Economic Opportunity Committee (EOC) Meeting Transcript – 3/21/2025 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 3/21/2025 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 3/21/2025 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. [10:01:41 AM] And welcome to the economic opportunity committee meeting. The first item on our agenda is to call the meeting to order. So I will call this meeting of the economic opportunity committee to order at 10:01 A.M. On March 21st, 2025 at Austin city hall as a quorum of four is present. It's myself. Chair qadri. It is vice chair Fuentes and it is council members Velasquez and harper-madison. And off the ice is council member Siegel. And then the next item is public communication. And I believe we have one speaker signed up to testify. >> Good morning chair. We have one speaker, as you said, and we'll call Philip Wiley with a presentation. And, Philip, you have three minutes. Thank you. >> Good morning, everybody, and thank you for allowing citizen communication today. And thank [10:02:42 AM] communication today. And thank you for this forming this committee and this initiative by by profession, I worked in the tech industry and spent about half my time doing something we referred to as business planning and business development, which is more like what you refer to as economic development. I wanted to make an observation that in the last this century and in the last 30 to 40 years, the most successful city in the United States in terms of economic development, as far as recruiting new age industries, which some people think of as tech, has been Seattle. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about what they've done. Right. And we don't want to emulate anyone. Austin is unique and we will always be that way, and that's what makes us special. [10:03:43 AM] that's what makes us special. But we can learn from what others have done well. One thing that Seattle has done extremely well is become a compact and connected city. They have about 300,000 jobs downtown, about 100,000 residents. Actually, it's more like 105. But using round numbers, it's about a 3 to 1 ratio. Austin has a ratio of more like 7 to 1. 100,000 jobs, 15,000 residents. And unfortunately, a lot of those residents are not actually part of the workforce because a lot of the housing that we have downtown is what we would categorize as luxury high end. That isn't necessarily occupied by people who are working here. So I think that in terms of economic opportunity and the biggest gap that we have right now, it's housing, it's downtown [10:04:45 AM] now, it's housing, it's downtown housing, we just don't have enough for the people that are working here now. I wanted to show you this chart because it shows one of the constraints we have that Seattle doesn't is we have these capital view corridors, which we can live with and work around and succeed. But we need to recognize that they are a constraint. Now, when they were put in as a constraint in 1983, it didn't seem to affect housing because the biggest, the biggest housing building in 1965 when it was opened, or 64 was the Cambridge tower. And I think the chair recognizes that that's the case. The first building, I thank you for your time. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. Wiley. And with that, we're going to go [10:05:46 AM] And with that, we're going to go to item number one, which is the approval of the 2025 calendar year. Do we have a motion to approve item number one? Motion by councilmember harper-madison. Do we have a second? Seconded by the Jose Velasco, councilmember Jose Velasquez. All in favor? Aye. And it passes four zero. And then next up is item two, which is a briefing on the infrastructure academy. And for that we have a presentation by Tamara Atkinson, who is the CEO of workforce solutions capital area solutions. Okay. >> Introduce me and. >> Good morning. >> Thank you so much. Mayor, vice chair. >> Mayor pro tem and council members, thank you so much for the opportunity. It's very nice to be back in front of you. And I am honored to be your first speaker at your first committee meeting in ten years. I understand, so thank you very [10:06:48 AM] understand, so thank you very much for having me. I am so excited to talk to you all about the Austin infrastructure academy. This is an initiative that is really first of a kind for Austin, a once again putting Austin on the map. And it wouldn't be possible without this council support. So I'm so appreciative and excited to be here with you today. I also want to give a shout out to the amazing staff that you have here at the city, but for them, this would also not be possible. So hats off to your amazing staff. So I'm going to take you through some slides today. I also have some additional information. Our agenda for today is I'd like to talk to you about a launch event that we have coming up this next week, and make sure that you all are invited and the community knows about it. I'd like to talk to you about our short and mid-term priorities for the infrastructure academy, and also speak with you about our service delivery model. So let me just [10:07:48 AM] delivery model. So let me just jump right in here. So let's start with the fun news and the top of mind news right off the bat. And that is that we have a launch event coming up this next week, March 26th, 9 A.M. To 130. It is our first comprehensive quarterly, no quarterly. We are going to be doing this quarterly outreach campaign for job seekers in our community. Now, the infrastructure academy is an initiative that you all have been hearing about for over a year. Clearly, it has been in motion. And to the broader community, it has appeared that this infrastructure academy work is kind of behind the scenes. People have been asking us, when are we going to get our hands in it, when are we going to be able to get involved? And so this launch event on the 26th is an opportunity for our community, for workers, for students, for job seekers to come and interact directly with mobility and infrastructure, employers, our educator, community training [10:08:49 AM] educator, community training providers, other stakeholders. We are nearly at capacity in terms of tabling at our facility, which is excited. It will be held at workforce solutions capital area, our location off of I-35 at 9001 north I-35, suite 110e. Any information you would need. Anyone in the community can also scan this qr code. But very excited about this. And we do expect again that this is the first of quarterly events that we're going to have. So excited to be hosting. Kicking this off next week, I'm going to jump first. I'm going to skip a few slides and then I promise I'll come back to them. I'd like to talk about how we got here. Hopefully, for many of you this is a reminder, but I think we can't say it enough. Remind ourselves, how did Austin find ourselves focusing on building our first ever infrastructure [10:09:50 AM] our first ever infrastructure academy? And it was really with a recognition of so much that we have going on in our community around infrastructure projects. Not only do we have federal investments in infrastructure projects, but we have local initiatives around the airport, expansion around I-35 and others. And I'll talk about those in a minute. But what our community saw, and I want to give you all, as council members, a real bragging authority on this is Austin saw what most other communities didn't see, which is we have an opportunity to build community while we build these infrastructure projects. And I think that's really key because what we wanted to make sure we were working toward is, of course, we have our eye on making sure that there is skilled workers, people from our community who have the skills to be able to compete for and get these jobs that are being created. But we also saw it as an opportunity to redefine what economic development really looks like. Historically, economic development and [10:10:51 AM] economic development and workforce development is the other side of economic development. But we've always seen, I think historically economic development is about companies locating, relocating, expanding, doing well, creating jobs. And we still want that as a workforce agency. I know we stand for that. But more and more and through this initiative, we're seeing an opportunity to really look at and promote the quality of the jobs that are being created. So it's not just quantity, it's quality, quality of the jobs. And we want to make sure at the end of the day that austinites, our neighbors, our residents, our children, our family members, our community has an opportunity to get these jobs that can build career pathways. So I talked a little bit about what were the opportunities that prompted us as a community more than two years ago to say, let's do something that no other community is doing. We saw that we had project connect coming online, so there's going to be various stages, of course, of this project and the others [10:11:53 AM] this project and the others listed on this slide. And we saw well, there's going to it's going to start with construction. We're going to need skilled workers. And then it's going to move into operators and managers. That's true. Whether it's with project connect, the airport expansion, I-35 and even to large private sector employers Samsung and Tesla. But they are also doing work that is pulling from and, if you will, competing from these public sector projects. But let's not forget, too, that our school district also passed a bond and that that relates to construction. And there's myriad other construction projects. Needless to say, there are is a demand, a strong demand for workers over the next 20 years. So let's talk about what are some of the main challenges to being able to make sure that we have a community of skilled workers. So Austin needs 10,000 skilled workers annually to meet these infrastructure demands. That's a huge number. And when you put that in the context of [10:12:53 AM] you put that in the context of other industry sectors that are driving our economy, we see that we really have a challenge making sure that we have all of our individuals in Austin who want to work, including those students that are in this in schools and classrooms. Maybe not today because it's spring break, but normally in schools we want to make sure that they see their path, their pathway. These major projects are generating nearly 200,000 jobs across key sectors. So in economic development, of course, they talk about the other jobs that are created. And we know that with these infrastructure projects, it's going to create more and more jobs. We know that if there are workforce shortages, it could delay infrastructure projects. It could also lead to cost. There could be cost implications, and no one wants that. We also heard and learned through our years worth of focus groups and research, child care and transportation barriers limit access to training and even in many cases, access to the jobs. [10:13:54 AM] many cases, access to the jobs. We heard employers, job creators telling us that one of their challenges is transportation assistance for transportation workers. So think about that. The individuals who are building out our roads and building out our airport, having difficulty getting to those sites. So and we also saw that women only represent 14% of the workplace or workforce, rather. And so we saw, wow, we really have an opportunity to bridge a gender gap and help more women see an opportunity to build career pathways in this area. So what has happened since we launched this initiative about two years ago? Well, first of all, we got very organized and we ensured that we were very collaborative. So we had three standing groups that we set up. There was a leadership group that was co-chaired by mayor Watson and judge brown. So this was a city county initiative together. We were very proud of that. There was a design team work that I [10:14:55 AM] was a design team work that I was leading that was around bringing together some of you and many, many others in the community to really put our fingers into what should the actual infrastructure academy look like? And then last but not least, the sector partnership. I'm proud to say that to date, we have over 140 different agencies that show up and participate on a quarterly basis through this sector partnership to give their input on what the infrastructure academy should do, what that tells us by them voting with their feet and continuing to show up, is we've really hit upon something as a community, and we're involving not just the job creators and not just the trainers, but the community based organizations, the school districts and economic development entities. So let me talk to you a little bit. Now, let me share with you, because I know sometimes it can be confusing. And I'm also often asked, okay, Tamara, in a sound bite, can you tell me what the [10:15:55 AM] bite, can you tell me what the infrastructure academy is? People have asked me, is the infrastructure academy a physical location or is it a concept? And you know what? My answer is? Yes, it is both. It is both of those. It is a physical location in that we are partnering closely with Austin community college, who is allowing us to use their Riverside campus as a temporary infrastructure academy home. And thanks to ACC's generosity, they will be allowing us as a community led by ACC to create Austin's first physical infrastructure, permanent physical infrastructure academy in southeast Austin, adjacent to the airport. So, so excited about that. But if we talk about what is it going to do? The infrastructure academy is a career navigation marketplace. So career navigation marketplace that connects austinites to customize workforce pathways in the mobility and infrastructure sector, the second largest [10:16:56 AM] sector, the second largest industry in our region, adding 10,000 jobs annually. Unlike traditional training programs, the infrastructure academy is really going to stake its claim on guiding job seekers before they enroll in training or employment, ensuring that they make informed, sustainable career choices. So this was very thoughtful when we over the last year, I did research with our partner, civic soul, and really brought together the learnings from all focus groups on the content that the community that everyone involved said. We really need to make sure we accomplish in this career navigation marketplace. There needs to be training and alignment. When we did our research, we know in our community there are training programs from both Austin community college and community based organizations that are doing great work, but they're not aligned. They're different lengths. They're different starting times. Of course, they result in different kinds of [10:17:58 AM] result in different kinds of outcomes. And while we are not trying to create a one size fits all, we do think that there is a lot of confusion in the market and job seekers. Workers are like, wait a second, I know I need the skills. I'm interested in this industry. Where do I start and who do I start with? We want to make that alignment easier for our job seekers, for our students to really understand what their options are and what they get for their precious investment of time and their resources. Wraparound services. I'm going to come back and talk more about childcare because I know you all are interested in that, but we heard loud and clear. Wraparound services, childcare, other services are really needed to be included in this academy to eliminate participation barriers, navigation and placement. I've described the infrastructure academy as a career navigation marketplace, but that is really because what we want to do is we want to facilitate the matching of job seekers with job creators council members. When we did our [10:18:58 AM] council members. When we did our research and we asked, we surveyed both the job creators, the employers, as well as the students and workers. Like, how do you guys find each other? We created this word cloud of all these different ways that people are word of mouth. I go to the internet, I call my friend, I talk to my school. All these different ways. People are finding out about opportunities. And we realized that it just was not efficient. And when we ask our school districts, how are you working with educators and employers? They say, well, to be honest, we love having an employer voice in our schools. But they're saying, but do you realize we're getting contacted every week from different employers? And when they come in, they're telling different messages. Our students get so confused about what are the opportunities. And we said, okay, once again, don't want to create a one size fits all, but we sure think we could help our school districts and our students really understand better how to find their opportunities. And ultimately, for the individuals that enroll [10:19:59 AM] for the individuals that enroll in a skill building program, we want to make that navigation to job placement a lot easier. Recruitment. We know that recruitment has got to be a big part of this. Our job creators have said. And those project sponsors, those who are responsible for ensuring that the airport gets built, that that project connect is completed. They tell us we really need some help making sure we can find. Under individuals who perhaps are overlooked in our community, who really could benefit and find value in building career pathways in, in this, in this industry sector. So recruitment is a big part of it. And on the bottom row you see this is how we're going to make sure that we're keeping our eye on what is really important. As we do this work. There's got to be a governance structure that is set up to make sure that we are accountable for what is happening in the infrastructure academy. We're going to make sure that we are evaluating and reporting our impact. And most of all, and this goes back to this notion of creating building [10:21:01 AM] this notion of creating building community while we build out our infrastructure. We want to make sure that we are keeping and allowing a sense of belonging for all austinites to know that we want people to stay here, we want people to thrive here. We want people to be able to grow their their families and their businesses here in Austin. So let me go back for just a second now and, well, I'm sorry, let me go to the next one, which is our service delivery model. So this is another way of looking at how we will organize the infrastructure academy. It will be around recruitment, customer centric navigation. So I've talked a lot about how we're going to personalize it. I also think this is important to note that I mentioned before that what makes infrastructure academy different is that we're going to guide the job seekers before they enroll. Let me share with you a little bit about how workforce development has historically been done. I've been a workforce professional [10:22:02 AM] been a workforce professional for over 25 years, and historically, what we've done is when a job seeker comes to us looking for a training opportunity because they want to build up their skills, we'll talk to them a little bit about what they want, and then we start showing them training programs. But what we're doing now is we've realized that sometimes people would get into a training program and then realize, oh, wait a second, I'm on a career pathway to become a nurse, but I don't really like blood. And yet they've already invested their time, their energy, they're enrolled, they've enrolled in that program, and we've spent money on them. So we thought, well, let's back up and let's make sure that we are really understanding the whole person. What do you need in terms of childcare? Is your is your housing situation stabilized? Are you in a place where you can focus on building your education, and what form does that need to take? Let me give you an example of what that means. Through the infrastructure academy, there will be apprenticeship opportunities. What is the apprenticeship and how does that differ from what. Perhaps [10:23:02 AM] differ from what. Perhaps another training opportunity is with other training opportunities. There's going to be a level of didactic instruction, classroom instruction, hands on instruction. But a person won't necessarily be earning a paycheck with an apprenticeship program, for example. As another option, individuals can earn and learn. They can get get into a program whereby they're building up their skills and earning a paycheck. So but all that starts with first understanding where a person is in their life, what they need, and how do we best support them. So I talked about the training marketplace. That's another part of the design. I talked about the state of the art campus. We are so excited to be partnering with Austin community college on that. And I mentioned the connection to jobs through that work. So all of that is really exciting and a part of how we will continue to iterate this. And I want to share that. The infrastructure academy as we launch it starting next week on March 26th, we know that it will iterate. We know that we're a learning [10:24:03 AM] that we're a learning organization, and we want to continue to listen to our community. And as I mentioned, there will be an evaluation portion because we believe that we need to let the data and the results and what our community is telling us guide how we implement this into the future. So let me back up here. I'm going to go to a few slides that I skipped over here. So let me talk to you about what's happening now with the industry sector partnership. So the industry sector partnership, as I mentioned over 140 entities that are coming together quarterly. Here is what they are focused on now because here are their priorities. So here's our community's priorities. It falls into four buckets. I've talked about recruitment. We are spending a lot of time and energy. And the K through 12 space and over and over again when we ask our community, when we ask our job creators, when we ask our workers and our training providers, they say we need to go further into the education system and not just wait till someone's graduated from high school. We need to be in the [10:25:03 AM] school. We need to be in the high schools. We need to be in the middle schools. We really need to be making sure that we are coordinating that message and getting to our students, because many students understand what it means to work in health care, some of them are learning what it means to work in tech. But infrastructure? What does that mean? What does it mean to work in mobility? What does it mean to work in construction or skilled trades? So we know that we need to do a better job around that, and that includes better recruitment. I've talked about customer centric navigation, talked about how that's going to be a big part of what we do. Of note. And thanks to the generosity of the city council and the contract with workforce solutions for the infrastructure academy, we're going to have these career advisers and navigators. They're going to be able to do exactly what I've shared with you. They're going to be able to meet someone where they are, help them understand what their needs are, connect them to both the support and their the right training program for them from the options that they have. We're going to make sure and our our priority groups are working [10:26:04 AM] our priority groups are working on removing employment barriers, really making sure that our employers and our job seekers have the tools that they need. And I promise, I am going to be talking about childcare. And then we're also looking at funding. We know that right now, while the city council, while you all have so generously supported the launch and the startup of the infrastructure academy, we know that the private sector also should be invested in this. And interestingly, the private sector is stepping up. They are asking us how can we be involved, how can we support this? So we don't think that that's going to be a hard ask. We're just formulating the right time and way to ask the private sector to participate. But this will be a public private partnership ultimately as we get going. So let's talk about our next steps launch event I talked about that. That's next week. My team is busily at work every day planning for that. Super excited about that. Our goal is at least 100 job seekers, but we have [10:27:05 AM] 100 job seekers, but we have capacity for between 4 and 500 job seekers. So help us get the word out. Anyone who is watching this or following this committee meeting would love to share the message about this launch event, because it is open to the community and that through the launch event, we will also have workforce solutions. Staff were coming out in mass to make sure that we can be there to talk to people, to set up appointments for those individualized assessments. We are in the process of hiring staff to be those career navigators. That is something that is. We've had career navigators before, but this is taking it to a new level and what we want to do specifically for this industry sector. I'll also note that we currently have a senior director of infrastructure academy position open. We are hiring. I heard my friend from my colleague from Travis county talking about hiring. We are also hiring. So if you all know anyone that is moved by what I'm talking about today and wants to [10:28:07 AM] talking about today and wants to get involved, we do have an open position for a senior director, so we're filling those positions. We're creating that marketplace where integrated navigation for the career pathways is enabled. We're seamlessly linking those resources, and we are ensuring that the opportunities align with what the industry needs. Because I'll share with you one of the mistakes that workforce development writ large can make if they're not careful, is a train and pray approach. And what that means is a training for jobs that you hope are going to be there but aren't really there. We want to be sure that we have a tight connection between what is available and when, and what training programs. We're really supporting people to get into, because we know that our community, our job seekers, our students want to know that if they spend their precious time invested in a training program, that there is a really good job and not just a job, but a career pathway waiting for them on the [10:29:07 AM] pathway waiting for them on the other side. So technology, one of the ways that we will be enabling this marketplace that I talked about, this career navigation marketplace, is through technology that unfortunately will not be launched next week. It's going to take a little more time to build that out, but that is a next step. Focus for the rest of 2025, and that will allow for the connections between jobs that will be posted in the marketplace, training opportunities, and the workers and students to all come into this virtual space. But but let me be clear. We never want technology to replace the ability for a person in our community to be able to sit down, eyeball to eyeball or on the phone, or on a virtual meeting with a real human that can help them and empathize and understand their situation. I've talked about governance and community alignment, making sure that we are aligned with the community. I want to share with you some information in that, and then I will pivot next to the child care conversation. Two [10:30:08 AM] the child care conversation. Two weeks ago, the chancellor of Austin community college and I debuted a moonshot goal that we have that we want to incorporate as part of the infrastructure academy, and that is that we are working toward creating a universal application for workers. Right now, if you want to go to Austin community college, you, of course apply to Austin community college if you want to receive services from workforce solutions, you can apply through workforce solutions. And we work very closely with Austin community college. However, as the largest workforce educator in our community, however, that's different applications, different paperwork, different processes, and people get tired and worn down by all those processes. And we've heard that. So the chancellor and I have made a commitment on behalf of our two systems. We are working toward a universal application whereby an individual will be able to a worker or neighbor, a [10:31:08 AM] able to a worker or neighbor, a student will be able to fill out one application. And between ACC and workforce solutions, we're going to be able to look at what they're eligible for and what their best options are, and match them to a navigator who will have all that information so they tell their story one time. We're super excited about that. Let's also talk about the connections and community alignment to child care. So child care, we heard loud and clear from city council and from our community. Child care was a really important part of this process. So let me share with you how child care is going to work in the infrastructure academy. Trainees participating in the infrastructure academy will receive six months of guaranteed child care scholarships for as long as funds last. So individuals who are assessed through that evaluation to be able to benefit from what we're offering will receive, if they need child care. Six months guaranteed child care as long as funds last. Workforce solutions will cover 100% of the care and [10:32:09 AM] cover 100% of the care and parent share of costs for six months. At the six month Marc, we will outreach the customer, the individual, the, the, the caregiver to determine eligibility to see if we can transition that individual to our federal funding, which is called ccdf, for an additional 12 months. So in other words, we're looking at the city investment as the on ramp and stabilizer. And then we're going to look at how do we move that person to federal funding for child care, which is called ccdf. Eligibility and priority groups for care will include individuals enrolled in an infrastructure academy training program. They will need to reside in Travis county, city of Austin. Priority will be given to families in the following groups. Those that are currently at or below 85% of the state median income, and those families residing in the eastern [10:33:09 AM] families residing in the eastern crescent as determined by zip codes. And I have a list of those zip codes, but it equates to the eastern crescent. Our career center navigators that I mentioned will be responsible for screening for eligibility and priority, and referring parents to a child to our child care contractor for enrollment in an infrastructure academy funded child care. If we by funding 100% and based on roughly $1,000 a month average cost for six months, we expect initially will be able to serve 100 kids. So we know that's just a drop in the budget bucket. Rather, it's just a start. But we are encouraged by getting it started. And as we have more resources and opportunities to leverage other child care resources, we expect to do so. But we feel like this is a strong start. It aligns with our existing system, but it allows us to have that on ramp that without the generosity of the city, we would not be able to [10:34:11 AM] city, we would not be able to have. So with that, I will conclude my presentation and say thank you and ask if you have any questions that I can answer. >> Great. Thank you for that presentation. I really enjoyed it and I think everyone else did because I saw several hands go up. So before I get to any questions I have, I'm going to give the floor to councilmember harper-madison and then council Jose Velasquez, and then vice chair Fuentes. >> Thank you, chair. I appreciate how humble you are as you chair the inaugural. Come back redo of committee. I'm really, really looking forward to it literally is one of my policy priorities. I call them my hymns housing, economic opportunity and mobility. So this is something that I'm really excited about, and I'm glad that you were one of our first presentations again. You were being very humble, but I've been seeing your name around on linkedin and stuff. I have been [10:35:12 AM] linkedin and stuff. I have been watching you work this last six years tirelessly towards our workforce efforts, and so having you give us this presentation is really impactful because of the data and the information, but also because of the person delivering it. Thank you. That's one of the things that I've learned from being here is how quickly things can fall apart without continuity and stewardship and leadership. And so, you know, you said you've been in the field for 25. I hope you got a few more in. You got a couple more in the tank. Tamara, I'm. >> Not going anywhere anytime soon. Councilmember. >> Thank you, I appreciate it. I have a bazillion questions, but you and I are cool like that. So I'll be in communication about some of the finer points, but some that I'd like to ask publicly just to kind of daylight for the committee and my colleagues and the community just as points of concern and some big ups. Let's start with the big ups. So I went to visit. I don't know if y'all remember our former assistant city manager, Chris shorter, but I went to visit him when he was working in Baltimore, and a part of the visit was to see how the [10:36:14 AM] of the visit was to see how the Baltimore workforce effort was working. And one of the things that I tried to duplicate upon return that I still have been pulling my hair about, is the thing you just touched on the lack of integration, and that's what they were able to do. So this universal application is one of those types of mechanisms that they deployed. And then the wraparound services, I mean, a part of the, you know, shout out is that you I was checking off questions as you were going. So one of the things that I was specifically was going to ask about was the career advisers and navigators. You know, that's one of those things where I consistently work with in my private capacity as a community advocate and as a policymaker, work with folks for whom their interactions with them, people that any governmental agency, that's anybody who represents like an official capacity, the way folks interact with them is in itself a barrier. And so I appreciate that. And acknowledging barriers and [10:37:16 AM] acknowledging barriers and acknowledging meeting people where they are, that you're being so deliberate about the career advisor component. Thank you. If you've never pawned anything, you should probably not sit across from somebody who has had to and advise them about their career path and current living situation, because you just don't get it. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes. It's one of those things where, you know, sometimes our constituents will come to us about their their interaction with CPS. For example, a 22 year old childless human should not be the person responsible for taking somebody's kids out of their family home, but that's what they're left working with over at that department. They're understaffed, underpaid, overworked. It's wild, but I appreciate that you have the opportunity and the flexibility to be deliberate there, because it makes the difference entirely about somebody's performance, including that wraparound service, you know, because to the point with Baltimore, part of their integration was they were getting people dental care. [10:38:17 AM] were getting people dental care. If you've ever had an abscessed tooth, you know, go to work, I dare you, you know, and some of the things that they were taking care of were life things, but they were things that were in the way. And so along those lines, some of the questions I did have specifically about barriers had to do with justice involvement, warrants, delinquent child support, any sort of court and or justice involvement where you reconciling it is a financial hardship and you won't be able to do it, in which case that would be a barrier to participation for you. Is that a thing that there's some room to discuss as a part of that career seeker support? >> So thank you, council member. First of all, thank you for I would love to comment on some of your comments. But first, let me clarify. If I understand your question, are you asking whether through the infrastructure academy, we might be able to pay costs associated with being [10:39:18 AM] costs associated with being justice involved? Right. >> So, you know, so for example, we're putting a lot of emphasis on childcare, which we should, by the way, and I have some questions about that. But what if the barrier isn't child related. What if the barrier is justice related and or debt frankly, entirely related? You know, so, for example, if a person is having upon something or taking out a 500% interest payday loan to get to southeast Austin. Speaking of transportation problems, the irony of our students needing to figure out a way to get to southeast Austin to get to the infrastructure academy is going to be an impediment to a lot of folks. But that said, that's another additional concern. Question. Et cetera. But let's say that person does that and now they're in the hole for that. You know, just I think some of the barriers that folks who don't even have kids are so real, but they're financial. So I just wonder what those look like. And I'm not asking you to answer today. It was something [10:40:19 AM] answer today. It was something that I was put an asterisk as a point of consideration for things that we need to make sure we at least thought about moving forward. >> Thank you so much for that question. So we do have a policy currently on crisis assistance that will allow us to make one time payments in the event someone has a car that's broken down and in order to participate in their program or get to their job, they need their car fixed. If they have an eviction notice and they're going to be evicted, we can help. It is not this crisis assistance is not meant to be an ongoing fund, but it is meant to be that one time quick intervention. What I will have to check on and get back with you and your office on if I may, council member, is whether we can pay for justice related expenses. I'm not as familiar with that. It having people in my life who are paying for justice related costs for in their situations. I am aware of the cost and the burden of that. That being said, let me check our policy and see what does our [10:41:20 AM] our policy and see what does our policy say and how might our policy be amended to take that into consideration. So I would, if I may, I can make a note of that and get back with you in your office on that. >> Awesome. I appreciate it. And even that crisis intervention is important for I mean, what you would think is a small thing, but it's $80 to register your car if you got a ride dirty to get to the infrastructure academy and you get pulled over, now you got another problem. Yes. Do you understand what I'm saying? So that $80 at one time might save you a big headache. So one of the questions that I had that was whether or not there could potentially and this is not a question asterisk consideration, there's a potential to do something similar in the agricultural field. I think it's very much needed. And considering we already have this partnership with occ and, you know, just from a scholars perspective, I was able to participate in the agricultural program this semester like I wanted to, [10:42:20 AM] semester like I wanted to, because there's no way for me to get to Elgin to go to a farm. So I want to, you know, talk to folks here within the city to see about getting occ a farm in the city limits, but also, more importantly, just thinking about a lot of what's going on at the federal level really started to shake some of my ag friends, which is concerning me, which is going to lean a lot on my policy in the direction of food security. So thinking about agricultural technology, you know, the future of farming doesn't look like sticking seeds in the ground and hoping for the best, you know? And this is me talking as a gardener, as a farmer, as a horticultural enthusiast, we need to start talking vertical and indoor and fast. And so just thinking about what does a similar infrastructure academy but agriculture academy, what would that look like? And if we can engage in those conversations moving forward, that would be great. And if you wanted to put an asterisk, you could say conversations moving forward with our partners out at Austin [10:43:21 AM] with our partners out at Austin rodeo or rodeo Austin could be a real great opportunity to talk about their expansion, renovation, etcetera out at expo center. Just to. Oh, so I think you touched on this, though, because I wrote down what training and alignment can we do, because you talked about training and alignment in primary secondary school from a curriculum perspective. But I think you already touched on it when you said get to kids earlier. And it really makes me think about, you know, how there are other countries that kind of track kids starting in elementary school like their propensity for and, you know, so they start tracking them and align their curriculum and academic career to align with what they're, you know, likely to pursue as a career path. I don't know that that's a terrible idea. The participation barriers to. >> To. Okay, >> We talked about integration seeker supports. I love that you [10:44:22 AM] seeker supports. I love that you said whole person because it's so critical. It really is it. This is something that may not be a source of popular opinion. But much like our discussions on homelessness and the levels of complexity there, I think joblessness possesses some of those similar complexities. Except that with joblessness, there's some degree. Well, no, with both, there's some degree of skin in the game. You know, it's one of those things where when I work with my mentors and they give me the hard news, the hard news is you can't help everybody and you really have to charge forward and help as many as you can. I'm just curious about, like, skin in the game calibration for participation. And, you know, I'll sort of leave it there. I think it's maybe obvious what I'm saying. I don't want to. I just want to make certain that our investments are maximized on people who are willing to, to make the sacrifices and do the work to move forward. I also really appreciate the iterative [10:45:22 AM] really appreciate the iterative approach and the evaluation you made mention of. That's critical, that flexibility of a living programmatic effort, I think, is that's everything you said 4 to 500 job seekers could be accommodated in theory. What could we do as city of Austin with our whole cpo and all the resources we have available to us to get 500 people to show up to this event and get jobs? What? And you don't have to answer that right now either. But let's work collectively, I think, as a body and as individual offices to make sure that people find out and get those jobs. And then I think this might be the last one. You said there's going to be room to take care of 100 kids until funds run out. And that's when my ears perked. So that's ccdf. I'm looking at in my head a list of all the acronymed efforts that are going to be at risk moving forward, potentially from [10:46:23 AM] moving forward, potentially from a. Federal perspective. And so I, I want to keep the positive tone, but want to ask you to be candid with us about your concerns about ccdf continuing in the future. >> Yeah. Thank you. Great points. I've made a lot of notes. I'll try to be succinct. >> Sorry. Yeah, a lot of questions. >> Oh no, I love it. So let me start with the last one first. I don't have a crystal ball about federal funding. However, in the channels that I follow, I am not hearing that that that child care dollars from the federal level are at risk. That being said, I don't I don't know exactly, but that is not something that we are hearing about. We are on the other side of the coin. We are watching closely what happens at the department of labor, because we do receive funding from the department of labor for our job training programs. The infrastructure academy is not built on the foundation of that federal job training dollars, but we clearly were going to [10:47:23 AM] but we clearly were going to leverage it. So you talked about making sure the city's different contexts. Council member but you talked about the city's money being leveraged against others. We do intend everything we do at workforce solutions is about braiding together funds that we have to maximize all of the funding and make make your funding go further. So I will continue to stay in touch with this committee, with city council, and with Anthony segura sits on our our board of directors. And so I will, of course, keep my board informed as I have information to share back with you from a federal level going backwards, if I may, a few things you talked about jobless, the complexity of joblessness, having skin in the game. We understand that two points I would say on that is one is we believe that the job seeker students, by their part of their skin in the game, their skin in the game is their willingness to spend their time committing to upgrading their skills. That can be a real risk [10:48:23 AM] skills. That can be a real risk for someone who right now could go get a an hourly job at a restaurant or fast food making money. And so we're asking them to spend their time and learn a skill and get it. So that's part of their skin in the game from our from our opinion. And you are right that the reason that we have really front loaded that navigation and that individualized assessment is we don't want anyone to commit themselves to a program that is not a good match for them. And we also we have created very small but meaningful slight. I hate to use the word barriers, but like when we set an appointment and it can be a virtual appointment or it can be a phone call, but we want to see, do they show up for that? Do they show up on time? How committed is an individual? Right. So it's about are you ready job seeker for what we're what we're going to invest in you for. So there is a part of that, if I may, moving backwards [10:49:25 AM] that, if I may, moving backwards on a few items you talked about and I had mentioned the working in the schools, two things I forgot to note, but I'll note is of the career navigators we're hiring for, one of them will be specifically focused on the K through 12 system. So we will have a person who is part of the infrastructure academy who's dedicated to going into the schools as our K through 12 navigator. And also we are running this summer and this is our sixth summer in a row to do so. It's called a teacher externship program, where we take teachers from five area school districts, and we embed them with employers for a week in the summer. We pay them. They are professionals. We compensate them for their time. These educators, these teachers, these career counselors. But what they're doing in the process, council member, is they are being exposed to the industry and specific companies, and they write curricula, take it back into the classroom. So it's our way of reaching hundreds by reaching a few dozen educators. [10:50:25 AM] reaching a few dozen educators. So I'll just note that, and I will stop there because I know that we have some other questions, but I would be happy to follow up with your office, because I have some other responses to some of your comments, if I may. >> Okay, I appreciate that. And when we follow up, it will just be about childcare primarily like is there if the family has six kids or a family has two kids, do they get the same level of childcare or is there a cap on the amount of kids, you know, that kind of thing? And then if childcare facility types, most especially, are in-home childcare eligible for compensation through ccdf, and those are the kinds of things I want to follow up on. Happy to follow up with you. >> On that. >> Thank you. I know, I. >> Know, I appreciate the questions. Councilman harper-madison, I'm going to go to councilmember Velasquez and then vice chair Fuentes. >> Thank you. I just mine is just a comment. Miss Atkinson, thank you so much for all your work on this. I want to say from the very beginning, all of this has been intentional and with a focus on equity from the [10:51:27 AM] focus on equity from the childcare that council member or mayor pro tem Fuentes pushed for to transportation the campus location, the earn and learn aspect of it, the collaboration with and looking into working with aid a little bit, a little bit more so that we can make sure that we're moving those kids along into these jobs. I this is one of those one of those programs where it right now, we're we are not seeing what this is going to be. But I believe this is a transformational investment in our local workforce. And we said it in our meeting before. But it we're creating careers, not just jobs. And I think that is the beauty of this program. I want to thank everybody that's been involved. I have I've had the blessing to be involved since the very beginning and be part of the leadership. And I want to thank the, the, the mayor, miss Atkinson and judge judge brown, for the level of collaboration here. It can't be understated. It is. It is phenomenal to see [10:52:29 AM] It is. It is phenomenal to see this coming to fruition. And I'm just I'm just so proud that it that it's coming to Austin that that that other cities will be biting our style a little bit because this is this is a transformational investment in our workforce. So just I just wanted to thank you for all your all your work on this and the way that this has been approached to remove as many barriers as we can for our local community. Not we're not busing folks in, we're not flying folks in from California, no shade to California. But this is for Austin. This is for Travis county, and this is for Texas. So I really, really appreciate all the work on it. Thank you. >> Well, thank you so much. We wouldn't be here without your leadership as well. Thank you. Council member. >> Thank you for those words. Council member. Vice chair. >> Yes. Thank you. And just wanted to pick up that thread from councilmember Velasquez and also share my excitement for the launch of the infrastructure academy. A long time coming and what will be a national model on how to ensure that we have the infrastructure that we need as a community. But more importantly, what I love about the infrastructure academy is that [10:53:30 AM] infrastructure academy is that we're addressing the barriers that our families experience, both with transportation and childcare. So I think that is what is making this infrastructure academy so unique. And why, when I talk about it with colleagues from across the nation, they are very interested in what we're doing. And I also just want to quickly comment on the approach. I love the thoughtfulness on the navigation services, on the ability to have both an online marketplace, but a physical location for folks to go to, especially in southeast Austin, where we have individuals who are ready to work and want to work but can't get connected. So having this centrally located in our area is going to make a difference because we're again, reducing some of those transportation barriers. Love the earn and learn model and of course the child care. So the question I have is, you know, you laid out the concept, the idea how it's going to work. And so I really just want to understand how many individuals do we believe that will have connected in the first year of this academy? You know, how many [10:54:32 AM] this academy? You know, how many like what what are some targets that we're anticipating with this? >> Yeah. Thank you very much. So within the thank you very much, council member. And you have been mayor pro tem apologies. You have been such a such a supporter from the beginning and really been someone I could talk to about this. And you've been consistent about childcare. So I appreciate that. We hear your voice when we are, when we are planning around childcare. And that's a great thing. I would say that within so within the first year start up with the infrastructure academy, with the funding from the city in particular, we know that we're investing pretty heavily in getting some navigators hired and putting together the digital marketplace for this. And so we're we are expecting that we will be able to put into training a minimum of 100 individuals into specific training. However, it is most likely to be far greater than that, probably 3 to 4 times that council member. I can also or mayor pro tem, I can also share [10:55:33 AM] mayor pro tem, I can also share with you that we expect to serve between 5 and 600 people with our career navigators. So hundreds of people who are able to receive services. And I want to share that while our career navigators who are tied to the infrastructure academy, they will have a laser focus on supporting mobility and infrastructure. In the event that a person is not a good fit. Ultimately for mobility or infrastructure career pathways, we are going to be able to navigate them to another area for skilled training. We don't want anyone in Austin who wants to build their skills, work in Austin to not see themselves. We want everyone to feel connected in this community. Therefore, a navigator might show someone to health care, for example, or advanced manufacturing. There are a lot of jobs in that sector, so we hundreds of people receive services, a minimum of 100 or receive job training. A minimum of 100 children will [10:56:35 AM] minimum of 100 children will receive childcare. But but I am of the philosophy. We're of the of the philosophy that we promise low and we exceed expectations. And so I'll be tracking that very closely. And I'll also say mayor pro tem, that where we see opportunity to braid funding with others, we will do that so that more people get served. Let me give you a very specific example of where that could happen. As we all know, Austin community college has been able to offer their free tuition, their free free college for individuals graduating from area high schools because of our close alignment with occ. For example, if any of those students who choose free college choose a pathway that is in the mobility and infrastructure sector in a program supported by occ, their quote, tuition is going to be paid for under the occ program so the workforce solutions can come in and provide the wraparound services that then would be able to bring that [10:57:37 AM] would be able to bring that whole support to the individual, to the student to see that they're successful. But the cost per may be less than if we paid the tuition and the support services, for example. So we are all about we are all about trying to stretch our money while making sure that we keep the person in the center of what we serve. So we are very conservatively planning for a minimum of 100. But but check me in a year and I expect to be able to give you much bigger numbers. >> I love that, no thank you. And I think that just really underscores the transformation that we're undergoing in our community. And the partnership with occ is absolutely key. So I appreciate the insight. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you, vice chair, and thank you for all your work on on child care. And thank you, Mr. Atkinson, for the for the presentation. I was going to ask questions, but my colleagues to both to the right, to the left and I think I think council member Velasquez kind of channeled what I, my thoughts as well. So if I have any other questions I will reach out. [10:58:39 AM] questions I will reach out. Thank you. But I so appreciate you being here and for your presentation. >> Thank you very much. >> If I may make one. >> Last comment. >> Mr. Chair. And that is, I also forgot to mention this just this week or I'm sorry. Last week we had a very encouraging meeting with Austin energy. So we are working closely with both water and energy. And I want to thank again your staff from economic development. And Eaton in particular made this connection happen. We met with Austin energy under a grant that they have, and we will be working with them. Most likely we are in negotiations, working with them to expand a workforce component of a solar project that they have so, so, so excited there. And please know this is just the beginning. As we continue conversations with the airport, with Austin energy Austin water, we know that we are in service of not just the private sector, but the public sector and the jobs that are being created. So this is just [10:59:39 AM] being created. So this is just the beginning. And if you'll invite me back in a year, I will be more than excited to share with you all the great successes we're having. >> We'll definitely do that. >> Thank you. Thank you very much, chair. >> I'm sorry I had one last quick question ish. Sure, because I think it will be a follow up sort of a thing. The other thing that I was thinking, so, you know, some of the policy that we've been working through, I still keep coming back to it doesn't matter. So it's like, it doesn't matter if we produce affordable housing because people don't make enough money. It doesn't matter if people make enough money because they still buy stuff at 24% interest, because they don't know how money works, you know? And so it's just like at every turn there's I come back to. But it wouldn't matter. So it doesn't matter if you get a $8 an hour job. Once you pay for child care and transportation, you paid to go to work today, you know, you shouldn't have even done it. So it's like at the end of it all this work we're doing to secure sustainable, fulfilling careers, it still comes back to people [11:00:41 AM] it still comes back to people who are up to their eyeballs in debt because they don't understand money. And I personally, despite resisting the urge to become a conspiracy theorist, I think Kathie is going to be the year that I just tip on over, because I think it's by design that very few people actually know how money works, actually know the utility of money. And so I wonder if there's any room in this discussion to really make it a full circle, complete opportunity for the whole human and really have some robust discussion about financial literacy. >> Thank you for that. One quick comment on that. And that is that we do have some partnerships with some financial institutions in this community that they happen to be credit unions, very community minded. We've also talked to other financial institutions who want to work with us. We are being careful about those those those partnerships. We want to make [11:01:43 AM] partnerships. We want to make sure that our customers are our clients are, you know, that they are getting services and not a sales job. But I, we understand and recognize exactly what you're saying about financial literacy. >> It's so critical. I mean, debt consolidation and like even, you know, and this is a real anecdote going through with ad1 constituent who was running out of food stamps every single month by like the second week. You can't have four kids in a finite amount of food stamps and run out by the end of the month or before the end of the month. And so what we were doing was, you know, buying and then looking at, you can't have four kids. And by single serving things in macaroni and cheese, the alternative is batch cooking. You need to buy the big bag of elbow noodles thing of cheese, some milk and some butter. And you can make batches of the Mac and cheese for a fraction of the cost. But nobody's talking to people when they hand them the lone star card about the per unit item [11:02:43 AM] card about the per unit item cost on that upc code, that means something. That's how much you paid for that thing just now. But we don't. We're not teaching people those things about life skills that really just make your life manageable, about savings, about nobody talked to me about standard and poor's, like these things that I frankly, anecdotally didn't really learn until later in my adult life that such a regrettable thing about my financial well-being in the future. So even if I were to arrive at a place where I had a great career, I have arrived at a place where I have a great career. The mistakes that I made earlier on financial missteps, rather that I made earlier on. It's just so the financial literacy component affects every single decision and the longevity of your dollar. If you're making mistakes just by not knowing, that's a bad deal. My grandma used to say, not all money is good money. That's a bad deal. That thing that they're offering you, it's going to take $500 out of your pocket. It's a subscription you don't [11:03:45 AM] It's a subscription you don't need. It's a, you know, but not understanding the impact and the symbolism. And sometimes, you know, like we say in the community I come from, when people get hood rich, this is the time for people to get hood rich. Right now they're about to get their tax returns. It could be the only time this year you get 5 to $10,000 at once. That money's going to be gone so fast. And I mean, it frankly makes me sad to see tax season come back around every year because I know what's going to happen. We got lemon lots that are doing cartwheels right now because everybody's about to blow their tax return on a piece of junk that's going to fall apart on them, that they can't get inspected, so they can't get it registered. And now they're pulled over and now they're in jail again. And those all those things have direct impact and it all comes back to money. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I would not want to say that we can solve all of that. I know. You can't, but. >> Teaching people about money can help them help themselves. Do you understand what I'm saying? There's some degree of personal responsibility. I eventually realized it, that you can't just rip up your money and go Wu! And everything's [11:04:47 AM] go Wu! And everything's hilarious. But you do think there's inherently some obligation to set people up for success. So, for example, we talk about home ownership. But personally, I think home ownership is kind of a setup unless you don't have the money and the financial runway for your ac to go out for your roof to get damaged, for some unforeseeable thing, you're going to be like one of the other people with your house in foreclosure and somebody bidding on it because the bank bought it back, and now you're in debt. I frankly don't think enough people are talking about the setup that home ownership is. 53% of our population are renters. We should talk more about renters and home ownership, but I digress. That said, I just think we need to if we're going to do it, it really does need to be complete wraparound, which includes now that you're financially successful, how are you going to sustain it? How are you going to leave something for your kids? How are you going to make sure that they don't have to sell your house on the east side and become one of those families? [11:05:48 AM] become one of those families? You understand? Thank you. Sure. >> Appreciate it. We a part of that initial assessment that we do. Council member is looking at where a person is and how they're spending their money. We have them put put together a budget that they can show us where their money is going. And that allows us to also make sure we're customizing the right supports and approaches to them. But we're also through the navigation, checking in with them throughout their journey, including when they have a job. And I'll say we prioritize hiring for our navigation services and our case managers, individuals who have been our clients or who have been in similar situations. So to your earlier point about someone who may not have experienced it, we want our community to see people who have experienced similar to they have sitting next to them, helping them now saying, I did it, you can do it too. >> Thank you. Great. >> Thank you. So we're going to go up to item number three. This is a briefing on prop eight, a child care initiative from Travis county approved by voters to fund a multi-pronged approach [11:06:48 AM] to fund a multi-pronged approach to reduce the burden of child care costs. For that, we have Corey darling from Travis county. And I just want to remind the team up here, we have 53 minutes. We have three items left, so we're going to be as efficient and timely as possible to end right on time. Thank you. >> Good morning. Thank you. Good morning, chair, mayor pro tem and council members I'm Corey darling. I'm the research and planning division director at Travis county health and human services. And my team is the team working to implement the voter approved child care and out of school time fund under the guidance of our county executive, Pilar Sanchez. And I'm happy to be here today to provide an update. So this slide provides some background that I know you're aware of. On November 5th, 2024, Travis county voters approved a tax rate increase that will generate approximately $75 million annually. And this slide mirrors the ballot language for the voter approved fund, which will provide childcare and out of [11:07:49 AM] provide childcare and out of school time services. And these child care services will support some of the opportunities that Tamara was talking about. For parents to go to work, school or job training. And the fund will also strengthen the childcare and out-of-school time systems by providing training and also other supports for childcare and out-of-school time providers. As we've gone out and done some updates on on the status of where we are in implementing this fund to the community and to different elected officials and other groups, we really wanted to take some time to kind of recognize and celebrate how we got here, as well as where we're going. And so first, I really want to recognize the collective work that's taking place in our community to create this dedicated fund for childcare and out- of-school time services. This initiative certainly builds on the work of providers, leaders and advocates in early childhood and youth services who've worked for many, [11:08:50 AM] services who've worked for many, many years to create this greater access to care in our community. The realization of this fund really involved research, advocacy and community input gathering by community organizations like six by six coalition and the Andy Roddick foundation, as well as the children's funding project work group, which I know several members of you all, as well as other city council members, were instrumental in the work. In that work of that children's funding project workgroup leading up to the passage of the ballot measure. Another thing we recognize as stewards of these funds at Travis county is that there is a very big need right there, right out there in the community as we speak, for these childcare and out-of-school time services. And we are working to move quickly to put these services in place, while also knowing that we need to be intentional. One thing that's really exciting is that this is actually the first county voter approved childcare fund in the state. There is a city approved [11:09:50 AM] state. There is a city approved fund for pre-k and San Antonio. But we will be the first to build a county system. And as we do that, we're working to learn from the more than 50 voter approved funds across the country, and learning how other folks have done have worked to implement similar programing, and really wanting to build on what we can learn from them. While we do intend to move quickly, it will also take us some time to build the needed systems, procedures and processes to implement those services. We are in process of doing that, and I'll talk some more about that throughout the rest of the presentation. One of the first things we are focused on is community input, to ensure that the system we create, reflects, and is responsive to community needs. And I'll also provide a little more information about that. This slide shows the four strategies that were developed as part of the proposal for the voter approved fund, and these will also serve as the baseline for expanded childcare and out-of-school time programing in Travis county. The first [11:10:52 AM] Travis county. The first strategy is really the largest one, which is to expand slots for childcare for infants and toddlers, as well as expanding after school and summer programing. The second strategy relates to increasing to nontraditional hours care during early morning evenings and weekends. Strategy three relates to further strengthening, strengthening the quality and capacity of childcare and out-of-school time systems by offering things like entrepreneurial support and business support, training opportunities and education pathways for childcare and out-of-school time professionals. And then finally, the fourth strategy is a building a business government alliance that will match public funds to the employer contributions in order to reduce employee childcare costs. And across all four of these strategies, there's also a focus on paying providers rates that do reflect the cost of providing quality care, which we know in austin-travis county is the most [11:11:53 AM] austin-travis county is the most expensive in the state. In the next several slides, I'd like to talk about the steps that Travis county will take to work together with the community in order to implement this new fund. This transition plan covers the work we've been focused on since the beginning of this year, and will continue for the next several months. So the first is hiring. We are actively in the process of hiring staff at the county, so that we have the resources needed to administer the program. The lead work, the lead staff person under this work will be a strategic advisor for childcare and out of school time, and we are in the process of interviewing for that position right now. The other staff will be hiring include other program staff at health and human services to plan the program and support ongoing community engagement, and we'll also be hiring other staff across the county to ensure checks and balances in the [11:12:54 AM] checks and balances in the county auditor's office. In our purchasing department and our health and human services finance team, and also in the county attorney's office. The second area of focus in our transition plan is community engagement. We have several processes underway to share an update with the community and to gather insight and feedback. We did launch a survey this week and we are working to distribute that. It's available in English and Spanish, and we certainly welcome and appreciate feedback from all community members. And we especially would like to hear from families with children and youth. Our team has also been attending regularly scheduled meetings with groups of childcare and out-of-school time organizations to provide an update, update and collect input. These are groups like six by six and learn all the time and other groups, that of providers that provide childcare and out-of- school time services. Finally, we're in the process of holding three community listening sessions and one [11:13:55 AM] listening sessions and one online zoom session. Our next. Our next upcoming session is Saturday, March 29th at 10:30 A.M. At the carver library, and links to the dates and times for all of the sessions can be found on the banner on the Travis county home page at Travis county, tx gov. I also wanted to take a moment to appreciate the partnership with the city of Austin, especially former member council member Alison alter, who did make some resources available to support translation services and also food at these community input events. So I wanted to thank say thank you for that. And then our final sorry, a second to last is a community advisory council. We're planning for a community advisory council to incorporate community voice and experience into the ongoing planning and implementation of the voter approved fund. The council will be composed of childcare and out-of-school time stakeholders, including parents, providers and key stakeholder organizations. [11:14:56 AM] key stakeholder organizations. Right now, we're in the process of researching what similar community advisory councils look like here in Austin, Travis county, as well as across the country where other communities are administrating, administering these childcare voter approved funds. We do plan to bring a proposal to the commissioners court this later this year, and then after that, the application process will happen in late spring or early summer. And then our final focus right now is around short term investments. Travis county won't be providing these services directly, but instead will be contracting with organizations who can take on the day to day administration and operations. And so we do need to go through a multi-step procurement process to contract with outside agencies, which can take probably similar to other government organizations more than a year, especially through the plant complex planning that needs to happen with this particular program through [11:15:57 AM] particular program through contract execution. So in the meantime, we do know that there is already a need for services. There's also the money available for them. So what we are doing is we're in the process of working with some organizations that the county already has contracts with to provide childcare and out of school time services, and we're working with those organizations to explore expanding those current contracts so that we can put some services on the ground more quickly and have services in place for families who need childcare and out-of-school time services. So the community input process I described is a critical initial step before we move into our procurement process, and that input can help inform the planning for the procurement process. Once that's completed this spring, though, we will move into the process to plan and procure the ongoing services, and that process will follow the process shown on the slide. We will be using the four strategies that I mentioned [11:16:59 AM] strategies that I mentioned earlier that were proposed by the community as the baseline, and will be refining those strategies as we learn from other communities. As we analyze our community input, and as we consider any county specific implementation guidelines will be going to commissioners court to seek approval of any policies. And then following that will be developing scopes of work that describe the specifications for the programs and services that the county wishes to procure. We'll then work with our purchasing office to release solicitations, evaluate proposals, select contractors, and then negotiate new contracts. In addition to procuring the support services across those four strategies will also procure a third party evaluator to evaluate services and impact. And then in terms of the timeline, we will be working through a staggered or phased approach for our timeline. We expect that the first [11:18:00 AM] expect that the first solicitation will be released in the fall of this year. And then the first services will begin in 2026 and kind of in a staggered approach throughout 2026. And in this slide, we just I summarized the timeline that I've spoken about in the previous slide. So now through April, we are really focused on community input gathering. We'll be working in April and may to review and analyze that input. We'll be recruiting for our community advisory council later this spring or in early summer. We do plan sort of a larger presentation to the commissioners court during the summer of 2025, where we can provide a summary of the input findings and seek approval of any program policies prior to beginning to plan for our solicitations. Sort of parallel to that, we are working through expanding our some current contracts, as I mentioned, and [11:19:00 AM] contracts, as I mentioned, and hope to have the first of those in place by summer of 2025. We'll begin releasing solicitations in the fall, and then have a target to have contracts for all of the services under all four strategies in place by the end of next year. That concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Great. Thank you so much. First question for vice chair Fuentes. >> Thank you. And I'll just limit it to one question because I know we have another briefing and an update. But just thank you for being here and providing an update on behalf of Travis county. This is an incredible initiative that voters in our county passed and really shows the investment that we have in addressing our child care needs and knowing that money is already getting allocated to the child care fund. The child care fund. We want to ensure that that folks know what the county is doing and how you're allocating. And the best part of it is how we're supporting families in the short term. And [11:20:02 AM] families in the short term. And so I'm thrilled to see that you are considering expanding existing contracts. Can you give us an idea of, you know, what does that part look like? Is it like 30% of the fund is going to go towards this phase for this year so we can have it out, or we're going to try to expand slots by 100 slots, you know, any idea of what this near-term investment looks like. >> So what we are looking at doing is looking at the funds that we have for this year, for fiscal year 25 and putting them in place over several years, kind of during this transition phase. So that's one note that I'll make. So some of these funds we can start in 2025. But so we have a transition period. Some of those current contracts that we have will look at expanding them over 2026 and 2027, while we're also doing the procurement. As far as the numbers, we really are. Still, I want to provide a good number. We're still in the kind of negotiation phase with our current contractors. So I wonder if I can provide an update via [11:21:03 AM] if I can provide an update via email or maybe come back to the next meeting. I think we will really have a much, much better sense of kind of those numbers in a couple of months. >> Could Terrell. Thank you. No, I understand and I want to encourage our community to attend those community listening sessions. It's an incredible opportunity for folks to have a say on the new solicitations that will go out to the community, both for child care and the after school programs. And so to the extent that we can be helpful here at the city, you know, please count on our support. >> Thank you. Mayor pro tem, great. >> Thank you. My only question, it's really brief, is if you I understand there's an event on the 29th at the carver. If you guys have any fliers, if you could share it with our offices. So we could kind of push it out into the community. That would be great. >> Thank you, I appreciate that. I can definitely email that out to be distributed. Thank you so much. >> Great. Well, thank you for that. And thank you for your presentation. >> Thank you. >> I don't think we had any other questions. Yeah. Great. >> Thank you. Thank you. [11:22:03 AM] >> Thank you. Thank you. >> So with that we're going to move up to item number four which is a briefing on organizational and operational updates. And the economic development department and office of arts, culture music and entertainment. And we will have that briefing given to us by director means and interim director segura. Welcome, welcome. >> Good morning. Good morning. >> My name is Angela means. I'm the newly named director of the inaugural office of arts, culture, music and entertainment. And it truly is a pleasure to be here today, especially on your first meeting of this committee. It truly is a pleasure. I am also here with interim director Anthony segura, and what I would like to share with you is all of the exciting developments that we have to enhance Austin's vibrant arts, culture, music and entertainment landscape. You all know, effective February 24th, which is almost one month today, this office was established. This [11:23:04 AM] office was established. This really, truly is a Marc in the right direction for the city of Austin. We all have celebrated Austin's culture and art and music and entertainment. For years. We've called ourselves the live music capital of the world, and this move to formalize an office where we bring talented staff together to really focus and prioritize arts, culture, music and entertainment. For Austin, Texas, making us a vibrant place that is known globally. I'd like to speak to you about how acme benefits our community. The work we do here will shape Austin's future. It will enhance its identity and reinforce the importance of the creative industries as both an economic and cultural drivers, we provide centralized support for the [11:24:06 AM] centralized support for the creatives and cultural organizations. We will enhance economic growth, tourism and civic engagement. We will foster collaboration between artists, cultural organizations and local businesses. We will create inclusive, accessible spaces for residents to experience arts and culture all over Austin, Texas. We will also strengthen Austin's identity as a global destination for creativity. We were formed by bringing together city employees from five different departments that have historically supported arts culture, creating a more of a unified, more effective department. These include the economic development department, the cultural arts, arts and public places, music and entertainment areas for parks and recreation. We brought over our museum and cultural programs, the heritage tourism, partial special events team for development services. We brought [11:25:06 AM] development services. We brought over the Austin center for events, the music and entertainment services from our Austin public library. We brought over our African American heritage and cultural facility, and from aviation, we will work very closely with our music and art team. Here is a functional organizational chart for the new office. You will see three areas. At this time. We have the arts funding, music and events. That includes our cultural arts, our Austin, our arts in public places, our heritage tourism, the airport team, the music and entertainment services, and both the Austin center for events as well as the Pritchard special events underneath our cultural education and programs. You'll see our facilities, our African American cultural and heritage facility. We have our Asian American resource center, our miss Arellano Mexican American cultural center, our George Washington carver museum, genealogy and cultural center. [11:26:08 AM] genealogy and cultural center. We have our Dougherty arts center, we have our museums. O'henry Susannah Dickinson, Elizabeth nay, old bakery and emporium. We also have our zilker hillside theater. And then we also have, of course, all of our administrative support functions for economic development department. What what you will see here, they will continue with their workforce business development and strategy. That's child care, community tech, community technology, youth initiatives, workforce strategic planning. You'll see small business, global business there Austin civilian civilian conservation corp day labor and then their administrative functions for parks and recreation still have quite a bit. They have their park planning and acquisition teams, park development, all of their asset management for they still have cemetery operations, aquatics, golf card, special events for their parks. We have our community recreation teams, athletics, aquatics, urban [11:27:11 AM] athletics, aquatics, urban forestry, land management and then their support functions as well. Quite a bit still under our parks team. We have received so much support, if you can imagine, from outside of the city as well as inside of the city. Our community is very excited about this opportunity for Austin. And what we're going to do is, you know, take all of that excitement and work well together as we move through 2025. Our goals are, of course, to streamline our operations as we are bringing five different departments together, we want to ensure that we are being more efficient, bringing all of our talent together and utilizing the synergy that that brings. We will also implement community engagement programs, which is very important that we speak with all members of our community. The last time that we all sat, one of the last times where we sat as a community to [11:28:13 AM] where we sat as a community to talk about what we would like to see in the way of our arts, culture, music and entertainment. It's been over a decade, so we want to check back in with our community members to see where they would like for our focus to be. Austin has changed quite a bit since 2008, and so we want to double check to make sure that we are meeting the needs of the community of today. We will be looking at our cultural arts and live music grant program guidelines. We want to ensure that they are accessible, transparent and impactful. We will work to increase access to programing by reducing financial, geographic and informational barriers. This is improving access for all of austinites, and we will establish new collaborative partnerships with various sectors. This includes our private entities, nonprofits, educational institutions and the creative community and just individuals who are interested. We will be working with you all. [11:29:13 AM] We will be working with you all. I've received a lot of questions surrounding our funding and so I would like to share. We will begin exploring and leveraging funding opportunities for this office. We are going to explore various grants, sponsorships, private sector partnerships, and other initiatives. And so more to come as we begin to look across the country to see what other entities are doing and how they are funding this most important space. The timeline to fully integrate. We've broken this into phases one, two and three. We are currently we're running fast. We're currently in phase one and two. The phase one is planning and development, and that's when we are planning out our vision, our mission, our goals, working with our community, our phase two where we will begin to launch those programs, establishing a community presence, a presence. And then phase three is to grow [11:30:15 AM] And then phase three is to grow and expand our office. Acme is really committed to building a collaborative, vibrant city. The work that we do will symbolize the collaborative spirit of our community. By working together, we will continue to celebrate and showcase the talents and traditions that make Austin a unique and exciting place to live and visit. We are committed to ensuring that arts and culture continue to thrive for both residents and visitors. Building on Austin's cultural landscape. And with that, that concludes my presentation. I'm available for questions. >> Great. Thank you, director means and thank you for your leadership on all this exciting stuff. Councilmember harper-madison, with the first question. >> Thank you. You said that with hesitation. I know you're trying to finish your first meeting. So I'll be short, I promise. >> This is another one. I know it sounds so complimentary. >> Today, but. [11:31:15 AM] >> Today, but. >> Yeah, I got out of bed for these two briefings today. The infrastructure academy and this one, this one. I'm so excited. So I only have a couple questions. I know you're just getting started. Like you said, you're you're in phases one and two at the same time. So I'm not gonna ask you a lot of stuff. There were two things that you said that piqued my interest and gave me some questions. I'll start with the one that's not doom and gloom. So, so with the community engagement programs, can can you send us all some information? You don't have to do it here. We're short on time, but could you send us all some information about specifically what those programs look like? It might be a great opportunity. So as we're doing expansion and development at the carver, at givens, we're also doing it at the Doris Miller auditorium and the rec center there. And so it's just like, oh, is all these things are happening. And I know somebody just reached out to us [11:32:17 AM] somebody just reached out to us about park Zaragoza. Catalina actually reached out to us about something about park Zaragoza. It's just like, you know, as Tamara was talking, part of what I was getting. So hype is because she was talking about true integration. I sometimes feel like a crazy person up here. I'm like, why do these things work together? But it just makes so much sense. And so I really appreciate the opportunity to see what programmatic efforts y'all are bringing forward, because I do still, somehow, despite his best efforts, tc didn't fix everything in his first week. So my hope is that we're on the path to clearer lines of communication at the city of Austin. I'm still just befuddled by like, how infrequently we all are communicating with one another. And I hear, you know, through various conversations about the duplicative efforts that we participate in. So all that to say, the one real, actual question that I have is about. So just trying to figure out how to clearly delineate responsibility. So, for example, [11:33:18 AM] responsibility. So, for example, the millennium youth entertainment complex is considered a hard asset, but it has concessions. It has a theater, it has rental space. It can the park or the millennium youth entertainment complex. Their board can raise money. They have to get outside legal counsel. I just it's always felt more like Ed to me than part. And so with this transition, I'm curious about assets like that. There are a few others that I have assets like that. When you did the breakout of who's getting what will the millennium stay in part and that sort of asset, even though they have event rental and other like money stuff that I'm just trying to I want to get a clearer picture of what that looks like moving forward, because in my personal opinion, I think some of it for d1 assets is just not working. There's some level of complication and it's by way of structure. >> Absolutely. And we have had [11:34:18 AM] >> Absolutely. And we have had some internal conversations about the millennium youth entertainment center. Really currently it is still within the parks and recreation department's portfolio. I imagine there will be other facilities such as the millennium and others. >> I can think of two. >> Others that so can I. That will probably move over to the office at a most likely at a later time, sure, but we are definitely interested in taking another look at that facility for Austin, Texas and it more. It's more of an entertainment facility at this time. The goal, I should say the current model. And so we definitely need to take another look. But it's right now if you, you know, the boxes, it's under parks and recreation. >> I think I think that board that's been working so hard. So just during the course of this six years, I know there was a board that that was before them that worked super hard to. But this board has been working so hard to make sense of what to do with this asset that makes so much sense for the community and for folks watching who don't [11:35:18 AM] for folks watching who don't know. When the millennium came to the community in 96, it was the direct result of us responding to two different members of our community, youth members of our community being shot to death. And the community got together and demanded that we had a place for kids to go and be safe and experience a high quality of life, even if they did live in the projects. So all that to say, I know that they're going to appreciate having a real liaison. You know, despite our efforts to kind of triage it and pards efforts to treat it. It's bigger than, you know, the one part person or the one district, one office. It's an asset, a true asset to the community. I don't know if you've ever been there at night. >> Oh, I've been there. >> So beautiful downtown skyline views right in the heart of central east Austin. And it's just kind of sitting there more days than not. And so I really look forward to that. And then the other thing I wanted to ask you about had to do with, as we do that delineation between departments, I think it will [11:36:20 AM] departments, I think it will change some of the purview. So like, for example, I can think offhand that will change the bylaws for the African American resource advisory commission, and it will take, you know, that asset management component, which I think is good. I think they have a lot of stuff to focus on, and having an internal paid resource that manages our assets. And, you know, because I think in their bylaws, they address that asset, the carver, and then entertainment opportunities for blacks in Austin and employed like they their their purview by way of their bylaws is too broad in my opinion. So I'd be curious to know what all as we were having this conversation the other day about the commission's, you know, updating bylaws and membership requirements. Et cetera. I think it would be a good time, as they're refreshing their bylaws to consider what's just not on their pate anymore by way of having been diverted to our enemy. [11:37:21 AM] to our enemy. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> Thank you. That was all. Thank you. Chair. >> Thank you. Are there any vice chair Fuentes. >> Yes. Thank you. This is an exciting update. I'm so thrilled to see our city finally create a department for this very important part of our city. I mean, truly, when we think about what makes Austin so special, it's our culture. It's our arts, it's our music, it's our entertainment. And so to finally see it's getting its due. I just want to thank you and thank city manager Broadnax for his leadership on this issue. It's been a long time coming, and I know it's going to go a long way to our community. Knowing that you're working on an update to the strategic plan, a comprehensive update to the strategic plan and the community engagement programs. But real quickly, I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the art in public places program. That has been an area of focus for this council, and one that we definitely want to do an assessment on. So any any thoughts you'd like to share about the program? >> Absolutely. We sent a memo out. It probably was yesterday [11:38:22 AM] out. It probably was yesterday really highlighting that we're going to take another look at our ipe program. It's a fabulous program that Austin has. Most definitely. It puts beautiful art all throughout our city, and we want to make sure that our that we are structured in our, you know, how we have our policies and guidelines really represents our Austin community. So it's a commitment that we have as we're looking at all of our programs across all of the areas. Ipe will be one as well. We've heard a lot of feedback. We've spoken with many, many artists over the last week or so, really trying to understand their true needs. You know, we the city does a really good job reaching out to the community, but we have an opportunity within our office to really do focused efforts, zeroing in on the challenges that our artists have and face. We want them to be successful here. You know, there are wonderful opportunities with our major projects that we have via the [11:39:23 AM] projects that we have via the convention center, airport and the others that are coming online with our bonds. We want our local artists to really thrive as well. And so we want to make sure that we take another look at that program. >> Very good. Thank you and welcome to this new role. >> Thank you. >> Councilmember Velasquez. You have any questions? No questions. I got two questions. I appreciate the presentation. My two questions. My first question was if there's a timeline that we can expect, the reevaluation of cultural arts and live music grant program. >> Yes. That will we are working on that for a completion of I'm saying the summer. Yeah, most likely the end. We want to ensure that our artists are not disrupted or disrupted because they need the funding. And so we are taking that time internally to take a look at those grants. So it will be this summer. >> Oh, wonderful. Great. And then my second question, I understand there might have to be a follow up. If you don't have the data in front of you. But, you know, I thought it was [11:40:24 AM] But, you know, I thought it was great to hear that we're exploring varying streams of funding sources. Do we have a current status of our funding streams, and what, if any, projection can we expect to increase our funds by leveraging any new opportunities. >> We will be exploring those. We're working on researching that as of right now. And so I do not have an updated timeline of what you can expect, but it is of most importance for us. There's a lot of need in our community, and we want to make sure that we are having more of an impact and having others access our funds. So more to come. >> Great. >> And then sorry, just a quick follow up to that. Is there going to be an effort to revise our private funding donation process? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Great, great. That's great to hear. Well, I think that is it from us. So thank you so much for the for the presentation. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Great. >> And now we are on our last item of the day, which is item number five. It's a briefing on [11:41:24 AM] number five. It's a briefing on the downtown strategic initiative memo related to the mayor's resolution passed by council in February of this year. And with that presentation, we'll have the deputy city manager, John fortune. Good afternoon. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, good morning. >> Afternoon. Yeah. It's 1141. >> Morning or afternoon. I don't know what it is. Good morning. >> So council members, committee members, I appreciate the chance to talk to you just for a few minutes. As you know, this is really just a briefing memo. I'm here to answer questions, but just since I am here at the podium, I'll just let you know briefly that this is kind of the first step for us. In response to the council's memo or excuse me, resolution that they approved in February to have a more concentrated focus on some strategic planning, strategic operations in the city's downtown area. And so what the city manager is proposing is the creation of a downtown strategy office that will really help us coordinate some of the planning [11:42:25 AM] coordinate some of the planning efforts that are happening in the downtown corridor. Coordination of operations. As you can imagine, there's a lot of city city departments that have different responsibilities for providing services downtown. Sometimes we can be, I think, more efficient if we're coordinating what we do and how we do that. Also, having a more centralized way in which we can report the activities that are happening strategically as it relates to services or programs downtown. And so that is the primary focus and principal intent behind creating the office of downtown strategic office. What we envision is creating 1 to 3 staff member team that would be responsible for this coordination as as they would take the kind of the principal planning role for bringing together a task force of city departments and potentially some external stakeholders in the downtown area to be able to unify these efforts in a much more strategic and consistent way going [11:43:27 AM] and consistent way going forward, we'll need to identify the resources for those positions. We're currently looking to see what available resources we may have now. If not, then we would be proposing creating those positions as we go through the budget process process this summer. I do believe that we could be in a place I'm optimistic that we'd be in a place to have this new office stood up by the end of this fiscal year, so I'm here to answer any questions you have. This is really just a start of this process, and I'm excited that the council had the vision to help suggest that we do something like this and we're ready to get it going forward. So I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Great. Thank you colleagues. Any questions? I have the one question, I guess for this for this presentation. Who will this office and task force report to. >> That's still part of the evaluation process that the city manager and I are having a discussion about. We haven't quite landed on that just yet. And so for now, I'm taking the lead role and just helping us get things organized and [11:44:28 AM] get things organized and structured. But at some point we'll have to make that final determination. >> Okay, great. >> Thank you. >> No other questions. Thank you so much. Yeah. And would you look at that. We're actually ahead of schedule. Well we are done with our items for today. But I wanted to open up the floor to for my colleagues if we had any future items. If folks want to discuss for the next meeting. Councilmember Velasquez. >> No, I don't have any future items. I just wanted to congratulate my colleague on chairing his first committee meeting and got us out of here early. >> Thank you. >> Was not my intention, but yeah, I'll take it. Councilmember harper-madison. >> You didn't speak too soon. >> My plan. I did have a couple things for future consideration. Something that my office and I have been talking about and I look forward to. I know that d2 worked on an I resolution, but I've been thinking about both personally and professionally as of late. I proof workforce is [11:45:29 AM] of late. I proof workforce is what I'm calling it. What are the things that a computer or technology or code can never do? And are we invest in what we need to in that? And then I made my point to Tamara when she was here about agricultural workforce. I really want to have that discussion. And then. I think that's it for now. >> Great. Thank you, thank you. >> No additional topics to suggest at this time, but just also wanted to say well done. This was an incredible meeting. Thank you chairman. >> Great. Well it's great to it's easy to run a great meeting when you have a great vice chair and great members on the committee. So if there is. Yeah. There you go. If there's no further business, the meeting of the economic opportunity committee is adjourned at 1156. Sorry. 11:46 A.M. On March 21st, 2025. Thank you all.