt disjointed there, where we have a different communication plan to our constituent but looking to the departments and emergency management and getting those updates at the time was very confusing at the time. >> Kitchen: What my colleagues were saying, the implementation, the specific implementation reporting approach and implementation plan reporting is helpful. We'll be doing that in Austin water. We've already been getting reports from Austin water about the actions they're taking and will continue to do that on a regular basis and will let me colleagues know whenna those are happening so you can participate in those -- I'm not suggesting that is [12:04:29 PM] the only avenue, I want my colleagues to know we have been having good conversations in Austin water. The intent is to continue that and understand specifically from Austin water the timeline for implementation. Some of that we have already had. What what have been doing is delving into things. For example, the Ami, which is a really very helpful innovation rolling out. We had specific presentations on that. That metering is going to help the situation, help during the last winter storm. But as it is rolled out all over the city, it will really make a difference. That is just one example. I want to point you all -- you may have all seen this. I wanted to thank Austin water for the tips and toolkits they sent to all of us that we can then send out to our constituents. It's a very useful set of [12:05:29 PM] tools that we'll be sending out. I think that came to us, for those who may be looking, it came to us -- I'm not sure what day. But in any case, that information is available to us. So I want to appreciate the work that has been done by Austin water and all of you in emergency management. And I think if we work with the city manager and with each of you to have a structured reporting mechanism so we know specifically when the different recommendations are being acted on, that will help us do what we need to do to confirm that activities are occurring and to know when they're occurring. So ... I think that would be from my perspective, that would be helpful. [12:06:29 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Council member Renteria and then council member Fuentes. >> Renteria: I will agree, I was alarmed with the rolling blackouts, which we didn't have. I think if we had them we would have saved more lives here in Austin and Travis county area. A lot of the new appliances that people in my neighborhood had and I'm sure throughout the city of Austin, you can't turn your kitchen on, your furnace don't turn on without electricity. You can't cook without electricity, because the new stoves have the electronic igniters now. If you don't have any kind of energy, you're not going to turn it on. If we're going to have to live with rolling -- with blackouts, complete blackouts [12:07:30 PM] without rolling blackouts for a while until all the circuits are done, it is important to identify to the public where the locations are and what we're doing for people when they're out of electric for days or two or three days. I have an apartment complex there that they kept being told it is going to come on the next day, the next day, they believed it. It didn't come back on the next day. And we had to have firefighters go out there and evacuate the seniors. And we're talking about a 200-foot building and from the 16th floor, they had to be carried down. I really want to know if we will be addressing the rolling blackout or are we going to have rolling blackouts or have a second of the city that is not going to be able to [12:08:31 PM] participate in it, because we have essential hospital, fire stations that need to stay online 24 hours a day, which I understand. But we really need to, you know, get down and find out where the sections of town are not going to have their energy turned back on because they're not part of the rolling blackout. That is what I really want to see in the future, where either they're going to tell us the truth about whether we're living in a section of town where they cannot participate in the rolling blackouts. >> Mayor Adler: Council member Fuentes? >> Fuentes: Thank you. Colleagues, I want to highlight, I know the city auditors after action review, reviewed the last few after-action reports. I went back a few years. One thing I wanted to [12:09:31 PM] highlight is there was an after-action report done after the Halloween flood, nearly eight years ago that called for corrective action plan that called for several communication clarifying the regional paging system, used for the notification of the eeoc activation, developing a notification group to provide update says to management and elected officials, conducting community information meetings, developing a network of grassroot community contacts to help disseminate critical information. Collaborate with community volunteer organizations for consistent communication to residents. This was flagged eight years ago. I'm sure there is probably more after-action reports before then. So for me, it is extremely important that we follow-through with these implementations as quickly as we possible. That we implement the recommendations as quickly as possible and that we're communicating that out to the community about the progress the city of Austin is making [12:10:32 PM] to address the concerns. I had a town hall recently. And the questions I'm getting is what is the city of Austin doing? How do you ensure we don't freeze again in our homes. Those are real questions that I know several of us are having to respond to and so if we can think through a format. This is super helpful having all of the after-action reports. There is a lot of information there. I would love to be able to share confidently that we are now making changes to our circuits and our load shed strategy and have identified ways to provide flexible responses to another emergency event. So manager, I appreciate your commitment to ensuring that we receive regular updates on progress that is being made and especially as it relates to any additional resources that will be needed during a mid-year budget amendment. I look forward to hearing more about that. The question I have for you [12:11:34 PM] director Ortiz, I know you mention that tomorrow y'all will be meeting with interagencies about the winter emergency plan, that is really great to hear. Do we know -- how -- once y'all meet, I assume you will go over the plan and probably make updates to the plan with consideration of the recommendations that came out of the after-action report. How does this council get notified of any updates that y'all make to the winter emergency plan? >> Let me make sure I clarify. The seminar that is taking place tomorrow is focused on making sure that the different departments share their portions of the overall response. If there are significant changes we need to make, we will make them, we will send out a correspondence to council through the city manager to let y'all know the updated changes and we can send you a copy of that [12:12:35 PM] document. >> Fuentes: You anticipate that there will be changes made to the plan. >> I would say there will be changes, yes, what changes we'll find out as we work through tomorrow. >> Fuentes: I would suggest as well given that we have several items lined out with this particular after- action report. I think it is good that the departments come together and share. Everyone's mind is we're approaching winter again. Having a notification that the plan is updated, knowing this is a priority of council to ensure we're following through on our recommendations is critical. I will flag that. >> Let me add if I can, talking with the different city directors within the departments they've communicated to me how they have already started some activities at the departmental level. And some are scheduled in the coming days after this event tomorrow. So I see the organization being more proactive and looking at what we can do to [12:13:35 PM] make sure we're ready for the upcoming winter weather season. >> Fuentes: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: All right. Anything else on this issue? This point, we're going to follow up with additional questions, Kathie, I will join you in conversations about how to get together with other colleagues on the dais to figure out how we program in the updates on progress being made to the after-action goals and that are set. >> Tovo: Thanks mayor. I want to say I regard this as a matter of real urgency. I think that is what you are hearing from our colleagues up and down the dais. Manager, I would emphasize, this is really an urgent matter, I hope you will provide the level of management oversight and resources that our staff need to really make sure that we're better prepared. >> Mayor Adler: Council member Casar. >> Casar: Mayor, thank you, I [12:14:36 PM] will keep it to three immediate reports. I heard the conversations covered. Seeing how low some of the Warren central Texas areas are in areas that are hardest hit by disaster was concerning. I think we have to have ways that are different from opt-in. I have friends that travel they land in a state and they receive texts about restrictions and other responses with pandemic. So I think we can do more. Second, reading the auditor report with the first warn message and message in Spanish multiple days later. I know that is highlighted and an issue. Seeing it written down how many days there were is really disappointing. I know how hard it is to coordinate such a big thing, in my own council office we [12:15:37 PM] were doing translations ourself and we're a team of four. And we know the city has much broader resources than that. We need to highlight that as something to do different. I know it was highlighted in the Halloween flood report on how to handle communications. Third and last, I appreciate the Austin energy work on working with commercial and industrial customers to voluntarily ramp down. I don't know if it was noted in one of the multiple reports for us to have a voluntary way to address issues downtown. Because I continue is a complex system and the downtown system is different. I think if we want people outside of downtown to conserve having downtown all lit up, we learned sends the wrong message. I think ramping that down is something to take away for any future outage situation. >> Council member Casar to give a quick answer to the first point you brought up, and it is a very key point you [12:16:39 PM] highlighted. Actually the system that we use is a part of a 10-county system through the councils of governments. I would say that -- we indicated this on the after-action report. The auditor was indicating on the self opt-in registrations. That gives you the most versatility in utilizing the tool. You can go in and say I want to be notified for winter freeze warnings, tornado warnings, we encourage and we want everybody in our community to sign up for those. In addition to that, working our office, working with the council of the governments, we actually have acquired a more robust database that allows us to send out text notifications or ring-down notifications that we are acquiring and making available outside of the normal opt-in. [12:17:39 PM] And when you look at that totality of the data, it is about 50%. We're probably one of the highest in the country. That has given us the ability, especially during the pandemic when we utilized the tool to ring down, have a greater penetration of getting that information out. Now, there is room for improvement. And there is room for us to improve also how we utilize the tools. Yes, we're working on those issues. >> Mayor Adler: Ok. Colleagues. All right. Thank you very much, manager. Thank you. It is 12:15 we want to break for lunch until 1:00. At 1:00, how about we go into executive session and see if we can take care of one or two things on that. I think some may go quickly. We'll start with the clerk, so if we can get the other two in. I'm told they won't be that long. We'll see. We'll come out 1:30 or close to 1:30. We'll see how things are going [12:18:40 PM] in executive session to do the Austin energy meeting. That enables us then after the Austin energy meeting to finish executive session if we need to or to hear the two remaining reports that we have. And remember, we have a 5:00 hard stop. Council member tovo. >> Tovo: Mayor judge coffee was here earlier. Do we have a schedule. You talked about the reports we have. It sounds like we probably wouldn't start the other briefings until -- what do you think? 2:30? >> Mayor Adler: Hard to imagine the other briefings start before 2:30. >> Tovo: And which one are we going to start with? >> Mayor Adler: I think the southcentral waterfront is the first of those. >> Tovo: Ok. Thank you. >> And executive session virtual. >> Mayor Adler: Yes, executive session will be virtual. >> [Off mic] You said it, but what time are we coming back? [12:19:40 PM] >> Mayor Adler: 1:00 for executive session. We will now go into closed session to discuss three items, related to f4 the composition benefits of the city clerk. We will discuss legal issues related to e2. Internet streaming video services. And e3 the Texas opioid multidistrict litigation. Colleagues, be virtual. We'll go in executive session at 1:00. Let's take temperatures while we're in the room see how we're running through that schedule. We'll get back out as close to 1:30 as we can for the Austin energy meeting. The chair obviously as always, a lot of reports on, I think 10 items today. If there is a way to move through that well and expeditiously, let's do that so we have the other two reports. But it is the time for Austin [12:20:41 PM] energy. With that, it is 12:20. We'll see you back in executive session at 1:00. [Executive session] [2:30:03 PM] Testing. >> Although. We are out of closed session related to items e2 and e3. E1 was withdrawn what we're going to do now is recess the council meeting here at 2:30. We're going to turn it over to the chair to hold the Austin energy meeting the conclusion of the Austin energy meeting will come back to do presentation. We will start with the south central waterfront we have a hard stop at 5 o'clock depending on how that conversation goes, we are set on both those for Thursday if we don't get it done today, we can pick up the presentation on Thursday. With that, here at 2:30 we recess the Austin city council meeting. [2:31:04 PM] [In recess] >> Mayor Adler: Cool. All right guys. Moving right along here. >> Professor: 3:42 I'm going to reconvene the Austin city council meeting. We have a quorum. We only have two things left for us to reports 1 is south central the other is the downtown Austin community [inaudible] Of central. Let's see how far we get. Hard stop at 5 o'clock. Austin energy staff thank you. [3:42:42 PM] >> Good morning mayor, mayor pro tem and members of the council Ed vanino chief financial officer the next briefing is update on colony park on south central waterfront plans as you are aware these are exciting projects including numerous staff memorandums to council and prior council actions today's briefings reflects strong partnerships between housing and planning development economic development department and the financial services department related to the south central water front and the colony park waterfront plans the presentation today is responsive to two council resolutions passed last month if we go to the next slide I will quickly summarize the direction we received the first resolution directed staff to come back this year with a preliminary project and financing plan for creation [3:43:44 PM] south waterfront turns they asked us to look at different options how we set the tax partition pacing level to design. Recapture some portion of the but for incremental value for the construction of public improvements the pwru for improvements values we get into the presentation I'm also direction to collaboration with Austin collaboration, we have been doing had several had meetings with them on this terss discussion and lastly the resolution spoke to providing council with planning schedule for creating a colony parks terss next calendar year. The second resolution if we went onto the next slide was similar maybe a little bit more broad spoke about providing council an update on a tax increment reinvestment zone or terss or other financial mechanisms to pay for public improvements amenities in the [3:44:45 PM] south central waterfront plan for achieving that mechanism by the end of the calendar year. Also provide an update and the status of the regulatory plan for the south central waterfront area. And then reiterated the direction from the prior resolution to come up with a plan for doing a colony park ters during calendar year 2022. Today's presentation chicks the box on much of the council direction the financing.s portion of the presentation will focus primarily on the potential creation of ters for south central area I want to say up front even with tax increment financing staff projects a substantial funding gap for the funding improvements the additional work will still need to be done to identify other funding mechanisms to pay for the south central waterfront public improvements or to reduce the scope of the probability that's [3:45:46 PM] work staff will do to respond to direction and come back with a full financial mechanisms by the end of this calendar year. I'm going to turn it over now I believe Veronica brazanos to walk us through the update for today for the update for the colonies for the waterfront and south central update area. >> Good afternoon mayor and council Veronica economic director today we will walk through a series of slides with you, we will start with update on colony park and south central plan water overview as well as physical framework and customer estimates then we will turn it over to Kimberly alivatas to talk about the financing components of it. The public information financing options the potential [3:46:48 PM] tiff the south central waterfront market and tiff debt analysis and preliminary ters plan. Then we have [inaudible] Walk us through affordable. Housing options as well as plan updates and Ed will close us out with next steps. Next slide, please.. Starting off can colony park. Next slide. So, as update or reminder the colony park sustainable community public finance strategy including very important project to us and the economic development department and the city as a whole. Including multiple departments project over view of this project 208 acres of city owned land in east Austin. Mixed use commercial development eurpb colludes ten years of stakeholder support [3:47:48 PM] and the proposed green line as well as purple line alignment are in this neighborhood in this community the approved master plan and plan unit development approved in December of 2014. Including 20% affordle workforce housing 50 acres of parks open space and trails and the Austin energy green building program rated buildings. Some of the key dates and milestones have been important to this project include in may 2020 when the executed exclusive negotiation agreement occurred September of 2021, we purchased the sell agreement 2.3 acres for health and wellness center there's a health desert in this community. We have infrastructure agreement for central health utility infrastructure construction. The estimated infrastructure financing gap at $125 million. [3:48:52 PM] Next slide. So, in regards to the recommendations regarding finance the catelus financing recommendations as of may 2021 increase the city through ped amendment lower infrastructure costs with cip value capture mechanism $205 million of public infrastructure recommends and recommend ped amendment the draft includes $25 million from tax increment reinvestment soeb. Ters publication improvement district this is pending review and 60 million in capital project funding identified some of the economic and community benefits including $540 million in property value. Approximately. 3.5 million in annual sales tax [3:49:52 PM] revenue 2900 construction jobs and 1200 permanent jobs health and wellness center with central health I messaged on the previous slide Austin public health and public library colocated with central health and the tell development. The recommendation will kaopl to in the first quarter of 2022. This is the work of multiple departments you see in these two slides how many of our sister departments have come to the table to help us with this project and we are appreciative of their support. Next slide. So, switching over to south central waterfronts I will discuss an overview of the vision plan and the history and I turn it over to Kimberly. Plan overview the south central waterfront visual plan establishes frame work to allow site specific building enhancements in exchange for [3:50:54 PM] citywide benefits [inaudible] For the next 20 years includes 97 acres in the district 118 with right of way 34 privately owned and one city owned property one Texas center. Also includes proposed blue and Orange line alignment with underground stop and one stop with the blue line alignment some of the history of the waterfront planning the history does date quite a bit back starting in the 60s and 70s with ladder bird lake formerly town lake in the 80s there is town lake study and overlay combining district 2012 to 13 sustainable design place assessment 2004 teen to 1619 public events, and three council briefings were held which resulted in the interim south central waterfront plan [3:51:54 PM] 2016. Screening report outline the vision and 2016 city council adopted the south central waterfront framework plan as aan amendment to imagine Austin. In 2020 staff is updating the south central waterfront physical framework project cost and financial calculator. Next slide. So, the 2016 adon'ted vision framework includes 17 acres of parks plazas open spaces and trails retpurb wished of streets 6.4 million of new cob instruction 2800 residential units with the goal of 20% to be affordable. At 20 to 60% below family income. Rentals 80 to 20% medium fiw units. We wanted to highlight the critical implementation steps [3:52:55 PM] in the chart to the right. The regulating plan outlining zoning regulations is underway publication financing tools the tif and the P id are underway creation of the economic development to oversee implementation completed in 2020 about the creation of the Austin economic development corporation as Ed mentioned in his introduction, we are working closely with the ae D.C. In discussing this plan as we are making progress looking at the ae d.c.'s role in this important project. Creation of south central waterfront door is created in 2018 [inaudible] Office space this is underway identify lead city department to create south central you implement waterfront this is completed economic development lead [3:53:55 PM] department. Became effective October 21st, 2021. Next slide. The modified physical framework cost mates I should preface in this issest hate that worked with multiple departments in 2020 to estimate these amounts and staff has been working diligently to update the amounts but it is an estimate at this point. The estimates do not include funds needed to meet affordable housing goal or operation of amendments cost estimates are currently under review as I mentioned the overall estimate is $277 million with open spaces at 93.7 road way and drainage 83.4. [Inaudible] Utilities 35.7. Green infrastructure at 5.5 and [3:54:56 PM] reclaimed water at 2.4. Next slide. Now, I will turn it over to Kimberly to walk through the public infrastructure financing options. >> Good afternoon council. Kim alivaris deputy cfo before we dive into. [Inaudible] I wanted to proud provide overview for the various tools to support this project first there are existing department capital improvement program appropriations that could include a mix of voter current revenue funded appropriation as well as voter approved bonds there is also the housing trust fund we can also be looking at the possibility of a new voter approved bond program in the knew future, we might look at economic incentive agreements publication and private with a public improvement district it's important to know that parcel support is requirement [3:56:01 PM] similar [inaudible] It requires state legislation to establish it. Finally last but not least the tax increment reinvestment zone that would result in a tax financing plan. Next slide. So, tax increment financing is a tool that state law provides to us to spur economic growth in an area redevelopment is unlikely to occur without the public investment it is not a new tax. Instead it is dedication of property tax revenue from a specific geographic area to pay for improvements in that zone in Texas only a city or county can create a tirz upon creation you establish the baseline value of property within the zone. It freezes that and some or all of the tax revenue. From future growth in property value within that zone which is the basically the tax increment [3:57:03 PM] is collected and dedicated to the fund to cost investments that are anticipated to spur that growth. This is a graphic or image we use to illustrate all of the words I just said on the previous slide. You will note in the light blue color that is where the baseline taxable value. That pink section is what kind of growth you would anticipate to see in a zone regardless of any investment because growth did you occur regularly throughout the city. But with that public investment you anticipate greater degree of growth that is what is demonstrated? The yellow section essentially the but/for aspect or but/forvalue capture for tirz has an endate when it is established when that end date is reached all the taxable value and the revenue collected against that value returns back to the general fund. [3:58:06 PM] Next slide. There are a variety of statutory requirements which it comes to a tif first and foremost you have to establish a very clear and significant but-for criterion related to that development or redevelopment but-for that public investment that development would not occur without private investment in the area, some of the criteria includes not limited to present condition of the zone is substantially. Impaired growth there are substandard or deteriorating infrastructures there are inadequate site street layout possibly unsanitary conditions that might endanger life or property. Once you have paid all of the project cost or any debt associated with that tirz that is when it is retired and ends like I said previously the property tax revenue would return to the city for general [3:59:08 PM] purposes. Next slide. In addition to the statutory requirements council adopted through fy20 budget financial policy relatinolated to tax increment. Financing some of the major provisions include there must be participation by the private sector and/or other tax entities in that project and financing plan the city must conduct a rigorous but-foranalysis to demonstrate the zone is absolutely necessary. Particularly important that any housing development that is part of the tif must provide for at least 20% of the units to be affordable. To households at or below 60% mfi for rentals or an and -- and finally, bonds subject to the tif development must mature on or before the termination of the zone. For example, if the zone is is [4:00:09 PM] going to last for 20 years the life of your debt must be 20 years next slide. There are a number of steps required before you can establish a tirz. We need to prepare a preliminary finance plan and publish a public hearing note in the newspaper. Once you've held the hearing staff must provide information including what the bounds would be, the amount of bonds intended to be issued, percentage of tax increment participated in by the city as well as project costs. Council would vote on the revinestment zone ordnance and establish a board of directors. Based on the information we've received we could bring all those steps back to you on December 9th. Next slide. Once that zone has been [4:01:10 PM] established, then there are a number of additional steps. First, the zone's board of directors must prepare that project and financing plan that would then be voted on by the board and sent to city council for its review and a vote. It must also establish increment dedication by other taxing units within the zone if applicable. Right now the only other zone that has another presenting tax entity is the wall creek tif R the the portion the county does participate. Board of directors must make recommendations and the council would then provide the board the powers to exercise by ordnance and then finally, we must submit an annual report within 150 days of fiscal year end to the CEO of each taxing unit as well as the state comptroller that provides a [4:02:11 PM] variety of information that I will not read off to you. Next slide. So in preparation of a possible tirz for the south central waterfront we did contract with the consultant to conduct a market analysis of the area. His analysis did come back saying it does support the feasibility of the south central waterfront framework with the 20 year period. The value would be approximately 125 million. Growth would be just under 3 billion, not related to tirz investments and just over 4 billion in value would be related to the but-for value. In addition to the value projections that the consultant provided he also provided a number of comments and commentary on various conditions of both office [4:03:11 PM] market and the residential market, regarding average rental rates, tenant mixes, the occupancy and rental rates for both apartment and multifamily as well as attached housing, what kinds of sales rates you're seeing. We're able to look at what absorption capabilities the zone has based on those -- the development types. Next slide. Now that we have those -- that value projection and that market analysis, we can conduct the tif analysis. So within the tirz district boundary, we would -- we look at the boundary less new construction that has recently been completed. We all -- by doing this, by removing that most recently completed construction, it actually strengthens our but-for argument because clearly that development O you are canned without our [4:04:12 PM] investment and would not meet that but-for. That criteria, as I've noted in previous slides is not only required by state but by council policy. If we do issue bonds we have to go to the attorney general for approval of the bonds. The review of the attorney general has gotten more intense in recent years so we need to be able to demonstrate that but-for aspect. For the recapture, we would exclude the Austin -- 20 per cent of the O and M rate. We would recommend limiting the city portion only to the additional increment that would not have occurred but for the public investment and that equates to 55 per cent of projected revenue growth -- not the value growth but the revenue growth. And then we also are currently looking at what options we have [4:05:13 PM] on whether we can exclude the debt portion of the tax rate in those dollar amounts. Based on this analysis, the bonding capacity for the tirz over the 20 years is subject to just under $154 million in revenue capture. That -- as new construction occurs in the initial years the revenue created in the tirz would come nowhere close to where we need to be making in terms of debt service payments. We would need to be looking at -- what options we have to basically backstop or if we can face issuances what our different options would be to minimize that impact. Even with minimizing that impact, we do need to address the fact that there is a funding gap. Next slide. For the recommendation related to what public infrastructure [4:06:15 PM] to fund through the tif, with with the debt capacity that does not equate to 277 million of the estimated cost for the infrastructure. So it is not sufficient to fund at all. So we would recommend identifying subsets of projects within the financing plan. We're exploring a tiered concept based on feedback we received from advisors that we have on contract for tifs and pids. They have noted you can create tiers based on streets or drainage but you can make a tier based on a geographic area. For example, within the south central waterfront area, there's an area called the "Waterfront downtown gateway." So we could focus our investments in a certain area. Between now and when we come back to council in December staff will collaborate on what [4:07:17 PM] tiers to present in that project and financing plan. And with that, I'll pass it over to Rosie to speak to the affordable housing options >> Can I get the next slide, please. Hello. The south central waterfront -- we did invision this as a district wide goal and recognize some parcels could come in with affordable housing. The city council tif states any housing development part of a tif housing plan must provide for at least 20 per cent of the units to be at or median per cent for med Yan income for at least the duration of the tif project plan. The theist mated cost of [4:08:19 PM] meeting affordability within the available tirz revenue requires other financing, other development support or modification to the goals and policies. Next slide, please. We are also working proactively on the regulating plan. As you know, the regulating plan will control the physical build-out. It lays out the public benefits and developer incentives. These include additional density in return for provision of community benefits. It includes requirements for affordable housing provided by private developments that utilize streets, blocks, open space, streetscape, building height, land uses and impervious cover. The regulating plan is optional. Properties can always redevelop using existing zoning. If they want the additional intiet ltmentes they would -- [4:09:19 PM] entitlements they would have to opt into the regulating plan. Next slide, please. This is a chart that shows where we're at in the formation and creation of the regulating plan, updating what we have previously worked on under the previous land development code and then code next and land development code rewrites, so while we're refreshing the information and running it back through the various boards and commissions with the south central water front advisory board. We anticipate bringing it through for council consideration in early summer of 2022. I'm now turning it back to Ed. >> Thank you. We go to the last slide, which is next steps. I just want to thank everybody that was able to pull this together in short order. [4:10:20 PM] These resolutions were passed on October 21st and staff had the first meeting to discuss this presentations on October 22nd. You heard from four of us today. But as always, for every person you heard from, there is five people behind the scenes that were really pulling all the numbers together and -- to make this work in very short order. Appreciate all them and thank you to their time and effort in this. In regard to the next steps we have all of November to work out the details of the fbsing plan that - - financing plan that Kim spoke of it. It needs to include zone boundaries, financing costs, estimated project costs, percentage of tax increment that will be contributed, and so we'll be working on that through the remainder of this month and we have consultants we're working with to help guide us on that. In December if council wishes to create a tirz we'll need to conduct a public hearing in advance of council taking action to establish the tirz [4:11:24 PM] tirz. The meeting notice would have to go out on November 2nd. We would then be working between now and the end of the calendar year to explore other financing mechanisms -- that list of things Kim spoke to -- public improvement districts, voter approved bonds. A tirz is projected to pay for about a third of the infrastructure needs not counting affordable housing. Clearly there is substantial need for additional financing to make the south central water front vision plan come to reality and to fund the public improvements. Lot of those things we're not going to be able to get done by the end of December but I think we can come up with a plan and time line for when those things could potentially occur, and then we'll also be working throughout 2022 to develop our final project plan and financing plan and to meet the board of directors for approval. The next steps in creating a [4:12:26 PM] tirz, and we'll do this similar work for colony park, leading to an action by council, consideration of a tirz for colony park in 2022. That completes our staff briefing. Any of us are available to you for your questions. >> Mayor Adler: First I want to say that I appreciate the amount of work that was done in a relatively short period of time. There was a lot of work in here, and I just want to say I appreciate that because I recognize -- I recognize that. When you set up a tirz like this -- if we set it up by the end of the year, then we would be locking in that value from which we could take a percentage if we chose to at some point in the future. There are certain plans that you have to present now in order to be able to create that this year. My question is, next year, as [4:13:28 PM] we get greater information -- maybe better cost information or we see that we're going to move forward with a bond and don't need to raise as much -- so long as we actually haven't committed any bonds based on revenue-stream projections, can we change the -- amend or update the plan details or the percentage or the costs or any of those things as we get further information next year? Without losing the advantage of having locked in the value this year? >> Yes, you can amend the project plan >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Thank you. And thank you for this work, and I think it would be good to get it on the agenda, sending out the notices, and getting it back. You know, colleagues, I'm just concerned that if we don't figure out how to improve the infrastructure in that area we're going to have properties [4:14:29 PM] that start developing with the existing infrastructure, the existing absence of a city grid. Once that starts happening, it's going to be near impossible, if not impossible for us to get it to develop the way we want it to develop. To do that it requires the infrastructure and we're going to have to solve that problem. By taking the action this year it doesn't commit us to anything. It just keeps the door open for us that we can then talk about levels and details and -- at some point in the future. But it locks in that value, gives us greater flexibility. Kathie? And then Vanessa >> Tovo: Thanks very much. I'm going to add my thanks for all the information. I have lots of questions about the financing and some of the other options. I'm going to have to switch to phone. I want to zero in on some [4:15:30 PM] questions regarding the regulating plan. It was my understanding we were making good progress on the code elements that would codify the vision plan and that it got delayed so that it -- you know, there was a question several years ago whether it should move forward or whether it should wait, given that we were about to start the ldc conversations then. You know, we had that question come up again multiple times, so I'm -- director truelove, I may have missed this but it looks as if the drafting started in August of this year but we've had workers hired to do the work in past business cycles and we had one staff member focused on this issue quite a while. So am I -- again, it was my understanding that several times we had the question about whether that work should advance or wait for the ldc, so I thought a good body of that [4:16:31 PM] work was already completed. Am I incorrect with that? >> My understanding with working with staff is that while the work was in good shape before, that it did have to be refreshed, so to speak, and that's what we've been working with, including working with the consultants we had on board before. We have lost both of the staff members that were working with the south central plan -- one to retirement and one to shifting over to the project connect office, and so we are introducing new staff into this base, and so they don't have the knowledge of the preexisting work. So that's what I have to offer on that right now. I'm more than happy to chat with you and your staff in more detail about that, but it did take -- it is taking a little bit of time to refresh the work we had framed it for incorporation into the land redevelopment rewrite so now we're having to revert it back [4:17:31 PM] and that's taking a small bit of time >> Tovo: I guess it would be helpful to know who are the staff members that are now tasked with this because I really believed that that work was, you know, sort of complete and ready to go before it was adapted to work within the ldc framework and now if we're reverting back, I would think that body of work exists too. So that was really one of the reasons why I think it is -- it was in my resolution that you cosponsored, mayor, but it didn't necessarily appear in that. But we need to get some clarity on the work we had done, that we funded, that we had consultants working on. I would like to better understand what it means to refresh it, whether we can't just go back to that earlier body. If I had some concrete examples that would help too. This is -- as you know, when I said we passed the resolution, just really critical. We have one mayor is project going through the cycle. We've known this is on the [4:18:33 PM] horizon for a while. We've highlighted that so it happens in advance of at least that one big project. Now there's another in the cycle. At the point -- I'm concerned at the point we get the regulating plan, the major tracts will already be too far along in the process to have much of an impact. So could we -- thank you for the offer to provide that to my staff. I think that's important but I think that's probably something the entire dais is interested in. So if we could please get a follow-up on what currently exists, how it was altered in the last several years, what some of the funding was that we put forward for consultants and where that work is at this point. >> We will get that update. That work is happening in your planning group, but we will get some information back to the full council on that >> Tovo: Thanks very much. [4:19:33 PM] >> Uh-huh >> Tovo: Again, if you had some ability to get -- at least an initial answer back about whether it already exists, that would be helpful. >> Mayor Adler: Council member Fuentes? >> Fuentes: Thank you. How many tirz areas do we have in Austin? >> I believe the answer is four. We have Mueller, waller creek and there's a second street tirz -- it's a hundred thousand dollar fixed allocation to maintenance of our second street around city hall. >> Fuentes: So what's a typical, average time line for -- to get one up and running? >> You know, I think we could typically do the work in about six months to do the analysis and to do the work to create a [4:20:34 PM] tirz. It depends how much background information has already been done, so this direction to get a tirz done this year on the time line asked for is only possible because there's so much work that had already been done on the project, but we need to do a market ananalysis, a financing plan and I would say six months is probably the shortest that could be done from scratch >> Fuentes: Well, thank you. And thank you for the presentation. It was super helpful as you walk through the different steps and mechanisms needed to get a tirz set up. And the last question, regarding the affordability requirement -- you share the amount with the tirz would not be enough -- sufficient to cover the affordability requirement. So how -- what other revenue would we take a look at in order to meet this requirement? Would it be through our project [4:21:35 PM] connect antidisplacement fund? Would it be through -- if we have affordable housing bonds left over? >> Future affordable housing bonds or trust fund or antidisplacement fund. >> I'm T in sure the antidisplacement dollars would be a good fit for this particular area. But we would have to look at the proximity to transit and how it would come together. Typically we'd look at housing affordable bonds. There's perhaps a chance of federal dollars that would align. Typically affordable housing of this nature will come into play with utilization of our rental housing development assistance dollars, which is our general obligation funds >> Fuentes: Got you. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Mayor Adler: Anything else? Council member alter? >> Alter: Can you explain what the current role is is in this [4:22:37 PM] process? >> We've had Ann gatling hays -- the chief officer there. We've had her at our staff meetings as we've prepared the presentation. We've had conversations with her and Veronica is the current acting CEO for the aedc. I don't know, Veronica, if you have anymore to add for the longer vision of aedc's role and the overall framework. But in creating the tirz we have created aedc in the conversation of how we could create and getting input from gatling hays. >> Alter: Does the regulating have to be completed in order [4:23:38 PM] to move on the tirz? >> No >> Alter: Is it in your mind feasible to come back to us with something given. >> Yes. I think we can come back on December 9th with a preliminary financing plan and Crete yating a tirz. We have to have it done by the second to do the public hearing notice >> Alter: Okay. I want to say I think it's really important that we capture the value of where we are now - - been hearing lots of rumblings about proposals in the works and willing to go forward come hell or high water and without regard for the planning that's been going on many years. So I think it is important for us to get this baseline moving forward, if it seems feasible, as you've just described. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. [4:24:39 PM] Anything else before we go to the next report? Then let's go ahead and do that. Ed, thank you. >> My apologies, mayor. This is Kathie? >> Mayor Adler: Hey, Kathie >> Tovo: I'm on audio. I wanted to add my voice. I didn't discuss the financing piece of it and I concur that's a high priority. I'd like to see us move forward on that before the end of the year, so thanks for the work in getting that moving. >> Mayor Adler: All right. I think we're set. Thanks, guys. Manager, we may have time to do the last report here before 5:00. Let's go ahead and do that. >> Go ahead. >> Mayor Adler: By the way, before we do that, just to [4:25:41 PM] mention, we were in executive session earlier where we were talking about the clerk. We're talking about the city clerk. The city clerk is a different position than the county clerk. We've just learned that the county clerk is retiring a year early. But I understand she may stay on long enough to help with an election in January, should we set one, which I appreciate. But our discussions are with respect to the city clerk. It's a different position. Real important position that runs a lot of the core spasty we have in the city. Just want to be clear. Let's go ahead and make the presentation on the Austin downtown community court. >> We have our deputy CEO to kick us off. We have staff also available for questions. [4:26:41 PM] Kim? >> Good afternoon, council. Happy to speak to you now about the downtown Austin community court. Before I jump into the details I want to thank my colleagues that have been amazing to work with on this project. Mr. Alexander and his team, Michael Gates in real estate. Obviously Pete Valdez and his team in the downtown Austin community court. Last but not least public works department who has been fantastic in helping us come up with a plan. So next slide, please. Just a quick overview of the dac for the community. It was established in H 1999 and is the first of its time in Texas. The purpose is to administer justice equitably and works with the homeless population largely. Next slide. Its jurisdiction includes parts of downtown east campus as well as west campus. [4:27:42 PM] Its current guidelines for the location of the courtroom and its services is for the central area. So it's the downtown area jurisdiction. Next slide. Previously the dac was located on east 6th street but its lease expired. After looking at a number of different options ultimately they have been located in one Texas center on a temporary basis. We've been in search for a permanent facility. The resolution directed staff to identify options for the relocation, to locate near or on a translit line, include parking options and including possibilities of co-locating with municipal court services and additional services for the population served. In if addition to that there was a budget rider in year that instructed staff to find a permanent location for them by 2024. Next slide. [4:28:43 PM] So as part of the search process, staff looked at 22 different sites throughout central Austin. We were looking at existing city of Austin state. We looked at possibility of acquiing or building a new facility that might be co-located with other services in the downtown area, public/private partnerships or as a last option a lease option or lease to purchase. Next slide. So we've come here today to recommend that we re-locate the dac to the old city hallow kated at 8th and Colorado. That was built in 1858. Its current configuration was built in 1938. It's been designated as a landmark. The interior is not. It's available for us to reto fit in any way we need to fit [4:29:44 PM] our needs. It's occupied by financial staff. Dac would utilize the first floor and the majority. It does require a comprehensive renovation of the building. It is very old. There is lead, there is asbestos. The mechanical, plumbing, hvac -- all needs attention in the building. We also have approximately 48th -- just under 49,000 square feet available -- the majority of that on the three main floors and it also includes a small basement area. In terms of parking we do have a pavilion space that has approximately 11 spaces and in total between that and the attached garage on the back that we have access to, we have approximately 60 spaces for use. Plus an off-site garage, if absolutely necessary. [4:30:44 PM] Next slide. For comparison, the previous location on east 6th is the Orange dot near I-35. Current location is the green dot on bar ton springs road. The proposed location puts it at 8th and Colorado which puts it at center in the downtown location. Next slide. Some additional advantages for the location, in 2020 resolution was approved by council directing staff to look at various city owned buildings that could be suitable for cultural uses. The first floor and portion of the second floor would be utilized by the dac, leaving the remainder of the second floor and entire third floor for other uses. We've explored the possibility of cultural nonprofit spaces and we've collaborated with Austin economic development [4:31:45 PM] corporation for those opportunities. When we do look at those -- the cultural, nonprofit uses we need to look at them in a manner that will meet the financing restrictions associated with the project to make sure we're not crossing any legal boundaries. Next slide. The estimated project budget as of right now is $2,525 million -- -- we're refining the costs through collaboration. One of the ideas we're talking about is what we can do to switch out an elevator to a freight elevator to make the space more flexible and accessible for the cultural uses. The cost of just over 25 million equates to just over $500 per square foot. We would recommend utilizing certificates of obligation to fund this which would be a reliable use under the latest [4:32:46 PM] house bill that restricted the use of nonvoter debt. In comparison to a previous lease proposal, that proposal was for 30,000 square feet. This is beyond that. The price tag was 21.6 million over 10 years. In this case we would pay just over 25 million but would own the building in the end, have more space, and be able to meet not only our dac's needs but the needs of potentially cultural uses in the same building. Next slide. Terms of next steps. We would come to the council in December, assuming that there is support for the approach. We'd come back in December with rca's to approve the alternative delivery method. That would give us time to get approval of the dac by 2024. We would need to come back with [4:33:47 PM] rca's for a budget amendment. We would move forward to lowing the finance services staff to a different location and building services would be able to begin asbestos and lead abatement. The design would be taking place which would allow us to complete construction. That results in the dac moving in by close of calendar year 2023. Weer excited about the population of this location. If the old city hall -- it's a beautiful building. It has a lot of potential 57bd we're excited for dac to be located there. And I'll answer any questions you may have. >> Mayor Adler: Colleagues? Council member alter? >> Alter: Thank you. Does the 25 million cost include the cost of relocating the financial services and the cost of housing them thereafter? >> It does not but we would [4:34:49 PM] relocate them to another city-owned building with Austin energy relocating to their new headquarters, town lake center gives us opportunity to house city staff without a lease >> Alter: We would move them to town lake. What is the plan for that? >> With the -- eventually we're looking at one Texas center being developed -- all the office staff as well as multiple staff would -- that would allow us to meet our goals by 2025. The combination of the teleworking schedules that departments have adopted as well as that new space would allow us to co- locate numerous departments and so town lake center and one lake center would be a combined effort to achieve that >> Alter: We'd keep staff at town lake center in some [4:35:49 PM] permutation or would it be used. >> Temporarily and long term. As we go through the process to program out what a new one Texas center would look like, we would do that in consideration of the space availability at town lake center to make sure we're complementing them >> Alter: Okay. What kind of security do you use at the downtown community court? >> Sorry? >> Alter: What security mechanisms do you use in a downtown community court since we're having a conversation about the municipal court? It seems like we probably have a problem there as well. >> We can probably answer that. >> Mayor, council, my name is Peter Valdez. I'm the director of the downtown Austin community court. We currently use a hybrid model like director grub mentioned earlier in your presentation. We have contract security doing [4:36:49 PM] the screenings into the facility and community service court officers are located in the courtroom all the time >> Alter: Why is it (indiscernible). >> My mistake. >> Mayor Adler: Colleagues, anything else? It seems like it's a good location for me. This is centrally located. I think one of the original interests in having it include cultural arts component was to get greater public access and activity associated with one of the few buildings we have that date back that far. It's a beautiful building. So I think that as we set it up [4:37:52 PM] we should really be thinking about it in that way in terms of a public space. Right now it's just offices. But as we're thinking about the design criteria, we should think about how it is we bring more people hopefully walking in the area not too far away from the fourth street area that will be prime activity area when project connect gets built. But to have that be a really inviting public space and certainly a public courthouse is a public space as well. So I appreciate noticing and recognizing this and certainly the economics look real good compared to even the other alternatives we were looking at. So thank you. >> Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. Mayor pro tem? Was it tovo? [4:38:52 PM] >> Tovo: Yeah. That was me. I don't know if the mayor pro tem also -- >> Mayor Adler: She had asked earlier if she could speak to this issue. I want to give her that chance to be able to do that. If not, I'll pass it over to you, Kathie. Go ahead. Kathie? >> Tovo: Sorry. I thought you were calling on the mayor pro tem. Thanks very much. I also -- number one, I want to step back. I know we said in the budget projection -- we set an ambitious goal and I appreciate we're here today discussing the permanent location. That's been a long-term goal with different initiatives that have been brought forward, and I -- you know, one of the best options it seems both fiscally responsible and as the mayor said, well located. [4:39:54 PM] I would like to say a couple of quick things. One is I'm not clear on the time line and maybe I need to, you know, sitting down with staff and really better understanding. It would be temporaily located in one Texas center, and that would seem -- 2024 seems -- >> Mayor Adler: Kathie, I think you're going in and out. Kathie, the connection is not good. Kathie, the connection is not good. So we're -- >> Tovo: Asking our staff to do the work to come up with -- >> Mayor Adler: Kathie, can you hear me? Kathie? [4:40:55 PM] Would you text her? >> Tovo: Yes. Are you -- >> Mayor Adler: The answer is you're breaking up, so we haven't heard very much of what you've been trying to say. >> Tovo: I'm sorry. Did you say you haven't -- >> Mayor Adler: That's correct. Have not been able to hear you well. >> Tovo: Okay. >> We did hear something about the time line, so if you want to speak generally to that. But certainly we'll follow up clearly with council member tovo but other updates as necessary with the entire dais. >> We have a more detailed schedule we can share with the council but the intent is to have -- to have them moving in by the end of 2023 and fully operational by the start of [4:41:57 PM] 2024. We can certainly share that draft schedule with the council >> Mayor Adler: That would be great. Thank you. Kathie, we can see you now. >> Tovo: Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: Yes? You're now frozen -- >> Tovo: Are you able to hear me now? That's fine. Are you able to hear me? >> Mayor Adler: Yes >> Tovo: Okay. Thanks. I'll make it super quick. I'm not sure if you were able to hear much of what I said, so I'll summarize it. I think the location is the right one. I think I heard some feedback about the time line so perhaps you did hear me -- that part of it that I'm not understanding how it fits in with the two-year time frame or having a temporary location. I appreciate the staff identifying that permanent location for the dac. I think that is responsible for the direction. I have concerns about how I'm hearing one Texas center being discussed. This council passed a resolution I bought looking at one Texas center for affordable [4:42:58 PM] housing, to meet that expectation that I think it is 25 per cent of the housing within the south central waterfront would be affordable. So one Texas center is sitting on land. That is a high priority so maybe staff are thinking about it as a combination building but I didn't hear that in the previous conversation that.... >> Mayor Adler: Do you have a better response to anything that you heard? >> Yeah. I can speak to that. We are so very early in considering the -- what all would appear on that land, but we do definitely have the capability and the space to meet both office needs as well [4:43:58 PM] as affordable housing. So that's something that we're definitely taking into consideration as we move forward with a programming plan. >> We'll follow up with council member tovo >> Mayor Adler: All right. Colleagues, any other questions? >> Renteria: I don't have a question but I'm really excited about finding out that's where the future site, you know -- we have these older buildings that have been -- have asbestos, have been used. So we need to clean them out -- I think Kathie is trying to come back in. Anyway, I really want to thank the staff for doing what they're doing and planning this location. And we're going to have the opportunity to clean this place up and open it back to the public where people can come [4:45:00 PM] and enjoy this building safely >> Mayor Adler: Great. Anyone else? Ann? >> Kitchen: I just want to say thanks, and I agree. I'm excited about this. That old building is an amazing building, and I'm hoping we'll be able to preserve a lot of the cool aspects of it as its use is being changed. So I'm appreciative of y'all's efforts and I also think it will be interesting to have the top floor be something related to cultural artists and other cultural creatives, so I think that's great. So thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: Yes. Leslie? >> Pool: Yeah. I just want to weigh in how excited I am to see the dac go to the old city hall. I think that's a beautiful reuse of that gorgeous building. So good job. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Great. [4:46:01 PM] Anybody have anything else? >> As we conclude today, mayor, I wanted to acknowledge that this was a very full but productive day. Thank you, council for your engagement through the day. I want to thank our staff for the hours put in the presentations you heard. A lot of work goes into this and I appreciate everything today. Thank you, mayor, for your facilitation and leadership because we got through the issues today >> Mayor Adler: These issues were capstones of multiyear work. These were big moments, but thank you for your work on this as well, manager. All right. With that then, at 4:46 this meeting is adjourned. See you all on Thursday. [Adjourned]