Austin City Council Work Session Transcript – 8/26/2025 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 8/26/2025 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 8/26/2025 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. [9:00:06 AM] Council members good morning everybody. It's 9:00 on Tuesday, August 26th, 2025, and I'm going to call to order the city council work [9:01:07 AM] order the city council work session for this date. We have a quorum of the city council present, and we are meeting in city council chambers, which are located at city hall, 301 west second street in Austin, Texas. Before we start with our agenda, I guess this probably was part of the agenda, the anticipation that a baby would be born to one of our council members. And I'm proud to announce that on August 17th, 2025, Isa Ahmad qadri was born 8 pounds and 20.5in. So we want to. So there's going to. Yeah. Really the big point of me bringing that up is council member qadri is not going to be with us this morning and and we are all happy, happy for him and happy that that that little baby is with us. So I wanted to bring that to everybody's attention. With that, I am going to turn to the city [9:02:09 AM] going to turn to the city manager members. What we'll do is we'll take up the briefing on b1 before we go to item a 34. And so I'm going to call up the briefing and turn to the city manager. >> Thank you mayor. >> Hang on, hang on, hang on. We got somebody signed up to talk. Right. >> We have one speaker on a 34. >> Yeah. Well, why don't we have the speaker? Go ahead and speak. That way we don't hold them here, and then I'll recognize you. I apologize, I knew better, and. >> Speaker's name is Chris flores. >> Good morning. Elected people. My name is Chris flores. I am a resident of district ten. I'm a daily swimmer. I swim at Barton springs and deep eddy pool. My reason for coming to you today [9:03:11 AM] reason for coming to you today is about the zilker cafe. I swam for many years in the sunrise shift at Barton springs, and so I walked by the zilker cafe all the time. In the summer of 2023, another woman swimmer and I engaged in multiple 311 calls because there was a homeless encampment in the rear of the cafe while it was shuttered. We took pictures of food, waste and feces that appeared to roll down the hill to the Eliza spring fence line. In November 2023, I wrote a letter to director Mcneely sharing these pictures because, coincidentally, there was also a grease trap leak that happened at deep eddy pool. The grease trap fell over, a car hit it, and the grease leaked down the parking lot into the city sewer system, and cars drove through it. We wanted miss Mcneely to know that that location should not have fried burgers and grease adjacent to [9:04:13 AM] burgers and grease adjacent to a swimming pool, and in March of 2025, I shared that same email with part staff. Miss Rossetti, who was working on the zilker cafe contract. She was not aware of that environmental hazard of grease and pools at the time. I asked her if it was possible to protect the salamanders because zilker cafe sits between the pool salamander community and the Eliza springs salamander community, she said she would look into it. In June 2025, the parks board voted on this contract. There was no mention of any environmentally sensitive stuff. There was no review by the environmental commission, which, in my humble opinion, should have happened. >> Thank you very much, ma'am. >> That concludes our speakers for today. >> Thank you very much. With that, I will now really turn it [9:05:14 AM] that, I will now really turn it over to the manager. >> Thank you, mayor and members of the council. This particular item related to flood readiness is very important to us as well as our residents. And we want to make sure, given the recent 4th of July floods in central Florida, it was important for us to come to present today not only to reassure our city council, but more importantly, our community, that flood readiness remains a top priority for the city of Austin. To that end, director Jorge morales from watershed protection and Jim Reddick from hesam will share the steps we've been taking to plan, prepare and engage our community. When faced in facing our floods. So, director morales and Reddick, the floor is yours. >> Thank you, city manager. Good morning. Jorge morales with the watershed protection department, I just okay, here's a quick overview. We're going to be presenting this morning. Kind of start with the video. [9:06:14 AM] Kind of start with the video. There's a video that we put together at the department just to talk about watershed. That's one of the questions I always get. What does watershed do. So we'll start with the video just to start that. Then I'll cover a little bit of flood history because as you all know, there's quite a bit of folks that move to Austin on a daily basis. And it's important to understand our history as it relates to flooding. We'll cover some of the flood challenges, the preparedness strategies that we have investments to date that the city has done, and of course, the security, emergency management, flood response director Jim Reddick will talk about that too, and we'll open it up to questions. We are keeping it as high level as we can, but focus on the programmatic areas. I did want to say that last week, our staff also presented to the environmental commission had requested a similar briefing. And so I actually at the last page, I have a resource page that has a link to that site if anybody is interested. They had really thorough questions that they asked us in that meeting as well. So I'll go ahead and start with the video. Maybe not. Could we come back to that? [9:07:25 AM] Could we come back to that? Okay, I'm going to continue. We'll come back to the video and I'll talk more about the video as we tee it up in a bit. Go into the history of flooding. So Austin's dealt with flooding since the beginning of its time, since Austin was established. We live in central Texas, which is flash flood alley. For those that don't know that we have the hill country on the west side, and then we have the gulf moisture and all together it creates some of the most intense rains in the world. And so it's important for the community to know that we've always dealt with flooding. So first, Colorado river flooding of record is dated 1869. And we had multiple floods in the 1800s, 1900s. They even built the dams. We had two dam failures before we actually completed the dam that's protecting it. And the lake highland Lakes are protecting the city of Austin have been protecting for years to protect. And we saw that in the 4th of July as the dam systems were put in place, we went from 3,040% capacity to 100% to 90%. So it shows you that it works. They are there to help protect [9:08:26 AM] They are there to help protect this community. Flooding along shoal creek and waller creek. It's been coming over the history as well. Memorial day flood of 1981. That was a pivotal turning point for this community. We lost 13 lives in central Texas and here in Austin, specifically in the shoal creek area. And that's when the city began the process of creating and investing in drainage improvements. So we created the drainage charge shortly thereafter, the drainage utility was formed, and in 1996 is when the department came to be the watershed protection department. As we currently stand. I noted 20 1320 onion creek floods, but I also want to acknowledge there have been numerous other floods as well. From 2013 to 2016, this community faced multiple major floods. And it's it's something that just it's bound to happen again because that's what central Texas is about. Is the video ready, sir? Is the video ready? I saw it pop up. Okay. Got it. We'll continue. So some of the challenges that we deal with is [9:09:28 AM] challenges that we deal with is atlas 14. We've talked about that for some time now. The regulatory regulations we've updated since 2019 to start adhering to some of the intensities of the rains here in Austin, Texas. But we are in the process of redoing all the floodplain maps in the city of Austin. So we show on the right side the maps and the study areas that we're working on, and we're in the process of finalizing those. In the next couple of years, they will be completed and updated through FEMA process, which takes a little bit longer. But the city of Austin, as soon as we have the final draft maps, we start regulating to those right now. And the facts are that with climate change, we are seeing more frequent and heavier rainfall and intensities. As we saw this this summer, Austin generally has shallow soils, and that has helped create some of this record rainfall rates that we've seen. 10% of the land in Austin, Texas, is floodplain or subject to flash flood, flash flooding as well. We have over 10,000 structures, building structures, commercial and residential, over 400 roads that are prone to flooding [9:10:29 AM] that are prone to flooding during a 100 year event. And I just want to emphasize that there's an economic impact when these flooding occur. And so a lot of the investments we have done have helped save and protect some of those investments as well. When we talk about flood preparedness, the strategy really focuses on mitigation, preparedness and response. And on some of the pictures here, I just wanted to highlight the first festival we had this April, in partnership with the mayor, pro tem Fuentes and other council members. This was at Lee Lewis Campbell elementary school, and it was a great success, and we plan to continue to do this every year. But every year we do focus on flood awareness as well, and we're going to continue to promote that for the community awareness. So when it comes to flood mitigation, one of the primary tools we use is capital improvement projects. I just want to note some of the notable projects we've done in the history of Austin. Waller creek tunnel that helped reclaim about 28 acres of downtown floodplain areas that are now being redeveloped. And more importantly, it's helped [9:11:30 AM] more importantly, it's helped protect this community in waller creek area with the floods. And I'll talk about that in one of the examples. I'll share in a little bit the onion creek buyouts. These were homes that were built in the floodway and eventually had multiple floodings in the city, actually purchased those homes and relocated those families to safer grounds. The little walnut creek flood risk reduction, also known as burns meadows, that's a project that's almost complete right now. And even though we haven't finished that project, the benefits during the 4th of July were were shown because some of the system activated already. We've got with flood risk reduction. We're in phase one of construction right now and we've got more phases to come on that. We've also done a flood walls. There's some in creek bend and crystal brook. And so there's been different strategies that the city has done for cip projects to protect their communities. When it comes to regulations, the floodplain and drainage regulations are very key part of our success as well. We started the creek ordinances since 1974. We first started regulating for the 25 year back then, and then in 1991, Austin [9:12:31 AM] then, and then in 1991, Austin joined the national flood insurance program, and we've been regulating the 100 year ever since. New development projects are required to demonstrate no adverse impact for prior to construction. That's part of our regulatory requirements. And we also established the regional stormwater management program has been around since the 80s as well. That helps the city protect. Another area we do is operation and maintenance. Our department watershed protection. About 50% of the department is divisions that focus on operation and maintenance to maintain our infrastructure. We actually have an asset management program as well that helps us guide us where we work on our projects. We have proactive and reactive maintenance during, before, during and after storm events as well. For example, just through June of this year, we've already recovered over 10,000 tons of debris from the drainage system. We have proactive inspections of our pond systems, our storm drain inlets, our bridges, and our culverts. We also have a [9:13:33 AM] culverts. We also have a vegetation and land management program that invest over $3 million in this program. Over 650 stormwater assets are controlled and managed through vegetation as well. Oops. When it comes to flood preparedness, we we have year round communication engagement strategies that we do with our community. This includes paid advertisement campaigns, emergency communication in multiple languages. We have emergency preparedness kits, weather radio, flashlight documents that we do in partnership with home security, emergency management and provide those to the community. The flood safety video contest is something that we started a few years ago with a middle school and high school kids, and it's been a great success and continues to expand every year where the kids help submit psa public service announcement videos, and there's competition for that. Like I mentioned earlier, we did the flood safety fest this year for the [9:14:33 AM] safety fest this year for the first time. We'll continue to do that. Monthly pop ups at each council district, we rotate around the city, we have workshops with the community and training throughout the year as well. We have also continued to do community engagement through media releases, press conferences, interviews and social media as well. As it relates to flood response response. Ever since the 80s, the the city of Austin created the flood early warning system. It's a robust program, probably one of the most robust, I would say, in the in Texas, where we have folks monitoring weather 24 over seven, 365 days and work with our partners at homeland security emergency management to communicate to our community where there's risk and when there's risks. We also launched the emergency management team for the watershed department a couple of years ago, where we're requiring everybody in our department to go through the incident command systems training. So we're all fully trained in that. And and this year, for the first time, we activated the department operations center after the microburst in on may. This [9:15:34 AM] microburst in on may. This earlier may, we also had flood reconnaissance and debris management that we do during and after the storm events to prevent future. I mean, as we've seen this year, you may have one storm event and the next day you have another one. And so we try to engage immediately. For the next two slides for the two events, just to give a bit of information from on may 28th. As you all know, that was a 30 minute event that really hit our community hard and we took months to recover from that as well. So our department was at opcon level. So we do follow those guidance as working with homeland security emergency management. We close eight low water crossings. During that storm event. We had over 35 flood structures in the community that flooded. We had two of our facilities, watershed facilities that were impacted because of the trees falling in the electricity. And but thanks to the upgrades we did after the winter storm Yuri events, we actually had generators. So we worked off generator backup for until we got that resolved as well. And we were able to continue our [9:16:34 AM] we were able to continue our mission without having impacts. For that, we had almost 300 service requests for that event. We had five reconnaissance teams that investigated areas in high, intense rainfalls and met with impacted community members as well. As we were out there, we collaborated with development services department to make sure that we're providing resources and providing information for folks that have to rebuild their recover from the storm events and the flooding. We had over 1000 tons of debris that were removed from the drainage systems for that event, and we coordinated with Austin resource recovery and transportation public works, which always engage on these events as well for the debris management. And we participated in media requests as they came up for that event as well, to keep our community involved. And that picture you see there on the right is our department operations center in action. We activated for two days to make sure that we could do the logistics for the department and make sure we got the operations going. The 4th of July weekend, as we know, was very devastating for central Texas. We did get intense rains [9:17:35 AM] Texas. We did get intense rains in Austin as well. And so I'm just going to cover a little bit of what happened here in Austin. So we were at opcom level three for that event. Impacted shoal creek, bull creek, waller creek, walnut and little walnut and boggy creek. We had 13 low water crossings that closed that weekend. We had five flooded structures and almost 200 service requests. The reconnaissance teams investigate areas with high intensity rain as well. Immediately after the rain events, and we collected over 500 tons of debris from the drainage systems. I just want to acknowledge a pause there because, as we all know, that the events had catastrophic impacts in over 180 lives were lost in central Texas, in the hill country. But this event just reminds us of the flash flood alley that I talked about earlier, and the impacts that can happen overnight. And that's why it's important for us to be here to present and show the community what we're doing to prepare. I just well, my picture didn't come out. Oh, there it is. Oh. Had action here I apologize. [9:18:36 AM] here I apologize. >> Very creative. >> I forgot how creative I was being with this slide. So this is a hydrograph. It shows you the the creek flow and it shows you what it would have happened if we didn't have the tunnel. So the two lines show the predictive modeling of waller creek tunnel. And so had we not had the waller creek tunnel, waller creek would have flooded. We would have had to close multiple roadways down waller creek, fourth, ninth street areas. And for those that don't know, the police headquarters parking garage is in the floodplain and we've had flooding in that. So we would have been evacuating. And so instead of being ready for emergency response, they would have had to be working on preparing to get their vehicles out of the way as well. So that's all prevented through this investment that we did in waller creek tunnel. So those dots at the bottom, those are the actual stages based on our tunnel diversion. So you can see what it is and what it would have been. So it shows you that the investments make a difference. And so I just wanted to highlight that graph. Investments to date. Just wanted to focus the historical spending. We've done we've done a bond funding upwards of 50 [9:19:39 AM] a bond funding upwards of 50 storm projects since 2001, 114 flood projects have been completed over our time. Almost $600 million worth of projects. The funding sources do include general obligation bonds, cash transfers from the drainage utility fund, the charge that we the residents pay in the commercial residents, commercial folks pay as well. We've also been working on grants. As you all know, the department established a grant, part of the department. We've been going after grants to help us subsidize some of the costs that we see for the projects. Our 2018 bond funds have been spent down. Next year, we'll be completing the bonds that were allocated for the drainage projects as we move forward. Some of the challenges that we have are price escalations as everybody's seen in construction post-pandemic, Austin becomes more compact and connected. There's little open space, so we do partner quite a bit with our parks department and other open areas to do some of the flood mitigation that has to be done when we do localized flooding type projects, and that's a big part of our tools, that we cannot create an impact by fixing one [9:20:40 AM] create an impact by fixing one area and pushing the water downstream to another part of the community. And so the other challenge is the obvious one is lower grant funding and opportunities that we have as well. On this next slide, I'll turn it over to director Reddick. >> Thank you. >> Mayor. Mayor pro tem members of council Jim Reddick, director of heesom. This is my first opportunity to speak to you as a body. So I just wanted to say thank you for your support. Since I've been here, I've had the opportunity to speak to every one of you. And and the support that you've given is much appreciated. Mr. Mayor, as director of emergency management for Texas government code 218 418. Excuse me. I appreciate the many meetings that we've had talking about the strategies for alert notifications, the plan overhaul and everything that we're trying to do to make sure our plan doesn't just meet standards but exceeds them as well. So the overhaul is in place, and I'm really excited to to roll that out as a document, not just for us from [9:21:41 AM] document, not just for us from a response perspective, but for the community as well. So monitoring the national weather service forecast products. That's something that we do along with fuze and many of our other partners. And once they start to to go in a certain position, a certain direction, that's when we co-locate with fuze and the emergency operations center. So if they're there, we're there. If they're there virtually, we're still in touch with them to make sure that if anything is to happen, we're going to alert, notify and otherwise make sure people are informed before, during and after a flood event. Or from Heathman's perspective, any hazard, natural or man made or technical. Once we start to once the weather service starts to predict either whether it's going to be alerts, advisories, warnings, they're going to start having conference calls and briefings, which we will certainly participate. And again, director of emergency management will be invited to those as well. That way we can have our conference calls on [9:22:41 AM] have our conference calls on how we're going to posture ourselves to respond should a potential incident occur. In terms of notifying, our focus is on making sure that we overcommunicate rather than under communicate. So, along with the national weather service, products that would be pushed out to the community if there is time prior to a flash flood, folks may get warned. Central Texas messages letting them know that this this event is is materializing, but otherwise, if need be for life saving messages, we have the wireless emergency alert system. That's that unique ringtone or vibration you get for amber alerts, silver alerts and the like. The one concern that that I have for that is that over the past few years, a lot of folks have been opting out of the wireless emergency alert system, to which I would say, if we can't contact you, we can't alert you. The great thing about wireless emergency alert is that we can actually give you protective actions to take, so we can give you the information that you need, and [9:23:43 AM] information that you need, and also a link to get more information throughout the actual incident. I am proud to say that we are becoming an alerting authority. So previously we had to go through the county or the state to send a wireless emergency alert or ipaws to integrated public alert and warning system. Now we have the training, we have the credentials, and we are soon to be an authorized alerting, excuse me, an alerting authority that we can send the messages out because seconds matter. And so we'll be able to do that without making any additional requests. And no subscription is necessary if you're within the area that we set the boundaries that that rely on cell towers, you're going to get that message. And if we define a certain period, even if you weren't there for the initial incident, if you enter that perimeter within the time frame that we select, you will still get that message. Once you enter that perimeter. We do use warn central Texas, and after the life saving alerts that we would send through wireless emergency alert, we would send updates [9:24:44 AM] alert, we would send updates through wire Warren, central Texas. But that does require subscriptions. And as you can imagine, a lot of folks don't subscribe. So that's that's another thing that we have to continue to address through through campaigns, through your newsletters and otherwise, just making sure that folks take the lessons learned from July, the July flooding and really apply them here so we can have those critical discussions on how we'll alert folks when the time comes. And the last the last bullet is is really remains to be seen with senate bill two in terms of the delegation of authority, the mayor and I have had conversations about the delegation of the authority to send out a mandatory evacuation again, when lives are on the line. If for some reason the director of emergency management is unavailable, having that ability to pull that trigger to get folks out of harm's way is something that we're working on. But again, senate bill two might, might answer that question for us. So I think there's more to come on that happy to answer any [9:25:44 AM] that happy to answer any questions you may have Ralls. >> This last slide. >> This last slide just has links to some of the resources that Jim just spoke about and some of the sites that we've created. A one stop shop is the atx flood safety com that helps you understand it's got resources within that site of what you can do before, during and after storm events. And once again, I mentioned earlier the environmental commission, I put the link there for anybody that's interested in almost two hour back and forth questions related to flood preparedness as well. And with that, we'll open it up to questions. And I think we have the video, the video real quick. >> Austin's watersheds are the lands that contribute to and sustain our creeks, Lakes, springs and the Colorado river. Each time rain falls on our city, it flows through a vast network of built and natural infrastructure and into our waterways. Rain feeds the beautiful places that make [9:26:45 AM] beautiful places that make Austin special, places where we can spend time with friends and family, explore nature, cool off and relax. But rain can also pick up pollutants, erode creek banks and flood homes and businesses. The city's watershed protection department focuses on how rainwater makes its way across Austin's landscape. Our department protects lives, property and the environment by reducing the impacts of flooding, erosion and water pollution. We do this through construction projects to improve infrastructure regulations to prevent future problems, and programs to address citywide needs. Let's go on a quick tour of some different ways that our department helps tackle watershed problems. >> My name is Kelly rich and I'm an engineer with our stream restoration program. We're standing in front of an eroding creek channel near colony park in east Austin. Our construction crews are working to stabilize the banks and improve the conveyance of water to help reduce the threat of erosion and flooding for nearby homes. >> My name is Tanya Meyer Ramirez, and I'm a teacher for Earth camp program. Earth camp is a four day hands on science program for Austin's fifth [9:27:45 AM] program for Austin's fifth graders. Students get to investigate the watershed in a local park to learn how healthy land results in a healthy creek. They check water quality in the creek by looking for insect larvae like this guy here, and explore a cave to see how water travels underground. On its journey into the Edwards aquifer, students learn and practice personal actions that can contribute to cleaner creeks and springs, such as gardening without chemicals like composting, putting waste in its place, and planting native plants. >> My name is kitty and I work in a flood early warning system. We are responsible for watching the weather 24 over seven, maintaining and monitoring a large network of rain and stream gauges around the city, as well as low water crossings. When a storm comes, we activate staff to monitor, close and reopen the low water crossings across the city. About 75% of flood related deaths in Texas occur in vehicles, so monitoring and closing low water crossings helps to keep our community safe. >> Hi, my name is Clayton west and I'm an engineer with the watershed protection department. [9:28:47 AM] watershed protection department. We're standing here in battle bend park in south Austin. We recently completed a project here to enhance the park, restore the health of the creek, and help improve water quality. Most of the time, this new play field behind me can be used for soccer, Frisbee, or other types of recreation. But when it rains, this field will fill up with stormwater and slowly filter out the pollutants as it drains to keep clean water flowing downstream. >> My name is Andre Mcneil. I'm with watershed department. I'm an equipment technician with the CCTV section. Typically what we do is we lower our our robotic crawler into a storm drain or into a manhole, whichever job we needed to do for the day. And what we're checking for is the integrity of the pipe, the conditions if there's a collapse, or if there is anything that is abnormal. We're looking to see exactly how everything is supposed to flow as far as the stormwater. >> My name is Celestin n'gom. I'm on the water quality compliance team. Our investigators respond to reports of pollutant discharges [9:29:48 AM] reports of pollutant discharges such as illegal dumping, hazardous and non-hazardous spills 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We ensure effective recovery of pollutants from the environment. Examples of pollutants we encounter include pesticides, antifreeze, paint, motor oil and grease. Last year, we recovered over 6 million gallons of pollutants from the environment. Preventing all that bad stuff from ending up in our creeks and our Lakes. >> My name is Eric brown, and our team reviews development applications for compliance with Austin's stringent environmental regulations. When a new development is proposed, we go out and verify that sensitive environmental features like wetlands, seeps, springs, rim rocks, bluffs, sinkholes and caves are being identified and protected from negative impacts. >> My name is Miranda Rinehart and I'm a wetland biologist. Wetlands are my personal favorite of the features we protect because of their beauty, diversity, complexity, and [9:30:49 AM] diversity, complexity, and ecological benefits. This wetland behind me not only helps improve water quality by filtering out pollutants, it also stores carbon to help fight climate change, provides habitat for plants and animals, recharges groundwater, and helps reduce flooding and erosion downstream. >> Protecting these unique features helps preserve the health and function of the environment for generations of austinites to enjoy. >> To adapt to new challenges and better serve our residents, we are preparing to create rain to river, a strategic plan to protect Austin's creeks and communities. And we need your help. Our department will use this plan to set goals, prioritize work, and guide our decision making. Visit Rainey to Atmos to share your vision. >> Can we go back to the slide deck real quick? I just wanted to go to the last page just to plug this as as that video was created to inform our community what watershed does and get feedback from them. We're in the final stages of receiving, and so this site is where [9:31:51 AM] and so this site is where people can go and fill out the survey that completes on September 15th, but it's important for us to update our strategic plan that hasn't been modified in ten years. And the original one was created in 2001 when we were half the size. And so it's important to take climate change and population growth and all that into account as we update our plan. So with that, we'll open it up to questions. >> Great. Thank you. By the way, watershed protection was out at the parade on Saturday. And I've got two granddaughters that are going to be supporting watershed protection tattoos very soon. They were handing out tattoos. Councilmember harper-madison followed by the mayor pro tem. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate the recognition and I hope your luck is better than mine. One of those city of Austin swag tattoos ended up on a neck. I got a call from a preschool one time, so good luck with that. I really appreciate this video. If for no other reason I'll be honest with you, even internally, I don't think everybody knows that there's a difference between Austin water and watershed, so thank you for [9:32:51 AM] watershed, so thank you for offering that clarity. I think it's always important for folks to start at least knowing who does what and who doesn't do what. So to your point, I won't belabor it. That storm, it really kicked up a lot of questions in our community. And oddly enough, my question is to turn a question on you. I'd like to know what were the most prevalent concerns. And if you're able to really delineate down to district one, what were the most prevalent concerns you received? I'm wanting to know, basically, if we were hearing the same things and making certain that moving forward that we're thinking about for my successor and beyond, you know, what kind of things we need to be building into infrastructure discussions, bond conversations, flood conversations, tirz conversations. What things do we really need to from an infrastructure? And frankly, as budgets get tighter and tighter, this last one was a squeaker. So as budgets get tighter and tighter, making certain that we put protections into place now for infrastructure needs we know we'll have in the future. [9:33:52 AM] know we'll have in the future. >> Thank you for your question, council member, and I'll respond as it relates to the watershed, and I'll let Jim speak to the larger. So this event had a lot of wind damage and hail and besides the flooding as well. Right. And so from a flooding standpoint, we had systems that got clogged. So we sent out crews out there. And so we're very proactive in trying to keep it maintained. But debris is going to wash up on systems and we just have to get out there and respond to it. So the intensity was something we hadn't seen in a long time. The level of intensity of the amount of rain that actually fell in that part of town. So south Austin is where I live. It was sunny and I'm getting calls from my operation. Assistant directors were flooding in north Austin, and so just making sure the community is aware that these events will continue to happen and making sure that if you don't have to get out in the roadways not to be out there. So we do part of education is part of it, but from infrastructure standpoint, it did hit some of the same areas in Shaw creek, walnut creek that are very old infrastructure. And so we're just going to have to continue to upgrade those systems [9:34:52 AM] to upgrade those systems through the process. The asset management program that we're doing, the cip prioritization that we have. And so that just comes with time, money, and we'll continue to do what we're doing right now. >> Thank you. Does that cover everything you want? Council member. >> No, not exactly. And I think Jim was going to address the latter part of my. >> Yes, please. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> Director. >> Yes. So there were a lot of lessons learned from from this incident in July. And since I've been here, we've spoken about, at least internally, other incidents that have occurred nationwide. Because if we're not, then then we're wrong, right? We want to compare our plans to see how we would respond during various incidents as they play out on, on the television. I mean, first and foremost, it's all about information sharing, right? Information sharing internally. How are you notified as a council? How are the stakeholder partner agencies notified of an incident, and how is the community notified with what protective actions to take. So that's that's first and foremost our biggest priority. Our biggest takeaway through [9:35:53 AM] Our biggest takeaway through from the July incidents. Now it's also the establishment of unity of effort, making sure that we're establishing our goals and objectives for an operational period, however long that is six, eight, 12 hours, whatever it is. And then again, conveying that to the community, whether it be through press conferences or just, you know, giving them public facing maps or tools, common operational picture tools. So when we say we're doing something that can be tracked and measured throughout the community, that's one of the reasons why I'm really excited about the tools that watershed provides, because they're public facing tools. So the information that we're getting in the emergency operations center, the community can get that as well. It's open source information, and it's critical for everyone's decision making process. Ma'am, does that answer your question? >> It really does. Right. And and it also sort of extends another sort of internal inquiry I'm having, which is how do we fortify. We've been having these discussions since [9:36:55 AM] having these discussions since I came aboard. And it's something I really appreciate. You know, I've been hearing a lot of folks talk about how we need to really get communities more resilient within themselves. There will never be an appropriate and sufficient response without that being at the core, the foundational component being our as a municipality, investment in communities, being beyond resilient and anti-fragile that way, these volatile sort of shocks even really shocking, surprising. I mean, council member vela and I were on our way to a work thing and we couldn't we literally couldn't park the car and couldn't disembark from the vehicle because of the level of water between the street and the entry point to the place where we landed, we couldn't go to the event. And to your point about stopping because it happened so quickly, there was a drop of rain that approached our exit place, and within less than a block we [9:37:56 AM] within less than a block we couldn't see. And so really, that educational component is so critical when when it happens at quickly and it looks like that, just stop. It was what we did. And so my hope is that a lot of folks did that. But I really appreciate the emphasis on education. I really appreciate that you guys recognize how hard certain districts got hit. So when I'm calling folks and saying, there's a hailstorm in the pecan springs neighborhood right now, I'm certain you guys have seen the video of a foot tall or more a hail, you know, in northeast Austin. It was wild. But I really want to to your point, go back to how do we preempt these things. You made mention of debris, for example, how do we preempt the debris being present to clogged systems that are critical in this time of emergency? There was another thing that made me think about sort of long from a long term, longer term, rather planning perspective. I was thinking about when you guys do that peer comparison thing about information sharing, I just I really want to, for our [9:38:57 AM] just I really want to, for our purposes, within my office and my colleagues, how do we do a better job of leaning on peer cities to glean from them how they do a great job of information sharing? I will say this the information sharing felt really substantial and comprehensive to me. This time it felt like we met this emergency with as much, you know, really efficient and prompt response as was possible given the fast and unexpected impact. I'll leave you with this one last question, and this may or may not be for you guys, because it may be broader than a watershed question, but I got a lot of questions and a lot of conspiracies from our constituents. Folks were like, why won't they name the storm though? Why won't they call it a tornado? Why won't they say it's a what's the deal? What are we hiding here? And so, for what it's worth, if and when we hear those types of murmurs and you guys hear those types of murmurs, a good friend and staffer says, when people don't have good information, they make up monsters in the dark. [9:39:58 AM] make up monsters in the dark. And so just making sure that, you know, when and if we all collectively hear those kinds of things that we really are making sure people have good information to make good decisions and to not be unnecessarily afraid, it was already singularly terrifying. They didn't need the additional layer of fear, because our communication was sort of close to the vest in terms of what we called that storm. Thank you guys for for the presentation. Appreciate it. Thanks for the recognition, Mr. Mayor. >> Thank you. Mayor pro tem followed by council member duchen. >> Thank you. Good morning everyone. Councilmember harper-madison, I want to pick up on one of the threads that you mentioned in your questions regarding the community's role in our disaster response. And I think director Riddick might be helpful to share with, with our community the role of the Austin resilience network. I believe they now have a formalized role as part of the city's emergency response and recovery efforts, as well on any role that they may have played in the in the may incident that we had. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you for [9:40:58 AM] >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you for that. First, our approach is that we don't plan for the community we plan with. And so we've reached out to numerous communication, excuse me, community organizations, volunteer and otherwise, and giving them access to our plans, because what we ultimately want to do is post them online so everyone can see them. There was a really good book by Amanda Ripley called the unthinkable those who survived disasters and why. And it's it's never enough to just to tell people what to do when a disaster occurs. It's to explain the hows and the whys, and you have to do that way before the disaster. So that's our approach is to get the community involved early and often because we see them as a partner, not someone, not something that we have to do something for. Now, the the Austin resilience network, it was during the microburst, the aftermath where they really got an opportunity to shine. And it's all about matching up where the needs exist from a mass care perspective to the organizations that are that are [9:41:59 AM] organizations that are that are resourced to provide that assistance. So it was really targeted. It was really efficient through the crisis cleanup app that they used. And it's also documenting the work that's done and the hours associated with that, because if it ever is a declared event, those volunteer hours have a dollar value towards the city's match with any FEMA reimbursements. So again, the Austin resilient network, wherever the need was, it wasn't in just one community. The need was spread throughout. And having that coordination with with all of these organizations establish that unity effort, shared situational awareness of what the need was, and really an organized way in which those needs were met. >> Thank you. I think it's important to acknowledge the community's roles and contributions during an emergency response. You know, one thing that I learned as part of the July 4th floods was that we here in Austin, we do not have alert sirens that go off in the middle of an emergency. So can you touch on [9:43:01 AM] emergency. So can you touch on why that is and really underscore the importance of being signed up to those emergency alerts. And just want to also appreciate that we now are in the process of getting the authority so that the city can then launch those wireless communication alerts, but just kind of have that distinction, because I would have assumed that we would have alert sirens that would go off during a flooding event, but that is not the case. >> Yeah, exactly. Ma'am. So so as it pertains to sirens, the reason to have or not to have that was certainly prior to to my coming here. But I do know that they're expensive. The audio tone you have to take into account how how wide, whether it's a mile or a mile and a half, uninterrupted by building or, you know, natural environment. And then you have to calculate how many of those that you would need for the initial purchase, and then the sustainment of and just the ongoing education. I'm not saying that's not a good solution. I think it's just one tool among many. And if certainly if we're addressing the needs of visitors as well, visitors aren't going to know [9:44:03 AM] visitors aren't going to know what the sirens mean. I come from a region where it would mean that there was an issue at the nuclear power plant or the neighboring locality. It was a shotgun golf tournament because they, you know, initiated a siren to do that. So it could be that disparate in terms of what those mean. So we would have to have constant reminders and education. I'm originally from Ohio, so I knew Wednesday at noon tornado siren. Right. So I who, who who live here would ultimately get it. But with the wireless emergency alerts, we're able to give specific information with the warn central Texas, which which really requires subscriptions. We are able to give you exact information and links to get more information based on the incident, the FCC pretty much regulates what can be sent through the wireless emergency alert system, so we can't use that as a on a continuous basis. It's got to be for life, safety, public safety issues or amber alert or a presidential alert, but we can send follow ups. And that's what our strategy would be, is [9:45:04 AM] what our strategy would be, is to send follow ups through warn central Texas. So everyone is informed from the incident onset throughout until until its closure. >> Thank you, I appreciate that. Next, my questions are for director morales. Colleagues. As you all know, both me and the mayor represent a community that has endured the two catastrophic floods within the last 15 years and recently just lost a pretty significant FEMA grant that would have helped flood proof our power plant and wastewater treatment plant. So as part of that effort, you know, what I would like to learn is how is the city you mentioned the number of low, low number of grant funding opportunities. How is the city advocating at the federal level to restore these critical funding streams, and or what other alternatives is the city pursuing to make up that difference? >> Thank you. Mayor. Mayor pro tem. So as you know, there was a letter sent out on that Falwell Laine grant to try to reestablish it. So advocating through our intergovernmental [9:46:06 AM] through our intergovernmental relations office continuing to push that way. We also go after other grants outside of the water development board has low interest loans and grants as well. So we watershed strategy strategize in that way as well. But ultimately, a lot of the federal funding is what trickles down for some of these programs. So we're going to continue to go after the grants that meet our needs, you know, but that's pretty much the strategy that we have right now as far as pushing back some of the letters that got sent signed by the council and the mayor back to the federal government. >> Yeah, I really would like to see kind of a robust, proactive effort to pursue other grant funding opportunities either at the state, regional or federal level for us to not only make up the difference of what happened at Falwell Laine, but just knowing our flood mitigation needs overall, you've highlighted here that we have over $2 billion worth of capital investment needs to to help improve our drainage infrastructure and for flood risk reduction of that. You also highlighted that our last [9:47:08 AM] also highlighted that our last bond that we went out for back in 2018 is nearly depleted and will run out by the end of next year. Can you remind us how much the bond dollar amount was back in 2018 for our drainage improvement needs? >> Thank you for that question. So yes, the needs are greater than than we fund. And so we do it strategically through bonds and the drainage utility charge. I don't have the exact number in front of me, but I believe the last bond included watershed protection lands, and it also included drainage improvements. And let me just look back through my steps here. >> That's okay. I have here in my notes it was 184 million total. Total with 112 million for drainage and stormwater projects. You know of. You did an assessment clearly knowing that we have $2 billion worth of needs throughout our city. With that understanding how much of those needs are for areas that have endured repeated flooding events and any consideration when we consider the 2026 bond package for investments in those areas [9:48:11 AM] for investments in those areas that have had repeated flooding events. >> So we do have a priority process that we do for our projects, both localized or creek flooding that are related to flooding and repetitive flooding is a big part of that formula as well. But the depths of inundation and the velocity, so there's different engineering functions that we evaluate to prioritize. And so that's precisely why we're updating our strategic plan right now. Because some of these projects can be large scale. And so it takes time to build that funding capacity to do those projects. So we are we do have it on our website, our strategic plan right now. And it shows the top priorities. And so many of the projects that we do are projects that have had numerous flooding events in the past. And just going back to your question, I just wanted to expand on that. By the way, watershed did add a grant coordinator a few years ago, and that's how we started going after grants. The intergovernmental relations office now has a division of grants that helps collaborate centralized through the city of Austin. So the city is creating those resources to continue to go after those federal and other grants as well. >> That's great. Thank you. And, [9:49:12 AM] >> That's great. Thank you. And, you know, I'm just trying to get a sense, knowing that our last bond project or package for drainage was 100 and 112,000,000 in 2018. You know, our needs that we have throughout the city, how much of those projects are ready to go? Just need construction funding at this point. >> So we do have many projects that are in design or preliminary engineering reports have been created. So we do have quite a bit of projects that are ready to go as far as just needing more construction funds. And so we're working through the 2026 bond process with the capital delivery department on that process and putting forward our project needs. >> Thank you. Colleagues, just want to underscore, you know, this presentation was very timely and appreciate us receiving the update. We know the needs of our city, and especially when it comes to drainage improvement and having better infrastructure in our city. This is top of mind for me in our community, and I know I'm not alone in that effort. So I really hope to see, as we consider the 2026 bond package a robust investment in drainage improvement. Thank you, thank [9:50:13 AM] improvement. Thank you, thank you. >> Thanks. Mayor pro tem councilmember duchen then councilmember vela. >> Thank you, mayor. I wanted to build first on some comments by the mayor pro tem. So first, a couple of questions for director Reddick about the alerts. First question is one, I would assume a lot of the content you went over regarding the alert system would equally apply to wildfires or other kinds of emergencies, too, right? Yes. I'm wondering, do you have a sense when it comes to, at least in Texas, how many people are subscribed to that service relative to those that are not subscribed or are not getting alerts? >> It's a very small percentage. I mean, if I were to give a guesstimate, I'd say I mean, 20% is probably over over the number. >> Okay. Would it be possible maybe afterwards to try and get a more accurate sense of. Because I'm just kind of wondering the scope of the work that we've got to do there to get people or the community properly informed regarding those notifications. Yes, sir. I'm also wondering. [9:51:13 AM] I'm also wondering. >> Councilmember, one of the things we do every time, we every time we hold a press conference, every time we do anything to talk about what might happen, what's coming up, what we anticipate, we say it over and over and over again through Atkeson and and try to communicate it through the, the media. And frankly, my read has been that the media, TV in particular, has done a pretty good job of pushing that information out. The director and I have talked a number of times about how we how we get that even more. And, and we've talked about is there a way that we can more routinely provide that information? And, and I would encourage all of us to just every chance you get, you might just put it out if you if you put out your newsletter, make that the top of the newsletter. And then when you have different things, just so that because we have [9:52:14 AM] just so that because we have seen people after events, then sign up. But it's as I said that after events. So I'm glad you're bringing it up. Council member duchen let's let's all kind of recommit to that one other thing that we've talked about in terms of information to y'all and the mayor pro tem talked about information. Getting to folks is how we might use the message board more routinely so that that when I'm gaining information because of the role I'm supposed to play in all this, I get it out to y'all so that you're then having as accurate information as you possibly can and as quickly as you can to get out. But that would be another way to just always remember if we're anticipating a rainstorm, a big rainstorm, we're all we all know about it. Let's get warned. Central texas.com out there in everybody's mind and do that again. I'm sorry to interrupt [9:53:15 AM] again. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I just I wish everybody were on it. And they don't I think part of it is back to what Reddick was saying, which is that the idea that they get the they get amber alerts, they get all these. And so they, they, they, they shut down on that and they turn them off. But but on things like this, this, we can tell them how much how this is different. So sorry to interrupt, but. >> No thank you for building on that. And you kind of addressed some of the things that I was getting to. I mean, even if we got and we've talked about putting this in our newsletter or continue to do that, that still will only reach one tenth of the district residents. So trying to figure out what other options. >> And I'm sure once you start talking about Warren, central Texas, you'll get a lot more subscribers. Sure. No, that's that's part of our problem, right? I mean, you really isolate it. None of us blanket the whole community. And so we have to do it at Ann has to do it slides on at we just [9:54:16 AM] it slides on at we just everything we can and then we have to continue to repeat it with the media. So you hear that man? Ben, do you hear what I'm saying? Yeah. Council member Sargent. >> And to your point, I think part of it is also, whatever the drumbeat we got and also in relation to people are probably more receptive when there is floods, fires, things that are tangible, whether they're here or elsewhere, that we can. I hate to use the word capitalize, but make it relevant to them. So you raised a great point that I was going to bring up also, which is to the extent that the idea that there's what I might call over signaling or the depending on how we use Watson Texas or the wireless emergency alerts, to the extent that people will ultimately tune out. Is that a conversation you guys are having? How are you addressing that? >> Yes, sir. We call that alert fatigue. So it's a delicate [9:55:16 AM] fatigue. So it's a delicate balance. And to your point, you have to make sure that the information being sent is actionable, accessible, certainly timely. But you don't want to send too many messages. Again, I think once you tell folks where they can go to get more information, then we're a lot better off instead of just pinging them, you know, every night throughout the night, throughout the day. So alert fatigue is certainly an issue. >> Okay, well, I'm glad you guys are incorporating that into your strategy. Last question I've got is really regarding the evacuation plan you guys issued in June. Again, I'm assuming equally applies to this kind of emergency as opposed to other kinds. And then I know that sounds like you're working on trying to reformat that to something that's more digestible for the average person. When can we expect that. >> End of month? >> Okay. >> So yes, sir. It's and to me it's more capability focused than scenario because the protective action plan, evacuation or shelter in place will be appropriate for [9:56:16 AM] will be appropriate for flooding or a hazmat incident or wildfire. It's all about getting the movement of people away from danger. And so it will be applicable to all that. But to your point, sir, it's instead of reading like a technical document, it's more digestible. And that will be posted online as well. >> Okay. We'll look for that in the next few days then. All right. Last question is for director morales. I was just curious. You touched on earlier the update of the atlas 14 plans. What's the timeline on that? When can we expect that? >> So we're expecting to wrap those up citywide in the next couple of years. So we'll start finishing them up in different series. I think we started with the onion creek area. And so as we're finalizing quality control and getting it to FEMA, FEMA is going to do their process, which takes much longer. But once we have the draft data that we're the city is comfortable with, that's what we'll post and regulate to as well. >> Okay. And I saw you broke it down to sectors and you just touched on prioritization. Is that going to be laid out. Is that somewhere we can look. [9:57:17 AM] that somewhere we can look. >> To see. Yes. We actually have a website that gives an update on our progress for the all the floodplain maps. >> Okay. Then we'll follow up and just get that okay. Thank you so much. >> Thanks. Councilmember. Councilmember vela thank you. Mayor. >> I just wanted to to honestly say thanks to watershed and capital delivery for the Mearns meadow improvements. I had the opportunity to tour the project as it was under construction multiple times. And as you said, it's not done yet, but it worked very well over the the recent heavy rains that we've had. And I, I was at the north Austin civic association neighborhood meeting the other day, talking to some of the residents whose homes had been flooded a few years back, and they were very happy to see the the drainage features there working very well. So I just wanted to say thanks. I know that was a project that was stalled and adjustments were made. It was rebid and it's pretty close to to being done. [9:58:17 AM] pretty close to to being done. I also wanted to say that the field where the kind of the drainage base in there, that is basically some soccer fields when it's not wet and a huge place for the the water to to sit and filter when it does rain. It's a really a nice community asset. And that idea of combining both drainage and community assets, I know is mentioned in the video that, you know, again, when it's dry, you can use a field like a soccer field for Frisbee for whatever you want, but when it rains, that's where all the floodwaters will go and stay away from the homes. There's just a lot to be gained there throughout the city. I know there's numerous areas that that continue to to need those improvements. So I just wanted to say that that was an excellent work, that the flooding on Mearns meadow was really one of the worst, most difficult times I've had as a council member. You know, 30 or so homes were affected, lots of families affected, very, very [9:59:17 AM] families affected, very, very difficult. And I appreciate all y'all's work. And I also just wanted to to to the mayor pro tem point about the investment in the coming bond, the completely support that. I think that needs to be a good portion of our bond funding needs to go toward these watershed improvements, flood control improvements, especially as we change our our land use patterns. We need to change our land use patterns. But as we do that, we also have to be very conscious of flooding and making sure that that the flood waters are not affecting our our homes and businesses. So I'll be very supportive in the coming bond of investments in, in flood control and flood protection. So thank you very much. >> Thank you. Councilmember. All right, members, unless there's anybody else, I don't have anybody else. We want to thank you all. That was good [10:00:18 AM] thank you all. That was good presentation. We really appreciate it. So thank you. And obviously top of mind members that will take us back to item 834, which is a discussion of the contract that was pulled by two members. But I want to so I'm going to look to councilmember Ellis and then councilmember alter before we bring anybody up to see if you want to set up. What you what you wanted, why you pulled the item. >> I'm happy to do that. And I'm not sure if staff has a presentation or if. >> I just have. I'm sure you have a question. >> Be on call. Yeah. It was brought to our attention through looking at this process, and this is one of the questions I have. It appears only one vendor applied for the zilker cafe concession. And so and they're not a local vendor. And so I just wanted to kind of dig into this a little bit more. I know that it was advertised, you know, in accordance with all of our processes and was in the statesman and that there was local business outreach. [10:01:18 AM] was local business outreach. But I'm just trying to dig a little further into the capabilities and the realities around trying to support our local community, not just with local vendors, but with local products being on the shelves. I'm very well aware of the long history of the zilker cafe. About ten years ago, the last contract ended and it has been vacant ever since. So there's obviously a lot of interest in us getting this back going again. The building had to undergo repairs as we heard from the speaker earlier, there may there may be some things we need to consider around, you know, the the grease traps and things like that to make sure that those are functioning properly. So I just wanted to dig more into, you know, how was this advertised, how much outreach was done to local businesses, how many bids were received? I have questions just generally about the commodity code that this was likely advertised to. How many of those businesses actually do work, like the zilker cafe? I [10:02:18 AM] work, like the zilker cafe? I think a lot of it is a vendor and catering and things like that, which may spread into other sorts of city events and just the local preference for the products that might be on the shelves. I'm very interested in making sure that folks that come and visit Barton springs and swim in the pool and have their kids play on the playground are getting to interact with Austin products, things that we can do to support our local businesses and the local community, which are oftentimes small vendors, rather than having a national company that might be supplying national brands. So those are some of the questions I just wanted to start with. And I know council member alter also pulled this. I'm not sure if he had any additional thoughts to add. Same. >> Okay. All right. Whoever wants to go first. All right. Good morning mayor. >> Good morning, mayor pro tem. Good morning, city manager Broadnax. Good morning, council members. My name is James [10:03:20 AM] members. My name is James Scarborough. I'm chief procurement officer with the financial services department. Joining me is Matthew dory. He is division chief over procurement programs. And actually his section conducted this solicitation on behalf of the city. I also have with me the director for our department, sir. >> Good morning. >> Austin, Brooklyn recreation director. >> So at the request of the pa department, financial services conducted a solicitation for zilker cafe management and operations. This is a revenue generating contract. So it's not an expenditure of public funds. This is the third time that the financial services has solicited this particular contract. Solicitation was published on February 24th. It was published online. The city's online procurement website, in addition to online publication, 227 registered vendors were notified. [10:04:20 AM] vendors were notified. Solicitation did include both local and small business preferences. Very generally, the solicitation scope included all of the staff and equipment necessary to operate the the cafe. It also addressed minimum operating hours menu requirements, as well as a marketing plan and outreach requirements subject to part approval, and also included on site employees subject to the city's minimum excuse me living wage requirement. Also required sales report and annual audited financials. Requirement also included a minimum monthly fee paid to the city, as well as a revenue share requirement, namely, the solicitation also prohibited the sale of alcohol on the site. We then, after publishing the solicitation, we held a pre-offer conference and a site visit. There were three [10:05:22 AM] a site visit. There were three prospective offerors in attendance at the meeting. None subsequently chose to submit offers upon the solicitations first due date. There was one offer received prior to the closing. We went ahead and extended the due date, provided additional notice to the prospective offers. After the solicitation was available for 39 days, it closed on April 3rd. Still, only one offer was in receipt. That offer was from legacy hospitality and entertainment. Following the solicitation closed, FSD conducted additional follow up with the prospective offers responses received from them, including concerns with the monthly fee and the revenue share requirement in the solicitation. Also, they expressed concern regarding the seasonal nature of the cafe location adjacent to Barton springs pool, as well as the operational disruptions associated with major events in [10:06:23 AM] associated with major events in and around the area, including acl and trail of lights. They also mentioned the prohibition against alcohol sale as being a contributing factor in their decision not to participate. After a review of the offer submitted by legacy, we determined that it was compliant and therefore subsequently acceptable to pard. Recommended contract is presented was presented to the park board on June 23rd, which they recommended approval. FSD now submits this contract on the August 28th agenda for council's consideration and approval. Like I said, part is with us this morning. We are available to answer any questions that you have about this item. >> Councilman Ellis, I'll start with you. Do you want to ask questions now or. >> I do, I guess I'll start with of the businesses that were notified, did you say there were 227. >> 427. >> 427 businesses? And which [10:07:24 AM] >> 427 businesses? And which commodity codes did that go to? Was it specifically the concessions, catering and vending? >> It was. There were was it three codes, three codes that were used for the solicitation. The first code was for concessions, catering, vending, vending, mobile and station. The second code was for food management services. And the third code more broadly miscellaneous services. Number one, not otherwise classified. >> Yes. >> All right. And you said there was a pre-bid meeting or something with a similar name. >> Correct. Pre-offer conference is an opportunity to go through the contents of a solicitation with prospective offers and answer any questions that they have, determine if there are any prohibitions or limitations to their involvement, that we might be able to find out quicker than through the written q&a process. It's just a way to speed up the [10:08:26 AM] It's just a way to speed up the exchange with the prospective offers. Immediately after the pre-offer conference staff took the attendees to the actual site to do a walk of the site and examine the facilities. >> Okay, and if you can say here publicly, why did those vendors not choose to pursue making an offer? And you can get me that offline if it's something you don't want to cover here. >> I don't have like, what specific vendors stated as their individual reasons. But as we mentioned before, there were concerns with the substantially the the prohibition of alcohol sales. Secondarily, there was concerns with the seasonality of the operations, the large events that occur there. There was some concerns with the the the fee requirement and the the concession sales share back with the city. As for specific concerns and specific prospective vendors, we can check our documentation and [10:09:27 AM] check our documentation and share that with you. >> Okay, I appreciate that. I know the conversation the last time this came around was very highly focused around alcohol sales and whether or not to approve those. I know there were some folks that were quite vocal about not wanting to encourage alcohol use, especially in public areas. And when people are around swimming, which can be very dangerous. I also think that having someone who is licensed to monitor and to serve alcohol might be better than what we have been seeing in the past, which is people kind of bringing their own and not being monitored, and not having someone who's licensed to be able to make sure that the space is safe for everybody. But I know that's a conversation that people have very, very strong feelings about. And so I respect that. That's where we're at today. Let's go with. The the supplying of local products. Is that a conversation that they've provided information on, or is that a to be determined discussion? [10:10:29 AM] discussion? >> Yep. >> Thank you. We're going to invite Denisha cox who works in our contracting office, to answer that question if that's okay. >> Okay. >> Hi. Good morning. Just briefly, we had in the preferences for the concession that the producers that employ sustainable oh sorry, support the local diverse family and cooperative owned, small and midsize agricultural and food processing operations. So we did have that as a preference in the scope of work. >> Okay. But actually knowing when they if they assume that space and start buying products, how do we verify that that's being accomplished. >> So we. >> Could actually they have to provide a menu of options. And so when they have the menu we [10:11:29 AM] so when they have the menu we can look at the menu and see that was a preference. It wasn't a requirement under the scope. >> Okay. So there's no hard and fast number. If they give you a list of the products they'll serve. And 15% of it is local, there's kind of no way to know. Know that they've reached a threshold or not. >> No. >> Council member. The the requirements do include a provision for the contractor to provide a menu, but it's also subject to the pard review and approval. So if there's any concerns with the contents of the menu part, would be able to give feedback and make adjustments to it. >> Okay, yeah, I know my goal is just to make sure that that we're we're supporting local vendors and that we're letting some of our small businesses have a shot at getting their products in front of, whether they're tourists or people that live here trying to make sure that we're providing that avenue. It is a city space. It is a public space, and I want to make sure that we're doing what we can to support our our local vendors as much as possible. I have two more questions. The the score that [10:12:29 AM] questions. The the score that they got through the matrix. Do you have any idea typically in concession contracts, where is the average of a score without having anyone to to base, you know, our people higher or lower generally than the score of the applicant. What is a normal score to expect? >> That is a wonderful question. Council member. In our profession, it really depends on the evaluation committee. Some of them are tough crowds and they will rate very rigorously, rigorously, and and others are much more welcoming in their ratings. So it's it's it's hard to really determine an average. And and looking at a score, you really more want to look at the the relative position between the offers within the same solicitation. So if there's a lot of variation within the same solicitation, that's more informing in this case with a single offer, it's hard to to determine that. But essentially when we do receive a single offer, we really dig into the [10:13:30 AM] offer, we really dig into the contents of the proposal and make sure that it is beneficial and and acceptable to the city. As we mentioned, this is the third solicitation that we've done for this particular operation. The last one that was done in 2023 also received a single offer. So it's just a set of of more challenging requirements for this particular operation. We had three show up at the pre offer conference. None of them decided to submit an offer. So it was going to be a small crowd of prospective offers that we we anticipated going into this one. We certainly would have liked to have had additional responses. But after extending the due date and still having the single offer, comparing that to the solicitation with the single offer made sense to go ahead and close and evaluate and make sure it was acceptable to part. >> Okay. >> Thank you. And then my last question is going to be about just financially financial viability. I know that they've [10:14:31 AM] viability. I know that they've submitted information about their ability to run an operation like this, but I'm curious over the term of the contract, if for some reason the financial mechanisms change, obviously we see costs escalate lately. Is there kind of an exit if for some reason any vendor is not able to kind of meet the financial threshold that part is requiring or is financially feasible for the company, is there a way for them to back out? You know, we're seeing a vacant vendor space here in city hall that's been like that for a while now. As much as we're trying to make sure there's, you know, a vendor here to to operate that space, it's a reality that a lot of businesses are facing in Austin right now. >> Sure. And particularly in a in a concession operation there's certain amount of unknown. And so that's why the the proportion of the share is, is kind of critical to the negotiations between the city and the contractor. Hopefully it's not something that needs to be adjusted later, and hopefully there's enough revenue to to make it make sense for the continuation of the operation. We try to handle [10:15:32 AM] the operation. We try to handle that initially by segmenting the contract terms. So the initial term is five years. This particular aggregate term for the contract is an initial five plus an extension of another five, and another extension beyond that of another five for a total of 15 years, hopefully with a much longer contract. A prospective contract term like this, there's an opportunity for any lower years to be offset by subsequent higher years. But if we run into challenges, we will huddle up with our colleagues at pard, and we'll make any adjustments to the contract to ensure the the operations of the of the facility. >> Okay. >> Thank you. And I'll just I'll close by saying, you know, I pulled this item just because I know how important it is to make sure we're getting the concessions around the zilker cafe 100% correct. This is no slight to our finance staff. I know they've followed everything in the exact protocol that they need to, and it has nothing to do with the the vendor and the applicant. It seems like they are providing a good product in [10:16:32 AM] providing a good product in many different locations. I just had questions because I want to make sure this is a a good opportunity and a launch pad for our local small businesses to get their products in front of what is a fantastic place for locals and tourists alike to be able to to enjoy everything that Austin has to offer. So I may just ask a few more questions offline, but wanted to flag that that's where I was at on this item. >> Thank you. Thank you, councilmember alter. >> Thank you very much. And piggyback on that. You know, we kind of ran into this a little bit around the art at the airport, right? Something that is uniquely Austin wanting to really advance our local artists. And and I think this is another one of those very special Austin places that. We really should try to have that local presence. And, and and you did I think looking deeper as you have identified, you know, this question of what types of restrictions were [10:17:34 AM] types of restrictions were putting on there, primarily as you identified the alcohol sales question is one that quite frankly, I think we should have a discussion about is that is that the park is is that a restriction because of the park wide, or is that specific to this particular spot. >> So we actually did go to the planning commission, applied for a conditional use permit of the site. It set the parameters and boundaries around the cafe and that was denied. >> Do you remember the vote by any chance? Was it close or was it overwhelming? >> It was somewhat overwhelming. >> And was this recently or years ago? I just am not familiar with it. >> Was, I believe, in 21. >> Okay. It's a very different planning commission today than it was in 2021. I will start with that. But. So much has changed. You know, I think about for anybody familiar by [10:18:35 AM] about for anybody familiar by DPD, there's a vendor. It's not on the premises but pool burger. It's right across the street. They serve food. They serve alcohol and it's packed. And people go there and they go swim. And it's part of the experience. Sometimes we are facing. We just went through a budget process, and now the legislature is talking about a 1% cap we are facing incredible headwinds. And I'm not saying that the zilker concession stand is going to solve our budget woes, but if it brings more money into the parks department, if it brings more money into the city, if it brings more people who then go to the pool, it's every every little bit is a help. And so. >> Plus that budget process makes us all want to drink. >> So that's for sure. I think we should really take a step back from this. This you're talking about a potentially 15 year partnership. And the [10:19:35 AM] year partnership. And the alcohol question is a question. But the revenue share piece, you know, understanding that, you know do we have that right. But let's get this right. And and so I would love to have the opportunity to to do a little more review, work with the parks department and figure out a way, a future where maybe, I'm sure this applicant will reapply. But are we are we really getting it right for the long term? Because this is this is a special a special place, a special vendor relationship. And so I just I think we should take that a little extra time. So I'll leave it at that and defer to the body for later. >> Councilmember vela. Councilmember duchen. Councilmember Laine. >> I just want to agree with my colleague, council Ryan alter I we are strapped for revenues. I [10:20:40 AM] we are strapped for revenues. I think we have to be very entrepreneurial. We cannot just depend on, again, the legislature. I think they passed what, a 1% cap right yesterday. We'll see where that all ends up. But we have to take every bit of revenue that we can and we don't have a bunch of opportunities. But whenever that appears, we have to take that revenue generating opportunity and maximize those revenue generating opportunities. And again, this idea that that, you know, there's no drinking at Barton springs, I mean, there's plenty of drinking in Barton springs. Let's all be honest. >> As your lawyer, don't admit anything. >> And you know this. And again, we're talking about beer and wine sales here. I just and to the point also, and as you all noted and again, I think this is the second time that I've [10:21:41 AM] is the second time that I've been on the dais for this debate. I think this is the third time that the dais has had this discussion. But that seems to be, again, we're not going to do anything about the acl or or or. Those kinds of events closures. Those are not going to change. The the limiting factor is alcohol sales. And that's, again, anybody that's been in the restaurant business realizes what a large proportion of revenues and profit comes from alcohol sales, very typical for any restaurant around here for virtually any location in Austin to have a beer and wine sales. We see it everywhere. We don't see problems with it. I mean, Austin crowds are generally pretty, you know, responsible about these kinds of things. And again, we're going to get a better set of vendors if we allow the alcohol sales, we're going to get additional revenue to support the city and its operations. And I understand that the council of of 21st may have had a different view on it, and [10:22:41 AM] a different view on it, and that the planning commission of of 21st may have had a different view on it. My sense would be the same that the current planning commission, and I'll just speak for myself. But, you know, I would absolutely vote to support a beer and wine sales at zilker to help get a better vendor there. And again, the length of the contract is also a concern. You know, we're locking in a 15 year plan in when we're kind of handcuffing ourselves and then, you know, trying to lock in a 15 year contract that that I don't think would maximize the benefit to the city. So I would be supportive of looking at this again and allowing the conditional use permit. I would be supportive of the conditional use permit to allow alcohol sales. And if we need to go back to the drawing board, I hate to do that because the space has been empty for so long, and it just breaks my heart to to go there to to Barton springs and see the place empty and a couple of other kind of vendors and stuff standing right outside. But I [10:23:43 AM] standing right outside. But I agree, we've got to. I'd rather get this right in in six months than, than to pass a contract that, you know, a few years from now we're going to regret. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember. Duchen. Councilmember. Councilmember harper-madison. >> Thank you. Mayor. I have a couple of questions to build on. Some of the questions that have been asked. I'm going to ask this two different ways. One is based on based on how you've seen the offers, and people walk away after having some of the pre offer conferences over the years, what do you based on what you've seen, I'm not sure who the best person is to to feel this. What's either the biggest barrier or if we relaxed the requirement of the particularly whether they're the four that you covered of the concerns that were raised, whether there's some other concern that we haven't talked about here, or it's independent of the four that were raised by the prospects, if we if we either relax the requirement or [10:24:43 AM] either relax the requirement or you could identify a barrier, what would that be? >> Council member of the feedback that we received from the prospective offers that chose not to respond? We did not see any feedback that pointed at technical elements of the competitive process or contractual requirements of the city, other than those that were specific to this particular operation. I think you in your discussions, you've kind of seized on. The one that we heard the most about was the the prohibition on alcohol sales. There were some some other secondary concerns, but it was predominantly the alcohol sales that that we heard about. >> Got it. >> Okay. I would defer since those requirements are kind of operational in nature and and come from the needs of part. I kind of defer to them to explain kind of the background and the why, but that's what we heard at financial services. >> Okay. Does that track with everything you all are familiar with as well? >> Yes. We've heard often about the lack of ability to sell [10:25:46 AM] the lack of ability to sell alcohol as a hindrance to the business. Just in food cost alone. That helps to offset some of those food costs, especially for supporting local businesses where it might be a little more expensive for food costs. We had awarded a vendor in 2019 who we couldn't get the conditional use permit, so that contract got terminated because they said they couldn't, you know, wouldn't make any money in that. And then again, we had another solicitation. And again, the vendor that was was recognized as the one sole vendor who did submit. They also then at the end, when they realized they couldn't sell alcohol, they backed out as well. >> Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. I do want to build on that point for a moment, which is my understanding from doing some of the math, from the way that this has been laid out in the agenda, is that we're potentially forgoing about $100,000 a year of revenue from Pritchard. And I'm assuming if [10:26:48 AM] Pritchard. And I'm assuming if I expand that, if we haven't had this facility occupied for ten years, that's about $1 million we've left on the table. Is that rough math? Right? How does alcohol change that math? Do you have a sense of that? >> We haven't had alcohol sales at this location, so we we can't really apply that. But I can tell you from the one concessionaire who we did contract with in their proposal, they had done a proforma and they estimated above 150,000. And that was in 2019. And just beer and wine sales, okay. >> And just beer and wine sales. So not the delta of 50,000, but 150 beyond the $100,000. >> They they anticipated first year, 150. And then by year four, about 200,000. >> And just alcohol. Okay. Got it. >> Don't don't look at me. I do that in a week with wild Turkey. [10:27:49 AM] that in a week with wild Turkey. >> We need more of you over there at. >> Well, the way y'all are talking, you're making me so thirsty. I'm not sure I'm gonna make it to the executive session, but. >> All right, the last question is, I'm also just curious regarding alcohol sales, whether there have been any issues raised regarding liability issues surrounding alcohol that part or other folks have, whether there's, you know, we've had a number of drownings in in the river lately. I'm curious if there's any connection or concern around that. Can you all speak to that very briefly? >> What I can speak to is insurance. So of course the concessionaire would have to have the appropriate insurance for, for alcohol sales plus the other insurance requirement under the agreement to be on park land and serving the community. >> Yeah. And I think what I would add, just operationally and programmatically, I mean, I think certainly as, as council has discussed, there's my [10:28:51 AM] has discussed, there's my belief is there's lots of alcohol consumption happening in and around the pool. I think when we are able to control and bring in licensed provider that's able to really monitor what's happening, I think that's going to be we're going to be in a better space. Certainly our our concern when folks go into the pool is going to be life safety. And so we're going to make sure that if this were to change and we actually had alcohol sales, we'd want to make sure that we had a plan to to monitor that more closely. >> Does that plan currently exist or is that something you develop after securing a contract that would involve alcohol? >> Right. I think that that plan would have to start with whoever the vendor is and make sure obviously the licensing process has to go through that and looking at where sales are going to occur and not occur. But again, I mean, I think, I think we certainly would be concerned about making sure that we can minimize the number of folks that are going into the pool that are under the influence, and we'd have to work with the vendor on that. >> Okay. The last question then is I just want to confirm then that there's no additional [10:29:52 AM] that there's no additional administration, insurance or other requirements that we would be bearing as part of serving alcohol as part of the potential agreement? >> I don't believe so. >> Okay. Thank you for your help with that. >> Councilmember Laine. Then, councilmember harper-madison. >> Thank you. I just I wanted to thank my colleagues for bringing this forward and and work session. And I also just wanted to say, if we, as a body and a city, really want to support our homegrown businesses, our businesses have told our local businesses, have told us very clearly that this isn't something that makes financial sense for them. They really have no other way to tell us that. And so I think it's incumbent on us, as we're hearing in this discussion, to decide if we want to revise the terms in a way that it becomes something that can genuinely be a locally owned business. And then I, for one, am very supportive of that. I'm also open to revisiting the alcohol discussion, for sure. Having raised a family in central Texas, there are many, many private businesses who have procedures in place that allow [10:30:54 AM] procedures in place that allow this to happen. There aren't many water parks around that don't have access to alcohol, and bringing it out in the open seems, and to be regulated. And part of the contracts certainly seems like a reasonable course to me. So I just wanted to thank you all for bringing it forward. Let you know where I stand, and would very much like to see some revisions that would allow a local contract to be signed. Thanks. >> Thank you, councilmember harper-madison. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate the recognition. Thank you. Councilmember Laine. You really started on some of what I would like to say, and I'll just I'll keep it brief today and maybe extend a bit on Thursday after I ask a few more questions. But it seems like we're all sort of saying the same thing in that consideration around all opportunities for our assets to generate revenue is simply prudent. How you feel about alcohol, alcohol sales, alcohol [10:31:55 AM] alcohol, alcohol sales, alcohol consumption, your stock in wild Turkey shouldn't matter. I will say this though, as a part of the consideration for the expansion. So I've had a couple of opportunities in district one over the six years to revisit alcohol prohibition conversations. One was just open containers on the street, but for like a six mile radius, you know, the six square miles that constitutes the African American cultural heritage district. So we were able to overcome that disparity, that inequity, for people to be able to have open containers within the neighborhood and also some, you know, adjacent to communities, but cocktail lounges and there was a rv park that offers entertainment where we were able to revisit it. So to council member alter's point, you know, I think it's important and prudent, frankly, for us to revisit some of these prohibitions, regulations, requirements, coding processes every four years, frankly, [10:32:56 AM] every four years, frankly, because theoretically, you're getting new representation every four years. I know there's some folks that stick around for 12, god bless them. But every four years, at the very least, you're getting somebody new on the council that changes the makeup of the body, that changes the makeup of the vote. Truth be told. You know, getting to six takes a lot of moving around. So I would just say for long term, greatest good for how we move as a municipality and the body, I think it might be prudent for us to just revisit some of these rules, discussions, etc. More frequently. But on along those lines of increasing access, you know, of course, you know, people do what they do to get what they want. And that's with all the things. To your point, councilmember vela, people don't do whatever the hell they want to do wherever they are. However, increasing access is a real point and consideration to councilmember duchen point. So looking through all the potential safety, risk, etc. I do want to be real careful about conflating drowning incidents. Nowhere near this water body [10:33:57 AM] Nowhere near this water body space, city asset, water, body space. Those things have no applicability here. We always have to be careful about, like accidentally dog whistling things, you know, and having people get scared about things that are not a real thing. So folks saying, oh my god, if you expand that consideration for the ncc, there's going to be so many strangers who park in our neighborhood. Guess what? That didn't happen. 20 people who live within walking distance of that cocktail lounge. Walk to it and go back home. Guess what? Five years later, that thing you're afraid of, it never happened. And me being careful about the words I used and the narrative in which I framed it, was a part of why things didn't get blown out of proportion, which is, I think, really important. It's way too hard for us to walk it back once we, you know, sort of catastrophize it. So I just wanted to make sure that to mention that. But I do want to say adjacent to these considerations, there are three points of interest that came to mind for me. One, my team and I were still working on our commitment as a municipality and most [10:34:58 AM] municipality and most especially and I know sometimes, you know, like this morning there's been some alcohol jokes, but let's keep it real. Substance use disorder is a real thing, and it's become more prevalent and way worse since covid. And so communities that work in recovery and behavioral health issues, especially focused on substance use disorder, don't get the supports from us that they need, frankly. And so we really need to if we're going to continue, you know, to encourage people to engage in what they can legally participate in. I think we also need to recognize that not everybody is built the same and has the protections against overuse or misuse or abuse, frankly. And just make sure that we kind of double down. We're we're known as a drinking city, a drunken city, a college drunken city, you know, in large part across the nation. We're known for a lot of things, but that's one of them. In which case, I really would love to see the point at which our municipalities sort of owns that, but also says, but you know what the capital city is also known for? We are a leader. We are the national template [10:35:59 AM] We are the national template for sobriety. High schools for recovery, investments for behavioral health investments. We do that, too. I'd like for us to be able to meet that challenge. With that, I'd also like to say, you know, I'm consistently amazed, surprised, dismayed, disgusted by how infrequently, you know, the discussion around sexual misconduct is had openly, without stigma, in a mature way. You know, you say the word incest or pedophilia and people go running for the hills. But the truth of the matter is, a lot of folks making laws around how we handle that delicate and problematic situation are the people that are the offenders, in which case they offend the discussion or they avoid the discussion. But let's say if we're going to increase access at a place where folks are scantily clad and potentially compromised, I think it's important that we also have adjacent discussions around date rape and how people are getting home safely, how older [10:37:00 AM] getting home safely, how older men are engaging and interacting with younger people who are scantily clad. All things that will clear a room I can. I'm glad I can't see chambers, probably people running out right now, but these are things that we should discuss whether we want to or not. It's important stuff. And then the last thing I'll say, and that's adjacent to that consideration I just discussed, and that's about transit, transportation, mobility, just making sure we're partnering with appropriate partners to make sure people are getting home safe if and when they don't make the best decision that day, it shouldn't have to cost what it could it. If you don't get reliable, safe transportation home. And so aside from that, the conversation and consideration around expanding on. Conditional uses, I also wanted to point out that in terms of considerations for who for eligibility, which also, you know, would probably affect who [10:38:00 AM] know, would probably affect who applied, my my team and I most especially Sharon Mayes on my team, you guys, a lot of y'all know that. You know, she's the proprietor for baby greens, a really successful restaurant brand in Austin, Texas, and served on our food policy board for eight years. So when you talk about having an asset, some of our human assets, I have an expert right there in our office who's been asking our staff and asking our finance people and asking our real estate people. Between the two of us. She and I have 30 years of entrepreneurial experience, some of it leaning restaurant and a lot of it leaning small business need access to brick and mortar. And so when we have these discussions about how we utilize best utilize our assets as a city, one of the underutilized assets that we've been sort of on the quiet tip, having a discussion about it, I'm happy to see some of our colleagues moving in the direction of looking for a catalog of assets. Just so you guys know, we've been asking since 2019, what do we do with the stuff we already own? And not just asking what do we do [10:39:01 AM] not just asking what do we do with it, but making real suggestions. And I'll I'll just pull them back out. Let's call it throwback Thursday. On Thursday, I'll pull back out the four opportunities that we presented with the city that never went anywhere, including if you guys take a look downstairs, fox trot, for example. I won't belabor it, but that one was ours is ours. That's something we could have done something with, with somebody that is homegrown. You know, think about partnering with an ACC and their culinary program or, you know, we've got such a commitment by way of the infrastructure academy. Are we taking the opportunity to use our assets to train people to work front of house, back of the house, be a GM at a restaurant? That's a six figure gig. That's a career, not a ditch digging job. So I don't think that we do think as big, bold broad as we could and can with our assets, real estate being one of them. And I also think we inhibit our ability to open up a candidate pool when we have real specific requirements. So like this doesn't say open to solicitation by restaurants. It [10:40:02 AM] solicitation by restaurants. It says other management. And concessions. That's not a restaurant. What if we could, you know, especially since it looks like it may have the opportunity to be paused longer to think through this longer, but that could offer an opportunity to put a grease trap in there that would open up opportunities for way more applicants, local applicants who aren't making five star meals. But you can't even grill a chicken breast without a grease trap. By way of our rules. Another thing about rules and revisiting rules. Former council members were a part of, you know, the specific rules that make it so that we have to charge market rate. Maybe we don't have to charge market rate for spaces that we own. If it's an opportunity to be a subsidy of sorts for a small business who can't quite make that $9,000 a month commercial real estate, but [10:41:03 AM] commercial real estate, but offers some revenue for the city and offers that business an opportunity to scale up and then maybe have somebody else small start there at the small space that has perpetual affordability. You know, that's one of the things I don't think we talk enough about in our discussions with affordability, commercial affordability. So long story short, this one thing I think is a real good opportunity to have for other, larger, more long lasting, impactful discussions, discussions that affect multiple things, including budget considerations and how we best utilize our assets. Thank you. >> Thank you. If you want to close. And then, Mr. Benigno, hang on one second. Why don't we do him and then we'll let you close? Mr. Fantino, you look like you want to talk. >> Thank you. Mayor Ed Benigno chief financial officer I did want to just mention that for the foxtrot space, as well as the lease that came to council a while back for the new central library space. Both of those vendors are local vendors. [10:42:04 AM] those vendors are local vendors. We went through the process. We went through here today and provided local preference points. The other thing I wanted to mention is, you see James Scarborough and his staff from central procurement here because one of the resolutions we're working under is, is how we handle these concession agreements. And essentially we have been provided direction in the past to handle these, like traditional contractual solicitations, which is fine. Through a contractual solicitation, we can provide local and small preference points, and we do. Under state law, though these are not contracts, we do not need to follow this process. And one of the things I think staff would like to discuss is, as you all are having these discussions, is looking at these as real estate transactions, which they really are. We're leasing out a space and there are there is flexibility that would be provided to us if we treated these as a real estate transaction in terms of bringing in a local business, you know, there is a whole litany of state law we have to follow when we treat these as a contractual solicitation, but [10:43:04 AM] contractual solicitation, but we don't need to do that. And so I think that's just something I wanted to mention as a longer term consideration, is, would this council want to move away from what previous council direction was and allow staff to treat these as real estate transactions, where there's a different approach to marketing the space and a lot more flexibility in terms of who we might want to put into a space. >> You want to say anything? >> Sure. Thank you. Ed. And I think both you and Kim share that with me a little earlier. And I would suggest that at this point, at least, staff, whether procurement and finance more particularly will reconvene, discuss how we may want to move forward and consider what we want to do with the item that is currently scheduled for Thursday, and then follow back up with the council on next steps. >> Councilmember, thanks. >> I appreciate the discussion. I think even for me, it took a bit of a surprising turn to understand how this conversation has changed in perspective over the years. The question I would ask is if council wants to take up the [10:44:06 AM] council wants to take up the idea of changing the process, or making a permitted use for alcohol, to be able to allow the procurement staff to to work with that, what steps would I need to take? >> I think the manager just said he's getting ready. He's going. If I interpreted that right, he's going to get with with his staff and he's going to come back with to us with a recommendation about what those steps might be, including potentially withdrawing this item from Thursday. >> Okay. >> Is that is that what you said? >> Yes. >> No. >> A man of few words, he says what he means. I appreciate that this has been a very interesting discussion. And I it seems like there's a lot of alignment about where council would like to see this particular conversation go. So I appreciate it. Would appreciate any expediency. As I know there's a lot of eyes on, you know, how long has this space been vacant and how can we get it going again. >> Thank you. >> Thank you councilmember. Thanks, everybody. Appreciate y'all members. That takes up the items that we're going to [10:45:06 AM] the items that we're going to discuss. And the city council will now go into a closed session to take up two items pursuant to section 551071 and section 551072 of the Texas government code. The city council will discuss legal issues and real estate matters related to item E one discussion of legal and real estate matters related to the acquisition of approximately 142.754 acres, including buildings of office space, warehouse facilities, parking garages and storage areas for Austin water and other municipal purposes. Located at 6500 trakker Laine pursuant to section 551071 of the government code, the city council will discuss legal issues related to E to discuss legal issues related to sb 840, which was passed during the 89th Texas legislative session and its impact to multifamily and mixed use residential development. Is there any objection to going into executive session on the items [10:46:07 AM] executive session on the items announced hearing? None. The council will now go into executive session at 10:45 A.M. For members of the public. When we've completed the executive session, at least I will come out and we will adjourn the city council work session, because that will conclude all of the items that were on the agenda for this work session for Tuesday, August 26th. It's 10:46 A.M. >> [12:56:22 PM] >> All right. It is 1255 and the city council is come out of closed session. In closed session, we discussed real estate matters and legal issues related to item e1 and and legal issues related to item e2. There's no further business to come before the Austin city council at this work session of the city council. So without objection, we are adjourned at 1256. Thanks, everybody.