Audit and Finance Committee (AFC) Transcript – 5/3/2022 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 6 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 6/15/2022 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 6/15/2022 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. [9:35:01 AM] It is 9:34 A.M. My name is Alison alter. Going to call this meeting to order on the actual dais with me is councilmember Kelly and councilmember tovo. On the virtual dais is councilmember pool and councilmember Fuentes is absent today. So we are going to take up the items in order this morning. As of 9:20 A.M., we had nobody signed up. Is that still true for public communication? Great. Thank you. So our first order of business is approving the minutes of the audit and finance committee meeting of may 25, 2022. Do I have a motion to approve? Councilmember tovo makes the motion, seconded by councilmember Kelly. All those in favor. Okay. That's unanimous on the dais with councilmember Fuentes off. Thank you. So our next item, item 2 is a [9:36:03 AM] status of the recommendations from the November 2021 disaster preparedness audit that was conducted by our auditors office. I think we will also hear about some of the other after-action reports in the presentation. I'd like to invite up Mr. Arellano and Mr. Ortiz. Please go forward with your presentation. >> Thank you, mayor pro tem and committee members. It's a pleasure to be here to provide you an update with regard to disaster preparedness activities related to the audit report that was produced back in November of last year. With me this morning is Juan Ortiz, the director of the homeland security emergency management department or hsem. As well as Sara Henry, a newly hired Pio manager within the department. Linda pound Adams who has been temporarily assigned to that department to support the [9:37:03 AM] efforts and our newly appointed Laura pitino, our chief resiliency officer. There may be other individuals available virtually to respond to questions after they come up after our presentation. Next slide, please. We're very proud to provide an update since the last time we were here just five months ago. There's a significant amount of work, significant amount of recommendations that were certainly appointed to by the auditor's office. We welcome these opportunities to be able to improve upon and extend upon our capabilities to serve the community and certainly prepare ourselves to be able to respond to disasters. Given the amount of information that we have today, what we'd like to do is proceed at a tempo giving the committee time to ask questions at the end and so with that, on the next slide, we will begin. So each of the recommendations has this similar format. This first one is to prepare for significant catastrophic events. [9:38:03 AM] It really points to the ability to train and do exercises for our internal staff. On an annual basis, hsem conducts eoc trainings and other tabletop trainings in order to operate in the eoc, the emergency operations center, as well as to anticipate seasonal events, such as we're able to anticipate while disasters here locally, as well as significant -- special events, like south by southwest. I'd like to point to a couple of trainings we've been able to insert into the process, given the interest and need to increase our capability. That's the senior officials workshop. This was conducted last month. Particularly with an emphasis for our city council and the rest of our leadership team in order to have a common understanding and goal and focus on how we might better be [9:39:04 AM] prepared to approach disasters. The other one that is up there is a national radiological exercise. This has been in the planning for a while. We were fortunate to have it occur in the last month that really focused on a different kind of incident, radiological incident. On the next slide. Again, usc training, we've conducted six since the fall and again based on the interest of the departments not only to provide training for people that -- employees that are sliding into new positions that might be in the eoc, but also some departments have indicated an interest in refresher training for those in the eoc. There's a number of training sessions that hsem has that has put forth for that purpose. Next slide. Like to hand it over now to director Ortiz. >> Thank you. Number 2 is the city manager [9:40:07 AM] prioritize planning. This effort actually got started prior to the pandemic. The pandemic required us to reallocate resources in support of the pandemic. We have reengaged in this area can in the fall of '21 and working with all the different city department partners to move the needle in this regard. We want to thank council for approving the spending authority. This will allow us to better plan and schedule and work with the departments that need to be transitioned into the new system >> Chair: Excuse me me director. Not everyone knows what coop stands for. I want to ensure that the general public knows what you're talking B. >> That is an excellent point. I apologize. Coop, like you said is continuity of operations planning. As we move with these operations plans development we're working with the different city departments to ensure that they're all done as fast as -- [9:41:08 AM] as best as we can. Given the information we have from the departments. Now that the spending was authorized. Now we're working with the departments to look at their availability of funds and will work with them to schedule when is the best time for them to complete it. Depending on the availability of funding, we think that this can be completed within the next two fiscal years. Next slide. Again, this is a face approach. We're going to -- working with the auditor's office to revise the implementation date and as we move forward, this approach for the plan development will be -- we see it coming forward within the next fiscal years. What I wanted to cover in this slide here is this is a two [9:42:09 AM] phased approach for coop planning. As well as we have conducted several tabletop exercises and other activities in order to validate the information that is going into the system and that is something going -- moving forward. As well as we have additional work that was done in the it disaster recovery plans to ensure that the critical applications were included in that process. Next slide. Slide no. 3, this is a city manager [indiscernible] Implement initiatives to increase disaster preparedness and community resiliency. We have several major efforts that are underway at this point in this area. I'm going to ask Sara Henry to come up to the podium and give us an update specifically in the preparedness portion. >> Thank you, Juan. Next slide, please. We were very fortunate city council approved over $250,000 [9:43:11 AM] in funding for this preparedness campaign. To date, we've put together what is called emergency preparedness, make it your super power. Through this campaign, we have managed traditional paid media outreach, ads on streaming services and social media campaigns which are running in multiple languages. We've also established relationships with HEB and Walmart, retailers. If you'll go to the next slide, over 280,000 people have been reached today with just the social media can campaigns alone. Our next steps with this campaign are to further spend the funds with additional marketing and community engagement opportunities. And with that, I'll turn it over to sustainability to talk about resiliency hubs. >> Good morning councilmembers. My name is -- I'm the new chief resilience officer. Like my colleague just mentioned, this effort has been part of the sustainability [9:44:11 AM] office for quite some time now. We're in the process of transition phase. So I'm happy to bring in some updates into these efforts and the transition efforts and the transition process. Disasters of this magnitude truly do bring transformational change. We must use this momentum to drive forward and council has prioritized this through the resolution that has -- the city manager to create a plan and recommendations to create resilience hubs. But we have also learned through this process that it's important to take a step back and leverage the resources that already exist in our communities. This is where the city can help convene, can help facilitate and really can help empower. So the resilience hubs program is in its early stages of a [9:45:12 AM] pilot program. But the goal is to build a full-scale network of facilities that provide services and programs to all austinites during emergencies and also during blue sky days. Next slide, please. So over the past few months, there have been significant updates and significant milestones that have been accomplished. Six focus areas have been identified in the eastern crescent and this has been through engagement process with a community advisor and -- and set of working groups. This has been led by the office of sustainability and I do want to recognize my colleague, mark, from the office of sustainability, project manager for this effort that is here with us today. A community engagement consultant has also been procured and the work for community engagement in this specific area is expected to start at the end of June. [9:46:13 AM] And expected to end at the end of the summer. The goal of this community engagement process will finalize and will end in the selection of six specific locations, sites in the community that will serve as a first six pilot resilience hubs in our community. Finally, I will say that a brochure and efforts to expand on communication materials has been initiated. The next steps is -- as I mentioned, we will finalize the community engagement process of these specific -- we'll continue formulating the next phases to expand the program to other city areas and how to scale it up to not just the eastern crescent but all of Austin as well as launch a communication campaign to tie into existing emergency communications as well as other services. I do want to highlight that this [9:47:14 AM] has been an effort, brought forward through sustainability in coordination with hsem, as well as external agencies, Travis county and iasd. We will continue to align with all of these agencies and community members and the internal departments. There was an updated memo that was presented earlier this week. And in this slide, there is a link that provides a more detailed information on the updates [indiscernible]. Thank you. I'll hand it back to Juan. >> Next slide. Implement pass -- [indiscernible]. Actions and recommendations related to disaster preparedness and response. For this slide I'm going to ask Linda -- to come up to the podium as to how we're moving [9:48:15 AM] forward with corrective action process. >> Thank you, Juan. Okay. I'd like to focus more so on the recommendations part for the after-action recommendations. With the winter storm Yuri, there were 132 -- next slide please. There were 132 recommendations that were identified. Out of those 132 recommendations we came to you in January, we had evaluated and we identified 32 of those that we could immediately begin work on. And they had -- which had a high impact but required little to know resources and little to no budget. This slide is what we presented to you back in January as to what we were. Within the focus areas of communication, planning and preparedness. Transportation, logistics and one in the logistics and supply chain. We're in progress. We had 12, which was 37.5% and we were awaiting updates on 15 [9:49:16 AM] of those, which is 46.9%. Next slide. As of June, we've completed ten more, which was a total of 15, which makes up 47% within the focus areas of communication, planning and preparedness and logistics. Within communications, there were seven of them. One example you heard about was the ready central Texas campaign. We extended the language access in that campaign. In the -- there were four in planning and preparedness. One of the -- an example I'm giving to you that we closed was solidifying the role of the equity office in our emergency operations center, which was significant for us, because in the four logistical and supply chains, the example I'm going to use to you is how we utilized the equity office to help us in our distribution of services where we utilized -- we were able to better utilize an equity [9:50:16 AM] lens with the distribution of services in our recent events. In progress, we still -- we have eight, which is 25%. And awaiting updates we have 9 which is 28%. Next slide, please. Also at the meeting we talked about our plans to create a system that houses all the recommendations in a central location that will be accessible to everyone for transparency. While we're excited to introduce to you today the new Chris system. It stands for community resiliency and improvement status portal. This system was developed by city of Austin and Travis county and it's a dynamic portal that features after-action reports from significant events. The system is very user friendly. It allows you to track status of [9:51:16 AM] recommendations by taking a holistic view with a dashboard or drilling down into the event by the recommendation. It also aligns with FEMA, federal emergency management agency standards, which is categorized by mission areas and they're incorporated into the mission areas. The system will be publicly available in July at data.austin texas.gov. Next slide, please. The data housed in crisp are Tenney vents dating back to 2013. They've all been loaded into the portal. I will not read them all. You'll have them as backup. They are in the system currently right now. Next slide. This is a nap shot of what you're going to see when you go into the portal. [9:52:16 AM] You will -- the beginning part of it will be an introduction that tells you about crisp, tells you what it's about, but then you see the dashboard. This is a snapshot in time. Keep in mind it's dynamic, it refreshes every two hours. So the data will be readily available and should be -- we're hoping that it will be as current -- we're trying to get it as current as possible. At the top of the dashboard of the snapshot, you'll see where you can actually search by event, you can search by mission area and the third one is going to be by core capability. When you look at the top to my right, the record count, there are 1147 recommendations that are in the system right now. When you look at the pie, they are designated by the recommendation by mission area, which is based off of FEMA standards and the second pie is based off status. [9:53:17 AM] You can see where it tells you it is completed and progress closed and not started. When you drill further down into the system, you'll see at the bottom, you'll see where you can actually click on the recommendation and the recommendation will -- you can get a further -- you can get further details on the status of each recommendation. Built into the system, we hope this allows for information to be available to you at all times and we also hope this is a way of being transparent in regards to all of our recommendations. I will now turn it back over to acm ray Arellano. >> So this is -- this recommendation has to do with resource staffing within homeland security emergency management. I think over the last two years, we've clearly seen what with the pandemic, responding to the normal course of emergencies in 2020 and '21, as well as winter [9:54:18 AM] storm Yuri, we had a sense there was more resourcing needed and the auditor's report clearly pointed out areas we needed to focus. We've completed an evaluation with them and come forward in the short-term with reallocating long-standing vacancies in order to start the process of beefing up its capability. You see here two of them are going to be focused on resiliency hub activities. This is meant to unload, if you will, or shift the load from the sustainability office, which again I want to recognize have done such a great job of laying the foundation for our chief resiliency officer to carry the ball forward. Two of the positions are going to be focused on doing the work that's required, again, particularly around mass casualty coordination, which will be very helpful at again extending the capability outreach into the community and helping the community be [9:55:18 AM] prepared as well as staff to be prepared to respond. So the focus for hsem going forward is to fill the vacancies, reclassify the four positions so they can begin filling them and then I would say the positions that we've identified that are necessary to beef up hsem's capability, they will be -- in the fiscal year 2023 budget. Next slide, please. Go back one. There you go. Update policy and process for had ensuring adequate staff are trained and available to respond to disasters. We've done major work in this area. The main thing is P here as we -- we are conducting monthly coordinated meetings with different city departments with their single points of contact [9:56:19 AM] in order to ensure we're coordinating with the departments, looking at what the upcoming training and exercise schedules look like, make sure the departments are up to date with what information they need to be coordinating within their departments to ensure that their personnel is trained and ready for the upcoming disaster season. So this is a monthly meeting that we're holding. In fact, there's a meeting taking place right now as we speak to ensure that we're closing the gap between the level of readiness and preparedness between the different city departments as well. In addition to that, we're also exploring other ways of identifying the staffing resources, specifically, we're looking at what contractors could be placed on stand by or under contract to assist in the city in responding to future disasters, as well as using temporary agencies to fill specific position gaps in the [9:57:21 AM] future. We have brought on board a temporary personnel resource manager. This is temporary position that is working with human resources department to identify available staff in the event of an emergency or disaster. And their role is to work with hrd to ensure that we are finding what resources may be available for different departments to better assist in the event of an emergency or disaster. Lastly, I want to kind of -- you might have heard me mention this before. But we are utilizing recently retired city employees that have been willing to come out of retirement and assist the community in the event of an emergency or disaster where we call them the disaster reservists and these are in lots of different areas and to include purchasing and accounting as well as other areas from fire, police and ems [9:58:24 AM] and facilities and fleet and other different -- anybody that's a recently city retired employee that is willing to be a part of the disaster reservists, we're in the process of formalizing that process of recruiting and better strengthening this program as we move forward. We think that this is a way of leveraging expertise that employees have acquired in their careers for the city and give them an opportunity to help the community in the future if there is an emergency or disaster that requires that to happen. Next slide. Number 7 is ensure the city has adequate emergency supplies and equipment for future disasters. We have secured a specific quantities of water and meals ready to eat from a company called heater meals. Other key resources and supplies [9:59:26 AM] where we are storing them and the quantities that we're able to keep is really depending on the available warehouse space that we have, but we have secured those resources and they're intended to be a bridge to allow us to then in the event of an emergency have something in place that will allow us to get additional resources from outside of the area. Also wanted to let you know that we're working on a disaster food and drinking water appendix to the mass care plan. This is intended to ensure that we are better aligned and have a better system in place to identify food shortages as well as be able to have a closer connection with community-based organizations as we respond to the need for food and water in an emergency. [10:00:27 AM] Also, additional work is going to be required to look at the development of logistics supply chain management strategy. The hope is that if we develop this supply chain management strategy, it will make us more resilient and less -- to the national worldwide shortage impacts that are facing the -- facing communities at this time. Everything from fuel shortages, as well as baby formula shortages. We need to be less dependent on just in time. So we need to be really looking at a -- developing a strategy that makes us more resilient in this regard. Some of the challenges that we're going to need to overcome, we need to identify adequate warehouse space as well as stationary and the necessary staff to handle these situations in the future. Next slide. [10:01:30 AM] Number 8 is create an implement a language access plan for emergencies to ensure effective communities receive adequate information. In this slide, I'm going to ask Sara to come back to the podium and give us an update on the progress we're making in this regard. >> Thank you again. So one of the challenges that we heard of and live through during storm Yuri was that staff who were responding to the storm also didn't have power or water. So one of the things that -- cpio to establish is increase or vendor capacities for out of state vendors for translation services as well as we have established a contract with links for asl interpretation. Both of these benefits we've seen through the heat advisory and heat warning INGs dents last week. I'll also share for the February storm of '22 as well as for the boil water notice, city staff spent over $17,000 on translation services for just [10:02:30 AM] those two incidents. So continued resources will be needed as these emergencies arise. Thank you. >> Thank you, Sara. Next slide. This is an example of the language access that has been already translated. You can see ten languages. So this is the part of our language access plan. Next slide. Number 9. Ensure the city's disaster response efforts are equitable and meet the needs of vulnerable populations in the community. I'm happy to report that we're making great strides in this area. Not only has the equity office role been identified in the emergency operations center's operating guidelines, as well as we've also made modifications to [10:03:32 AM] our plan development sop's and our planned development procedures which will now incorporate language to assure that equity is a part of the plan development or update process. It ensures that we will have their participation and their contributions in the development of documents as we move forward. In addition to that, we modified plan development process. The equity office has been very instrumental in our recent responses and this is an area where we're going to be showing you by actually practicing. So as we have -- in the recent emergencies or disasters that we're facing, we have utilized the equity office very successfully and they were instrumental in helping us identify the appropriate points [10:04:35 AM] of distribution in the most recent crisises that we had. As well as come up with a solution for the delivery of water at residential homes that was in cooperation with capital metro and the disaster relief network and equity office working together to come up with a solution how to meet the needs of the community. So those are examples of how we're going to not only say that we're going to do something but we're going to put it into action and demonstrate and you'll be able to see that as we move forward. Another perfect example is the equity office working closely with hsem as we were identifying the supplies that we were going to be incorporating in our shelter mission-ready pre-package. They were able to look at our list and ensure the cultural inclusion and equities of supplies were part of the [10:05:35 AM] process and that influence determined the supplies that were ultimately put in the containers as we were getting ready for the last winter weather season. Next slide. Number 10, development of a plan to involve community in disaster preparedness and planning. As was reported in the recommendation number 5, a position that was reallocated by the city manager, what is to fill the role of the mass care coordinator. This position is going to be instrumental in helping coordinate with community partners, community-based organizations and first responders and look at how best to align those response efforts in making sure that we are moving forward as a community. We're not just doing this for winter weather. It is a year-round approach that [10:06:40 AM] we're taking into consideration as we move forward. In addition, other perfect examples of how we're meeting the recommendation is the recent effort that was undertaken by resiliency officer working with community resiliency trust as we're looking to address the baby food formula shortage in that coordination effort that was conducted by resiliency officer. As well as the work being done with the neighborhood resiliency hub outreach and campaign and then also the development of preparedness guides and disaster flyers in conjunction with other departments. That work was participated by the watershed protection department and homeland security and emergency management department. Those are perfect examples of how we're trying to meet the intent of this recommendation. We'll have more to report in the future updates. Next slide. [10:07:45 AM] >> Thank you, Juan. Again, committee members, there's a lot of work that has been done. I'm very proud and the team is very proud about the work that's been accomplished. Yet we understand that there's more work to be done as well. Particularly in the areas of bringing the resiliency hub concept to fruition and certainly addressing all of the recommendations that are now available on the crisp portal. These efforts are not accomplished in silos, but an interdepartmental coordination and collaboration, as well as with external stakeholders in order to make all of this work. You know, we are really intent on driving transformational change that can really change the way that we do business more effectively as well as efficiently. Really like to leave you with the thought that we are better prepared to respond to the normal course. Of course, it's difficult to see what is normal these days. But the normal course of disasters that we might experience and are well on our way to being able to respond to low probability, high impact [10:08:47 AM] incidents like winter storm Yuri represents and with that, again, on behalf of the team, we're pleased to be here and respond to any questions that you may have. Thank you. >> Chair: Thank you. I also hope we're prepared for high probability high risk events like wildfire as well. As you know. So thank you all for the presentation and your work. As is often the case in this committee, we're going to spend a lot more time asking questions about the next steps. But before we do that, just want to thank our staff who have been operating under emergency for quite some time under difficult conditions and we very much appreciate all the work that you do and I think part of what I imagine some of our questions are going to be about today and I'll let my colleagues go first on the questions is going to be about making sure that you have the resources and support that you need to do your job [10:09:48 AM] effectively and look forward to our conversation. Councilmember Kelly? >> Kelly: Thank you. I'd like to start off by saying that I understand this presentation today took a lot of work by the agency and staff. I'm thank full that they carried that list for the community to make the city of Austin better equipped in regards to emergency management. Director Ortiz, I was able to attend one of your sessions of the Texas emergency management conference in San Antonio recently. I wanted to publicly comment on your knowledge and ability to pack a room from all across the state. I appreciated the presentation and the feedback from people who I spoke with afterwards was absolutely glowing. It's my hope that the city of Austin has a world class homeland security and emergency management program. We're a big city and we need to ensure that we are successful in the disaster planning process ahead of time so we come out of the other side stronger as a community than we were before. I do want to say, however, it's important for council to fully understand that in order for you to be able to effectively plan [10:10:50 AM] for and respond to disasters, that your office does need these staff. Outside of the staff that you mentioned in the presentation, I was wondering if there were unmet needs that you'd like to share with council that we can help advocate for during the budget process. >> Thank you, councilmember, for those kind words. The presentation was in partnership wa Travis county and working very closely with Travis county as we move forward. Additional resource requests that we submitted to the fy 23 budget process and those are going through that process and I would say that you'll see them as -- we're waiting to see what your decision will be once those represented when the city manager presents his budget. >> Kelly: Okay. Thank you. Could you maybe help us understand how the community engagement process will look in [10:11:50 AM] regards to the selection of the six resiliency hubs? >> Let me see if I can get somebody -- so let me -- I'll take an attempt to answer the question. I think that the community engagement as it relates to resiliency hubs, it's going to be close in hand with the overall message of preparedness. And it's important that as we engage with a different neighborhoods and looking at how to build that level of resiliency, level of tenacity in the community, that we're -- that we're not reinventing the wheel but really more -- from the full preparedness that we are laying out and looking at what the neighborhoods are -- what the assessment of the neighborhood has identified as gaps in their ability to be more resilient. Anything else? No? [10:12:50 AM] >> I'll just add that this is a process, councilmember, that we are beginning through our consultant that was just procured and the steps are being outlined as we continue to develop that specific scope of work. What is really important in this process is to ensure that the specific areas that have been identified in the six areas, the communities being brought in is not just through the typical outreach that has been employed, but is more meaningful and authentic and so it includes languages that are tailored specifically to the community. It involves specific materials, workshops as well that are designed in a way that the community can help not just pick the locations, but identify the [10:13:51 AM] specific services that these locations are going to provide. And ultimately, help design what this facility ultimately will provide for them. Exactly. >> Kelly: I'm sorry. We didn't hear what you said director Ortiz. >> We need to be able to empower them to be more resill yet. >> Kelly: Thank you for that. That's my last and final comment real quick. I wanted to take a moment and remind the community that resiliency starts with personal preparedness. That includes making a plan, building an emergency kit. Three small steps that everybody can take to make sure their family has a best outcome when disaster strikes. Councilmember tovo, real quick, I wanted to briefly highlight item 51 on our agenda this week that you're sponsoring. I'd like to co-sponsor that. I will say that tomorrow. I believe I have an amendment or two in consideration to personal preparedness that I'd like to bring forward. I'll post that to the message [10:14:53 AM] board for you. Thank you very much everyone. >> Thank you. >> Thanks very much, this is really super helpful around I'm really pleased to hear all of the work, a couple of things that I took note of, the database to track the recommendations and the progress, that very helpful, really excited to hear about the disaster reservist, I have a few questions in that area, planning with for a stock of water and food and other kinds of things, which I would assume have been part of the practice in the past, but it sounds like there's more transparency and intentionality around it, having translators outside of Texas, and I thought we saw last week with the cooling center, with the promotion of cooling centers, a real important step of utilizing the resources and leveraging the resources we already have. But also importantly getting that word out in a very intentional public way, so [10:15:54 AM] thank you. I think that's all really good progress. With regard to the disaster reservists, I heard director Ortiz you said those were retired individuals. Are they also current city staff and departments that would not necessarily be pulled in to working with -- responding to a disaster -- >> So that would be a little bit different, existing city staff, that's that role of that personnel resource manager, temporary position that I talked about, we're working -- we're utilizing that position, working with hrd to identify a way of how do we identify those -- the available pull of city -- pool of city employees that can be reassigned or voluntarily be reassigned to support disasters, and how do we work through that process of having the right incentive or compensation for that work that is being done in support of a [10:16:55 AM] disaster. Then maybe after hours or it may be in lieu of work, so we're working through that process right now, but it's separate from the disaster reservists, because what we learned from the -- from the pandemic is that the longer the disaster is, the departments need to get back to some type of normal operations. >> Sure. No, I understand that, I like the idea of calling them all disaster reservists for clarity, but that is not my decision, as I understand it, the disaster reservists are retired folks who might be pulled back in. Then you have a plan for city staff -- you're doing training of city staff from other departments who would serve in the eoc, and then there's a third effort going on to identify -- to identify the staff or just identify -- identify how they would be compensated? Are you planning on identifying and training those staff, who are kind of our city disaster reservists out in the departments who would be pulled in, who [10:17:56 AM] would opt into that. >> Correct. Excuse me. The identification of those staff, what role they're going to play in a disaster and make sure they're trained and prepared as we move forward. So traditionally, what we do is we focus mostly on shelters, but as the recent events in the last couple of years, we realize that we have other expertise that may be necessary that deal with resource management, points of distribution, and other activities that we need to be more flexible, more nimble in order to meet the disaster needs in the future. Unfortunately, climate change is telling us that we need to get ready. >> I would say work perform in different areas. How many vacancy doss we currently have. >> In Houston right now, we are working through two vacancies, three vacancies. [10:18:57 AM] One was just recently promoted, so there's resulted in a new vacancy, going through the hiring process of that, and another one was a reclassification that just got approved and we have interviews scheduled for this Friday, and then the third one, now that we hired the new public information and marketing manager, Sarah now has a vacancy, she will be starting the hiring process for that vacancy. And some of these were vacancies as a result of workforce, moving on to other bigger and better opportunities, unfortunately we have to fill those gaps as best as we can. >> Yeah, I was noting that on slide 19 that your priority was to fill vacancies, I was trying to get a sense of what they are, sounds like there are about three. >> In addition to the four that we are in the process of reclassifying, the two for the resiliency hub, and the two for the other needs, [10:19:59 AM] so if you take -- so total, we have seven, four that we're -- that city manager reallocated to us -- >> From where? Do you know from where? >> From management services. I don't know specifically what positions they were, but it was within the management services area, so those are having to go through a reclassification process, and we're about halfway through that. >> And I did have -- and I think that's my last area of questions for the moment. So you have three vacancies, plus four, if it's approved in the budget for -- for four positions coming through another department which requires council approval. The question I had for you, I'm excited about the work that is going on and resilience, I'm excited about it. I think the pilot program is terrific. And the identification of those six sites is important. Councilmember Kelly mentioned my follow-up resolution to that, which is [10:20:59 AM] on this week's agenda to develop resilience toolkit, I see a huge urgency behind that, I'm so glad that we now have our chief resilience officer on board, the toolkit is going to be critical, because as mayor pro tem, you just mentioned, the threat of wild fires, as we saw during the emergency, we did have shelters in certain areas of town and not at all in others, and we know disasters hit everywhere, so we really can't afford not to have communities prepared in other areas, and those places pre-identified and those community groups pre-identified who know how to assist in that kind of time frame. We simply just can't have another situation like last time where, you know, you had impromptu efforts from council and community members and others to stand up -- to stand up shelters at a time where lots of folks around the city needed refuge. So hopefully that follow-up resolution will be helpful in that area. I did have a question about I understand the structure [10:22:00 AM] for the chief resilience officer position. I'm trying to understand and maybe the budget is the time to talk about it, but let me just air that I'm interested to know why the choice is to remove resilience from the work of the office of sustainability, and reclassify those positions within (indiscernible) Because as they are preparing for emergency, I love the term that you used from our chief resilience officer, they're also doing important work during blue sky days, and so to me, that is the work of the sustainability office is really critically involved in creating, you know, community sustainability during and ongoing basis, so I really see that resilience work very much centered within resilience, and I guess maybe this is a question for Jason Alexander, why the decision to move the on the grounds resilience hub work to husum rather than leave it within the office of [10:23:00 AM] sustainability. >> Yes, ma'am, thank you, Jason Alexander, the chief of staff. Right now the resilience office is not positioned in a way to have additional staffing, so in interest of time, we decided that the resources were best fit in (indiscernible) That program work is already happening. Laura's role is essentially a collaborative role with hesam, it made sense in the interest of time. >> I love, actually, that that position lives outside of those individual structure, because I think it makes sense to pull and be collaborative with the different departments. I guess I really do need to understand especially if those positions already are within the office of sustainability, again, I think -- I think the ongoing day-to-day work seems to be much more closely aligned with the office of sustainability's mission as I envisioned it as one of the folks who, I think voted on the creation of that office. No, I guess I didn't. I was innovation. [10:24:00 AM] But in any case, we've all helped fund and staff it through the years. I just see their role as very critical to the mission of what we envision for the office of sustainability. >> If I may, let me try to clarify, we're not taking from the office of sustainability, rather the positions that we are now supplements in hesam are to conduct the work that other exists resources and sustainability were performing. >> Right. >> So we are basically creating a pathway for those employees to go back to those projects, as we mentioned yesterday work session, they had climate priorities to deal with. They can seize other locations throughout the management services department, so we are not -- to clarify again, we are not taking resources from sustainability -- >> I'm sorry, I misspoke about it. I understood what director droshortiz was saying. I think I'm still -- I'm still wondering about the choice of putting them in [10:25:00 AM] hesam rather than the office of sustainability because the day-to-day work of those seem to be so connected to the work of the sustainability office. So that's the question, we can also chat more about it offline if that makes more sense. >> Happy to. >> I think part of the reasoning behind it, and this is a lot of it is because of the urgency of tackling really what the services, what the communities are, which is what the communities need in emergencies immediately. And right now that is the work that hesam is -- the primary role is and the work that director Ortiz is leading. That is really the primary phase that is being targeted right now in the pilot N. Setting up the pilot, the pilot program, the six area, it's initiating with what these sites conserve to immediately serve as the emergency hubs, and building on to what they do in blue [10:26:02 AM] sky days, right? This is part of ultimately what the outreach program that we're kicking off in the outreach campaign is kicking off in the next few weeks is going to help identify, but primarily, the immediate need and the urgency is for the emergency component of it. In the long -- in the long run and as we look at phase II and phase III of the program, it's standing up those programmatic needs and services that also look at economic resilience, at community resilience as a whole, and those are the elements that are going to be further explored in phase II and phase III as we expand and scale up the program, not just within the individual sites and those pilot location, but also citywide. >> Thank you for that explanation. I think -- and I guess I am trying to think about the long-term and that's why phase II and 3 seem really again to be just part of the office of sustainability's mission, so -- anyway, we can talk more about it, but [10:27:02 AM] thank you very much. >> Thank you, councilmember tovo. I'll point out I think it was a resolution that councilmember pool put forward, I am pretty sure I was a cosponsor and you were a cosponsor that created the office of resilience, chief resilience officer if not mistaken. >> I think I was talking about the sustainability, which I was thinking our council had voted on, but it was before all of our time. >> Okay. Councilmember pool, did you have any questions? Okay. Great. I will ask a couple. Several of mine have already been answered. I wanted to find out a little bit about the mass care position and what that role will be. Can you tell us a little more? >> Yes, the mass care coordinator position, what we have identified in recent disasters is that we need to do a better job of closing the gap between the different community based organizations that are out there in our community, [10:28:03 AM] willing to help out in a disaster, and make sure that we're coordinating those efforts with our city and county efforts as well. So a mass care coordinator will be tasked with building, creating a community organizations, active in disaster, and having a -- a process about all the different community organizations can be engaged in future disaster responses. They are going to be engaging with the different community based organizations on a consistent basis, make sure that we are collaborating in areas where we see collaboration, to better prepare, as well as a response. There will also be supervising some of our shelter efforts and our food and water access efforts, and for right now, also will be overseeing part of the work that we're doing in the -- in those resiliency or resiliency hubs arena. [10:29:05 AM] >> I would ask that this person also be sure that they are connecting across the city, and not just in the eastern crescent where we're doing our pilots for the resilience hubs. I understand that the pilot phase should be focused on the eastern crescent, but we don't know how these disasters are going to play out, and if we have no resources on the west side, and there's a disaster on the east side and it can't be supported, we will be in trouble and vice versa. And so there is a risk in putting all of our resilience efforts in one area of town, for the resilience of the whole city. Obviously, we have to start somewhere, and that's where the most immediate need is, and so that is an appropriate step. But, you know, we do need to make sure that the synagogues and the churches and the temples, you know, for instance, are engaged, the schools, you know, on the west side, because we [10:30:06 AM] don't have a lot of the other resources in terms of the hubs. There aren't the neighborhood centers, there aren't those resources, so the mass care coordinator is really going to need to complement what the resilience hubs are doing as we move forward. So I want to make sure that is part of how they're thinking about it. Obviously, it needs to be everywhere, but I want to make sure that we are providing for resilience across the community. The other thing that I wanted to dive into is the warehousing constraints. I'm hearing more and more that this is a challenge with our emergency preparedness. Had several conversations with Austin disaster relief network, and gotten into some specifics of their needs. My question is whether you are tuned in to the work that our real estate office is doing about our warehouse needs and their current project for that. [10:31:07 AM] >> Yes, we are working real closely with Darrell Alexander, in those efforts. Warehousing is a -- is something that is going to be very critical in our ability to maintain a local stockpile of resources to be able to support future disasters. At a state level, I think this is something that even the state of Texas has realized, and they have deployed six strategic regional state warehouses in order to be able to support statewide disasters. We have recognized that, especially in the beginning of the -- of the hurricane Harvey, the 2018 boil water crisis, the winter storm uri, the pandemic, all have -- all those corrective [10:32:07 AM] actions have resulted in we need to identify a -- a suitable climate control warehouse in order to be able to maintain adequate emergency supplies on hand to support emergencies, and be less dependent on just in time, which as you can see, has impacted greatly in a -- in a supply chain crisis. >> Thank you. I'm not sure that it was Darrell Alexander who was -- it was Andy in real estate that I think we were -- we've been talking with, and I say this because this is part of our efforts to move for leased properties to owned properties, and they're doing that visioning right now for our warehouses, and I think it's really important that hesam be involved in those conversations both for hesam but also for these key nonprofits that work with us, you know, when I talk with adrn, they have -- it's [10:33:07 AM] not a huge amount of warehouse, it's like 10,000 square feet they need, in the scheme of things doesn't seem that big, but, you know, can we build that into -- if we're going to do essential warehousing areas, you know, are there ways to build, you know, to build that and for that access for nonprofits as well with access to some of these supplies that we may or may not have or we're relying on them to hold those. >> Yeah, in the office of real estate, we work with Michael Gates, and he's helped us identify different locations that may be available for lease, or purchase, but that's the question is securing the funding for either lease or purchase, to address those needs. >> Okay. There is also a whole -- like a strategic process for our warehouses that I want to make sure that you are looped into. >> Yes. >> Okay. [10:34:07 AM] I'm pleased to see the system set up, I think that comes out of the conversations we've had in this committee. I think that's really important. I do want to point out, though, that, you know, you picked the 32 -- if I understood what was said correctly, you picked the 32 elements of the after action that were the low hanging fruit and then you told us what they reported, and there's a hundred other ones there that are not reported here, and so while I appreciate the progress on the low hanging fruit, that doesn't require budget, I don't think that any of us gave direction not to seek to make the changes that are needed that require budgets that have come out of these reports. So I would like some more information on the other hundred items. I understand you have to categorize them, et cetera, and you've made more progress there, but it's -- the sum total that we need to hear of. >> Yes, and we are working on the recommendations from [10:35:08 AM] Urie, and we can give you a report on the progress of all of those. The reason we identified 32 is because that's what we identified at the last meeting. Out of those, the priority -- the priority of those, these 32, that had the most benefit and could be implemented within a reasonable amount of time. And but we can definitely -- we don't need to say that we are not working on the other ones, we are working on those as well, and if we can provide you a report on that as well. >> Thank you, as appropriate and within your time frame. Obviously, you need to get your hiring done, and I don't want that reporting to get in the way, we understand you have to make choices, but I just want to communicate that is not enough to do the low hanging fruit, we need to be putting that forward, and we have to understand what the tradeoffs are that we're making when we're not investing in those things and it's hard if you're not presenting to us what those things are to understand what those tradeoffs are that are being made behind [10:36:11 AM] the scenes, because we may not agree with the tradeoff once we have that information. The last thing is -- I know you spoke a little bit about kind of the budget and you said you were going through the budget process. I would like to ask, and if we have to, we'll put it in as a budget question, but you're going to come out with some stuff in the budget, and there's going to be stuff you wanted that you're not going to have gotten, and as a councilmember, I need to know what you asked for that you did not get, you know, and what we're not funding, you know, through that process. I don't want to just know only what you were given. I want to know what the needs are and what are the tradeoffs that we're making through that. Now, that may not be in the actual budget, but I think, you know, we're going to have to really be understanding that better, and at this point, that's a real black box as the budget process has evolved. [10:37:11 AM] >> Let him finish and then you can answer. >> I'll say we'll be able to address those questions when they come. >> Okay, thank you. And to my staff, if you can plan on putting those questions (indiscernible). >> Yeah, I was going to say that once upon a time that used to accompany the budget, and it was called I think the horizons report, and it was extraordinarily useful because it showed what each of the departments would do if they had more funding and, you know, I think sometimes the council did make decisions that were a little different than the ones that the manager brought forward, but having that information in one place for each department I think is extraordinarily useful. I've mentioned it each budget cycle and it hasn't come back yet. So now we have to ask lots and lots of questions through the q&a to get the information. I think it was called the horizons document. >> That would be great if we could have something like that. Okay. There are more questions we can ask, but I think we need to move on in our -- in our [10:38:14 AM] agenda. Thank you for being here. We appreciate the work that you're doing, and I think, you know, I just want to underscore again the need to make sure that you have the staff and the resources and the support across departments to do the work that we are asking of you either as -- council is asking you, or just, you know, how the disasters are -- disasters are playing out. Appreciated the training that you did with us, I think that was useful. I think there's still some work to be done in that area in terms of preparedness, but it was a good next step so thank you for organizing that. Training. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Next up we have item 3, the city auditor's integrity unit report. This summarizes activities of the unit related to its fraud, waste and abuse hotline. [10:39:24 AM] >> Thank you, councilmembers. My name is Brian Malloy, the chief investigations at the office of the city auditor. I run the integrity unit which is made of -- staffed by four investigators and today I'm going to talk about our first 8 months of fiscal year '22. So could you advance? So over the course of this presentation, I'm going to go over some allegation trends that we've seen so far this year, I'm going to talk about the investigations we've completed, what investigations are on going, additional outputs and achievements from the foreign investigators that make up the integrity unit. Next slide. Head line number here is so far through 8 months we've had 185 new allegations come into my team that puts us pace to have 278 allegations for the year. It puts it at the number of allegations we're seeing pre- pandemic before so many staff members started working from home I do believe the bulk of this increase is part of the city's return to work [10:40:24 AM] programs, employees are coming back into the office, that gives them more opportunity to see concerning behavior, other red flag, they then report to my team. Now, that pace for 278 is average of the first 8 months, we've seen an up tick in the most recent three months, if those three months are more indicative of what we see the rest of the year, we could see close to 300 allegations come in. Next slide. As far as the allegations that come into the office, we kind of split them, we do an initial triage into two cat dpoirks ones within our jurisdiction, ones that are outside our jurisdiction. On this slide, the bulk of the one outside of the jurisdiction end up being age related issues, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, as well as other hr issues those end up getting referred to the hr teams in individual departments or the human resources department. The next most common category is operational issue, that was about 15% of the allegations that came in so far this year, those also refer to the individual's [10:41:25 AM] departments. The most common allegations we've seen come in over the first 8 months have been conflicts of interest with 18, theft, theft of time, inventory or cash, there were 11 of those, and then we've had seven abuse allegations, 7 misuse allegations and four waste allegations. Next slide. Moving on to how we hear about these allegations. This number right here aligns perfectly with industry best practices which state that if you want to hear about fraud, waste and abuse or other problems going on in your entity, you have to give informants a chance to report anonymously, and the vast number choose to report anonymously, we usually see about two-thirds of our informants choosing to remain anonymous, that ensures that we're giving the best chance for us to hear about the various concerns in the city. To let people report anonymously, to be sure you're hearing about these things, you have to make it easier to report. The favored method we've seen, this has been the case for the last couple of year, [10:42:26 AM] most of our informants like to use the online reporting form, a simple online tool, it prompts the informant with various questions to make sure we're getting relevant information and they can use it anonymously. Over two-thirds like to use that, 10% of our informants like to use the hotline which is a telephone number you can call, a voice mail, again, you can do that anonymously. Lastly, while not as big a as those first two, six directly contacted an investigator on my team, I like to point that out, because it does show that the investigators on my team have earned some trust with people they've dealt with over the course of careers completing investigation, talking to witnesses and various other contact points in the city. People have learned to trust them and reach out to them directly to share their concerns. Next slide. Allegations by department. These are the top five areas -- or top five departments in the city represented by allegations so far this year. I'll give trends when I do the full year analysis in [10:43:28 AM] the fall to show like which departments are ticking up versus ticking down, so far this year Austin energy has had the most allegations with 16% per capita, that makes sense, it is one of the largest departments in the city, next up with city officials with 9%, that area isn't just elected officials, that includes all the city's boards and commission, so appointed officials as well. Austin water is next with 8%, and then animal services and Austin public health each had 6% of the allegations that came in so far this year. Next slide. All right. Moving on to investigations, and before I get into these seven we've completed so far, a bit of background, any concern that gets brought to my office gets logged in our case management system as an allegation. Then we'll do that initial triage in our jurisdiction or out, if it's in our jurisdiction, investigator will get assign and they will start investigating to see if they can substantiate or unsubstanceate what is alleged. If that investigator obtains enough evidence individual, [10:44:28 AM] to indicate it's possible violation of this city code did occur, we'll upgrade it in our system to an investigation. The same investigator stays on it, will continue their investigative path, but when it's an investigation, they spend more time, they know it's a priority. So it gets a bit more time, energy and our focus, once it's at this investigation stage. So far this year we've completed 7 investigations. Five were unsubstantiated. We have either those two outcomes, we document our findings and we share them with the relevant party to close out the investigation. Next slide. Focusing on the five that were substantiated that led to public report, I have them listed out here, the key take away is the accountability action, that last column there, for the first three, the report led to employee separation, that goes to show that departments agreed with our findings and we're taking them seriously, and took that accountability action, you know, the most severe they can take when dealing [10:45:29 AM] with an employee issue. The final two, those investigations were actually just published at the very end of may, so their accountability action process is still going through department, hr, consultation with the human resources department, so we'll find out what the ultimate decision is, they're so recent we don't know at the time of the presentation. Next slide. So on going investigations, where you hope to finish for the rest of fiscal year 22, we have open investigations, across 6 departments, and the issues they focus on include theft, both inventory and time, fraud, conflict of interest, misuse of city resources. Investigations take time, we won't be able to complete all of those in this fiscal year, but I do anticipate about a handful of these finishing by the time I report to you all in the fall. Next slide. All right. Moving on from allegations, investigations on to which additional achievements, team of investigators have actually decided to focus on [10:46:30 AM] trainings and how we can improve both the city or our investigations community beyond just completing our own investigation, so far this year, we've presented trainings in front of four different professional association, two national and two international. We've conducted two internal trainings for the office of the city auditor, and then a handful of times we presented to the city supervisor academy, which is a series of different topics, one of those is on city ethics, it's led by the law department, but my team always comes in and presents for about 30 minutes to let supervisors know about our job function and then what we expect from supervisors if we're going to have an investigation involving someone on their team. We also assist with all risk and fraud assessments of audits that are conducted by the rest of the staff in our office. And that our team actually holds six professional certifications and we have two more in progress, so among those four investigators. Next slide. So that includes my presentation. I'm happy to take any questions, I've also thrown [10:47:31 AM] up various ways people watching today can connect with our office if they have any concerns. >> Thank you, I think that last one is important for anyone who is watching, obviously, this is an important mechanism that we have in our -- in our city to allow our employees, or anyone else who comes across any instances of potential fraud or abuse to report that so that we can address them. Thank you for your report. Colleagues, do you have any questions? No? Can we check if councilmember pool does? Maybe take the slide down. Councilmember pool, do you have any comments or questions? >> Pool: I don't have any questions. I do appreciate the careful work that our auditors investigation unit continues to do, and I also appreciate that it does inspire the confidence in the community for them to make their concerns known. [10:48:31 AM] So thanks so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much for your work. All right. Next up we have the historic preservation fund update including the heritage preservation grant guidelines. Someone from economic development here? Good morning. >> Good morning, mayor pro tem, Susanna Carvajal from the economic development department. With me today is Melissa Alvarado, the division manager over the tourism division here at EdD, and she will commence with our presentation. >> Good morning. I've shared my powerpoint presentation with city hall. Will you be bringing that up or would you like for me to control? >> Hi, there, whatever you prefer, would you like to share your screen and I can [10:49:31 AM] give you privileges? >> Yes, please. >> Okay, here you go. >> Thank you. Sure. I do not know if this is in our backup yet. It was not the last I looked. If it is not in our backup, if we can make sure it gets uploaded, please. >> Will do. Thank you. >> Can you see my presentation? >> Yes, we can. >> Okay, great. Good morning. Hello. Melissa Alvarado, manager of the heritage tourism division within the economic development department. Today I'll be giving an update on the heritage preservation grant review process, the draft guidelines and next steps. We are putting forward a [10:50:33 AM] model of funding that will serve to expand program access and opportunity while more effectively promoting tourism to Austin. Sorry. In addition to best practice research and community conversations, revisions to the guidelines date back to 2017. When an interagency visitor impact task force developed overarching recommendations that included equitable considerations to all users of the hotel occupancy tax funding to reflect a diversity of this community. And in 2018, a heritage grant working group was formed, to evaluate the historic preservation fund and grant uses. That group supported expanding project eligibility and recognized the essential roll it would [10:51:34 AM] serve to help at track tourists and communicate historical and cultural significance to visitors. In addition, the group was in support of project in underrepresented geographic area, and underrepresented communities or cultural groups. The group also recommended increased outreach, additional applicant support and reimbursement payments to encourage the participation of underrepresented communities. Nationally, while all Americans deserve to see their history in places that surround us, just a small fraction of the sites on the national register of historic places represent diverse cultures. The national task for historic preservation has led the movement to save historic places for the last 70 years now recognizes that as a nation we have work to do to fill in the gaps of our cultural heritage. The historic preservation movement is pivoting to a [10:52:37 AM] people-centered preservation model that honors the full diversity of the ever-involving American story. And it also in 2018, a city strategic direction, 2023 plan was launched, reinforcing that the city must lead with the lens of racial equity and healing. In addition, as a partner to the historic preservation office, and the historic landmark commission, the heritage tourism division within the economic development department looks forward to further expanding program guidelines that represent community recommendations with the update to the historic preservation plan which is expected to be completed in 2023. So what is the goal to be achieved through revised guidelines? The desired goal is to sustain and grow Austin's cultural infrastructure so that all may share in the [10:53:38 AM] economic and employment benefits of the heritage preservation and creative sectors as well as upholding the city's commitment to racial equity per the city of Austin's equity office standards and goals. This hot funding review goal is directly in line with EdD's mission to promote a competitive sustainable and equitable economy for all. Since our last presentation to the audit and finance committee, which is represented in phases 1 and 2, the heritage tourism division has done a number of assessments and improvements on program entry barriers, access to equity training, process audits, tourism marketing training and expanded eligible expenses. We've also recently relaunched an update to the heritage preservation grant guidelines. Based on previous community [10:54:39 AM] feedback, received late last year, a number of recommendations were incorporated into the current draft guidelines. We are currently accepting feedback on the guidelines which can be found at our website at austintexas.gov/heritage.gra nts a series of briefings on the guidelines will be conducted in the coming eeocs. -- weeks. The purpose of the heritage preservation grant is to promote tourism through preservation of historic buildings, sites and districts. And per tax code chapter 351, project must be located in an -- downtown near the convention center, or in an area likely to be visited by tourists. We are dedicated to preserving Austin's irreplaceable historic and [10:55:40 AM] heritage tourism experiences that represent the inclusive stories of the past through capital planning, educational and marketing projects that engage new audiences and attract tourism. This program is funded through the historic preservation fund. The fund contributes 15% to the heritage preservation funding, 15% is reserved for potential historic acquisition, and 70% is for maintenance and operations, the city of Austin historic facilities and sites and eligible activity. Excuse me. Historic place based capital planning and educational projects are intended to support the preservation of historic sites and diverse history informing projects that encourage tourism. We are proposing a two-year contract for each of these [10:56:40 AM] types of contracts. Both nonprofit and for-profit entities are eligible to apply. These are project-specific contracts. We're in two projects must be submitted and projects must adhere to standards related to the treatment of historic properties. Projects must have a historic designation. The selection process for these projects including an interdepartmental and external panel review. Capital projects must also be reviewed and approved by the historic landmark commission. Capital contract awards can vary from $15,000 to $250,000. Planning contract awards can vary from $15,000 to $30,000. Preservation plans are highly encouraged for groups with less access to preservation technical assistance to develop the [10:57:42 AM] cyclical and major preservation priorities necessary to preserve their individual sites. Educational contracts serve to create experiences for tourists, to interact with historic and represent diverse stories which include tour development, programs, conference, events within historic districts or historic markers are now eligible for awards upwards of $10,000. In our proposed fiscal year '23, heritage preservation grant guidelines, marketing of historic culturally significant projects must actively connect and market heritage, particularly of underrepresented histories, historic places or events, that enable tourists to engage with heritage and history, project promote and explore Austin's complete heritage and history are highly recommended. Project terms are also recommended at two years, [10:58:44 AM] eligible to both nonprofit and for profit entities, where in no historic designation is required. This is a new recommendation for fiscal year '23. Two project bids must be submitted. The selection process includes a staff and panel review, and projects must meet at least two of five historic cultural significance criteria which includes significant historic event, significant people or group of people, significant era, cultural or heritage understanding, and significant movements. In addition, in fiscal year '23, we are recommending that legacy businesses that have been around for 20 years or more and contribute to the history, culture and authentic identity of Austin also be eligible under this project type. Marketing contract awards are up to $30,000. The number of marketing contracts is not to exceed [10:59:45 AM] 25% of the total heritage preservation grant funds. Examples of marketing projects include digital marketing projects, heritage and multi-cultural tourism marketing which includes destination videos, photography, social media and marketing campaigns. Language translation of marketing materials and marketing content, asset development, and distribution such as brochures, maps, guides, rep cards, itineraries and website enhancement. The proposed scoring recommended for fiscal year '23 includes preservation, which also includes significance of the site, long range preservation goals, endangerment, whether or not the site is threatened or endangered. The project team viability, and a preservation funding [11:00:46 AM] priorities list, which specifies the major and prioritized components of the project along with the associated costs. In addition to that, the heritage tourism impact, which would identify the marketing strategies to attract new and diverse audiences and tourists. A description of a marketing plan, and the data that will be collected to measure the success of the marketing strategies, and overall how the project will raise visibility for heritage tourism in Austin. Access and impact will also be another area that will include first time applicant priority, demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, community collaboration, and projects that reflect community voice and participation. The level of access to preservation related technical services or professional development [11:01:46 AM] will also be evaluated. In addition to these three areas, a cohesive project budget and bids will also be required. As I mentioned previously, the draft guidelines can be found at our website. We welcome your review of the draft guidelines and any feedback on the draft that is proposed through June 24. After a series of commission briefings and further staff assessment of feedback on the proposed guidelines, we anticipate launching the heritage preservation grant program on September 8. EdD staff plans to stagger launches of our programs to provide as much clarity, access and assistance as possible to our potential applicants. And with that, I am happy to [11:02:46 AM] take any questions. >> Alter: Thank you, if we can take the share screen down and just so you're aware, ctm councilmember Kelly is going to be trying to sign on remotely for the rest of the meeting. Councilmember tovo, did you have questions. >> Tovo: A few. Thank you. I need to review the draft guidelines, some of my questions may be answered within those. But the last couple of slides where you discussed site criteria, you don't need to pull it back up again, but are you talking about the site for the historic preservation awards for the grants program to outside agencies or are you talking about those criteria in terms of city sites as well? >> For capital educational -- all city sites, all applicants must have a historic designation [11:03:47 AM] for capital planning and educational-related projects. It's only the capital projects that will require additional reviews of the historic landmark commission. >> Tovo: Umm -- >> I don't know if I answered your question. >> Tovo: I'm sorry. Let me rephrase it. Maybe I wasn't that clear. You had a slide up that talked about sites, criteria for sites. I can't -- unfortunately, I can't tell you when it is, because I don't have a copy of it, it hasn't been put in the backup, I don't believe yet. Well, let me move on to my next question while we can figure out what slide that was. Are -- will the council have the opportunity to approve the draft guidelines? >> Umm, so in the past, the guidelines have not come before council, the process has been that any [11:04:49 AM] recommendations have gone to the historic landmark commission, and then it's up to the commission to make any recommendations in terms of updates or additional changes to those recommendation to council. As part of the approval of the overall fund, an rca complete with all uses of the -- of the fund, and our recommendations relate to the heritage grant is packaged together in one rca for council approval. >> But that's after you've already -- I mean, at that point, you will be proposing awards based on the criteria and the guidelines that we may not have had an opportunity to review or provide input 0 on, or we may have provided input, but it's not incorporate corporated, you know, in so many of our programs we actually get to see and make changes and approve the guidelines, I didn't realize that this was one where we would not have that opportunity. [11:05:50 AM] >> I'm happy to share those guidelines following this meeting. >> Tovo: Yeah, I think more -- well, let me take a look at them and then we can kind of go from there, but there are a few things that captured my attention. One is -- thank you for your work. I think this is -- it's great to see this program fill out and I continue to just be so excited about the way we're investing our hotel occupancy dollars in this -- in this way. We had a really great event at downs fields last week on Friday, and it's yet another reminder of how important it is that we invest those dollars in places that promote tourism, but also provide such a wonderful opportunity for austinites to come and spend time in them as well. So that was a great investment. I do have some concerns about what I understand to be part of the shifting criteria for the marketing piece. I think I heard you say on that slide that there would [11:06:51 AM] be for profit -- for profit businesses would be able to apply for that. I have to give that a little thought. I can see -- I think I can see the value of that, but where I am concerned is that this would now -- that the elimination of the requirement that there be a historic designation, and, you know, if they don't yet have one, I would at least want them to be in the process of doing so, because otherwise we're investing in businesses that may in a couple of years decide to sell, you know, we have such scarce dollars that I really think we need to invest in. We need to invest our historic preservation dollars in -- in businesses and other organizations that are going to -- that are going to make a commitment remaining to provide that historical asset, and so that's -- let me just say that that's a -- that would be a major concern for me if that continues to be -- continues to not be part of the criteria. I just, again, we have very scarce dollars in this area [11:07:52 AM] as in every other and we need to make sure that we're investing and folks made a commitment. I see it as akin to investing -- providing that tax exemption, that slight tax assistance -- slight tax exemption to those who have historical designation. In a couple of instances where people have come forward and asked for those to be removed, we've asked them to pay the money back. We made an investment in their property and, you know, they need to follow through by maintaining -- >> Understood. Those recommendations are really coming forward as part of our effort in terms of outreach and engagement and trust building. We could certainly look at potentially moving forward with a model that does not require historic designation in year one, and if in fact were to come back for funding require as any [11:08:53 AM] additional funding is considered. >> Tovo: So in terms of -- so from that perspective you would be working to help that -- help that property build capacity to do the designation or something like that? >> Well, what we are doing is as part of the planning category, we are now making it an option to pursue a designation, a formal designation, utilizing the help of individuals with that level of expertise to assist these organizations in submitting an application. They would have to show that they are pre-qualified through the state or through city for that designation, but if they can demonstrate that and their level of tourism, then they could potentially be eligible for a grant to pursue that designation formally. >> Tovo: I see. And I guess, you know, I mean I -- I'm happy to talk [11:09:54 AM] about this more outside this meeting, but as I think about it, if we're providing a grant and we have participants in our programs that are unwilling or uninterested in exploring a historic designation, I would just say they're probably not great candidates for these dollars, you know, if they're not willing to make that long-term -- that long-term commitment to retaining that historic asset. But I'll leave that there for now. The other thing that I would ask, you know, in some of our program, and this one -- this one once upon a time, as you looked at the list of recipients year after year, some of the same recipients got the dollars, and I think that happens in some of our other programs as well, and I appreciate -- I appreciate the changes that you're implementing. I would say, though, I wonder if we all -- if we also ought to have some messaging around this that, you know, this isn't -- these are not going to be long- term -- long-term grants. I think we sometimes have cultivated an expectation, [11:10:56 AM] not you specifically, not anybody here specifically, but have sometimes cultivated a long-term dependence on those city dollars, and these really aren't designed to be kind of long-term support for historic businesses; they're intended to be kind of seed money to help with a capital project or seed money to help with marketing or seed money to help with something else, and I'm trying to help the council of the future be able to have those conversations in new ways where, you know, they're not going to hear from -- hear from folks who had gotten that money in the past saying we can't survive without the continued funding. I think we just need to set expectations in all of our programs at this point that the city funding is helping you build capacity, it's helping you get some work done and get to that next point where you're able to bring in different dollars. So I don't know if you've addressed that, if there -- I'm not necessarily asking for there to be a specific requirement or something like a prohibition against applying again within a [11:11:57 AM] certain amount of time, but is -- I would ask that there should be some messaging around that, that this is -- this is a one-time grant, there may or may not be opportunities in the future. Is that something that's come up in the course of your work? >> All good points, yes. So one thing that I will say is that while we have increased the contract terms across the spectrum of project types, we are requiring that all contracts be completed and in good standing before being able to reapply, which is historically what we have found not necessarily the case prior to this program moving over to the city of Austin. So that is a program requirement now. And in addition to that, sorry, I lost my train of thought. >> Tovo: Well, I think that's interesting -- I mean, I think that's useful, [11:12:57 AM] again, I would just ask you and your staff and your colleagues to kind of think about how we could -- how we could really set that expectation, that because you got it once, it's not going to be year after -- or every two year, every two year, every two year receipt, that that -- you know, we're going to continue to support different kinds of organizations and that means not awarding grants to the same applicants within, you know, every time they -- that's open. >> So the other two things that I wanted to point out is, one is that while we don't require a matching requirement, we are asking about leveraged investments. Because we're wanting to get a better data snapshot of our investment to any other leveraged monies that an applicant may bring in just to demonstrate that roi. Secondly, while this grant program is open to both nonprofit and for-profit [11:13:59 AM] entities, since EdD has been managing this program, 79% of our applicants have -- are awardees have been nonprofit applicants, and I do very much believe that that is an extension of our outreach and engagement practices. And then -- well, I believe that was it. >> Alter: Anyone other else have questions? Okay. So you mentioned that there was also potential changes to the 70% that's on city lands. Who is now -- Kim Mcknight still leading that and -- I'm sorry, I didn't see. Can you speak to what's going on with that program? >> So I didn't mention any changes to the 70%, instead I was restating the [11:15:01 AM] percentage allocations that were passed in a council resolution. Those percentages, which indicate 15% of the historic preservation go to the heritage grant. 15% to potential historic acquisition. And 70% for the maintenance and operation of city-owned historic facility, plus any program requirements for heritage grants. It also includes staff support for both EdD and pard. It includes that operational and maintenance that I -- that I mentioned for city-owned historic sites. >> Thank you, Ms. Alvarado, I think Ms. Mcknight is here in chambers, you can't see her, I barely saw her here. Maybe she can speak briefly to the process. If you can come up, [11:16:07 AM] Ms. Mcknight? >> Good morning, I'm Kim Mcknight, the program manager for pard tourism program. We do work closely with Melissa Alvarado on the pard allocation of the historic preservation, we understand you have some questions, we did prepare a few slide, not understanding the breath of your questions, we can pull those up briefly and give you an update. >> I would love to do that, if we could just pause a second and take a vote on the airport, because I think that we need to make sure we have three, and then that will be our last business and then we can do that. >> No problem. We stand ready -- >> We're going to pause on this item quickly and take up item 5. The proposed buy law amendments for the airport advisory commission, if our clerk would like to speak to that. >> Good morning. Myrna from the clerk's office, I'm here with the airport advisory commission proposed bylaws amendments [11:17:08 AM] to edit article IV (a), officers, to add the office of secretary -- the officers shall consist of a chair, a vice chair and a secretary. To edit article b3, duties of officers to add language regarding the secretary, so it would read in the absence of the chair and vice chair, the secretaries shall perform all duties of the chair. The commission would like to ensure continuity of leadership on the dais, and they find it helpful to have two videos as backup, given the unique hybrid environment where the presiding officer must be present on site. It is important to the commission to have a deeper bench of officers as backup to officiate over commission meetings. Additionally, the commission has been operating with an elected secretary for past -- the past several years, not realizing bylaws [11:18:10 AM] didn't provide for that office. For staff comments, we recommend this -- these amendments and I'm here if you have any questions. >> Thank you, councilmember tovo. >> Tovo: That sounds fine to me, but I do wonder, given the need with regard to the shift to hybrid, if this isn't something we might make provision for at a more global level, not the secretary, necessarily, but just that the chair or vice chair can designate someone else to chair a particular meeting, to do that for all of our boards and commissions, I don't know if you have given that any thought or have any language to suggest that might be something one of my colleagues want to bring forward or you want to bring forward for consideration. >> And that is the practice, if the chair or vice chair are not available, they will designate a member of the commission, however, the airport advisory commission requested to have it in their bylaws. >> Tovo: Terrific. Thank you. >> Alter: Do I have a motion. Councilmember tovo so moves. [11:19:12 AM] I will second that. All those in favor. It's unanimous on the dais, councilmember pool off and councilmember Fuentes absent today. Thank you. So we will now go back to Ms. Mcknight, if you could pull up her slides please. Appreciate any insights you can offer, you know, either about the -- any proposed changes or sort of how we're thinking about the funding at this stage. >> Sure. We really do welcome an opportunity to be here today, Kim Mcknight with parks and recreation manager historic preservation program. Again, we work closely with Melissa Alvarado, and the heritage tourism division on the allocation to pard of the historic preservation fund. Go to the next slide, please. Melissa went through some of the policy direction, I think what I wanted to emphasize to you is that a portion of our operational [11:20:12 AM] budget is funded through the historic preservation fund through council direction. If you recall, as part of the fiscal year '18 actions, the council requested that expenditures that were on the general fund that could be funded through historic preservation fund be transferred. So I want to point out that a majority of the operational funds that are currently funded through hot were originally general fund. We were able to add four fulltime positions as well as some program budget so that we could create our historic preservation program, as well as staff the oakwood chapel, but everything else was existing and it was done -- so I think it's an important distinction to make when we talk about our operational funds. I -- you know, added that there were few other actions in fy '18 related to the heritage grant which Melissa has covered as well as the direction to require the [11:21:13 AM] Negro school historic property that we're working on. Next slide. Please. Just a reminder that all of the activities, projects and programs that are funded with the historic preservation preservation fund in pard to comply with the Texas tax code section. We take seriously that requirement. And we'll talk a little bit about how we ensure that that is the case. Next slide, please. You might be surprised to see that since fiscal year '17, we have been able to direct $19 million to capital projects at parks and recreation which was the intention of council which was that parks and recreation are really an economic engine for our city, as you know, and it was I think council found it to be fitting that those dollars be reinvested into our park system. So happy to report that your vision for this program is happening. In terms of the operational [11:22:15 AM] expenses, as I mentioned, our historic museums are funded through the historic preservation fundraiser now, they were previously funded through the general fund, with the exception of the oak wood chapel, that was a new facility that was brought on, and through council-adopted cemetery vision plan, we were able to, you know, open the chapel, and now it is serving visitors and our community. We were also able to provide -- there's an ear mark within our facility services for historic properties that need to be maintained, which was again council's intention when they were offsetting general fund with historic preservation fund. And because of the direction to -- to invest more funding through historic preservation fund, which is hotel occupancy tax to pard, we were able to create for the first time ever the historic preservation tourism program at parks and recreation which is a program that I manage that [11:23:16 AM] includes three full-time positions to manage the projects that we have initiated, the marketing, as well as historic designations and signage. All tolled, the expenditures on the operational side is ten fulltime employees, temporary staff as well as program expenses. Next slide, please. This is just a snapshot of the historic museums that we operate that are funded through historic preservation. We are working hard to ensure that all of these sites are promoted to our tourists and we've got some examples of how we do that. But I'll also point out that this program has another benefit, which is to our community. Now you'll see that the oakwood chapel, while we're able to promote our exhibits and our site to tourists, it's also the host of the Austin civilian conservation corp program this year, so we have it as the home base [11:24:18 AM] for -- for the job creation program which is -- they're doing museum services and all sorts of work within all of our historic museums, and so that is the home base. Also hosting smithsonian fellows this summer. It is the city of Austin youth initiatives office also places students in this facility. As you probably know, the old bakery since the 1970s hosts a senior guild which is seniors over 50 make crafts that are then sold at this visitor facility, so just pointing out that we have been able to make a really strong connection between providing for the tourists at the same time providing for our community, and we're proud to be able to strike that balance. Next slide, please. This is the mission of our program, very much in line with what Melissa laid out for the historic preservation fund use which is to preserve steward, activate and promote the historic and cultural [11:25:18 AM] resources of our park system. Next slide, please. You might be surprised to see that we're still not done counting. We have an enormous number of historic resources within our park system. We're in the process of launching historic resource inventory. We rival our state parks system with respect to the number of resources. Certainly there's historic museums and cultural centers, but please don't forget that we have cemetery, we have golf course, we have recreation centers, we have senior facilities, we have parks that are tremendous cultural landscape, we have important people who need to be acknowledged. We have parks within historic districts. We have a massive system, so this marks the first time that we've been able to really provide coordinated, you know, efforts to preserve and promote and protect. Next slide, please. I'm just going to fly some of the projects that have been funded in part or [11:26:20 AM] wholly through historic preservation. This is not all of them. Some of them are still in progress or design, but I think you'll be again pleased to see that the intended goal of council is really, you know, coming through. We're successfully implementing this program. Oakwood chapel received partial funding through the historic preservation fund, completed in 2018. Next slide. The zilker cafe received funding through the historic preservation fund. Next slide. Mayfield park has received funding for numerous projects ranging from a historic restoration of the historic garden sheds as well as extensive masonry and gate repair. We do have hopes that we can do full landscape and cottage restoration in the future. Next slide, please. Just last week, we did the dedication and ribbon cutting for downs field, historically significant ball field atene Austin that has been the home of [11:27:23 AM] African-American athletics and I'll talk about how through our marketing budget we are able to lay the ground work that really helps us with the justification to spend funding on a facility such as this. Next slide, please. We are in the process of finishing the restoration at o'henry, the historic museum alongside the Dickinson in brush square right next to the convention center, an ideal project for this fund. Next slide. See home intake facility is going to be open to public later this year. This is a terrific example of how we were able to pull in his torque preservation funds to align with some general obligation funds to complete this phase I of this project, which I think is going to be so exciting for our community. We just can't wait. Next slide. Brush square should be starting this summer. This is a historic park, again right next to the convention center. [11:28:24 AM] Working closely with our museums and our fire department to get this project underway. This is a phase I that is really -- phase II would be dependent upon the relocation of the function of the fire station and the E.M.S. Obviously the building would remain, but excited to get phase I underway, and again incredible transformation, and right in the heart of our sort of visitor district. Next slide, please. Fiesta gardens has been fully funded through design. This is a project that will need to wait on the historic preservation fund to recover for construction funding. We had requested the funding with Melissa Alvarado's assistance, but obviously with the pandemic, hotel occupancy tax was severely impacted and so we will be working with Melissa to determine when this project can be fully funded. It is almost completely through phase I design. Phase II would be the maintenance facility, which would hopefully be relocated [11:29:25 AM] soon as well. Stay tuned as we work closely with our partners and heritage tourism to figure out next steps with the site. Next slide. The zilker clubhouse, designed as complete, we're currently in a business phase. Next slide. Again, Barton springs bath house, dependent on an injection of funding from the historic preservation fund. This is currently in design. Next slide. The Elizabeth Mcnay museum in position, combination of funding, and design is underway. This is a project that would replace windows, doors and improve the hvac system for the collection which is incredibly important. Next slide. I just want to point out, before I talk about these future capital projects that you should expect, and it shouldn't be a surprise, that a lot of the projects that we had requested budgets for multiple years ago will need more funding. We're still working to understand the impact of the pandemic on our construction budgets, but that is something that we've [11:30:26 AM] messaged to economic development, their understanding, and will be working with us. I put this slide up here just to show you that we have a bottomless pit of projects. This is just a snapshot of what I was able to kind of come up with staff over the last few years. This is our sort of running list, but we have an enormous number of projects. We have an incredible amount of need, so -- please note that every year building become, you know, officially considered historic. Right now they've cut off data. 1972, which is especially hard for those of us that might be nearing historic age ourselves to understand, but please know that we have desperate need. The other thing I want to point out is because of this funding, it does take pressure off of our general obligation fund. Now our general obligation fund can fund things that can't be funded through historic preservation fund. So this is a unique source of funding that is really only applicable to historic sites that serve tourists as well. And so it really has helped, [11:31:27 AM] I think, make our general obligation fund go further and allow us this additional option for funding projects. I'm going to cover, next slide, please, an important part of our program, which is our ability to designate properties, we have an extreme disparity in the number of properties in certain parts of town that represent underserved and underrepresented communities in terms of their listing to the national register or various historic designations, so our program allows us to forge partnerships, work on a staff- led projects, or even fund national register historic designations. We are also working to facilitate interpretive signage all over the park system, to that end, professional historian is able to ensure what we are putting in parkland is accurate and correct. This is an important part of our program to ensure that we have these designations in place, that we're always working to designate new sites through the national [11:32:27 AM] register, city of Austin or historic markers. Next -- and we do have an interpretive signage program. I'm going to fly through some examples of the type of marketing that we've been able to do -- >> Gidseg: Unfortunately, we're going to have to -- I think we're going to have to wrap up, because -- I have an 11:30, and whatnot. >> No problem. >> Definitely want to hear more. We weren't necessarily prepared for a full presentation. >> No problem. >> We are super excited about it. >> Good. >> I will say that councilmember tovo and I were among the group that helped to push the switch, and to steer it over several years, and I think all of the examples you gave, underscore the importance of this work that we undertook N. Retrospect seems obvious, but at the time was not at all obvious and has steered so many resources and allowed us to do some really really important work. >> Great. >> I will say that I think that we are -- we would very much still like to see that [11:33:29 AM] timeline of what's going -- I know I have had a little bit of funding that has gone to may field park, lions, you know, for the five years and understand with lions, there's still uncertainty, but would like to move through the design phases, and it's been challenging, because we don't have the time line. Obviously, we had some covid pauses and we need to recuperate. But it is I think important that we see that timeline and we see that the projects are not just immediately downtown when they are known to be big draws for our tourists and historic. >> Great. We stand ready to provide information at any time, so happy to circle back with you. >> Great, thank you. >> Thanks for your time today. >> Councilmember tovo. >> Tovo: Chairman, will you get this part of the presentation in the backup as well. >> Sure. >> Tovo: This is terrific, [11:34:30 AM] and that overview -- >> Please check out the marketing we've been able to do, how we've been able to support our equity and diversity goals as well. >> Tovo: We can talk about having you back later in the fall, I think we all would be really excited to be able to champion these results and we're cutting you off, not because we're not excited about it, because of timing. >> That is absolutely fine. >> But we are thrilled with work. Thank you so much. >> You bet. >> Okay, with that I will -- I don't think we have to talk about future item, it is 11:34, and I will adjourn this meeting. Thank you.