City Council Regular Meeting Transcript – 11/6/2025 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 11/6/2025 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 11/6/2025 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [10:00:32 AM] good morning, everybody. I am mayor pro tem Vanessa Fuentes. It is 10 A.M. On Thursday, November 6th, 2025. We have a quorum of the council present, and we. Let's see. No one is appearing virtually. I will now call to order the regular meeting of the Austin city council. We are meeting in council chambers at 301 west second street in Austin, Texas. Mayor Watson is absent today on city business. If I fail to call out that he is absent today on on the vote for any item, let the record reflect he is out today. The colleagues order for today. We will start with changes and corrections. Currently we do not have any items pulled and we don't have any items postponed. Item 20 has a version three and items 24 and 25 have a version two in the backup. We also have late backup for item 14. Item 20 I mentioned item 24 and 25 and [10:01:35 AM] item 37 just want to highlight has an applicant postponement request. Item 38 has an applicant postponement request, and item 41 is public comment. We will then take up virtual and in-person registered speakers on the consent agenda. Each speaker will have two minutes if an item is pulled from the consent agenda. Anyone registered to speak on the item will be called when the item is heard. After, speakers will have brief remarks from any council member who wishes to speak on the consent agenda. And then we'll take a vote on the consent agenda, which currently consists of items one through 27 and item 43. We will then consider any pulled items and as I mentioned, we do not currently have any items that have been pulled. And afterward we'll go into non consent agenda which includes items from city council meetings, committee hearings and a public hearing. At 1030 or soon after, we will convene the Austin housing finance corporation meeting at noon. We will pause [10:02:37 AM] at 12:00 to take up public communications and then recess for live music. If there are any items left, will return to those items and then consider zoning agenda items. Any questions or comments so far? All right. So with that city clerk, may you please call the speakers for our consent agenda? >> Yes. Thank you. Mayor pro tem, item number five, I have Steven Swanson. Item six, Jennifer Robichaux. Also for item seven. Item ten, Jennifer Robichaux. And 14 on deck Aslan Hollier. >> Thank you. Please proceed. >> Good morning, city council. I am Jen Robichaux. I'm a resident of district two, and I'll be speaking on several items, so I'll introduce myself [10:03:39 AM] just once. Item number six is a contract to Schindler elevator corporation for $12.2 million for elevator and escalator repair and preventative maintenance at austin-bergstrom international airport. And I'm speaking about this because I am deeply concerned about our declining sales tax revenue in the city of Austin, and in investigating this company, I see that they are headquartered in New Jersey. They have offices all over the country, and to me, this indicates both a high level of overhead costs and a corporate headquarters that is going to be funded in a different state. And as we're looking for ways to stretch the revenue that we have as far as possible, I'd like to continue to encourage you all to fund local, whether it's Austin or Texas businesses, because this is the best way to make sure that every dollar that we take out of our city budget goes to communities that are going to be able to reinvest those [10:04:40 AM] dollars here in Austin and in Texas. I've also learned that this company uses proprietary parts. And so once we engage in a contract with this company, we will continue to want to work with this company, since the parts that they're using are only going to be available through them. So addressing this now, while we have an opportunity to evaluate any other Texas businesses that can provide this service, I think would be incredibly prudent. I'll continue on with number seven. This is a contract to environmental systems research institute for $13.2 million. And this is enterprise level licensing, maintenance and support for the city's geographic information system platform. Again, my concerns here come down to our sales tax revenue, but it also goes beyond just that. It's whether [10:05:41 AM] or not we need to be spending nearly $13.2 million for this service. In general, the company that we are contracted with is in California, and I understand we do have an existing contract with this group, but many other Texas governments use free and open solutions that are based here in Texas. So even if there's a cost to transition to another service, if we are transitioning to a free open source solution that comes with a number of tremendous benefits, we are supporting development in Texas by supporting businesses that are here in Texas, and we're also allocating our funds to other purposes instead of very large contracts with out of state businesses. And this is a great way to make sure that we are keeping our tax dollars close to home and only spending those that we need to be spending. Am I clear to talk? Ten okay. Thank you. Item number ten. [10:06:42 AM] This is for carbon credit broker services. And when we look at the context of what the city of Austin is doing with our money, there's a lack of trust between council, how you all are spending our dollars and citizens. And this is a case where we're really walking the line. It's $1 million for carbon credit broker services. There is question whether or not these services are even worth the dollars we spend on them. There was a study in 2023 that revealed that 94% of credits had no benefit to the climate. $1 million is a lot to spend for no benefit. Also, paying for carbon credits is very close to paying for indulgences. This is a symbolic act that offers forgiveness, but without actual meaningful sacrifice. And here we're not even purchasing carbon credits, but directly. But they're through broker services, and that creates a level of opacity [10:07:43 AM] that does not encourage any trust. It lacks transparency. If the city wants to encourage more climate focused activities, let's encourage more reforestation. Here in Austin, we used to have an amazing program, that wildlife Austin program, where residents were able to get their yards certified as wildlife habitats. This is a very low cost way for the city to encourage more environmentally friendly practices throughout the city, and it was canceled. I would love to see this program come back. I would love to see other ways for the city to take this million dollars and invest it directly into the city, instead of routing it through brokers who have their own ulterior motives. Thank you. >> Sir. You might you can stay there because I want to call you in a second, sir. Go ahead. >> Am I can you hear me? Yeah. Good. I'm Steve Swanson. I'm [10:08:45 AM] here as a 30 year volunteer and public education. I was on the workforce development board. I'm here on item number five, which has to do with continuing working with the workforce development board, workforce solutions. And I just wanted to express my experiences, taught me how important the imagine Austin plan is. Priority program number three, I helped participate in writing it. I'm not sure we know if it's being followed or being implemented effectively, and considering the recent circumstances around proposition Q and how we relate to service to the needs of others and the condition of our school planning challenges in our community, there is absolutely nothing more important than the city, county, and school district authentically working together with the community to serve the lives of our children and the [10:09:46 AM] management of that. The proposition for that, the the opportunity for that is provided for in the imagined Austin plan through the workforce development board and the joint subcommittee. And I'm here to encourage that you do what you can to bring that alive. When we're talking about our school district, we shouldn't and our kids being educated. We shouldn't just be talking about aid. We should be talking about the city. We should be talking about the county. We should be talking about other entities that if they truly were working together as provided for in statute and as provided for in the Austin plan priority program. Number three, we wouldn't have the condition we have now in the way our kids and our families are being treated and education. So that's why I'm here, and I hope you guys will sincerely take a look at the imagine Austin plan and what it can do for our community and for the people we serve. [10:10:46 AM] >> Thank you. >> Good morning mayor and council. I am Alan Hollier. I am speaking for irrep junk removal and resale, an Austin based, woman owned licensed hauler. I am addressing item 14, a contract for residential dumpster and bulk collection for 500 multifamily properties with Texas disposal systems recommended for Austin resource recovery to support zero waste 2040 bulk diversion isn't achieved by dumpsters alone. Once items hit roll off dumpsters, good faith recycling is rarely feasible. I rep bulk only because upstream model works. Designate a consolidation area twice monthly sweeps 24 hour overflow sort before anything reaches the dumpster and send items to the right downstream mattresses to a recycler, furniture to a free or low cost community market, and metals and e-waste. Go to a compliant facilities, while tds actually handles the [10:11:46 AM] trash. We currently offer bulk services for several multifamily operators and volunteered at move out atx to see how stations and furniture markets could work. We hold a five year contract with the city bulk brush contract, which has been unused for 18 plus months despite our investments. Meanwhile, on demand bulk has frustrated residents and increased landfill flow. We know firsthand the implications and the lack of goal achievement based on tds price submission, and they're listing their landfill as the only drop off location. No clear path for bulky recyclables. My site tirz staff conversations I know pairing dumpster service with bulk diversion remains operationally and financially misaligned with a single prime structure. Specialists like irep were effectively sidelined, and this leads me to believe that bulk will get wasted and businesses like ours could be hurt. My ask approve the contract. Direct rr to run a 90 day pilot with the prime and [10:12:48 AM] diversion first bulk specialist like irep for 50 properties and have kpis on that. Thank you very much. >> For item 15, Jennifer Robichaux. And then item 20, bill bunch and Carlos Leone. Then item 21, Jason Haskins, Jennifer Robichaux, and Shoshana Kreeger. >> Good morning again, I'm Jen Robichaux. I'm speaking on item 15, which is a contract for $1.9 million to radian research for maintenance, support and upgrades of meter testing software and hardware at Austin energy. Again, I am concerned about keeping our tax dollars as close to home as possible, because I think this is one of the most effective ways for us to address the sales tax revenue problem that we're seeing in the city. In this particular case, this company is headquartered in Indiana, and I am aware that we have both Texas alternatives, as well as local Austin metro companies that would be able to provide these services. I do [10:13:49 AM] appreciate that this contract is being sourced through a competitive bidding process. I think that's incredibly important, but I would like to encourage us to go back and look at those bids and see who we have from Austin, and if we aren't really strategically sourcing local companies in those bids, that needs to be a top priority when we're putting out those rfp. This contract is going to lock us in with hardware integrations. And so making a wise decision now is going to ensure that we don't have to unwind any of these decisions later. Taking a long term thinking approach that ways our local investments is the best way to make sure that our tax dollars are being spent wisely, and that even the simplest things, like the overhead costs for the companies that we are paying, are staying here locally. So let's ensure that we are spending wisely, that we are doing more with less, and that we are considering our local options first and foremost, to [10:14:50 AM] make sure that we are supporting our local economy here and maintaining as much sales tax revenue as possible. Thank you. >> Mayor pro tem. Yes, I'd like can I ask you a question real quick because you have given similar testimony over the course of items, and I am genuinely curious to know you touched on this being a competitive process. And so the options typically are, let's say there is a local that's not chosen that would typically indicate that the local option was more expensive. And in a time when we are clearly going to be needing to make cuts across the city, how would you balance spending more locally versus spending less? You know, taking the lowest cost, even if it's outside of Austin? >> Well, without knowing exactly how much the cost difference is, it is hard to make that blanket decision now. But I do think that we want to be looking at where those [10:15:52 AM] dollars going, spending more, but keeping those dollars here locally feeds back into our local system. And that's the cost. Now, that doesn't mean that the cost down the road will continue to be the same. It could go up with the other competitor. It could go down here locally. There's a lot of variability through that. There may be ways in writing these contracts in order to incentivize bids locally to set up maybe a longer term contract that encourages a better price over time. And I think these are just discussions that need to be front of mind, given the number of out of state contracts that we seem to hand out, it just doesn't look like this is front of mind. This is why I speak about it frequently. >> Sure. All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> Thank you for your testimony. If your name has been called, please make your way to the front. We appreciate the testimony that's been given. If you could state your name and which item you're speaking on for the record. [10:16:57 AM] >> So I Carlos Leon, first and foremost, gracias a dios for letting me speak to item 20. Library commission issues to address regarding April's denial of physical access rules still being unconstitutional and out of compliance with your superseding rules for public use of city properties, assistant city manager Stephanie Hayden Howard said she was working on those rules and would send city auditor a summary when the update is completed. Yet two months later, there's zero public evidence of that, though apple said December 31st, 2020, for their Ken policy had been recently reviewed, updated and is awaiting sign off for finalization. Thus, hayden-howard appears to be stonewalling you. Just like interim director Hannah Terrell, per your official job posting for a new aapl director, a first review of candidates occurred October 3rd. Who did that and how? What procedure, [10:17:58 AM] criteria, and metrics were used to ensure all applicants were equally evaluated? How many applied? Who are they? Who still being considered? What are next steps in timeline for that process? My peers for that information have generated nothing in response. Therefore, is the search rightly open to finding and hiring the best fitting, highly qualified candidate? Or is it wrongly going through the motions for a pre-selected one instead of wasting taxpayer money and political capital? On lugo failure, city manager Broadnax should be transparent about the searches, mechanics and progress today because two days ago, prop Q voters said no to blindly trusting him and you because the new director will affect austinites citywide for years to come. Hiring the right rule following law abiding library leader requires your attention. Now, in Jesus name I [10:18:58 AM] pray. Amen. >> Thank you. Please proceed. >> Good morning, mayor pro tem, council members, city manager. My name is Jason John Haskins, and I'm here today to speak on items 21 and 23. I'm speaking for myself as an independent housing advocate. As many of you know, I have an extensive experience in the development, design, regulation and operation of affordable housing across a wide range of types and funding sources. I'm speaking in enthusiastic support of both items, 21 and 23, as they address important measures that I've been asking for for a while, but in both cases, I don't think they go far enough. As it pertains to item 21 on the rta lease addendum, I see this as an opportunity to address one of the most egregious, unjust imbalances of power that the state of Texas in particular, has gleefully perpetrated. I strongly recommend we consider both minimum standards and incentives for higher performance. So I'd ask for an amendment directing staff to include some of these measures discussed as scoring items for additional points in the review of applications. However, this is fundamentally not an rhd [10:19:59 AM] problem. This is a problem for all leases, and if anything, most rhd recipients are already doing better. So part of this effort needs to be implementing these protections for all renters in the city. We're talking about fundamental human rights, the protection of which not only affirms and supports the divinely endowed dignity of our neighbors, but also reduces the burden that poverty, housing insecurity and homelessness have on all of us through spending on emergency room visits, malnutrition, jail stays, malicious enforcement, decreased educational opportunity and many more issues. Since we once again saw this week that the cold hearted and selfish would rather pay the higher hidden costs than take direct action, we need measures that will reinforce housing stability in the face of greed and exploitation. While the majority of recipients are already on board and outperform the average landlord by a wide margin, accountability is critical and is one of the four pillars of sound housing subsidy policy. Just as we have continued to lead the multifamily industry on sustainability, resiliency, construction workers rights, accessibility, inclusive design, community engagement and so many other critical areas, we will continue to lead in this [10:21:00 AM] as well. Thank you. >> Thank you. Please proceed with stating your name and item you're speaking on for the record. >> Okay. >> Thank you very much. Council member Fuentes, my name is Shoshana Krieger and I'm the project director of Basta building and strengthening tenant action, or buscando acciones solidaridad rendimiento. Thank you for hearing my testimony today. I'm speaking on item 21. As affordability concerns escalate at Basta, we have been seeing with the tenants we work with and our members disturbing trends of junk fees, landlord bullying, eviction increases and other such injustices for tenants. It has been over six years since the tenant protections for city funded properties have been examined and updated. That is woefully too long. This item will initiate that process, which is long overdue, to make sure that when the city is investing in housing, we're not just investing in developers, but [10:22:01 AM] we're investing in housing that actually serves the needs of renters on the ground that renters are treated with dignity and respect. We look forward to the stakeholder process to come, and we want to thank all of the council offices who have worked on this item. Council member qadri. Council member Siegel, council member, alter and Fuentes and Velasquez. Not forgetting you and especially I want to thank Melissa Beeler from council member qadri office, who has really done a tremendous job of making sure that both tenant advocates and developers perspectives are included in this item. Thank you. >> For item. I'll go ahead for 2121. Yes, ma'am. >> Good morning. I'm Jen Robichaux and speaking here on item 21 which is the rental housing development assistant tenant protections resolution. And this looks like it's going [10:23:01 AM] to be a multi-month process. So I'm thrilled to see that there's going to be a lot of time for feedback and to really think this through. Well, because we do want to make sure that as we are looking to address just the programs itself, as well as any spending decisions that we're doing so transparently, the resolution acknowledged that we do see a problem with rental assistance not matching the rising costs in rents that we're seeing in Austin. And while this program is specifically addressing people who are receiving that assistance, I think it's important to look at this in the broader context as well. Policies that are set here, any sort of regulations can be used as pilots towards any other protections for renters in Austin. In general, if we're going to be regulating rental policies, I think we should be looking for protections for all renters. And I think a big part of that is the transparency in [10:24:03 AM] the costs of renting homeowners. I myself am a homeowner. I suspect many of you are as well, and we've seen that there's a lot of transparency in that process. We know what costs contribute to our overall monthly bills, and this is the truth in lending practice. And I don't see a truth in renting practice. The previous speaker mentioned that there's junk fees in rents. We have insurance costs and taxes when you're a renter, and those things get lumped into an overall bill, which makes it difficult to tell what you're actually paying for. Beyond that, I do have concerns within this resolution that we are setting the stage for the bond election. I know there's one planned for next November, so whatever costs you're looking to extract through the bond election, be very thoughtful about that. Renters are going I mean, voters are going to push back. Thank you. >> Moving on to item 22, Paul Barrett, are you here? Paul, you have time donated by Liz [10:25:03 AM] Margiotta. Liz, are you here? Okay, four minutes then. >> Thank you. And as you start, if you can state your name and which item you're speaking on. For the record. >> Yes. Thank you. Good morning. Council. My name is Paul Barrett. I'm resident of district five. I'm here to speak in strong support of item 22. I want to publicly congratulate Mr. Hadavi on his appointment to lead this vital office, the office of the city auditor is the single most important office for our city's governance, and its integrity is paramount. This appointment could not be more time sensitive. Your own office, Mr. Auditor just published its [10:26:03 AM] October 2025. Austin assembly program audit. That report confirms the city's compliance and data systems are in systemic crisis. I am here to corroborate that finding my pro Bono analysis of the convention center contract, which this council approved two weeks ago, is the patient zero case study for this audit. Your audit finding number three found incomplete documentation and no confidence that the contractors comply with M W policies. My audit found the result of the failure at 96.6 wb shortfall and a 93.3 mb shortfall on a $1.6 billion contract. This is a $200 million compliance deficit that proves your [10:27:05 AM] October 2025 report is remarkably accurate. My purpose today is simple. I'm here to state on public record I will submit my evidence based document on this systemic failure to your office. Today. I am delivering you the clear case that confirms your own work. I am confident, Mr. Hadavi, as the coauthor of that audit, understands the gravity of this catastrophic failure and will give these corroborating findings the immediate, rigorous and independent investigation day and the city's citizens of Austin deserve. Thank you. >> For item 23 Carolyn Williams, Barry Jones, Anna Duncan, Mel leblanc, Carrie Ann Smith, [10:28:06 AM] Jason Haskins, and Shoshana Krieger. >> Good afternoon. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Carolyn Williams. I am a leader at vocal Texas. I'm here to speak and ask that you vote yes on item 21 and 23, but I will be speaking only on item 23. A bit of my story. When I was 65, I was evicted and not given a reason why. I went before a judge and talked about this injustice and lack of evidence evidence for eviction. But they sided with the apartment and went through with eviction. This caused me to fall into homelessness. Since then, I've struggled with many forms of housing discrimination. This included denials for rental history. Due to eviction, my son had misdemeanors and was living with me. So we had we [10:29:08 AM] got denied and issues with my credit from falling into homelessness. I want to repeat that because my son had misdemeanors. We were rejected from housing. That is unfair. If something like Rhoda, rh D was around and enforced in the time I was homeless, I would have avoided homelessness and a lot of trauma. We are fighting to stop discrimination against people with records. We are deserving. We deserve. We all deserve housing and access to resources. Housing is a human right. Vote yes to reinforce Rhoda in our city so we can get one step closer to ending discrimination in the housing process. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Good morning. Council. My name is Barry Jones. I'm a leader with vocal Texas. I [10:30:09 AM] lived in district two and I'm here to support items 21 and 23. Up until recently, I was homeless and on a wait list housing wait list for ten years. Much of my time being homeless was spent standing in lines with other homeless people waiting for food, clothing, or other resources. The people I was in line with would talk about their stories over and over. I would hear the same thing I have a felony and they don't give housing to felons, so I don't apply for housing anymore. The only real solution for homelessness. Homelessness is to get people in housing, and this is an absolute failure of the system. In September 2024, I applied for and was placed in the marshaling yard shelter. Once inside, I was put through the coordinated assessment, but was warned that very few people were being placed into housing. One of the most common reasons I heard again was because of criminal records. Many people applied, but very few were accepted. In consequence, the marshaling [10:31:10 AM] yard stayed full and no new people were being admitted. During my time being homeless, I've seen time and again how there are many programs to help people, but the aid seldom gets to those who need it. Shorter lookback periods for records ensure a second chance housing and give people hope that their mistakes do not define them forever. Are rh Dia is supposed to offer those shorter lookback periods and make sure people can stay in housing, and that would be great if the policy was upheld. That's why we need accountability for rhd properties. That way we can ensure enforcement. Please vote yes on item 21 and 23. We cannot end homelessness by excluding people with records. Thank you. >> Hello, my name is Carrie Ann. I'm a leader at Texas vocal. I'm reading a statement today from John Cruz. He wasn't here. [10:32:10 AM] He wasn't able to be here today. He's a 48 year old, have been living on the streets ever since he was 12 years old. He'd been in jail at 12 years old. He made mistakes, but he's gotten better now. He applied at sunrise housing and was waiting on the waiting list for 6 to 7 months, then finally got a housing voucher. He thought that he was going to be able to get an apartment soon, but he was on the waiting list for two and a half years before he even got housed. He got a case manager. He was applying for apartments and was never hearing anything, and even tried applying for apartments by himself. But his case manager said don't worry about it. But he never got any housing or anything came up. So he kept asking why was why was he not getting, why was he not hearing anything? And his fourth case manager told him because of his record, is keeping him from getting housing. And he kept trying to get a chance to just to be up off of the street. It took him [10:33:12 AM] three years for him to get housing because of his record. He was calling the city to change that, that they should make it easier for people with records to get off the street. Everyone deserves a chance to be in housing, despite of the despite of what they've been through and the stereotypes that they put up on. Please approve items 21 and 23. The policies. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good morning. My name is Anna Duncan. I am a leader with vocal Texas and I encourage you to vote yes on items 21 and 23. Bobby mostly speaking on items 23. I moved to Austin a few years ago. The first year I was sleeping on the streets. The following year I was in the marshaling yard. Prior to me [10:34:17 AM] moving to Austin. I had my own my own apartment, but eventually, a couple of years later, I got evicted. Seems like it was just unfair for me that I became homeless again. Rather or not, that I've been evicted or have a criminal record. It just made my housing more unstable than ever. But since I got here, things just been worse for me. I moved out here to get away from abusive relationship. And it's it's really hard. As I look around [10:35:18 AM] my community, around my neighbors, it's a shame to me that so many of my neighbors are unhoused because of their criminal record. Earlier this year. I have done some outreach with my fellow vocal Texas leaders and workers as well to pass around. >> Thank you for your testimony. >> Good morning council. My name is Mel leblanc. I live in district two and I'm here today with vocal Texas, a vocal. We focus on building people power to end homelessness, mass incarceration, the drug war, and HIV and AIDS. I'm here today to ask that you vote yes on item 21 and 23, but I'll be speaking on 23. Earlier this year in April, we launched a campaign focusing on deeply affordable units and making sure justice impacted folks with records have an opportunity to get second [10:36:19 AM] chance housing. This came from our directly impacted leaders, some of whom you just heard from today, telling us the problems that they're facing on the streets. Soon after, we really dove into Rhoda, and how this seemed to really align well with our mission. The policy from 2019 and after had shorter lookback periods, had greater protections to help people stay housed that are coming out of hard times. And we were really excited to look into expanding this. And but we realized that the current policies are not actually being enforced. On many accounts. People have been wrongfully evicted, their lease addendums have been violated. With this information mixed with the fact that there are so many people on the streets with records, we can only assume that developers taking city dollars are not following their own policies and denying people wrongfully denying people with records wrongfully. Additionally, when people are denied, they're supposed to get an appeals notice. Our impacted folks have reported that one, they're not even getting a notice of denial. And two, they're definitely not getting a notice of the right to appeal. So that's not right. We need to make sure these developers are in compliance so [10:37:19 AM] people know their rights. Passing this item would ensure that we are on the road to truly having housing for all. Noncompliance results in more people becoming homeless and people on the streets with records not qualifying for housing. We cannot end homelessness by excluding people with records, not to mention the lack of housing available leaves vulnerable folks to be violently swept. The violence sweeps the city is implementing alongside dps is causing trauma. The real solution is is only housing and housing first. So again, I'm asking that you vote yes on item 23 to help enforce Rhoda, and on 21 to help expand it and make things more equitable. Thank you. Yeah. >> Good morning again, Shoshana Krueger with Boston. I'm speaking on item 23. Another resolution relating to city funded Rhoda protections. As we all know, protections are only as good as the enforcement of the protections that if the protections are only on paper, [10:38:21 AM] they are meaningless. And sadly, Boston over the past few years has encountered a number of properties where the landlords are not giving those tenant protections to tenants. And the housing department has largely turned a blind eye to this real, real problem. And that has left us pretty despondent over the quality of housing that the city is funding. This item will hopefully address that both now, but also creating the infrastructure, the compliance infrastructure needed within the housing department so that this does not happen in the future, and so that every tenant who lives in one of these properties gets the lease addendum, which lays out the protections that every applicant gets. Notices of denial if they are denied, and that the rules relating to [10:39:21 AM] criminal backgrounds are filed, followed. As the previous speakers talked about. We look forward to seeing how the compliance program is built out in the housing department. We are encouraged by the new housing director, director Dean and her her already taking some steps to move the housing department in the right direction. We want to thank again all of the council members who worked on this item, especially council member Siegel, and carrying this item forward. Thank you very much. >> All right. Jason, John, Paul Haskins speaking on in support of item 23, which would provide for compliance and monitoring for the city's rhd, which is the primary and most successful means by which the city funds contribute to the creation of new affordable homes. When the program started, its primary purpose was to support developments funded primarily by other sources, especially [10:40:21 AM] low income housing tax credits or hud project based vouchers. This meant that the projects already had a more intense compliance inspection and oversight process by a larger, more established state or federal entity, so there wasn't as much need for the city to duplicate that work. However, we have made some significant progress since the start of our hda. As the funding and regulatory landscape has changed, there are more opportunities available today that result in a more diverse capital stacks and unique deal structures, and the city has matured in its own housing priorities, with interests that may not be duplicated in other regulations. So the need for dedicated compliance within the housing department and Austin housing finance corporation has arisen as we see projects funded through rhd without state or federal money, as smaller, community based projects come online and become more common, and as we continue to improve our city criteria. But again, the resolution does not go far enough. In my opinion, this needs to go beyond just the lease addendum. We need compliance and monitoring for smart housing and the density bonus programs [10:41:22 AM] as well. Rhd and oda have what I've often touted as a beautiful punitive mechanism since the funds are distributed as forgivable, low or zero interest loans, noncompliance can easily result in interest being recaptured and forgiveness rescinded. Where is the recapture for the density bonus programs? Who is confirming that the affordable units built in Rainey screen aren't sitting vacant, or as hoa storage rooms? Who is inspecting for the accessible units required by smart housing that exceed the building code in thc requirements. While I believe the majority of current rhd shipments will welcome and gladly work with this effort to those who don't, to those few who are trying to game the system for profit, I say good riddance and get out. Get the hell out of our way. Thank you. >> For item 24, Francis Russell. Francis, are you there? >> Oh, yeah. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. Great. Hi. My name is [10:42:24 AM] Francis Russell. I'm a member of district seven. I'm a UT doctoral student, as well as a long time member of street forum street forums, a mutual aid group of housed and unhoused people who come together for distribution of food, coffee, hygiene items, camping supplies and much more to upwards of 150 to 200 people every Sunday morning in downtown Austin. Through this volunteer work, I've met dozens of people in affected by sweeps. People have told me that during state and city sweeps, they have lost vital documents, medications, phones, as well as sentimental and high value items. Losing these items makes reapplying for housing or jobs all that much harder. They also often retraumatize those impacted, many of whom are disabled or who have mental health conditions. And the reporting on sweeps in the city often reinforces existing stigma against unhoused, unhoused folks. Without painting a fair and complete picture of the reality of the situation. So dehumanizing and violent, and they do not solve homelessness or even stop [10:43:25 AM] encampments, which inevitably pop up in different locations after these sweeps, as there are no more humane or safe shelters left for people to go to. Instead of trying to cover up the existence of homelessness in Austin by trashing people's belongings and asking them to go further into the woods where they risk injury and a lack of services, we need to address the root of this issue. There are not nearly enough supportive reentry programs or affordable housing in the city to meet the immense needs of the thousands of people living on the streets here. As long as sweeps are still happening in Austin, there are still so many ways to make these more compassionate and even possibly effective. Many of those could be ensuring that there is enough safe and dignified shelter before conducting mass sweeps, telling people that they can go to an already severely overcrowded marshaling yard is not offering solutions. Another thing could be eliminating ticketing and arrests. Not having APD or ice at sweeps, giving advanced notice for city sweeps, and for all possible state sweeps. And of course, not destroying people's belongings. I urge you [10:44:27 AM] to listen to the many people impacted and create compassionate guidelines. >> I'm going to switch over to in-person speakers really quickly. Continuing on item 24, Eli Cortez, Vincent Valentino, Jennifer Robichaud, Kate Graziani, Alfredo Reyes Jr, and Jermaine chase. >> Okay, let's do this. >> Okay. >> Good morning council. My name is Eli Cortez. I am a resident of district three and a proud organizer. >> Of the mic a little. >> Closer sorry and a proud organizer of vocal Texas. We have. We were dismayed and shocked at the announcement of governor Abbott to send in troops to conduct encampment sweeps. As I'm sure many of you were, we had an opportunity as a city to step up and offer compassionate response, to make sure that people were safer, that they were kept out of [10:45:28 AM] harm's way. And instead, our city announced a separate three week encampment sweep plan, which further exposed people to risk of criminalization, to tickets, to arrests, forcing folks farther and farther into the woods. And I just want to highlight when when people are told to move somewhere and they don't have anywhere to go, our shelters are full. It literally pushes them into places where they're hiding. We had two unhoused people drown like two weeks ago because they had they were hiding in a creek bed. It rained and it flooded and they died. This is a dire, dire situation. It's unacceptable. Our city touts that our our city sweeps are somehow more humane than state sweeps, and that we're connecting people to resources and to shelter. We do not have available shelter beds. When people get connected to a shelter bed, our shelters are kicking people out for the smallest instances. As as an organization, we felt like we had to immediately respond to the crisis and connect with people who were who had been swept in my time out in the street. In the last couple of [10:46:30 AM] weeks, I've met people who were told that that either got no notice, that their encampment. I spoke to a gentleman who was told to leave his things like he they told him, you can take this backpack. If you grab these other things, you're going to get a ticket. So that's that's not how. And it might we might have some success stories where these policies are being implemented, but it's not happening across the board. When we're out and we're talking to folks, they're not happening. We had a leader that was signed up to speak today. His name was black angel, and he, he he was in his actually, I'm gonna finish that in the second half of my speech. Okay. Speech. >> I'm sorry. >> Just one second. >> Okay. >> Hello, everyone. My name is Vincent Valentino, and I'm here today because I'm tired of being unheard, unseen and treated as disposable. I'm speaking not only for myself, but for every person who has been pushed from place to place with nowhere safe to exist. I'm a strong advocate for this issue because I've lived it not [10:47:31 AM] once, not for a short time, but continuously since I was 15 years old. I know what it means to survive homelessness, and I know what it feels like to lose everything to a sweep. Less than a month ago, at my camp off Riverside in the woods, I experienced yet another sweep. We were given one hour to clean everything out, and we didn't even get that full hour. When I returned, everything I owned was destroyed. My clothes, my important documents, my dogs records all crushed. And among those things were my little sister's ashes. That's something no one can ever replace. That day broke something inside me. I wasn't just losing my belongings. I was losing my progress, my stability, my hope. It sent me multiple steps back, forcing me to start over again just to replace what had already been mine. It made me feel like I didn't matter. Like my life, my memories and my grief were meaningless. And I can tell you there's no humanity in that. Sweeps like these don't solve homelessness. They deepen it. They take away people's dignity, safety and the little bit of stability they've managed to build. They destroy trust and make it even harder for us to move forward. We are not trash. We are people. People who deserve care, compassion and the chance to rebuild our lives. What we need instead are real solutions more outreach, more [10:48:32 AM] understanding, more patience, and most importantly, affordable housing. We need city officials and community members to come to us, not to clear us out, but to listen. To help us get into safe spaces without tearing apart the only homes we have. So I'm asking no, I'm demanding that we stop treating homelessness like a nuisance, to be swept away, start treating it like the humanitarian crisis it truly is, because until our city chooses compassion over cruelty, this cycle will keep breaking lives and breaking hearts. Thank you. >> Hello everyone. My name is Alfredo Reyes junior. I'm an organizer for vocal Texas. I'm here to speak on what what I have witnessed on the streets for the last few weeks. I've been seeing and talked to people who have lost all their things, all their belongings, medication, etc. Not knowing and not receiving any kind of services or offered any kind of services and how difficult it was not knowing how how I could help them. It broke my heart. [10:49:33 AM] I'm asking city council to stop the sweeps and fund what people actually need, like housing vouchers, shelter beds, storage for people, belongings, services for people and harm reduction. I have been present a few on a few sweeps and have asked if they have given notice. I've asked to talk to the police officers and have interviewed them and talked to them and have it on video, and they have told me that they're there just to uphold the law, that they don't have to give them notice. That's what I was told. And this is not the solution for homelessness, since we have since since save Austin now campaign ban went into effect in 2021, homelessness has skyrocketed. City leaders have been telling austinites that before they clear the camps, they give notices and offer services and housing. And as you will hear from folks today, that's not true. What really happens, it it notices is that the notices [10:50:34 AM] are not consistent, given the sweeps are violence, the sweeps are violent. Police bring in bulldozers and throwing away other belongings. Not just that, but dragging them out of their tents when they're there. We have no they have nowhere to go. Not enough shelter beds where people sleeping in the street sweeps people in a risk and of deportation. When APD runs their names and gives a ticket to for camping. And if the person has an ice hold, there'll be a the ice will be alerted and they'll be detained. >> Thank you for your testimony. >> Good morning, city council. I'm Jen Robichaud speaking on item 24, which is our homeless outreach expansion resolution. It's directing the city manager to develop a plan to prioritize, expand and align street and community outreach operations for individuals experiencing homelessness. I think this is an opportunity to look at the [10:51:36 AM] wisest way to spend our resources. This is an important issue for us to be addressing in the city of Austin. We have a housing first policy, and I'd like to illustrate why I think this is problematic. It's like having a hospitalization first policy for the ill and providing drugs to alleviate symptoms instead of treating the underlying causes. Austin's homelessness is not just because people don't have houses, it's because that there are other factors preventing them from qualifying for housing, staying in their housing, staying sober, holding a job and providing for themselves. With the way that Austin addresses this problem, we're on track to become a welfare state, and I think this is the wrong approach I envision in Austin, where people's mental and physical health are addressed, and so that way they're able to work towards their own goals where individuals are leading their lives instead of relying on the state to provide them with their welfare, to ensure that we spend wisely, and that we are building trust with the community, I'd like to make sure that we are treating the [10:52:36 AM] root causes and not simply finding places for people to live, but making sure that they have the ability to find those places to live on their own and stay in those houses on their own. I want to see us investing in people, not just infrastructure, making sure that these individuals are becoming contributing members of society and that they're no longer stuck in this cycle of relying on others for charity, but that they themselves are able to achieve what they want for themselves in their own lives. Please, let's invest wisely in the root causes and not just the symptoms. Thank you. >> I'm going to call a few more people on item 24. Angel X Paulette Soltani, Scott Johnson. >> Good morning, city council. My name is Kate Graziani. I'm with local Texas as well, and [10:53:38 AM] I'm playing a video with my time. >> What I heard it was supposed to be National Guard, APD and highway patrol. >> Can you patrol? >> Yeah. >> And I can tell that this used to be like a pretty large camp, but I don't see that many people. >> Yeah, a lot of people got up and left, you know, they of course, they, you know, they're threatening to if we don't go for a long term rehab, which probably some of us don't have no problems with drugs at all, you know. But they threaten us with that or or or or jail if we stayed around. So everybody a lot of people packed up and left. Man. >> Yeah. Did they, did they, did they when they came and told y'all that they were going to like possibly come and do this sweep or whatever, did they, like, offer housing or did they. >> Know they didn't offer anything? All they said was that we had 2 to 5 days to get up out of here. Yeah, that was all they told us. >> And and why haven't you left? >> I don't have nowhere to go, I don't have I mean, I don't got nothing. I got a bunch of [10:54:39 AM] my stuff that I have. It's it's all over here and I don't have any other place to put my stuff. I don't have no family that I can go run to and, you know, move in with them, you know? And if I did, I'm pretty sure they have their own problems, but they didn't offer us any kind of assistance or anything. You know, I think at one time they probably said mentioned the marshaling yard, but I might as well go to prison, man. You know, the way they got that set up, man, it looks like junk and all that. But if you really in reality, a lot of these guys, they go scrapping for metal and all that stuff because that's what they do, you know, that's how they make their money. >> Yeah. >> And that's you know, I think it's best it's better that way than going out and breaking into and being a criminal. Yeah. And you know, go out and scrap whatever. It's it's it's an honest living. >> Yeah. >> And you have nine seconds left of your time. >> We'll save the second one for the other item. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yes. >> I'm also going to be playing [10:55:41 AM] a video for my for this item. And I'm Paulette Soltani, co-director of vocal. >> On. All my clothing. Done. >> That's all you. >> Have left. Just what you're wearing, what I'm wearing. That's it, I got this one sleeping bag, one blanket. One pair of shoes and this. And I don't think that's right for them to do that. If they're going to go clean up, you know, they gotta clean up all the trash and everything, not just go in and pick up the tents and all that. Throw them in the trash and leave you. Leave you without nothing. >> Yeah. Did they let you go get your stuff or tell you that you could grab some. >> Things they told me to get with my medicine. Go get your medicine. >> And and we'll just clean. >> Up and we're just going to clean up, but I told you, we're going to clean up around my tent. Well, around my tent, there's no trash because I'm always cleaning up. Well, now that's trash still there. My tent is gone. Everything I own [10:56:42 AM] is gone. >> What would you want other people to know about? About what that's like and where it kind of where you're at now. >> Well, I tell you what it's like, you know, because sometimes we got food, sometimes we don't. We have to go here and go there. And my friends, they go panhandle, you know, and whatever. But like me, I like to help the homeless. And I go around. Getting food, you know, food pantries. And I provide for all of us because I get my disability checked and I get food stamps with my disability check. And my first time, I'll be able to provide for all of us. Yeah, yeah. >> Y'all take care of each other. Yeah, we do, yeah we do. And now it's like you can't because all that stuff got taken away. >> Yeah, all that stuff taken away. But I figure a way how to go around and see if I could get some more clothes. That's [10:57:43 AM] right. My friend went to sleep. They didn't have no blankets and they were freezing. It was freezing cold. >> Yeah. It dropped the temperature dropped a lot. >> Dropped a whole lot. Yeah. >> And. >> Go ahead, sir, please just state your name. >> Good morning everyone. My name is Scott Johnson. I'm here to speak in support of item 24. I care about homelessness at every in every age category. I've focused my energy on the homeless issue. As some of you know, I'm the creator of the city of Austin homeless student assistance fund, and I'm the person that's doing the outreach and marketing among city departments and council offices who can put it in their in their newsletter as well. In speaking to the homeless strategy office recently, this particular item will allow and future efforts to count. If there are some homeless students who are in the community and not in school, and that's helpful. We don't [10:58:44 AM] necessarily have a understanding about that issue. We expect that the vast majority of students who are homeless, experiencing homelessness are part of some family network. That might just be one family member, a parent or not. This is an important issue. And for me, because the TRE, the tax rate election did not succeed and that was going to help fund some of these groups that work on this, that do very important work. I'm looking ahead. And if the budgets don't improve over time with sales tax and property tax, we'll be having to make decisions about what funds we have to support the homeless issue. But from Atmos looking at it from the context of youth homelessness, which is up to 25, and student homelessness, which is up to 18, and we want to think about that as you some of you know, if you are homeless when you're a child or a teenager, it's more likely, [10:59:44 AM] much more likely, that you'll be one when you're an adult. So a strategy that should go without saying is that we need to try to reduce or end adult homelessness, and that starts with trying to address student homelessness. Working with aid, which you do in other school districts to the best of your ability. Thank you very much. >> Continuing with item 24, jd Olson, Jesus Gonzalez, and Savannah Lee. >> Good morning y'all. Thanks so much for having us. My name is Savannah Lee. I'm a resident of district one. And I'm here with equity action testifying neutrally on item 24. This morning when I sat down to write my testimony, I read the item and was struck by the values behind the intention of the item and the values were about to contend with. As we face the sweeps of camps across the city. As you know, the item [11:00:45 AM] states direct the city manager to develop a plan to prioritize, expand, and align the operations of street and community outreach for individuals experiencing homelessness, and should emphasize the importance of vital and mental health care services, connections and housing. The values there show a direct acknowledgment from the city that it wants to prioritize community care and get unhoused people housed. That in steep contrast with the fact that the state has begun to enact sweeps on camps across the city using dps and the Texas National Guard, and that the city then released a memo for its own three week plan to sweep Austin camps. Just doesn't sit right with me. You can't do both, right? You can't use the violent arm of the state to remove people from the only homes they know, while also acknowledging the need there in and a desire to help. Those two things are diametrically opposed. This sort of paradox, in combination with the fact that we are about to have to go through a very difficult values based process in which we decide if we fund that violent arm through a $218 million police contract while [11:01:45 AM] cutting vital services for the unhoused, or if we put our money where our mouths are and actually take care of folks in preventative ways that we know work has left me a little at a loss. So I'm here today to ask you to stand on your values, stand against these sweeps, eliminate tickets and arrests that worsen the lives of our neighbors, and do not allow APD or ice to participate in sweeps. If your stated goal is to help people, the least you can do is not actively harm them. Thank you. >> Thank you. Please state your name. For the record. >> I'm jd. I'm a member of vocal Texas and I'm going to tell you about the sweep that I went through. I've been living outside since covid and I was recently swept out off of montopolis, but it wasn't the first time that I've been through one of these sweeps. I recently learned that the city is supposed to come give notice [11:02:46 AM] and and then put you up in a shelter once they come. The city of Austin and Austin recovery, which I don't know what they're really recovering, came out the first thing in the morning, and I had heard through through the camp that someone was coming to do the sweep. Once they got there, they started telling people to get one bag and to go and go to the van. And by the time I got, they got to me and my wife, there was no room. They threw away all of our clothes, our pictures, ids, birth certificates, you know, my laptop and you know other personal belongings. These things are, you know, these things. I needed to get a job and get myself out of this situation. Some lady from the city of Austin said, because the van was full, that they would call me and my wife back to get us into a shelter. And [11:03:47 AM] as of today, I still waiting for the call. After they left, we had nothing. We just wandered around that night and tried to find a safe spot to sleep. You know. Is so is is this your solution to take everyone's stuff and leave them with nothing on the streets? When you can take the sweet money and put it towards temporary housing, or until long term solutions are figured out? You say you're putting people in housing, but I don't see it. Thank you. >> Good day. My name is Jesus Guadalupe Gonzalez. I am an immigrant American. And my experience I'm working with some mutual aid. And I'm also starting my own nonprofit called my urban echo. And my experience with the sweeps is [11:04:49 AM] they're necessary. I've had some of my friends raped and murdered in some of these camps. Someone used to hide. Someone hid their gun in my tent without my permission. So I understand the necessity for some of these sweeps. My personal experience is. They're not very humane. And I would really like more volunteers to be present at some of these sweeps. Because when I was homeless, I needed someone to help me move my stuff. I needed someone to help me get my stuff to storage. We have infrastructure. We have vacant storage that's full. You know, we need to expand on some of these homeless services where we can store our items and stuff like that, because right now they're all full and they're saturated. Some of these services for the unhoused to help them get into housing are very saturated. And the [11:05:53 AM] wait is, you know, becoming longer. And I feel like we also need to raise the bar for our own house community. I don't think being the codependent on the government is really good for neurological development of the collectives. So I would really like to ask y'all, yeah, invest more in mental health and maybe open a conversation to how can we can have these necessary sweeps in a more humane way where people aren't spending $200 on a tent and losing it because weather is going to be a factor. And when I was homeless, a tent really saved my life. >> Thank you. I have one more remote speaker for 24, Halima foster. >> Hi, my name is Halima foster. I'm with community powered atx. I am born and raised here in Austin and I wanted to speak [11:06:54 AM] the cruelty of these sweeps and ineffectiveness of sweeps, as many of the other speakers have talked about, there is a need for open additional storage. We need to eliminate the tickets and arrest. Why would you put more of a financial burden on people who are already struggling? APD and ice at the sweeps is absolutely unnecessary. And please stop destroying people's belongings. One of the main concerns also I have had is the fact that they are not allowing residents to get access to their medication, their ids to actually grab the important items so that they have to go and look them up again and try and and get these things. This includes life saving medications and putting people's lives in danger. I also wanted to note that when [11:07:55 AM] somebody's id is taken, there's limited to only ten times. I believe it's the social security card. Only ten times in their lifetime are they allowed to actually replace that. So you guys are stopping their ability to get back into society and work again. So if you want to see people actually thrive, please do actually listen to what vocal Texas has requested. They have boots on the ground. They know what is needed. We just need to listen to the people who are already doing the hard work and advocating. Thank you. I appreciate your time. >> Okay, I'm going to move on to item 25. And I have some remote callers there as well. Gabrielle libretti. >> Hi, my name is Gabrielle libretti and I'm with Texas harm reduction alliance and I'm [11:08:56 AM] also a district four resident. I'm calling in today to speak about the intensity and vicious nature of the sweeps that our participants have been experiencing, and have been expressing their concerns about. I understand that we need a solution that benefits the entire community. And when we look at the entire community right now, I'm concerned that we have an approach that is benefiting people who are housed, who are uncomfortable with seeing homeless people on the street and seeing litter, instead of having a solution that really balances the needs of housed and unhoused residents of Austin, Texas. I understand that people are concerned about encampments, but I also know that we are pushing people backwards by constantly sweeping where they are staying. People are returning to their spots with none of their id documents, their their medications missing, [11:09:57 AM] their clothing missing. And these are people already living in clear poverty conditions where replacing your things is absolutely what feels like an insurmountable task at times. We cannot continue to put people in this constant position, especially if the goal is to move people forward and help people get into housing by taking ids, medications, any shreds of stability, we only will do a disservice to this goal of moving people towards housing. We don't have enough shelter as it is. Our shelters are overcrowded and many people don't want to stay in shelters for fear of conflict with other residents. People living in extremely close conditions, like in the marshaling yard, which is an open warehouse where people are stacked up right next to each other. For people with mental health and other trauma traumatic issues, this is not the best condition to stay in. And so many people are choosing not to stay. >> Thank you. >> I urge you to figure out a [11:10:59 AM] solution. >> Lily Hughes. >> Hello. Hello. >> Yes, we can hear you. >> Okay. Hi, my name is lily Hughes. I lead the outreach team at Texas harm reduction alliance that connects with hundreds of our unhoused neighbors. I spent years hearing concerns from people experiencing homelessness and people who are housed. Though these groups often seem at odds, my experience has taught me that most of us want the same things. We all want transparency, safety, and a path forward. We will not achieve these mutual goals. With the current approach the governor and city have implemented, no one's needs are being met. I want to be clear about what is happening on the ground, as the press releases and media reports are not capturing the reality or gravity of the situation, the state is referring to their approach of clearing encampments. But this language does not convey what that actually means for our unhoused neighbors. Those of us who work on the ground with the term sweep, because this process literally sweeps vital [11:11:59 AM] documents, medications, survival gear, sentimental items, and most importantly, people away. I've talked to dozens of people who are woken up by bulldozers, who are woken up by bulldozers and law enforcement. As the sun was coming up, they were not given time to gather their vital documents. They need to obtain housing and employment. In most cases, people were given less than five minutes to gather their belongings and had to watch all of their lives possessions be thrown into a dumpster. This is exceptionally dangerous for people because they are forced to hide deeper in the woods, often near creeks that come with a risk of flash flood in place and in places difficult for outreach workers to find. People I've worked with and loved deeply have died because of the sweeps. I understand that we may have differences in opinion about the solutions for homelessness, but I hope we can agree that the goal is to create pathways for people to move forward. Sustainable change requires solutions that promote empowerment and autonomy. You will likely hear opposing arguments that highlight the small number of people who have experienced a sweep and accepted shelter, but you will not hear about what the conditions of those shelters [11:13:00 AM] are. I implore you to ask yourself why people are choosing unsheltered homelessness over the so-called shelter they are offered. You've seen memos from the city that allude to transparency, but I don't know a single outreach worker that has been invited to ensure the people we work with remain in the continuum of care we've been desperately trying to build. >> Thank you. Tom. >> We can use this moment to work towards a solution. >> Halima foster. >> Hi, thank you for the time. I have to say, every single thing that the last speaker said was absolutely, perfectly and eloquently stated. She nailed it. It is cruel to not allow people to have access to these items. These sweeps are just too all encompassing. They definitely should allow the advocates at the table when these decisions are being made. And also, Kurt Watson, I would like to call you out directly and tell you that it is unacceptable for you to do a [11:14:01 AM] photo op and go to the sweeps and pretend like you're actually concerned when all of the policies that have been set forth are not the case. And please, please stop using the federal government and pressures from the federal government or using them as a scapegoat when you guys have just as cruel of policies allowing the APD to treat people in such inhumane manner is unacceptable. And as I stated before, please start working on having better storage space for them, giving them more time to round up their items when they're having a sweep. And yeah, not taking somebody's id and medication. That seems like some pretty basic human kindness and just common sense. Please do better and also support Vanessa Fuentes amendments that she put [11:15:03 AM] forth on these items. She has been sitting and talking with these folks and listen to the advocates who already know what's happening. Thank you. >> Okay, we have some more in-person speakers on item 25. Let me switch over to that. Eli Cortez, Vincent Valentino, Kate Graziani, Alfredo Reyes junior Jermaine chase. >> Sorry. >> Thank you. Please proceed. >> Thank you. My name is Eli Cortez. I am an organizer of vocal Texas, a resident of district three. I to continue where I left off in the first half. Look, we understand that state law mandates that encampment sweeps happen. We know that our city has to respond, that we have to comply with state law, but we have to [11:16:04 AM] do something different. You've heard from folks that have come forward today, folks who are not getting noticed, folks who are told David who's who's video you watch, who was told that, oh, we're just going to clean up. And then he came back and his tent was gone. We have a we have winter weather coming up that our mutual aid groups, who are the ones bearing the brunt of responding to unhoused folks outside, are preparing for and they don't know where people are because encampment sweeps are scattering folks across the city, making sure that they're deeper in the woods, harder to find, harder to, to get on taxes, a bus line that will take them to Trinity center or sunrise or the next navigation center. The situation that we're in is dire, and state law actually does have leniency in the way that we provide resources for people and the way that our city decides to do an encampment sweep, make sure that people's belongings are protected, give them the time to gather it, bring out storage for them, bring out wagons for them to carry their things like make sure that they like. Ask them what their medications are, [11:17:05 AM] publish the locations and the times that you're going to do sweeps so that people can actually community and service providers can actually respond to them and be there and support, like we have folks here that are ready to, to help our neighbors. And we just can't continue doing this loop where we're throwing people's items away. Prop Q failed. We're facing a big question Marc as to what kind of services supports we're going to have next year. We don't know if we're going to have emergency housing vouchers or if we're going to have additional shelters, shelters to continue to do these encampment sweeps in the way that they're happening. And setting people further and further back is is cruel, and it's just setting our city back. So we have to have conversations about how we move forward, and we're ready to do that together. >> Let me view the video. >> Hi, Vincent Valentino again. I'm going to read a poem that I actually wrote recently in regards to all of this. It is called the city sweeps us away. [11:18:07 AM] They come at dawn when the world still pretends to sleep. Bright vests, cold hands, their sharp, their voices sharp as winter. They call it cleaning up. As if human struggle, struggle were litter. As if our hope were debris clogging the arteries of their streets. I stand in the chill, watching my life piled into trash bags, the blanket that once smelled faintly of rain, the few letters I'd kept to remind me I mattered. A half broken dream folded into the dirt. They say you can't stay here. I want to ask where can I? They don't see what it costs me to start again. To rebuild. To rebuild from what little the wind leaves behind. To chase sleep without the comfort of permanence. Every time they sweep. They're not cleaning space. They're clearing people. And with every sweep, I lose more of myself. How am I to find stability when the ground itself is? Never mind. To stand on when progress means carrying every fragile step in my own trembling hands. Only for the city to come and take that path away again. I am not dirt beneath their broom. I am the breath that still fogs in the cold morning air, the pulse that refuses to still [11:19:07 AM] beneath their indifference. But some nights when the wind howls through my new nowhere. I wonder how much more I can rebuild. Before even hope gives up its shelter. >> Thank you. >> I'm gonna play the video. I'm gonna play the video, and then you go. >> I'm gonna play my second video. Kate Graziano with vocal Texas. >> Thank you and colleagues on this item for your awareness. The city clerk has informed me that a video for this item contains language that some listeners may find objectionable. >> Okay. So. >> Carl Diaz. >> Can you say it again? >> C a R L D I Z. >> Diaz man. So what happened just now? >> Keep this out of the of our camp. And we've been kicked out six times the last three years. >> No. Did they did they when they doing the sweeps just now. Right. They literally doing it right now. Yes. Did they offer you any kind of housing or [11:20:09 AM] anything? >> No. Every time we asked them where we go it ain't no problem. >> So they said it's not their problem once they said, and so I see you got your dog here. That's all. You were able to get. >> That in our clothes did they. They took two, two buggies full of stuff from us. >> Two baskets full of stuff. I saw it over. >> There laughing, taking it away. >> Yeah. They're laughing as they're taking away. >> Taking it away. >>, That's so. I'm sorry that happened to you, man. Is there? Did they. Did they happen to take anything of value or what? Like what were some of the things that you had? >> Just her clothes or stuff that we had like that. But you know it. Anything. We had our our baskets, you know. Yeah. They said you take whatever you can carry, you get to go, man. >> And they didn't give you nowhere to go. They just said move, >> Move there. Warning. >> Was there anything posted like no trespassing or anything like that? >> None of that. >> So and you guys are just in the woods. >> In the woods. >> Go somewhere else because you guys are doing their job. They're doing their job? >> Yeah. We're just making sure that they're following city ordinances. >> They're doing their job. >> But you don't know if [11:21:10 AM] they're doing anything. >> They're doing their job. >> But you don't know if it was posted or. >> They're doing their job. However it is, they're doing their job. >> But let me ask you a question. I mean to be rude, but your job as an officer is to enforce the policies and the rules. Correct? So if there's no rules and policies there said that you're supposed to post something up in three given three days notice. >> Yeah. Or they're doing their job. >> Hello everyone. My name is Alfredo Reyes, organizer for vocal Texas. Those videos you saw, I was there when that happened. We were basically told that they don't have to follow any policies, and from my understanding, they were supposed to give people a warning at least. Then another kind of come out and take take their belongings. And like I told them, they were saying they were there to enforce the law. I thought the laws were following policies that were made by city council members. It saddens me that I have to witness this and not just that, [11:22:11 AM] but I been swept myself. When I was homeless. They took all my belongings. You know how long it took me to get my excuse, my language, my, my my birth certificate from Puerto Rico a year. It took a long time for me to get myself back to where I'm at right now. I was lucky that Texas gave me a part time opportunity to work with them and be able to be here to speak up for people who can't speak up. It's a shame that we're sitting here talking about sweeping people's stuff where they have nowhere else to go. I actually witnessed somebody who was actually there. They gave him two minutes, and they were trying to get as many things as they could, because they had just the medications and everything else, and they were just dragged out of the tent with them being in it. That's the picture I'm trying to paint to you guys. It sucks that I have to witness this, and me [11:23:12 AM] feeling helpless and not being able to help them, and a little bit of help that we were getting. For example, we would go to perks when we're homeless trying to get help. Ems was there connecting us with people in places. That's like the prop Q did not go through. So I'm like, Jesus, what can I help? Are we going to get there is no help. Shelters are full. We're not building new shelters. We're not making we're not doing anything. >> Continue with item 25, angel X Paulette Soltani, Jesus Gonzalez, jd Olson, Savannah Lee. >> I think angel is not here, so I'll I'll go ahead. And my name is Paulette Soltani. I'm one of the co-directors of vocal Texas. I had something planned to say, and I will be honest, that I've seen these [11:24:12 AM] videos and I've heard the stories that our team has brought into our team meetings. And every day that they're on outreach, they're hearing these stories and watching this again and hearing jd and hearing Vincent's stories. I hope that those stories are weighing as heavily on you as they are on me. They are courageous for for trying to stand up and share their stories when so much of what the city has said and what our media is reporting on is actually the opposite of what's happening in people's lives on the streets right now. So I want to I do want to say that we registered neutral on these items. Vocal Texas did. But we do support efforts to reduce harm, the harm of these sweeps. The number one way, though, to do that is by investing in housing and services and in care. And so I wanted to talk to you today after the election. Prop Q has failed. What are we going to do as a city moving forward? We have some tough [11:25:13 AM] choices to make, but we cannot walk away from the commitments that this council has said over and over again that they're going to invest in these things. Because sweeps, as you've heard over and over today, are not the way to solve this problem. They're just not the way we have to invest in more housing, more permanent supportive housing, more housing vouchers, more shelter, more storage so people's belongings don't end up in dumpsters. There are so many ways that our city has to move forward that are not sweeps. And that's what we're asking you today. We're asking you to find money. As we talk about opening up the city budget, look inside the coffers of APD the first place, because we've poured so much money into APD, can we find some money there to put into the things that are actually public safety? Please help us find money for the things that will actually solve homelessness. Thank you. >> Good day. My name is Jesus [11:26:15 AM] Guadalupe Gonzalez and my alias is Denver. I've been homeless in multiple states, and one of the states I've been homeless is Colorado. I lived in Denver for two years and the weather almost killed me. So I committed a crime and I went to jail. And that is the fact that a lot of these individuals live on the streets, have to live with. I believe we need to look at what Denver is doing with their city sanctioned campsites. They have three. We have one. I interviewed one of these individuals at one of these city center campsite, and he told me for 50 individuals, it cost him $250,000, and that will get them off the streets. And in weatherproof tents. I believe saint Francis organization is the managing organization over these city sanctioned campsites in Denver, Colorado. And they have really helped the, I guess, the [11:27:16 AM] unhoused community up there. Austin. Whether it's changing, you know, weather matters now and we need well, all the services are saturated. A lot of individuals are not going to make it to the warming centers. And we need and we have like a culture where we don't want to help individuals shelter in place and really take care of themselves. They want one of the issues I've been having with, because I do a lot of camp support, I go to these campsites and I pass out, you know, wood, propane and stuff like that. But a lot of the city are kind of like, they don't like it when I do that. So I would like to know if open up, maybe some documentation to where it'll be a little bit easier for individuals to shelter in place, and maybe open up conversations for more city sanctioned camping sites like they have over there in Denver, Colorado, who have really helped. [11:28:20 AM] >> We do have one more remote speaker for item 25, Francis Russell. >> And I'd like to just use the remainder of my time to read a quote from somebody who I talked to this past Sunday about his experience with the sweep. He said that they swept and APD tried to take him to jail. After the recent cold snap. They took an eight man tent, tarps, scooters, cowboy hats, a suitcase. He had new shoes, a guitar, a book he was using to relax his medications, an electric bike, his id and social security card, his watch hand washing machine for his clothes, a bag of tools, two pairs of ray-bans that were given to him by one of his friends who had passed away, $800 in cash, and some things that he was going to sell to try and make ends meet. They [11:29:20 AM] also took up his coat that he's had because he's anemic for five years. His winter coveralls, propane heaters and a propane stove, a quilt comforter, and a fluffy blanket. So just reiterating what a lot of other people here have said, a lot of these things that people have at camps are not just trash, right? It's things that help them make money, things that help them survive the weather and stay warm at night. So yeah. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to item 26, we have bill bunch. Then item 43, Carol Baxter, Adam de Leon. Paul sedona. >> Your name has been called. Please make your way to the front. [11:30:24 AM] >> Good morning, bill bunch, executive director, save our springs alliance from district five. I'm here to speak on this proposal to waive a $140 fee from the parks department to benefit Austin parks foundation for a screening of a film in district five, garrison park. The backup doesn't tell us what the film is. I'm going to guess that it's Robert Redford's classic indecent proposal, because that's what this is $140 for Austin parks foundation to claw away from the parks department. This is the organization that is about 80% funded by live nation, ticketmaster, and receives millions and millions of dollars from the acl fest in zilker park, and probably some [11:31:24 AM] cuts from live nation's operations in waller creek park, Waterloo park and this weekend at the food and wine fest on auditorium shores. They their irs filings show that they're sitting on $24 million accumulated funds. And y'all have no money for parks. All of that money is money that should have gone to this city and to part directly, not to the parks foundation. Y'all are saying telling the press you heard the voters. You're committed to transparency. You're committed to fiscal accountability. Y'all need a resolution on your next agenda. Asking demanding that parks foundation give back at least 20 of that $24 million to the parks department immediately. And you can start [11:32:26 AM] with this 140 bucks today. Thank you. >> Good morning. My name is Paul Saldana. I'm here actually as a co-founder and a board member of able. We're here to support Mrs. Dorothy Lopez Barnett, one of the owners of zilker park. Speaking neutral on item 43. Just wanted to point out that I think we've lost the intent of what it is we're trying to do by acknowledging a legacy business. And sadly, you know, we continue to utilize you, utilize you eulogize the loss of iconic small businesses here in Austin, rather than trying to preserve and to save them. The Barnett's, as you'll hear from this morning, have had that contract for over 57 years and for the last 5 or 6 years have only gotten 12 month extensions on their contract. On contrary, there have been other concessions and vendors [11:33:26 AM] who have received contracts administratively for 15 years or 20 years. And I think the item that's before you has become so convoluted. And rather than trying to protect these iconic small businesses, we're sort of now sidetracking and focusing on these pomas and nonprofits and other special interest groups. I think the main point of contention here is there's a lack of trust with their leadership at part at parks, there's been a revolving door with whoever leads that department. And right now, the way this recommendation reads is that your park director has sole authority. It's no secret there's been a revolving door. You have these previous directors coming to serve now as the director of parks and recreation or assistant director, or some of these park directors have gone now and become leaders in these organizations. And so that really is the bottom line here is there's a lack of trust because of this ongoing [11:34:27 AM] turnover. And I think it's important to remind everybody that zilker park belongs to everybody. It doesn't belong to one district or two. It belongs to all of us. So I hope you'll take that into consideration today. Thank you very much. >> I'm going to call some more speakers for item 43, bill bunch. Doug. Simmer. Doug, are you here? You have time donated by Aubrey rudder. Aubrey, are you here? Yeah. Okay. Four minutes for Mr. Simmer and Chris flores. >> Yes. Please proceed. >> Good morning. My name is Carol Baxter, managing director of Austin rowing club. I'm here to speak on item 43. I want to thank the city of Austin and the parks and recreation department for being such valued partners for so many years. Since 1988, we've been proud to operate on lady bird lake through our long standing concession agreement with the city. For nearly four decades, we've worked hard, hand in hand with the parks department, to make the space welcoming, active and accessible to all [11:35:28 AM] austinites. We respectfully ask that the council consider including nonprofits like ours in the legacy designation process. We have proven over decades our dedication to the city of Austin, to equity access, and to the long term care of parkland and waterways. Our mission to make rowing, paddling and access to the lake available to everyone. Every year we engage thousands of residents through youth programs, school partnerships, veteran initiatives, and community outreach. We've taught students from martin and Murchison middle schools, programs from UT and saint Edwards, worked with adaptive athletes and veterans, and helped keep lady bird lake clean through ongoing stewardship efforts. We're proud to be based in district nine, but our outreach extends far beyond downtown. We have austinites across all ten districts where active members and participants in all of our programs. 49 members from district one, 24 in district two, 83 in district three, 28 in district four, 70 in district five, 40 in district [11:36:29 AM] six, 39 in district seven, 88, in district eight, 137 in district nine, and 90 in district ten. In addition to our community impact, we also contribute financially. In fiscal year 2025 alone, we returned over 277,000 in revenue to the city of Austin. We believe Austin rowing club combines public access, community environmental care and financial return to the city, which embodies what a legacy designation represents. Thank you for your time and continued support of partners who make Austin parks and Lakes thrive. Thank you. >> Please proceed. >> Hi. Good morning, council members. My name is Doug simmer. The officer rowing club was established more than 40 years ago as a nonprofit. We supported over 350 members. Now we stored boats in these disparate locations. Member's backyard, the duplex warehouse beside the station building, deep eddy pool, ymca property, [11:37:33 AM] the youth hostel where we built a floor over the indoor pool. Our current boathouse has worked out well. Thanks, Austin. Arc has really been a part of the fabric of this city. We've assisted in the creation of the UT men's and women's crews. The arcs reputation grew, having spawned other clubs in Waco, Dallas, Houston, galveston, College Station, and even club in Colorado, and of course, the Texas rowing center. We've created the Austin office sprints. Remember aqua fest, recall the Texas Escott. I can't say it. Sesquicentennial parade also celebrated 150 year anniversary. We dressed in period costumes and carried a four person boat down congress avenue. We hosted a learn to row experience for some members of the Texas house, including the legendary gib Lewis, who also, of course, wanted to be in the stroke seat. I guess the hypnotic feeling rowing can provide. Drew noted physicist to our club in the likes of Bryce Dewitt and Neil Degrasse [11:38:34 AM] Tyson, likely gave them time to contemplate the quantum universe. Austin club has been hosting at least 2 or 3 regattas every year for many years, bringing crews from all over the us to enjoy our perfect rowing location. Many other good things come out of Austin. Rowing clubs reach outreach programs we've worked with. As as previously mentioned, our juniors program is very popular and some of these members go on to rowing. College. Arcus partners with local organizations such as the east town lake citizen neighborhood association for events such as the spring fitness festival and outdoor health and wellness festival. We host member the folks at Mcbeth using our barges to take out their members. We participated, excuse me, participated in the warrior games in San Antonio several times in the form of an regatta whereby veterans can see who can pull 1000m faster than the [11:39:35 AM] other. It has been said that rowing is a lifetime sport. I'm evidence of this 44 years and still rowing, I guess. In closing, we would encourage this council to consider us as one of the legacy concessionaires. Even though we be nonprofit. We have shown we are part of Austin's fabric and we're not going away. Come, let us teach you to row. We give classes year round. Thanks for your time and and remember, just say roe. >> Mr. Bunch. >> Yes. Good morning, bill bunch, executive director, save our springs alliance district five, urging you all to postpone this once again and go back to the drawing board. This is a parks policy around concessions that's pushing further the whole process of concessions, new concessions, expanded concessions, renewals on concessions into the back room, not transparent, more [11:40:37 AM] opaqueness. And y'all just are telling the public you're ready for transparency. This is going backward. You're delegating your authority that you need to hold on to, to protect and manage our public park lands, especially our public park lands around lady bird lake. We have some excellent concessions that function well and serve the community well, but we also have a city charter that binds your action. And that charter says exactly, you cannot sell, lease or otherwise alienate public parkland without voter approval. Taking it to the voters. You have a policy before you that says permanent concessions policy, legacy concessions policy. Nobody has a right, permanent legacy or even long term to operate, make [11:41:38 AM] money, hide how much they're making on our public park land and not have that violate the city charter and violate what all of y'all are saying is you care about financial accountability. This has waste and money exported from our parks written all over it, not money brought to the table to help our parks. Stop it right now, please. >> Thank you. >> After the next speaker, robin rather, Larissa Huffman, Bobby Levinsky. >> Good morning, city council. My name is Chris flores. I live in district ten. I'm speaking on item number 43. I'm asking you to please vote no. And do not invite a rewrite or a rereview of it. The parks [11:42:38 AM] director, Aguirre, did not present the redline document to the board that reviewed this thing. We didn't see it until it appeared before your eyes. It appears on the surface as a simple legacy concession item, but on closer examination, it takes the public say out of concession business, disregards park master plans, and excuses park staff from taking gifts from concessionaires if it's done unknowingly. In a nutshell, it silences the people from having a say on how our park land is rented, and it's a huge power grab by an unelected city official to do as he pleases at his discretion. With our park land, please view the failure of proposition Q as a demand from the people to not be pushed out of the governance process. As a parks watchdog, I can assure you the collective citizenry know what is best for [11:43:38 AM] our parks, not the parks director. He works for us. Please remind him of this and vote no thank you. >> Good morning, council and city manager. My name is robin. Rather, I live in d9. I'm not speaking for any group, although I'm a member of many groups that would agree with what I'm going to say. I'm asking you to vote no. I complete no on this item because it's the epitome. This item is the very epitome of why so many people voted no on prop Q, because they feel you do wasteful spending and they feel they can't trust you because of it. This is the deal we've already asked and actually been promised an audit on these very issues. Pa director Aguirre has sat on it or killed it. Can't [11:44:38 AM] tell which it is. This is the place to start. If you want to audit ineffective, inefficient policies. What this is supposed to be is something good for an iconic small business, hispanic owned, that's been in zilker park forever, literally since the 60s. What it's become is a convoluted policy statement that does nothing but advantage very affluent nonprofits who have been questionable. Their policies and their practices and their financials are questionable. It kills me to sit here and listen to my colleagues in vocal Texas talk about sweeps. When you're letting these nonprofits sit, sit on millions of dollars while our parks are falling apart in our whole budgets in a deficit, please pull this item, clean up these nonprofit arrangements that are not benefiting the city. If these are good deals, have the transparency and show us the [11:45:40 AM] gives and the gets. We've been asking that for a long time. Y'all have just been ignoring it. We want to come back strong from the prop Q vote. We want to pull back together and solve our problems. This right here is the place to start audit this thing right now. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, mayor and council. This our mayor pro tem and council Bobby Lipinski with save our springs alliance. I am going to agree a lot with what Mr. Sedona said. I think he hit the nail on the head that there's an underlying issue here with who's making the decisions and how these decisions are being made. There's also an issue of this policy really collapsing a bunch of questions into one document that really need to be separate conversations. That first question would be how much commercialization of the parks is acceptable? There's a new era of concessions in the parks, based partially on the state limits on the general fund, but it comes with the questions of how much [11:46:41 AM] environmental impacts these concessions will have, and how much space we're going to be retaining for just tranquil space for people to enjoy the parks. The next question becomes who is making the decisions over such commercialization? When you hand the decision over to third parties, you inherently introduce a predetermination that park space must generate revenue, and all businesses have that basic model that they must generate generate revenue to survive. Then you have the question of who benefits from that revenue. If concessions are managed by the city, that question is clear. All revenue would go back to the people in the general fund to be guided by you as the elected representatives. But when you have nonprofits sharing that revenue, by the inherent nature of it, it is ultimately accountable to the board of directors of those nonprofits and to their donors, which I think is kind of an understated aspect of nonprofits, unelected parties. They're all unelected parties, which let's which we [11:47:42 AM] should be candid that those donors are wealthier and they tend to have more access than a typical resident would have. And approaching their council members. The legacy issue is also, you know, kind of unrelated and should be part of a different conversation, as Mr. Bunch stated that, you know, the real issue is how do we have fair and equitable processes? And if you're locking in people, you're not having a fair and equitable process. >> For item 43, I have Dorothy Lopez Barnett and Laura Massengale. Laura, are you here? Yes. Is Adam de Leon here? Adam has donated time to Laura, so it'll be a total of four minutes. >> And you can sit there and I have a I have a powerpoint that should go with the digital. Get my powerpoint. I'm going to go first. Yes, I'm going to go first. And then I want you to click through the powerpoint. The clicker. Oh wait a minute. >> Please proceed. State your [11:48:43 AM] name for the record and which item you're speaking on. >> Hi, my name is Laura Massengale and I'm speaking on item number 43. We're waiting for the powerpoint to be loaded. There it is. Okay. She's going to click through the powerpoint. Do you know how to click through it? Which one is the clicker I don't know. This one right here okay okay. Try it. Give it a try. All right okay. Does that work. Are you clicking okay. Good. She's clicking okay. So I really appreciate everyone's work on this item. I would like to give you a presentation as to why we have been given the legacy business award from preservation Austin last year and the iconic family business award from the Austin business journal. Interestingly enough, I gave this presentation to the tourism commission five years ago when Mike kennerty was on the board and was just forming zilker. 351 as you can see, we [11:49:46 AM] are an integral part of zilker park. And and like we are the live music capital, we are also defined by our bronin culture. I also want to thank council member Ellis for meeting with us a couple of weeks ago. In offering your support and telling my 80 year old mother that you would sign a proclamation for our business. I hope that's still on the table. So. If people are concerned about backdoor deals, you are not alone. We have been subjected to the delay in our contract by someone working behind the scenes at or with Pritchard to influence the delay in our contract, one year at a time, for six years. Try running a business one year at a time for six years. Because of this, my ask for you today is to strongly consider changing the language of the [11:50:48 AM] new policies being put forth by the director and ask yourself, if you had a historical business, would you be comfortable handing over sole authority to the third person to hold the director position in two years? Who's going to have that job next, at his sole discretion, is peppered throughout the new policies and managed by part or assignee is so ambiguous. We take exception to that language and respectfully ask for those changes to be made or removed before passing, and protect us from more years of delay. If you pass it without these changes, we will take it to mean you don't see an issue with the language and it will not negatively affect our business going forward. Thank you for your time and consideration, and I invite you to look at all of these art inspired drawings. That we've collected over the years, [11:51:51 AM] reflecting how we have really influenced the culture of Austin. There's not a picture advertisement that you can find that does not have a picture of our boats on Barton creek. All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Clerk do we have any more speakers on this item? [11:52:51 AM] >> Yes. >> Dorothy. >> Yes. Dorothy Lopez Barnett, thank you for your service, service to the city of Austin and to all of its citizens, not just a few, but all of us. I was really touched by the all the people that spoke about homelessness and being on the streets and just would like to say, in the 1950s, as a young child, I was homeless and on the street, and now I'm not, you know, and so you can get off the street if you have the opportunity. And please consider today that we are not protesters. We're not here to harangue you or anything, but we are protective protectors of our place in Austin and our family are considered ourselves protectors of zilker park. And as you know, I represent zilker park. Butts we started with [11:53:53 AM] nine canoes and now have over 200 watercraft. This is our family business, owned and operated for over 57 years. As you've heard today, we were the first boating concession on what was then town lake and now three generations of our family have worked there or do work there, and we are the smallest boating concession and have the smallest footprint. My ask today is as you carefully consider that what the word sole authority means in item 43. If in trying to create a one size fits all rule, sole authority could be a heavy hammer if used by the wrong person, I ask that the language that supports the check and balance system be used with more authority to city manager or council. Words matter. I've been on boards at the city, state and national level, and I've taught writing and critical thinking skills at ACC for almost 25 years. We are a [11:54:58 AM] destination in Austin. We are old. Austin. >> Thank you for your testimony. >> Mayor pro tem, that concludes our speakers for consent. >> Thank you. Just making sure. Has anyone's name been called that has not had the opportunity to speak on an item? Okay. Seeing none colleagues, we are back at the consideration for the consent agenda. We will be, which is the consent agenda. As it stands is items one through 27 and item 43 will be pulling item number 24. This is the homelessness strategies outreach. There is an amendment that is being brought forward by councilmember duchen that we will need to consider. And I believe some questions for staff. So the consent agenda as it stands is items number one through 27, with item 24 being pulled as well as item 43. Can I have a motion? Yes. Councilmember qadri seconded by councilmember harper-madison. [11:55:59 AM] Are there any members who wish to be shown voting no on any of the items before we move into consent remarks? Yes, councilmember Velazquez. >> I'll be voting no on 43. >> Okay, okay. >> Can the record show councilmember Velasquez, altar, and Fuentes voting no on item 43? >> And mayor pro tem would like to abstain on 43? >> Very good. Councilmember Siegel abstaining on item 43. All right. We have a motion and a second on the table. Are there any remarks that colleagues would like to provide on the consent agenda? Councilmember Siegel. >> Thank you. Mayor pro tem, I want to speak briefly to item 43, which we heard a little bit about from some of the public speakers. This is an item related to compliance with our residential housing development guidelines, also known as Roda. And I would say big picture. This is a resolution that's focused on affordability in [11:57:01 AM] city finance, property and really delivering on the promise of the housing bonds that our voters have approved. I really want to acknowledge that city council, especially longer serving members like councilwoman harper-madison and councilwoman Ellis, have really led Austin to build thousands of units of affordable housing in recent years, and many of these units are deeply affordable. And I really want to praise housing department staff as well for for carrying that forward. The rotor program serves people who are earning 50% or less of the area median income. But in addition to building these thousands of units of housing, we've also promised the people of Austin and tenants in particular, that we're going to take care of them with these city financed properties. And that's one area where we need basically more support for staff to make sure that borrowers from city funds are complying with our policies. And so, item 23, together with item 21, it's a cohort of us council members, qadri, altar, Velasquez and Fuentes. We're [11:58:02 AM] making sure we're getting results out of existing city funded properties and also making updates to protect housing applicants moving forward, really to make sure that austinites who earn less than 50% of area median income can live in city funded properties and are protected while they're there. The key here is the lease. Addendum. You heard some testimony about this. This is the mechanism how we take care of tenants above and beyond the minimums of Texas law. We make sure that people are not evicted without cause. We make sure that tenants can organize. We make sure that dangerous conditions are addressed. And so this ifc will support staff as they develop a more effective way to ensure that every tenant in a property has a lease. Addendum. Also, it will create a compliance plan for the city. It will involve stakeholders and it will also have a testing strategy. We're calling it secret shopper to make sure that borrowers are really following through on what they've promised to do. So I want to thank the tenant advocacy organizations that identified the issues that led to these two resolutions to affordable housing developers and city staff who helped craft [11:59:03 AM] the policy, and particularly council staff including Carla Simon and Melissa Beeler, who got us to this final project. These two items that incorporate all the stakeholder feedback. So thank you, colleagues, and I hope you'll support this item. >> We have councilmember qadri. Then councilmember harper- madison. >> Thank you. Mayor pro tem, I'm honored. I'm going to make quick comments about item 21. I'm honored to bring forward item 21, which reaffirms our commitment to building an equitable, inclusive Austin, a city where everyone can access housing they can afford. Our city has been working hard, investing in affordable rental housing through the rental housing development assistance, better known as Roda, acquiring land, rehabilitating properties and constructing new units. We know the housing landscape is changing. Federal protections are uncertain in recent state actions like senate bill 38 will speed up evictions, making local protections even more urgent. Our renters deserve to know we have their backs. That's why this resolution outlines a process to update the Roda program guidelines by summer 2026, which will include [12:00:04 PM] exploring stronger tenant protections to prevent eviction, to guard against rent hikes, applicant protections including for people experiencing homelessness, improved screening criteria for know your rights info, and streamlined administration of the program so we can keep these developments viable and sustainable. Importantly, the city will engage stakeholders including tenants, developers, property managers and advocates to shape these updates. This engagement can also help us learn about other funding needs beyond capital housing dollars to support our affordable housing community as they face their own challenges in changing housing markets. This resolution helps ensure that our affordable housing investments not only produce units, but also protect the people living in them and ensure our community can access them, especially those who may be experiencing homelessness. And I'd also like to thank everyone who was a part of this whole journey in this process. Everyone from our professional housing staff under recommendations. I want to thank my co-sponsors, mayor pro tem Fuentes, council members [12:01:05 PM] Siegel altar, and the Jose Velasquez. I want to thank give all the love to Melissa Beeler for my staff on her work on this item. I know that's something that councilmember Siegel had mentioned and some of the speakers. And then I want to mention the folks who came and testified from Costa and vocal tx. You know, I think the work that these groups do often goes under the radar. But but it's so important and it's a it's a work of love for city and community. So so thank you all. >> Thank you. Councilmember harper- madison followed by councilmember alter. >> Thank you I appreciate it. Councilmember Velasquez, you're gonna have to forgive me for having a little bit of jelly in my belly. The the councilmember Velasquez I'm haydn. Hi, everybody. I wanted to take an opportunity real quick to highlight a few items on this consent agenda as well. I'm going to start with item number five. This one's about workforce. It basically is allowing us the opportunity to kind of double down. Excuse me. On our workforce training [12:02:07 PM] commitments and something I wanted to add there. So along the lines of this one, this is specifically around infrastructure academy and our future infrastructure needs. But when I think about our workforce, I often think about how while these are critical positions and, you know, we foresee and anticipate the need for them, with all the major critical infrastructure projects coming up, I think we missed some opportunities around workforce. For example, did you know that hair braiders don't require licensure? But there's probably a hundred gals braiding hair in our income restricted housing developments around town right now. So that's a workforce development opportunity. Barbering. That's a workforce development opportunity. There are four six figure jobs on the job board right now for local organizations that train and deploy people for private residential service. A laundress, $126,000, a butler [12:03:12 PM] $192,000. A valet, private chef, etc. And in doing just a little bit of research, I determined that every single calendar year there are at least 42% short for eligible candidates because nobody's training folks for private residential service. When's the last time you ironed a linen napkin? There are skills that we lost along the way that we no longer possess, but families with affluence and the opportunity to offer real gainful employment, long term, gainful employment with great benefits. We're not taking the opportunity to train folks for those positions. So just wanted to put it on the radar that as we double and triple quadruple down on our workforce investments, let's recognize that not everybody is going to go into construction as a potential career and really expand on our ability to be innovative around workforce. I district one is going to be the beneficiary of something awesome on this consent agenda to in that colony parks [12:04:14 PM] receiving some funds towards displacement mitigation strategy. This is the biggest investment that the city of Austin is making and displacement mitigation. And I really appreciate this as an opportunity to model for other parts of the city what it looks like to preemptively plan for mitigating displacement. We talk a lot about displacement and gentrification. We don't talk enough about how I mean, gentrification is formulaic. It doesn't just happen. There's literally variables and equation. And then an answer on the other end of it, and the answer on the other end of it is people with lesser means always lose. So mitigating displacement is not is our responsibility. But it has to happen on the front end. We have to preempt displacement. You don't fix it after it's already happened. I'd like to go on to highlight item number. That was item number 11. And then I'd also like to congratulate our new city auditor. And lastly, I'd like [12:05:15 PM] to speak briefly to our interlocal agreement with the with the county around workforce, there's no fiscal impact, but this is another opportunity for us to distinctly recognize how we work in direct conjunction with the county, if for no other reason. We've gotten some calls lately about and this specifically is about landfill stuff, landfill mitigation. Truth of the matter is, the responsible party in this situation is the county, not the city, but too many of our constituents don't recognize that as separate entities. We don't always have the same purview. The parameters under which they operate and which we operate are different. And so recognizing that, you know, while we are separate entities, municipal entities, we do often work together. And this is just another good opportunity for the interlocal agreements that we have in place with Travis county to help benefit our constituents, considering we share them. So thank you, mayor [12:06:15 PM] pro tem, I appreciate the opportunity to speak. >> Thank you, councilmember alter. >> Thank you very much. I just want to start by thanking all the speakers who came out today, whether it was talking about homelessness or our parks. Really appreciate everybody taking the time. I know it's not always easy to come down here and and do that. I just want to take a quick moment to highlight item 25, brought forward by my colleague here, councilmember Velazquez, really just helping to bring more transparency and hopefully efficacy to our homeless outreach efforts. You know, when I talk to people, especially in district five, they want to understand what exactly is going on, what when they call three one 1 or 9 one one, you know what's happening beyond that. And I think this will help create a little more transparency around that. And so I applaud those efforts and [12:07:18 PM] any efforts really, we can do to bring that kind of transparency, not only within the homeless response system, but throughout the city. So really appreciate that. And then the work by councilmember Siegel and and qadri on, you know, building on some of the work we did around getting rid of junk fees out of rents, you know, too many people will get hit with these fees that they don't even know about until it's too late, or they, you know, they have to pay an application fee. And then all of a sudden they're about to sign their contract. And that's when they realize there are hundreds of dollars in mandatory fees they didn't even know about. And so anything we can do to try to highlight and get that information out earlier to save people money, make them more informed. Shoppers, I think, is really going to benefit our renters and those in the community who are really just trying to make ends meet when it comes to afford their housing. So thank you guys very much for that work. [12:08:19 PM] >> Thank you, councilmember alter. We will now have councilmember Ellis. >> Thank you for the recognition. Mayor pro tem, I wanted to speak briefly on item number 43 and provide a little context and background. In the early days of the pandemic, we found that there were a lot of arts and music programs going on in the city of Austin that needed a lot of assistance. So we got our heads together and created small grants. And out of that conversation came this idea of what is a legacy business for Austin, Texas. How do we support our locals, our mom and pop shops, the people that have been in our community making it better for decades. And so that language caught on, and I think as we see, you know, our community grow and as we see some of the difficulties that folks face and that some of our favorite restaurants and businesses sometimes face closure, that we have to have this conversation about how do we protect our locals and our mom and pops and help make it easier for people to run, especially small businesses in [12:09:20 PM] Austin, Texas. So out of that conversation is where you see that zilker did receive an award from another group saying that they they are a legacy business. They are someone that we see in Austin, Texas that has done the good work through many, many generations. And that's where this conversation around how do we support folks that are helping to protect and maintain our park space, oftentimes with their own dollars? So I was excited to see where this conversation went. I think there's a couple of businesses that will qualify with this language. We don't know quite yet what it's going to mean for how how long some of these small local businesses are going to be able to be in their spaces, but we want to protect and preserve what makes Austin special, especially our our water sports and other sorts of events that happen on the river, like lake cleanups and other things of that sort that make Austin beautiful and keep it special. So I know that there is still going to be a further conversation to this. But we found over the years, especially as you heard from [12:10:21 PM] our speakers today, that doing one year incremental extensions, trying to do the normal rfp process, something that usually only qualifies for a couple of years, makes it very hard for these small businesses to be able to do what they do in our park space. They're publicly accessible. They serve a great community. Good. A lot of people go back again and again and again, and they go for birthdays and they go for special events. And a lot of the businesses in Austin want to come and volunteer with them when they do lake cleanups. And so I'm excited to see this program move forward. It's not the end of the conversation, because we're still going to have to talk about, you know, what is the umbrella of legacy businesses in Austin, Texas, and how can we support the folks that are doing this by rolling up their sleeves, coordinating with their community, and doing what they can to make our city better? So I'm excited to be supporting item number 43 today. >> Thank you, colleagues. On item 43, I will be shown as voting no. And just wanted to make some comments on that. My no vote is on the concerns that [12:11:24 PM] were brought up from the testimony today on the terms and agreements as part of the policies and procedures of the concessions policy in our city parks, and not a reflection of the organizations and the services that are part of that agreement. Okay. Anyone else wishing? Yes. Councilmember duchen. >> Thank you, mayor pro tem. I'm a little shocked. I'm going to highlight item number 19 that nobody has brought up today, which is money owed to the t-c-e-q for work done about 20 years ago. And so for this one, I'm really just to thank city staff for helping us understand this the last two weeks during Q and a and otherwise, and really just trying to minimize our risk going forward to ensure that we're paying reasonable amounts for this incredibly old grant that for it sounds like extenuating circumstances. We'll have sounds like a better process policy for addressing these kinds of issues. And then just to echo a lot of what [12:12:24 PM] councilmember Ellis said on item 43, my understanding is, and I understand we heard a lot of concerns today about pomas. And my understanding is there's going to be some review or other efforts undertaken to better understand how those are operating and give us more insights there, and that we've got to make some decisions about, you know, to the degree that we want to. Well, I'll just say that. That we've got to make sure that we're working with our both the parks department and our directors and our leadership staff, as well as the community. And my sense is that that after visiting on this now three times, this is a pretty good agreement from where I'm sitting. So with that said, thank you, mayor pro tem. >> Thank you colleagues. Councilmember qadri has made the motion on the consent agenda, seconded by councilmember. Yes. Councilmember ravella. >> Sorry, mayor pro tem, just [12:13:25 PM] wanted to comment on item two, which is an interlocal agreement with integral care and other partners to expand the psych psychiatric emergency services available through integral care to go to 24 over seven availability. The. The program essentially is a place where we can take people who are experiencing major mental health crisis, a major psychiatric event, and now it will be open 24 seven. It also expands follow up treatment through a pilot program for about 90 days of treatment. Again, we're slowly kind of putting together a better and more robust mental health care system, and this is just another piece of the puzzle. And again, I'm glad to see it moving through. Thank you very much. It's item number two. >> Thank you. Any further comments? Okay. Councilmember [12:14:27 PM] qadri has made the motion seconded by councilmember harper-madison. This is for the consent agenda. Without objection, the consent agenda is adopted with the noted changes as well as on item number 43. Councilmember Velasquez alter Fuentes voting no, councilmember Siegel abstaining. And with the mayor off the dais now, the consent agenda has been adopted. All right. With that, we are now past our noon public communication. We will now move on to hear public communication. City clerk, please call the names of the speakers listed on the agenda. If you hear your name called, please come down and take a seat. When it is your turn, please state your name for the record. Each speaker will have three minutes to speak. All speakers present have had an opportunity. We'll move forward. Thank you. >> Thank you. Mayor pro tem Ethan Smith. Liam. Liam. Farmer, silver white mountain. >> Also, if you can minimize [12:15:28 PM] conversations, if you can minimize conversations as you're exiting the city hall chamber, please. We are still continuing forward with our meeting and we'll be having public communication. Please refrain from conversations in the chamber. >> I'm going to call those names one more time. Ethan Smith, Liam farmer, silver white mountain, Scott Cobb. >> Please proceed. >> Good afternoon. Did y'all. Y'all should have received a handout from the city clerk for me. Got it. Okay, so I learned that the way your wastewater bill is calculated is that there's a three month period of time, and they average those three months. Some of y'all probably know this already, or probably all y'all, but they want to get an average during [12:16:28 PM] the low period so that it's not skewed by people that water their lawns and things like that. Well, this January, which was during that period, I received a notice from Austin water that I had a continuous water usage, which turned out to be my roommate's toilet was running for two days, and this really skewed my water bill for that month. And because it was during the wastewater averaging period, it was averaged into what was calculated for my water usage for the whole year. So I found this out. I got in touch with Austin water and they gave me a rebate because they said that was an incorrect overcharge. And they also said that other people will call in with the same problem and they'll it's their practice to give those people rebates. So I guess I have two asks, which is for next year because we're nearing the wastewater averaging period, can it be changed so that if the automated system of Austin water flags you for usage above [12:17:29 PM] normal, for that kind of thing, like a running water, that it won't be averaged into your number and Wright. And then the other one is that since you have the data points, since it's an automated system that sent it out to me, that came originally from Austin water saying, hey, you have an abnormal usage, it might be possible to to use that set of emails to determine who has been overcharged this year and also issue a rebate. And it wasn't a tremendous amount for me as an individual, but people might appreciate it. And then so that was my my ask. And then also, council member harper-madison, I heard what you said about the the workforce opportunities and kind of the, the private service industry. And I think it's a great idea. I've worked [12:18:30 PM] for catering companies, and I think you would find a lot of these people. They have like a partial skill set, but that might be a place where the city could come in and and determine, well, these are the folks that, you know, we could help them kind of level up their skill set to get some of these jobs. And overall and I don't know, I've met a lot of people that way because you have temps and you have people that are there part time and, and everybody's kind of trying to get to that next level. So I think that would be a great thing to target. Thanks.that and here I quote corrupted ideologies like transgenderism and antifa are a cancer on our culture and have unleashed their deranged and drugged up foot soldiers on the American people, unquote. I kid you not, laughter would be appropriate at this point. Mr. Paxton then goes on to note that he has, quote, instructed his office to initiate sweeping investigations into radical leftist organizations, unquote. Well, I'm here today to perhaps [12:19:30 PM] save his office some legwork and hopefully some taxpayer dollars as well. My name is Liam Matheson farmer. I'm a software engineer and a screenwriter, and I live in Kyle. I cannot speak to matters of transgenderism as my identity is cisgender, although I doubt even the good folk in the trans community could successfully define such a meaningless, nonsense boogeyman term as transgenderism. But I can authoritatively and vehemently speak to all things antifa. That's because I am a proud and loud member of antifa. In fact, I'm a third generation antifa operative. That's right. My grandfather, David was one of the founding members of antifa. He carried out the antifa mission, also known as the anti-fascist campaign of the allied powers, by serving as a cartographer for the us department of defense during and after World War two. Now, it may have been known as the department of war back then. I'm not certain they keep changing the name. David's daughter, Eleanor, my mother, who left this world on the 4th of July last year, continued furthering the radical anti-fascist agenda throughout her life. At the 1968 [12:20:31 PM] democratic convention in Chicago, she participated in a series of protests that were intimately associated with violence not by the protesters, mind you, but by the Chicago police department, the Illinois state police, and the national Guard, who provoked tear gassed, beat and unjustly arrested numerous victims, my mother among them. How times have changed. Today I openly fly the anti-fascist banner, which, it should be noted, is a star spangled banner. As a committed antifa fanatic, also known as an American patriot. And now that I have admitted my antifa affiliation, I'd like to extend an invitation to any law enforcement officer who might be so inclined. If you feel duty bound to place me under arrest, please do so now. I'll pause to allow any possible attention detention to occur peacefully. But I'm not finished speaking and I do not yield my time. I deeply appreciate that the officers are correctly refusing to obey unlawful orders and declining to violate my civil rights. I [12:21:33 PM] own that I've engaged in some absurd humor today, but I assure everyone that I am not an unserious clown. I think we all know who is, and my point is deadly serious. Thank you. I yield my time. >> Thank you. Counsel. >> Silver white mountain here. My. >> Yeah. There you go. >> Afternoon, counsel. Silver white mountain here. The last time I was here, I mentioned that this time I would be speaking on law enforcement officers who are moonlighting at certain department stores. I've observed a lot of the Leo's. They're usually on their cell phones. Instead of being observant of their surroundings, even though they are there as a deterrent, they should remember the oath that they took. It needs to apply everywhere they are working. I guess when they take an oath to serve and protect, it doesn't apply when they are moonlighting. I am very surprised that they can easily disconnect themselves [12:22:34 PM] from the oath that states to protect the community and serve with integrity. The public doesn't want to be another statistic like the three victims at the target in north Austin that included a four year old little girl. Also, the shooting at the Walmart in el Paso and the one at the shopping center in far south Austin. I was asked to babysit my grandson because the other grandmother was the maternal grandmother was ill for four days Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. And I said, oh look, it worked out in my favor because I don't want my grandson to be another statistic. I was supposed to come on my own, but my son didn't trust me as being a 70 year old grandmother taking care of him over here, driving or so. He had to come along, and that's the end. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> After Scott Cobb, we have [12:23:34 PM] Jim graham, Katy graham, Jennifer Barnes and cassie Clinton. >> If your name has been called, please make your way to the front. >> Hello, my name is Scott Cobb. I work as a lifeguard for the city of Austin. I spoke to you in December with two other lifeguards, two women, about retaliation, sexual harassment and discrimination in parks and recreation aquatics department. In January, someone filed an anonymous complaint saying I'm undermining park management. Later, three management people, as you can see on that document, filed complaints about me in retaliation, city of Austin hired a law firm, treaty oak employers law firm group, for $20,000 to investigate me. They did not investigate the women who spoke to you. Their allegations for months and [12:24:35 PM] months, and one has still not been investigated. If you look at these, this document issue one is totally false. I did not create any Instagram or Facebook accounts. I did not post anything. I did not do anything like that. Issue number two, the current assistant parks director claims I filed an anonymous complaint about her seeking sexual favors from teenage lifeguards. That is absurd. It is delusional. I did not file that. It was anonymous. I have tried to get a copy. Pier has not found it. I don't even know if it actually exists. But you do not retaliate against people who file complaints anonymously or in person. I have filed complaints in person. Not that one. That's bizarre, but retaliating against those people discourages people from [12:25:36 PM] reporting these incidents. I guarantee you, if this investigation that the city is paying $20,000 for takes any action against me, you will find yourself in an executive session discussing the settlement. I do not take this kind of bs. Number three. There's another person also makes a retaliation claim against me. I did not file that claim. I do not know who did it. You cannot retaliate against make these allegations thinking that you know who did something when you're totally wrong. Even if you happen to be right and you get the right person and you're guessing it is anonymous, you do not retaliate. It is against city rules. It is against state law. It is against U.S. Law. Do not retaliate even if the underlying allegations prove to [12:26:39 PM] be true. No retaliation. Thank you very much. >> Thank you for your testimony. >> Please proceed. >> So I do have a visual that I sent to the city clerk. If you can put it up. If not, I'll speak to it. Thank you. My name is Jim graham. I am here to urge the council to act on the planning committee's 2024 recommendation to lower decibel limit from mechanical noise and residential areas from 70db to 45. If you zoom in on the chart, or if you can just look at the chart, you can see that Austin's sound limits in terms of sound energy are much higher than other cities, currently 16 times higher than Houston's, 30 times higher than Dallas's. This is because the decibel scale is an exponential scale, right? So going from 60 to 70 is not a 15 or 16% increase, it's a ten X increase. I have lived at my home in Hyde park for 17 years, and my wife and I [12:27:39 PM] are thankful to have been able to raise our sons there in relative peace for 15 of those years. But about two years ago, a restaurant nearby installed 215 ton hvac units on the roof of their establishment, 12ft across the alley from the back of my home. These units now continuously emit 75 to 80db of noise energy. The backyard of our home sounds like there's a hairdryer going a few feet away, and the noise is continuous and can be heard from every room inside of our house. We have spoken with code enforcement. There is a detailed long story there, but at a high level, the policy by which they enforce the current permissive noise limit is such that it. I don't think it's possible for a roof mounted hvac to actually fail under the current guidelines. Along with ten of our neighbors, we sent a letter to the owner of the restaurant and to the developer of the property, asking them to install a sound reducing barrier around the hvac units. We also offer to [12:28:41 PM] pay for that installation. The response was after some back and forth, basically dsd approved it. As it is, code enforcement is not taking action, so therefore neither should we not their problem. Austin is growing, certainly, and the choices that you make now will affect quality of life for for generations to come. As this council, as your own council has cited, the world health organization has recommended a nighttime noise limit of 40db as a matter of health. It's also been shown that children in noisy environments perform less well on schoolwork than children and than their peers, and in survey after survey, noise comes in as the second or third most important determinant of of urban quality of life after air quality. In conclusion, do we really think that a noise limit in Austin that is 100 times higher than Atlanta's or Denver's, or 300 times higher than Seattle's, is the right answer for Austin? And are you [12:29:44 PM] willing to bet the future of the city on that? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Please proceed with stating your name for. >> The record. >> Good afternoon, council members. My name is Katie graham. I'm familiar with this gentleman, and I've lived in Hyde park within district nine for 17 years. We've loved raising our two boys in such a peaceful, historic and close knit neighborhood. As Jim mentioned recently, a former post office adjacent to my home was repurposed to a commercial development with three restaurants requiring frequent trash collection. I'm here today to ask the city to create an ordinance regulating when commercial dumpsters can be emptied near residential homes several times a week, around 430 in the morning and as early as 4:15 A.M. A commercial dumpster about 30ft from my property line is empty. The noise is thunderous, the sound of the truck and the metal and beeps. It's loud enough to wake up my household and our neighbors. This is not an occasional annoyance. It's recurring disruption that [12:30:44 PM] affects our sleep, health, and quality of life. This is not an isolated issue, one austinite told me. It's always been this way, and my answer is why? Austin's noise ordinance doesn't clearly cover the situation around commercial dumpsters near private property steps away from homes. That leaves austinites without real protection. In a city that values livability and neighborhood character. This is a gaping hole in our city code worth fixing. Many other cities, including Dallas, San Antonio and Houston, already have clear limits around commercial waste collection near residential areas. Typically, pickups can only happen between 7 A.M. And 10 P.M. Which sounds very reasonable. There's no reason Austin can't do the same. I never thought I would say this, but with regard to noise ordinances, please Dallas, my Austin, if you know you know, I'm asking the council to consider a simple, fair approach. Number one set quiet hours, between 10 P.M. And 7 A.M. When [12:31:46 PM] near residential properties two. Define proximity. Apply this to any dumpster within roughly 150ft of a home. Three. Hold both haulers and property counters accountable through fines so enforcement is shared and effective. It's not about stopping businesses from operating, it's just about balancing commercial activity with residents right to peace in their own homes. As we know, Austin is growing quickly and more of us are living near mixed use areas. This will continue to intensify with the recent passage of density. Bonus 90. Let's make sure that growth doesn't come at the cost of livability. A clear ordinance would make a real difference for countless other residents across the city. Facing the same absurd early morning wake ups. Thanks so much for your time and for considering this common Sturrup common sense step toward keeping Austin neighborhoods livable. I'm grateful to each and every one of you for your service. >> Mayor pro tem. >> Yes, councilmember Siegel. >> I just want to respond briefly to the last speaker. Thank you for coming in. Miss [12:32:46 PM] graham, I represent district seven, which not quite your neighborhood, but we've had a lot of calls about this issue, and we've been figuring out how to track down with each dumpster provider, how to get them to change their schedule. But I want to let you know that my office is actually meeting with dsd to look at how we might update our code to address this issue. And I want to invite you to contact my office to work with us on this. >> Fantastic. I appreciate the opportunity. >> Thank you. Thank you. And councilor Siegel. We also have had similar issues in district two with dumpsters being at very early hours in the morning and dumpster pickup. So certainly welcome to support you. Thank you. Yes. Please proceed. >> These are pictures. Thank you. >> Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for your time. My name is cassie Clinton and I am here to respectfully request that the council pause the approval process for the development. Pesch. Bailey at Stacy at 5516 hummingbird Laine. [12:33:49 PM] First. This project was originally presented to you as a multifamily development along a major transport corridor. Stephanie Laine with ingress and egress access through Stacy Laine, and for that reason the project is called Bailey at Stacy. However, after approval, the developer moved the project off that corridor and into the interior of our neighborhood. The developer is now pursuing administrative approval for a single family lot rezoning to push the project further into the neighborhood and further away from the main transportation corridor. Stephanie Laine with this new proposal, the only access point to this 104 unit development with over 250 people, is a narrow, 18 foot wide neighborhood street with no sidewalks, no curbs and no gutters. This was not the plan that city council approved, and it poses serious traffic safety [12:34:50 PM] and accessibility risks to both current residents and future tenants. Second, several neighbors within 500ft of the property were never notified as required by city code. The lack of notification denied residents their legal right to register as interested parties, and prevented them from raising safety and flood risk concerns during the approval process. This was a clear procedural failure and that needs to be amended. For instance, several homes located at 301 west destiny Laine were never notified per the list of addresses the city's the city provided. Finally, the developer has repeatedly neglected a portion of the property that sits in the floodplain. And these are the pictures that I have that I gave, allowing it to accumulate trash and create on site fire. This creates an unacceptable risk and a excuse me, an unacceptable risk and a flood and fire hazard for surrounding [12:35:52 PM] homes. The city should not ignore a project that increases the risk of flood or fire. Several calls have been made to 311, and the property remains in disrepair. For these reasons, I urge the council to review the existing approval process and halt any rezoning administrative approvals until a full reevaluation of the project's site plan, public notification process and flood and erosion impact have been completed. We all support responsible, well-planned housing, but this project, as currently located and managed, does not meet that standard. Thank you for your time and your commitment to keep Austin's growth both safe and fair. I will be around after should you have any further questions. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Hello. >> My name is Jennifer Barnes. I am a longtime area Austin resident. Excuse me, Austin, resident of the two mile Austin, [12:36:54 PM] etj I attend school in Austin at ACC. I'm here to discuss my concerns with the automatic license plate reader, cameras, or Alpers that remain installed across the city despite the decision of this council not to renew its contract with flock safety, the apr vendor that owns and operates these cameras. The council has previously heard in general comments about Guthrie, Oklahoma, a city that ended its flock contract last April but did not immediately remove its cameras. It was discovered months later that the cameras were still recording, and still adding that surveillance data to flock servers. Four days ago, November 3rd, senator Ron wyden and congresswoman rajna krishnamurti sent a letter to FCC ftc chairman Andrew Ferguson calling for an investigation into flock's negligent cybersecurity practices. The letter states, by not requiring industry standard multi-factor authentication or mfa to secure law enforcement accounts, flock has needlessly exposed American [12:37:55 PM] sensitive personal data captured by the company's surveillance cameras to theft by hackers and foreign spies, and unauthorized access through multiple documented instances of unauthorized password sharing. End quote. This means that if a police department does not choose to opt in to mfa, it is easier to share a flock password with their buddy across the country than it is to share your Netflix password with your roommate. In addition, the new site 404 media has reported that flock account credentials have been found for sale in a Russian cybercrime forum, including government users. If you know where to look, you can buy a flock account password and possibly access cameras with expired contracts that remain installed. As a. As the cameras in Austin may possibly still be recording, which there is historical precedent for. This should terrify anyone who has [12:38:56 PM] experience with a stalker. I urge the I urge the city of Austin to remove all alpr cameras in the city. They do not make us safer. They are easily abused and the data collected can be easily compromised. Compromised by motivated individuals with ill intent. As long as these apr cameras remain installed, it is possible for stalkers, abusive partners, and politically motivated bad, bad actors to track the movements of people in Austin. Please uninstall the cameras. Thank you. I yield my time. >> Mayor pro tem. That concludes all speakers. Oh, sorry. Council member. >> No, sorry. Councilmember Siegel I hate to do it twice, but I just want to let the speaker know that my office received confirmation from the Austin police department that 39 out of the 40 cameras have been installed, and there's a plan to to decommission the last one. >> Okay. Excellent. >> Thank you. Great. >> I love when we're able to [12:39:58 PM] provide real time updates. Colleagues, that now concludes public communication. All speakers present have had the opportunity to provide public comment. We will now move into recess. I want to highlight that we still when we reconvene, we will have the Austin housing finance corporation board of directors meeting. We'll also take up item 24, which is the homelessness street outreach item, and we'll consider the non consent items 28 through 34. So we'll come back at 1:45 P.M. That's 1:45 P.M. Without objection, we'll recess and return at 145 to continue our council meeting. I invite everyone to stick around and listen to music from Alex coke Alex coke. Thank you. [12:49:20 PM] >> Honor, to introduce our celebrated local musician today, Mr. Alex coke. So please welcome to the stage a true Austin original, a master of jazz, world music and fearless improvization a native Texan and a member of the Austin jazz hall of fame, Alex coke has spent over five decades pushing musical boundaries across continents and genre. A member and former committee member of the Austin musicians union, Alex coke has been a strong advocate for fair wages for musicians. Alex is also one of the first Austin residents to have a completely solar powered studio here. In 2020 alone, Alex was inducted into the Austin jazz society's hall of fame, awarded the jazz at saint James Eddie Manion award, and nominated for Texas state musician, performing in trio today with Michael Stevens on bass and masumi Jones on drums, and again tonight at the rose [12:50:21 PM] theater on avenue B with the highly acclaimed Alex coke and Carl Mitchell sextet. Mr. Alex coke. >> This is a composition of mine entitled optimism. >> And. [12:57:36 PM] >> I think that was about five minutes. >> That's it went so fast. All right, give it up for Alex coke, Michael Stevens and masumi Jones. So here's where I do the the fun part. The Alex coke day proclamation. Be it known that whereas the city of Austin, Texas is blessed with many creative musicians whose talent extends to virtually every musical genre, and whereas our music scene thrives because Austin audiences support good music produced by legends, our local favorites and newcomers alike. Whereas we are pleased to showcase and support our local artists. Now, therefore, I, Mike Siegel, on behalf of Kirk Watson, mayor of the live music capital, do hereby proclaim November 6th, 2025 as Alex coke day in Austin. All [12:58:42 PM] right. >> All right. Congrats. Thank you very much. Thanks so much for coming in. This is beautiful. >> I love the music. Thank you. You want to see it for you. Oh thank you. In a couple words I'll have a couple. >> Wow. That's kind of a shock to actually be here because I heard it coming up, but just always like just just another gig. But this one's pretty special. And they ask on the thing to have a rule of the day or something that you'd like to impart. So mine was to cultivate your relationship with art and that's nourish your interests. It's like in a garden, you have to feed it. And that can be any. I'm particularly fond of jazz and jazz musicians. Those are some of the most interesting people and wonderful people I know. But, you know, nourish your own interests. And that could be literature, theater, dance, painting, sculpture and nourish your own creativity doing these things. And then go to a concert, go to a museum, go to [12:59:43 PM] a play, go to a dance performance like nourish the artists that are here. Growing up, Austin really helped me prepare to be a professional musician and there were so many places to play. It was super affordable. That was a huge deal, and the amount of places there were to play on a regular basis, we would play. I think one year I had two days off the whole year, and we were playing 2 or 3 gigs a day and and also just the colleagues that you had. I mean, before we had social media, we had to go out and put posters up and you'd go to other people's gigs and tell them where you were playing, and it was much more a fabric of life I find personal in a human kind of way, more than having to learn how to do, you know, all the things we're having to do as musicians nowadays. It was it's amazing when you can be a full time musician and you can have other [1:00:44 PM] friends that are full time musicians. That's a really special thing and there were a lot more of us. It seems like I know there's younger people that are doing it and they find their own way and just even we weren't always we'd be out putting up posters or and we wouldn't always see all jazz musicians, we'd see musicians, all kind of musicians. But everybody kind of had this passion. And that passion stoked passion and stoked your inspiration to do these things. So it was really a fabric of Austin, and I really thanked the council and the city for. Suggesting or to be paid for what we do. That's really a huge thing. Also, with the local 433, our musicians union, they've they've done a good job there. I've always lived in different places. I've lived in Washington DC, Boulder, Colorado, Tora del mar, Spain, Paris, France, Amsterdam. And [1:01:46 PM] I've always taken these seeds of Texas music with me. And people recognize Texas and Austin musicians, sometimes surprisingly more so than I would find they would here in our own town, just to go thousands of miles away and hear people talk about Tony Campisi or Tomas Ramirez or, you know, friends that I grew up with. And finally, I think it's really rare that you make make it by yourself. So I mean, all the way along the way. In the old days, I remember going to el arroyo and we had played at some club after hours or something, and the guy said, oh, I heard you last night. Tacos on me. Just a little encouragement, things like that. Your neighbors coming up to you and go, we heard you practicing. Will you leave your window open? Because we really enjoyed listening to what the band was doing, or that's really the fabric of Austin for me, and [1:02:48 PM] the fact that there's music everywhere here in the chambers and in the grocery stores. I don't know, I think that's about it, that, you know, the tune I wrote, optimism. I grew up and some of my favorite music was rahsaan Roland Kirk, John Coltrane, Charles mingus, and they were really music about freedom and civil rights. So it was very optimistic. We really thought we were on a path that was never going to go back. So it seemed appropriate to to be optimistic still and play that tune. I just want to thank every everybody here. I mean, Nikki and and I really just this is kind of your day too. I just wouldn't be here without the encouragement that everybody's constantly seem to be giving me. And and the colleagues, Christopher, I mean, art and and poetry. It's just [1:03:48 PM] it's just amazing place. Thank you all so much. >> That's fine. I'm glad you drew. >> I think that's it. >> You guys [1:47:11 PM] good afternoon, colleagues. It is 1:47 P.M. We are Austin city council meeting is reconvening to resume the meeting of Austin city council colleagues. As mentioned earlier, we will be taking up item item number 24, which is the homelessness street outreach item by councilmember Velazquez. And then we'll go into recess to convene as the Austin housing finance corporation board of directors. From there, we'll take up items that are on the agenda and then go into zoning. So with that, we'll now have before us item 24. We heard speakers earlier today on this item. Can I get a motion? Motion by councilmember Velasquez seconded by councilmember alter. This item is now up for conversation and councilmember Velasquez, I believe you had some questions. Absolutely. >> Thank you. Mayor pro tem, I'd like to call up director [1:48:11 PM] gray, please. How are you today, sir? >> Doing well. How are you? >> I'm doing all right. I saw you jamming in the back over there, so I hope that vibe is still going. And we're not dampening it with any of this. >> No, sir. Not at all. >> So we heard from a number of speakers earlier, and I just wanted to ask just to be able to help draw a distinction between the state and what the state is doing and what we are doing. Can you tell us a little bit more about our city's process around encampment management? >> Yes, sir. Thank you. Councilmember. So David gray, director, Austin homeless strategies and operations. So on November, I'm sorry, on October 20th, our office initiated a three week long encampment management initiative that was geared towards trying to clean up as many encampments and get as many people into shelter or housing in advance of severe weather. So we announced this [1:49:12 PM] initiative on Monday, October 20th. I think the governor's office announced their initiative or the results of their initiatives on Tuesday, October 21st. So we were not aware of the governor's initiative when we launched. We launched ours first. I know there was some comments about how the city tried to follow the state. We did not. We did our thing independent of the state, and we follow our standard process, which is to send out outreach first, engage with people in encampments, offer them service opportunities, give them time to collect their belongings, their vital documents, their keepsakes, and then proceed with cleanup and enforcement if necessary. And if I can, I'm happy to just share some quick stats about the current operation. >> Absolutely. I had one more question on that, though. To your knowledge, and it's not this is not my understanding. So I'm just I want I wanted to make it clear are we are not [1:50:12 PM] calling ice to go with our police officers to encampments, are we? >> No, sir. >> Okay. That that was it. >> Thank you. >> Any question? Just one question that came up. I'm sorry. Oh, yes. Before you get into the data of the outreach that has happened so far, you know, part of the testimony we heard today was the lack of notification that is happening with individuals who are in the encampments. Have you given consideration as to how we might better prepare and notify folks when you will be making those visits? Any thought process on the coordination with our partners, on them, bringing them in to also help coordinate and support? >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you, mayor pro tem. So again, as part of this operation, we've made every effort to go out and notify. I even saw in some of the videos that were shared, people said, you know, they came out three days ago and told us to get our stuff and offered us shelter. And I chose not to leave because I have nowhere else to go. But I think the key piece there is that we were there three days in advance and gave people ample [1:51:13 PM] notification. And then even when we come on site for the cleanup days, we still give people an extra 30 minutes to gather whatever they might not have gathered. But at some point we do have to start the cleanup operation. I do think one of our lessons learned from this experience is being more intentional about engaging other outreach partners. What we've heard in the past is sometimes the outreach partners don't like to be part of the encampment cleanup operations, because they don't like to be associated with any type of enforcement. And so that's part of the reason why we let this as a city initiative. But moving forward, if we do an operation like this again, we most definitely will be engaging our community partners. >> Very good. >> Thank you. Yes, ma'am. >> And your update on outreach. >> Sure. So just kind of quick update and this is totals as of yesterday, we visited 585 sites. We engaged around 950 individuals. Some of those are repeat engagements. We've sheltered 144 people, and I was just notified by my shelter team that we actually topped 150 shelter entries today. We [1:52:15 PM] also connected an additional 76 people to services. So essentially one in every four people who were coming in contact with are either receiving shelter or they're receiving services. By comparison, we've done 21 arrests, which represents 2% of the total population that we've engaged with. And then APD has also issued 64 citations. The citations are part of our strategy around services. These are class C misdemeanors. And so when we issue the citation, that person is then brought to or referred to the Austin community court, which is a non fee based court and also provides homeless services and supportive services. And so we try to leverage the citations as another engagement and service opportunity. But I appreciate being able to share this statistics because I think it's important for you all and the public to know that we do make every effort to provide shelter and services. To date, we have not had to turn away anybody because of a lack of shelter beds. In fact, today we still have 40 shelter beds [1:53:17 PM] available for people who we come in contact with. So we have shelter beds. We've always had shelter beds during this operation. We're bringing people into shelter and we're making the service connection. I truly believe that we are doing encampment management the right way. >> Colleagues, any further questions on this item? Councilmember duchen, you have an amendment that you'd like to lay out? >> I did have a question for Tim, not a question so much as a comment. One of the things that was a takeaway for me that I kept hearing repeatedly and, you know, forgive this, stray away from the direct subject matter here, but I'm helping a friend in Jamaica navigate having lost all their documents during hurricane Melissa, and just hearing people talk about important documents. My purse was stolen in Houston in September. It took me three months to get an appointment at the DMV to get a new license and then the credit card. Just realizing how disruptive it is to lose all of those kinds of documents, just put an asterisk [1:54:17 PM] in my head for what we can do as a municipality moving forward. I know downtown community court offers some storage options and things. They even store medications for folks, which is another really important thing you can't lose if you're your campsite gets cleaned. I don't know what the answer is. I just want to make sure to put as an asterisk, like a point of consideration for us should really be getting people's documents stored somewhere. And I don't know what that looks like. I mean, even just little stuff that we try to do out of the district one office, we bump into a storage issue. Archival storage is a whole thing. But that was the that was my biggest takeaway today was, you know, losing those things can really set people back. >> Yes, ma'am. And that's a big part of the reason why we do our operation the way we do it. We want to make sure people have time to gather all those vital records your ids, your birth certificates, social security cards for our outreach teams. They actually go out [1:55:17 PM] with bags where people need a safe way to store those. Then we make that available and accessible. And then for folks who come into shelter, if they don't have those things already, one of our first orders of business when they come into shelter is to help them get their ids, their birth certificates. You know, the government shut down right now is making it a little bit challenging to get some of the federal documentation, but but we're in the queue and we want to make sure that people have all of the identification documents necessary because you need those documents, number one, just for life, but also for housing opportunities, for job opportunities, you know, things that people need to be able to achieve to truly reach a point of self-sufficiency. But thank you, councilmember. >> Thank you, I appreciate that. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Councilmember duchen. >> Thank you, mayor pro tem, I've got one question for director gray. You mentioned that there are 40 shelter beds available. What do you think is accounting for the dissonance that we're hearing from community members that were [1:56:19 PM] apparently unable to get shelter beds or, or at least testified to that? Versus is there an ebb and flow in the supply and at the at the moment that they needed, we just didn't happen to have any that moment. Can you expand on that? >> Yeah. For everybody who we've engaged with in this operation, if they've wanted a shelter bed, we've been able to provide the shelter. So we have not had a moment during this operation where we haven't been able to get people into shelter the same day. Now, if we engage with somebody later in the day and a shelter intake has wound down, we'll get them into shelter first thing the following morning. But lack of beds has not been an issue for us for this operation. >> Okay. Thank you. Colleagues, I have a an amendment that I want to introduce. And first I just want to say thank you to councilmember Velasquez for offering this ifc. I think it builds an important work that the city has already undertaken, that director gray and his team have undertaken to address this very complicated issue of addressing our unhoused [1:57:20 PM] neighbors. And I think the substance of the instruction in the ifc appears, from my perspective, to be incredibly well-intentioned and very much in line with the strategy that has been outlaid by zo office many times. So hopefully my amendment is also interpreted as well-intentioned. It doesn't affect any substance aspects of the ifc, but there is reference to the 2526 budget and the expansion of funds allocated that was voted on by the council during the budget process. So I'm requesting that based on recent events, that we remove those references from the ifc. And my hope is that just makes whatever we're signing on to factually correct. So I'm going to ask to see if, yes, councilor Velasquez will accept it as a friendly amendment. And I appreciate his support on this, or I appreciate everybody's understanding around the amendment. >> Yes, colleagues, there's a motion on the table seconded by [1:58:20 PM] councilmember Velasquez. Any objection to adopting the amendment by councilmember duchen? Seeing none, it stands amended. We are now back at item 24, as amended. I'll recognize councilmember Velasquez to close. >> Thank you. Thank you, mayor pro tem colleagues, I brought forward items 24 and 25 because every at every corner of this city, I've heard the same call. And that is a need for more compassionate and robust street outreach. You've heard the same message today from many of the advocates. As a city, we're long overdue in meeting that need and the urgency and humanity with the urgency and humanity it deserves. Our office has been working closely with director gray and the homeless strategy office and community members, and these items are about strengthening how we show up. They aim to reduce harms and trauma that too often accompany outreach when housing opportunities or social services aren't available, and when transparency with our community partners is lacking. During encampment management, I'll say this a thousand more times we [1:59:20 PM] cannot lose the humanity in this conversation. We are talking about human beings. We are talking about our neighbors. And they deserve no less compassion or dignity than any other austinites. Thank you to the d3 policy advisor, Mo Koop for all of her hustle and compassion on this item. I am deeply, deeply grateful to our co-sponsors and to the many stakeholders who have worked to shape these items so that they so that those experiencing homelessness and those who serve them every day are truly at the center of our efforts. >> Thank you, councilmember Velasquez. Colleagues, the item 24 is before us, as amended. Any objection to adopting item 24? Seeing none that stands approved with council, with mayor Watson off the dais, we'll now move on to our next item. It is exactly 2 P.M. Without objection, I'll recess the meeting of the city council and convene the Austin housing finance corporation meeting. It is now 2:02 P.M. I call the meeting of the Austin city council back to order. We will now consider the consent agenda items. These are items 28 through 32. These are items from our city council committees. I'll call on the chair of the committee of each committee to lay out each item. So for item 28, I'll recognize chair Velasquez. >> Thank you, mayor pro tem, I [2:02:24 PM] move approval of an ordinance ordinance relating to the appointment of municipal court judges. >> Thank you, chair Velasquez. Is there a second? Seconded by councilmember qadri clerk. Do we have any speakers on item 28? >> There are no speakers. >> Seeing, no speakers. Any discussion on this item? Seeing none. Any objection to approving item 28? Seeing none. Item 28 stands approved with mayor Watson off the dais for item 29. Since the mayor is out, I'll recognize vice chair alter. Can you please lay out the item? >> Yes, I move adoption of item 29, which is the audit finance committees audit plan calendar for 2026. >> Motion by vice chair alter seconded by councilmember Velasquez. Clerk. Any speakers on this item? >> Yes. We have one speaker for 29, bill bunch. >> Bill. Bunch. Okay. I do not see him in the chamber. [2:03:24 PM] >> That was our only speaker. >> All right. The item is before us. Any discussion on item 29? Seeing none. Any objection to passing item 29? >> I would just say this is are going to be our first audit plan without Corey stokes leading the the way. So just wanted to congratulate her on her retirement. And of course we've already congratulated Jason. So we're not going to congratulate you again. >> Congratulations. All right. Item 29 is approved with mayor Watson off the dais. Item number 30, vice chair alter. You're recognized. >> Yes. This is I move adoption of item 30, which is the reappointment of dick Levine to the city of Austin employees retirement system board. >> Very good. Seconded by councilmember Ellis clerk. Do we have any speakers? >> There are no speakers for this item. >> All right. Council, any discussion? Questions? Seeing none. Item 30. Any objection to approving item 30? All right. Item 30 stands approved with [2:04:25 PM] mayor Watson off the dais. We'll now move on to item 31. Vice chair alter. >> Yes, I move for adoption of item 31, which is the reappointment of doctor Michael granoff to the Austin police retirement system board of trustees. >> Very good. Seconded by councilmember qadri city clerk. Do we have any speakers? >> There are no speakers. >> Okay. Any discussion from the dais seeing none. Any objection to passing item 31? All right. Item 31 stands approved with mayor Watson off the dice for item 32, I'll recognize councilmember duchen. >> Thank you, mayor pro tem. I approve a resolution appointing jia LI to the Austin firefighters retirement fund board of trustees. >> Good. Seconded by councilmember qadri colleagues. Any discussion? Questions? Seeing none. Item number 32 stands approved. With mayor Watson off the dais. All right. [2:05:26 PM] Item 34 is a public hearing. Without objection, I will now open the public hearing. City clerk, do we have any speakers on item 34? >> There are no speakers. >> There being no speakers. And without objection, I will now close the public hearing members. Is there a motion to approve item 34? This is a Texas gas service item councilmember Ryan alter makes. The motion is seconded by councilmember harper- madison. Any objection to approving item 34? Councilmember duchen. >> Is it possible? Is anybody from tgs here that we could ask a couple of questions? Is there a representative here? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> See Larry graham in the audience who is making his way to the dais? Colleagues, this is an ordinance, and this will require seven affirmative votes on this item. [2:06:27 PM] >> Good afternoon. Members of the council. I'm Larry graham with Texas gas service, and I'm joined by Judy Hinchey, who's our managing attorney. >> Thank you. I just have a couple of questions I want to run by to make sure I understand and get clarity on this before we proceed. First, my understanding is that tgs has proposed three separate rate increases. This last year. Has this frequency happened before? >> We filed a rate case a year ago? That was. Settled last winter. We filed the annual grip, which is not a rate case, and we filed this rate case. But this rate case was mainly to correct some issues from the previous rate case, and also to consolidate the service areas across the state. >> Okay. One another question [2:07:27 PM] I've got is whether my understanding is the current rate structure you have is different from what we typically see with our water utility and electric utility, where I might characterize a bit more aggressive in terms of perhaps de-emphasizing conservation or focusing on maybe disproportionately impacting lower socioeconomic ratepayers. Would you agree with that characterization, or is that do you see it being more in line with how electric and water are operated? >> Yeah, I this question has come up many times over the years because as you know, you know, the city owns and operates the electric utility and the water utility. So yeah, the rate structure that we have is more of a traditional utility rate structure. So I would say it is different. I disagree with those who say that it dis incentivizes [2:08:28 PM] conservation. For example, the more gas people use the higher the bill is. I will say in this filing that we made with the city in June, right. We included a proposal for a low, a special rate for low income customers. And we did have a proposal for assistance for customers who needed help paying their bills. And again, those I mean, to be quite candid, those proposals we spent a lot of time on, and they are the really the direct result of the feedback we've got from the city, the resource management commission and others. >> Okay. Thank you. It sounds like I need to go do a bit more investigation on those programs. I, I guess along those lines, one of my concerns was it looked like we were whether they're lower or otherwise, higher income residential customers. It looks like we were asking in this proposal, [2:09:30 PM] higher rates from residential versus commercial. And is there a logic you can help me understand behind that? >> Well, I may defer to Judy. And by the way, your council is here to. So just just so you know, on that issue, what happens before every rate case and preparation is a class cost of service study. And we the study is done to determine, for example, what percentage of the cost should the residential customers bear, what percentage of the costs should commercial customers bear industrial customers, etc. And so there's always at a rate case, some reconciliation, right? What happens over time is you may have one class that overpays or one class that underpays. So there probably was a true up based on a very recent class of cost adjustment study. >> Okay. Well that sounds like is that cost? Is that cost of service study available? >> Oh yeah. Sure. Absolutely. >> Okay. Then we'll we'll investigate afterwards. [2:10:31 PM] >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you very much for your help with those questions. Thank you. Chair. >> Councilmember duchen, would you like city staff to comment on this item. >> If they have any input on the nature of either of those questions, that would be fantastic. If they have a moment to do that. >> Is there someone on city staff who's available? >> And come down here? >> For my understanding, staff is recommending approval of the draft ordinance denying the rate case. >> Good afternoon, council Diana Thomas, deputy cfo. You are correct, mayor pro tem. We are recommending denial and we don't have any additional information, but we can get that information for you. Councilmember duchen okay. >> In terms of residential versus commercial, in terms of. How it compares to how we're structuring electric and water here versus some of the comments I made earlier. And then I guess the frequency of [2:11:32 PM] rate increases or proposed rate increases relative to history. Okay. Thank you very much. >> Very good. Thank you. Councilmember colleagues, any further questions or comments on this item? It's been motioned and seconded. Any objection to approving this item? Seeing none. Item 34 stands approved. Mayor Watson, off the dais. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We'll now move on to zoning colleagues. These are items 35 through 42. I will recognize joy Hardin with city staff for presentation on the zoning zoning consent agenda. Welcome. >> Thank you. Mayor pro tem and council. I'm joy harden. With Austin. Planning your zoning agenda begins with item number 35 c14 2025 0078. This item is offered as a staff postponement to your November 20th council [2:12:32 PM] meeting. Item 36 is c1484022 rca. This item is offered as an applicant. Postponement to your December 11th council meeting. Item 37 is c14930047 rca. This item is offered as an applicant. Postponement to your November 20th council meeting. Item 38 is c14 2025 0056. This item is offered as an applicant. Postponement to your December 11th council meeting. Item 39 is c14 2025 0053. This item is offered as a postponement to your November 20th council meeting by council member qadri. Item 40 is F 2025 000008.01. This item is offered for consent second reading only. This item will be returning at your November 20th council meeting for third reading consideration. The rezoning item is item 41 c14 2025 0049. Again, this item is being [2:13:33 PM] offered for consent second reading only and will be returning at your November 20th council meeting for third reading consideration. And lastly, item 42 is c14 2025 0070. This item is offered as an applicant. Postponement to your November 20th council meeting. This concludes the reading of the zoning and neighborhood plan amendment agenda. And as always, this is at your discretion. Thank you. >> Thank you, miss harden. Colleagues, the consent agenda consists of items 35 through 42. That is, item 35 is a staff postponement to November 20th. Item 36 is a postponement to December 11th. Item 37 is an applicant postponement until November 20th. Item 38 is an applicant postponement to December 11th. Item 39 is a postponement request by councilmember qadri to November 20th. Item 40 is consent second reading only. Item 41. Consent second reading only. Item 42 is postponement to November 20th. Very good. Is there a motion to [2:14:33 PM] approve items 40 and 41 on second reading only? Postpone items 35, 37, 39 and 42 to the November 20th agenda and postpone items 36 and 38 to the December 11th meeting. Motion by councilmember qadri, seconded by councilmember Laine city clerk. Do we have any speakers? >> Yes, mayor pro tem, we do. Speaking on the merits of the postponement for item 39, we have Helen gabler, Ron Luke, Charles Decourt, and Phyllis de. Shall I read those one more time? Helen gabler, Ron Luke, Charles Decourt. Phyllis de. >> Your name has been called. Please make your way to the front. >> The next item is item 40. I have Kim barker, Samuel Golub, [2:15:34 PM] Christopher Paige I believe I saw him, he signed up remotely. Yes, and Shane Johnson. >> Thank you. As you make your way to the front, please state your name and which item you're speaking on. >> Hi there. My name is Kim barker. I'm speaking on item number 40. Thank you for your time. The neighborhood appreciates that. Mayor and council or not, mayor. But council is listening to our concerns. We continue to ask that the site be rezoned only as much as is appropriate with the character and scale of the adjacent properties. Doing so would also match the developer's plans for the site, as has been shared with us. As I mentioned on when I was here two weeks ago on first reading, the neighborhood also wants to engage in a restricted covenant to ensure that what the developers verbally describing will in fact be what happens on the site, and that it will be compatible and appropriate with the neighborhood. We understand [2:16:34 PM] that this is a common approach across ll districts, so we're just asking for the same thing. The neighborhood that I speak of is a coalition of people who live on the adjacent streets, that that front this property. Some are renters that live in the booker T projects. Some are homeowners who have been in their homes for 40 years, and some people are new renting or buying. So it's it's a mix of people and we're all in alignment. We continue to advocate for three main asks, the first being a commitment to retain the historic rosewood elementary school, the second being that parking and vehicular access is limited to the two main roads abutting the site, instead of the small dead end neighborhood streets that face into the neighborhood. And the third is that an inclusive community use is integrated into the project. This site has been a civic use since the 1930s, and given its location [2:17:35 PM] in a string of east side jewels like millennium youth entertainment complex and the east side high school and yellow jacket stadium that were asking for some sort of civic community use to be integrated into the site. Thank you. >> Please proceed. Yes. >> Good afternoon, members of the council. My name is Sam gold, member of the this community for the last five years. When I spoke here before you two weeks ago, it was on behalf of some of the families of booker T Washington. Today, I'd like to talk about, on behalf of a specific family, my cousins, Brandon and Kelly block and their two children, seven year old boy and a five year old girl. Two weeks ago, after I spoke here, I was invited over to their house for dinner and they shared with me that after a long string of things that have eroded their [2:18:37 PM] belief in the ability of the community to support and be on the side of families, they had decided to begin looking to move elsewhere. They moved here ten years ago, drawn by the economic opportunities here in Austin, but have not felt supported since. In the pursuit of growing a family here. While I don't believe that the rezoning amendment, this one would change their mind. I do believe that if Austin continued to make choices protecting the family residential communities. Perhaps they would be persuaded. And I'm reminded of the words of council member harper-madison two weeks ago, in which she shared that. We have not seen the best days of the millennium youth complex. Thank you. [2:19:40 PM] >> Please proceed, Mr. Paige. >> Okay. Number one, thank you to the Dion office for its time and attention on this matter. I think I've really seen that you recognize the importance of this site, and we genuinely do want to work together with the entire city, but especially the community that's immediately around it. Most directly impacted by some of these potential changes. When the when the applicant initially presented their case to our community, they signaled a vague intent to preserve the school building and limit limit negative externalities on adjacent residents. Subsequent conversations took a u-turn, as they explicitly refused to commit to any core element of their narrative, even when those commitments would be economically beneficial to them. Presently, it looks like tovo wants to maximize liquidity on a project that they haven't started on historic land that they don't even actually own. [2:20:43 PM] They're attempting, or they've been attempting to stonewall residents with a mix of misrepresentations and communications that are entirely unresponsive to very reasonable and resolvable issues raised by our community. As it's been stated, this property goes back to the 1930s, when it was an elementary school that was created when community members who were segregated at the time advocated to get a school. And from that time until now, it has had civic use. There are three layers of protection that were put in place when aid sold the property to private charter school in 2003, and two of those three layers are sought for dismantling through this application. There are alternatives within our code which would be more appropriate for what the applicant has described as their alleged project. Lr is much more reasonable than cs, and in terms of the future land use map, there's something called neighborhood mixed use, which is much more appropriate [2:21:44 PM] designation for the Flum. We are seeking a restrictive covenant to tailor this well. Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. >> Continue with item 40. Taylor Higgins. Aaron Klinger, Brad Massingill, and Monica Guzman. >> Good. >> Is Taylor. First. >> You can go ahead. >> Okay. Good afternoon council. My name is Aaron Cloninger. This site has kind of four sides. The west end comes to a point at the intersection of Hargrave and and rosewood. And on the east side is Bedford avenue. We would like the curb [2:22:47 PM] cut for any commercial parking lot. If this development is to go through. By the way, I suggest you vote no at this point. If if this development goes through, we would like to have their curb cut. If they really need one on the residential side of the neighborhood to be on Bedford instead of soul Wilson, because the circulation of cars through the neighborhood is already a pressure. We've spoken to the the the roads department of staff and, you know, they communicate that the the the. Driver's volume on the road is not big enough to worry about. And they don't foresee a huge change. But we do have a lot of people trying to avoid going down to that pinpoint corner of [2:23:49 PM] intersection of rosewood and Hargrave by driving through our neighborhood, and we get people thinking that they're going to find a cut through, and then they end up in the dead end, and, you know, so compromise, right? If they need more curb cuts for functional commercial parking lot, then put it a little closer to rosewood, because right across the street on Hargrave are not Hargrave Bedford. There is some mixed use property already. >> Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Massengale. >> I'm Brad Massingill from d3. In light of what we've been talking about earlier today, trying to get more tools in the toolbox for. Preventing displacement, these future land use map cases where you're changing properties from civic [2:24:51 PM] or. You know, family housing or whatever into commercial with state laws like they are right now. We're setting up a situation to where we're going to be potentially displacing lots of people when these huge projects swoop in. If the economy dips in these projects, these properties go on on the market to other people that don't necessarily have Austin's best intentions when it comes to housing and affordable housing, I really think that y'all should hold off and there should be a moratorium on all these future land use map alterations until such time as we know exactly what the inventory is on apartments. There's so many coming online right now. I think we're overbuilding and we're potentially pushing more people out the back door and into these situations that we're talking about today. You know, where people are ending up out [2:25:52 PM] outside or in substandard housing, and it pushes down, you know, people get from one economic thing layer to to the one below, and it pushes those people out as affordability changes. So I really would encourage you all to to not to not pass this. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Mayor pro tem. All speakers have been called for zoning consent. >> All right. Thank you. We have a motion to approve the consent agenda made by councilmember qadri and seconded by councilmember Laine. Does any member wish to abstain from a vote on the consent agenda? Councilmember duchen. >> I wish to abstain on 40 and 41. Please. >> Mayor pro tem, my apologies. I skipped an entire item. >> Oh very good. >> One moment. Item 41 Kim [2:26:54 PM] barker, Samuel Golub, Christopher Paige, Shane Johnson, Taylor Higgins, Aaron Klinger, Brad Massengill, and Monica Guzman. It's T Sam hespeaker. >> Hi. My name is Aaron Cloninger. So for 41, a lot of our community asks to this developer for if if they do go ahead with this development is in the spirit of the civic space because that's what it is. And in in that spirit, we see a a lot to do around celebrating [2:27:57 PM] doctor friendly our rice. He was a mover and a shaker on the east side. The students lovingly called him professor rice and. He did a lot of stuff where he got the community involved. He he paid scholarships out of his own pocket for kids to go to, to camp and to to go to sports leagues. He he started community gardens at the rosewood school, which started as a one room school. The the school building on this property in question was a Roosevelt era public works project, but it's not documented. Just like a lot of them, they shared workers [2:28:58 PM] around and possibly because of the segregated east side, it was it was not documented. But it is a fine piece of construction. There's not a crack in that slab that I saw when we walked through, not a crack in the bricks. Doctor rice. >> Thank you, Mr. Paige. >> Sure. So because this item is about future land use, I think it's kind of important to talk about how land use has been going on around this area. The William Kirk library has been shut for the better part of a year. It was supposed to be closed for six months, and I know personally my kids can't go there. And they have, you know, always gone there when it was open. Oak springs elementary school, which is in district three, was looking at a $47 million construction of a new campus. It's currently, if [2:30:00 PM] you drive by it, you'll see the construction is now frozen. Aisd announced the closure of that school and that 48 million or $47 million investment is now being retracted. Spent $4 million bringing in tons of Earth, doing foundation layout, and all of that is a waste. And we are losing a school and we are losing that investment. This school, the Texas Ken academy, is another thing that was operating up until June of this year. That's another school that's being closed, civic use, that's being lost. We have seen this consistently in recent years where investment groups come in, seek zoning changes to artificially change the value of dirt and produce nothing for the community. I will tell you personally, my kid has nowhere to go. My neighbor's kids have nowhere to go. The residents at booker T have nowhere for their kids to go. There are some parks that are open. Givens park, their pool was closed for [2:31:01 PM] years, years at a time because they couldn't fix the leaks in that the city has not prioritized this part of the city. And it's clear, and it's not a new thing. It's been going on long before I ever moved here, long before even my parents were born. But you have an opportunity to change that today. And so please work with the community members and help us advocate for the best interests of everyone in this space. Thank you. >> I'll be quick. This, this, this project or or the location is pretty emblematic of where we're at with Austin right now. And. Losing our history and our culture and our neighborhoods. You know, if we don't start standing up for these these small and shrinking pockets of what makes Austin, Austin, we're going to end up with [2:32:02 PM] nothing but glass towers and crowded streets and unlivable city. As Chris was saying, there's people that have been living in these areas neglected for for a long time, and now there's prosperity all around. And it's just instead of trickling down, it's trickling on, and it doesn't seem very in keeping with Austin's spirit since I've lived here up until recently, we've we've been proud of our friendliness and our openness and our compassion. And I'd really like to see this council and their decisions, especially with these zoning cases, reflect that instead of just rubberstamping things because somebody has hired a bunch of real estate lawyers, lobbyists, and they've thrown a bunch of money down on some engineers and architects, and they don't want to go back on [2:33:03 PM] their investment. That's not how democracy should work. We need to take care of people in our places. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Mayor tem, now, all speakers have been called for zoning consent. >> All right. If your name has been called, please come to the front. Just confirming everyone has had the opportunity to present and to speak. Okay, colleagues, the consent agenda before us today on zoning are items 40 and 41. On second reading only. Postponement of items 35, 37, 39, 42 to November 20th. Agenda and postponement of items 36 and 38 to the December 11th meeting. This motion was made by councilmember qadri, seconded by councilmember Laine. Councilmember duchen has indicated that he wishes to abstain from items 40 and 41. Is there any member who wishes to be voting no on the consent agenda? Any discussion on the [2:34:03 PM] consent agenda? Councilmember harper-madison. >> Thank you, I appreciate it. There's a zoning case that we discussed here today that's in district one. I just actually this is for my colleagues. I can face y'all. I just really want to strongly encourage you to hear out the neighbors, hear out the applicant for the zoning case in question over near booker T and the millennium. Sort of like I did this interview with Chad from the monitor last week, and he was asking me about the seats and the millennium theater. And like I told him, if you're asking about seating in the millennium theater, then the conversation is the wrong one, because that's the least of our concerns. And so when you're thinking about this case, kind of like I said from the dais recently, think about the ecosystem that surrounds it and reflect on the 78702 policy that I wrote. This is one of literally like 19 critical assets in the area. And then just something else I wanted to put on your radar. Booker T is income restricted. Mount Carmel [2:35:04 PM] is income restricted. Several others are income restricted. But the way that that works is once your application with hud expires, you can go to market rate. You don't have to stay income restricted. So in a 1.7 mile radius I have six income restricted housing developments that very well could turn into market rate housing. So just keep that in mind. The the discussion about that case can't just be about that case, because there's too much to consider in the overall bigger picture. It's a big chessboard and the pieces moving around have direct effects, impacts and disruptions for real people. >> Very good. Thank you councilmember. Thank you. Any further discussion from the Dyess hearing? None. Without objection. The consent agenda is adopted with councilmember duchen abstaining on items 40 and 41 and mayor Watson absent. There being no further business [2:36:05 PM] to come before the Austin city council at this regularly scheduled meeting. Without objection, we will adjourn. We are adjourned at 2:36 P.M.