Audit and Finance Committee (AFC) meeting Transcript – 1/24/2024 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 1/24/2024 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 1/24/24 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. [9:31:42 AM] turning it is 931 on January 24th. Wednesday. We're in the chambers for the audit and finance committee. I am Allison alter, I am chair, I'm joined virtually by my vice chair, council member pool. Hi. Council member pool. And on the dais with council member Kelly, council members Ryan alter and council member Fuentes will be joining us a bit, late later. This morning. We have a lot of items on our agenda and our goal is to be done with the public portion by 11 so that we can move into the interviews for municipal civil service. I'd like to start with, with, is there any public communication open? No speakers. Great. So we will move to the minutes of the audit and finance committee meeting from April from, December 6th. Do I have a motion to approve? Moved by council member Kelly. Seconded by council member pool. Seeing no objections. Seeing no objection. [9:32:43 AM] objections. Seeing no objection. Those are adopted. We will now move to item number two. Where we will discuss proposed amendments to city code regarding the city auditor. For. >> Good morning y'all. Corey stokes, city auditor. And I can walk through the document or I can just give you a highlight of what's in the document. Whatever y'all's preference is. >> Just for transparency for other folks. Why don't you walk through the document? I think we all met with you separately, but I think this will be helpful. For other offices, since this will be coming to council. Great but do it not. Don't take so long to do it. >> What's that? >> But. But be within the ten or so minutes that we have. Yes [9:33:44 AM] so minutes that we have. Yes >> Got it. Can you bring the other one up? So one that says version two on it. Great so this document is coming. There it is. It is just a red line of the code changes we're proposing. These are all code changes related to my office, that we've been talking about for various reasons that we wanted to bring to you guys and then and then take to council to get these adjusted. So, so I'm going to go pretty quickly through here. The first change is actually related to our response abilities and boards and commissions. What we've been doing and what this committee has been doing historically is kind of considering board and commission risks as we develop the audit plan. But there were requirements for the audit committee as well as our office to review each board's internal report. So we're removing those, but saying that we will look at information provided by the boards and commissions as part of our annual risk assessment, to propose projects and keep going down. That one. Let's see, [9:34:46 AM] going down. That one. Let's see, this next one is related to the city auditor's position. My own position right now. But basically in the past, there was a nominating committee provision that required the city manager and the state auditor to be on the audit committee or be on the nominating committee for the auditor, the state auditor. While very knowledgeable about auditing, that's that's an interesting ad. I'm not actually sure where that came from. And then there's the city manager being on that is just a little bit awkward in that we, are responsible for auditing everything that reports to the city manager. So we're removing that and making the nominating committee. This audit and finance committee, doesn't affect my position. In fact, this whole provision was waived when I was appointed back in, a long, long time ago, 2015. The, I just want to interrupt there because we, in talking, we added something, and I want to make sure, so we added that the nominating committee may seek advice from individual with [9:35:46 AM] advice from individual with audit expertise. >> Yes. Which I would highly recommend as we are reviewing candidates that the committee do that, but they are not officially part of the nominating committee. >> And I think that's a great idea. And individuals with audit expertise either within Austin or outside of Austin, I think would be helpful. If the members of the nominating committee don't have that expertise themselves. All right, moving on . So here there's just some cleanup in this section. To ensure that the definitions here match, this just as an example, to obtain or this is, has to do with abuse of your position and that abuse of your position could be to gain something for yourself or also to gain something for somebody else. And that's something that's come up in an investigation. So we just wanted to clarify that one people doing. Then maybe a while till the next one. Yes so all of [9:36:46 AM] till the next one. Yes so all of this is a big section. But here there's actually there was a lot of language and actually a separate resolution that addressed how follow up should occur. So here it just says the city manager or the city manager's designees should provide an update at least twice a year related to the status of recommendations, as you all know, we now have that public dashboard with, close to real time updates. We get the updates, we take a look at them and get them posted. So we're getting those more regularly than twice a year. But we just want, some minimum established. And so that's what this one does. Keep on. The next section is, is actually this this subpoena language. This is language that we have specific to the ethics review commission. We ran into an issue with the municipal civil service commission along the same lines, if something is exempt, or is not is considered an audit work, being paper under the public information act. That's not [9:37:48 AM] information act. That's not something that we provide in response to either the ethics review commission or the municipal civil service commission. So that's what this does. All the, strike through is really because you'll see that come up again later. It's basically just been moved so that it's, it's broader. And not specific to this, one section. So and this is that correction. So it's really just putting that language, below and making it more broad than it was before, but doesn't, doesn't change the intent of the code or what the code does. Then it should go a long way. I think until we have another change. The section is just very long. This is the. There we go. Here we were trying to get at, you know, we do work. That's not just audits and investigations. And so we wanted to capture any other work that we do, which can include our special request work or other work on behalf of the council. Here there was a requirement that the city manager report on [9:38:49 AM] that the city manager report on investigations at least once a year, or at least twice a year. We've changed that to once per year. And then Ann, the there's just a weird timing thing of the not later than the 30th day before the beginning of a calendar year. So, just in terms of the timing of when we present the audit plan. So we do an annual audit plan, we try to present that to you all by December and then get it on a council agenda after that. So. The last. This is actually just matching up with our records retention requirements. So what's a permanent record and where is it? How is it communicated. So that stays the same. And then this last piece has to do with reporting. So basically just saying we will follow the reporting standards that, that under the government auditing standards, which were already required to follow both by code and by charter, and any adjustments to a final report, this was just kind of a putting out there that if we identified [9:39:50 AM] out there that if we identified an issue with a report, either before or after we issued it, we would follow the requirements in those standards to correct that. This was really just we were going in way too much detail about peer review, which is very explicit in the standards that we follow. So we're just kind of cleaning that up to say we will do it in accordance with standards instead of, all kind of the line item. So we don't have to change this every time the standards change. Thank and then the, this is also doesn't change anything about our access to records, but it takes out some dated language. Because this was passed in the early 90s. So there's a diskette and some other tapes and other fun things in there. And then I think the last bit, here, conflict of interest, I'm just adds in, regardless of whether or not you get money serving on a nonprofit is also considered a conflict of interest under this section of code. The code of ethics. Then the a C definition of spouse is to match another section of code that already [9:40:50 AM] section of code that already defines it much better than this section did. And then I believe the very last thing is down here, there was a requirement for water districts that if a water district issued bonds that the city auditor would review their financial statements and issue an opinion on them, that is, not something we've ever been asked to do, but it's also something that that doesn't really fall within the purview of the work that my office does. So we want that to, you know, we didn't want to change that except to say that we should have an independent certified public accountant or public auditor to do that work that gets us to the end of this document and hopefully within our time. >> Great. Thank you. I appreciate that. And just want to flag for the city manager's office that we are if there are reports of those investigations from the city manager probably due for that report to the committee. I think those normally ought to be going through the auditor. So you may not have any of those, but, if you do, then then we need to, be able to see those. I understand [9:41:53 AM] able to see those. I understand that the clerk has a question on a portion of the boards and commission piece, which I don't think we'll be able to address today. I think we can still, move this forward. But maybe you can work with the clerk. With respect to, clarifying the procedure, I think that, it was a question about whether where there reports on the boards and commissions go to. And I think the expectation is that they would still go to the auditor, but the auditor is only raising issues to the audit and finance committee, where there's a risk that's been identified that needs to be brought to our attention. So I believe that procedure stays the same. But if you can work with the clerk and clarify that, and if we need to make changes before this were to come to council, if we could, if we could address, we could have that do that. Yes. In the process and you guys can prepare for, something that addresses that. Colleagues, do you have any questions or comments? Vice [9:42:53 AM] any questions or comments? Vice chair pool. >> I was just going to say if you need a motion to approve or send to the council, I'd be happy to make that motion. >> Thank you, mayor pro tem pool makes that motion. Council member Kelly seconds that, seeing no objection, we will move that on, with approval from the committee to council. Thank you. So for now, we're going to put off item three until after we do executive session to interview folks for the municipal civil service commission. We will now bring up item four, disaster preparedness audit recommendations. Update. >> Good morning everyone. Ken snipes, director of Austin's homeland security and emergency management office. Here with the presentation today, to give an update on the city auditor's, recommendations associated with [9:43:54 AM] recommendations associated with the recent or the past preparedness audit report. In this presentation, we will cover the when and where the audit and also the winter storm. Mara, update. So recommendation number one was that the city consider what needs to be done for planning, training and conducting large scale exercises . Specific supporting information for this recommendation included in order to ensure the city is prepared for significant or catastrophic events, including severe winter storms, the director of homeland security and emergency management should work with staff to plan training, conduct exercises for these events. These efforts should be done in collaboration with key internal stakeholders such as the various departments from across the city , including Austin energy, Austin water, public works, communications and the public information office, as well as Travis county. This [9:44:55 AM] Travis county. This recommendation is complete. We have done quite a bit of work in this space, over the last couple of years. And then recently as well, continuing to build on, exercises and training. Recently we had a tabletop that included, a review of the processes with, what the city calls our big five. Those are the big five employers, for the city, including the city and Travis county. Also including, university of Texas, Austin community college, as well as Austin ISD. We are also putting together an upcoming large scale, region wide training that will include partners from Williamson county, Travis county , hays county, and also so the city of Round Rock and that training will take next month at College Station. And the point of that exercise is to continue to build upon the work that we've started with respect to, to how the different jurisdictions and agencies work together during exercises or [9:45:55 AM] together during exercises or during events. So that we, put our resources together in a way that allows us to, to better respond in our communities. Audit recommendation number two was to, was about the continuity of operations, plans, the specifics around that, plan or recommendation was that the city manager should prioritize coop planning department should be directed to keep coop plans up to date and to conduct regular training and exercises on their coop plans. Department efforts should be monitored and tracked at the city wide level to ensure coop planning is up to date, and that the department coop plans align with city wide disaster planning. These are this recommendation is also complete. As of October 2023, all city coop plans were updated as through part of our process to seek reaccredited action. We submitted all of our documents [9:46:55 AM] submitted all of our documents that were required for reaccreditation with the emergency management accreditation program. That agency is probably the most strenuous, accreditation agency for emergency management organizations. Burns and all of our information has been turned in. We're waiting to hear back and should hear back any day now on, where we are in that process. And whether our reaccreditation will be granted. Recommendation number three, included in establishing and building resilience hubs and also education, support materials associated with that. The specific supporting that recommendation included the managers should prioritize and implement initiatives to increase disaster preparedness and also community resilience to include resilience hubs, supplies associated with helping community members, improving disaster preparedness, education Ann, and developing and implement strategies to increase the likelihood that private [9:47:56 AM] the likelihood that private sector and communities are prepared for disasters in the future. Six sites have been established for resilience hubs. They include. Montopolis recreation center parkway Zaragoza, Gus Garcia, northwest recreation, turner Roberts recreation center, and also dove springs. Recently, during the most recent winter weather, we actually did activate all of these sites as cold weather shelters and as part of that process, we had a chance to test out some of the things that have been included and for the most part, we're we learned quite a bit, but we're, happy with how the process has worked so far for, even though we're marking this as complete, there's more work to be done, and we will continue to do that going forward. The next recommendation, recommendation number four, was the implementation of past corrective action plans. And this particular item is ongoing. One of the issues that I have, [9:48:58 AM] One of the issues that I have, discovered as we started to look into, our past corrective action plans a little bit more thoroughly, is that there hasn't been a consistent way for collecting and aggregating information. So that makes it difficult to compare our performance from one event to the other. One of the recommendations was that we look back as far as the Colorado river flooding event. And while we can certainly do that, because we haven't had a system once, the information is loaded into the portal, the community resilience status portal, it is very difficult to extrapolate data that makes it, as I said before, easy for us to kind of use information to build from one event to the other. And so we're kind of restructuring that process so that we're better able to do that. Going forward. On recommendation number five was for ageism staffing. And that item is complete. We've hired a number of positions, and are continuing to do so based on [9:50:00 AM] are continuing to do so based on some of the hires that we've made recently. We're filled by internal candidates. So that triggered, of course, vacancies. But we're continuing to do this, and move forward with, completing the staffing requirements. Recommendation number six was city staffing. And response to emergencies. And we're also marking that complete . We had an opportunity to test that out. That process this past couple of weeks ago, rather and we saw a much more robust response from city departments moving forward with staffing for the with the events, we had a chance to test some of the training that we've, recently implemented. And by and large, it worked really well. One of the standout areas was the food and lodging, during the recent storm event. And, that proved to be very successful as well. Recommendation number seven, supplies and equipment. And the [9:51:00 AM] supplies and equipment. And the specific supporting that recommendation were that the director of ageism should ensure the city has adequate emergency supplies and equipment available for future disasters. This should include a cost benefit analysis analysis to determine what supplies should be kept on hand and what supplies should be procured during and in support of a disaster. A plan for procuring supplies, and a widespread disaster. To support nearby to be supported by nearby vendors. May not be available. So that was one of the charges that we were asked to take a look at the genetics branch of Houston ageism has been formed, and this is the primary focus area, where that body of work takes place. Again, that was very successful during the most recent storm event. But we will again continue to work in this space just to make sure we're able to keep up with the ever changing needs. And also keep up with the specifics associated [9:52:00 AM] with the specifics associated with with the type of event that we're dealing with. Recommendation number eight, was around the language accessibility. The city of Austin's ageism homeland security emergency management branch, has translated all of its emergency managing into 14 different languages. As I mentioned earlier, that we had recently gone through, the reaccredited process and, this particular item was one that the assessment team called out as a benchmark that they would take forward to the rest of the country. As a way to do this particular body of work. And as, as a shining example of what we've done. I think this is a really good one that we can hang our hat on. Recommendation number nine, was, about equitable access to disaster response efforts specifically supporting this recommendation [9:53:01 AM] supporting this recommendation include, in order to ensure that the city's disaster response efforts are equitable and meet the needs of vulnerable populations in the community. The director of ageism should explicitly address equity in the city's emergency preparedness and response plans. Development also of specific procedures for ensuring responses are equitable , with the emphasis on communicating with and assisting people experiencing homelessness, Singh seniors, renters, people with medical needs. People with limited English proficiency, and other vulnerable populations. And we are marking this one complete as well. Considerable work has been done by the team over the last, last couple of years in this space. And more has been done more recently. The equity office has been incorporated into the eoc. The department outreach to vulnerable populations has expanded, and we're looking to do more work in that space. The state of Texas assistance registry, or steer, has been an, [9:54:01 AM] registry, or steer, has been an, a tool that we've been moving people towards to get them to register so that they have the ability to identify as needing special requirements or special assistance in the event of an emergency. And some of those things included include folks with limited mobility, communication barriers, anyone who has special medical assistance or transportation needs, would be supported through this program. The next recommendation was to improve city and community cooperation. And we're marking this one complete as well. The recommendation was to improve the ability of the city and community members to work together to prepare for disasters. Stated the director of homeland security and emergency management should develop a formal plan, for involving the community and disaster preparedness planning. The plan should include clarifications of the city's response abilities. Around and outside entities, when [9:55:03 AM] outside entities, when supporting or responding to disasters. It also included, the request to support nonprofits and faith based organizations, the general public and community organizations, that are serving diverse or racial ethnic groups, seniors, people experiencing homelessness, and other vulnerable groups. This is another area where the team has made quite a bit of progress. During the past event, for example, we were able to support the homeless community. We also made, knowledge and resources available for anyone needing resources. We talked quite a bit about some of the, the things that people could do to support themselves in their homes in the event of power loss or water loss. Obviously those things didn't happen with the last storm event, but we made the information and education materials available to people so that they would have the knowledge that they needed to cover that area. And as it relates to the winter storm, Mara, plan, we are currently wrapping that up. We're working [9:56:07 AM] wrapping that up. We're working with organization called tetra tech. We had some issues. As I pointed to before, with the way some of our data and information has been collected associated with after action reports. Oftentimes, some of the items that are on the reports are really not recommendations. They're comments. We haven't had a good sense for who may have said something. There's also information on some of the prior reports also that that, we don't know what the it may have said it was closed, but we don't know what was done to close the item out. So we're kind of taking a holistic relook at the entire process to make sure that going forward, we have the ability, as I said before, to compare, data from one report to the other. And also establish a structure that allows us to continue to do that. Going forward. And if there are no questions, that concludes my report. >> Thank you, director snipes. I had asked for this, report out. A because we had the weather, winter weather audit from this committee and we want to check that those recommendations are, [9:57:08 AM] that those recommendations are, are being addressed. And also wanted to see for Mara and this was above and beyond what you guys presented. Ed. In the late fall last year. Because we do really want to make sure that we have a system where we're closing out these recommendations, which I think was something we weren't doing well before. So I appreciate the presentation. I would appreciate clarity, though, for the recommendation from this audit. You put a lot of what you had done towards achieving each of those. And in your in your presentation, some of them you said were complete, some of them you didn't mention that. So can you just clarify which ones you are considering? Singh. Incomplete or complete, whichever is easier way to do that. >> Would you like me to go through the list? Do you want me to send it to you or, if it's possible to do it now, you can do it now. >> If you need to send it to me, that's that's fine. It may be. Maybe both of those is an option so that the audit office also has a sense of what you believe [9:58:09 AM] has a sense of what you believe is closed out, as they're doing their review. Sure >> So with respect to audit recommendation number one, we're considering that one complete planning training and conducting large scale exercises. Number two, complete content continuity of operations plans. Number three, complete resilience hubs and education. Number four, implementation of past corrective action items. That one is ongoing. Number five he some staffing complete that. Number six city staffing and response to emergencies. Complete. Number seven supplies and equipment complete. Lang accessibility. Complete. Number nine equitable access to disaster response efforts. Complete and number ten improve city, and community cooperation. We're considering that complete [9:59:09 AM] We're considering that complete as well. I think it should be pointed out that even on the items that are complete, we're going to continue to work on these items because I think they're ever evolving. Many of them, and so as we continue to learn or, you know, move from event to event, we'll continue to update the plan as, as necessary. And continue to build on those that we've completed. >> Thank you. And and certainly we want to be very iterative in our emergency management planning and we're never we're never actually going to be done with anything for that. But we do want to make sure that we are addressing the recommendations from, from prior, reports. Do you have a timeline for, the prior recommendations and the Mario recommendations, which were not included in this as to when we will see that timeline and when we might be complete, we thought we would be complete with the Mario report by the end of the month, but we were [10:00:09 AM] of the month, but we were somewhat derailed by the recent winter weather, so we lost a couple of weeks in meeting with the vendor. >> Two meetings specifically, and so we just got back on track with wrapping up the process with them. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd prefer not to, but I would say probably within the next couple of months we should be done. >> Okay. And when you say you'll be done with the Mario, that's to actually get the recommendations, not to complete the recommendations. >> That's exactly right. >> Yes. >> Okay. So we'll want to, to understand and what is the forum in which you will be reporting to us both on what those recommendations are and the timeline for completing those with respect to Maras after action? >> We haven't, worked on the timeline yet for either coming to this committee or the broader council to provide those updates, I need to touch base with the manager and kind of work through the process. That would be, you know, his recommendation. So I haven't had a chance to really dive into that yet. [10:01:10 AM] that yet. >> Thank you. I have a couple other questions. I want to open up to my colleagues. First, council member Kelly, thank you, chair alter, for bringing this item forward so that we could review it. >> It was very helpful. Thank you. Director snipes, for letting us know where we are on those recommendations. I think it's really important to highlight the map process just a little bit more, because you kind of glazed over it and made it seem like it wasn't as big of a deal as it really is. There are five steps. There are 73 standards or areas that they look into. There is an on site assessment. Our city was accredited in 2012 and 2017. We are one of three other cities in the state of Texas that has this accreditation. And there are only 38 local municipalities across. The United States who have this. The state of Texas isn't even accredited in that program. And so I know that your staff, because you've been in contact with me, has worked very hard to get through this process . And I believe that you all did the work needed in order to show that we are valued in having that accreditation this time around. So I just want to thank [10:02:11 AM] around. So I just want to thank you and your staff for that. And it's just a real rigorous process, and I think that needs to be highlighted. But in the context of that, can you talk about how the city aligns its continuity of operations plan with the national standards and best practices for emergency management? >> Sure. >> So, the map accreditation process or accreditation process in general, as you stated, is a very rigorous process that spells out requirements for, you know, meeting certain obligations as, as it relates to creating plans that allow us to ensure that we're able to address concerns. It requires us to test plans across the entire city. And it requires us to make sure those plans line up. For example, one of the things that we learned as we were going through the process is that all departments have a coop plan. But sometimes they they, they work really well in isolation, but maybe not as a city wide event. So, for example, one of the requirements may, may be you [10:03:12 AM] the requirements may, may be you need to have a backup location for your operations. We've noticed that in some cases, we'll see plans where multiple city departments have said they're going to the same location. And so in isolation, if it was an issue that was pertaining to a specific department, that would work great. But if it was a wide spread event, that could be a complication. So through the, reaccredited process, this is one of the things that we spotted, as, you know, something that we need to take care of and something that we need to address. But the national standards are what we've built our program on. And the re-accreditation process helps us make sure that we're meeting those standards or actually with the map process, we're actually exceeding the standards, that the state has and that the national level has put forward. So we're we're going to be well beyond and well above all those requirements, that has been put forward by both the state and the national level. >> Well, I think that's really [10:04:13 AM] >> Well, I think that's really important, especially from a policy maker perspective, to really understand and underscore that we work our plans on blue sky days because when the sky is not blue, that's when we have to be prepared for when how resilient we're going to be. And we are only as good as our plans. And we're only as good as we test them. And ensure that in that testing, we find areas of opportunity so that we can improve them. I just have one other question, and that was what measures? And I ask this because communication between departments seemed to have hindered us in the past during responses to incidents. So what measures are in place to ensure effective communication and coordination among the different departments and agencies outlined in the continuity of operations plan? >> One of the things that we're doing now is we're meeting more regularly, we're exercising more frequently. We I might talk a little bit about the upcoming exercise at College Station, which is a huge event where we're meeting with 90 different stakeholders. Folks and agencies from from across our central [10:05:15 AM] from from across our central Texas region are coming together. And this gives us an opportunity to understand and learn from one another, to understand where we can learn more, you know, techniques or processes that allow us to be more efficient and effective as we connect with our communities. So I think at the at the end of the day, the plans and the techniques that we have, if we're if we're exercising them across the city and we're, bringing people in on a regular basis to have discussions about it, lessons learned, what worked well before, what didn't work well, we're able to start to have conversations about those things across the departments. And I keep pointing to the event from a couple of weeks ago. And of course, we didn't have ic road conditions or extended power outages associated with that event. But I don't think the city has communicated better or worked. You know, better, across the board in quite some time. So I think this was, evidence of the fact that the [10:06:17 AM] evidence of the fact that the communications plans that we put forward working with our cpo team and with our communications teams at, members at ageism, are evidence of the fact that we're able to come together and deliver, an effort that is, is pretty solid. >> Well, I certainly appreciate that. The forward thinking to have us all meet together and to have the agencies meet one another, the worst day or the day of an incident or event is not the day that I want to be meeting the people that I'm sitting next to at the eoc to try and make things work. I want to know what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, and how we can better work to make the community more resilient in uncertain times. So thank you very much for that. Thank you for answering my questions, chair. I yield back. >> Thank you. We've been joined by council member Ryan alter on the dais. I had a couple other questions. If we can go to the staffing slide. It was recommendation number five, please. So this has been a concern for a long time for me [10:07:17 AM] concern for a long time for me to make sure that we have the right level and the right staffing within ageism. We, I believe it was in we've had so many of these events and whatever. I think it was back in maybe June of 22 that we added a large number of staff, and then we had a lot of issues with hr where we weren't getting the staffing through and hired, I understand that you've promoted some folks, and there are vacancies here. Can you help us understand a little bit of where we're at with the ones that are still in process or vacancies, even after this time? I can't remember if we added more in this budget or or where those those, those in process are new vacancies are coming from. >> So the two community service program coordinators, those are in process. >> The program manager for, our field ops manager for that process is wrapping up and the new, vacant sees are, you know, [10:08:19 AM] new, vacant sees are, you know, these are positions that since I've come in, I've kind of looked at and decided that we need to probably do something a little bit different. And so we're looking at how we, better align our staff and create structure that, that makes it easier for us to kind of have a divide and conquer type of situation. One of the things I've noticed with the group since I've been there is that, whenever we have an incident or when we enter our busy season with respect to events, the department supports over 256 events throughout the city, including south by f1. All those types of things. When those things happen, the projects fall off. And so we're not able to sometimes keep up and things don't move along as quickly or as smoothly as we would like. And so those positions are part of that. And the business process specialist is one that I'm looking to add, to the team to help support with some of the administrative, the administrative functions. And that's an area where we've, we've struggled because in the [10:09:20 AM] we've struggled because in the past, folks who have worked on our admin side are also responsible for, response efforts. And they play a key role in response. Just as the rest of the response team does. So all of the positions that we were originally working with have been filled, and we've added a couple, identified a couple that needed to be added, and we're having the conversation about those now. >> Okay. >> I appreciate that. And again, it's just really important that we have people in these positions that we have authorized almost, you know, more than a year and a half ago, that they that those be filled, I want to thank you and your team for a great, preparedness event that was held in my district, the other week. We had over 100 people show up, and people were really pleased with having the opportunity to become more prepared and learn, for all ages and I think it was a very [10:10:21 AM] ages and I think it was a very successful event. So please thank your team for me for that. We are do we have mission ready packages in every district at this point? >> Not not at every district at this point. We're still working on I think d10 does not have one and that we're working on that, restarting those conversations right now. We do have, mission ready enough packages. We just don't have the location identified. So we have a couple in our warehouse that are available. We have a couple that are adjacent to ten that we could move pretty quickly in the event of an emergency. So this is just about real estate and not necessarily about supplies or or the equipment at this point. >> Thank you. >> We will continue to work with you on that. I think this was a conversation that we were we were having before you came on even. And and, we would like to make sure that we resolve that, issue. Council member alter, did [10:11:21 AM] issue. Council member alter, did you have any questions? >> No. Thank you very much. Sorry chair, can I just add one more thing? >> You certainly. I just want to thank kesum for the support of the community emergency response team class that I hosted in my district. The supplies that you provided us with were extremely helpful. And then always as always, just bouncing ideas off of you is great. We were able to graduate 26 students from that program, so thank you. >> And, just for other folks awareness, we will be canceling the February audit and finance meeting because many of us will be attending the training that director snipes mentioned earlier. So thank you very much for your report and your work. Next up is item five, fleet management and optimization. >> Good morning. Audit and finance committee members. Ed Benigno, chief financial officer in a moment, Rick Harland from our fleet services department will come up and give you the [10:12:22 AM] will come up and give you the briefing. I just wanted to provide a little bit of context that this is one in a series of presentations that you've been getting over the last eight months or so that really get back to some of the key financial aspects of, of running a city in recent months, you've seen briefings on our facility plan, our plan to move out of owned, leased spaces and into owned spaces to optimize the cost of our facility needs. You've seen presentation from our chief procurement officer on some new procurement programs. Recently you saw the presentation on our pension plans and the health of those pension plans. So we're trying to provide you a good, steady diet of key financial topics. And this is the latest in that series. Obviously fleet mobility services is critical to the operations of the city. You just start thinking about the services we provide. And would we be able to provide those, facilities or services without a reliable fleet? Of course, the answer is no. In almost all the cases. So fleet's really important. We have a lot of vehicles that we maintain in the [10:13:24 AM] vehicles that we maintain in the fleet. It cost us a fair bit of money. And so what I really wanted you to see today is some of the good work that's happening in, in fleet to optimize the cost of providing the operational, needs of the, of the department. But doing that in the most cost efficient manner possible. So just wanted to provide that context. And with that, I'm going to introduce our assistant director of fleet mobility services, Rick Harland. Good morning Rick Harland. >> Fleet mobility services assistant director. What I thought we'd do today is just kind of have a very brief overview of what fleet is. Talk about maintenance and some of our acquisition strategies and some of our projects that we've been working on to optimize the fleet over the last few years. First off, as Ed had mentioned, we're a comprehensive full lifecycle fleet organization of roughly about 7300 fleet assets across the city. We are responsible for the acquisitions, budgeting, acquisitions, make ready maintenance, disposal, all the full life cycle. Our goal is to focus on what we're good at. So [10:14:27 AM] focus on what we're good at. So the departments can focus on their mission and focus on the things that are important for the community. So we're just structurally, structurally, in our organization. We're broke up into three distinct areas service center operations, business operations, and emerging technology. A few things that we want to kind of level set with you all, first off, is kind of who we are and the size and the scale of the operation that we've got. We're a fleet of roughly 7300 fleet assets. As you can see, our replacement value of our fleet is roughly $606 million. Quite an investment by the city at any one given time. We dispense roughly about 5.6 million gallons of fuel on an annualized basis. And our fleet travels roughly about 45 million miles a year. That's usually a shocker for most people. They don't realize we don't stop there. We're 24 hours a day. And so that's a pretty big number that is kind of startling. We buy roughly about 700, 700 vehicles a year. That's somewhere between [10:15:27 AM] a year. That's somewhere between 60 and $70 million in capital spending for enterprise and general fund. We auction off roughly about 450 vehicles a year. And we process roughly about a thousand, fueling trans auctions a day, which is pretty incredible. We're responsible for, obviously, the dispensing of 5.6 millions of gallons of fuel for our emergency operations. For normal fleet operations, we process roughly about 540 accidents per year. We're very kpi oriented as you can see. We focus on availability, which is something we'll talk about in just a minute. Our cost per mile, $1.40 a mile. We look at alternative fuel, our electrification of our fleet. And I know we've got a lot of folks that are very interested in that. We are focused on our work orders, our productive output, and then some things that we're doing with gps . But first off, I just kind of want to level set with our budget strategy. We're a [10:16:28 AM] budget strategy. We're a centrally managed budget department, but we're focused on maintenance, repair for and fuel for all city assets. That's roughly about 75.4 million. So it's not a small number. As was mentioned. It's quite expensive. And then we have our acquisitions, our general fund acquisitions and capital infrastructure, which is about $41 million. We're a cost recovery department. We budget allocate across the city for all departments. We focus on resource management, and we have a number of performance metrics that are published publicly, and then a number that we focus on internally from a life cycle management perspective of in maintaining the vehicles efficient maintenance cycles are critical for keeping up our operation with our fleet. It focuses on three main areas preventive maintenance, which we adhere to strict schedules from our manufacturers, but and that's your typical garden variety. Every day oil change rotation to your tires. Fixing [10:17:31 AM] rotation to your tires. Fixing the various things that are going wrong with the vehicle or that we think might be going wrong with the vehicle, or that might be going wrong with the vehicle. So our focus is to not have unplanned breakage between preventive maintenance intervals to do that, we focus on predictive maintenance. And that's largely only some data driven analytics that we get from our fleet. Information system. So this data we can kind of look and see when things break, kind of have a good idea by manufacturer or make and model when things are going to go wrong. And we focus on replacing those things. When a vehicle is in for preventive maintenance and that's our goal. We store all this information in a centralized maintenance tracking system called asset works. N5 that's a database and it's an application that's housed by the city of Austin. And we store the overall history of every single vehicle and piece of equipment on road, off road powered, non-powered equipment across the city in this system. So we know [10:18:34 AM] this system. So we know everything historically, and we can use that information to hopefully forecast what might happen in the future. We're very data driven in this way. We're very data rich in terms of what our knowledge is of the fleet itself. We do about 48,000 work orders a year. We have some key performance indicators that we work on with our fleet, with our maintenance department, including vehicle downtime, which is simply the measurement of the vehicle down when we've got it in our possession for one reason or another, the opposite of that is vehicle availability. See how much the department has it and how is it available to them for their mission and for their critical use? We look at maintenance cost per vehicle and then we look at first time fixed rates. So like you all with your vehicles, you don't want to have to go back to your automotive repair facility and have something that was just looked at and, and kind of bring and have to go back in there and do this all over again. So we focus on this as well, and then we focus on shop efficiency, our work efficiency within our [10:19:36 AM] work efficiency within our service center operations. We've got roughly 115 mechanics that work within our service center operations. And each one of them has a certain amount of productive output hours that they're responsible for. And of course, quality work of workmanship is included in that as well. Next, we wanted to kind of share with you a little bit of some of the optimized processes that we're doing, particularly related to vehicle procurement, asset tracking and optimization. Some of our decision making that's being done and some driver and training that we do, driver training, we do. And first off, let's start with acquisitions. So from our acquisition strategy standpoint, Swint, rightsizing the fleet is the first thing that we look at. We don't want to grow the fleet unnecessarily in order to do that, we have to look at utilization and monitor the fleet and make sure that we're not buying things we don't need. And we can repurpose those things to other departments. If they're underutilizing those vehicles, we monitor it quite a bit of that through the use of telematics. At this point, we focus on our alternative fuel vehicles and obviously going [10:20:37 AM] vehicles and obviously going electrification, which we'll share a little bit of an update with on that in just a minute. And then we actually operate under what is called a master agreement for the city of Austin, which allows us the flexibility to reduce lead time for fleet purchases. I will be presenting a master agreement, an rca in front of you later on this year for a five year forecast. And we'll share a lot more about that coming up. But this is something that's unique to the city of Austin and gives us a flexibility to buy vehicles and do what we need to do in a timely fashion, where other municipalities or government agencies, have a much slower process during covid and the constraints and the supply chain. This was a very important . Piece to us. And then we've got a strategic sourcing management team that looks at total cost of ownership and really boils down as to which vehicles are being replaced and why they're being replaced, and should they be replaced or not. And in order to do that, we focus on a system called cam, which is called capital asset management. It's called cam. [10:21:38 AM] management. It's called cam. It's a software application and it sits with and outside of our asset works m5 system. So the two of them are talking all the time. And this application is dedicated to managing and analyzing the replacement of fleet. We introduced this back in 2019 2020. And this has allowed us to really zero in on the right replacement strategy for the fleet. Look at asset age. We look at the usage of the vehicles, energy cost, maintenance cost, downtime hours. We have 27 potential areas that we focus on to distill our purchasing strategy. When it comes out, we can look at it by general fund. We can look at it by the city, the general fund, the enterprise fund. We can look at it by department. Anyways, we zero right down to the actual individual vehicle level. And we do a five year forecast every single year. Some of our advanced mobility strategy is what I'd like to share with you next. We're focused on advanced automotive technology, including our nationally recognized [10:22:38 AM] our nationally recognized battery electric vehicle program, enhancing safety and risk mitigation, mitigating risk for our drivers, and then environmental leadership. We understand that fleet, the transportation sector accounts for 25% of all greenhouse gas output, and we're trying to do our part to be as efficient as possible. And of course, all of that leads back to really focusing on cost containment of the fleet. It's an expensive proposition for us, but it's an important one. And so we streamlined vehicle fleet acquisitions for efficiency. We're looking at data driven predictive analytic, and we're using all the tools within our toolbox to be as efficient as possible for the city of Austin. At the same time being as reliable as possible. Next, I want to kind of share with you a little bit of what we've been doing, and this dovetails nicely with some of our emergency management response pieces that we've been talking about this morning. We have been working on a telematics program where our vehicles are connected via satellite. They're also connected via cellular 4G, LTE. We backhaul information in a [10:23:38 AM] We backhaul information in a live real time data back to some servers. The cloud based servers, Amazon web services servers, and we output out the in real time what is happening with our fleet, where they are, where they've been. And I think that's an essential tool for the city of Austin to be an effective city. As you can see on the left, there are a number of benefits I won't get into that, but I'm very pleased to tell you all that we have just completed the installation of over 7000 fleet assets. This is powered and non-powered fleet assets. The on road, off road assets. We have full connecting, ensuring real time tracking and data transmission for every vehicle in our fleet. This is fire apparatuses all the way to your refuse refuse truck to, things that are, you know, that we should put a gps on. We typically don't put gps on a lawnmower or something like that, but we do have those in our fleet as well. We have 25 departments, including the utilities and public safety that that were included in this and participate in this, where 100% [10:24:38 AM] participate in this, where 100% across the board with all department participation participate in. And that is an attest to the testament to the relationship that fleet has with all the departments. We are have a close working relationship with everybody, and most municipalities. Public safety typically kind of opts out of this sort of thing. Our public safety departments opted in, which was very good for us. We had have over 2500 management person that are trained. These are we don't train our front line drivers. We train our management folks or the people that are responsible for parts of the organization that oversee the fleet, like safety and air and other. And then, of course, management and then this is real time visibility into fleet operations. So we think that this gives power to the decision makers within each department that they've never had before. In the past, people would staff would go to the field. You wouldn't know where they went to. You didn't know where they were. You didn't know where they've been. This is kind of a we can't really monetize that. That's a hard one to monetize. But I will tell you that that's [10:25:39 AM] But I will tell you that that's from a management perspective that is operating really very powerful. The next thing I want to share with you guys is our battery electric vehicle program. In, 2016, 2017, we wrote a white paper. Most of you are very familiar with this. We forecasted that if we replace 330 battery electric vehicles, our internal combustion engine vehicles with battery electric vehicles, light duty kind of the sedans and that sort of thing that we would save $3.5 million over ten years. And our task was to build the charging infrastructure to support that and that we would save 12,000 metric tons of carbon output on the fleet when our 2023 purchases come in, we will hit 350 bevs. We have forecasted and actually analyzed the cost per mile and kind of did some metrics on it. We're saving roughly about $1,200 a year per vehicle. Interestingly enough, 48% of that is from fuel and 52% of that is from the actual maintenance piece. Vehicles have [10:26:39 AM] maintenance piece. Vehicles have half the moving parts. They're very efficient. And that we will meet our targeted savings goal. 12 to 18 months ahead of plan. So very happy about that. We get a lot of questions about that nationally and across other municipalities in the united States. And we do share our program with them. As far as the charging infrastructure goes, we've built 174 charging ports that are dedicated just to the fleet itself. Basically, it's a 2 to 1 ratio of two battery electric vehicles. We use a we didn't do this alone. This this is a collaborative effort with Austin energy and public works. As a team, we've built these charging infrastructure. We monitor the power. We can see every single vehicle that's being charged and we can see that live. And we can look at the usage and determine our cost. We use the ev everywhere program, which is a fantastic program. Plug in everywhere program by Austin energy for all of our fleet, which is opens up our charging infrastructure to over 1500 charging ports across the city itself, from a [10:27:39 AM] the city itself, from a greenhouse gas savings standpoint, we've saved ourselves, or at least in 2023, 6400 metric tons. It's this is a direct savings of carbon output. It's a fantastic story. But the story that I really think is amazing is the this one here, which is a real interesting dedication to long range planning and the city's focus on sustainability. So the city of Austin's fleet reached peak carbon output in 2007. The fleet has grown 54. We use 21% more fuel, and our carbon output is 10% lower than it was in 2007, which is an incredible result. This is largely driven by, you know, the manufacturers and building more efficient engines and then fleets utilizing ocean Wyatt's replacement strategy. But the utilization of grants to help pay for the replacement of vehicles that would have prematurely been sitting out there and running, very [10:28:40 AM] there and running, very inefficiently. So we've used the vw grant, and have taken full advantage of each one of the stages of that. And then, of course, the use of alternative fuels. We have biodiesel, e85, propane. We use all of that that's available to us. Like I said, we manage our own fuel supply and we manage our own fuel distribution, which gives us a level of control that not other, local or any kind of, fleet who outsources their fuel. They can't actually exercise this level of control. And so finally, the focus here is really operational efficiency. And excellence. Fleet mobility services is dedicated to achieving operational excellence, maximizing cost efficiency and ensuring a seamless customer experience. Our focus is on commitment to sustainability and safety. As you can see with our telematics program and the drivers scorecard and things like that, that go with that. And then of course, operational alignment for success in line with each and every department. We understand their critical [10:29:40 AM] understand their critical mission. We're there for them. We're there in advance of any kind of an emergency event. We're there with them during and we're there with them after. For any questions. >> Thank you. We really appreciate this presentation and the chance to look at how advanced we are with respect to the fleet and all the telematics and all of that. You know, I, I hope that, our public safety entities in particular are really looking into that data. We know we're working hard to improve our response times, say, for ems. And, and I think there's a lot of data in there that I, that I hope that our departments are, are taking advantage of. We have made a lot of, a lot of progress. And I'm going to open up for questions. I do have one, one question. And I wanted to say the first part first, because that all was very clear. And I know we always want to talk about evs, but, we have reached our goal and in the past we had set a goal, you know, for evs. Do you think it is time for us to set a new goal for evs? [10:30:43 AM] us to set a new goal for evs? For the sustainability piece, or how should we be thinking about that? Because there was a point at which there was council direction that was helping to, to lead. But that has now been achieved. So where do we go next? There >> So we continue to forecast the growth of the battery electric vehicle fleet. We are building this into our natural attrition and replacement rate. We expect a 300% growth in our battery electric vehicle inventory over the next to 2030 is what our forecast is at this point. We believe we'll be at about a thousand battery electric vehicles. We're working with, council member Ryan alter on, a pilot program with APD to pilot a couple of battery electric vehicle police pursuit vehicles. The new Chevy blazer police pursuit vehicle, and we expect to go through this pilot program and evaluate how that fits into public safety. [10:31:43 AM] fits into public safety. Obviously, a lot of concerns and risk around that, but we want to make sure it's safe. I think there's great areas to do to implement that. And then of course, with our refuse fleet, we've been very focused on that being the most cost inefficient, cost per mile fleet that is electrifying our refuse fleet is a huge target for us, largely the way the electrification rollout has come across the in the world. Really, it's all been the light duty stuff and then evolving into more medium and heavy duty. So we're hoping to kind of jump that, gap and get into the heavy duty side transfer station, shorten the range of our, refuse fleet, I think is a great opportunity for us to reduce a huge amount of our carbon output in the use of, diesel fuel, but also to, really kind of be a be very operational, you know, in terms of cost. >> Thank you. That's great. Where would we be able to read about that part of the plan for the, the 300% increase in the [10:32:44 AM] the, the 300% increase in the with the 300% increase in the fleet, we do have a battery electric vehicle presentation. >> Ann. We'd love to present that to you and walk through the details of how we've forecasted our growth. And then how that aligns nationally with the growth of battery electric vehicle sales across the nation, both nationally and internationally. And what that means to us and what those savings projections would be. And the timeline on that. So we'd be happy to share that with you at any time. >> Okay. >> That's wonderful. Council member Ryan alter, I'm gonna pick up right where you left off . >> Shockingly, you and I have had some great conversations. I want to thank you for the work you all are doing. Especially as it relates to the police pilot. I'm really excited to see where that goes. I'm really hopeful we're going to do the same thing for the fire trucks. Since I know that is a new and emerging, area where some cities have have been able to purchase electric [10:33:47 AM] been able to purchase electric fire trucks, and they have seen, incredible success and incredible results in terms of goal setting. Lang, I think we have set a goal and that's within the climate equity plan of 40% of transportation miles to be electric. That is what we set as a community. As a goal for ourselves. And I think it's incumbent if we're going to expect the community to do that, that we expect ourselves to do that and so while I'm really excited to see the trajectory that we're on, if we hit a thousand vehicles by 2030 and if our fleet and our fleet of 7300, that's vehicles, right? That's not including vehicles and equipment. >> There's about 5000. That's vehicles. >> I didn't say that number was a little larger than I remember it being. Yeah. So if that's represents 20% of our vehicles, you know, that's half just in [10:34:47 AM] you know, that's half just in terms of percent, the vehicles. And I think what's even, a greater detail or point of importance is you know, back when we asked the question for the budget, while in September or I guess in August, 6.2 at that time, percent of our vehicles were electric. Unfortunately, only 1.8% of our vehicle miles traveled were electric. So it's not just the vehicle itself, but where it's going. And I understand their constraints. So I'm not, you know, it's just a reality of the situation. And so my question for you, and it's not a today question, and I, I think as it relates to what chair alter was talking about in terms of potentially seeing the battery electric plant is if, if, if the question to you was what does it take to get to 40% by 2030? And I understand there might be elements within that. What does it take? That would be things you wouldn't recommend or that [10:35:48 AM] you wouldn't recommend or that you would say are cost prohibitive, but so that we as policy makers can understand that and just what is that path? What would it take? I would love for us to be able to get that as part of the briefing, maybe in March or April of this year at this committee, just to understand the feasible Katy the practicality or not. So that as we are setting these goals, you know, maybe it requires, certain budget or, you know, elements, maybe it requires certain bond elements just so that we can truly know if we're going to ask the public to be 40, how do we as a city be 40? That's something I would really like to know as an exercise. Just what that looks like. So that's that's a really interesting you know, ask and I, I'm my mind is already turning on how I can model that and figure that one out. >> You know, I'm obviously we've focused on light duty vehicles initially. Right. And that was a [10:36:49 AM] initially. Right. And that was a lot of admin vehicles. And when we did much of this early on, we covid hit, you know, so everybody went working from home. You know. So now we're starting to see utilization uptick I think in the budget I told you we were doing going to forecast at 38 million miles for the year. Right. And we hit 45 million miles. So I would go back and take a look at how many of those miles would be related to battery electric vehicles, but to look at our total miles driven and how to get to 40% being electric at that point. So it's an interesting, study and I'd be happy to do that for you. >> I appreciate well, hopefully we can get that on the calendar for March or April. And like I said, I want to I don't want to short change the good work y'all are doing. Y'all are doing some incredible work. I'm just curious how we take that next step and what that would look like. So thank you very much. >> And there may be part of that. That's also you know, there's also the alternative fuels, which also help. And so I think that the issue is not just electric but the carbon free. And so there may be some other dynamics to look forward to [10:37:51 AM] dynamics to look forward to working with you on this. Council member alter. Any other questions? Thank you very much. And we appreciate the opportunity to have good news. In this committee as well as hearing the audits, when they sometimes come back with work to do. So. Thank you very much and appreciate this. This series of work that we're able to highlight. Next up will be item six, which is the parks bonds. Good morning. Good morning. >> Chair and fellow council members, I appreciate the opportunity to brief you today about the park bond. Program overview. My name is James snow. I'm the director for capital delivery services. I'm also joined here by Kimberly Mcneely and some of her staff. So if there's questions that I cannot answer, we'll be able to see if we can get those answers or we'll look into them. We're going to do three things today. We'll do a quick overview of the [10:38:52 AM] We'll do a quick overview of the bond. We'll go some some depth into the individual bond summaries. And then we'll talk about next steps. This looks very familiar to you because this is what we came in October and we talked about mobility. But now we're looking at the park bonds as you can see the park bonds actually, to have three bond programs.that's oh six, 12 and 18. The oh six and 12 were done a certain way that we had it all inclusive bonds. But in 18 they had the normal, inclusive bonds. But then we also broke out library, museums and cultural facilities that bond itself, prop was shared between libraries and park. So if you look at the total number, we parse it out to just talk about park. What I'd like to report today is working with the team balances as of the close of fy 23, we've substantially or we're complete with the zero six bond. The 2012 bond, we only have 3.2 million left to spend. And then as you can see, the breakout for the two, propositions in 2018. So what [10:39:52 AM] propositions in 2018. So what I'm going to do is we're going to take an individual look at each one of the bond. Bon programs for you. As I mentioned in zero six, we were successful. Working with park participants successful and getting down to zero unspent. As you can see, the curve, there's just a little bit left out, to spend. But as you can see, the key projects that were, accomplished with this was obviously the ymca, north Austin, community rec center. Bartholomew pool, and also the northwest rec center. As we move to 2012 bonds. As you can see, the program had 77.7 million, only has 3.2 million left. As the curve shows, you, that will be complete with the spending pretty much at the end of fy 26. Key projects have been completed with this, as the montopolis rec center. The Waterloo park and the holly festival beach master plan. Key projects still remaining to be done as listed is the Dougherty art center, the zilker maintenance barn, and the Barton springs bathhouse. I'm going to [10:40:53 AM] springs bathhouse. I'm going to take a different approach here for 2018, because it's broken into two propositions. Proposition B was specifically focused on cultural centers as listed here. And then, proposition C was more traditional bond bond portfolio, which is park acquisition, aquatics, parkland improvements, building renovations and infrastructure. This was this bond was focused on an eight year time time frame, which said we're complete would be 2027 as of right now. Even though you see that there's over 64% left to remain to be spent, we believe that the money will be spent by 2027 each. What what we saw as far as the promise of the bond. And right now we currently have, we believe the funding and the initial working with park to meet the needs that the bond was supposed to address. Bond first, prop B as you can see, the library, museums and cultural centers, the park portion of this was 66.5 million remaining spent to date is 56.4. And it looks like right now we're [10:41:54 AM] looks like right now we're trending to the work completed in 2027. Projects that have been completed. The carver museum, the near tum improvements and renovations. But as we can see, the remaining projects that we're working with them on a partnership to deliver. Now, prop C, prop C will have a couple slides to this. First of all, we want to show you the trending as far as just the other prop, as far as work that has been completed, we have the upper polgar creek, spicewood springs, parkland acquisition, the Pharr tennis center renovation, and the Wasinger neighborhood park, parkland acquisition. Key projects still remaining listed underneath there that are moving forward and looks to be trending to be done by 2027. As what we projected in the bond, key ones will throw out is the Walter Eid long, metro park phase one. The givens pool, and also the colony park pool. As requested. We went a little bit more depth in here as far as breaking out this as far as traditional, traditional [10:42:54 AM] far as traditional, traditional versus non additions as you can see. First of all, we're showing you the specific spending in the traditional areas of categories of aquatics, land acquisition, park improvements and building renovations and infrastructure. What we also did is break down specifically where it is as far as appropriation, encumbrance, expense and balance. Again, as I said before, we feel that we have the money available to finish out what the work was identified in. The bond, and that it looks like that we'll be on track to have it spent completely by, by, based on which was the 2027. Next steps. We'll continue to work on the outstanding projects to completion. But one of the things we're doing with part is the same thing that we mentioned in October that we're doing with ability committee is we're going to be setting up a monthly program, health assessment with pard, working with them with the current projects under under underway, and to make sure that we are delivering them efficiently and effectively. And also at this time, what we're trying to do is we're looking at establishing an asset management approach, in the asset management approach, what you [10:43:55 AM] management approach, what you look at is you have the assets, you maintain and operate them. But at the time that you have to replace them or put new assets in, that's where capital delivery services comes in. What we're doing right now is as we start this monthly meeting, we'll better understand the part asset management program, how to work with them. But key more importantly, and it was a question I was asked earlier, was the idea to make sure whatever we build, we have the proper resources in place to maintain it for the long, long haul or that part of the asset management. So as we work through with pard, we'll identify those and better understand the portfolio and make sure that we address those. And finally, we will plan to come back to autumn finance to give you an update of our work in July 2024. I'm open to any questions. Yes ma'am. >> I'm the chair. >> Okay. >> So I asked for this, and I have, just a couple questions, and then I'll, throw it over to council member Fuentes. So, so first of all, we added that slide with the breakdown for proposition C. If you can, please make sure that that gets [10:44:55 AM] please make sure that that gets into the backup and is sent out to the committee so we can all, all see that, can you just go over for the acquisition piece in particular for, more detail? >> Well, what I'd like to do is I'd like to turn around and ask kymberley or, Steven to join me to explain more about the acquisitions. >> This is a key part of the bond. When we did, it was to create a large bucket of money, for acquisitions. And that that bucket in particular is looking pretty well spent. And it is harder and harder to buy land when you don't, do it early. So I'd like to understand your, your thoughts on that particular bucket and what that what the amounts are first of all. And then any, any thoughts you want to share with us on that? I don't think I quite understand the question. >> So I apologize. >> So can you tell us, you know, how much was in the land acquisition bucket? How much is spent? What is encumbered? What is it encumbered for, and how [10:45:55 AM] is it encumbered for, and how much is how much is left? >> Okay. Slide nine. Thank you. We unfortunately don't have our slides synced with our, >> Yes, ma'am. Our screens anymore, at least temporarily. And so it's kind of hard for us to see what the numbers are if we don't have a copy of it. >> Okay. So with regard to the bond funding rate, you all can see this slide. And you can see that there's approximately a $12.6 million balance. And typically what we do with bond funding is, is we use our bond funding where we don't have parkland dedication funding available. So if we have parkland dedication fund available or we're able to ask a developer to provide us land as we did in the past, then we are able to fulfill our goals of the ten minute walk or making sure that individuals live within a quarter mile or a half mile by [10:46:56 AM] quarter mile or a half mile by utilizing that particular bucket of funding. And we typically use bond funding where public where parkland dedication funding is not available. Right. So where there's not massive amounts of development happening that contribute to a parkland dedication fund, then this bond funding would allow us to be able to make land acquisitions to help further that performance measure, and the goal of making sure that individuals have access to their parks quarter mile, half mile, Joe, I think what you're asking me is, what does this mean, that we have $12.6 million left? I think what that means is that we will be selecting wisely. Right. We'll be looking at all buckets of money that we have to be able to make appropriate purchases. And we will be, very carefully considering how we use those funds to ensure that we're being as wise as possible. Just like with any budget that you have, you try to make the best selection using your money as wisely as possible to get the biggest bang for your buck. That's pretty. I mean, that's [10:47:56 AM] That's pretty. I mean, that's very general. If you're looking for more specifics, perhaps Steven can help us. Or we could provide you that information in, in another form. >> So the, the, the encumbered bucket is small here. It's just half $1 million. And what is that encumbered. For >> You generally don't have many. Sorry, Steven. Net capital improvement program manager for part. We usually don't have all that much encumbered in this category because that's really only covering things that are under on track. So that's things like environmental assessments, surveys and the property. Usually it's just a one shot when we buy something. So there's usually not a under contract period. That's just our accounting system okay. >> Are there particular for purchases that the balance is sort of geared towards that are not at that stage, but are far enough along that we might expect those to be spent, on a faster timeline than what's expressed here. Yeah, we have about $6 million that's actually not assigned to acquisitions as of today. >> So. So, about half of that [10:48:56 AM] >> So. So, about half of that remaining balance now is moving toward things that are going to be purchased in the near future. >> Okay. >> So there's only about 6 million to get you through to the next bond in that bucket. It this bucket. >> But of course we have other as I described before, we have other buckets of money that we will also be looking at at an acquisition. Become available. >> Okay. So you're saying that you can raid the other buckets if you need it to make an important acquisition unnecessarily raiding these buckets? >> I'm saying that we would take a look at our parkland dedication funds. Those sorts of things. The other buckets of money that are available to us that are appropriate to use for land acquisition. >> Okay. But those buckets are getting smaller, too. So I'm just I'm just trying to make sure that we're aware of the situation that we're in. And, and I'm particularly concerned about about this bucket. I may have some other questions, but I'll pass it on to council member Fuentes. Thank you. [10:49:56 AM] member Fuentes. Thank you. >> Thank you. My first question is around the city of Austin. Ann bond proposal with the ymca in northeast Austin. It was part of the 2006, campaign effort. Can you share a little bit more details about that project and what was what did we do with those bond dollars? >> Sure. So those bond dollars, the, ymca that is, on, Ramberg it would be east of Lamar on rundberg is a city owned facility. There is an agreement, a partnership agreement with the ymca of Austin to operate that, as as I can recall, the situation, that money. What happened was, is that we had a certain amount of bond money that was appropriated when we did our community engagement associated with that particular location. The community wanted more than we were able to provide with the bond money. We partnered with the ymca. They [10:50:56 AM] partnered with the ymca. They supplemented that particular amount of money, and they were able to build the facility that we have today. It is city owned. It's on city land. It's a city asset. But the operational agreement is with the Austin, with the ymca, and they operate that, under very specific parameters and fee schedules and those sorts of things. And so it's like any other partnership that we have, it's a city owned asset. They operate and maintain it. And in that agreement, there are certain things that the city of Austin will pay for large items like a brand new hvac, a brand new roof, like large assets, sorts of things. >> That's helpful. I've had some preliminary meetings with ymca. I know that that they are interested in pursuing a similar partnership in southeast Austin, so we'd love to get more information on on the background of that project. You know, for example, how long did the city go in with the intention of buying that land for this creation, or did we already have this preexisting parcel for a number of years? We don't have [10:51:57 AM] number of years? We don't have to go through it right now. >> But I'll get you all the details that you need about that specific piece of property. I understand what you're what you're asking me the entire history of that. I can forward that to this committee. Yes. >> But my intention, colleagues, would be to pursue a similar proposal so that we are able to provide this service for southeast austinites. The other question I have is around the cultural arts center bond proposal and looking at the amount that's unspent, nearly 70, I think you had it 68.8. This was a 2018 bond. It's been six years. Can you share, like why it's taken so long to do those renovations? >> A large amount of that. Stephen's going to have to help me. 25 million is from the is the Mexican American cultural center. And that project is under is being, constructed as we speak. Right. So that money is systematically being spent another portion of that, which would be 28, 27 oh 27 for the Mac, I'm sorry, 25 for the [10:53:00 AM] Mac, I'm sorry, 25 for the Doherty arts center. The Doherty arts center project will be providing the council an update on that particular project and a path forward for executing, a path forward for that project in the very near future. And then there is some funding that is available or has been spent part of that money has been spent on the Asian American cultural center, I'm sorry, Asian American resource center. That particular project there is an entire design for a second phase. And right now we're taking a look at that money with the community. Or we had been taking a look at that money with the community as to saying that the thing that we designed will not be able to provide to you, the, the object that that you want, the theater that you want, but we can do some other projects and now we're ready for a future, a future funding source, be that a grant, be that matching funds, be that a partnership or be that a future bond. And then lastly there, I think most of the money for the carver, the carver cultural center and museum is has already been spent or is actively in the [10:54:02 AM] been spent or is actively in the spending process. And most of that money was about about, fortifying that particular location, making the theater more usable, providing window upgrades, providing hvac and roofing upgrades. >> Were there any so of that proposition? Ann was there anything allocated for libraries , or was it all cultural centers ? >> That's it. Yeah that's my question. >> Let's go back to that one. Yes it was split because the whole property, Ann 66.5 million went to parks. >> The remaining went to libraries and the library projects. >> But what's listed here are cultural. These are all cultural centers that are, here. >> These are cultural centers that are underneath the park portfolio that are being done. Those for that list. I put it back up on the slide are the four that are underneath that, that equal the $66.5 million remaining is dealing with park projects. >> But do you see what I'm saying? Like, when is the last time that we've, you know, sought funds for our libraries the same, same year? >> In 2018. Okay it was under [10:55:03 AM] >> In 2018. Okay it was under the under that same bond prop. If you come here at the very beginning versus library, museums and cultural facilities, the 262 million that was both this and parts, libraries. >> Okay. Let me ask it this way. Yeah. Which libraries were funded from this? >> I can come back and get you that answer as far as which ones were specifically funded. Yeah. On that. So that you can you can see between the two. Okay. >> Thank you. Because what I'm getting at is we just adopted last year a strategic plan for our libraries. And I know that part of the vision plan for our library system, including adding an additional library in southeast Austin, as well as expanding the southeast library and looking at what is under allocated, what is remaining to be spent. I don't see any libraries earmarked, so what I'll be able to do is I'll I'll work with scheduling a meeting to come back and talk to you about specifically about libraries. >> We are working currently with the library department as far as taking their strategic plan or the visionary plan, and actually putting it into to an [10:56:03 AM] putting it into to an implementable plan. We're working on that with them right now, but I can give you either if you ask the question, send it to my office. We'll get back to you. As far as what projects are specifically for libraries underneath this current bond. And then we can update you as far as as we work with them, as far as taking that vision plan and making it implementable. >> Yeah. I mean, because I think and colleagues my last question, then I'll yield the floor on on this topic. But you know, we have how are we forecasting and projecting our needs for the next bond package. You know, everything you've laid out here has everything being completed in 2027. Yes, ma'am. So, you know, how are we figuring out okay, this is what the library calls for. Our strategic, our vision plan calls for. Here's what our park needs are. You know, director Mcnealy, you and I have had several conversations about the needs at onion creek metro park. And for, you know, our soccer field needs as well. So how how is the city? >> So currently. That's one of the goals for this department. [10:57:05 AM] the goals for this department. Cds to put together the plan and work with the sponsors to say how we're going to achieve that for the next bond program. We're currently in discussions and putting that together. I when it's done, I can come back and say what the new program is that we're going to try to achieve that. But most of the what is first starts off we do the assessment of the needs, both capital delivery, I mean, asset management as far as what needs to be renovated, what needs to be gaps, looking at the vision plans, then we go through a step process. Right now we're trying to put together a priority matrix based on multiple needs. Because what we've done in the past is we just got a call for projects we're trying to do is step back and say we need to have a more inclusive prioritization matrix. So what we did with the corridor, as far as looking at all the needs and looking at equity, looking at council policy, looking at vision plans and stuff like that, and come together instead of in the past. What we've done was just like, well, tell us what we need to do. Give us, give us what's out there. So we're trying to take a more intentional approach. And my team is now working on that right now to look at what best approach to take and then [10:58:06 AM] approach to take and then working with our partners on how we meet that need and how we develop the program and when would we have that information. >> The goal for my team is to have something to have the draft or anything put together to talk to our partners. >> Probably by June this year, July, because we're working on that, looking at what we did in the past and, and then what we'd like to try to do is put together a schedule which will brief to the partners and cmo of how we get there, and then we'll tell the council offices we want to take a more, like I said, intentional approach. I have ideas, but I don't want to throw it out there yet because we're trying to vet it and put it all together. But we are taking a more intentional approach as far as just not giving a list. We see this also bond development taking longer than we've done before. Usually we take six months. We'd like to take longer, about 18 months or so because we want to make sure we don't do what we've done in the past, which was I've said this before, is have, optimistic concepts instead of a really true this is a project, this is the scope, this is the budget, and this is what it's really going to be delivered by, we, we want to take the intentionality [10:59:06 AM] want to take the intentionality and take a longer time so that when we come to it, they're fully vetted projects and make sure that when we give to you, we show the process in which we came to develop the projects and also the inclusivity of the community to say that this is what they believe that we should move forward with, right, that yeah, that makes sense. >> And, director snow, I would just ask that we have a follow up meeting so I can have a deeper dive on the matrix and the approach that staff would be taking in creating this. >> So when that gets created, we'll come back to this committee and other committees show what it is to get the input. So the draft so we can make sure we address the needs as much as possible. So you can see how we're going to get there. Again, my biggest risk is I want to make sure that whatever we provide you and is an inclusive matrix or as best as we can and show that how we're going to meet the needs, both asset management wise but also community wise and the policies that we have. >> Very good. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Director snow, it sounds like, it probably be helpful for you to give us a similar chart as you did for proposition C, for the [11:00:06 AM] proposition C, for the proposition B for the parks, and then also for the libraries. I think you ought to be able, you know, to do that and then maybe, miss Mcneely, your office can, get us also kind of what the balances are and the pld fees so that we understand between them, what some of our options are for acquisition, recognizing that the pld fees are not fungible. Just anywhere. So to the extent that we can have a better picture of that, I think that would be helpful. Councilmember alder, I'm just going to ask you to be quick because we do have people waiting for interviews super quick. >> Thank you. >> I, I want to highlight. One thing that director Neely and I have been able to chat about at one point, and that is as we look to our, bond and, you know, you have the plan and then you have what actually is delivered and that there are oftentimes gaps, whether it's because cost of increased or one, you know, maybe it took longer. And so the, the need and ability for us [11:01:07 AM] the, the need and ability for us to have kind of that gap financing to really deliver to the public what they want and expect out of these, you know, something that is more of a steady stream, ongoing type of financing and that translates then to the operation and maintenance of these parks and how we can ensure that we are keeping them up so that we don't always have to do some of these really big retrofits, but that they are usable for the public. And so I think it's really, a crucial time for us to think about. Are we funding this properly? Do we need potentially a different type of, of steady revenue to allow for our parks to really be, what everybody hopes and wants for our park system throughout the city, not just in certain parts. And so, the last thing kind of I'll note, since we're, we're pressed for time, you know, I think [11:02:07 AM] for time, you know, I think council member alter's point about about, you know, what what funds we have remaining and the time we have remaining for them. You know, if we have $6 million for potentially the next three years, years, that's that's a very little amount of park acquisition in a city that is growing and especially right now when prices are are depressed, you know, this is a prime time for someone who has cash in hand to go find some land that is, helps address our park deficient areas. And so I think we have to consider whether or not it is time to, to fill up that bucket. So I'll just leave it there since we're pressed for time and appreciate your work. >> Thank you. Councilmember alter, I wanted to just clarify, like the, the further clarifications. For prop B and prop C and writing, sent us so that we can have those sooner [11:03:08 AM] that we can have those sooner and later, as well as the pld amounts. And, councilmember alder, I have a meeting tomorrow with the budget office. And miss Mcneely, we've been working to try to, re calibrate how we do our o&m, our operations and maintenance relative to the capital and understand that they have a promising solution. And I'm looking forward to having that, discussion, which I hope will address some of the maintenance issues that have come with adding so many capital projects without, fully accounting for that. So I'm hoping that we have a resolution for that piece of it. Very shortly. I'm going to skip the last item on our agenda, which is future items. If you're interested, you can be in touch with, miss stokes for that. And we're going to move to closed session Ann. If there are no objections so that we can get move forward on our interviews. Luz. The committee will now go into closed session to take up one item pursuant to section 551 .074, the government code. The committee will discuss personnel matters related to the [11:04:10 AM] matters related to the appointment of members to the municipal, civil service commission interview and discuss identified applicants. Is there any objection to going into executive session on the item announced hearing none. The committee will now go into executive session. If we decide to appoint someone, we will have to come back out, to vote on that. Thank you. And committee members, this is virtual for all of us. >> Okay it is, January 24th at 1159, and [11:59:55 AM] it is, January 24th at 1159, and we are out of closed session and closed session. We took up and discuss personnel matters related to item seven. We will now entertain a motion for item three. I'm going to, to, make the motion and then ask for a second, before I do, I want to thank everyone who applied to serve on the municipal, civil service commission. We really, really do appreciate your willing to step up. This is a heavy lift. It's really, really important for our employees and our city. And we want to thank you for your willingness to serve this time. We only have two open positions. So for those two open positions, we would like to recommend to the council to appoint, mapi vigil and Melissa Rogers. This is to finish out the remaining terms of the two terms that are open and renew that for a three year terms. I believe that starts in may. We also would like to, appoint Kevin mullen as chair. Do I have a second council [12:00:55 PM] Do I have a second council member? Fuentes seconds that, seeing no objections, we adopt that unanimously with council member Ryan alter off the dais. Thank you very much. And with that, it is 12 P.M. Wednesday, January 24th. And I will adjourn this meeting. Thank you so much speak top button. This is