City Council Regular Meeting Transcript - 3/27/2025 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 3/27/2025 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 3/27/2025 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. [10:00:58 AM] >> Good morning everybody. It's 10:00 am on Thursday, March 27th, 2025. And I will call to order the Austin city council regularly scheduled meeting for this date. We are meeting at the city council chambers in city hall, which is located at 301 west second street, and we have a quorum of the ity council present at this time. Members and members of the public, let me quickly run through our order of the day. After I read changes and corrections into the record, which I'll do momentarily. We will then go to the consent agenda. We will hear from speakers on the consent agenda, and at the conclusion of that, depending upon where we are in terms of time, we will either vote on it or we will vote on it. After we have the 12:00 time, certain members we have had two items pulled from the consent agenda. Those are items 58 and 103, 58 and 103. I will also point out that on items two and 62, you have a version two. [10:02:00 AM] and 62, you have a version two. So the consent agenda motion will be for the version two of items two and 62. 62 I put up on the message board earlier in the week, and then you have a copy of item number two, I believe, at the dais. And it's being put it's put in the backup. We will then go to non consent items. And for the public items that are non consent include things like items that are coming from a recommendation of a council committee. Those are items 64 and 65. We will take up eminent domain items which are 66 through 72. We will also conduct public hearings. Those are items 73 through 84 members and members of the public. I'll just point out that item 73, 83 and 84 are public hearings that we will take action on today. Items 74 through 82 are technical code amendments requiring a public [10:03:03 AM] amendments requiring a public hearing. But you need to have the law requires us to have two public hearings. They have to be heard twice before we can take action. So we won't be taking action on items 74 through 82. As I previously mentioned, at noon we will take up public communication. We will also take a break for live music. As soon as that's completed. The public communication is usually completed at 1230 to 1235, at which point we will go to live music. I anticipate that we will recess until about 110 to do that. We, of course, also have the 2:00 time certain for zoning items. Members. My suggestion is going to be that at the we take up the executive session items that we have posted, at the end of the day, after we've completed other business that I've just walked through, unless there are questions I'll read now. Changes and corrections into the record for Thursday, March 27th, 2025. Item number four is related to item number [10:04:05 AM] four is related to item number 13 and state instead of item number 11. It should read item related to item number 13. Items ten, 11, and 12 have been withdrawn. Item 67 has been withdrawn. Item 25 I'm going to read the whole thing just to make it make sense. Authorize an amendment to a contract for continued equipment rentals. Related products and services for the fleet mobility services department with her rentals, inc, dba hertz equipment rental corporation, to increase the amount by $3,500,000 and extend the term by two years for a revised total contract amount not to exceed $10,292,000. Funding. And this is the change. Delete $3,500,000 and replace it with 1,020,833 is. So that would read $1,020,833 is available in [10:05:06 AM] read $1,020,833 is available in the fleet mobility services department. Fiscal year 20 2425 operating budget. Funding for the remaining contract term is contingent upon available funding in future budgets. Members. Those are all of the changes and corrections to be read into the record for the day, so we will now go to the consent agenda again. Items 58 and 103 have been pulled, so they will not be part of the consent agenda. They will be taken up separately. Items two and 62 have a version two that is in your backup. And the motion that I will take ultimately on the consent agenda will be for version two of items two and 62. With that, I will turn to the city clerk's office and ask that you begin the process of public comment on the consent agenda. >> Thank you. Mayor. First speaker for item number two is pat. >> I see you're coming. [10:06:10 AM] >> I see you're coming. >> Thank you, mayor and mayor pro tem and council members and city manager. My name is pat and I live in district three and I have not spoken before city council since the new council members joined the dais. So welcome and thank all of you for your service. I really appreciate that you're here and that you're listening to comments about animal services. And thank you for your concern about animals in our city. I don't know what the version two of. >> What it does. Actually, councilmember vela, why don't you describe your proposed amendment that creates the version two so that the public will know? It deals with reporting back to the council. [10:07:11 AM] reporting back to the council. We'll we'll hold your time because I think that's a legitimate request. Council member vela. >> Thank you. Mayor. And in fact, we're posting it to the message board, the city council message board, momentarily, if it's not already there. But it it essentially asks for two basic items. The ways the animal service offices expanded, marketed resources and education on responsible pet ownership, including microchipping, spay neuter and vaccination. We're asking them to report back to the public health committee at least once a year on a couple on that item in particular, the average length of available days and shelter, foster by species and size of dogs. We're trying to get some more kind of granular information, because it's really not just about the, the overall averages. It's the medium and large dogs that were really struggling with. And that's kind of making that distinction is important. The full amendment is on the message board for folks to look at, and I understand I will be offering I don't know. We had discussed a version two, but if we're not [10:08:13 AM] version two, but if we're not ready with the version two, I'll go ahead and offer the amendment. We can pull the item and offer the amendment. >> Okay, well, it's my understanding we had it as a version two, but I'll, I'll, we'll we'll go ahead and take testimony on it as part of the consent agenda as opposed to pulling it until I can figure that out. Primarily, what it does is it creates more reporting back to the council. >> But the reporting will only occur a year from now. >> Well, that that's what I was afraid we would be doing by doing this this late. >> My request is to pull. >> The item. I'm going to pull item number two, and we'll just we'll bring you back so that everybody can look at it and see what exactly what it does. Item number two is pulled from the consent agenda. >> Thank you mayor. >> Thank you. >> Next item is item number eight. We have Craig Naser, bill bunch, Roy Whaley, Eric Radford and Monica Guzman. >> Please come forward. Even if you're testifying on multiple items, please come forward out of respect for the people [10:09:13 AM] of respect for the people following you so that they they can be heard today as well. And if there's an open microphone, go ahead and take the microphone. >> And I don't. >> Well that's not madam clerk. She miss Guzman has indicated she's donated time. >> Monica Guzman has donated time to bill bunch. Okay. On item eight. So he gets four minutes. >> Thank you. Mayor. Council member bill bunch, resident district five. And former member of your tourism commission for a number of years. Speaking on item eight, which is an agreement between the city, visit Austin, which is our convention and visitors bureau, and the new Austin tourism public improvement district that you all approved in January. You're you're authorizing here proposing to authorize the staff to negotiate and execute a [10:10:15 AM] to negotiate and execute a contract. But there's not even a draft here. And there's a very skeletal description of what that contract might include. There's not a single word about transparency, disclosure, meetings being open to the public, etcetera, on how this funding stream, which will be substantial, yet another $0.02 assessment on hotel room nights. And for which what it all intents and purposes, is yet another funding stream to fill the magic black hole of the convention center that you all seem committed to rushing forward with. There needs to be some basic accountability here on how this money is really being spent, and how much money we're talking about. Your staff has some projections of revenue for this, and also some [10:11:17 AM] for this, and also some projections of costs, administrative costs for this. Y'all should have that. The public should have it. It should be part of the backup. There's no backup. There's the one. Short summary of staff recommendation. No draft agreement. Y'all really need to step back and do some basic due diligence on the whole convention center project, but especially on this new animal. That was just created that people don't have much of an understanding of. And my guess is that y'all, to some significant, significant degree, share that lack of understanding of what exactly this money is going to be used for and how it's going to be dispensed, how it's going to be managed, and whether there's going to be any public transparency at all involved. Thank you. >> Howdy, y'all. My name is Roy Whaley. I'm the conservation [10:12:19 AM] Whaley. I'm the conservation chair for the Austin regional group of the Sierra club. And I'm glad y'all are here and not actually a part of the district of Texas. And you're still our city council. Congratulations on surviving that. I agree with what Mr. Bunch said. My concern is, I think about the old cartoons I used to watch when I was a kid. Roadrunner cartoons were, you know, wile E coyote would stand in front of a bulldozer and it would just flatten him out into a pancake. I feel like that's what we're doing with the convention center here. We're we're standing in front of this bulldozer because it's going to happen. And I don't think there's much doubt about that. But we do need more detail. I am glad from the presentation I saw earlier that you're going to divide it into four separate buildings so that that way when it fails, which I think it will, considering every city in Texas is putting tons of [10:13:19 AM] city in Texas is putting tons of money into getting convention, business will at least be able to repurpose the buildings instead of having one just giant building. At that work session, I was very happy that council member Ellis and council member Laine talked about the transit possibilities there. I don't have a picture I'll share with you, but it's one of the few public restrooms in Austin is in that area, and I think we need more of that. And again, I'm going to get on the horse and talk about public showers. If we're going to have this expenditure of public money and we're going to talk about alternative transit, we need to make it possible for people like me that normally ride a bicycle, but did not today to have a place to clean up before I come here and sit next to someone, usually in a suit that doesn't like the way I smell. [10:14:19 AM] like the way I smell. >> Craig nazer on item eight. >> Hello, Craig nazer. You know, I'm a longtime artist who lives in the city for many years. And what I have seen is a lot of events get unaffordable. And I think when you put more a whole bunch of more money into a convention center, I think that goes to help it in the long run, unaffordable. When I look at the, you know, your map, I think it's item nine where it shows this circle. When I come down to the city and I look there, that's like the most unaffordable place in the city where I can't afford parking, where, you know, now, south by southwest, the tickets have gone through the roof. And that's a problem. Now, I'm not against a [10:15:22 AM] problem. Now, I'm not against a convention center. Certainly not. And I'm not against these events. But the city council spends a whole lot of time talking about affordability. And this is one of the things when you spend all this money and raise the hotel occupancy tax rates and all that. This is one of those things that contributes to affordability. And I understand the problems with this. The state allows you to do this. And what do you do with this money there? You're kind of forced into this way of doing it, but it's changing Austin in a way that I don't think is the best for Austin. So I just want to leave you with that. I know you'll do what you need to do. But thank you very much. >> For item number nine. Craig nazer, bill bunch with time donated from Monica Guzman. >> Have we moved to the next item? >> That is item number nine. >> Okay. >> And Eric rajeff. >> So we're moving to the next item. So if you want to testify [10:16:23 AM] item. So if you want to testify on the next item, please. >> I've said what. >> I said. Very good. Thank you, Mr. Bunch. >> Mr. Bunch gets four minutes. >> Thank you. Mayor. Council members. Bill bunch again. This is touching on. And a little cleanup of something y'all did in December, which is yet another revenue stream being committed to the magic hole of this convention center that will swallow up what your staff is now telling us behind the scenes, but not publicly. $5 billion, $5 billion over the next 30 years. In this one, it's state legislation, as the backup suggests, has authorized you to designate this three mile, essentially a tax increment zone for hotel related taxes. [10:17:24 AM] for hotel related taxes. Alcoholic beverage taxes, etcetera. And you can funnel that into the convention center along with the traditional revenue stream of the vast majority of our hotel taxes. What this means is you're even further shifting the revenue towards a project that generates 1% of our visitors or less. And that's your own numbers. And away from what actually draws people to Austin. What benefits those of us lucky enough to live here? And that we're losing every day. And that's our culture and our nature in the city, our parks, lady bird lake, Barton springs, all of these are at risk. We're losing live music. We're losing arts venues. You know how badly the performing arts are struggling. You're doing nothing to fund those. And instead, you're [10:18:26 AM] those. And instead, you're jumping off a cliff into a black hole to fund a project that is known that it's going to fail and fail spectacularly. And this will be the albatross you carry for decades for the rest of your life. And I'm dedicated to making sure everybody knows about it as long as I'm around. The question I have for you, and I'd love to. I hope y'all have an answer, because you should have an answer. What's not clear from this legislation or the backup is if you're skimming off not just the state share of the alcohol money in this three mile zone and the state share of the sales tax in this three mile zone and the state share of the hotel tax. But if you're also dedicating that incremental increase in those three revenue streams from our share, the local share of those, because if you are, that's taking money out [10:19:27 AM] you are, that's taking money out of the general fund and it's taking money away from the arts, historic preservation, live music. So would you please one of you ask your staff publicly to answer, is this only getting an increment from the state share, or is it getting incremental increases from our local share? Because if it is, you're posting has been false. And saying this is additional funding because it's actually taking away funding. If it's getting that incremental increase from our local share of these three hotel related taxes. Please answer that question. Thank you. >> Next speaker, for item number ten, Zenobia Joseph. She registered remotely, but we believe she was here this morning. Zenobia. Joseph. Item [10:20:28 AM] morning. Zenobia. Joseph. Item 16 Paul Wagner. And Mr. Wagner also registered for item number 17. >> Thank you for your time. Paul Wagner, district nine. I do want to first say thank you to district nine aid for removing somebody that was living in their car outside my house for 25 months after I had threatened the parking department to have them removed by myself. That's your aid, not you. Sorry you weren't involved with that, but your aid did a good job on that one. But it did take 25 months to remove a homeless person living in their car outside my house. Okay. I've seen this go through the budget multiple times. Large I.T. Purchases that seem to not have any understanding of what they do, where they come from, and the companies behind them have 20 years of experience in software development, data center management globally. So I have [10:21:29 AM] management globally. So I have an immense expertise. 16 it is a veritas backup piece of software. I don't know a lot of people in the industry still buying this. Sure, there's probably some vendor lock in. You're at $2 million a year spread across three years. On may 30th, you extended it for another 1.5 million. They're asking for another 1.5 million, again, to put it at a total contract value of 8.5 million. The vendor is Texas, inc. On their Google search, the business shows closed on linkedin. It shows three employees. None of them, in my opinion, are probably sophisticated enough to sell this deal. So I believe it requires some investigation as to why they're being awarded this deal. I can suspect it is because there were some form of DI points awarded to it, because it looks like a set aside contract where points were awarded because their website is littered with those types of [10:22:29 AM] littered with those types of certifications. Block it, review it, figure out why they're spending an additional $1.5 million a year on backup software for archive data that is likely not retrieved ever. If I have 17, I'll take that as well. >> You may now speak on item number 17. >> Thank you again. Item number 17. This looks like a traditional contract that the Sirius computer solutions, which was bought by cdw for $2 billion. Cdw is not a Texas company. Sirius was. This is a near $50 million contract that I can't figure out on data. Boston.gov which you pay $1 million a year to Tyler technologies for socratic connected government cloud. Some data analytics piece of software that has no search functionality. You have to know sql like I do. I'm not impressed with that. That contract should be renewed. Nevertheless, this [10:23:30 AM] be renewed. Nevertheless, this looks like a fleecing at the highest levels. It's an IBM renewal. 50% of IBM's employees now reside in India. If they're controlling the Austin energy department, I feel like that could be a major issue. Nevertheless, I think it needs further review that it looks like a contract that started on a modernization effort on year 2020 were five years in. We're $47 million in. Why do they need another $27 million for IBM software that I get that nobody gets fired for buying IBM, but for roughly $50 million, you could have hired ten software developers to probably develop what they need and make it open source. Thank you for your time. >> We'll now go to remote. Larry Akers is speaking on item number eight and number nine, and so he will get four minutes. >> Hi there. Larry Akers. I live in district five. Wanted to agree with bill bunch about how [10:24:32 AM] agree with bill bunch about how the allocation of some of these revenues for the convention center is drawing resources away from the general fund, and that there is a lengthy struggle to try to get 30% of the hot tax allocated to historical and cultural resources. And I've noticed in the financial statements for the convention center that, in fact, that number is going to be reduced pretty substantially as a result of the draining of the hot tax down into the low 20%. So, you know, essentially, as bill said, you're taking resources from from those from those opportunities in the city that people come to see, you know, people come to the city not for conventions, but conventions. So people can also enjoy the cultural resources of the city. [10:25:33 AM] cultural resources of the city. And so you're starving those resources to make an investment in an accommodation that does not really contribute that much to the tourism activity in the city. So that's all I have to say. I appreciate your time. >> Next speaker is bill bunch for item number 21. Mr. Bunch is also registered for item number 22. >> Mr. Bunch, are you going to. I don't see you moving. Are you 21? >> I don't. >> Believe I signed up on 20. Well, then. Then you'll pass on that too, right? >> What about 28? >> Yes I will. >> Okay. >> Thank you. You have two [10:26:33 AM] >> Thank you. You have two minutes. >> Okay. >> Bill bunch, district five executive director with save our springs alliance. This item. Since I have to take my own two minutes to tell you and the public what this is about. Calls for spending $1.75 million for, quote, brush clearing on water quality protection lands managed by Austin water for Austin water with summit forest, inc, etc, a private contractor. Brush clearing almost never does anything for water quality, and in fact we're doing too much brush clearing in the name of fear of fire. And in the name of managing lands that should be managed for enhancing recharge and protecting water quality, [10:27:35 AM] and protecting water quality, instead managing them to be ranch lands by people trained in ranch management. This is a waste of money. We need to be spending this money to open up and clean out sinkholes and caves. Berm some gentle berming to direct our runoff when we have the rare runoff events into our aquifers and replenish our water supplies. This is brush clearing. Destroys habitat for birds, mammals, pollinators, a whole range. It does real damage. It reduces biodiversity and direct conflict with our biodiversity conservation goals. This is. This is terrible use of money and it's terrible land management. We need to get back to and remember what these are. They're called water quality protection lands for a reason. [10:28:36 AM] protection lands for a reason. Voters funded it for water quality. They didn't fund it. So your your staff can waste it on ranch management. >> Zenobia Joseph is here. And so she'll be speaking on item number ten. >> This is just one slide, mayor. Thank you. Mayor. Council. I'm Zenobia Joseph. I just wanted to state that I do support the withdrawal of item ten. In part, it was $5.8 million for the artwork at the airport. But I want you to recognize to the city manager. And miss means as well, the director, that you really do need to look more broadly at all of the artwork that is being placed in the city. I do want you to recognize this KVUE, KXAN story yesterday artist opportunities deadline approaches as Austin searches for artists to create public installation at aws. You will notice mister Yancey's riffs and [10:29:37 AM] notice mister Yancey's riffs and rhythms artwork there. That is what was in the story. I want you to recognize that it is the community that is actually confused about what exactly you're doing with the artwork. I want you to understand as well that that same memo from Angela means, which was on the 6th of March on or about, she was referring to the resolution that you passed, but it also included the Austin convention center, dh session and art preservation. So while I certainly appreciate that she's trying to find a place to put mister Yancey's work, I want you to recognize that you really need to pause that work as well when you get to item 40. I just want you to understand that your hotel occupancy taxes process is not fair. I want you to understand that the black Austin bike tours, which actually is a nonprofit that was only in operation for two years, got $80,000, whereas the black male who does the walking tours got $5,000. But what you advertised was for that nonprofit to be in existence for five years. So [10:30:38 AM] existence for five years. So you're giving money unilaterally to those organizations that you prefer, not following the process that's in the public domain. That's for art and public places. That's for the cultural tours, that's for the hotel occupancy taxes. And so I would just ask the city manager, while I thank you, city manager. I would ask you to pause all of the artwork at this point. When I spoke to miss means February 28th, she said, you asked for the open records, so I would have any questions. I'll gladly answer them at this time. >> Also registered to speak on item 31 and 32. >> I don't have the item in front of me. What is 31? Mayor? You can take the slide down. It's probably not this. >> Item 31 is a contract for construction services for the safe streets and roads for all. >> Do you want me to speak to 32 as well? >> You can. You're entitled to speak to both of them if you've signed up for both of them. >> Well, I did, but they're both for safe streets. Just two different contracts. So what? I [10:31:39 AM] different contracts. So what? I want you to recognize, mayor as it relates to safe streets for all roads and streets for all, as well as the safe routes to school. You have approximately $79.5 million. And I want you to recognize that if you are north of us 183 in district four, chito vela, you need to go to HEB rundberg. It's just a wide, plain sidewalk. But if you're in southeast Austin, if you're at south first and stassney, you will see where the contractors have created these mock bricks. They have mixed use multi modal. You see the red sidewalk for the bikes. They have signage. But if you're north of us 183 chito vela there's either no sidewalk from all the way from chinatown to Parmer Laine. It's not Ada compliant. If you're at north Lamar and baker, you will still see that you need to be able to access all the way down. Want you to understand, mayor, [10:32:41 AM] you to understand, mayor, respectfully, that while the contractors seem innocuous, I want you to understand that there's something going on with the design. Why is it that the people who live in northeast Austin, northeast of 183, have no signage? It's one of the highest crash sites in the city. And so as it relates specifically to vision zero, which you adopted in 2016, I want you to understand that that's really just a farce. And so I want you to understand, as my comments always are, in the context of title six of the civil rights act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin. The area north of us 183 is called the immigrant gateway to the city. I want you to understand that it's black people, hispanic people, immigrants who live there, but yet they have to traverse 37,500 vehicles per day. You can find that information from 2020, the virtual public hearing. Specifically, I want you to understand it's not equitable. [10:33:43 AM] understand it's not equitable. If you thank you. >> Thank you, miss Joseph. >> Going to item 32 is Scott Johnson and Zenobia Joseph. >> This is item 32. Miss Joseph, are you going to speak on 32 separately? Well, it's up to you. Not whether I want it or not. >> But thank you, mayor. >> And then cut my mic. Okay. Thank you. Mayor. Council. I just wanted to continue what I was saying, mayor. And I actually thought I had already spoken on both items at once. >> If you have, you don't need to speak again. >> No, I don't mind. >> Okay, good. >> I would, I just really want you to understand that you have to go on the ground to see the hostile architecture, and to recognize that the area north of us 183. Let me give you a point of reference, specifically the Austin strategic mobility plan walk bike road January 2023 update has language that specifies the city's [10:34:44 AM] specifies the city's discriminatory practices on or about Paige 28. I want you to recognize that it specifies dove springs and north Lamar. It talks about the district as well. Dove springs is benefiting from this project connect force. I want you to understand, however, that north Lamar in 2009, the city of Austin housing police, transportation with capital metropolitan transportation authority and txdot studied the north Lamar pedestrian corridor for 20 months. Yet, despite all of the money that you continue to get in this area, there is still no Ada compliant sidewalk to get from chinatown mid-block all the way to baker, which is about a quarter mile walk. I want you to know chito vela. Once again, I have asked you to close 585, seven chinatown mid-block stop. And it has still been open. But that report from 2009 on page 75 tells you specifically that 70% of pedestrians get killed. [10:35:45 AM] of pedestrians get killed. Mid-block. Yet capital metro keeps opening mid-block stops and over in district seven. I just want you to know by the metropolitan park, there is no continuous sidewalk to get to. Not your ordinary school. It is discriminatory and you need to do something about it. I want you to understand, mayor. Respectfully. There are mid-block stops all over the city, but predominantly northeast. >> Thank you, Mr. Joseph. Mr. Johnson. >> Good morning, mayor and council members, I'm Scott Johnson. First slide please. I'm a regular volunteer on the climate equity plan. I'm on one of the committees on consumption. The city as a priority in 2023 with a resolution in 2024 passed to get a pilot project for low embodied carbon concrete. And that's moving along. But this is the latest update on it from the office of city engineer. There's it's not ready yet to be [10:36:45 AM] it's not ready yet to be incorporated in any new contracts. And there's one here, from what I can read, called the all concrete construction definite delivery, indefinite quantity one. It's for one year, but it has four one year extensions. What? I don't know, but you could ask the question of the city attorney or get some from tp to come up and clarify is that once that contract is in place with the for one year extensions, then does that obligate the city to work with them on whatever they can come up with, with their own concrete formulation, which may not be low embodied concrete, carbon, concrete for this coming year or the next year after that. What I do know is. Climate equity plan, but specifically the two pilot projects need more updates from staff. They need more review. They need more counsel, collaboration and questions asked. So what I'm hoping is that before this particular item [10:37:46 AM] that before this particular item gets approved, we can answer that question. If it does, lock them into whatever formulation of concrete that they have available or that they want to provide, then you're locking yourself in to a situation where the lone bodied carbon concrete can't be used in future years. Thank you. >> Now we're going to item number 40, Larry acres. Mister acres. Okay. >> Mister acres, can you hear us? >> Yes. Hi. Yeah, I can now. Thank you very much. Larry acres, district five. And I made my point earlier, I think. But the problem with with diverting both sales tax and hot tax revenues into convention center [10:38:46 AM] revenues into convention center construction is that you are depriving the major attractions of the city, which are our environmental and recreational, historical and cultural resources, the funding that they need to draw people into the city. So I think it's a misapplication of our tourism funds to pour money into replacing a convention center that already functions perfectly well, primarily so that a few hotels around the immediate proximity of the convention center can reap the profits that are financed by our taxpayers. And basically turn their profits over to international ownership. So it's just draining money out of the city. So again, thanks for the opportunity to speak. >> On item number 40. We have Craig nazer, bill bunch who has donated time for Monica Guzman, [10:39:48 AM] donated time for Monica Guzman, Laura Templeton, Jim Edwards, Roy Whaley, and Eric rajeff. >> So please just take a seat. And then when there's an open microphone. >> Yes, my name is Craig nazer, and continuing down this line of using a lot of tax money to build a very expensive convention center. I am convinced that this makes Austin less affordable, at least the way you're doing it now. And that's because my observations. I have a stepson who's a very good young filmmaker who came down here, and I used to go to the south by southwest film festival because I didn't want I couldn't see all the movies and pay all that money for one ticket, but you could go and stand in line, and if they had extra seats, you could get in [10:40:49 AM] extra seats, you could get in for 20 bucks, you know. Well, that was worth it for some real interesting cutting edge movie. But now you have to pay $120 so you can stand in line and maybe see a movie if you can get in. Because all the 1300 people are ahead of you. And it's just it. Austin can't go on this way. It's going to ruin Austin. It already has. I taught music for many years, and vast majority of musicians I knew and taught made their living here. They've all left. I don't try to play music anymore because you can't make any money doing it. Austin I write symphonies, but you got to be dead usually to get your symphonies played. But this. I just don't see how this really helps Austin spending all this money on the convention. Maybe some of it, maybe not quite so big, I don't know. You guys know a lot more about this than I do, [10:41:50 AM] a lot more about this than I do, because you talk to a lot of people behind the scenes that I don't ever get to talk to. So. But anyway, just please look at that and be aware that spending all this money on a convention center, I think it's helping make Austin less affordable. Thank you very much. >> Please come forward. Either one of you, any of you. >> Good morning. Mayor. Council members Laura Templeton, former downtown commissioner. I stand before you today in strong opposition to the proposed expansion of Austin's convention center. This project is just not an unnecessary use of public funds. It's a financial misstep that will burden our city for decades. The reality is, the convention center industry has been in decline since 2018. Even before the pandemic, fewer events were booked and cities across the country were struggling to fill convention spaces. Here in Austin, our convention center contributes [10:42:51 AM] convention center contributes less than 2% of tourism dollars. That's a fraction of our tourism economy. Yet you're asking taxpayers to commit 30 years of hotel occupancy tax revenue to pay off a massive debt on massive on a massive concrete structure that will benefit primarily a few, while the rest of the city shoulders the cost, these hot dollars should rightfully support Austin's cultural and arts industries. The very things that make our city unique and attract visitors in the first place. Instead, this plan diverts those funds into an oversize project that does little to serve our community. Let's be realistic. Austin has never and will never compete with the country's dominant convention hubs like Orlando, Las Vegas, Chicago, or Atlanta. We can't even match the scale of Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, or San Antonio. No matter how much you spend, convention planners will continue to take their largest [10:43:52 AM] continue to take their largest events elsewhere. Beyond the financial risk, there are the unknowns. Cost overruns. Item $4,045 million delays and years of disruption. Construction will displace businesses, strain infrastructure and inconvenience residents. For what? For a project that a project that will inevitably go over budget and fail to deliver on its promises? >> Thank you. Your time is expired. >> Good morning. >> I'm Eric rajeff. I'm a resident for over 20 years in district three of Austin. I'm here to oppose item 40, authorizing an additional $45 million for design and engineering on the proposed convention center. More broadly, I want to express my opposition to the wasteful spending of [10:44:52 AM] to the wasteful spending of Austin voters money on the convention center entirely. When Neal and his team delivered a new convention center for the people of Austin in the 1990s, Austin needed a large facility for meetings. We have that. And at that time, the national convention business was growing, as was Austin. But that was 30 years ago, and times have changed. The in the last 30 years, the convention industry nationwide has been a business model in decline. I think you've all seen the studies that refer to that. And but at the same time that that business has been in decline, dozens more convention centers across the country have been built and expanded. The U.S. Has a glut of convention centers. And what you're proposing is to add more supply into what is already a supply glut. Austin has a great convention center. It's usgbc Leed gold certified. It stretches over six city blocks. It's 881,000 gross square feet, according to the city of [10:45:54 AM] according to the city of Austin's own website. The most recent expansions in ten U.S. Cities Chicago, Las Vegas, Seattle, Philadelphia have all failed to meet their revenue projections. So let's learn from these cities mistakes and spend our tax dollars on stuff that truly benefits citizens and visitors. Moreover, size of convention center is not proportional to attractive business performance based on competitive advantages which are related to surroundings. 94% of the conventions of the united States are under 500,000ft S. Facilities and our facilities almost 900,000. >> Preserve. The preserve. The Neil concert memorial, Austin nature center. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Jim Edwards and. Roy Whaley. Bill bunch has time donated by Monica Guzman. So he gets four minutes. [10:46:55 AM] minutes. >> Good morning, bill bunch. Save our springs alliance district five speaking against item 40 which calls on you today to approve a $45 million increase in the design and engineering services contract for the demolition of our current convention center and building a new one that's over a two thirds over 66% increase from the current cost 65 million, so adding 45 for a total of $110 million for just the design and engineering services. Now your back up, your staff says, oh, but the budget that was approved by the previous council, the 1.26 billion that your staff keeps throwing around hasn't changed. So the obvious question is where [10:47:58 AM] So the obvious question is where did $45 million disappear from? Where did where did that cut to make up for this increase come from? What does that mean for the project? The bigger question, a related question, and again, I hope you ask all of these and ask them in public today, is that, generally speaking, project after project that you all approve all the time. The design and engineering contract is a percentage of the total. So if we're increasing the design and engineering by 66%, there's a very strong implication that the total project is going to increase by the same ratio. So can we call the city staff on the table right now and address this issue instead of being misled down this primrose path further? Council member duchen, thank you so much. You've asked repeatedly [10:48:59 AM] so much. You've asked repeatedly to get an actual financial report on this project that projects revenues, identifies the revenues, projects all the costs, the major costs, not just the bumper sticker construction costs, but the interest payments over 30 years, financing costs, all the related financing costs, the o&m costs you have in q&a, written also to council member duchen from your staff, saying that the staff is reserving five point $6,000,000,000 billion of revenue over the 30 year financing window. Did you all know that? Were any of you aware of that? Well, where did that $5.6 billion figure come from? They didn't just, you know, pull it out of the air. There's a report that lays out that projection and the components of it, that same Q and a says [10:49:59 AM] it, that same Q and a says annual operating costs are going to be o&m, $80 million. Did y'all know that $80 million just to keep it going year after year? It's this is insane to be heading into a project that, you know, is going to be a loser without doing basic due diligence and demanding your staff. The answer to council member duchen after he asked three times, we'll get it to you as soon as possible. Do we have it yet? No, no, that was three weeks ago. This is. This is unbelievably insane and stupid and corrupt. It's corrupt. Let's just put that right there on the table. Y'all need to tell the truth to the public. And you need to stop. Stop this insanity. Stop the insanity of losing the art in public places. [10:51:01 AM] losing the art in public places. Get that funded and fixed and taken care of and. >> Then tell the truth. Thank you. Before you start bullying. >> Howdy, Roy Whaley, Austin Sierra club I want to thank all the previous speakers. They were outstanding, loaded with information. You know what's a damn shame about it is none of y'all are listening. Y'all are sitting up there doing what? Speakers come down there and spend their time, give you important information. And what are you doing? What are you doing? Are you going back and playing words with friends like a previous council member did on the dais? I mean. It is it is disgusting to me to know that y'all were elected to listen to the citizens. And I don't know [10:52:02 AM] the citizens. And I don't know what you were doing. Council member Ryan alter, I want to give you credit because typically you do listen to the speakers. I don't always agree with your decisions, but at least you listen to speakers and I appreciate that. And same thing for you, Jose. For council member Velasquez, I appreciate it more times than not. You listen, most of you ignore us when we come up here. Why the hell did we vote for you? What are y'all doing up here? If you're not going to represent the city, the citizens, if you're not going to take this boondoggle. Waste of money into a paper shredder and actually spend the money on things that do benefit the city of Austin, particularly, we're going to be dealing with major environmental issues soon, and we're going to have just a fraction of the money to do it, and we don't have to do it that way. We don't have to structure it this way. [10:53:03 AM] have to structure it this way. It's already been said. I appreciate a previous speaker talking about how every major city and Texas is trying to get this business that is failing, that is failing. Why do we want to do that? Beat the hell out of me. >> Item number 41, Monica Guzman. >> I'm sorry. >> Item number 41, Monica Guzman. >> She's passing. >> Oh 42 Catherine griffin. >> Good morning, mayor and city council. This is my first time in to a meeting. And boy, is it eye opening. The reason I'm here is, is because. >> If you'd state your name for the record. >> I'm sorry, I'm Catherine griffin. I'm the executor for Maria Celeste Costley's estate. [10:54:06 AM] Maria Celeste Costley's estate. And basically, we were contacted through our real estate agent that the city would like to make an offer to acquire the property and included into a park system. And we were overjoyed to hear that. And so I'm here today because I understand there is a process for the naming of the parks, but I just wanted to put forth the fact that she was very involved in the city history. Her family has been here since the 1800s, and so I will fill out the appropriate paperwork. But I just wanted to put her name forth for y'all's consideration of naming that park. Thank you very much. >> Good job. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Council member. >> Is that, if I may, speaker. >> Ma'am? >> Ma'am. Ma'am. >> Miss griffin, I'm sorry, councilmember harper-madison has a question or comment comment. >> I just wanted to congratulate you for your participation. It [10:55:06 AM] you for your participation. It can be intimidating. So thank you for coming to the people's building to participate today. When you said it's eye opening, you probably noticed that there's some consistency with some of the speakers. Some of these people are here all the time. >> And they seem very comfortable and. >> Ignored all the time. >> And for what it's worth, I wasn't. >> Mr. Whaley. Mr. Whaley. >> Every citizen. >> That. >> Comes and speaks to you. >> I wasn't complaining about them being here all the time. I was actually I was actually wanting to say thank them. I absolutely appreciate the consistency with which they advocate for their city. So despite what you thought, I was thanking y'all for always showing up, for taking your time and showing up and sharing with us in advocacy in advocacy for your city. I think we all share that. And I just wanted to say, for somebody for whom it's your first time, it can be intimidating, but thank you for participating. And I put emphasis on all the time because so many people don't come all [10:56:07 AM] so many people don't come all the time or don't come ever or never get to take the opportunity to see that there's an art gallery in city hall or the beautiful copper. I just I really personally, very much as a person who was not politically ambitious coming into this, so much of it was eye opening and brand new. I really appreciate when people take the opportunity to get over the anxiety and fear and just do it, and thank you, I appreciate it. >> Thank you, councilmember. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Next item is item number 45, Zenobia Joseph. >> Miss Joseph. >> Thank you. Mayor. Council 12201 Heatherly drive is the property before you. Housing authority of the city of Austin. It's in south Austin, 330 units. My opposition is that it's two mile walk to the bus stop. I want to call to your attention [10:57:08 AM] want to call to your attention Deborah archer's Vanderbilt law review article that talks about the containment strategy. Mayor, when's the last time you walked a mile to the grocery store? Maybe two. I want you to recognize as a point of reference. December 15th, 2020 Travis county commissioners court put the bus stop distance to these properties. It's a 1 to 5 mile walk. I want to remind you of your smart policy mixed income. I want you to remember that T is for transit oriented. And specifically, you continue to put black and hispanic people on the outskirts of the city like a coconut city or maybe junior mints. I just want you to recognize, respectfully, this strategy of having shuttle service goes against the Austin strategic mobility plan and all the equity that you talk about in the city in 2020, November 2020, your minority chambers did a study, and specifically African Americans at that time earned about $42,000, hispanics $50,000. This property is 50 to 60% area median income. It's [10:58:11 AM] 60% area median income. It's about. So do the math. You are putting hispanics and African Americans out of sight, out of mind, and it's not right. Your staff says there is no fiscal impact to the city. That's true. But Austin affordable housing corporation, through the housing authority of the city of Austin, this public facility corporation adds to the discrimination that's occurring in the city of Austin. It's not compliant with the fair housing act of 1968. I would ask you to do better, mayor, if you want us to believe that you're not racist, then do something that would show us. Otherwise, I would ask you to vote down this item. It's $71 million. It's $40,000. Public activity bonds on the agenda today. Thank you. >> Thank you. Members. On the next item is item number 46. And I'm going to ask legal to come up and give us a presentation on item number 46. >> Good morning. Mayor, mayor [10:59:11 AM] >> Good morning. Mayor, mayor pro tem and council members. I'm Sarah Schaefer, acting litigation division chief. I'm here to today to recommend that you approve settlement payment in the personal injury lawsuit that appears in your agenda as item 46. This is the Lopez versus city of Austin lawsuit. We are recommending that you approve a payment of $135,000 to settle the Estella Angelica Lucas Lopez versus city of Austin lawsuit. This lawsuit relates to a March 2022 vehicle collision involving an Austin resource recovery garbage truck, where miss Lopez seeks payment for her injuries. In exchange for the payment, the plaintiff will release any and all claims against the city from the accident and will also dismiss her lawsuit, which was filed in the district court of Travis county. The law department is recommending that you approve payment based on these terms, and I'm available if there are any questions. >> Thanks for the presentation, members. You have any questions of counsel? Thank you very much, [11:00:14 AM] of counsel? Thank you very much, madam clerk. >> Speaker. Item 59 is Mary Edmondson. >> Mary Edmondson is she on remote? >> Remote? >> Yes. Okay. >> Good morning. My name is Mary Edmondson. I am president of the Texas burglar and fire alarm association, or faa. We are a nonprofit, not for profit, statewide association of professional security and fire alarm companies. Our member companies install, integrate, maintain and monitor intrusion and fire detection, video surveillance, electronic access control systems and other electronic automation system. As a fellow long term member of the false alarm reduction association, along with the city of Austin, we support your efforts to reduce false alarms. We recognize the urgency of freeing up scarce resources to allow public safety to continue, [11:01:15 AM] allow public safety to continue, and to keep us all safe. We support requiring that alarm companies verify alarm legitimacy through reasonable, sensible and effective methods outlined in your draft. We worked with cities throughout Texas to strengthen their false alarm reduction efforts and have learned a few things about how to implement steps that comply with fire codes and the Texas law. We fully support the objectives laid out in the resolution, and we would appreciate and welcome the opportunity to work with Mr. Broadnax or anyone else to reduce false alarms and implement voluntary APD access to security cameras during emergencies. That's all I had. >> Thank you. >> Next speaker is Monica Guzman, speaking on item 59. >> Miss Guzman, you wish to speak? I'm sorry. Okay. She's passing on item 59. [11:02:20 AM] passing on item 59. >> Thank you. The next item is item number 62, and that is Craig nazer, followed by bill bunch. Megan meisenbach, Roy Whaley, and Bobby Levinsky. >> Hello, Craig nazer, lone star chapter, Sierra club on the one hand, I would like to see as robust and excellent a wastewater treatment as we can get, and we already have a good plan out there. What I'm concerned about is expanding the plan before. That we need it because if you build it, they will come. And what we should be doing, at least more than what I see us doing, is conserving water. And the more we conserve water, the less we will have to treat. There are things like purple pipe. There are things like rainwater collection, but [11:03:20 AM] like rainwater collection, but we have a real water problem coming up and we lose 15% of our water in leaky pipes. Now I look this up and this has been going on for many years, and I was told many years ago that that's just industry standard. Well, right now I'm testifying a lot at the state legislature, and they're worried about water. And sooner or later that requirement is going to go up because we cannot continue to lose 15% of our potable water in leaky pipes. That will be expensive to fix, and we need to have some money to fix that. We really do. And if we spend too much on treatment ahead of time before we need it, I'm worried we won't have the money to go forward now. Once again, I haven't seen all the details about about exactly how this will work, so I put myself down as neutral because we do need to treat our water cleanly. But I am very concerned because we aren't [11:04:21 AM] concerned because we aren't doing enough to about water saving the water we got. We have to do that, have to. It's going to come down on us. Either we're going to do it ahead of time or someone's going to make us do it. So anyway, thank you very much. >> Thank you. And just because you mentioned leaky pipes yesterday in the audit, Mr. Naser, yesterday in the audit and finance committee, we received a report from our auditor's office with regard to water mains and pipes. And you might want to look at that. It's brand new and hot off the presses. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Mayor and council. My name is Bobby Levinsky. I'm an attorney with the save our springs alliance. Before you today, I've got a sheet that I passed out. I'm hoping you'll take a look at that. Either today or in the future, this item will come back to you. Item 62 would initiate code amendments, including environmental regulations, to support the proposed billion dollar expansion of the walnut creek wastewater treatment plant. It. The expansion would increase the capacity of the [11:05:24 AM] increase the capacity of the plant from 75 million gallons per day to 100 million gallons per day. That thus then increases the amount of treated effluent that's being dumped into walnut creek, in an area that doesn't have as high as environmental integrity as a lot of the other creeks that we have in the city. From a financial perspective, this is where Austin is often conservation curious. We often adopt bold plans for conservation, but we don't achieve the savings from avoiding these large scale infrastructure projects such as this one. That is, one of the big benefits of conservation is that you can avoid this major infrastructure cost. I served on the cost of service study last year with the Austin water utility. That resulted in the 10% increase in residential rates last year. That was 20% for cap. So for the lowest income families, that was a 20% increase on their water rates. We can avoid this by not doing projects like this. And the good [11:06:25 AM] projects like this. And the good news for this project, I've got a couple charts here on this sheet that shows that we're not in an urgent need to expand this facility under the tc 7590 rule. Yes, there was a momentary blip that for the 75% capacity that then triggered the need to start planning for the expansion. But until the facility hits that 90% figure, that's when you have to start doing the construction for it. So if you can delay the capital cost for this, you can delay the cost increase for your residents and potentially lower the water rates that. >> You've already approved. >> Mayor council bill bunch also with save our springs alliance, speaking on item 62, which is having you initiate code amendments that would relax, weaken water quality, protection rules, erosion and creek protection to build this billion [11:07:27 AM] protection to build this billion dollar over $1 billion expansion to the walnut creek wastewater treatment plant. It's rather vague what's being going to be done with this? I assume we'll learn along the way. But just to pick up a little bit on what Mr. Levinsky was just saying, this is once again, our funding priorities are upside down. There is no reason why the loading to the walnut creek creek treatment plant has gone up so rapidly. That's almost certainly because of leaky pipes having infiltration and inflow and also perhaps from some large dischargers. This is where if the if the water utility was doing its job, especially in the face of we're not going to have the water to treat and generate sewage to even need this expansion. I mean, maybe at some [11:08:30 AM] expansion. I mean, maybe at some point we might need a marginal increase, ten mgd, but spending $1 billion to increase capacity by more than by roughly 30, 25 to 30%. Right now, when we haven't done everything we can to reduce the input through conservation investments, the utility is not going to do it until y'all tell them to. And this is in the face of our Lakes being almost empty. And you're planning as if, you know, we're going to just keep pumping more and more water and generating more and more sewage that has to be treated. And you're not increasing the. >> Quality of effluent either, even though your resolution. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Megan meisenbach. >> Megan meisenbach. >> Roy Whaley. >> Mr. Whaley. >> Howdy y'all. Roy Whaley I [11:09:36 AM] >> Howdy y'all. Roy Whaley I don't usually blow my biscuits like that, but it is frustrating and I particularly want to apologize to council member harper-madison who just spoke with me. I meant no disrespect, and I didn't mean to interrupt you when you were speaking. I apologize. I agree again with my friend Bobby Levinsky, and I thank you, mayor, for pointing out the study that was just done. You know, I remember back when we were doing Wu for water treatment plant for that, the numbers showed that we're losing enough water, that we didn't need to spend $1 billion for a water treatment plant, but we did. We could have repaired our water lines. There is a street in my neighborhood that every summer they replace the water lines about five feet at a time. Instead of just doing the job efficiently. We can't keep inviting people to come here and [11:10:41 AM] inviting people to come here and use our water. If we don't have water, we have got to get really about water reuse. It's not that we don't have water, we don't use it effectively. And I don't believe that once again, a water treatment plant is the necessary way to go. Of course, I may not have the information I need to make a decision on that. I would love to have more information, but it's not always available. I just want to again and again. Yes, the state of Texas is talking about water is an important issue, but they're talking about moving it from one place to another place that's not creating water. We don't have a recipe to create water. We have water. Let's use it more efficiently. Let's use it more effectively. I enjoyed reading the article this morning, and I thank you again and my apologies. >> Thank you. Thank you mayor. [11:11:42 AM] >> Thank you. Thank you mayor. >> That concludes all of the consent speakers members. >> As you've heard. That concludes all the consent speakers. Again, for purposes of the record item number 62, the consent item will be the version two that was posted earlier this week on the message board. And then backup pulled items or items two, 58 and 103. The chair will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Motions made by count. It's not on consent. Item number 79 is a public hearing. It's a public hearing. And as I said at the beginning of the meeting, public hearings are not on the consent agenda. So the motion is made by council member Siegel. It is seconded by council member harper-madison. Discussion on the item, and I will recognize first council member Siegel. [11:12:43 AM] first council member Siegel. >> Thank you mayor. >> This is a packed consent agenda, so I have a few comments to make, but I first want to address the kind of accusation that we're not paying attention up here. I take that seriously as someone who's been on the dais basically a little more than two months, y'all can't see what we're doing here. But I'll just say for myself, when a member of the public comes up and mentions something, for example, one of our speakers mentioned a charter school in district seven where there's an unsafe bus access point. And so what I was doing while she was speaking was looking up that location and asking my staff to speak with cap metro about that. When another speaker was referencing a question and answer response regarding the convention center, I was looking up the backup. So just because I'm not making eye contact with the speaker, especially a speaker who's been here five times today and 20 times already this year, that doesn't mean I'm not listening. And I take it seriously when there's an allegation that we're not here to do our jobs, because I know from my short time on council [11:13:44 AM] from my short time on council that everyone here takes their job extremely seriously, and we field hundreds of constituent requests every week. We have to deal with agenda items that are packed with very detailed items. And so we work hard here. And the speaker who made that allegation has actually been in my office to speak about very detailed issues. So I don't think that was made in good faith. But that said, I do want to thank everyone who comes forward to speak with us that highlights different concerns in the community, because that is our job. Regarding the consent agenda, I want to highlight a few things that I really want to lift up. Items 48 through 56 are public health contracts, and these support critical life saving community services for many vulnerable austinites. And these are very important programs. For example, my staff has met with the folks from Texas harm reduction alliance about item 52, which funds the organization's drop in center, where about 70 people a day receive treatment, life saving supplies, clothing, showers, HIV and hepatitis C testing and [11:14:45 AM] and hepatitis C testing and more. Last year, they they distributed over 4000 narcan doses, over 6000 doses, and they're saving hundreds of people's lives, hundreds of people's lives. Especially a mayor pro tem Fuentes, council member. Velazquez council member alter for advocating for th original contract. Also, item 48 is for safe and you know they provide housing, emergency shelter, critical resources for survivors of domestic violence, including medical care, therapeutic services, legal assistance. And they they provide housing and shelter for 900 people in Austin every night, offering safety, dignity and hope to survivors of violence and their families. And housing is the number one requested resource for their safe line, highlighting the city's critical need for additional emergency shelter options. And so the community shelter that safe is operating will create 40 new units and provide life saving [11:15:46 AM] provide life saving opportunities to thousands of survivors over its lifetime. So these programs that we're funding through public health are more important now than ever, especially because we've lost some critical federal funding under the arpa program, including most recently, $2 million that was cut by congress that was already earmarked by the federal government for safe. And so this is something we're gonna have to pay a lot of attention, attention to in the days and years ahead to make sure we can fund these life saving services and programs. On item 59, I want to thank council member alter for bringing this item to address the large number of repeated false alarms that are pulling away significant public safety resources. My hope is that this item will enhance public safety by reducing the number of false fire alarms, false burglary alarms, and more. It's also my hope that these types of policies will reduce the types of calls that currently we have to utilize sworn officers for when other responses are more appropriate, and that way, this item is in alignment with our city's [11:16:47 AM] alignment with our city's efforts to redirect, for example, mental health calls to medical and social work professionals instead of police to free up officers for, you know, higher priority public safety concerns. And also, I just want to acknowledge council member altars, work to, I guess, address concerns my office had about mass surveillance technology and civil liberties. We've clarified that there's a provision in this resolution to make sure that private security cameras, they may be used by police, but we're not authorizing that. And we're making sure that there's safeguards and guardrails for any program the city manager puts forward to make sure that the public safety committee is able to review such policies before they're implemented. And then finally, on item 62. Thank you, mayor, for inviting me to co- sponsor this common sense infrastructure improvement. This is the kind of investment that's essential. You know, one of our biggest concerns as a community is housing, right, that city of Austin workers can't afford to live in this city that are black and Latino communities are being [11:17:47 AM] and Latino communities are being pushed out, that people graduating from our local colleges and universities don't have a place to live. And so we need to find room for our community to live in the city limits. And that requires us to enhance our infrastructure along the way. So this to me fits very much in line with that. Thank you, mayor. >> Thank you. Councilmember Siegel council member alter, followed by councilmember harper-madison and council member qadri. >> Thank you very much. I wonder if I could ask the convention center staff up to get a clarification on a couple questions that have been. Raised. Good morning. >> Katy zamesnik assistant director. >> I was wondering if you could first just respond to the question about the project financing zone, whether that is just the state share of hotel tax or the city share as well. >> It is just a state share. >> Okay. >> And that's how the bill specifically read. >> That is correct. >> So somebody could read the bill and know that. >> That is correct. [11:18:48 AM] >> That is correct. >> And secondly, I just wanted to we talked about this last time, but just to make sure we're all operating from the same set of facts here, we don't have the authority to take hotel taxes and spend it on a park acquisition or homelessness or. You know, pick a number of things that aren't tourism related or directly allowed for by state statute. Is that correct? >> That is correct. >> So when we talk about affordability, we can't take this money and put it into affordable housing. >> That is correct. >> Okay. That's that's all I wanted to clarify this morning. I appreciate you coming back up. >> Thank you very much. >> And then I do have one comment on. >> Thank you for that. >> Absolutely. As councilmember Siegel mentioned, we've been working for a while on the issue of false alarms, and I was blown away when I learned that 5% of all of our calls are for burglar alarms, and 95% of those are [11:19:51 AM] alarms, and 95% of those are false alarms. So we are spending a ton of time and resources when, you know, it could be something as simple as someone accidentally bumping the sensor or something else. So what this item is hoping to address is how we can more smartly our police officers, who are the ones who often respond to these calls and takes them away from other areas where where we want them to be in, in the public and in society. So what we're doing is taking some very common sense steps. We're going to have burglar alarm companies verify a threat if they can before doing dispatch, making sure that if you are a unpermitted system, that we're enforcing the rules, that you're not allowed to do, that we have permits for a reason. And so we don't want these unpermitted systems to proliferate. And lastly, if it [11:20:52 AM] proliferate. And lastly, if it just continues over and over again, we're going to take more significant steps of, you know, meeting with those individuals and figuring out why you keep having false alarms and taking vital public resources for that purpose. So I really want to thank councilmember Velasquez, councilmember vela. Councilmember Laine. Councilmember Siegel, for co-sponsoring, and I look forward to solving this very solvable problem so that we can be smarter as a city as it relates to utilizing our public safety resources. >> Thank you. Councilmember alter. Councilmember harper-madison, followed by councilmember qadri. Then councilmember Velazquez. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate that. And thank you. Councilmember alter. I don't need to officially be added as a co-spnsor, but I do appreciate that consideration. For 21 years, I was married into the Austin fire family, and just recognizing how many times they wake up in the middle of the night to answer calls for false alarms. And you know what that does to impact sleep for some of our first responders, I think is [11:21:53 AM] our first responders, I think is really important. So for a whole host of reasons, I really appreciate you digging into this. I think so frequently when we talk about the, you know, how finite our resources are, I think one of the things that we don't necessarily take the opportunity to do is take a look within and just see how much we already have in our county that we just need to give a little vacuum. So thank you for bringing that to the you know what I mean? To thank you for daylighting that. So there are quite a few items on this consent agenda for district one. I'll be quick. We have a long agenda, item number 36, the carver museum expansion. The carver is a vital cultural institution on the east side, with programing that celebrates and uplifts our culture heritage of the surrounding communities. And it was our first African American history museum, and I'm sad to say it. But, you know, one of the things that I considered during the course of all the considerations about what might be different with our new federal administration, given that three black history month events, events that I go [11:22:53 AM] month events, events that I go to annually were canceled this year, I fully intended to just not touch federal politics because it ain't what I do. It's out of my jurisdiction. I plan to just go la la la la la for the next four years. But it's actually touching my district now, in which case I really appreciate that we have already made this investment, and I just want to make certain that as a community, things that are called African American cultural heritage, whatever the thing is, aren't compromised by way of any rule at any level of government. These improvements will enhance visitor experiences at the carver, expand programing opportunities, and ensure that the museum remains a welcoming, vibrant space for Austin visitors to enjoy. Moving on to mobility, regarding item number 38, there are critical safety improvements coming to the Heflin Springdale mlk intersection. Anybody who's ever gone down mlk and tried to make a right on Springdale, you see that thing that's happening right there at Heflin? Thank you. Jesus. They're going to fix that. This intersection has long been a safety concern for residents with high, high [11:23:53 AM] residents with high, high pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Improvements will enhance accessibility, visibility, traffic flow, making it safe for everyone drivers, cyclists and pedestrians alike. We have another one that's off of Franklin. That's this same kind of wacky pack of a mobility thing. You know what I'm talking about. I see you shaking your head. I hope we can address all of those things. And I just want to be clear, you know, to your point, council member Siegel about when we are listening, literally 95% of the work that we get done out of the district one office comes directly from constituents. We had a speaker earlier today who said some things that really touched on some things that are important to me and that have caused concern for me too. And so, you know, one of the things that we do do is like when we're not looking, I'm trying to find my staff so they can come find you and talk to you about that thing you just said. So I really appreciate the community members who brought these concerns around transit and mobility safety to our attention. And then lastly, I would like to thank our mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your leadership and collaboration with my office on [11:24:54 AM] collaboration with my office on item number 62 regarding the walnut creek watershed or, I'm sorry, wastewater treatment plant. I really appreciate that. We had a couple of folks who spoke to my heart frankly today about water. But Mr. Whaley and I promise you, this is not me, olive branch. And we don't need the olive branch, by the way, folks. Mr. Reilly, Mr. Whaley sold me my first house. I know that man. And so I'm not offended by you being passionate. I appreciate your passion. I just think that, you know, I had a conversation with a constituent one time, and he was like, fussing at me, but we were saying the same thing. I was like, why are we yelling? And so then he says, you're my representative. It is my responsibility to hold you accountable. I said, it absolutely is, and you're my representative. It's my responsibility to give you a hard time. I was like, you know that part? I don't know, I think the way the system is set up is a setup for all of us, for us and for y'all. The way the system is set up for us to communicate, to disseminate [11:25:55 AM] communicate, to disseminate information. Texas open meetings I hate keeping secrets, y'all. Texas open meetings act in and of itself prohibits us from sharing. I hate it. I hate the way we exchange information and engage and participate with one another, because I think folks think it has to be contentious. Just so you know, not tone police, not minimizing your ability to utilize your first amendment rights. But just so you know, the relationship between you and policymakers being good and you guys being able to even ideologically be opposed but still understand where one another is coming from and work towards positive change for the overall greater good of the general Austin citizenry and their quality of life. Y'all know we can do that together without damaging one another's mental health. It's a possibility. Try it. It's fun. We get to just exchange information, and even if at the end of it you say, I don't like that and I didn't like that vote. And I say, what? I'm sorry that that was the case, but I voted with my heart [11:26:56 AM] case, but I voted with my heart and my integrity. Shake hands. See you at the H-E-B at Mueller. And that's it. That's how our relationship is supposed to go. And I hope that we all can make the commitment to just be in generally better about communicating effectively and productively. Yelling at each other does not do it, I swear. And so I just I like when y'all testify. I like when y'all tell us what you're thinking. And to my point, literally 95% of what we do comes directly from the mouths of the people who bring it to us. Because you can't be everywhere all the time. So thank y'all. I appreciate you all being a part of this experience. Forward to continuing to working with the mayor's office and our city staff to just keep talking about water, because, Mr. Whaley, the point that you made about us just not using it, right? Every day I watch my neighbors put potable water on grass. I want to crawl into the gutter. It drives me absolutely nuts that we don't use water like a premium. Sure, if you want a lush English garden full of saint Augustine, go for it. But you pay more. If you're not growing food, you don't get to [11:27:56 AM] growing food, you don't get to use water Willy nilly. And I think just from a construction perspective, us like we can't retrofit capturing gray water, but we certainly can do it on the front end. So to your point, Mr. Whaley, I really hope that we just do a better job. And to your point also, Mr. Bunch of recognizing we can move it, we can try to adjust the systems. But the truth of the matter is, all of us have an obligation to be Earth wise and just change some things. Behavioral things don't thaw chicken by turning on the water and letting it run for an hour. You know who you are. If you're washing your hands wet, lather. Turn it off. Rinse. If you're in the shower, wet, lather. Turn it off. Rinse. Yeah, these are basic things that are just a part of our stewardship and commitment to being Earth wise, because we care about each other and we have to share this place. We don't want it, we need it. So I think I'm done. Mr. Mayor, thank you all for your time. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember qadri, followed by councilmember Velazquez and then councilmember Laine. >> Thank you, mayor. And I want to touch on something the [11:28:57 AM] to touch on something the councilmember just said, the Miller H-E-B, I probably have the most constituent interactions in that H-E-B. I can't I can't go into it without running into someone, which is which is great. I want to briefly touch on item 49. It was a budget amendment that my office sponsored back in 2023. It stems from, you know, the food access, lack of food access services for college students. I'm really excited to see another 12 months added. In partnership with the central Texas food bank, to continue supporting students that are experiencing food insecurity. And I really want to thank the college student commission for initially recommending this item to bringing up this issue. And I'm proud that we're continuing the work on a very important topic. >> That's it. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember Velasquez, followed by councilmember Laine and then councilmember duchen. >> Thank you. Mayor. I don't know if we're if the my compa was throwing shade at the at other hcbs, but my H-E-B is east seventh street. So I just want to make sure we put up the flag for them over there. I want to echo some of the sentiments by [11:29:57 AM] echo some of the sentiments by council member Siegel that there are a lot of great things on the Austin public health for Austin public health on the agenda this week, I want to highlight two district three organizations, a couple of which councilman Siegel touched on, and these organizations are doing life saving work here in the city. And I'm excited that we get to support them. On item 48, the funds for safe. It's an organization that provides shelter, peer support, legal support, housing, and so much more to survivors of domestic violence. And as a lot of the folks here on the dais know, that is a very personal issue to me. Item 51 funds funds for the Texas harm reduction alliance, an organization that does community driven public health through street outreach and drop in services. I was having a coffee with the editor, Maggie Luna, the other day, and she indicated how just a few days before they had an individual drive up that was overdosing, they administered narcan and saved his life right there in front of their shop on Cesar Chavez. They are saving lives, and I just wanted to highlight these two organizations, and I'm so proud we can go get their back. Thank you. [11:30:58 AM] back. Thank you. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember Laine, followed by councilmember duchen and then councilmember vela. >> Thank you mayor. So I represent district six, which is in the northern and northwestern suburbs of Austin. I will not go on as long as I could, but I do have a few comments. So relating to number 31 and 32, which is safe streets and roads for all, I would like to pull forward some of the public comment that we heard about the area north of 183, and specifically north of 183 on Lamar, because 183 then continues traveling northward and becomes a major corridor that runs through district six, that area that our public commenter mentioned as an immigrant gateway where many black and Latinos live. I just want to elevate that. We also have many members of our Asian community, Asian immigrant community, living in the northern suburbs, both northwest and northeast, and who have more limited access to our city [11:32:00 AM] limited access to our city services and don't always have their voices heard and are experiencing the same lack of transit options that our public commenters spoke on. So I will also note that we've had many, many apartment complexes popping up along all kinds of roads that got mentioned in public comment and beyond north Lamar palmer, the 183 corridor from 35 to mopac and then northward through D six, six, 20 and which then becomes 45 and crosses east west across our northern suburbs. The transit solutions, the sidewalks, which is itself a transit solution when there is not a bus. Have not developed on these txdot roads along with that density. And I share the concern that I heard, and I look forward to working with my council members who also represent the northern suburbs, to find safe ways for people to walk and bike along these very heavily trafficked and dangerous roadways. So they're not dodging [11:33:00 AM] roadways. So they're not dodging ditches and drainage improvements along the way. There are multiple major roadways in my district that have dirt paths worn all the way up and down them without a bus going along them as well. So thank you for hearing me a little longer on that particular one. I also would like to voice my strong support and happy to hear the comments of my colleagues about number 59 relating to false alarms, better tailoring, our 911 response to the need is what good government looks like. Continuous improvement of the systems we have so we can more effectively use our financial resources and save tax dollars by using them effectively, is what I'm here to support. I want to thank everyone for the comments they've already made on this topic. I am also would like to voice strong support for number 62, the walnut creek wastewater treatment plan. We sorely need investment in our wastewater infrastructure, both capacity because of the growth that has [11:34:01 AM] because of the growth that has happened in Austin and also capital investment in areas where wastewater infrastructure is failing because of age and other concerns. We also need capital investment in our water infrastructure, where it is aging and leaking at ever increasing rates. It is not an either or. We need to do both. We've got to be able to flush our toilets. You need water and wastewater for that. And then finally, I would just like to make a very brief comment about decorum. Fairly new to city hall, I've spent a lot of time in other board meetings, including school board, and rarely have I been in a room where there was a disruption as significant as that and a warning was not issued or that individual was not removed. Now, I know some people are here a lot. They develop relationships. District six doesn't make it down here that often is far. There aren't any transit solutions to help us leave our cars behind. And when someone who's very familiar to everyone [11:35:03 AM] who's very familiar to everyone disrupts significantly and doesn't have a warning or or any statement around decorum, it creates an inhospitable environment for the people who are newer to the space. So I'm new. I don't know what our city hall rules are, but I would encourage, please don't yell out and disrupt the flow of the meeting. We've got a lot to get through. Thank you. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember duchen, followed by councilmember vela. >> Thank you. First, I want to just echo a couple of things that council member Siegel said regarding the challenges that we have up on the dais. I'm figuring them out as well, but often we're juggling 4 or 5 different things, often related to the same thing that the speaker is addressing. And I wish I had extra arms and extra eyes and maybe an extra clone or two. But the reality is there's a lot of multitasking that has to happen as we're trying to investigate some of the things that may actually be spoken about in the moment. I want to touch on, really, the two issues [11:36:04 AM] touch on, really, the two issues that brought about some contention this morning, which are items 40 and 62. That's the convention center at walnut creek expansion. I struggle with these items because they are big ticket billion dollar items. Yesterday we had an update at audit and finance that indicated that with our current capital improvements, we're going to be asking everybody in this room to be paying about another 37% over the next four years. And so that's without a new bond, that's without any kind of other expense. And part of those drivers are going to be the convention center and the walnut tree walnut creek expansion. So I think in light of these not being, you know, million dollar, tens of million dollars, but instead billion dollar projects, I feel like they do warrant additional scrutiny. Scrutiny. I feel like we should be we should on providing more information where possible. I think it was [11:37:04 AM] where possible. I think it was frustrating for my team to have to figure out what the expenses, the additional design costs were related to the convention center. It required some conversations with finance. They were related to additional projects in connection with that related to Austin water and energy, but that they weren't included in the backup and the item description I find frustrating. And then there was the point that the that Mr. Bunch made, which is we've been asking for a certain data from the convention center folks for upwards of two and a half months now, and I wish that it ultimately we are given information and some of that information is helpful and some of it seems contradictory, but some of it's also incomplete. And so we have to run our own gap analysis on that information to figure out what we requested, what we've been, what we've received successfully, and what we're still missing. And right now, that's a fairly lengthy and onerous process for something [11:38:05 AM] onerous process for something that we're required to take votes on. So I'm voting no on this item, partly in the need of just additional information that we're still requesting. And then on 62, the walnut creek expansion. That's something that I've heard concerns about over the last year that I think Mr. Levinsky raised some of them that I've heard I've heard others, including that we've in some cases compared similar expansions to other cities expansions. And ours turned out to be a lot more expensive, for reasons that I'm still trying to understand. So in light of those concerns and the lack of the lack of complete information that I currently have, I'm going to be abstaining that to. >> Thank council member, council member vela. >> Thank you. Mayor. I have a quick question for transportation public works on item 32. Yeah. >> Okay. [11:39:14 AM] >> Okay. >> Well done. >> That was fun. Anna martin, assistant director tpw. >> Thank you very much, miss martin. I just wanted to the. We're we're issuing this contract to provide basically concrete cement to the city. This does this would this contract preclude the use of other types of concrete permeable or the low carbon embodied contract? >> No, it would not. We would have to go through a change order process, but we could use a different type of concrete in the future. >> Okay, great. I just wanted to clarify that, because I know we've done a number of pilot projects with using different types of concrete, and I just wanted to make sure that this contract did not, in and of itself, preclude us from using any other types of concrete. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, councilmember vela. That being all the discussion on the consent agenda. Okay. >> I know I already spoke and I [11:40:14 AM] >> I know I already spoke and I apologize for coming back, but I think it's just really important that when we especially have the public here, we all operate from the same set of facts. Facts are important and they make decisions. They inform our decisions here. And I respect, you know, my colleague, councilmember duchen having a different conclusion based on those facts. But property taxes will not be affected by the wastewater. The walnut creek wastewater plant, property taxes will not be affected by the convention center. Those are revenue bonds supported by different forms of funding. They come from different either taxes or water. Your water bill. Your water bill will be affected. And that's that is in the materials provided by Mr. Levinsky. And that's a discussion we should have and a weighing of whether or not that's worth it. But when we are talking about the decisions we're making and the impacts to the public, it's [11:41:14 AM] impacts to the public, it's important, I believe, that the record is clear that when we're talking about the property taxes, these have no impact on that. >> Thank you. Councilmember, there being no further discussion on the consent agenda, let me ask, other than council member duchen on item number 62, is there anyone wishing to show themselves abstaining from a consent agenda item? Anyone wishing to be shown recusing themselves from a vote on any of the items on the consent agenda? I have council member duchen voting no on item number 40. Is there anyone else wishing to be shown voting no on any item? That being the case, without objection, the consent agenda is adopted with councilmember duchen being shown abstaining on 62 and voting no on item number 40. That completes the consent agenda. Members, I'm cognizant of our 12:00 time certain, so bear with me as I may move around on a couple of items so that we can get business done and let staff go to other places on some of [11:42:15 AM] go to other places on some of these items. But the item I'm going to take up is item number two. I'm going to recognize councilmember vela for a motion, and then I'm going to ask him to move to amend that. I thought there was what I was told is I was preparing for this, that there was going to be a version two, there's not a version two and for, for clarity purposes, what we're going to do, we'll do it this way. We have a speaker I will call on the speaker. When that speaker is completed. Then I will call for a vote. Council member vela. >> Thank you, mayor. I would and I'm sorry. >> He council member vela moves approval of item number two. It is seconded by council member Velazquez. Council member vela. I will now recognize you on a motion to amend its vela number one motion to amend item number two. >> Thank you. Mayor. I'm offering an amendment to the strategic plan. >> Hang on one second. Council member, if you're speaking, if you're in the council chambers and you're talking, you're out [11:43:16 AM] and you're talking, you're out of order. And I would please ask you to go out because we have a very busy agenda and we're trying to get through it. I'm sorry, sir, you're out of order. Now. Councilmember. >> Thank you, mayor, and I appreciate you keeping order and discipline in the in the room. The my amendment does two things. The first is a customer service focus there. We've gotten some reports about miscommunications between staff and folks that are turning into an animal or picking up an animal. It's just asking for a focus to make sure that the left hand, the right hand know what's going on, and that we're communicating clearly with the members of the public. And the second part of the amendment would focus on expanding and resources and getting good data to the various committees, both to the public health committee with a minimum of once a year reporting to the public health [11:44:17 AM] reporting to the public health committee. And then, of course, the regular reporting that the animal service officers does to the animal advisory committee as well. And I've worked with staff on these, and I offer that amendment. >> Councilmember vela moves approval or adoption of amendment vela amendment number one to item number two. It's seconded by council member Velazquez. A discussion on the motion to amend hearing. None without objection. Vela amendment number one to item number two is adopted. That's going to take us back to the main motion on item number two, as amended. I'll now ask the city clerk to call for our speaker. >> Speaker. >> Welcome again. >> Thank you again, mayor. And again, my name is pat trellis and I live in district three. I served on the strategic planning working group for animal services that you are discussing [11:45:18 AM] services that you are discussing now, and I am here to speak on that item. Thank you, council member vela for your motion. I think it's a very good one. I think both of those issues in the be it resolved sections, will further improve the plan. I also want to thank mayor pro tem Fuentes, council member Jose Velasquez, my council member and council member duchen, for the excellent questions the three of you asked at the public health committee meeting earlier this month. Those questions would have been questions I would have raised today had you not already raised them. So I appreciate that very much. I am here to say that I support the plan. I think you should approve it today, but there are some things that I'd like you to consider. Council member duchen you. And whether during the planning process, the strategic plan process, there were priorities discussed. We [11:46:19 AM] were priorities discussed. We did discuss priorities at meeting number two and we said open intake and spay neuter were priorities, and we wanted to keep discussing them. We did keep discussing them, but a lot of other people had other priorities, and a lot of the agenda expanded. And we went in lots of different directions. And now the question remains, what are we going to do about the fact that we have a closed intake shelter? I don't think we can hang our hat on being no kill and saying no kill is a great thing. If the way we achieve no kill is by closing intake, we just don't know what happens to the animals that don't come into the shelter. Do they get killed on the street? Do they run loose and bite children? What is happening out there? And council member vela, your motion helps to address that. So thank you very much. >> Thank you. And thank you for being here and for your patience. Members. Those are all the speakers on item number two. We have a motion and a second. And just for the record, it is item number two, as amended by [11:47:20 AM] item number two, as amended by vela amendment number one, first councilmember Siegel. And then I'll recognize councilmember vela. >> Thank you. Mayor. I just want to acknowledge assistant city manager Carbajal, who has facilitated the creation of the strategic plan, really bringing together a broad array of stakeholders to get some consensus on qualitative goals for animal services. And I really look forward to supporting these efforts and to get better outcomes for the city in the days ahead, for our dogs and cats, for our staff, for our volunteers. I know this is not easy work. My wife is a veterinarian, actually has a clinic in allendale, and there are not easy answers to a lot of the questions and the issues that are facing animal services. So I really want to thank you and your team for taking on this necessary effort. Thank you. Mayor. >> Councilmember vela. >> I want to echo council member Siegel's comments. Thank assistant city manager Carbajal and all the staff at the at the shelter. They've done great work on this. I also wanted to thank Austin pets alive and Ellen Jefferson. I know she's here. They're also in support of the [11:48:21 AM] They're also in support of the strategic plan, so it's great to get the entire community in support of a strategic plan that will move us forward to better shelter, better care for our our pets, our animals in the community. Thank you. >> Mayor. Great. Thank you. And I echo the thanks that that's been given really good work. Any other discussion? Hearing none. Without objection. Item number two, as amended, is adopted. Members, I'm going to now take us to item number 64, which is an item from a council committee, and I'll recognize the mayor pro tem for a motion on item number 64. As the chair of the public health committee. >> Thank you. Colleagues, I move to approve a resolution reappointing Emmett motwani to the central health board of managers. >> Is there a second? Seconded by council member zo qadri discussion on the item. There's no one signed up to speak. Yes. Council member harper-madison. >> Very briefly, Mr. Mayor, I've had the opportunity to be working as a community member. As a I was running when I was [11:49:21 AM] As a I was running when I was first running in 2018. But then, you know, he served on the and I think maybe he's even still serving urban renewal board. And you name the thing, he jumps at the opportunity to serve our community. And he's a brilliant man. So I think he's really going to serve well in this role. So I very much appreciate having the opportunity to welcome him aboard the central health service position. >> Thank you. Council member. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Without objection. Item number 64 is adopted on item number 65. That is from the audit and finance committee. And I would move that we approve a resolution as the chair of that committee, that we approve a resolution appointing Iowa to the municipal civil service commission. It's seconded by council member vela. Discussion. Hearing. None. Without objection. Item number 65 is adopted. Members, we will now go to items 66, 68, 69, 70, 71 and 72 for the record. Item number 67 has been withdrawn. These are eminent domain items. So with [11:50:22 AM] eminent domain items. So with respect to items 66, 68, 69, 70, 71 and 72, they being nonconsent condemnation items, I will accept a motion to the effect that the city council of Austin authorizes the use of the power of eminent domain to acquire the property set forth and described in the agenda for the current. This current meeting for the public uses that are described therein. Council member vela moves that makes that motion. It is seconded by council member Siegel. For the record, let me turn to the city clerk and ask if there's anyone signed up to speak on these items. >> There are no speakers, mayor members. >> There are no speakers on those items. Is there discussion on those items as they have been called hearing? None. Without objection, items 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, and 72 are adopted consistent with the motion that was made. Members that will take us please to item number 7373 is [11:51:23 AM] us please to item number 7373 is one of our public hearings that requires action. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 73. The public hearing is now open, and I will recognize the municipal clerk. >> There are no speakers. >> Mayor members. There are no speakers on item number 73. So without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 73. And I will request a motion to approve item number 73. The mayor pro tem makes that motion. It is seconded by council member Siegel. I was wondering whether he was going to look at. Look at me. No. Council member Siegel is there a discussion on item number 73? There being none without objection, item number 73 is adopted. Members, we will go back. We have eight minutes. So what I'm going to before we get to our time certain of course, if we're a little late as we [11:52:25 AM] if we're a little late as we start that. I just want everybody to know that I'm trying to balance the timing on this. We will go back to item number 58. I'll recognize the mayor pro tem who pulled item number 58. >> Thank you. Colleagues, on this item, I'd like to divide the question and make a motion to approve the appointments and certain related waivers to citizens boards and commissions for the nominees listed in waiver and version number three. With the exception of the district ten recommendation for the parks and recreation board, I'd like to postpone that nomination just a little bit so I can connect with colleagues and address some concerns that have been raised. >> Thank you. The mayor pro tem moves to divide the question on item number 58 is seconded by council member Velasquez. Is there discussion on the motion to divide the question? Without objection, the motion to divide the question is adopted. We will now go. I'll go back to the [11:53:26 AM] now go. I'll go back to the mayor pro tem for a main motion with regard to item number 58, with the, the division being that the recommendation of a person to be appointed from district ten for the parks and recreation board be postponed. And the motion is made by the mayor pro tem. It's seconded by council member qadri. Is there discussion on that motion? Yes. Council member duchen. >> Well, my concern is and I want to clarify, is my appointee here is Ted here. Okay. So I'm wondering whether there's not a way we can just instead of postponing address any concerns that there are about this appointee right here during this process. >> There's not we're we're not set up. There's not a procedure that we would be able to follow that would do that right now, unless on the motion to postpone. You want to have a debate for that. But but and that would be your the next motion will be to postpone. And whether or not we do that [11:54:27 AM] whether or not we do that postponement because you have a division of the question when we're on that, that would be an appropriate time, I suppose, to debate the merits of a postponement, and that would include the merits of whether or not we go forward with that appointment. >> Okay, then I'll wait for that moment. >> To happen. All right. Is there any objection to the main motion, which are the appointments that are not part of the divided question? Without objection, the main motion is adopted. I'll now recognize the mayor pro tem for a motion to postpone the recommendation from district ten to the parks and recreation board. So moved motions made by the mayor pro tem. It is seconded by council member Ellis. Now we will go to discussion on that motion, and I'll recognize the mayor pro tem, and then I'll recognize council member harper-madison. >> Thank you. Colleagues, I'm just asking for a little bit more time to address some concerns that have been raised and just asking for a couple weeks to raise those questions with colleagues offline. Thank [11:55:28 AM] with colleagues offline. Thank you. >> Thank you, councilmember harper-madison. >> Thank you, mayor pro tem. I was I was hoping to sort of glean from that. I've had the opportunity to know this, this candidate over the years, and it would be my pleasure to be able to offer some support for him to be able to serve in this capacity. But I'm very curious about your concerns and want to make sure that we address them all. So I would support a postponement just to make sure that we're being thorough. >> Thank you. >> Further discussion. Councilmember duchen. >> I would just like to again offer, if there's a way for us to given that my appointees here, if there's not some process that we could use to address any concerns that we might have during this, during this particular vote. >> We don't have a process for interviewing the candidate or doing that. And what I would say is the if people want to visit with him, people want to address those issues, address those issues with you, they will have that opportunity to do that under a postponement. But we're [11:56:29 AM] under a postponement. But we're not. We have never and are not set up to interview individuals as they come, as we come forward at a council meeting, council member Ellis. >> Thank you. I just wanted to add my voice to understanding that when a council member wants to do more research, and I think there may be a few of us that want to make sure that we're understanding any anything that might be brought to other council members attention by other folks in the community. I don't know exactly what those are, but I want to give my colleague the ability to make sure that when we vote on things that we're well informed and that we feel comfortable with the vote, whether someone votes for or against or abstains on any issue that comes before us. >> Thank you, council member. Further discussion with regard to this. Yes. Council member duchen. >> I'll just add that I understand the need to get some clarity on those things. I feel it's unfortunate that there's not an opportunity to do that today. It sounds like in our process, given that my appointee is here, and I also want to acknowledge that I appreciate [11:57:29 AM] acknowledge that I appreciate councilmember harper-madison comments regarding my appointee, I'll echo them that he's got tremendous experience in this space from working across the country in the parks capacity. But it sounds like all I can ask is that you guys respect that experience and that we go through whatever process we need to make sure that we get answers satisfied. >> Any further discussion? >> Mayor, we have a speaker. >> Okay. >> Carlos. Leon. >> So, Carlos. Leon, first and foremost, gracias a dios for letting me speak in favor of item 58, approving new board and commission members should help your library commission make quorum again to meet again, so I [11:58:29 AM] quorum again to meet again, so I can again testify and present evidence to them about Austin public library's official policies continuing to be out of compliance with city superseding rules. In front of you now is December 31st, 2024. Peer response saying their Ken policy has been recently reviewed, updated and is awaiting sign off for finalization. However, as of March 25th, 2025, city clerk has not posted a proposed rule change required by city codes one, dash two, dash two and 1-2-4 before adopting a rule therefore applies. Interim director Hannah Terrell has apparently not yet filed the proposed rule change with city clerk, though APL Ken policies have been out of compliance with your rules for public use for city properties since August 25th, 2023, which I brought to [11:59:30 AM] 25th, 2023, which I brought to your attention with public testimony and hard copy evidence at the February 27th, 2025 city council meeting for item four, approving an ordinance amending city code chapter 2-1 allowing APL to continue disregarding city superseding rules for public use of city properties, invites other city departments to do the same, mocking your authority and oversight power and the city code itself. Follow up asap with Terrell, interim city attorney Thomas, city manager Broadnax and city clerk Rios to make Roig APL toe the line on paper and in practice. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. >> Thank you sir. >> Yes, sir. >> That concludes the speakers. >> All right, members, that concludes the speakers. Is there any further discussion with regard to the motion made by the mayor pro tem to postpone this [12:00:31 PM] mayor pro tem to postpone this item, to postpone this one appointment for parks and recreation? Without objection, the item is adopted with councilmember Siegel temporarily off the dais. With that, we are at noon, which takes us to our 12:00 time, certain which is public communication. The city clerk will call the names of the people that are set up that are signed up to be part of public communication. So but you know what order you're signed up in. So I would request that you please come forward so that you'll be available immediately upon your name being called, and you'll be able to provide your testimony. So, madam clerk, I'll look to you. >> Adrian Macias, followed by Ruben Rivera. Clemente senior. Alan Demling, Rachel hackathorne, David Haas, cassie Cavazos, Scott Cobb, Joe [12:01:32 PM] Cavazos, Scott Cobb, Joe Wiseman, Laura Guerrero, and sue fowler. >> Good afternoon, mayor and city council members. I am Adrian Macias, with porta joining. Join us in celebrating the annual March and annual Cesar Chavez order. Cesar Chavez was born on March 31st, 1927, in yuma, Arizona. It says Chavez was a Latino farmworker, labor leader, civil rights activist and crusader for social change. Chavez was co-founder of the united farm workers, which advocates for better wages and safer working conditions on American farmlands. Cesar Chavez is more than a symbol and role model for the farmworkers and the chicano Mexicano community. Cesar demonstrated the need for all working people to support those who are oppressed and exploited, working for dignity on the job and in the community. Increasing democratic rights of working people, challenging the powerful and defense of the [12:02:34 PM] powerful and defense of the powerless. Austin residents have celebrated the life of Cesar Chavez and his selfless dedication for farmworkers and workers rights, economic justice, civil rights, environmental justice, peace, nonviolence, and empowerment of the poor and disenfranchized. On Saturday, March 29th at 9:30 A.M, people will gather at the library at 1105 at east Cesar Chavez and March to ab conjunto pan American center, 2100 east third street, on Cesar Chavez's birthday, Monday, March 31st, to honor 16 individuals that continued to struggle for justice, individuals that helped keep the spirit of Cesar Chavez alive in our name. Now name those people Alexandria Anderson and raisin Mcintosh, Jay banner, bill bunch, congressman Greg Caesar, Tessa Comstock, Jordan French, Victoria Gomez, Joaquin Harrington, genesis Hernandez, Bobby Levinsky, Deedee Montoya, [12:03:35 PM] Bobby Levinsky, Deedee Montoya, Saul Raza, praxis, Michaela Rios, councilman Jose Velasquez, and Ofelia zapata. Thank you. >> If your name has been called, please make your way to the podium and state your name for the record. >> My name is. >> Ruben Rivera, hyphen Clemente senior. And just like I said many times before, I hate being here, but I have to go ahead and bring attention to what I'm going through and especially to the city manager, because I'm requesting a meeting between him as well as chief Lisa Davis, because this has to end. I want to thank chito Velez for least trying to bring some attention. He did a bit more than what Greg Gonzales did, but unfortunately, you know, I want this to stop and I've done everything [12:04:35 PM] and I've done everything possible. This is strictly retaliation by this police department. And I have confronted police chiefs personally. Manley Chacon, Chacon I gave him a letter, actually, last the third of this month, I went to the public safety meeting across the hall, and I gave a letter to. Well, actually, it was received by chief Henderson, and she was supposed to give it to the chief, Lisa Davis. And I'm just trying to stop this nonsense, you know, there's been theft in dislocation since I've been here. Just moved back November the 30th. I saw some damage on my left side door. And I know who these officers are. I record them, but I was told I can buy. At the time. He called himself executive assistant police chief Brian Manley and confirmed by attorneys. But for some reason, [12:05:35 PM] attorneys. But for some reason, I can't get what I need to seek justice, which is a name and a badge. And this unit that I'm referring to is called the organized crime unit. The undercover police officer that being utilized to harass those citizens that filed a complaint against the police department. >> And I. >> I've done literally everything. Police monitor, police oversight, FBI. I don't know what to do. This can't be how this police department conduct itself. Even when I left here on January the 30th, when I was approached by that assistant chief, his name is Eric Fitzgerald, he gave me a card and I told him. Who? This police, you know, actually, he wanted to know who the unit is. And I told organized crime unit, the undercover police officers, and he gave me a card, and I've been calling him about my ituation. Nothing has has stopped or slowed down. You know, these are my vehicles. They shouldn't be out there like [12:06:37 PM] They shouldn't be out there like it done. They shouldn't be out there putting dents in my vehicle. In this case, it looked like they use a screwdriver. These are police officers. How do I get the name and badge of undercover police officer? Tell me. And why is it lasted over two decades? 20 plus years? It don't make no sense. Even an individual from the police officer informed me that I've been complaining about this police department since 2008 or 2009. Chito vela probably already communicated with them or hopefully he is trying to get more information. I hate being here. >> Alan Demling followed by Rachel hackathorne. >> Hello, my name is Alan Demling. I'm a resident and I own a business in district three. I'm here to talk about the increased parking fines that were implemented March 1st. Real quick, a little bit about me. I ran for city council in 2008. I [12:07:38 PM] ran for city council in 2008. I ran against Lee Leffingwell and I obviously lost, but he appointed me to the urban transportation commission, where I served for several years. And during that time is when we switched from the single space, fixed parking meters to the kiosks that we have now, and also, when paid parking started moving east to the highway. One of the reasons that was presented to the commission back then for why east Austin needed paid parking was to help safety, mobility and access. This strategy aims to create more parking space turnover in high demand districts with consistent enforcement that's directly off the Austin website. So my first issue with the increased fines is that I actually don't believe that we're following that desire for paid parking to increase turnover, because as I drove here down east sixth street, there's more open parking spaces than there are occupied parking spaces, but you still have to pay. So my second issue is that we're not we're not giving reasonable alternatives to the people that this parking affects the most. So the parking is [12:08:39 PM] the most. So the parking is priced for the high earning wage earners in this town. But the people who work for me and the people who make your food and pour your drinks and check you out in the retail stores and stuff, they can't afford to pay the parking. So the alternatives are take a bus, which many of my employees have had to move out to, like pflugerville or way south Austin, and there's no busses that go there at three in the morning after their shift is over. Or they could do a rideshare, which, let's just say on the low side. That's that could be upwards of 20 to 30% of what they make in a day. So we're asking them to pay 20 to 30% of their income just to get to work. The other alternative is to parking in a neighborhood and walk potentially half a mile to a mile to get to work, when if safety truly is a concern, then at 3 A.M, we don't I don't want my employees to be walking a mile anywhere in town at that time of night, because I would have on my conscience if they got injured. That would be I would I would feel terrible about it. So I wanted to come [12:09:40 PM] about it. So I wanted to come with a few solutions. There are office buildings on my block that have office workers during the day, but not at night. They have parking garages underneath their buildings. If the city could somehow negotiate with those office buildings about allowing employees that work night shifts or work during the night to use those buildings, that would be one solution. Another solution is to just have somebody from the city go out to east sixth street and decide if we really do need paid parking in the middle of like at 11 A.M. On a Thursday or a Wednesday on east sixth street. I, having worked there, do not believe we can. I can park pretty much wherever I want during those hours. And then the third solution is potentially just offering parking passes to people who can prove with paychecks or pay stubs or whatever, that they work on those blocks. Thank you very much. >> If you can just hang hang on for just a second. Councilman Velasquez has a comment. >> Mr. Denny, thank you for being here today. Somebody from my team is going to come down and chat with you so we can get some some more information and get some of your ideas. Thank [12:10:41 PM] get some of your ideas. Thank you for being here. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Rachel hackthorn, followed by David Haas and cassie Cavazos. >> Hello. >> My name is Rachel agathon. I have run a business on e6 and I'm also a resident of d3 for over ten years now. I'm here to mirror Alan Deming's sentiments on the parking violations. A larger company on e6, but still a privately owned family business. We can actually afford parking for our staff members, but we pay upwards of $75 per person per month. So we have 35 employees, which means we're paying $31,000 a year just to make sure that our staff has somewhere to park safely and securely each day. Not only does the parking violations affect my staff members who can't make it into the garage, or newer staff members who have yet to have access to the garage, or [12:11:41 PM] access to the garage, or sometimes the garage doesn't work, but it affects our neighbors directly. Every business on the street, bartenders. Cooks, anybody who works on e6 is directly affected by this violation raise. So I'm here to offer also some solutions to the parking situation we currently face. Like us, we do have contracted parking in one of the garages, but that is fairly out of price for most workers. Us as a business have taken that on. Obviously with $31,000 a year, that's a huge expense for us, and that would be a large expense for a single bartender who works eight hours a day, five days a week, and lives in south Austin. So I would ask that the city contract parking spots in those empty garages for service industry workers and retail workers. Another solution would also be to restrict parking times to times of higher [12:12:43 PM] parking times to times of higher volume, like Friday, Saturday evenings, and then also the parking pass idea for street parking, I think is a great solution to providing safe parking because we have several employees up and down the street that are consistently affronted by customers. Drunk patrons at 3 A.M. And it's not very safe for most of our employees on the east sixth district to work to go to and from work at night. I'm also here to speak quickly. I I'm very excited to hear next week on the 17th about the food truck initiative, because that is another thing that directly affects our business. Most businesses on east sixth as well, that's all. >> Thank you. >> Rachel. My team is here, but you have my cell phone number. If you can get a group of us together, I'd be happy to come [12:13:44 PM] together, I'd be happy to come over for a pint and chat about this with y'all. I. >> David Haas, cassie Cavazos. >> Hello folks, my name is David Haas. I am also a resident and business owner of district three. I provide fabrication and handyman services for many of the bars and restaurants in that part of town. I am directly affected by the increase in parking and the increase in attendance. Checking that parking and the increase in unpaid or free parking spots. A lot of these jobs are vital for these businesses to be open for the day, and I arrive, and I may be on top of an ice maker with my entire torso in a ceiling when I run out of parking. It's not very practical for me, and a lot of the maintenance workers, delivery drivers, and other people that work to keep these bars, restaurants, and retails [12:14:47 PM] bars, restaurants, and retails open to monitor their parking. And again, as Alan and Rachel reflected, a lot of this is happening in non-peak bar hours. This is happening during the day where I'm performing most of this work, and I've heard from delivery drivers that are getting ticketed in the amount of time it takes them to drop off goods to these businesses. If I do receive a fine at the increased rate, it's really making it very impossible for me to make a living wage in the hour it takes me to do something there, I might as well not do it, and that I'm not the only game in town, but that will directly affect these businesses. If people like me, who are a small business owner, can't be there to help them to get them up and running for the day, I would like to see again these parking spaces relaxed during the day. As far as I know, there's only one east side community lot. It's up on 11th [12:15:48 PM] community lot. It's up on 11th street and that one is full. It's basically parking for a business up there. And again, not practical for me. Is working on sixth street or Cesar Chavez to be lugging my tools downtown or down down the street for that. So again, I would like the council and the city as a whole to reflect on the choice to make this exorbitantly expensive for someone who, again, is, yeah, a small business owner and not working in the greater tech field here and has the money to pay for this kind of fines and general parking fees. That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Cassie Cavazos, followed by Scott Cobb. >> Hello. Good afternoon, mayor and city council members. As you can see on the agenda, I was here to speak about the safety of women in Austin. But there's something more pressing. My name is Casey Cavazos again, and I want to thank you for your time. And I'm here to talk about the responsibility we all share, [12:16:49 PM] responsibility we all share, keeping our schools safe and ensuring every student in Austin feels protected, supported and free to learn. We've all seen the headlines about schools threats, lock down lockdowns and tragic violence that leaves permanent scars. While aisd has made progress, it's time to go further. Our kids deserve more than reactive policies. They deserve bold, preventable action. First, I propose that Austin lead a state lead the state by creating a city school safety task force, a permanent body that includes city officials, educators, students, mental health professionals, and community leaders. This group would proactively identify threats, close policy gaps, and implement the best. Before ones occurring. And this need became painfully clear after the incident at baranof elementary, where a teacher was arrested for child pornography and the intent to distribute. And my children go there. So this is an abstract to me. It's very personal, and I refuse to become another statistic. Second, we should adopt a municipal level safe storage law for firearms [12:17:50 PM] storage law for firearms requiring guns in homes with children be stored securely. It won't solve everything, but it's one of the most straightforward and evidence based ways to prevent school shootings and youth tragedies. Third, I feel like we must invest in behavioral threat assessment training in every school, not just the staff, but for the students as well. Recognizing the signs before a crisis can make all of the difference. And to make that effective, we need a centralized, anonymous digital reporting system that connects immediately with both school and city crisis teams. But safety just isn't physical. It's also emotional. And our lgbtq students, especially our gay and trans kids, are under constant threat not just from peers, but from policies trying to erase them. Nearly half of lgbtq seriously youth seriously consider suicide, and we cannot separate that from school safety. Let's create a citywide safety school pledge that guarantees protections for lgbtq plus students in every school. Protections from bullying, harassment, political targeting, especially right now in the [12:18:52 PM] especially right now in the world. Let's fund gender affirming mental health care services for nasa, id a and safe Zones on every campus with trained allies and visible signage so students know where they can feel safe. Austin has always been a city of progress, but now is a time to act boldly. Our kids are watching us and my kids are watching me. Let's show them that we're listening. Thank you. >> Scott Cobb, followed by Joe Wiseman. Scott Scott Cobb. >> Yes. >> Followed by Joe Wiseman. >> Good afternoon. March 25th, you received a memo from pr director Jesus Aguirre about an external investigation that they are going to do into the aquatics culture. In the memo, they say all the investigations they've done so far were fully in, completed and found nothing. Here's an email, December 26th that confirms there were [12:19:54 PM] that confirms there were inappropriate relationships between 30 plus year old managers and young lifeguards. The email confirms that the lifeguard and the manager were spoken to by management, and the woman was punished by being transferred, ending her lifeguard career to some other job. In part, the man remained manager and still works at Barton springs. This is evidence they are not conducting formal investigations adequately or professionally. They also lie in this email. They say that the lifeguards involved were hired by Pritchard at age 16. I have old emails that contain schedules. When these two lifeguards were 16 and 17, their first summer, Paige says, they were hired. At 18. They lie, they were hired at 16 and 17. [12:20:54 PM] they were hired at 16 and 17. Maybe they got into relationships at 18, but there was grooming going on another case that went uninvestigated because they couldn't find the names of the two women in the report filed with the city auditor because they were hearing their first names. I just, when I was standing back there, got an email, a text from one of those guards. She's really upset, so pardon her language. I told her. She said she was just yesterday contacted by hr and she didn't know what it was about. I told her they were doing an investigation. She writes. That's insane. When I walked out of the office that day to make that complaint, Jody J stopped me and basically intimidated me and made it very clear that I should stop. She basically was telling me if I wasn't so precocious, these things wouldn't be happening to us. And we were like, what the? Then I got fired, and then later [12:21:56 PM] Then I got fired, and then later she says, Jody is the one I think should be in the most trouble. Everything was brought to her attention. It was just so rampant and clearly the entire culture. That was probably too much work for her to deal with. She also says that working as a as a teenager in aquatics was traumatic. >> Sir, thank you for your comments. >> Yesterday I got a cease and desist letter from Jody J. She tells me to shut up or she's going to file criminal complaints against me. That is retaliation. She should be immediately suspended from her job as assistant parks director. >> Thank you. Thank you for your comments. >> Next speaker is Joe Wiseman, followed by Laura Guerrero. Joe Wiseman, Laura Guerrero, sue [12:22:58 PM] Wiseman, Laura Guerrero, sue fowler. >> Yes, please come to the mic. >> I have a presentation I sent you all, but I don't know if y'all can follow it or whatnot. >> Ct and can pull up the presentation. >> Am I supposed to do this? >> Thank you. Whenever you're ready. >> Do I click on this? >> You can use the clicker. >> It's supposed to open that link. Yeah. Copy paste it. I mean, if not, if. >> You can start your testimony we'll open the link. >> My name is Laura Rogers Guerrero, and I am here to bring to your attention a serious case of environmental injustice caused by weed. Cordele fish. Thank you. Appreciate that. I [12:24:01 PM] Thank you. Appreciate that. I was raised to stand up for the environment. And not write powerpoints, apparently. Okay. Because I'm a proud austinite. I want to share with you a disturbing reality. The view that sits directly across from my daughter's window of weed cordele fish. There we go. The photos and videos are shocking, but nothing can prepare you for the overwhelming odor that comes with the plume of smoke. Worse, when the wind shifts, anyone nearby is forced to run indoors to escape the toxic fumes beyond. The unbearable smell of this facility has been cited by the tech for violations, yet the black smoke continues. This is an environmental issue and a public health crisis. It also strains our emergency resources. Nail on the coffin, which all we're talking about today. The fire department has been called [12:25:01 PM] fire department has been called out repeatedly due to the extreme smoke. Just the other night, sparks were flying from the stack during high winds. The crematorium was built in 2022, yet it's located within a few feet of residence built in 1960, mind you. A grocery store, church and just 0.7 miles away from highland park elementary, the very school I attended. How was this active crematorium allowed to be placed in the middle of our community? This issue is so serious that KXAN aired an investigative report to bring attention to the persistent violation of the health risks posed by the chemicals. It's not just about my daughter, it's about. Daily. I urge you to take action. We need the city to step in and protect our community. Please do not let this go unchecked. Thank you for your consideration. You guys are superheroes. Please help us. >> Thank you. >> All the speakers have been called. >> Pardon? >> Thank you. [12:26:02 PM] >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I think we have one final speaker. >> Hi. My name is sue fowler and I live in highland park west condominiums. And I'm a retired teacher for the blind and visually impaired. I have lived in this location since 1992, and every time we have a business moving in, we get notice of like the oil change place across the street. And this time, this company, we had no idea who was moving in within range of our homes until after the building had begun. And we were able to ask the construction workers what they were building, and they let us know that it was a crematorium and we'd clearly fish. Well, we had no idea what the implications of this were until after they started their business. And this meant that daily we saw this going on, and [12:27:03 PM] daily we saw this going on, and at one point I was standing in my yard and the smoke, because of the way the air was moving or not, it came down and was like right in the middle of all of us who were talking just at each other. And so I just decided, what the heck, I'm going to go inside of the we'd call fish and say, people, do you know what's happening right now because they're in their business facing the other direction? And where in the yard of our place and the smoke is coming. And she said, ma'am, this is a business and this is what this business does. And I was like, no, this is not this cannot be possible. That in the city of Austin, this close to schools in my yard, to the point that. 22 years old and he is bulletproof, but he came into our house after inhaling a bunch of this because of the inversion of the way the smoke was going, [12:28:03 PM] of the way the smoke was going, I tried to take a picture of the ash that was on top of the pool, but there was no way of doing it. This is real. This is constant. Trying to get them to change or to do something different. We finally got to those people in and they agree. And the fire department yesterday went to talk to them about how many false alarms they get. They get a lot of false alarms because of the smoke. I was getting on to mopac not that long ago and saw this billowing smoke again. And you know, I know it's probably that place, but you just not ever sure. So I turned around, went back home and sure enough, it was them. But what I want to say is that my also my property values have changed. People have moved. I have thought of moving because this is the view that we have. But I love where I live. I don't want to move. I want them to [12:29:05 PM] want to move. I want them to move. How is it possible that within between my house, between the house of the woman at the bottom? >> Thank you. Thank you for your comments. >> That concludes all the speakers. >> Thank you. Colleagues. This concludes the public communication portion of the agenda. Council will now stand in recess until 1:10 P.M. We will stand in recess until 1:10 P.M, in which we would come back, and I invite everyone to join us for live music. Thank you all so much. Our council stands in recess. >> Good afternoon. Is that [12:40:10 PM] >> Good afternoon. Is that working right? I'm council member Jose Velasquez, and I have the honor of introducing viva palestina orchestra. The viva palestina orchestra was founded in November of 2023 here in Austin, Texas. They perform Palestinian cultural music. The orchestra. The orchestra's repertoire centers around Palestinian, Palestinian and levantine heritage preservation, which aims to celebrate culture, poetry, resilience through music, storytelling and community engagement. Yeah. Compromising, comprising musicians from diverse cultural backgrounds, the vpo ensemble blends their voices to uplift Palestinian narratives and lives. Since its inception, vpo has performed in multiple venues across Austin, including the museum of human achievement, empire control room, rich's art [12:41:11 PM] empire control room, rich's art gallery, the vortex hotel, Vegas spider, spider house ballroom, far out lounge, and Kenny Dorman's backyard. This multigenerational collective share the vision that music, culture, storytelling, and poetry can unite and heal while raising awareness of injustice and racism. Let's give it up for viva palestina orchestra. >> We. Wahab Bari, Bari. Hey! [12:42:50 PM] >> We. Wahab Bari, Bari. Hey! Hey hey hey! Shea! We. Bari, Bari. Hey, hey! Hey hey. We. Hey hey hey. We. Murray. Bari Carbajal. Hey [12:44:04 PM] We. Murray. Bari Carbajal. Hey hey hey. Tchoualack Carbajal gabi we [12:46:17 PM] Tchoualack Carbajal gabi we balada Garza. Zarif Fugitt schmalbach. We. Zarif. Abdulwahab gharib. We. Tabla. We. Gabi. We. Fugitt schmalbach. Zarif. Abdullah. Habibi. Schiera Rosie zohaib with Bari Hana zarif. Abdullah. Gulak. Gabi. With kazanlak. Beetroot. With Sade. Hana. Hey hey hey hey hey [12:47:25 PM] Sade. Hana. Hey hey hey hey hey hey. When I love when I almost love [12:48:33 PM] When I love when I almost love with la la la la la la la la la. La. Hey, Habibi. Hey, Habibi. Hey, Habibi. Allah. Yeah yeah yeah. When I am all. When I am in love with la la la la la la la la la. La la. Oh my, oh my. La. Yes yes yes yes. When I la [12:49:46 PM] La. Yes yes yes yes. When I la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la. La la la la la la. La. >> Thank you very much. One. Two three. [12:50:47 PM] One. Two three. Viva, Valentina! >> Wow! Just wow. Give it up again for viva palestina! So I have the. Our office was honored to sponsor this group to come and play for us today. And I have the distinct honor of reading the proclamation for it. Be it known that whereas our music scene thrives because of because Austin audience support diverse music produced by legends, our local favorites and newcomers alike. And whereas the viva palestina orchestra is a collective of Austin musicians that uplift Palestinian culture and identity through music and [12:51:48 PM] and identity through music and storytelling. And whereas music has a powerful way of bringing communities together, providing strength, hope and comfort, while also serving as a tool to inspire change and promote peace. And whereas the viva palestina orchestra raises awareness and educates their educates their listeners about the history of palestine through moving renditions of culturally relevant songs that tell stories of resilience, love, and the unbreakable spirit of the Palestinian people. And whereas the city of Austin is blessed with many creative musicians whose talents expand a variety of genres. And whereas we are pleased to showcase and support our local artists. Now, therefore, I, council member Jose Velasquez with the mayor pro tem Vanessa Fuentes and council member chito vela do hereby proclaim March 27th, 2025 as viva palestina orchestra day in Austin, Texas. [12:52:48 PM] in Austin, Texas. I hate this show. My dad. [1:10:27 PM] I hate this show. My dad. >> Good afternoon everybody. It's 110 on the afternoon of Thursday, March 27th, and I will call back to order the Austin city council after a brief recess of the city council members. What I'm going to do, just so that we can hopefully move with some efficiency and get we only we only have 50 minutes before our 2:00 time certain. And then of course, we have executive sessions that we're trying to get to. I'm going to call up first. I'm going to go to the public hearings, and I will call up those public hearings that have the least people signed up to speak, so that those folks will be able to speak, and then we will go to the remaining items. So the way I see this playing out is item 76, 84 and 113 will probably be after we have the [1:11:30 PM] probably be after we have the other public hearings, but I'm just going to play this until 2:00, see where we are. But I want you to know how I'm looking at that. So with that, I will call up item number 74. Remember members that items 74 through 82 are public hearings, but they're non-action items because they're technical code amendments, and they must be heard twice. But as I said, what I was going to do, I'm looking and I'm not sure we have the staff that was going to talk about these. Do we? 75 okay. Well, con, since you just volunteered, come up here and we'll we'll do 75. I'll call up item number 75. Item number 75 is a public hearing. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 75. And this is a very brief description of item number 75 in case council has any questions. >> Thanks. Bob cotton, general [1:12:32 PM] >> Thanks. Bob cotton, general manager, Austin energy. And Heidi Casper. What? We're good to go. Heidi, come on up. Okay. >> Can you give me slide eight? One more. Okay. Thanks. Heidi. Casper, I am the director for green building and emerging technology at Austin energy. I'm covering the energy code today. Next slide. In terms of this code, this version of the code is anticipated to increase the efficiency of new buildings by approximately 13% for commercial buildings and 6% for residential buildings. A lot of the changes add additional flexibility and choices to allow designers to implement the most cost effective approach to meet the efficiency standard for the residential code. In particular, one change I will highlight is [1:13:33 PM] one change I will highlight is the reduction of the prescriptive attic insulation from R 49 to R 38. Our analysis showed that there are diminishing returns for that level of insulation, and so by reducing it, we can achieve greater efficiency at lower cost. The code also includes requirements that anticipate the adoption of cleaner and more efficient technologies. In the future. Electric readiness measures will make it easier for homeowners to convert to electric equipment and appliances if they choose, and electric vehicle charging readiness measures allow for future ev charging. Other changes include air leakage reduction, demand response controls for water heater and moisture controls for bathroom exhaust fans. Next slide. For the commercial code, we're adding air leakage testing requirements for residential and institutional uses like the residential code. Additional flexibility and choices have been provided. New commercial buildings over 10,000ft S will require renewable energy systems and energy storage system readiness measures to allow for [1:14:33 PM] readiness measures to allow for future battery installation, as in the residential code, electric credit and electric vehicle readiness measures have been incorporated. These requirements I will just clarify add infrastructure only and not the actual equipment or the charging stations. >> Members. You have any questions? Have any questions? Thank you for that briefing on the item I will we've opened the public hearing and I'll turn to the city clerk. >> First speaker is Cyrus. Read on item 75. And he read. >> I've not seen him. >> He is remote. >> Oh, okay. That explains that. >> Yeah. I'm remote. Can you guys hear me? >> Yes. Can't see you. >> Yes. Thank you, mayor and city council. It's a pleasure to be here with you virtually. As you know, we're in the middle of the legislative session. It's hard for me to be in two places at once. >> But just know that. >> The Sierra club fully supports. Yeah, the Sierra club [1:15:34 PM] supports. Yeah, the Sierra club fully supports the adoption of the 2024 igcc, with local amendments for both commercial and residential buildings, lowering energy use and incorporating new technology is a key tool to meet our long term energy and climate goals. And buildings, as you know, last, sometimes well over 50 years. So making sure these new and refurbished buildings meet these codes is of paramount importance. Often, as you know, mayor and council members has been a leader on energy codes. And I believe with this adoption, we would be, I think, the first city in Texas to adopt the 24 energy code. It's important to note that many of you approved, well, some of you that that were members last year did approve the 2035 oxygen generation plan that made major commitments to continuing to be a leader on energy codes, energy savings, onsite solar, onsite storage, and continued [1:16:36 PM] storage, and continued incorporation of ev. We have reviewed carefully these proposals and agree with them. This code did go through rmbc PUC sustainability committee and obviously had lots of input from many stakeholders. We would note that we believe these improvements would save residential construction in terms of energy savings around 6% and commercial even more at 13%. According to the modeling, it would for commercial increase some construction costs, but over the long term of the buildings will save in terms of energy use and also the incorporation of these new technologies. >> Thank you. >> Your time is expired. Thank you so much. >> Next speaker, Camille cook. Camille. Next speaker is Shane [1:17:39 PM] Camille. Next speaker is Shane Johnson. Shane. Paul Robbins. >> Council, can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Council. I'm Paul Robbins. I serve as vice chair of the resource management commission. Our commission voted to support the energy code enthusiastically, and I urge you to approve it April 10th. But we also voted to support an addition to this. This and that is the we support a requirement for heat pump water heaters in all electric homes and apartments. This technology cost [1:18:39 PM] apartments. This technology cost effectively saves about 60% of the energy of a conventional unit. It is not logical for Austin energy to support new polluting gas power plants that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, while the utility continues to allow wasteful appliances to proliferate. My estimate is that in a ten year period between 2013 and 2023, there were 68,000 new homes with all electric water heaters that added about 24mw to the Austin energy peak demand. This added about $14 million a year in consumer costs. The state of California, with 12% of the country's population, is doing this now. It is too late to postpone passage of the proposed [1:19:40 PM] postpone passage of the proposed code. But on April 10th, I'm asking you to add a separate item to initiate a code process to require heat pump water heaters in new all electric homes, so that maybe in six months to a year we will have that as well. >> Thank you. >> Camille cook. Camille, please unmute. >> Please go to the next speaker. >> Hello. Can you hear me? >> We can hear you. >> Great. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, mayor Watson and council members. My name is Camille cook and I live in district three and I work at public citizen Texas here in Austin. I'm speaking with you [1:20:41 PM] Austin. I'm speaking with you all today to discuss the benefits of adopting the 2024 international energy conservation code for the city of Austin. Energy efficiency, when implemented in the code, ensures that the quality of life benefits for the people who live and work in these buildings is improved. It saves taxpayer dollars and it improves environmental outcomes here in Austin. So energy efficient new homes provide many quality of life benefits, reduce energy usage in buildings, improves long term affordability because people spend less on their utilities. This improves satisfaction and keeps people here in Austin. These changes will reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and local, indoor, local and indoor air quality or air pollution. And more and more research is coming out talking about the dangers of natural gas stoves for air quality in the home, for example. And these codes can also save taxpayer dollars, as I'm sure as I'm sure you all know, after hearing the presentation on undergrounding wires, it is much cheaper to get these things done from the beginning than trying to retrofit later. This code ensures ev and electric readiness provisions, which gives current and future property owners an affordable pathway to choose efficient [1:21:42 PM] pathway to choose efficient electric technologies. The 2024 energy conservation code is projected to result in 6.1% energy savings in residential and 13.4% savings in commercial buildings. Lastly, this updated code helps improve environmental outcomes here in Austin. Using less energy reduces the amount of natural gas and coal we burn, and it means there is a lower peak demand on cold winter mornings and hot summer days. Buildings built today can last well over 50 years, meaning that these upgrades of code can benefit us for well over half a century. Let's future proof as much as we can, especially as the future seems much more tenuous. Thank you so much. >> Next speaker is Shane Johnson. We'll go. Oh, I'm sorry, we've got one more speaker, kaiba white. >> Good afternoon. My name is kaiba white. I'm speaking on behalf of public citizens Texas [1:22:44 PM] behalf of public citizens Texas office, and we are supportive of moving forward with the energy conservation code updates as proposed. As you will see in the backup materials, the joint sustainability committee has registered support for this update. And in fact, that committee and several other of your advisory bodies have been encouraging these updates and in particular, the ev ready and electric ready additions to the code for some time. I think perhaps some of you are already aware of this, but the Austin climate equity plan does include, you know, basically a commitment to move toward electrification, not only of transportation, but also of the various appliances and homes and businesses and building to allow for that on the front end is much more affordable than doing it as a retrofit. And I just wanted to briefly share that I have personal experience with [1:23:45 PM] have personal experience with this. I have a 1984 home and have been converting it, you know, to allow for electrification. I have an electric car charger. I then got an electric heat pump, water heater and then also an induction electric stove. All of those required hiring an electrician. It was very expensive and frankly has become much more expensive over time. You know, the first one was several hundred dollars. And then I think the last one was, you know, well over a thousand. And I know other friends who have had to do similar work recently, and it is thousands of dollars to do with them as retrofits. So these provisions are extremely important to allow residents to actually have a choice for what they are using. It does not require anybody to choose electric if they don't want to, but it does allow. >> For this. >> Type of an appliance with a simple plug. [1:24:46 PM] simple plug. >> Shane Johnson, please unmute. Shane Johnson, please unmute your phone. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Hi. Can y'all hear me now? >> Yes. >> Hi, y'all. Shane Johnson he him pronouns. I'm a district seven resident speaking as a clean energy organizer for the Texas Sierra club, and I was co-chair of the climate equity plan in the past for those who don't know. So from the perspective of the public, updating building codes means better energy efficiency for new buildings in the future. Energy efficiency is the most important solution to everything I work on at Sierra club, addressing high bills that continue to grow, advancing clean energy, fighting climate change, helping make our local grid and the Texas grid overall more reliable, helping address energy poverty and energy justice. So everyone I've talked to inside and outside of work complains about the utility [1:25:46 PM] work complains about the utility bills being too high and going up. My parents, my barber, other friends, and my parents are in d7 as well. And so I want to emphasize that this is, you know, continues to be an issue. And we need to address that. And, you know, for reference, my electric bill every month has been nearly double what it was before the 2022 Austin energy rate hikes. And so that's you know, that's a common across the board. And that's something we need to do a better job about addressing. And for new buildings and future residents in those buildings or, you know, workers. These energy code updates are extremely important to meeting those needs and helping keep bills low or helping balance the finances. Austin energy. So please pass these energy code, the 2024 energy code updates. That would be a big step in the right direction. Thank you. [1:26:46 PM] direction. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Now we're going to in-person speakers for item number 75 Chris Gannon Craig nazer, Stuart Hirsch and Monica Guzman. >> Hi, this is Chris Gannon. I'm the aia housing advocacy chair. Thank you, mayor and council, for all the work you're doing on this and other technical codes. We've discussed this within the aia Austin's housing advocacy committee, and we support the adoption of this code fully. But asked to consider exempting affordable housing projects from the ev charging requirement. We have a limited amount of public funds for housing, and we want to make sure that they are able to stretch as far as possible. Thank you. >> Thank you. Mr. Hirsch. >> Mayor, members of the [1:27:48 PM] >> Mayor, members of the council. Mayor, we've been dealing with this since 1997. >> We look the same, though. >> We look the same. The Texas legislature in 1997 and the governor and every subsequent governor since 1997 has supported cities and towns throughout the state of Texas, of being able to use either the uniform codes or the international codes. We in Austin have blocked that alternative for 27 years, and today's proposed amendments before you will finally end our non alignment with state law. And I'm very happy that that's the case. I was prepared to come here today and tell you this is the book by which you build a single family house, a duplex or a townhouse in the world. And in Austin, Texas, the 2024 international residential code. But exhausted energy has clearly articulated. We need to go [1:28:50 PM] articulated. We need to go beyond that. There are code. Amendments are reasonable. I'm an affordable housing guy. All my consulting work since 2008 has been pro Bono, and we've been able to create efficiency apartments on the multifamily side at $350 a month rent and $40 a month of utilities for electricity. So I served the poor. I helped people serve the poorest among us. And I ask you to support next month. Item 75 when it comes forward in the way that the staff presented, because I think it's we've finally achieved alignment and I'll be making similar comments as you go through the balance of codes today. Thank you for your good work. >> Thank you, Mr. Hirsch. >> Hello, Craig nazer, lone star chapter, Sierra club I'm in full support of this. This is a great thing we're doing. And I would say, you know, if you're going [1:29:52 PM] say, you know, if you're going to build affordable homes, you should really put solar in and electric appliances, because in the long run, that makes them more affordable. And I will just tell you that recently we had to get a new car. So we bought an all electric car, and I have ten solar panels on my house and have been doing all this, you know, upgrading the windows and everything. But a 110. They call it trickle charge. If any of you have had that experience takes a long time to charge up that car with just a 110 outlet. So we got a 240 outlet put in. It now costs over $3,000. At the same time, I had a to save a little money, I had a an outlet dropped into my hot water heater, which is an old gas heater that's about ready to go out. Have you looked at your gas bill recently? They keep raising the rates, right? This is such a good idea. This will save people [1:30:53 PM] good idea. This will save people money. This will help to make Austin more affordable. I strongly support it, and it's so nice to come up here and tell you that. Here's an item I really support. Thank you. >> That concludes all the speakers for item 75. >> Thank you members. That concludes all the speakers on item number 75. As has been pointed out, this is a non action item. We will have another public hearing on this item in a couple of weeks. So councilmember vela. >> Mayor, thank you. I just wanted to thank in particular Chris Gannon who is an architect. He spoke earlier and has worked, volunteered countless hours on the single stair amendment that I will be just appreciate him and all his work and all the advocates work. I don't know if he'll be here next couple of weeks. I just wanted to say thank you. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember harper-madison. >> Very briefly, I just wanted to say ditto to my point earlier about the advocates helping us along the way. Aia has been really, really helpful. Thank you guys. [1:31:54 PM] you guys. >> Thank you. Without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 75. Item number 74 is also a public hearing. Without objection, we'll open the public hearing on item number 74. The public hearing is now open. Talk to us. >> Mayor and council members. I'm Todd Wilcox. I'm the city's building official. I'll present to you the international property maintenance code. Recommended amendments. >> There we go. >> Okay. International property maintenance code is a code that's used to establish a minimum guidelines for the maintenance of existing buildings to protect public health, safety, and welfare. In the definitions portion of it, we just changed to add cooling facilities to align with the new air conditioning requirements for the amendment we're going to propose. We also added two definitions to make it easier to get permitting and code notices sent out, surcharge and infestation surcharges for building permits on retaining [1:32:55 PM] building permits on retaining walls. In the definition of infestation, we just added scorpions and bedbugs that weren't originally in the definition in the code. And then, like I said earlier, the cooling facility requirements, they'll have to install air conditioning equipment capable of maintaining 15 degrees cooler than outside, but not exceeding 85 degrees. We also changed the service definition to align with the national electric code, which was adopted in 2023 from 60 amps to 100 amps. And that's it for the international property maintenance code. >> Thank you. Members. You have any questions? All right. Let's listen to people on item number 74. >> First speaker is Stewart Hirsch, followed by Roy Whaley and Monica Guzman. >> Mayor and members of the council Stewart Harry Hirsch, or stew from district two. >> Sounds like a campaign [1:33:57 PM] >> Sounds like a campaign slogan. Mayor pro tem, you better be careful. >> She's term limited. It's not a challenge. One of the things I'm concerned with, with the local amendments proposed for international property maintenance code, is some of us grew up in housing that didn't have air conditioning. That's because we grew up in the northeast or the midwest, where we put in basements and boilers to keep pipes from bursting, which is not what we do here in Austin, Texas. And as a result, we don't want to make criminals of everybody whose house was built with proper ventilation and proper heating, but just lacks air conditioning, or has a window unit that won't condition all that. I grew up with that my kids grew up with that for a while, until we could afford to live in housing that did have air conditioning, and I don't want to turn property owners throughout the city into criminals, because the new code says that you have to retrofit it. So as long as between now and April, when you adopt your local amendments, you come up with a way to administer this without making people criminals [1:34:58 PM] without making people criminals for having proper ventilation. I support the code in the way that the staff has proposed it today with that small change. >> Thank you sir. >> Roy Whaley and Monica Guzman. That can. All the speakers have been called mayor. >> Thank you. Members. That concludes all the speakers on item number 74. Without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 74, and we will come back for the next public hearing in a couple of weeks. Item number 77 is also a public hearing. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 77. The public hearing is now open and we will get a briefing on item number 77. >> Good afternoon again. Todd Wilcox building official item 77 is after the energy code. There we go. So the item 77 is the international building. >> No, that would be ifc. So fire department. >> Fire code. So we need in. Here comes the fire department. >> What just happened? [1:36:05 PM] >> What just happened? >> It's out of order. Yes. >> I was taking up 76. Has a lot of folks signed up. So I'm trying to get I'm trying to get through because I've got a 2:00 time certain that I'm working toward. Okay. I'm sorry if I've created confusion, but we're on item number 77. >> 77. >> Yes. >> Fire code. I got the clicker. Okay. Good afternoon, mayor council. My name is Benjamin flick. I'm the managing engineer in the fire marshal's office. So we are proposing the 2024 international fire code and local amendments. In general, the fire code establishes minimum regulations for fire prevention, protection, aiming to safeguard life, property and public welfare. So the amendments we're putting forward were adding definitions and requirements for animal care facilities. We are requiring emergency lights on tertiary power and fire command rooms, fire pump rooms and generator rooms of high rises where first responders are going to set up operations in the event of an emergency. We are specifying requirements for alternative [1:37:07 PM] requirements for alternative surface fire lanes. We're no longer carrying forward amendments that we've historically adopted for pressurized stairwells, specifically in high rises. The festival requirement, we're getting rid of that. Going back to the model code, we're amending the maximum allowable quantity of hazardous materials on rooftop occupancies. And we are clarifying how fire flow is determined in appendix B. Other than that, we're actively working on reducing local amendments. >> Thank you sir. Questions. All right. We've opened the public hearing on item number 77. I'll turn to the city clerk. >> Stuart Hersh and Monica Guzman. >> Stu from district two is saying he's done. Thank you for being here. >> That concludes all the speakers. >> Miss Guzman, are you here? All right, that concludes all the speakers. Council member vela. >> Just wanted to again say thanks to staff. Good to see the animal care facilities. The fire required fire protection at animal care facilities. I can't even remember when that passed, but it was a long time ago. But [1:38:08 PM] but it was a long time ago. But it's good to see it coming back. It's coming from a lot of folks who lost their pets in a fire at a kennel that I believe in, Williamson county or Georgetown, and it's great to implement those to protect our our animal friends. >> Thank you. Councilmember. There being no objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 77. The public hearing is closed and we will come back for the second public hearing on that item at a later date. Item 78 is a public hearing without objection. The hearing is now open and we will get a briefing. >> Good afternoon. Todd Wilcox, building official. The international the international residential code is a code that sets the minimum standards for construction of one and two family dwellings and townhouses. In definitions, we added the definition of surcharge to be consistent with the property maintenance code. We changed some requirements for egress doors that will allow more flexibility in design and construction of single family houses, and accessibility and visibility changes. We allowed [1:39:10 PM] visibility changes. We allowed more flexibility to aid in the construction in accordance with the home amendments. And then again, we added the required air conditioning to be consistent with the international property maintenance code. And that's that's it for the irc members. >> Do you have any questions? All right. We've opened the public hearing on item number 78. I'll turn to the city clerk to call the names of those who may give us their thoughts. >> Stu, from district two. Evan Lucas. >> Mr. Hirsch is waving his speaking on on this item. Please call the next name. >> Lucas Evans. Harry sop and Monica Guzman. >> Great. Thank you. Please come forward. State your name for the record. >> Howdy. My name is Lucas Evans. I live in district nine. I am in full support of adopting the irc code as 2024 and specifically the hempcrete appendix. I'm a farmer outside of town and I'm also an environmental scientist, and I'm [1:40:12 PM] environmental scientist, and I'm deeply concerned about our future. And hempcrete is a great way to give high performance houses that can be affordable. They're virtually fireproof, and we've done several in the Austin area. The first one actually is open to a public open house, I think April 15th. I can share that with you all, but yeah, I just wanted to voice my full support for that. And if you all have any interest in that, please reach out. Maybe with this new convention center, maybe we could get some hemp in there. But, you know, a lot of the energy codes and everything we're talking about has to do with just the energy and inputs and water, but none of it really has to do with the envelope of the building. Hempcrete is a way to actually embody the carbon and start to bring that down, and it filters the air throughout the life of the building. So thank you so much. >> Thank you. Appreciate you being here. Councilmember harper-madison, do you have [1:41:12 PM] harper-madison, do you have something you want to say? >> Yes, Mr. Mayor, I would just like to ask the speaker to get with my staff so we can talk to you. This is something that's been near and dear for a couple of years for me. And as we're getting to the place where I was holding my breath, watching the ledge and seeing what they were going to do around hemp and my prayer is that they recognize that hemp is a is a material that's beneficial to the state of Texas in more ways than one, and that we can keep moving in that direction. I would love to follow up with you about the hemp Crete, and maybe even some other alternative building materials stuff that we're talking about at housing and planning. My staff will come down and. >> We're actually having a workshop right now at the center with pliny Fisk. >> Oh, fantastic. >> If you want to come, it's going on the next two days. >> Thank you. I think either John or Eric will come talk to you soon. >> Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Please come forward and state your name for the record. >> Harry Sopp, air force veteran, and I'd like to say cannabis has saved my life. I'm here to talk about industrial hemp. Hemp Crete. I'm a third generation builder, so once I learned about hempcrete, it was [1:42:12 PM] learned about hempcrete, it was a moment of truth, of saying, why are we not using this? Not only does it have soil remediation, there's three major markets involved grain, fiber and the herd, which is what we use for hempcrete. So hempcrete is a building material wall system that is fire resistant, mold resistant, insect resistant, will last hundreds of years, is natural. So your indoor air quality will be superior. Talking about, you know, the codes and stuff. There's no inspections for the air quality inside of a home because every home would fail proudly. Like to say hempcrete has extremely healthy air to breathe into because of the natural products use and natural finishes as well. And getting hempcrete involved in the building code is just a major step to the whole industrial hemp plant as a whole. Like I [1:43:14 PM] hemp plant as a whole. Like I said, it has a grain factor, a fiber factor. It has energy uses with biography making hemp batteries. A study in Pennsylvania just was released last year saying a hempcrete home is 70% more efficient than conventional building. And, you know, that's major here in Texas. I travel across America building with hemp. My company is called hemp homes.com, which I'm very proud to have and very proud to support this plant that is revolutionary to the whole industrial revolution as a whole. So thank you, and I look forward to coming back and speaking more about hemp. >> Thank you. >> We have one remote speaker, Caroline Dunn. >> Hello, council, can you hear me? >> Yes. >> I'm awesome. My name is Caroline Dunn and I'm a resident of district nine. I'm also here in support of the city of Austin, adopting the erc 2024 [1:44:15 PM] Austin, adopting the erc 2024 appendix B, L. So this is something that needs to be adopted alongside the code. It doesn't just automatically opt in. And as the speakers before me mentioned, hempcrete is a cementitious insulation material made with non thc hemp as the aggregate. This material is carbon negative and highly fire resistant. It has received a perfect score of zero on the astm e119 fire resistance test. Appendix four. The erc lays out a rigorous standard operating procedure for construction assemblies, as well as mixing and installing the bio material. These procedures protect the consumer of the bio material by enforcing proper methods. Currently, the city of Austin has permitted several hempcrete houses, but this has been done using the alternate methods pathway. If the erc 2024 appendix B is adopted, there will be a more clear pathway for permitting. There will also be stricter standards and oversight in these temporary projects that [1:45:16 PM] in these temporary projects that will elevate the quality and viability of these projects within city limits. As an architect, with the practice focusing in bio materials and a co-chair of the Austin area resiliency committee, I'm here to advocate for this code because it will elevate the efforts of other professionals and consumers in the city. My clear ask is that council is in favor of adopting this specific appendix alongside the rest of the 2024 technical codes. Thank you for everything you do to serve our city. >> Thank you. >> That concludes the speakers. >> Members. That concludes all of the speakers on item number 78. Without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 78, and we will have an additional public hearing in a couple of weeks. Item number 79 is also a public hearing. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 79. The public hearing is now open. Is there a briefing? >> Good afternoon again, [1:46:21 PM] >> Good afternoon again, Benjamin flick, managing engineer, fire marshal's office. We're proposing adoption of the 2024 international wildland urban interface code and local amendments. The 2024 Wu Huy code is a code intended to supplement adopted building and fire codes focusing on safeguarding life and property from wildland fire intrusion and preventing structure fires from spreading the wildland fuels. So in the local amendments, we are formalizing allowance and interpretations that we've been working through since the adoption of the 2015 code. We have clarified what an extreme hazard condition is, and we've also introduced a revised fire hazard severity form, which will be required for development under the homes options for mobility and equity initiatives, as that greatly would densify certain areas. So we want to make sure we assess all the risk in there or where a fire apparatus access road has a single inlet for 30 dwelling [1:47:21 PM] single inlet for 30 dwelling units or more. Unofficial proximity classes have been defined and renamed proximity Zones. There was confusion when we called them proximity classes, and we were talking about certain types of class rated fire material. So those are proximity Zones a, B, and C. We've introduced a new ember ignition zone, which is a five foot barrier setback around structures. We've reduced the full roof replacement requirement. We've defined driveways and added requirements for those proximity Zones. Zone a is within 50ft of 40 acres or more of wildland. Zone B is within 150ft of 40 or more acres of wildland. Those are unchanged from the current code. Zone C is within one and a half miles of 750 plus acres. That's unchanged. We are introducing a new zone C definition, which is one half mile of 40 plus acres of wildland. As we understand [1:48:21 PM] of wildland. As we understand that ember protection within that close proximity of the wildland is important. The scale is very small. I apologize, but this is the map. On the left is austin-travis county risk map, which we based our map on. On the right is the proposed wui map. The green represents actual wildland and is very hard to see, but all the pale blue is zone C, and if we were to zoom in, the dark blue would be Zones a and B. That's it. >> Thank you, councilmember Laine. >> I just have a couple questions for the ember ignition zone. Are there any types of vegetation that are more fire resistant that could be considered being allowed in that zone? >> We classify all vegetation as. Okay. >> Just want to confirm. Yep. And can you spell out the tree [1:49:22 PM] And can you spell out the tree trimming requirements for the ignition zone. >> So the tree trimming requirements are we have it defined in the code. Let me grab my notes because I've got that okay. I apologize. So the tree trimming requirements shall follow. Recommendations outlined or requirements outlined in section 604, which includes. Focus on removal of limbs located under eaves and structures. Best practices would be to keep trees at least five feet from roof lines for maintenance and leaf litter reasons. >> Okay, is green roofing allowed in zone C? >> No. >> Okay. And then what is the process for updating the wui map as the environment and conditions change? >> So currently the process that we are going through would be in in certain areas that [1:50:22 PM] in certain areas that developments are coming where they're clearing land. We accept the vicinity map, so they show what they're doing, we're documenting those. And as we move forward and update the map, we would account for that. Although some of the resources that we may be using at a larger level aren't really capturing that. So we're trying to take a look at that locally so that we can factor that in as we move forward with the map. >> Is there a cadence for updates. >> Or we. So we did get recommendation from the board to update it within a year. I think moving forward that would probably be the goal is annually to update the map. >> Thank you. >> Thank you councilmember. Thank you very much. Any other questions? All right. Let's go to the speakers. >> Chris Gannon and Taylor Jackson. >> Hello, mayor council, this is Chris Gannon. I'm an architect and advocate and sit on the [1:51:23 PM] and advocate and sit on the building and fire code board of appeals. I'd like to encourage passing the wui with the recommendation from the board to pass the map for one year only, and to study exactly what it is that qualifies as a wildland within the next year. Thank you. >> Hello, I'm Taylor Jackson, I'm the CEO for the home builders association of greater Austin. And speaking about wildland urban interface code, we are requesting to keep the wui code and map as is and delay adoption because the updates would impact more existing homeowners, new homeowners, especially our middle income earners. We're looking at decking projects that go from $10,000 to $25,000. Potential insurance premium increases because now their homes are are [1:52:23 PM] because now their homes are are identified in the wui map. This also means no vegetation or shrubs up against new new homes, and this will absolutely increase the cost of a home. And as a reminder, for every $1,000 that our home increases, it prices out over a thousand households to purchase that home. We also have concerns about the data and methodology used. For example, corelogic, which was the original report that began this conversation, has since reported Austin ranking lower in wildfire risk. You know, we're taking extreme measures to take steps forward. And if attainable housing such as the home initiative, you know, and I just we just want to continue that momentum to keep. And so our our request is to keep Wu Huy code as is delay the adoption for more thorough investigation and evaluation of risk and work towards more of a [1:53:23 PM] risk and work towards more of a comprehensive fire fuel mitigation plan, giving more tools and resources to our firefighters. Thank you. >> Thank you mayor. >> The following speakers asked to be called in the following order Andy Jackson, Carol Phillipson, Russell Pankratz Brad Knowles. >> Please come forward in that order. >> Hi, I'm Andy Jackson, I live in district six and we're requesting an update. An additional amendment to the wui code. Until recently, most homeowners gave little thought to the chance of experiencing a wildfire. Now, every Texan is aware and frightened of their increased wildfire risk after witnessing the devastating California fires and the most recent fredericksburg fire wildfire that consumed more than 9000 acres. Austin has been lucky so far this year with no wildfires. Considering there [1:54:25 PM] wildfires. Considering there have been 18 in Texas so far this year, concerned residents are counting on you all to protect their homes and families by mitigating the chance of wildfire. Randy Denzer, former AFD battalion chief, states we're sitting on the edge of a major catastrophic fire. This new wildfire risk is a cell tower built too close to an endangered species habitat, already a high risk area due to the abundant fuel so close that it if it falls and or catches fire, it could start a fire destroying the endangered species and their habitat while spreading rapidly to surrounding homes. Many of these preserve's topography have steep canyons with little access for firefighters, thus increasing the time it takes to control the wildfire. Updating the wui map is necessary, but updating the code to mitigate all risks, no matter the size, is imperative for the safety of the endangered species and Austin residents. We code must be updated to include a safety drop zone, as is done [1:55:26 PM] a safety drop zone, as is done in Vicki Goodwin's house bill 438, which reads in part a political subdivision, may not allow for the installation of a communication facility structure near the habitat of endangered species, unless the structure will be located a distance of at least twice the height of the structure from the endangered species habitat. Vicki Goodwin believes this is a real threat and so should all of you. City staff is not exempt from wildfire. This updated code will also protect you. Thank you, thank you. >> Hello, my name is Carol Phillipson. I'm the fire wise chairperson for my neighborhood and I'm in district ten. Every type of media is reporting concern for Austin's increased risk of wildfire. March 13th cut headlines read as wildfires, anxiety grows, Austin plans to designate half the city as a risk for fire damage. Yes, AFD [1:56:26 PM] risk for fire damage. Yes, AFD made plans at a January presentation to increase the wui to include 71% of the city's land parcels in a zone vulnerable to burning should a wildfire break out. However, this does little good unless code is updated to mitigate every new wildfire risk. Perfect example. Just last month, this 100 monopole 100 foot monopole was built only 19ft from an extreme high wildfire location. The bill Ken balconies canyon and preserve, which merges into bull creek and saint Edwards parks with no fuel breaks, increasing wildfire risk to thousands of bordering residential neighborhoods. Because there was no land, fire zoning or wui code to stop it, this is what it looks like. Thankfully, our state representative understands the importance of updating code to protect Texans. Vicki Goodwin is proactive. Submitted house bill 4038, mandating a safety fall zone distance of two times the height of the tower that it must [1:57:27 PM] height of the tower that it must be from an endangered species habitat. This safety zone will not only protect the endangered species and their habitat, but the thousands of residents whose home border endangered species preserves throughout the city and all of your districts. Wui code must be updated to coincide with bill 4038, which amends section five, chapter 250 of local government code and reads a political subdivision may not allow for the installation of a communication facility structure near the habitat of an endangered species, as determined by section 68 002 parks and wildlife code, unless the structure will be located a distance to at least twice the height of the structure from the endangered species habitat. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Whoever's whoever's next in the order y'all requested. >> I'm Russell pancratz, district five. As you know, the weather is changing Austin's rainfall this year is been 3.94in, well below the year to [1:58:30 PM] 3.94in, well below the year to date. March 2024 rainfall of 6.53in. Average high temperature for March 24th was 62.8 degrees. March 25th, 2025. Only four days in the 60s and 16 days in the 80s and 90s, with meteorologists predicting continued hotter, drier weather way before summer. Summer officially starts June 20th. These stats should spur you to take action to updating not only the wui map, but stronger new codes that were unnecessary previously to face today's new extreme weather challenges. Not only has our weather changed, but our skylines have changed. With the increased number of cell towers being built without concern for their potential wildfire risk. Cell towers are a potential source of fire ignition. Cell towers burn and dew fall, so it is imperative that a safe drop [1:59:32 PM] is imperative that a safe drop zone distance be established of two times the height of a cell tower from a high wildfire risk location, such as an endangered species. Habitat. There are many endangered species preserves within Austin and thousands of homes that border them. It is your responsibility to increase protection as wildfire risk increases by updating present present wui code to include an amendment that coincides with representative Goodwin's house bill 4038 that amends the local government code. Which reads a political subdivision may not allow for the installation of a communication facility structure near the habitat of endangered species. Unless the structural. >> Hello, my name is Brad Knowles. I am a resident of district ten, Carol philipsen and I have been firewise [2:00:34 PM] and I have been firewise committee members and Chester estates for the past several years, and we guide homeowners on how to mitigate wildfire risk. Even though I am more aware than most of wildfire risk factors. Until recently, I had never thought about cell towers as a wildfire risk, and we got a 100 foot monopole cell tower erected just 19ft from the balcones canyonlands preserve, which is a high risk wildfire location. And the only reason given to us was because there is no code to prevent it. Most disregard cell towers as a wildfire risk because they know very little about them, and the types of towers and how they work. You can see a demonstration there in the picture. However, cell towers are a fire risk and they can and do catch fire or and or fall from design flaws, engineering defects, lack of maintenance, weather, ice, wind or lightning. Experts at the large fire conference by the international association of wildland fire explained. Telecommunication. [2:01:36 PM] explained. Telecommunication. Telecommunication sites present unique risks primarily because of the signal and power supply lines at the base of the tower. Cell tower fires are electrical fires that cannot be fought through conventional methods until the power is cut. Firefighters or anyone else trying to put water on an energized cell tower fire will be electrocuted. It may take as long as 60 minutes or more to cut the power once, as cell tower fire has been confirmed by field staff, no one plans an accident. However, we can plan to stop it from happening. Updating the wui map is the first step, but updating wui code must be included with an amendment to create a safe place for cell tower to fall if built near an endangered species habitat. Justice Jones, formerly with AFD wildfire division and now with the international code council, has forwarded Vickie's amendment. Thank you. >> Next speaker is Taylor Smith, followed by Stuart Hirsch and [2:02:37 PM] followed by Stuart Hirsch and Monica Guzman. >> Good afternoon, mayor and council. My name is Taylor Smith. I'm with the Austin board of realtors, and we represent more than 18,000 central Texas members. We appreciate your public service. And we know that the situation you are in right now about trying to balance wildfire mitigation with also addressing housing affordability. As you approach this conversation, we really encourage council to take a data driven approach. When you look at the map, one of our significant concerns is how zone C, the size of that and how that could potentially impact existing homeowners and their their property insurance. The Texas A&M wildfire service already actually has a functional wildland urban map, and we encourage you to take a look at that and see if that is a potential to tie our new wui map to that data driven map. And then it can also be updated on an annual basis. It's based on [2:03:37 PM] an annual basis. It's based on risk analysis produced by the Texas A&M forest service, adopting a wui map that is based on the best and available at risk data, while balancing the need to mitigate our wildfire risk while also minimizing the cost to existing homeowners. We also encourage you to take a look at the ignition zone and see if there's a way to allow certain types of vegetation that could still maintain moisture for those foundation, particularly during those those hot months. And we are look forward to working with you guys before the April 10th hearing. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Miss Guzman, are you going to testify? Okay. Thank you. >> Stewart. Harry Hirsch, I support the staff recommendation on this. We try to solve this problem in Bill Clinton's last year in the white house, in 2000, under what was called project impact. At that time, Austin Travis county was the second highest risk in the country, behind Oakland, Alameda [2:04:38 PM] country, behind Oakland, Alameda county. We knew what the risk was. We knew that this kind of code would help us solve it. We did not have the political will at that time to make it happen. I'm that puts it on your doorstep. I know you'll do the right thing. There probably are some amendments that are practical and reasonable, but I urge you to do this sooner rather than later, so that we don't suffer the way that others have in the panhandle and in los Angeles. Thank you. >> Thank you. Miss Guzman has indicated that she's not going to speak on item 79. >> Okay. Next we have. Oh, that concludes all the speakers, mayor. >> Okay, members, that concludes all the speakers on item number 79. Without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 79. The public hearing is now closed. Without objection, let's go to our 2:00 time certain which is zoning, and [2:05:38 PM] certain which is zoning, and take that up. When that concludes, we will come back and we will start with item number 80. What I anticipate we will do for those that are listening and paying attention and want to be here, to be a part of it, we will go. Item 80, 81, 82. Then we will go to 83 and 84. At that point, my recommendation is we go back and we stay with these public hearings, and we go back to item number 76 and take it up. And then we will go to item 103 members. Remember, we have executive sessions to evaluate appointees of the council. Miss harden I see you prepared. >> Okay. >> Mayor and council I'm joy harden with the planning department. Your zoning agenda begins with item number 89 c14 2024 0177. This item is offered for consent on all three [2:06:41 PM] for consent on all three readings. Item 90 ac14 2024 0181. This item is offered for consent. All all three readings with the following motion and that motion sherry reads as this. Amend part two a of the draft ordinance to remove art gallery as a prohibited use. And with that again this item is offered for consent on all three readings. I'm sorry, I think council member duchen was this offered as first reading? It's ready for all three readings, but it's going to be offered as council member. Duchen wants this offered as first reading only, correct? >> Okay, so you just accepted his motion. Okay. >> Or do we need a. >> Motion on that pull item number 90 so that we can take that up separately? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Item 91 is npa 2024 0023.01. This item is offered as a [2:07:46 PM] This item is offered as a postponement request by council member vela to your April 24th council meeting. The related rezoning is item number 92 c14 2024 0180. Again, postponement request by council member vela to your April 24th council meeting. Item 93 is c14 2024 0182. This item is offered for consent on all three readings. Item 94 is c14 2024 0166. This item is offered for consent on all three readings. Item 95 is c14 2024 0137. This item is offered for consent on all three readings. Item 96 is c14 2024 0161. This item is offered for consent on all three readings with the following motion sheet which reads. Amend part two a to add the following uses as prohibited uses. Bed and breakfast. Group one bed and breakfast. Group two. And again with that this is offered for consent on all three readings. Item number 97 is c814 2023 [2:08:47 PM] Item number 97 is c814 2023 0057. This item is offered as a staff postponement request to your April 24th council meeting, and I will just state I know this case was postponed to this date. There have been numerous meetings which included myself, the mayor's office, council member, qadri office, the applicant, the applicant's agent, Austin transit partnership, transportation and public works staff and law. And since then, the applicant is requesting to increase the height of approximately half the site. The western portion of the site from 500ft to 600ft to better accommodate transit infrastructure requests and a potential reduction in the ground floor commercial and community space. We are continuing these discussions and we'll be back hopefully for third reading consideration at your April 24th council meeting. And so this is postponed to your April 24th council date. Thank [2:09:48 PM] April 24th council date. Thank you. Item number 96 is npa 2024 0005.01. This item is offered as an applicant postponement request to your may 8th council meeting. The related rezoning is item 90 9c1 for 2024 0099 again offered as an applicant. Postponement request to your may 8th council meeting. Item 100 is C one for 20. 2024 016 for. This item is offered as a postponement request to your April 10th council meeting by council member vela. Item 101 ac14 2024 0173. This item is offered for consent, second and third readings and item 102 is c14 2024 0080. This item is withdrawn and no action is required. This concludes the reading of the zoning and neighborhood plan amendment agenda. And of course, this is at your discretion. >> Thank you. >> Miss hart. Let me ask a question about item number 90. It was my understanding that there was well, didn't matter what my understanding was. Is it [2:10:50 PM] what my understanding was. Is it your understanding that the item does not need to be pulled from consent, even though it would be changed from all three readings to first reading only? That? Is that what your understanding is? Is that before I ask that it come back on the consent agenda, I want to make sure that that I have clarity in that regard. >> You do. What I was hoping to do was just, in addition to some comments, run through a couple of slides which I had understood was only possible if I pull it. >> Okay, then we'll pull it. >> Okay. I promise to be quick. >> You're getting what you want, but you still got to pull it. Okay, well, we'll do that. We'll pull item number 90. >> Will be offered as discussion. >> All right. Members, the consent agenda would be item number 89. All three readings 91 and 92. Postponement to April 24th. >> Wait, wait. >> Mayor 90 is discussion. >> I didn't call out 90. [2:11:54 PM] >> I didn't call out 90. >> Oh, okay. >> I skipped that. >> That's why I went from 89 to 91. >> I got. >> It, okay. >> 91 and 92 be postponed to April 24th, 93, 94 and 9596 will be on all three readings. Item number 95 will be a postponement to April 26th. >> Okay. 24 I don't. >> Did I read that wrong? That's why I do this so that you can. >> Correct me okay. >> So I. >> Have nine. Being corrected okay. >> I have 93 consent. All 394 consent all three and 95 consent. >> All three. >> I thought 95 was being postponed. Which one is being postponed to April 26th? Did I misunderstand what you said was going to happen on 95? >> Yes, because that is offered for consent on all three readings. >> Which one is being postponed to April 26th? [2:12:54 PM] to April 26th? >> The April 24th. Is that the next council? >> Sorry. April 24th. >> 200 east Riverside. Item number 97. >> All right, I miss, I misunderstood, I apologize. >> No problem. >> So, item members, I'm going to start over. Item 89 is consent. On all three readings. 90 is being pulled for discussion 91 and 92 is a postponement to April 24th, 93, 94, 95 and 96 will be on all three readings. 97 will be a postponement to April 24th, 98 and 99 postponements to may 8th 100 a postponement to April 10th, 101 on second and third reading and item 102 is withdrawn. I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as it was read made by council member harper-madison, second by council member Velasquez. I'll turn to the city clerk and ask [2:13:56 PM] turn to the city clerk and ask if you'll please run through any speakers. >> Sure. On item 90 we have Brad Massengale. >> Item 90 has been pulled for discussion. >> I'm so sorry. Item 91 Brad Massingill, speaking on the merits of the postponement. Item 92 Brad Massingill speaking on the merits of the postponement. >> I don't see Mr. Massingill. >> Richard subtle for item number 97 on the merits of the postponement. >> Mayor. Members of the council. My name is Richard Seidel. I'm here on behalf of the applicant in the case on number 97. And the reason I'm speaking on the merits of the postponement, it's imperative that we postpone this and make sure that adequate notice is being made, that some things are changing on the zoning case from [2:14:56 PM] changing on the zoning case from originally done at second reading. There have been some lawsuits filed against the city saying that we don't notify enough on zonings. And I just want to make sure that on this case, that anybody that's interested in this case needs to watch the backup from pub to pub, because some things are changing to accommodate the transit station. Those things include differences in heights, differences in in retail space and a number of other items within the pud may change to accommodate the train. So I just want to make sure that anybody listening, be sure and look at the backup, because these things may be changing. And I want to thank your staff and everybody involved in helping us get to this point on this case. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> For item number 100, Zenobia Joseph. Speaking on the merits of the postponement. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Massingill. Your name was called. Do you still wish to speak? [2:15:58 PM] speak? >> Was that on. >> The mini pud. >> Item number 91 and 92. >> Okay, 91 and 92. Okay. >> On the merits of the postponement. >> And as you all know, I totally support any postponements and pushing these down the road. 91 is of course the future land use map land amendment to change. A neighborhood plan to allow for a db 90, which is number 92, and that's at 1211 east 52nd street. It's in the Tannehill watershed. These are piling up. They're 85% impervious cover. And they're they're piling up in east Austin pretty fast in these tiny little watersheds. And we're going to be overwhelming not only the watershed, but the neighbors and making a lot of flooding happen. So these are not calibrated to [2:17:01 PM] So these are not calibrated to make affordable housing a reality, especially when they're tied to our ever increasing mfi, more and more rich people moving here. That means that that that floor is raising ever higher from affordability. So thanks for postponing. >> Was that on both 91 and 92? Yes. Okay. Miss Joseph, are you going to testify? >> Sure. >> Mayor and miss Joseph is registered for item 100 and 101 on the merits of the postponement. >> Item 100 be on the merits of postponement. And 101 is on the consent agenda for second and third reading. >> Thank you. Mayor council. I'm Zenobia Joseph 100 and 503 north Lamar. That's club Corona. That's item 100. I appreciate the postponement and hope that representative chito vela will [2:18:01 PM] representative chito vela will look into the concerns that I had raised in my March 6th, 2025 testimony. So I won't go into details, but it was just specifically related to the staff report page four, which specified project connect. Item 101 is specifically a city initiated item for dessau road. And I just want to remind you, mayor, since we're on project connect July 27th, 2020, council eliminated the three northeast metro rapids that would have served minorities, specifically dessau to ake highland, which would have gone down dessau road. There's no transportation there today, and there's none planned. And so I want you to recognize that it's discriminatory, as you've heard me say many times before. So my [2:19:01 PM] me say many times before. So my comments, as they always are, are in the context of title six of the civil rights act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin. I would ask you to recognize, mayor, that this is where the minorities live. Decker to downtown is where the minorities live. There is no transportation east west dessau to downtown. But the resolution that's referenced in the backup talks about serving the children and low income families. And specifically, that's disingenuous because there's no transportation that's actually going to ever serve that area. Even the desktop pickup doesn't go past Braker. So I'm not real sure what you mean when you say that this is an equitable system, because it's not. If you have any questions, I'll gladly answer them. >> Thank you for being here, miss Joseph. >> Thank you. >> That concludes all the zoning speakers members. >> That concludes all the speakers that signed up on the consent agenda. We have a motion in a second. Let's have some [2:20:02 PM] in a second. Let's have some discussion. I'll recognize councilmember qadri first, followed by council member vela. >> Thank you, mayor. I will make just a quick comment on item 97, and then I have some questions for miss harden relating to item number 95. But I just wanted to thank the applicant, our city staff from planning, transportation and law for working with my office and the mayor's office on working towards an agreement. I'm very hopeful that we're going to get this right and I'm looking forward to returning on on on April 24th for item number 95. I just have a few questions for miss harden. I will wait for her to get up. Hey do you could you shed some more light on how staff evaluated the request for a waiver on ground floor commercial? >> Yes, absolutely. So we definitely know the importance of commercial, walkable, mixed use these spaces in walkable neighborhoods. And we look at [2:21:03 PM] neighborhoods. And we look at many aspects such as proximity to residential, density to transit. But we also have to look at physical constraints in this specific case. And these are rare. But in this specific case, this development is in the floodplain. They must build out of the floodplain. And so therefore providing a waiver so their commercial development would not be in a floodplain. Is really what he should do in this situation. Again, these are rare. We understand the importance. But we recommended the waiver because this development is in a floodplain. So they're just going to have their parking there and build outside of the floodplain. >> Great. Yeah. So there's a lot of reasoning that goes into. >> A lot of reasoning. So many aspects. Absolutely. >> Great. >> Yeah. I just wanted to say I agree with the neighborhood that we should definitely that we would definitely like to see walkable commercial along south first. So we wouldn't want to make this a habit of waiving commercial uses. >> Absolutely. >> But in this case, it just seems it's physically not possible. >> Yeah. >> There you go. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, thank you. >> Thank you. Councilmember qadri. Councilmember vela. [2:22:05 PM] qadri. Councilmember vela. >> Thank you. I'd like to call up the applicant on item number 91. And 92 are the representative of the applicant. >> You stuck the landing. >> A landing? Yes, sir. >> Just the properties, a large lot or series of different properties that are going to be developed there between 51st, 52nd, Cameron and Lancaster. There's a number of buildings that have been abandoned for a good amount of time. There's been multiple fires, a lot of criminal activity in the abandoned buildings, lots of squatters. I've been communicating with the applicant for some time about when these buildings are going to come down. My constituents and myself are extremely frustrated with the situation. I know there's multiple code violations as well. What is going on and when are these buildings going to come down? The abandoned [2:23:05 PM] come down? The abandoned buildings that that that are currently on the property? >> Yes, sir. The all of the buildings that have code violations, the demolition process has started. Some of those were recently acquired. So we're having to get asbestos surveys and real surveys on the property. We hope to have the applications turned in in the next ten days. That's when we're anticipating that the asbestos work is complete, and look to start those demolitions as soon as possible. Based on our conversations with your office, we're hoping to come up with a solidified plan to get the rest of the buildings taken care of, secured, demolished as soon as possible. >> I very much appreciate that, and I know we communicated earlier about walking the site with the owner and potentially some folks from the neighborhood association, the contact team as well. And again, I just want to stress that the substantively the project is fine, but these abandoned buildings on the property are really a threat to public safety at this point. There's inhabited properties right across the way. We've just got to get those down. And I'm [2:24:07 PM] got to get those down. And I'm disinclined to allow any rezonings on that property until we've got an absolutely clean property. The grass is mode. I mean, you know, I just want it all in ship shape and then we are fine to go. But I just wanted to convey that I know my constituents are very frustrated with it. I'm very frustrated with it. Again, we support the project, but the, the current state of the buildings and the public safety issues just demand and require immediate attention. >> Understood. And we look forward to working with your office to get everything cleaned up. >> Thank you Amanda. >> Thanks. >> Any further discussion with regard to the consent agenda, does anybody wish to be shown abstaining on an item on the consent agenda? Anyone wishing to recuse themselves from a vote on any item on the consent agenda? Anyone wishing to be shown voting no on any item on the consent agenda? Without objection, the consent agenda is adopted. That will take us back to item number 90. And I recognize councilmember duchen. [2:25:07 PM] recognize councilmember duchen. >> Thank you, mayor, for indulging me on this. I know it was not the plan, so hopefully I'm still within my three month grace period. I'm not going to catch grenade like we talked about the other day. I've actually got I'm wondering if there's a way that I can just run through a quick presentation. I've got it on a drive here. If not, I can just run through it verbally. And my only concern was that there are some numbers. >> You provided them with your presentation. >> It's here. >> Okay. Why don't you why don't you provide them with that? Do we have it? [2:26:16 PM] Do we have it? >> I know this is unusual, and I'm well aware of the indulgence here, but this was of concern to me. We've been working on this for a couple of weeks, trying to find alternate solutions. I appreciate the developer's support and exploring each and every one of those solutions. That said, I think the bottom line here, from talking to some other people in the space, architects, other developers is, at least for our district, seems incredibly unusual to have a redevelopment that replaces naturally occurring affordable housing or noaa. And I understand that there are some developments happening in the east side of town. District two. District three. District four where this is happening, and I obviously appreciate connecting with you all afterwards to try and work on the solutions you've come up with to try and address this issue. But the bottom line in this case is that I've got a development here that is going [2:27:17 PM] development here that is going to be replacing 290 units of what is essentially, in many cases, deeply affordable housing with market rate housing, and then about 70 to 84 units of 50 to 60%. Mfi affordability. And the concern is also attached to that. We've got a strategic housing blueprint that calls for something like well over 4200 affordable housing units in district ten, of which I think we've only built about 31. And so when I do the math on that, if I were to take my 31 units we've built and I take out 290 units that we're going to take out, and I would add back 70 to 84 units, I still wind up with a deficit of, you know, being 170, 180 units short on our affordable housing blueprint. And of course, there's an adjacent asterisk to all of that which is naturally occurring [2:28:18 PM] which is naturally occurring affordable housing recognized as affordable housing. When we have that strategic housing blueprint conversation. So I think there's a couple of things that we were looking at to try and address this. And as I said, run through the developer, been cooperative, chasing down a lot of leads, tried to work with and start a conversation with the Austin housing finance corporation to look at hfcs and pfcs were actually. The territory that they've identified related to project connect displacement for pfcs. And so trying to find ways to either build those properties or developments in the district, of which my understanding is we have none right now in the entire district. It's certainly something I hope to continue to have conversations with hfc about. But then we've chased down other leads. We've chased down leads as far as land swaps. We've looked into if there's a [2:29:20 PM] We've looked into if there's a way to do a property tax waiver, which is one thing the city can do for greater affordability and something H H a C does do. We've looked at, you know, a variety of solutions. To try and figure out whether there is any way to squeeze more affordability. One thing we looked at was just db9 itself right now. One thing we observed was that the way that we are assigning units is linearly right. So if you've got a number of units that we're looking at a property for, whether in this case going from about 290 units in the property to 700, it's in a linear basis. But the way that we discovered when visiting with developers is they are plateaus in their development strategies that account for greater profitability for those developments. So it might be going to three units and having different compliance and different structures. It might be going to seven stories and going to concrete. But the point is, I'm not sure the profitability of a complex that [2:30:22 PM] profitability of a complex that could then be governing how much affordability we assign relates to what's actually in db9. So again, looked at a number of different options for how to pursue squeezing out more affordable units out of this project. And I'm not sure we've concluded all of those options. Again, I do want to thank the developer for cooperation there. Has offered to and made assurances to comply with both the notification for existing residents as well as the benefits, including four months of rent and moving, that are required by the db 90 code. But that said, this is an incomplete conversation. And the other place again, go back to no. In fact, from visiting with my colleague, councilmember Siegel, there are places that we can also recognize. No, it could be recognized not just in the blueprint, but also be recognized in the way that we do the imagined Austin analysis for how we rate affordable projects. [2:31:25 PM] how we rate affordable projects. And I think there's also just a missing piece in my mind, which is just understanding what the scope of noaa is across the city. And I wonder if there's a way to get snapshots of what that looks like as we redevelop and factor in the other options, whether they could be conversions to condos, whether they could be those partnerships that we talked about or land trusts or anything else that's in our toolbox to try and squeeze out more affordable units. So that was the direction of where I was trying to take the presentation. I probably actually verbally gone through most of it. Okay. I'd be delighted to actually send you guys it. And if there's a chance to step through it, that'd be great. >> If you want to put that on the message board, because otherwise you might be violating the open meetings act. >> Okay, I will put that on the message board. I appreciate your suggestion, mayor, but the bottom line is, I really would like to work with my colleagues here to find solutions that acknowledge noaa and our housing stock, find ways to potentially either extend their life or even find the math for how we do [2:32:25 PM] find the math for how we do that. Which is to say, what is the cost of extending a unit for a year relative to the cost of redeveloping and then going through that development cycle every 50 years? Is there a way to take that and extend that cycle to 70 years? What is the math in there? What's the break even for doing that? That makes it economical to extend the life. And I can say that personally. Age of this property, the acacia cliff property, where we're having to make some hard decisions about what things cost and having to consider what, what the future looks like. And right now we've got a policy, thankfully, that we started two decades ago where we go and repair building to building. But that may not be what some commercial property owners are doing and what apartment owners and management companies are doing, so finding ways to work with them to either extend their life or develop plans so that we're not all of a sudden redeveloping an entire swath of the city that might have be aging out what they call functional obsolescence at a certain time. And that's the [2:33:26 PM] certain time. And that's the challenge right now, is we've got a whole lot of properties, particularly in my district, that were built in the 70s and 80s, that are reaching what could be argued as functional obsolescence. So if this triggers a wave of redevelopment, then we will be in trouble. Because one thing that, again, the developer was able to provide for us was, say there is a there is vacancy availability in nearby units to accommodate a little over what the capacity of the current acacia cliffs units are, which is about again, 290 units. So in today we could move those people to neighboring units hopefully, and projects that were built at similar times that have comparable rent. But what happens when that happens again and again and all of a sudden there isn't that availability to absorb those folks that are kind of at the they're the working families or the immigrants or the students, the people that can least afford to try and find a new place not only in the district, but in the city. And so that's where my deep concern [2:34:28 PM] so that's where my deep concern from this stems from. And I'd love to be able to create some additional pathways for those people to be able to stay in Austin and go to school and serve their communities. Et cetera. So I'll have to say again, I would like to just work with my colleagues here, particularly the ones that have already gone through this process and their districts, and find ways to acknowledge Noah in our in our code, in our planning, and then also find alternate strategies beyond beyond redevelopment, which I know needs to happen in cases like this, but that also are being able to create the affordable and in some cases, deeply affordable units. Because what we're replacing here is essentially, from what I can tell, less than the bottom 4% of market rate units that are in the city. So, you know, if a market rate unit, from what I can tell on average is about $1,400, these are 800 to 850, maybe a little bit above in some cases. And so it's important, I [2:35:29 PM] cases. And so it's important, I think, to find different strategies to make sure that we're not displacing people en masse. And I think the last thing I'll just add is it's also important to make sure we've got a good process for notifying people. I think there's been there's been some concerns that are deeply founded and some that are less so. And I want to make sure that we have a process going forward to ensure that people are notified well in advance. They know exactly when these kind of units might face redevelopment or demolition, what the timeline are, so that there's not any kind of unfounded hysteria around the redevelopment process. And then we can make arrangements. We've got a window of time to make arrangements to find them new homes in the city. So I appreciate again the indulgence on my colleague's part. And also appreciate being able to give us a bit more time by passing this first reading today. Thank you. >> Councilmember duchen moves that we approve item number 90 on first reading only. Is there a second second by councilmember [2:36:30 PM] a second second by councilmember vela mayor pro tem? >> Thank you. >> And thank you, councilmember Chen, for making the motion to approve this on first reading only. I have extreme have grave concerns about the loss of overall affordable units with this redevelopment. And as you mentioned, that we already struggle with naturally occurring affordable units. And knowing that with this redevelopment we would lose affordable units, I would ask, I would like to ask the applicant representative to provide some context and information as to that loss and what considerations have been made for the affordable housing units available on site. >> Sure. Michael Whalen, on. >> Behalf of the applicant, as was accurately portrayed, there's about 290. >> Units on site. >> The overall average rent is about $1,100. And as noted, there's about 2000 units in the area with. >> About 90% occupancy. >> So there's certainly absorption available nearby. [2:37:31 PM] absorption available nearby. >> We've also notified we. >> Notified people back in January of the hearings that were coming up, and that there would be two years before any redevelopment occurred. And then we've sent out another notice to all to everybody earlier this week as well, to correct and a false notice that somebody put on people's doors, which indicated that it was going to be demolished and redeveloped immediately, which is untrue. There will be a two year timeline, as you well know, from zoning site plan building permit before there will be any redevelopment at the site. >> Can you also provide information as to the relocation? >> Yes. So we are going to be doing a db 90 building. We will be required to do all the tenant protections that are listed in four dash 1832, a two through five, including a four months rent, moving expenses, early termination of your lease and [2:38:31 PM] termination of your lease and return of all of your security deposit. And I think the commitment to do a db 90 building is important because it has all those protections, which is why it's ready for all three readings. And we would hope that we could be done and start greenlight the engineer to start working on on the site plan so we can get some new housing into the system, into the pipeline, so that after a few years, this two will slowly become naturally occurring affordable housing. But if it all just stands there after 70 or 80 years, you can imagine it'll be very, very difficult to turn around and do something there. And as is accurate, it is mf three. So we could just build brand new without affordable housing. That is not the goal. The goal here is to provide on site affordable housing with new structures. >> And last question on my part. Can you speak to the loss of about 180 affordable units with the redevelopment? >> The housing? I'm not sure. There's 290 units there. The [2:39:33 PM] There's 290 units there. The loss of I guess you're doing 290 -78. Is that what you're or whatever with the. >> Proposed allocation. >> Yeah I understand, I understand so I mean it's over 50 years old. It's at the end of its life and functionality is beginning to wane. I think we've answered a lot of questions for council member duchen, including, how much longer could this hobble along? And yeah, it could hobble along from I think Trammell crow indicated 3 to 6 years, possibly. We've got two more years before we even look to redevelop. So it's just a very old structure surface park, no water quality, no stormwater detention to protect the environment. So it's really the time has come now for district ten to add to double, double the amount of income restricted affordable housing, new housing that is there at in district ten [2:40:33 PM] that is there at in district ten okay. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone signed up to speak on this item? >> Yes. Mayor Brad Massingill. Valerie Menard, Noah Elias and alexia Leclerc. >> If your name's been called, please come forward. >> Hey, y'all. I'm Brad Massingill. I'm reading a resident statement from someone over in the neighborhood over there in the acacia cliff. As tenants of northwest hills, Austin, acacia cliffs, we strongly oppose the proposed demolition of our apartment buildings and advocate for their preservation and continued use as affordable housing. Sorry, no wonder it's so hard to read. [2:41:35 PM] wonder it's so hard to read. These apartments are a vital part of our community. We have a good location for schools, public transportation all around, good neighborhoods for our kids to grow. We urge the developers and city officials to explore alternative solutions such as renovations, upgrades, and repurposing that would allow the building to continue serving the community's housing needs. Thank you for listening to the community and thank you, council member duchen and esteemed council members for making this a first reading only. I'd like to add to that the that apartment building up there is has been home to UT graduate students from out of the country. Foreign students. Professors and their families. And it's something that's gone, been cycled through for a long time. And losing this location is going to affect people moving [2:42:39 PM] is going to affect people moving here to work at UT, because these this site is not going to be there. Even replacing it with other. Locations close by. It's not going to be the same thing. So this has been a very. Used resource for the university and the international staff that comes here to study and to teach there. So I have y'all take that into consideration as well. >> If your name's been called, please just come forward to the microphone. Please state your name for the record. >> Good afternoon council I am Valerie Menard. I'm a resident of district one and I just wanted to kind of echo what everyone is saying, that I think there's a bad habit of destroying existing affordable housing to build new. Ostensibly claiming that newer is better. And yeah, we'll set aside a few [2:43:39 PM] And yeah, we'll set aside a few affordable. We know there's not. We're losing in the end affordable housing and not addressing the affordable issue. Thank you so much, councilmember Fuentes, for doing the math and also for councilmember duchen for calling, you know, letting us stop and look at this again and reconsider. This is a pattern that we do. We destroy existing affordable housing. Just because y'all don't live there doesn't mean it's not good housing and viable housing, it's old doesn't mean it's bad. It could be upgraded. It could be fixed. We need to find places and to preserve places where people are living comfortably and affordably, and look at other solutions for creating more housing to bring down the cost, ostensibly to affordable. All right. Thank you. >> Thank. >> All right. >> Good afternoon. Council mayor, I'm here to ask you to support councilmember duchen. Ask for first reading only for this development, because this development, like everybody has said, will demolish affordable [2:44:40 PM] said, will demolish affordable housing, housing that's very important to working families. And as we've always talked about, we need deeply affordable housing in the city. We need deeply affordable, affordable housing in this district. And also, I ask you to also think about the people, not just the units. We talk about how old the complex is. And if we think about the people who live there, we need to have a plan. We need to have a plan for if we do have to redevelop a complex like this, how do we help them move and how do we help them return? Because some of them want to return to that community where where they currently live. So the current apartment complex has about 290 apartments, and the rents are extremely low compared to the average rent in Austin. So we have, you know, we have immigrants, we have students, we have all kinds of residents that that live there, that that's what they can afford. And this is a good area that they like. And, you know, [2:45:41 PM] that they like. And, you know, we would like them to stay in this area. And as the db 90 case, this new development will not replace those 290 apartments. Definitely would not replace them at that same affordability rate. Back in December, we worked on a similar case at the aero apartments on Riverside, where that was going to be the case, a demolition of apartments that were naturally affordable. We were able to negotiate with the developer to strengthen the relocation services and also. To replace the affordable apartments one for one. So that's that's what I'm hoping that happens here. But of course, you need to vote to give us give the people more time so they can work on this. So I ask you to vote and support. Thank you. >> Hello everyone. My name is alexia Leclerc and I'm an organizer with Beaudet. I'm also asking all of y'all to approve the first reading, only to give [2:46:41 PM] the first reading, only to give community organizers more time to work with tenants to negotiate a better deal. A lot of y'all here are pro housing. And so my question is housing. For whom? Housing for rich people or low income folks? Because destroying 290 units of affordable housing is not pro housing for the poor. The db9 requirements only ask for 12 or 10% of affordable housing at 60 or 50% ffi. So if this was to pass, there would be a net loss of affordable housing. Like my colleague Nohe mentioned last year, we worked to replace affordable housing at the aero apartments, another db9 case. And so we know it's possible to do more, to work with developers and to do work with communities to come up with a better deal. So we need to do more for low income communities, for students and for immigrant communities. Please help support duchen ask for to vote to only vote for the first pass. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> That concludes all the speakers. >> Mayor members, that concludes all the speakers on item number 90. Is there any further discussion? Without objection, [2:47:43 PM] discussion? Without objection, item number 90 is adopted on first reading only. Thank you. Members. That will take us now back to item number 80. The order I think will go in is 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 76. And then 103. So we'll go to item number 80. This is a public hearing. This is not an action item. We'll have another hearing on this on April 10th. Without objection we will open the public hearing on item number 80. The public hearing is now open. >> Good afternoon. Todd Wilcox building. Official presentation will be on the uniform plumbing code. The uniform plumbing code is established by Atmos instead of international code council. Historically, the city of Austin has adopted the uniform, plumbing, and mechanical codes. It governs the installation inspection of plumbing systems. The. We added a definition for laundry to landscape and added section six, 14, 15, oh three, and other sections and [2:48:45 PM] and other sections and illustrations to help facilitate the laundry to landscape rules for Austin water, we change elevator sump pump language because. And it was deleted because the Texas administrative code and we deleted sections four, 11, 412 and 420 to align with Austin waters conservation requirements. We added sections to allow for the use of trap guards, which haven't been previously allowed in the uniform codes, and then in conjunction with the international residential code, we created an exception to prevent over boring and notching in the installation systems that would allow plumbing systems and tiny homes. And that's it for the inner members. >> Do you have any questions? All right, I'll turn to the city clerk. >> First speaker is John Mata, followed by Robert Thornton, Stuart Hirsch, and Monica Guzman. >> Miss Guzman is indicating she will not speak, but we'll hear from the other folks. [2:49:48 PM] from the other folks. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon, mayor Watson, and honorable members of the city council. My name is John Mata and I am the senior director of field services for the international association of plumbing and mechanical officials, commonly referred to as iapmo. As a licensed plumber for the state of Texas and a representative of iapmo. I'm here to testify in support of item 80, which would adopt the 2024 uniform plumbing code, the upc, and item 82, which would adopt the 2024 edition of the uniform mechanical code. The umc Atmos uniform codes are developed through an inclusive process that adheres to rigorous standards set by the American national standards institute. This ensures that industry expertise, not the influence of special interests, guides their development. The 2024 editions of the uniform codes include enhanced efficiency provisions, technological advancements, and modernized methods that can provide significant benefits to Austin. Since 1970, the uniform [2:50:48 PM] Austin. Since 1970, the uniform codes have served the city's residents, delivering the highest standards for health, safety, and quality. Their continued adoption will uphold these protections for every austinite. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony. I'm available to answer any questions that you may have. >> Great. Thank you very much, members. Any questions? Appreciate you being here. I appreciate what you do. >> Yes, sir. >> Mayor and council, my name is chap Thornton and I'm a lifelong resident of district five in south Austin and a third generation licensed master plumber in the state of Texas. I'm the current chair of the city mechanical and plumbing board, and I am here to speak in favor of both items 80 and 82, relating to the adoption of new plumbing and mechanical codes in the city of Austin. Being someone myself, being someone heavily involved in the plumbing and mechanical industry in our city, I appreciate the opportunity to serve on the mechanical plumbing board and [2:51:49 PM] mechanical plumbing board and also appreciate all the hard work that city staff has put into this round of code adoptions, keeping our codes updated to the latest industry standards ensures that we keep our citizens safe, and that our homes and businesses are built to a standard that ensures our investment in them, gives us equally safe and valuable return. Myself, being a former city employee that has gone through a few code adoption processes, knows how challenging the process can be. Mitigating through all the interested stakeholders while maintaining the core values of safety and thoughts of economic impact. I once again applaud city staff for their hard work, and I want to thank the mayor and council for the opportunity to be involved in the code adoption process for an industry that I've worked my entire career, and I'm always available as a resource. If you have any questions, thank you. >> Thank you sir, Mr. Hirsch. >> Stewart, Harry Hirsch, again, I recommend that you add one [2:52:49 PM] I recommend that you add one amendment to the staff recommendation, and that is under the alternate methods of compliance provisions of the proposed uniform plumbing code that you add, or international plumbing code. This creates the flexibility that the legislature has given us. I'll make the same remarks when we get to the mechanical code. But since 1931, we've been adopting building codes with alternate methods of compliance. And for some reason that I can't explain, we've been unwilling to do that with the plumbing and mechanical codes. And this is the year where we should finally, after 27 years of publication of the international codes, allow it to be used inside the city limits of Austin, especially for apartments where affordability is generally where housing really occurs. So I ask you, just add an amendment. The rest of the staff recommendation is totally acceptable and reasonable. That amendment will [2:53:50 PM] reasonable. That amendment will make it just a little bit better. >> Thank you sir. >> That concludes all the speakers members. >> Those are all the speakers on item number 80. Without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 80. This will be heard again in a couple of weeks. The public hearing is now closed on item number 80. We'll now go to item number 81. This is also a public hearing without action. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 81. The public hearing is now open and we will ask staff for a briefing. >> Good afternoon. Todd Wilcox, building official. The international swimming pool and spa code was developed to set minimum regulations for public and residential pools, spas, hot tubs using prescriptive and performance related provisions. In chapter one, we made reference to chapter 757 and 341 of the state health and safety codes and the Texas administrative code, title 25, subchapter L and K. It requires us to set the authority to where [2:54:52 PM] us to set the authority to where the health authority administers public pools and the building official administers residential swimming pools. An addition that we have made is to allow chain link fence, but we set stricter dimensions and strength regulations. And these these can only be used where they're lifeguarded pools. So it's very it's very restrictive. That's it for the swimming pool and spa code members. >> Any questions. Thank you sir. Yes councilmember harper-madison. >> Thank you I appreciate it. And we probably have already done this, given the scope of what our our staff has to go through. Just want to make sure we have 2 or 3 pools that are currently under construction or being redeveloped and all that jazz. Just curious if that last one had anything to do with the with the givens. Rosewood and I can't remember what the what the third. >> Is to allow particularly city owned swimming pools and public swimming pools so they can keep the chain link. >> Thank you. >> I'll turn to city clerk. [2:55:53 PM] >> I'll turn to city clerk. >> Stuart Hirsch and Monica Guzman. >> Stuart, Harry Hirsch want to clarify that this is not intended to be a retroactive code? I've already some people I know who have apartment complexes and have swimming pools think that the adoption of these new code standards will cause them to change their complying enclosures. And I just I'm not suggesting any amendments, but I'm just hoping that their fear that this might be applied retroactively to existing properties when it's intended for new construction, that that doesn't occur. >> It should be and we'll we'll confirm it. Miss Guzman, are you still here? I don't see her. >> That can. >> That that all the people signed up? >> Yes. >> Those are all the people that have signed up to speak on item number 81. So, members, without objection, we will close the [2:56:54 PM] objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 81. The public hearing is closed and we'll have the second public hearing on this item in a couple of weeks. We'll now go to item number 82, which is a public hearing without action. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 82. The public hearing is now open and we will turn to staff for a briefing. >> Afternoon. Todd Wilcox, building official. Again, the mechanical code establishes and governs installation, inspection and maintenance of hvac systems refrigeration with the goal of promoting public health and safety. We've deleted some sections to accommodate alternate in the definitions for alternate water source treatment systems and air conditioner condensate recovery. Per the request of Austin water department, we've added cooling system requirements to be consistent with the international residential code and international property maintenance code. We've changed the residential kitchen exhaust requirements that would allow construction to go with two by four framing, instead of the two by six framing that would be required under the new code. And then we've inserted imc sections [2:57:55 PM] then we've inserted imc sections that would allow hazardous exhaust systems to be upgraded and use the imc. In manicure and pedicure stations. We've done the same. We've inserted sections of the imc to effectively to ensure the effectiveness of exhaust systems by specifically requiring makeup, air and then smoke detection control systems. We also inserted sections of the imc so that the duct detectors can be before or after the air handling equipment, and that's the end of that presentation. >> Anybody got questions? All right. I'll turn to the city clerk. >> First speaker is John Mata, followed by Stuart Hirsch and Monica Guzman. >> Thank you, mayor John Mata 16303 amber brown drive, Hockley, Texas one. Just say that the uniform codes contain [2:58:57 PM] that the uniform codes contain alternative methods in in their provisions to allow for the use with other codes that are other model codes that are developed today. And as you saw there on the mechanical we did utilize, they did utilize an amendment meant amendment. So speaking to the previous with the previous speaker said on had another amendment, it would not be needed with the uniform codes because they do allow that in their provisions. And also I will say that the uniform codes have been around for 99 years since 1926. So we'll be 100 years next year. And we appreciate your opportunity to speak here. >> Thank you. >> Stuart. Harry Hirsch, same comments as I did on plumbing, on mechanical or international mechanical code. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Miss Guzman, are you here? All right, members, that concludes all the people that signed up to speak on item number 82. So without objection, we will close the public hearing [2:59:57 PM] we will close the public hearing on item number 82. In the second public hearing will be held on April 10th. The public hearing on item number 82 is now closed. Members. We will now go to item number 83, which is an action item. And it's a. We will start with the public hearing. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 83. The public hearing is now open and I'll look to staff if it wants to give us a briefing. And staff looks like it wants to give us a briefing. >> Mayor and council Keith Morris, assistant director of development services I will be brief. The land development code requires city council to approve a site plan when a convention center use is proposed. This is called the c1 site plan. It's in full compliance with city regulations. This site plan is limited to demolition, excavation and construction of a wall. The phase two site plan will be coming back this summer or in may, with the remaining site plan elements. Staff are here if you have questions. >> Any questions? Members. All right. The public hearing is [3:00:58 PM] right. The public hearing is open on item number 83. And I'll turn to the city clerk. >> First speaker is Craig nazer, followed by bill bunch who has time donated by Monica Guzman, who I do not see. So he gets two minutes. >> I don't see Mr. Bunch either, Mr. Bunch, Mr. Nazer, Mr. Bunch, Mr. Nazer, Roy Whaley, he's usually with him. Right. >> And Eric rajeff. That concludes all the speakers members. >> That concludes all the speakers on item number 83. So without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 83. And the chair will entertain a motion to adopt item number 83. Motions made by council member, seconded by council member harper-madison. Is there discussion? Without objection, the motion is adopted with council members qadri and Ryan alter. Off. Temporary. Off the off. Temporarily off the dais. Item number 84, which is also an action item, is a public [3:01:59 PM] also an action item, is a public hearing. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 84. The public hearing is now open and I'll turn to staff for a briefing. >> Thank you. Mayor. Council member. My name is Jorge morales, director of the watershed protection department. This item is an ordinance amending city code title 25, which is the land development code, to create exceptions for providing an erosion hazard zone analysis and increasing the distance for erosion hazard Zones along the Colorado river below longhorn dam. And I don't have a briefing, but we've presented to the various boards and commissions, and the council committee and staff is here to answer any questions you may have. >> Members. Do you have any questions? With that being the case, we'll go to the listening to testimony and we will turn to the city clerk for navigation. >> Felix, the Puerto Marian Sanchez, Adrian Macias, Susana Almanza, Pedro Hernandez, alexia Leclerc. [3:03:00 PM] Leclerc. >> If your name has been called, please come forward and take one of the seats up front so that you'll be prepared to testify as soon as you can. >> Hello, my name is Marianne Sanchez. As a representative of Beaudet, an environmental justice organization based in east Austin. I'm here to state our support for the Colorado river protections ordinance. It is in the best interest of the city of Austin, and more specifically, for the communities that could be directly impacted by the highly erosive alluvial soil bordering the Colorado river. Current code requirements have proven ineffective, necessitating the expansion of the Rosen erosion hazard zone to 200ft. The protections outlined by the ordinance will not only keep current and future surrounding communities safe and prevent any further property loss, but additionally save the city millions of dollars in erosion repairs. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. If your name has been called, please come to the microphone. >> Hi everyone! My name is alexia Leclerc and I'm an organizer with Beaudet speaking in favor of item 84. This ordinance to protect the [3:04:01 PM] ordinance to protect the Colorado river on the east side. As many of you all know, the city of Austin has a deep history of systemic racism. And in the 90s, a lot of environmental regulations were put on the west side. And so we are now asking for environmental regulations around the river to be also put on the east side. We're specifically asking for the erosion hazard zone to be changed from 100 to 200ft. This would prevent further erosion, ensure public safety, reduce the cost of restoration as there's already bad erosion, and protect the river ecosystem. Each one of you all have indicated that environmental protection is something that you care about in the past, and so hopefully this is an easy decision to support this ordinance. Thank you all so much. >> Thank you. >> My name wasn't called yet, but I'm switching places with Susana if that's okay. >> With just if there's an open microphone you're willing to and willing to talk, we'll take your. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. Good. Good afternoon. Mayor, mayor pro tem and council members. I'm Valerie Menard. I'm a resident of district one, and I'm the [3:05:01 PM] of district one, and I'm the project director for the Colorado river conservancy. I'm here today to ask you to support item 84, an amendment to the land development code by the watershed protection department in the form of the Colorado river protections ordinance that has worked for years to achieve equitable protections for the lower Colorado river flowing into east Austin that were forwarded upriver to west Austin. For me, this effort began. This effort began more than two years ago, shortly after joining Beaudet in August of 2022, when we met with director George morales in the fall of that year to discuss the Colorado river watershed east of longhorn dam and what would be done to protect it. Shortly after that, we met with former assistant director Katie Coyne, who was tremendously cooperative and helpful. She eventually introduced us to watershed division manager Matt Holland, who has worked diligently to explain the parameters of this ordinance and to keep us informed of its progress. So after years of a combined effort, we are happy to have changes to the land development code come before you that we support its focus on expanding [3:06:01 PM] support its focus on expanding the erosion hazard zone from two 100 to 200ft is specific, but also essential to protecting the Colorado river watershed. Erosion is a real concern for east Austin. The land is sandy and prone to erosion, unlike the rocky topography of west Austin, damage from unhindered erosion has already cost the city millions of dollars to repair. Expanding the erosion hazard zone to 200ft is an important preemptive step to protect against more costly erosion damage. We know of at least two developments coming our way near montopolis bridge. One has already been approved by council. Another is seeking approval. The recommended changes to drainage construction will also save the city future expenses for repair, repairs from erosion damage. What it does not while it does not achieve parity with the protections provided by the sos ordinance, it is a positive step in the right direction. We'd like to also thank again the watershed protection staff. >> Thank you. If your name has [3:07:03 PM] >> Thank you. If your name has been called, please come to the microphone. >> Noah. Elias, Carlos pinion, Aubrey. Langston, Craig nazer, bill bunch, Roy Whaley, Bobby Levinsky, and Monica Guzman. >> All right, good afternoon, council mayor, I'm here to ask you to support the Colorado river protection ordinance. I want to ask you, why is it that we protect the Colorado river upstream from the longhorn dam, and we do not have the same protections downstream from the longhorn dam? And like my colleague Alexis said, that's, you know, environmental racism that is part of the history of Austin, that this area, east Austin was deemed, you know, desirable development area. And what has that that has brought is a lot of erosion, a lot of damage to our river. So we need these protections because the Colorado river is a crucial [3:08:03 PM] Colorado river is a crucial resource, and it's facing significant erosion in these areas. We understand that water is life and that we need to protect the river. We need to protect other waterways, especially as we face more extreme weather due to climate change. And one way to protect it, of course, is to take these measures to reduce extreme erosion in this river that is highly erosive, and we've seen it through through the past years with increased development as they damage our river in our area of town. So this protection is not only for the river, but it's also saves the city and saves austinites a lot of money because we often have to fix the damage from from this erosion damage to bridges to roads, sidewalks to trails. And that's a lot of money that the city spends on that. So I'm asking you to support this Colorado river protection ordinance and to increase the buffer from 100ft to 200ft. Thank you. [3:09:04 PM] 100ft to 200ft. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon, council members. My name is Carlos pinion, and I'm the resilience program coordinator at Boulder. I'd like to echo my colleague's remarks and ask you to support the Colorado river protections ordinance as presented to you by the watershed protection department. Erosion of the Colorado river downstream from longhorn dam has already caused the city to incur tens of millions of dollars of public money for its remediation. The alluvial soil bordering the Colorado river is highly erosive, and the current erosion hard zone code requirements have proven to be ineffective. To address this, we must offer greater protection to the river and expand the ihrc requirements from 100 to 200ft for incoming development projects. The measure will not only protect the riverbanks, but in the end, keep people safe from natural disasters. Concurrently, we must update the drainage system. Our existing structures are not able to withstand the property damage that's causing the city to invest so much money in repairs. Armored stormwater discharge infrastructure can, however, help dissipate erosive energy by storm water flows from developed areas and thus reduce erosion, [3:10:05 PM] areas and thus reduce erosion, sustaining the integrity of the riverbanks in our communities. Beaudet has worked with the watershed protection department for years to develop an ordinance that would provide the same protections to longhorn dam to the river and the residents east of longhorn dam, as the protections afforded to those west of the dam from the sos ordinance. While there's more progress to be made in equitable, equitable protection on both sides of the river, this ordinance provides important recognition of the threat of erosion, compounded by development on the sandy soil that distinguishes the east side. We'd like to thank the watershed protection department staff for their diligent work and cooperation with east side communities on this ordinance, expanding the ahc and improving drainage and drainage infrastructure are important first steps toward offering greater protection to the river, and the city must get ahead of future erosion to avoid additional costs. As new developments come in, please join us in our support of this item. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Pedro Hernandez and I'm the air campaign coordinator for Beaudet and also a resident of the [3:11:07 PM] and also a resident of the montopolis neighborhood that has worked with the watershed department for years to develop a watershed ordinance that would provide the same protections to the Colorado river and the communities that reside near it east of longhorn dam. As the protections afforded to residents and the river west of the dam from the sos ordinance. While there's still more progress to be made regarding equitable protection east and west of the river, the Colorado river protections ordinance provides important recognition of the threat of erosion, compounded by development on the sandy soil that distinguishes the east side of town. The city has already spent tens of millions on erosion repairs, so we must get ahead of the future threats to avoid additional costs. We feel that expanding the erosion hazard zone from 100 to 200ft is an important first step towards offering greater protection to the Colorado river watershed, and ask that you vote in favor of the amendment and the land development code presented by the watershed department. We would also like to thank. We should we would [3:12:07 PM] to thank. We should we would like to share our appreciation for the watershed department staff, their diligent work to protect the watershed, and consistent willingness and spirit of cooperation when working with the community is greatly appreciated. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon. Mayor and city council members and mayor pro tem. Before I get started, I'm Susana Almanza and I would like to thank you all and thank the Austin community for their healing prayers and thoughts, and for their support during my time. You know, it had a terrible accident and I'm now with Jessica Kane and Hawkins. I wanted to make sure and thank the community for all their support. >> It's really good to see you back up in here. >> Thank you. And so I do want to also share, Joe Kendall asked me to let you all know that the Texas river school supports this particular ordinance, and he's willing to give you all a tour down the Colorado river. Just give him a call. He's open to taking you all for free. Also to [3:13:08 PM] taking you all for free. Also to I want to thank Matt Holland, Katie Cohen and Jorge morales for all working with us to expand the hazardous. Environmental zone around the Colorado river. This is a real important ordinance. We wish that we could protect it even further, because we don't want anybody being harmed by falling into the river, being developing so close to it. But this is a beginning, and we look forward to working with the watershed department and you all in the future, and further protection of the Colorado river, our sacred waters. Thank you. >> Thank you mayor. >> All the speakers have been called members. >> Those are all the speakers for item number 84. So without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 84. Council member Velasquez moves adoption of item number 84, and it's seconded by the mayor. Pro tem council member Velasquez. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Mayor, I'm. [3:14:09 PM] >> Mayor, I'm. >> I am glad and excited to see the. Environmental protections. Afforded to. Communities west. >> Of 35 being extended to benefit the folks east of 35, an area that we all know very well as historically underserved and overlooked and overlooked. Excuse me. On this item, I want to thank city staff, especially director morales, Matt Holland, Liz Johnson for and from the watershed protection department for their diligent work on this item. I also want to extend my thanks to the generations of advocacy by our friends at Beaudet and their continued hard work on behalf of the east side and our neighbors. Gracias. >> Thank you. Council member. Thank you very much. Further discussion. Without objection. Item number 84 is adopted. That will take us back to item number 76. And that's a public hearing. This is a public hearing that will not have action. We will have a second hearing on this item on April 10th, but without objection, we will open the [3:15:10 PM] objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 76. The public hearing is now open. And I forget your name. >> Todd Wilcox, I. >> Believe, sir. Okay. Yeah, yeah. >> So this presentation will be about the 2024 international building code. It's the model code developed by icc that sets minimum requirements for building systems aiming to protect public health, safety and welfare. >> I saw you. >> Walking. So on work exempt. We removed some exempt work to reflect the 2023 nec and stay consistent with that. We removed a bunch of sections in section 305 to align with the fair housing licensing laws. We're we're recommending carrying forward an amendment from the 2021 code that allowed that you had to have natural light and habitable spaces, and then we're adding fire truck and emergency vehicle live load requirements to be to be consistent with the ifc. In chapter 29, we're deleting previous local amendments to the model. Code is now the single source for toilet [3:16:12 PM] now the single source for toilet and bathing room design requirements. And in the egress chapter, chapter ten staff is not recommending any amendment for a single stair above three stories. And that concludes my presentation for the ibc members. >> Any questions? With that being said, we've already opened the public hearing on item number 76. So I will turn to the city clerk's office, and I might just say to those that are signed up on item number 76. Not that you need to care, but we have a number of other items that we're going to be taking up today. And if you're in favor of this and you're repeating what somebody has already said, I'm sorry. What's up? >> Sorry, sir. There was actually two codes in this. In this agenda item. The ibc was another code that's a supplement of the ibc. I didn't give you that presentation, but it's only one slide. >> All right, talk to us. >> Okay. Ibc. >> Tell me your name again. >> It's I can't remember. It's [3:17:13 PM] >> It's I can't remember. It's been so many times today. So the ibc is a supplemental code to the building codes, fire code and the residential code. It allows the use of existing buildings and encourages existing buildings to be retrofitted. The only change we're recommending is the date from 21 to 24. >> I'm sure we'll have questions about that. Thank you very much. Appreciate you coming back. All right. What I was saying is if you're repeating what somebody else has said, we would appreciate you just letting us know you're for it or against it. There will also be another public hearing on this item on April 10th. So if the city clerk would now please start calling those who are signed up to speak. >> Sure. We'll begin with remote speakers. Marc. Veloz. >> Awesome. >> Yeah. Can you. >> Guys hear me? >> Yes. Really? Well. >> Okay. >> Awesome. >> Yeah. >> My name. >> Is. >> Marc Veloz. >> I'm a member of city. >> Council district. >> Four. >> And I'm here. >> In favor of including the six story single stair code [3:18:14 PM] story single stair code provision in the city of Austin's local amendments to the 2024 ibc. I support this bill because I really think it will help us create this type of housing stock that's currently missing in America, but also in Austin. And I think, you know, for many of us, our options are either living in a large apartment complex which which I live in, or a single family home. But I think the beauty of this bill is that it would allow an alternative option that's sort of missing for folks. I think it would, yeah, allow this alternative option to live in like more human scale buildings. And I think legalizing single stair housing takes us a step closer towards promoting all sorts of housing types, because I think not everyone wants to live in a big house with a big yard and a place where you have to drive to do just about anything. But I think, you know, not everyone also wants to live in like a high rise concrete box in the sky. So I think if Austin really wants to succeed, we need to take this first step in bringing back this type of [3:19:15 PM] bringing back this type of missing housing stock. And I think it will allow us to bring back more enjoyable, walkable, walkable neighborhoods into the city. And, you know, I also think it's a plus that single stair buildings are found in cities all over the world and have a proven safety record. And I think by allowing single stair buildings, we can join a ton of other American cities from Seattle to Knoxville and allowing these types of structures. So overall, just urge you to adopt the single stair amendment to the building and fire code board of appeals. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Ian Wilson. >> Hello. >> Let me get. >> Myself up ahead. >> Hello. >> I'm calling in support. >> Of single. Stair amendment. >> The. >> Affordability crisis that a lot of people are facing in Austin now. >> Will. Be aided. >> By this addition. >> And I know that. >> There has been lots of chat about maintaining the characters of our older neighborhoods. Big monolithic buildings don't do a great job of that. >> Smaller. >> More in tune structures should be far better and far [3:20:19 PM] should be far better and far more acceptable to a lot of people. So I think this is a great thing and should be supported. Thank you so much. >> The next speaker is Rick bluntzer. We're going to in person. Okay. If he is not here, back to remote. David Fouts. >> Hello, council. My name. >> Is David Fouts. I live in district two, which I have the honor of representing on the zoning and planning commission. Firstly, I just want to thank all of you for actually keeping your promise to tackle housing affordability with a lot of bold reforms just recently, and I'm delighted that we're continuing to go. We've had a lot of big, amazing milestones in making housing affordability, and I love that we're continuing to do that, digging into more [3:21:20 PM] that, digging into more technical things. So I'm I probably should have opened with this, but I am speaking in support of the single stair or allowing single stair buildings up to six stories. I've lived in many of these abroad. I spent time in Germany and many years in China, where I've lived in these buildings, and they were between five and as high as 13 stories. There was a lot of different types of units. They were great for singles and families and the flexibility and the affordability that they allow is just great for people of all walks of life. And these buildings may seem unfamiliar to us here in the us, but the reality is, is they're the norm all around the world where they provide affordable and safe homes of all different varieties. So I urge you to pass this. And again, I just want to thank you all for the great work you've been doing for housing affordability in the city. Thank you all. [3:22:20 PM] you all. >> Back to in person. Chris Gannon has time donated by Zachary Billings. Is Zachary here? Thank you. Chris gets four minutes, followed by parker Welch and Felix de Porto. >> Before this. >> Mayor pro tem, can I ask a question? I was just curious if the clerk. I saw that we have Edgar Handel, and I know they have a very. Young children and have been to meetings like this. If they could go next, I think it would benefit everybody. >> Okay. >> Shouldn't be a problem. If they can come, let us know who they are. >> Thank you. Please proceed. >> Okay. Thank you. I'm Chris Gannon, I'm an architect and an advocate, and I sit on the building and fire code board of appeals today. I am also speaking in favor of allowing [3:23:20 PM] speaking in favor of allowing single Sara buildings. So what are these buildings? Essentially, they are apartment buildings that rely on a smaller size, not a redundant stairway for fire safety. They are compact, fit well within existing neighborhoods, provide much better units, and most importantly, are safe. What they are not is a large double loaded corridor building, which is what the vast majority of multifamily getting built today is. And it's definitely not one of these. Minus one stairway. The required corridor between the two mandated stairways has the effect of creating a wall running the length of the building. This leads to huge buildings with small units, with only one side having access to window. In comparison, a single stair building is much smaller and more efficient, with units that can stretch from the front to the back. Here we have two of them side by side. You can see the units are larger, more family friendly and have windows for light and ventilation on multiple sides and are more efficient without the central [3:24:21 PM] efficient without the central corridor. Also want to point out that there are in fact more stairs per units in this arrangement than what we're seeing in the old corridor. These buildings are relatively small, so they fit well within the neighborhood context on existing lots. No land assemblage needed. This leads to a finer grained urbanism. Compare that to what we're building now, which is the Texas donut. These small apartment buildings are the building block of most urban areas throughout the globe. The us and Canada are the most prominent outliers. There's a growing movement across the nation to legalize these buildings in both cities and states. This is definitely the future of smart urban growth, and I believe that we're at the very precipice of a new era in American housing. So what makes them safe? First, a limited number of units per floor. In this configuration, you will know all your neighbors. There's height limits. These are not high rises. That's the most important [3:25:21 PM] rises. That's the most important thing. Five stories gets the job done in most cases. But six is the national trend. I would support studying how we could go even higher for later code adoptions. Reduced egress distance keeps the doors of the units very close to the exit. There's no long smoke filled corridors. This is an essential safety piece. And then compartmentalization means that if there is a fire, it's contained for long enough for everyone to get out. The pew charitable trust just released the first ever study on the safety of single stair buildings. In comparison to the double load corridor buildings, and it found no increase in fire risk. Pew is very clear that these are safe buildings. The national fire protection agency has research that shows sprinklers contain fires. In 92% of cases, these buildings will all be sprinkled in the rare case that sprinklers do not work, the smoke filled corridors is the next greatest fire risk. Single stair buildings avoid the corridor entirely. They've also found that on small apartment [3:26:23 PM] found that on small apartment buildings, they studied one in Jersey City. The second stair and the associated floor area account for between 9 and 13% of building costs. This is a non insignificant share. It will help make more of these buildings pencils, which is important in the current lending environment. City staff has provided an excellent amendment that reaches five storeys with modern fire safety provisions. Please bring this amendment forward for adoption in the 2024 ibc and consider the amendments voted on by the planning commission, in particular, raising the net floor area limit. So I want to end on some fun images of the first ever single stair competition. This is out of Denver and hosted by Sean zamesnik, who is a Texas grad. Hookham. >> Sorry, but your time is up. We appreciate. And you promised us fun and then we lose it. So appreciate you being here. Thank you. Thanks for your work. >> If your name has been called, [3:27:25 PM] >> If your name has been called, please approach the podium and state your name. And for the record. >> Please come down if your name has been called. >> Hi, my name is anusha. Asean and I live in district three. First, I want to take a moment to appreciate the beautiful half scene that was that display at city hall, and my gratitude for the opportunity to celebrate nowruz with the city of Austin. I won't repeat everything everyone said. I'm here in support of single stairs, and I am also in support of the university tenant unions effort to make sure students get natural light in their bedrooms. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi Edgar. >> Handel. >> District three. >> I appreciate the. >> The line. >> She is. >> This close. >> To a meltdown so. >> Well she's always been your always been your biggest fan. >> So yeah. >> We've seen this happen before. >> Yeah for sure. >> Welcome back. [3:28:25 PM] >> Welcome back. >> Yeah I think you've heard a lot about single stair. I try not to repeat too much. I mean, I think that thre's a lot of evidence to show that they're safe. There's a lot of it seems self-evident how much better they can be. I think if you've lived in an apartment any time in recent history, you'll know that most of them don't have a ton of light. They have one exterior wall, long, kind of soulless hallways, and it's funny to think about stairways because you just don't most of the time. You know, I think in most of the apartments I've lived in, I probably would be hard pressed to name where the first staircase to my apartment was, let alone the second. So it's just kind of funny in that way. But I think this is really huge. It's simultaneously a very wonky thing, but also something that I think could have a very nice impact on the quality of life going forward in Austin and helping us with affordability, managing how we can build up instead of using more pervious cover, how we can prevent sprawl and building into wildfire areas. I mean, there's just so [3:29:26 PM] areas. I mean, there's just so much that this will help with that. I think that it's just such a great step. So thank you. And now I have to go pick up my son from preschool. >> Yeah. There you go. Thank you for being here. Your name has been called. Please come forward to the microphone. >> Good evening, commissioners. My name is. >> Felix de Porto. >> District four. >> I'm here to voice my support. >> For item 76, specifically. >> The adoption. Of the single stair amendment to the international building code. And in the interest of time, I'm going to keep my remarks brief and try not to repeat. >> A lot of what's been said. >> I grew up in a four story. Single stair building with eight. >> Units. >> And that building was on a footprint that was less than half the size. Of a. Single family lot here. >> In Austin. >> I share this only to underscore that single stair buildings are the norm in much of the world, and only in the United States. So we continue to uphold these outdated restrictions that limit this kind of housing. Families in Austin deserve more housing [3:30:27 PM] Austin deserve more housing choices, homes that foster human connection, and a shared sense of belonging. So let's join the rest of the world in embracing human centered design. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you council. >> All right. >> Council members. Parker Welch. >> It's all right. >> Okay. >> I took your compliment. Well, sorry. >> Parker Welch, district ten. I sent all of your offices a joint letter from a bunch of community organizations yesterday. And that letter said everything that I would say up here. So I'll just use this time to quickly note that I forgot one of our diverse community organizations, the congress for new urbanism, wanted me to let you know that they also signed on, but they got caught in my spam filter in Gmail so they didn't make it onto the document itself. But that's all I wanted to say. I'm really excited about this. Thank you all for your work. >> Thank you. >> Ty Vincent Mckibben, will Davis, followed by Jacob foster. [3:31:32 PM] Davis, followed by Jacob foster. >> Hi, I'm from district five, speaking. >> In support of the single stair amendment, as well as the amendment to add more natural lighting for the housing around the university campus. One, you know, everybody's mentioned fire. That's the big thing that we're afraid of. And it was found in a study from in new York City from 2012 to 2024, that the rate of fire deaths in single stair apartments did. Basically, there was no significant difference between that and stairs with like multiple stair in apartments with multiple stairs. Likewise, like in British Columbia, they they recognized that the main determinant is going to be fire prevention methods. So like having sprinklers, having your like less flammable materials around the main corridor. And I [3:32:32 PM] around the main corridor. And I just want to make a point like right here, if I have to run down a double loaded corridor with this leg as it is, I would not really feel that much safer having to sprint. You know, trying to hobble actually 50ft or 100ft, whereas a single stair having that right outside my door would be a lot safer. And then also the single stair buildings are going to be more built to a higher standard of fire safety than potentially the existing buildings that they'll be replacing, or that single family homes which aren't going to be held to that, that same standard. Right. Like how many single family homes have sprinkler systems and whatnot. And. Closer to the center of Austin means less people living close to the Wu Huy, therefore exposing less people to the risk of fire along the excerpts. Right. And so this gives us so many more options for families or people that just need more [3:33:32 PM] or people that just need more space beyond what looks like basically a hotel room type setup that we find in most apartment complexes. Thank you. >> If your name has been called, please make your way to the podium and state your name for the record. Thank you. >> Hi. >> Council members, I'm. Vincent Mckibben with district. >> Seven and I'll keep it brief. >> Yeah, I'm. >> Speaking in favor. >> Of single housing. Single stair housing. And pretty. >> Much it's just as. >> Very simple to me. Is that I've been in Austin for a very. Short amount of time, and the people here have been incredible. And I'd like those people to be able to live here. It's really that simple. I want an Austin in which people can live, work and build a family and they don't have to, like, feel like they have to move because the affordability is too hard. And I think single stair is a way to do that and let other people get into those technical details. But yeah, thank. >> You. >> Thank you. >> Will Davis, Jacob foster, [3:34:33 PM] >> Will Davis, Jacob foster, Adam Greenfield has time donated by Eric Carlberg. Is Eric here? Thank you. Adam gets four minutes, followed by Megan bedollo. >> Good afternoon. >> Council members. >> Mayor Adam. >> Greenfield here with safe streets. >> Austin. Also speaking in support of agenda item 76. >> In particular. >> Legalizing single stair buildings to up to six. Storeys or actually more. >> So a question for. >> You, which cities. >> In the. >> World apart from. >> Austin do you most love? >> Which ones do. >> You most enjoy visiting? >> Perhaps you like. >> Barcelona. Perhaps Amsterdam. Mexico City. >> New York. >> City. >> Right here. >> These places all have. >> Things in common. They are walkable, but they. >> Are also. >> Full of single stair. >> Buildings around the world. >> For thousands of years. [3:35:35 PM] >> For thousands of years. >> We've had. >> A long. >> Time to. >> Figure out. >> What is. >> The optimum way. To come together and live together in cities, and we. >> Have largely. >> Decided that it is single stair buildings. >> This is. >> The world's. >> Most abundant form. >> Of. >> Urban living. In fact, people. >> In cities around. >> The world. >> Don't call these. >> Single stair buildings. >> They simply. >> Call them buildings. >> These are so. >> Common that people don't even notice them. They are just the default fabric of our urban living. >> The reason. >> I. >> Think, why so many. >> People are excited. >> About bringing. >> Single stair buildings. >> To Austin is because they. >> Represent a human. >> Scaled, incremental. >> Development that is so. >> Essential for creating walkable, vibrant. >> Inviting streets. And that's why safe. >> Streets Austin. >> Is so excited. >> About these these. >> This is such. >> A healthy way to develop. [3:36:35 PM] >> A healthy way to develop. >> Cities in an incremental way. >> That fills. >> In gaps, that adds to existing character. >> Of neighborhoods and brings. >> Community and. >> Brings beauty. >> By stitching. >> That urban fabric together. >> As you can see in these photos here. >> This is old. >> These are six. >> These are single stair buildings from the 1600s in Yemen. They called them medieval skyscrapers. They still are around more than 400 years later. This is Philadelphia, Boston. >> San Francisco. All of these photos that I showed. You have. >> Single stair buildings in the background. >> On these streetscapes. >> More contemporary Seattle. >> Chris showed you some photos. See the engagement. >> With. >> The street here. So as you're walking by day or night, people looking out. >> Of the windows. >> Making the sidewalk feel safer, encouraging you to bike and walk. These beautiful lit buildings here. >> Look at those lovely views. >> Chris showed you. [3:37:38 PM] >> Chris showed you. >> Again, if. You're walking. >> By, you've got those windows looking. >> Out. >> For you. They're just a much more inviting environment to walk through. And then just just lastly, you know, we talk about big things. We talk about number of units. But also this kind of housing is also about the small moments, the small moments when your kid is able to walk to downtown and back without an adult because of an infill opportunity that these buildings made possible. Or perhaps you wake up in the morning and your apartment is well lit and you feel like you're living the good life. Or maybe you bump into a neighbor on a street that's a little bit more vibrant, because now your small lot of land has eight households on it. I think this is why we're all so excited about this, because this is finally unlocking the incremental form of development that I think is going to be really good for Austin. So safe streets Austin is very excited to support item 76, and we think [3:38:39 PM] to support item 76, and we think it is just going to be very important to creating a more walkable city. So thank you very much. >> Megan bedollo Brian pazsitzky Alex Choi. Skylar Costello. Christian shoup. Luis osta lugo. >> Howdy. >> Christian sappi I live in district ten today. I wanted to speak on item 76 both for and against some elements for single stair, against windowless bedrooms. We really need to close the windowless bedroom loophole for students. Imagine living in essentially these large Texas donuts, and you [3:39:42 PM] large Texas donuts, and you don't have a sense of what time of day it is. So yeah, I think it's really urgent that we pass something that fixes the windowless bedroom loophole that has propagated thousands of windowless bedrooms in west campus over the course of the past few years, especially given that we are planning on expanding uno over the next few months. So I don't want to see a surge in thousands and thousands of units. And half of those bedrooms are windowless. So this is a really an urgent priority. This needs to come before the uno expansion and single stair. One thing I just wanted to talk about is six stories is the most is the most affordable option there. So if we're going to pass some form of single stair, we [3:40:42 PM] some form of single stair, we need to make it six stories. I've ran the numbers formal, pro Formas and break even. Rent is reduced by between 10 and 20% on a small lot for. Yeah, ten, ten and 20%. So if any of you all want that those numbers, I'm happy to give them. Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right folks good afternoon I'm Luis Sosa, lugo, district eight resident. I'll spare you all a whole spiel. Just saying. Good changes, good reforms. I think the other thing they should be, should consider on top of, you know, they're safe, they're beautiful, they're wonderful. That's great. That's awesome. I think the other thing we should consider is like, how do you recreate a nice 2 to 300 K, 2 to 3 bedroom starter home [3:41:43 PM] K, 2 to 3 bedroom starter home in central Austin? And I think, you know, point X block single star apartments can be that new starter home here in Austin. And so I hope you all consider that in the calculation as we decide what the right package looks like. Have a wonderful day. >> Is anyone's name been called at Ed. Come forward and testify that wants to. >> Okay Tommy vineyard, Amy Deluna, Chloe Wilkinson, Benjamin Woosley, Sean Adkins. >> If your name's been called, come forward. >> Cameron mazone. >> Hello. >> My name. >> Is Amy Deluna. I'm a resident of. District nine and I live in an apartment complex. It is four stories tall. With 15 to 30 units per floor, and it has six [3:42:44 PM] units per floor, and it has six stairwells. The building layout is a bit confusing and feels like an efficient use of space. One day I hope to move into my dream home, and my dream home is a unit in a single stair building. You'll hear from a lot of people about why single stair buildings are great, so I'll leave it to them. One more thing is, please listen to those who have come today with the university tenants union. Union? Well, I want more housing to be built in Austin. I think we also need to consider the negative physical and mental health impacts of bedrooms without access to direct natural light. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Mayor. Can I ask a question. >> Real quick, councilmember. >> That we fixed windowless bedrooms for new construction? >> I did too, but okay, so we're going to ask a question about that later. >> Hello mayor and council. >> I'm Ben Woosley. >> I'm a renter in district nine. >> I'm also the lead the local chapter. >> Of the American. >> Conservation coalition, which [3:43:45 PM] >> Conservation coalition, which is a pro people pro planet. Environmental advocacy organization. >> As others have noted. >> Experiences around the world over many decades show that single stair buildings have proven as safe or more safe than the alternatives. But supporters of this proposal aren't here simply because single stair is safe. We're here because single stair is compelling. To illustrate, let's walk through a day in a single stair life. First you wake up and thanks to this policy, you have a larger apartment or one at lower cost, because the space that would otherwise have been allocated allocated to a long central hallway between staircases has been reallocated towards living in. For the same reason, you're much more likely to have a corner unit, so your apartment or condo naturally is lit on two sides. This may seem a minor point, but it has a profound impact on quality of life. As Christopher Alexander notes in his book a pattern language, when they have a choice, people will always gravitate to those rooms which have light on two sides and leave the rooms which are lit on only one side, unused and empty. This pattern, perhaps more than any other single pattern, determines the success or failure of a room. Rooms lit on two sides with natural light create less glare around people and objects. This lets us see things more intricately. It [3:44:46 PM] things more intricately. It allows us to read and detail the minute expressions that flash across people's faces, the motion of their hands, and thereby understand more clearly the meaning that they are after. The light on two sides allows people to understand each other. End quote. Next, you set out for your day and your front door opens to a prominent staircase and landing area. Because of this layout and stairs placed prominently rather than hidden away, you're more likely to take them to and from your place. In doing so, you'll live longer and you'll look better doing it. A recent meta analysis from the European society of cardiology found a 24% reduction in all cause mortality among those who climb stairs as a regular practice. In my mind, this fact alone far overwhelms the possible risk of fire danger, as it's a benefit that materially improves every residents life and longevity. Longevity. Next, on your way down the stairs, you encounter a neighbor who is taking the views and the morning coffee from a bench on the landing and you say hello. As happy cities notes in their building social connections toolkit, circulation spaces have significant and often unmet social potential. Excuse me. Thank you. >> Good evening. Council. My [3:45:49 PM] >> Good evening. Council. My name is Chloe Wilkinson. I live in district nine. It's a pleasure to see you all today. First, let me just say thank you for all the work that you do. Spending a lot of time in the capital right now. And I can tell you it's a much more pleasant experience here. But I rushed over here from the capitol in the pouring rain because I'm so excited about the opportunity for more developments. Building more housing. And as it relates, I believe single stairs will help us build more housing. I do want to note the university tenants unions. A few of them are here today. They are speaking against not because they are opposed to the proposal as it stands, but that they have a few minor problems in terms of windows in bedrooms, making sure that they are guaranteed in new constructions of over two bedrooms, I believe is the exact wording. So thank you so much for this bill. I think it is a [3:46:50 PM] for this bill. I think it is a great bill and I would be happy if you voted yes on it here, but it would be even better if you added the provisions that they are asking for. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Zach Valdez Justin Lanier namratha. Charles Bradbury. >> Howdy. >> Mayor and council members. >> My name. >> Is Zach Faddis. I'm a. >> Resident of district. Nine and. >> President of aura. >> I signed. >> Up today primarily to speak on the need. P>> To. Legalize single sale buildings. >> To at least six. >> Stories. >> But it seems that this is something a lot of people care about and everyone's already. >> Taken my lines. >> So instead, I'm going to. >> Talk about. >> Windowless bedrooms. I'd like to. >> Stand with the student organizers in saying that everyone deserves access to natural light. >> Within their. >> Private quarters quarters. [3:47:51 PM] >> Private quarters quarters. >> As we start to dismantle. >> The wall. >> Of rules we've erected, whose primary purpose. >> Is to separate the kinds. >> Of housing we. >> Allow in the city, and to spare single family owners the indignity. >> Of living in their apartments. >> We have what. >> I like to think. >> Of as. >> Regulatory breathing room. Some of that should. >> Be spent to ensure that. >> The renter majority. >> Of this city are protected from the most egregious. Abuses of landlords, and the main. >> Pain points of. >> Renters that reduce their quality of life. Ensuring direct access to sunlight within a private space falls squarely in that category. >> I don't think. >> Bedrooms always need to have sunlight. If you have a single bed apartment, I'm comfortable saying you don't have a roommate and you can access your morning sun by opening the door into the living room. Once you have two bedrooms, we can assume it will at some point be habitated by multiple adults that are not intimates, and those adults will want to access will want access to sunlight without having to make themselves decent for the roommates. More importantly, we're building deeply affordable, fully subsidized housing. I don't think you should be required to adhere to at least half of the building regulations on our books. It makes no sense to say that a bedroom is unsafe, or must have [3:48:52 PM] bedroom is unsafe, or must have sunlight, or that a unit must have a private bath or kitchen. When you consider the very possible alternative that the same person who live in that home will instead be entirely without shelter, under a bridge or in the woods. But for the majority of homes that we build in Austin, ensuring access to sunlight is a reasonable and achievable goal, and I hope you'll look into making it a reality. Thank you. >> Hello. >> Mayor Watson, council members I'm Justin Lanier, I'm a d9 resident graduate student at the lbj school of public affairs and the policy director for the university tenants union. I urge you to please amend the proposed building code update to eliminate the ability for windowless bedrooms to borrow light, except in the case of one bedrooms, and to explain why I'm going to do something that will thrill my parents. I'm going to make use of my way to expensive bachelor of fine arts studying photography. I learned about the inverse square law. Okay, bear [3:49:52 PM] inverse square law. Okay, bear with me for a second. In short, this means as one gets further from a bedroom, the from a from a light source. I'm sorry. The intensity of light decreases exponentially. So if your room is 30ft from a window, you've got 1/900 of the light as if you were standing right next to it. And when we allow borrowing light, we're taking that already meager amount of light, and we are filtering it through a frosted window into your bedroom, further reducing that light. This is an inadequate amount of light for a human to live a healthy life, let alone a houseplant. In 2023, 800 plus UT community members came together and unambiguously said they did not want any more windowless bedrooms. The borrowed light exception is not what students wanted. Student tenants disproportionately experience windowless and borrowed light bedrooms. A recent analysis by the planning department shows that 32 buildings in west campus have windowless bedrooms, and several have more than 50% without windows. But Austin [3:50:53 PM] without windows. But Austin renters citywide deal with it, too. Professor Kohler at UT school of architecture conservatively estimates the number of buildings citywide with windowless or barred light bedrooms at 391. I've heard it expressed that getting rid of borrowed light will make building housing more expensive, but windows are not a compromise worth making for affordability. Adequate light is critical for health and well-being. Please end the practice of borrowed light for windowless bedrooms citywide now. Thank you. Lastly, please support single stare. Thank you. Thank you. >> Hard to. >> Follow, Justin. >> Good afternoon. >> Mayor Watson. >> Council members. >> And city staff. >> My team. >> And I. Are speaking. >> Today against the borrowed light code. >> Loophole and in favor of single stare reform. >> My name is namrata. >> I am an architecture. >> Student at the. >> University of Texas. >> At Austin, and I'm a resident of district >> I am also the coalition. >> Building director of the. >> University tenants union, an. [3:51:54 PM] >> University tenants union, an. >> Organization that was founded. >> In order to. >> Ban windowless. >> Housing almost two years ago. >> I'm here. Today to. >> Urge the city to close the barred light loophole in building code. >> For good citywide, especially. >> As. >> You know. >> Updates are about to be passed. Council must act. >> Now in order to prevent. >> A new wave of windowless developments. >> In the next. >> Two years. >> Our organization has. >> Been fighting against windowless. >> Bedrooms for the better. >> Part of the past two years, and we believe this policy loophole has not been done in good faith. When we rallied a coalition of over 800 students, faculty, alumni, and even UT parents. Obviously, we never intended for borrowed light to be the loophole. We have heard from students and professionals from around the country and worldwide, come to the city for world renowned education, for world renowned jobs. They do not come here to suffer through archaic living situations that have been outlawed in almost all major cities around the world for almost a century. The building committee is dedicated to ensuring the safety and health of Austin residents. However, by dsd's own summary of the community engagement, 96% of those engaged were developers. When Austin continues to allow windowless and borrowed light bedrooms, the city is telling tenants specifically students low income and international tenants, that their mental [3:52:55 PM] tenants, that their mental health is worth less than others. This is simply unacceptable and we must do better. As a city. We must value the mental health of tenants over the profits of developers. And in fact, the developers that do this in Austin use floor plans in other cities in which every bedroom has external facing windows. This is clearly not about profit margins. In order to preserve the health and safety of Austin residents, we must disallow windowless bedrooms and barred light bedrooms in all conditions, excepting one bedroom floor plans. Ultimately, the borrowed light loophole would be a huge failure in the fight against windowless bedrooms, council members and mayor Watson, you must act now to protect your tenants. And thank you so much for your time. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon. >> Mayor Watson. >> Council members and city staff. >> Today, my. >> Team and I are speaking against the borrowed light loophole. And for the single stair reform. My name is Kayla Quilantang and I live in district nine. I am a graduating architecture major at UT Austin, [3:53:56 PM] architecture major at UT Austin, a rising architect of the city and chair of the university tenants union. And I'm also the author of the windowless bedroom letter that first brought the city this issue to the city's attention over a year ago that gained over 800 signatures in just three days. The diverse citywide coalition that formed led to us founding the university tenants union, where we have since worked with council member qadri, city staff, city planners and more on countless housing policy initiatives for our city. Today, we are speaking not just for ourselves, but for the hundreds of students, faculty, alumni, professionals, and even parents of these students who originally signed this petition and whose voices were not engaged in this latest code revision process. Today, we demand the immediate closure of the borrowed light loophole in Austin's building code for good. This is not just a student issue. This is a public health crisis. The windowless bedroom code loophole has gained attention nationwide, is backed by extensive research, architectural experts in aia, and countless town hall testimonies. The research is clear, windowless bedrooms void [3:54:57 PM] clear, windowless bedrooms void of external facing natural daylight endanger both our mental and physical health. The monetization of this basic human right continues to disrupt thousands of student circadian rhythms, causing sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, and more. Austin's current code enables developers to profit at the expense of our health and safety needs, renting out windowless bedrooms, a practice illegal in even denser cities than Austin, such as New York and Madrid. Students, especially low income and international students, signed leases, unaware that what span in their home countries is considered legal in Austin. Council members, you have the power to end this now and prove to us that Austin values human dignity over profit. Close the borrowed light loophole for good before more generations of our students suffer. Thank you for your time. >> Your name has been called. Please make your way to the podium and state your name for the record. Cyrus Tehrani, Miriam Schoenfeld, Alan Virani. Nico. Tangent Michael Rhodes, [3:55:59 PM] Nico. Tangent Michael Rhodes, Peter Breton, Stuart. Hirsch, Joan. Saldana, Jeffrey Shapiro, and Monica Guzman. >> Hello, council. Mr. Mayor. City manager. Good afternoon. My name. >> Is Alan Virani. >> I'm an Aurora board member, district nine resident. And thank you for letting me speak here today. I really appreciate your time. I'm speaking in support of single staircase, and I want to thank your council, the council, for its leadership. I think over the last two years, the entire nation has looked to this council and the city of Austin for its leadership on affordability. And I think this is an example of that. And so again, I'm really urge you to support single staircase. And above that I, you know, applaud your leadership. And I think this move will also be [3:56:59 PM] this move will also be recognized at the national level. Thank you. >> Hello. My name is Nico tanged. I represent district two and I'm speaking in support of item six for single stair. I believe multifamily housing up to six stories should have a single staircase. Has the potential to open up smaller lots to create more housing, making it more financially feasible to create missing middle housing, since more spaces can be allocated to living space instead of a hallway. With the current rules requiring two stair ways in a hallway or every room. This ends up creating a lot of one bedroom apartments with single stair. We open up the potential for more three and four bedroom more suitable for families. Doing a quick zillow search. Before speaking today, I found that there are 10,001 bedroom apartments in Austin available for rent today, but for three [3:58:00 PM] for rent today, but for three bedroom or more, that number is only 1000. Clearly demonstrating that the current rules are limiting the potential to create housing for families. The housing that families would want. Additionally, having with this single stair housing has the potential to have windows on both sides of the unit, creating better airflow for its residents. And finally, my last reason for supporting single stairs. The building esthetic I think buildings in New York, Amsterdam or Japan are more visually appealing than the North American counterpart, which is large and monotonous. Removing this staircase will give architects more flexibility to create beautiful and unique housing. I do think that we should take the risk of fire very seriously, but we can achieve similar levels of safety using less fire prone materials. The building more preventative measures such as fire resistant drywall sprinklers and requiring fire doors. Thank you so much. City council. [3:59:00 PM] City council. >> If your name has been called, please approach the podium. State your name for the record, please. >> My name is Michael Rhoads. >> I'm in district five. >> I'd just like to thank. >> Everyone on the council who's been working. >> On these issues. >> Krista and Mike, it was nice being out in November, campaigning with you guys and supporting, you know, working on the election. Ryan, my representative. Thank you for taking these issues serious and working on them and listening to all our concerns. Thank you. Chito, for leading this effort and all the hard work and everyone else on the council. I'd like to thank all of you. For keeping us in moving forward on these serious issues, making the city a leader in this country, and I hope you will continue push this single stair and all other housing issues forward and keep working after that. So thank you all again. [4:00:00 PM] that. So thank you all again. It's been a lot of hard work, but I think it'll be nice to finally see this finished. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon. >> Mayor, mayor. >> Pro tem. >> Fuentes and city council members. >> I had a whole. >> Thing lined up. >> About how much I love living in spyglass. I don't want to waste your time. Although I don't think any time is wasted. >> Saying. How much. >> I love spyglass. >> Great neighborhood. I think it's an example. A shining example of what our city should be like. Accessible nature, corner stores, duplexes, apartment buildings. I won't talk more about single stair buildings other than I would like. Eventually, when the aging apartment that I live in will eventually be redeveloped for it to be single stair buildings, not impacting the impervious cover of a very important area, and still having more density to support a better bus service. Also, the university tenants union does a great job of [4:01:00 PM] union does a great job of getting students together. We should be honoring that work that they've been doing. Windowless bedrooms. We should not have those. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful rest of your day. >> Good afternoon. >> I'm Jeff Shapiro. >> I'm a licensed professional. >> Engineer. >> Fire protection. >> Engineer in the. >> State of Texas. >> A resident. >> Of district ten since the 90s. >> I do. >> Not. >> Have a. >> Frequent flier card for the city. >> Of. Austin council meetings. Miss Fuentes. >> You might. >> Remember I met you when we. Were here for the cw many. >> Years ago. >> That's my. >> First and only appearance before today. >> Most of my practice. >> Is national. >> And in that regard, I will say that I've been very active. In the single stair discussion nationally, including attending the national symposium. >> And I'm the author. >> Of a set. >> Of recommended provisions. >> Which are recommended for. >> Approval in the 2027 edition of the international. >> Building code to. >> Allow an increase in single stair building height. To be [4:02:01 PM] stair building height. To be clear. You can do a single stair building today up to three storeys. The question is, can you do it above three storeys? And as you go up, how safe is it? And envision yourself standing at the fourth or fifth or sixth level of a building with a single leg that's obstructed and your ability to get out of that building, standing at a window without the fire department being able to get a ladder to you, even with an escape opening, that's a real problem. I have a background as a firefighter. I have a fire protection engineering. I've worked for fire departments. I've worked for the housing industry. I've seen this from all sides. And as a result of that, I had the opportunity at the icc meeting where the ibc is developed to work with the proponents of single stair buildings at the national level, Stephen Smith and the fire service, and the provisions that I drafted for the new edition of the international building code, had the endorsement of both the fire service and the proponent to allow single storey building, single stair buildings up to four storeys. I think that's the safe threshold that the fire [4:03:02 PM] safe threshold that the fire department can live with. I believe in being the voice of compromise on issues like this, as well as trying to bring all parties together so that everybody gets something, but we don't neglect safety. And I will say that as we go above four storeys, safety is a concern. >> Thank you sir. They didn't clap for you. Oh. Come on, give him a round of applause, everybody. >> Hi. Good afternoon. I'm John Saldana with the with the university Democrats urbanism caucus. And I'm here supporting single stair reform for my fellow students and for myself. Single story reform will allow students to have access to more and to better housing choices. Currently, with double loading corridors, developers have to make these really big buildings that have a lot of expenses, a lot of costs, and you want to know what they do with that. They include golf simulators. [4:04:04 PM] They include golf simulators. Every apartment has pools. Why does every apartment need pools? There is an apartment on Rio grande that has a tube slide in the lobby. That is not what we need. What we need is good, solid, and especially cheap housing. I believe that with single stair reform, we will. We will get apartments that have. Median and students will choose these cheap housing options if they are available. Aside from that, it will allow us to have apartments that have more flexibility with connecting neighborhoods. I understand there's some surrounding places around the university that might not be wanting these really big, you know, typical west campus mid-rises. They would accept single stair, six story, you know, small apartments with, as everybody said, up to four units per story. I think that's a pretty good compromise. Aside from that, these lower construction costs will allow us to have more developers join in [4:05:04 PM] to have more developers join in the action. Increasing competition within the student housing market. And the. One of the last few things I want to say is I want to thank noom and Kayla and Justin for their work with the tenants union. They're amazing friends of mine, and I'm really happy to see the work that they've done over the past year and a half with the windowless bedroom situation. I really hope that you guys can finally fix that for good and just leave it. As we all have said, for just one bedroom. I want to leave you guys with this. This Tuesday, I went with a buddy of mine to whataburger. There was. They're building a mid-rise behind. Sorry, sir. Have a great rest of your day. >> All the names have been called mayor. >> Folks, those are all the names that have been called on item number 76. So, without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 76. The public hearing is now closed. I recognize council member qadri. >> Thank you. Mayor. I'm going to give my comments super quick. I think single star is awesome. [4:06:05 PM] I think single star is awesome. So really excited about all the speakers who came out in favor of it. But I wanted to just quickly touch on something that the university tenants union our office has worked on quite a bit. I really appreciate them being down here. You know, we worked on eliminating parking. Sorry, not parking. We did work on limiting parking. >> We did that too. Yeah. >> We worked on eliminating windowless bedrooms in the building code last year. We're aware that they're still borrowed light for bedrooms. So we're going to work on, you know, alongside the university tenants union on eliminating borrowed light for multi bedroom apartments that are in the building code. We're going to be working with staff and it's something that's going to be coming up. You know on the Dyess in the upcoming few weeks. It's always been and remains a goal of ours to ensure borrowed light is not an option in uno and our density bonus programs, and I look forward to making that a reality later this year. So once again, I appreciate the tenants union for being out today. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember Laine. >> I want to thank my colleagues and all the advocates who have worked tirelessly to advance this important housing [4:07:05 PM] this important housing amendment. I will let you know that I do fully support allowing single star buildings up to five stories. This change will create more affordable, family friendly housing, which we need. Maximize space efficiency and improve natural light and ventilation, all while maintaining strong fire safety standards. But looking ahead as we continue to tackle Austin's housing challenges, I'm also exploring language for an amendment that would initiate a study to follow the 2027 international building code update to evaluate the feasibility of allowing six story, single stair buildings. As part of our ongoing efforts to improve affordability. I also do want to acknowledge the concerns raised around borrowed light, and appreciate the students who took the time to share their perspectives. Access to natural light is essential, and I do look forward to working with my colleagues to address those issues in a way that meets our residents needs. >> Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember. Any further discussion before we move on? All right. The public hearing has been closed on item number 76. There will be a second public hearing on item number 76 on April 10th. And at that point, we will take action. [4:08:05 PM] point, we will take action. Members that will take us back to item number 103, which was pulled from the consent agenda. I will recognize councilmember Siegel as the council member that pulled item number 103. We do have people that have signed up to speak. So an appropriate time. But I'm going to recognize you first and then we'll go to the speakers. Thank you mayor. So we're now. >> Talking about automatic. >> License plate readers, item 103. And I just want to start by recognizing the hard work and careful work of my colleagues. Before I was able to be on the dais here, and also city staff who have built this pilot program. And really created a lot of protections to protect. Against misuse of this technology. >> And that. >> Hard work went into the. >> Resolution, the general order that the police department is bound by. We have an nda or nondisclosure agreement. And all of this is with the goal of safeguarding personal data from being used to hurt vulnerable communities. So I want everyone to know that everyone on this [4:09:07 PM] to know that everyone on this dais really wants to protect our fellow austinites. And that's why the council voted for this pilot program and the audit process that's going to culminate, I believe, in may. But with that said, the reason I pulled this item is I do believe the landscape has changed dramatically since the last time apr were in front of this body. And this is based on the complete disregard for civil rights and the rule of law by other governmental entities, the federal government arresting and attempting to deport a legal resident because he speaks in favor of palestine. The federal government saying it will label Tesla protesters as domestic terrorists, ignoring court orders to stop the violent violation of constitutional rights of immigrants, and the state of Texas beginning to prosecute people for reproductive crimes and other bills targeting vulnerable residents of our community. And so I'm concerned that continuing the apr program will put our residents at risk. And last night, after we had work session, the Austin police department staff confirmed to my [4:10:07 PM] department staff confirmed to my staff some things that were not quite cleared up at the Tuesday hearing, and in particular, they confirmed that if an outside law enforcement agency subpoenas apr data. So on Tuesday, I asked if there was a request made, for example, regarding someone who was accused of a felony abortion offense or someone who's accused of, you know, improperly seeking gender affirming care, the police department told us that they would not comply in those situations. But the clarification they gave my staff last night is that if a subpoena is issued for such data. Those how this program that we're using for internal purposes, for example, to track down stolen vehicles, can be abused and taken advantage of by the state and federal law enforcement agencies who are currently attacking our communities. We also know, and I think this is clear to everyone, that if ice or immigration authorities request this data, even informally, we must turn it [4:11:08 PM] informally, we must turn it over. And so is for those reasons that I am going to be voting no on this item. Thank you mayor. >> Thank you. Council member. I'll turn to the city clerk for calling on people that have signed up to speak. >> Okay. We're going to begin with remote speakers. Mel leblanc. >> Good afternoon. >> Council. I'm Mel blanc with vocal Texas, and I'm a resident of. >> District one. >> I'm calling to ask that. >> You vote no on. >> Item 103. >> At Texas. >> We work. >> To end homelessness, mass. >> Incarceration, the drug war, and HIV. >> And AIDS surveillance tools like the automatic. >> License plate reader program. Over criminalized vulnerable communities. >> Our. >> Communities, and. >> Create pathways for greater injustice. >> Furthermore. >> Since the pilot was. >> Introduced, many. >> Circumstances have changed. >> Federal and. >> State governments have proven that they will use mass surveillance technology to prosecute undocumented communities, people seeking. >> Abortions. >> Or other reproductive. >> Health care, members. >> Of the lgbtq community that are seeking. [4:12:08 PM] are seeking. >> Gender affirming care. And prosecutors. >> Exercising their first amendment. >> Rights. To be clear, under current policies, APD. >> Will be. >> Required to turn over. All requested data to again, undocumented folks, people seeking life saving reproductive and trans health care, and that they can no longer access in Texas, and protests related investigations that are deemed, quote unquote, criminal. So let's not forget that now, face masks can be banned and are criminalized in a protest setting. And although there have not been outside requests for these data for this data during the course of the pilot program. Once those requests are made, there will be no way to prevent technology from being used against vulnerable communities. And as councilmember Siegel just said, APD has already stated that they will be required to turn over that data. Continued use of als threatens to tear communities and families apart. The risk is too great, and the trade offs are not worth the safety of our communities. So [4:13:08 PM] safety of our communities. So I'm asking again that you vote no on 103. Thank you. >> Next speaker is Kyra hill. >> Hello? Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. Just one moment. Sorry. Actually, terribly. I had everything written out, and. Oh, here it is. Hi, y'all. I'm Kyra hill, a resident of district four, and I'm speaking against the flock safety automated license plate reader pilot program. Just in 2022, the aclu published a research analysis detailing flock safety cloud based surveillance system, which is accessible at that time to more than 500 us police departments. And speaks on the risk of government abuse. It detailed how flock safety has partnered with law enforcement, its top revenue generator, to create positive media coverage [4:14:10 PM] create positive media coverage to improve their pr, going as far as writing press releases for police to paint apr in a positive light. As a result, the police are not going to disparage flock safety because they're in a mutually beneficial relationship in which the surveilled community will always come out on the bottom of this power and greed driven economy of state surveillance. This program will aid in APD's role in obstructing civil liberties by serving as an additional means of collecting data on, and surveilling the people of Austin. Most recently, we've seen this technology deployed to target activists speaking out against the genocide in palestine. We'll see expand to the harassment of both undocumented and documented immigrants in our communities. In addition, just this past election cycle in Amarillo, we saw the introduction of an abortion travel ban, seeking to criminally charge those using public roadways to seek out-of-state abortions. Many people wondered how this would be able, how local police would be able to enforce this. The answer with the use of [4:15:12 PM] answer with the use of surveillance technology sold by the flock, safety to law enforcement like alpr. I want to caution the city council and my fellow community members to truly understand the impact of embedding this type of surveillance infrastructure into our neighborhoods, especially given the upcoming Texas legislative session. Bills on the table with emphasis. Thank you. >> Your time has expired. >> Bills. >> Now we're moving on to in-person speakers. Jay Popham, Ashley Copeland, grace enters. Trey Salinas. Corby, jastro. Ben suddaby, Noah Elias, Monica Guzman and liana Hernandez. >> Your name has been called. Please come forward. >> Thank you. >> Mayor and council members. My name is Jay Popham and I'm speaking today as a resident. Of district two. Thank you for the opportunity to speak against the proposed extension of the [4:16:12 PM] proposed extension of the automated license plate reader program. The trump administration's war on immigrants has escalated to blatant attacks on human rights and constitutional protections. Actions that once seemed unthinkable. People are being detained and deported for their political and religious beliefs or for arbitrary reasons, stoking panic and terror in our communities. They demand nothing less than bold, organized resistance at every level of society. Let's acknowledge a few truths that council member Siegel laid out at the beginning of this discussion. One under the department's current policies, if a law enforcement agency requests data related to abortion related offenses, APD will in all cases, turn over that data. Mayor pro tem Fuentes is one of your constituents. I have to ask, will we come to see APD posted outside of the dove springs health facility, which presumably includes making references to family health and planning services? Under current policies, if a law enforcement agency requests data related to immigration. Turn over that data. Mayor pro tem Fuentes, how many of these units will be driving around our district, laying a digital trail for any [4:17:13 PM] laying a digital trail for any number of malicious actors to exploit at the push of a button? Third, under current policies of law enforcement agency, request data related to protest related investigations that are framed as criminal. APD will, in all cases, turn over that data look only to the student. Students of conscience who were arrested for protesting their university's complicity in the ongoing genocide in gaza, and the chilling effect that last year's campus arrests have already had on free speech. These are individuals who have been persecuted for exercising their first amendment rights, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of conscience. It is not hard to imagine those baseless arrests becoming baseless deportations because of this program. Mayor and council, I'm getting old, and I've come to realize there are certain truths we can only know in the fullness of time. >> You've just. >> Got to ask bill bunch. There are also moments where, even with imperfect understanding, you can act to avoid wholly foreseeable outcomes. I urge you to consider this to be one of those moments. Vote against the extension of the. >> Buyback program. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon everyone. [4:18:18 PM] >> Good afternoon everyone. >> My name. >> Is Ashley. >> Copeland. >> And I'm the chief operating officer at central Texas public safety commission. Thank you all. >> For your time today. As one of the last men standing. >> Here, I've. >> Really enjoyed spending my day with you guys, so thank you for sharing it with me. It's been enlightening. >> That challenges your credibility, but that's okay. >> Today, I stand here on. >> Behalf of. >> The commission. To strongly urge you guys to support 103. We believe that the license plate readers are a. Proven tool to help law. >> Enforcement solve crimes. >> Faster, recover. >> Stolen. >> Vehicles, and ultimately keep Austin safe. The pilot. >> Program is a critical step. >> Towards a safer, more secure Austin where criminals are held accountable. >> And the. >> Community feels protected. An audit. Will provide valuable data to assess its effectiveness and guide future decisions. >> Your leadership on this. Issue matters and I want to urge. >> You to vote yes. Thank you. >> So much for your time. >> Thank you. >> Hello mayor and council. My [4:19:18 PM] >> Hello mayor and council. My name is Ben suddaby, resident of district four. I'm here to let you know what I've been hearing from many people, many of your constituents. There's grave concerns surrounding this pilot program. We've heard the arguments when it was first brought up. I think the nine months that ten months that they've had is sufficient data to stop. Now, this. Extension is not needed. We can look at what has been collected. >> So far. >> But what's imperative. Right now is that we don't build systems that the federal government can force your hand or use as a pressuring tool against, you know, budget, federal money, try and leverage against you to make y'all hand over data of your constituents. The time, you know, the safeguards that are there, I don't think are sufficient. The argument that I'm making is not that, you know, APD will violate the law or violate your directions. It's that the federal government will force your hand to give them something, and you won't have a [4:20:19 PM] something, and you won't have a legal mechanism to say no. We're talking about people I've heard from people who are trans people who work in getting health care for pregnant people in our community, from immigrants, from labor organizers. They're already arresting farm worker organizers. We've seen it in Washington state. I don't think that these things are that far from our own doorstep. So I'm asking you to make a choice of conscience now. We've had enough time with this program, this pilot. Stop it now. We can look at this data, but I think that right now we need to be making sure we're not building the tools that will be used to harm our communities. We need to make sure that we're we're protecting our constituents. You know it, I understand. Hire, but sometimes you're going to have to, you know, do a little bit more leather shoe, walk the streets. And in that way, make sure that we're not compiling this data [4:21:20 PM] we're not compiling this data that's going to be used to harm us. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> If your name has been called, please make your way to the podium. All the names have been called mayor. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember qadri, I know you want to speak. What I'm going to do is get a motion on the table, and then we'll do that as part of discussion, if that's okay with you. Before we do that, though, I, assistant city manager, could you come up? I want to ask a question about this item. First of all, I want to ask you, I got I basically have two questions. One is about the purpose of the item itself and the extension, if you will. And the second is and I want to ask specifically what you see the purpose of it is. And then the second question I've got is related to the any protections. I mean, you hear you're hearing [4:22:20 PM] I mean, you hear you're hearing concerns. You're hearing concerns from the public, but address any, any protections that you think might be the kind of thing we could do with regard to that purpose. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Mayor. Eddie Garcia, city manager over. >> Public safety. >> Chief Rogers. >> Here as well, that we'll cover. >> That can help cover. >> That second question. >> But with regards to why we're here, obviously with regards to the pilot program. >> We're waiting on the auditor's. Report so that. >> You would be better well versed. >> As to how the pilot went for APD. >> I have spoken personally. With the auditor. >> And again, I look forward to those to. >> The. >> Auditor's report coming out. As it pertains to this, we need an extension because this the purpose for the extension. We were. Prepared to. Give a presentation. >> To show. >> The benefits of the apr system that has happened in the city of Austin. The fact that although all the concerns that are being raised are raised in every other major city in this country that uses apr successfully and that has the same concerns, it has the same civil rights concerns. And so when we're able to present at the end, when you have when we [4:23:20 PM] the end, when you have when we hear a lot of issues that have not occurred in the use of this program to have a presentation from the auditor and from APD to show you the benefits, to show you the amount of individuals that have been taken off the streets, that have been preying on our community, that we've brought people to justice. And not only that, but victims that never even realized that they were going to be victims. Because the arrests that have been made and show the benefits of it, to show the fact that apr and the manner in which it is used, and the parameters of council use, makes the city of Austin safer. And so those are the things that we wanted an extension to be able to present. Once council also has the auditor's report, and that was the purpose of this. Having said that, with some other safeguards, I'll turn it over to chief Rogers. >> I think the question was. >> About safeguards, and. >> There's not another. >> Department that has. >> The level of training, the level of restrictions. >> The guardrails. >> And the. Limitations that we have in. [4:24:21 PM] have in. >> Place for this exceptionally valuable tool. There's not another city that has set it up in this way. >> There's not another department that has those restrictions. To date, we have not had an outside request from another entity to provide any of our data. We haven't had that. We haven't seen that. We don't want to stop the great work that we're doing. We haven't had a single section of violent crime, homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, sexual assault that we haven't seen, a positive success story where the use of apr was critical in protecting the community, making it safer and getting a violent offender off the street. All of that being done with the safeguards that were put in place by the previous council. >> I thank you. Members. Any other questions? Thank you both. Councilmember duchen. >> Just one quick question. Can [4:25:21 PM] >> Just one quick question. Can you explain to me the difference in functionality as well as data access between the apr system and the halo system? >> The halo system is actually monitored, and the vast majority of those cameras are within the downtown entertainment district. So they are actually monitored by a live person. And that is actually sitting there watching that. The apr is automated. It's running without anybody monitoring that system. And someone needs to go back and to look into that system or get an alert from that system. If it's a patrol officer that's driving in the area and that that gets an alert for that and be able to look up that information. >> So the halo I understand the difference between automated capacity of the of the apr system. But can somebody can the federal government take our halo data also. >> If someone provided us a subpoena or a court order, the department is going to supply [4:26:22 PM] department is going to supply going to comply with whatever orders from a court or within a subpoena. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Members. The chair will entertain a motion with regard to item number 103. Is there a motion to approve item 103? Can we do that after we have a motion. And we'll do that as part of discussion. Is that okay with you? Yes, sir. Okay. Council member alter moves approval of item 103. It's seconded by council member Velasquez. Discussion. Councilmember qadri. >> Great. Thank you. I've been here for over two years, and I still get confused. That's all right. My apologies. I appreciate it, mayor. I appreciate council member Siegel's initial comments. You know, when the when the apr item first came up before council in 2023, I voted no out of serious concern for how this technology could impact vulnerable communities in the city. And given recent actions by federal agencies, particularly those involving immigration enforcement, as well as growing threats to access to abortion and gender affirming care nationwide, I believe those [4:27:22 PM] care nationwide, I believe those concerns are not only relevant, but have become even more urgent and heightened. In light of what we've seen. While I appreciate the intent of the program, and I really appreciate what APD has been able to do in terms of the potential benefits. I do remain consistent with my original position and will be voting no against item 103. That said, I do look forward to the reviewing the outcomes of the pilot program when they are presented to the audit and finance committee. I remain committed to ensuring that any technology we implement in Austin prioritizes civil liberties, equity and community safety. >> Thank you. Thank you. Council member. Further discussion. Councilmember vela. >> Thank you, mayor, and I very much appreciate the comments and the concerns around. Alpr system. When I came on to council, this was one of the first areas that I was kind of poking around at, and I was trying to get the retention data time down to, I believe three [4:28:24 PM] time down to, I believe three minutes was what it was, which basically if a apr doesn't hit, the data is essentially not recorded. So the only information that is retained would be for data that triggers the APD's parameters. And just to remind folks though, the parameters that we set were class a misdemeanor and higher, and then class B and C misdemeanors that involve hate crime or any type of sex crime. Those are pretty limited parameters. And that's going that provides it's a very narrow targeting that the apr cameras. And then what we eventually settled on after again multiple very, you know, passionate and good arguments on both sides. Debates was a seven day retention period, which is what we have right now thanks to council member alter. Actually, he came in and I really [4:29:24 PM] he came in and I really appreciate his thoughts and work on this issue as well. It's we still haven't gotten the report at this point from the auditor. I don't know what the data would show. I share the concerns about even that seven day period. We're still retaining certain amount of data. And I share concerns about any type of data retention, which is why when I first was dealing with this issue, I wanted to keep it at such a narrow. If we're going to use apr, I don't mind using them to trigger especially serious criminal warrants that are out there. But the preservation of data, of random data about citizens I've always been uncomfortable with. I continue to be uncomfortable with that said, I do think we should finish out this contract and get the report and make an informed decision when we have that analysis. I'm also very comfortable that the city auditor will be looking kind of behind the police department and [4:30:27 PM] behind the police department and looking at and particular not just the collection of the data and the technical requirements and stuff like that, but making sure that it's only accessed and used for what it should be accessed and used for. In the past, these types of data gathering operations have turned into kind of, you know, individual kind of fishing, you know, people tracking their girlfriend or like, you know, it's really powerful data. You know, when you have this kind of location data, it's really very powerful. Data tells you a lot about an individual. It tells you a lot about what's going on out there. And we just have to be very, very careful about how we protect it, how we restrict access to it. Looking forward to the presentation and debate. I will be voting in support of the extension right now and then and then looking forward to continuing the discussion as to what we want to do with this apr program once we have the report and the data. >> Thank you. Thank you. Further discussion, councilmember harper-madison. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate it and I appreciate all the commentary so far. This is much like I think [4:31:27 PM] is much like I think councilmember Siegel said, you know, I'm still relatively new. Some of this stuff is I was like like some of these are hard. They're all hard. None of them are not hard, which is why they get the opportunity to come before us. I have a lot. I mean, this is one of those times where it's like, you really have to think about what it is that your constituents want and what it is that you want. And nobody came out to the carver library and elected me to do what I want. If we were doing what I wanted, I watch murder shows. I want cameras everywhere. I want them in my mailbox under my porch. I want you to CCTV me all day long. It's the Truman show up in here. But I fully recognize that my constituents don't necessarily feel like that. And I also have some concerns, just sort of from a systemically I have concerns. And so I, I appreciated some of the folks who were talking today about criminal justice reform. In general. And I know that seems broad to even go in that [4:32:27 PM] broad to even go in that direction when we're talking about one specific variable, this license plate reader. But I cannot help but feel until we get policing. Right. And for as many police officers as there are in my life that I love, care about, respect and can't believe they do that job. I fully recognize that the truth of the matter is, you know, some of the last vestiges of slave patrols are modern day policing. Nobody can let that not be true, because it is. But the evolution of human man and practice, and all of the above, means that we had the opportunity to arrive where we are today. So I'm not implying that modern day police officers are engaged in slave patrol activity. What I'm implying is that policing has not changed enough since they were slave patrols. And maybe more importantly, we don't do incarceration, criminal justice, [4:33:28 PM] incarceration, criminal justice, and reform, right? We just do punishment. We're not doing anti- recidivism. We're not getting people. Well, from a mental health perspective, from a health perspective, we're not doing it right. We're not reforming people. We're breaking people and sending them back out into the world with no cameras. Awesome. So I just generally speaking, that whole ecosystem, the war on drugs, I still sometimes when I'm watching jail shows and I realize somebody's been in there for 30 years over drugs, that's wild. But that's the country we live in. We don't get it right. There aren't unilateral applications of our criminal justice good stuff. And that's what makes me worried. And so until we get to a place where I just feel more confidence in our criminal justice system in general, I don't know that I am able to put myself in a position to [4:34:28 PM] myself in a position to potentially have somebody be subjected to a criminal justice system that I don't think is fair or just or consistent or or appropriately calibrated. And then there are the concerns about our current administration and things that I thought I'd never see happen in my lifetime, in which case, the level of uncertainty and the amount of or the lack of confidence that I have with our criminal justice system. Has put me in a position to where I'm either going to vote no or abstain, in which case this is the part where I make the decision on behalf of my constituents, and from their perspective, they want me to vote no today. And so I will. >> Thank you, councilmember Laine. >> You are so right. The these are tough decisions and that's why they're here for us. I really appreciated hearing councilmember Siegel's comments. We are living in different times. Some of you in this [4:35:29 PM] times. Some of you in this audience, including our acm, know I really value data. I think it's really important to make data driven decisions. I also think that it is incredibly important to make, to use our data to track our progress towards our goals as a city. One of the things that I have seen make our city less safe is the amount of time it takes to get a response to 911 calls that's suitable to what the need is. I know you value, and I also value seeing data become increasingly used to set goals and track our progress. This is a tough one for me because. It's hard to deny that abuses are going on. I'm watching legal residents be arrested from my ivy league Alma mater. I'm watching what's happening here in the state. It's hard to deny that I'm new on this dais. I'm not as deep into what we knew about license plate readers when we made this [4:36:31 PM] plate readers when we made this decision. But. And so, you know, I may just stand back from this, but I do want to say very clearly, when we get three months from now and we're talking about we kept spending money on this because we needed to wait longer for data. I hope that I am also seeing more data that is tracking progress towards the goals that we as a city have embraced. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, councilmember duchen. >> This is a space that I worked in previously, and so I want to speak to it very quickly, just from a data perspective, as well as from a safety perspective. Acknowledging issues that the federal government and all kinds of other issues that we're seeing in technology as well as data. I can't imagine that we'd be that we wouldn't be better served having a richer data set to work off of. And the preliminary data that I think has been shared seems to be, from what I can tell, encouraging and what help with us better making a smarter [4:37:33 PM] us better making a smarter decision in three months. The other thing that I worry about is that this is our attitude is somewhat of a slippery slope here. Obviously, if we're already using different systems to record people, are we going to turn to those and start to question whether those are valuable to whether or not they're automated or person monitored? When it's clear for me, and at least looking the data that I've seen, those also create some value for us too. I worry that there's a tremendous amount of psychographic data that's out there that has nothing to do with policing, but it's been in the marketplace for ten years. Are we going to start to legislate that too? And maybe there's more value in doing that, frankly, than than some of the other things that we're pursuing in the data related space. So I have to say, I just worry that this is, you know, this is whack a mole, and we could be looking for all kinds of data that we collect that could be subpoenaed, apparently in different capacities. And, you know, we can't be luddites. There's got to be a way to make sure that we can put guardrails on this to make this successful. So thank you. [4:38:35 PM] So thank you. >> Thank you. Further discussion. All right. All those in favor of the motion to approve item 103, raise your hand. All those opposed raise your hand. There being eight in favor and three no's. Those being for the record. Siegel, qadri and harper-madison. Council members. Siegel. Qadri and harper-madison. The motion is adopted. Thanks, council. And. That will take us then. We have completed all of the items that involve public, the public, including any action items. We now have our executive session. So the city council will now go into executive session on three to take up three items pursuant to section 551074 of the Texas [4:39:36 PM] to section 551074 of the Texas government code involving personnel matters. We will take up the following items 85 which is discussed. Personnel issues related to the appointment of the city clerk under 551.074 of the government. Evaluate the performance of and consider compensation and benefits for the municipal court clerk under 55107 for the Texas government code and item 87, which is to evaluate the performance and consider compensation and benefits for the city auditor pursuant to section 551074 of the government code. Members. My recommendation is we take them up in that order. We will go in and we will take them up in that order from members of the public that are watching this. We have no further action items. So when this executive session is complete, I will come out and we will adjourn the meeting of the Austin city council. So it's 440. We will now go into a [4:40:37 PM] 440. We will now go into a closed executive session. And we are out of the closed [6:08:25 PM] And we are out of the closed session. In closed session, we discuss personnel matters related to items 85, 86 and 87 pursuant to section 551074 of the Texas government code. There being no further business to come before the Austin city council at this regularly scheduled meeting of the Austin city council. Without objection, the Austin city council is adjourned at 6:08 P.M. Thanks, everybody.