City Council Regular Meeting Transcript – 2/5/2026 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 2/5/2026 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 2/5/2026 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [9:59:57 AM] Council members not much more to say after that, right? Okay. Well, in that case, it's 10:00 in the morning on February 5th, 2026, and I'll call to order the Austin city council meeting for this regularly scheduled meeting of the Austin city council. We have a quorum of city council president. In fact, everybody's present, and we are meeting in the city council chambers, [10:00:58 AM] located in city hall at 301 west second street. Folks, the way we're going to follow today is in just a few minutes. I'm going to read changes and corrections to our agenda into the record. We will then go to our consent agenda. Members. I don't have any items that have been pulled from the consent agenda unless they are withdrawn items, and I'll talk about that in just a second when I read changes and corrections into the record, we will hear from our speakers on the consent agenda. We will then go to the consent items. Those include public hearings on items 48 and 49. We will also noon have our public communication, which is a time certain at noon, and that will be followed by our live music. What I anticipate will happen is that we will begin at noon. That will finish at 1230 ish, and we will then recess until around 110 or 115, depending [10:01:58 AM] upon where we are in the agenda itself. Because the the next items are set for a 2:00 time, certain those are public hearings on items 50 and 51 and the 2:00 time certain on our zoning items. So unless there's questions from anybody, I will now read changes and corrections into the record for Thursday, February 5th, 2026. Item three is withdrawn. Item 45 is withdrawn, and item 58 is withdrawn. For members of the public that are here or listening on listening and are waiting to provide public comment on any of those three items. Items three, 45 and 58. Because those items have been withdrawn, there will not be public comment on those items. So if you're here for that, you just bought yourself some part of a new day. It's it's a pretty day. So get out there, [10:02:59 AM] enjoy it and enjoy it. Same is true if you're listening, and we're planning to speak remotely. Items three, 45 and 58 are withdrawn members that will take us unless there's questions or objection, take us to our consent agenda. And as I indicated, there's nothing been pulled. I'm getting ready to ask the city clerk to help us walk through that. And I, before I do that, I want to just say for everybody within the sound of my voice, we are very pleased. I saw our city clerk, Erica Brady, here just a second ago. She's hiding behind the. Okay, we all want to say welcome back. We are very happy to have our city clerk back. And at the same time, I want to say that Stephanie hall has done a remarkable job. Our deputy city clerk. On a on a on a variety of things that she's been she's been outstanding on. [10:04:00 AM] And we want to say thank you for that. So with that, let's see how good a job you do calling out people's names. >> Thank you. Mayor. On item one we have Bernard Kaufman and Zenobia Joseph. >> Kaufman. Kaufman or Joseph, are you here? Are you here? Okay, let's go on. >> We will now move to item two. Zenobia. Joseph. >> Miss Joseph, are you here? Miss Joseph? Okay. I don't believe she's here. >> We will now move to item seven. Jen Robishaw and Zenobia. Joseph. >> Miss Robishaw, miss Joseph. Oh, there's miss Robishaw. Please come forward. And by the way, for the for those of you that are here and going to give testimony, if an item is called, what you can see what he's doing is he's calling names. Please feel free just to come down when you hear your name called and take one of these [10:05:00 AM] chairs and and then say your name for the record. And miss Robishaw, the floor is yours. >> Good morning, Austin city council. I am Jen Robicheaux, a district two resident. As an experienced customer service representative, I'm speaking on item seven, the proposed contract with creative consumer research for customer satisfaction market research for Austin energy. This contract would pay up to $1.5 million over five years, 200,000 for the first year and then 300,000 per year if extended. The goal is to run annual surveys and focus groups to help Austin energy improve service, billing and energy programs. I believe this work should be brought in-house instead of outsourced. This is a long term, ongoing need. The contract is for five years, but customer feedback will be required for decades. The budget could easily fund 2 or 3 full time city employees, people who would build lasting skills right here in Austin. In-house work gives us more control, faster improvements, and better connection between staff and customers. [10:06:01 AM] Outsourcing adds distance and coordination costs. We already have a customer service team that talks to customers every day. They can support an internal research and development team at much lower cost. Austin has a huge local talent in research and data. We should create good jobs here instead of sending money out of the city. And the recent city manager's report on ai challenges shows Austin energy already struggles to recruit and keep talent outsourcing signals. There's no growth path for employees and works against protecting city jobs. Please reconsider this contract and your options. Approving a multi-million or multi-year $1.5 million contract would lock us into this large expenditure and miss a real opportunity to build stronger internal capacity and invest in our own workforce. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Next on item 16, William Herman. On item 17. William [10:07:05 AM] Herman. >> Mr. Herman. >> Item 31 Salvador Espinosa. On item 36, Andrew Weinberg. Diana Phillips Martha Newman on item 36. Please state your name and begin speaking. >> Good morning, mister mayor. Members of council, my name is Andrew Weinberg, and thank you for the opportunity to come and speak with you about the Roman veil proposal item 36 on the council agenda. I've lived in 203 east Milton street. >> I hate to interrupt you, but you're pretty soft spoken. Would you get a little closer to that microphone? >> Sure. Okay. Is that better? >> That is better. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Yeah. I've lived in 203 east Milton street since 1989, and my backyard adjoins the proposed development. I'm here today to speak for myself and my neighbors, who have signed the [10:08:06 AM] statement that we've entered into the record and several of whom are here in attendance today. While we applaud the city's efforts to increase affordable housing in Austin, we respectfully request that the council reject the Rohan bail application for the low income housing tax credits at this time. Our concerns center on three points. First, the proposal has factual errors and lacks knowledge or understanding of the community. It cites Becker elementary instead of Travis heights as the local elementary school. Becker is closing next year. Shows the distance the twin oaks library is 2000ft. When it's over 4200ft. This tiny grocer on south congress is our neighborhood grocery store. Tiny grocers closing. Two representatives of the developer prevented plans to us that differ from the proposals submitted to the council. The proposal submitted show 75 affordable housing units, a plan provided to the neighborhood by an oda representative has 71 units and a pre-k. The story keeps changing. Third, the proposed [10:09:07 AM] location on a two Laine neighborhood street lacks the infrastructure to safely support such high density development. All of the other projects on today's agenda for these tax credits face four Laine streets and have adjacent commercial property. This project faces a two Laine street and is surrounded by single family homes. I've submitted to the record a set of Google maps that demonstrate the differences between this project and others proposed. Today, we recognize that additional housing density in the urban core is needed, but we submit that the Rohan vale development as proposed is not ready for your approval. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, sir. >> And Diana Phillips. >> I have donated my time to Diana. >> Yes. Are you Martha Newman? Yes. Okay. Diana Phillips will get four minutes. >> Four minutes, miss Phillips. >> Thank you all. I'm Diana Phillips, my husband David. Our daughter Liz and I live on east Milton street. Our home of 46 years. Backs up to the project at a time when we feel helpless [10:10:08 AM] to change what's happening on the national level. We and our neighbors are here because we believe that as individuals and as a neighborhood, we can have an impact on our community. Our homes are not the mansions of judges hill, their hand-built homes of working and middle class Austin in the late 1800s and early 20th century, front porches and narrow streets foster a thriving community. We look out for each other, feed neighbors pets, celebrate achievements, and mourn the loss of friends. Most houses don't have garages or driveways. They were built before there were many cars south of the river. We have permits to park in front of our homes on pay to park streets. Traffic safety is our greatest concern. Traffic volume and speeding are up as drivers seek shortcuts between downtown and 35. Milton street is a city place. Street barriers say local traffic only, [10:11:08 AM] then a pickup heading a few blocks away barreled past a barrier and nearly killed two children. We now use two barriers at each end of the street, effectively closing the street. The project adds parking for 90 cars with access on two Laine Annie street fire trucks from the station a block away. Use any daily to respond to calls to the east. The pre-k can add more than 70 trips per day on a side street. Current plans include classrooms for three and four year Olds that are not in the project before the council. That's 40 to 60 students. Only 10% would be residents, according to the company's own data. A contracted private company would compete with the established pre-k at aisd's Travis heights elementary that offers free and low cost tuition and Spanish immersion. This project is the exception that proves the rule. It's not [10:12:09 AM] safe. Plans are unclear and changing. It's not viable. There is no quick fix. We ask the council not to consent to this project. Come walk with us. Come play with us. Let's work together to create affordable living on any street that is safe and works for residents and for the neighborhood alike. Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> Continuing on, item 36, Patricia Harris, James Vincent. >> Hello, my name is Patricia Harris. I'm from 1711 drake, one block from the proposed construction. The proposed 71 unit housing project is an incompatible addition to a neighborhood already beset with [10:13:10 AM] traffic congestion and parking limitations. Osd has offered inconsistent estimates of the amount of resident parking spaces that this building will contain. As few as 40 total spaces, or 1.3 spaces per unit. Those are the two estimates. Neither will sufficiently address actual demand for parking, which also includes apartment management, pre-k staff, residents, visitors and two vehicle households. Our streets are an inelastic resource. We cannot make them longer or wider to meet new demand over that already required by existing homeowners, employees of local businesses, tourists and shoppers arriving in personal or rented vehicles, and the need of residents lacking driveways to park in the street. And that's not counting delivery trucks parked in traffic lanes, nor does it account for the inevitable obstruction of bike and traffic [10:14:11 AM] lanes by vehicles awaiting staggered reception by the building's pre-k staff. Your support for osd appears to be based on four factors an available lot, a corporate purchaser, ample airspace for vertical construction, and a tight timeline for securing financial assistance. I suggest this is an insufficient set of criteria. I support an initiative to create opportunities for residents at low income thresholds to join our community. Soco offers many rentals of varying capacities. A better fit is to subsidize rents and existing housing. Thank you very much for your time. >> Look, it's easy enough to figure out that traffic will be [10:15:12 AM] a nightmare. The building looks like something out of the soviet union, and if you read their web pages around about the type of properties they've built before, after two years, they're falling apart and the people are complaining. And when they sent their representative to talk to us, she says, oh, those, you know, those people, they're always complaining. Excuse him. Why? They got better information than you do now. This thing only flies for two reasons. Number one, they want to put a five story building across the street. Okay, five stories in a national historic district. Keep. Austin. Austin. Are we kidding ourselves here? I mean, what else is this? These are down the street. Jim Hightower lives one of the oldest houses in that whole district. 18 mid 1800s. That guy, op Ed writer for the chronicle, he was the secretary of agriculture. He's an old school Democrat. Okay. They looked after the little guy back then against the corporate interest. Where's the corporate interest in this [10:16:13 AM] thing? Well, it is it's it's not us. It's them. Wherever they are right now. Okay. And what are they going to do with these tax credits? They're going to bundle them up. They're not keeping them. They're going to sell them to Goldman Sachs. They're going to sell them to UBS. They're going to sell them to Morgan Stanley. They're going to package them up and they're going to sell them to billionaires. And billionaires don't pay any taxes. Come on. It's not that difficult. Do the right thing here. I thank you for your time. >> Thank you for being here. >> Next on item 40, Justin swash. >> Thank you, mayor. >> Watson, mayor pro tem vela and the Austin city council. My name is Justin swoosh. I'm a lifelong Texan and austinite I'm here today to speak out against agenda item 40, the increase of appropriations for the parks department. While I do love our parks and public spaces, the recent behavior of the Austin parks department has [10:17:13 AM] made me concerned in regards to their transparency, public accountability, and their obligation to the Austin taxpayers and voters multiple times now, the parks department has proposed projects for increased security in their parks, while I and many others support safer parks. In theory, the form that this initiative has taken has been seen as problematic to many. Back in August 2025, the parks department proposed spending millions on the rental of ai surveillance cameras. This was put on the agenda for the August city council meeting. Many citizens, myself included, went to the effort to register to speak on this issue. Then, the day before the meeting, the item was withdrawn from the agenda with notice to speakers that it was expected to be brought back in September. Then in September, the agenda did not include that item. Myself and many others still went to the trouble to attend the meeting to make our voices heard, but were told we were not allowed to speak on this issue. While ai camera employees did speak during the public communications section promoting their product against the backdrop of clear civic disapproval. Fast forward to 2026, and again, the parks [10:18:13 AM] department proposes spending millions of taxpayer dollars on ai cameras, this time with liveview technologies as the vendor. Again, many citizens would. Strong opposition to this go to the effort of registering to speak. And again the day before the meeting yesterday, we are informed that the agenda item has been stricken. This repeated behavior by the Austin parks department to pretend to solicit public comment, only to then pull back at the last minute, indicates a severe lack of respect for the Austin citizenry and the democratic process. As a citizen, a taxpayer, and a voter, I am appalled at this blatant disregard for the civic process and the disrespect shown to us citizens. The Austin parks department's repeated attempts to circumvent the clear will of the citizenry demonstrates they are uninterested in the actual outcomes of those who claim they serve, and those who tax dollars they wantonly spend. They should not be rewarded with more taxpayer money. >> Thank you so much. >> Moving to item 43, Carlos Leone and Zenobia Joseph. >> Welcome, Mr. Leone. Thanks, mayor Watson. [10:19:21 AM] >> So, Carlos Leone, first and foremost, gracias a dios for letting me speak to item 43 under txdot. Capmetro is a Texas transit agency using state highways within Austin, maintaining those highways for safe public transportation requires real time road condition information, which capmetro senior director of public safety and emergency management Darrell jamail, is expected to provide. However, jamil's words cannot be trusted based on his written communications to me. Forwarded to you by city clerk before this meeting, jamail claims capmetro service is a privilege and that to end the fraudulent suspension he issued me, I have to sign a fraudulent agreement saying any code of conduct violation may result in my indefinite my indefinite suspension. False. Capmetro defines suspension as removing the right to use cat metro transit services due to violations of capmetro code of conduct representing a direct threat. A significant risk of substantial harm to the health or safety of the individual or [10:20:21 AM] others that cannot be reduced or eliminated by reasonable accommodation. Capmetro plagiarized that definition word for word from Ada. Section 16 30.2 R though Ada's direct threat is not to deny mass transit service but prevent workplace disability discrimination. Thus, because members of the public using capmetro are not disabled, capmetro employees capmetro suspension policy misappropriates Ada language to misapply federal legislative intent out of context because capmetro CEO and president Dottie Watkins approved that suspension policy, jamail and Watkins allegedly conspired against my right to ride capmetro, violating U.S. Code title 18, section 241, all documented in my upcoming report to APD special investigations unit to lawfully hold them accountable. Council have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Ephesians chapter five, verse 11. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. [10:21:24 AM] >> On item 44, Carlos, Leon and Zenobia Joseph. >> Zo Carlos Leon. First and foremost, gracias a dios for letting me speak to item 44. Since your library commission canceled last month's meeting. I'm telling you, APL's director search was fraudulent because assistant city manager hayden-howard and city manager Broadnax did not adhere to city job posting. Jr ten 1045 which said developing, reviewing and approving all library policies and procedures are essential functions for which the director candidate must possess required knowledge, skills, abilities and experiences, as well as be able to explain and demonstrate that he or she can perform said functions. Though interim director Hannah Terrell knew APL's library use rules two b3, 15 d-1, and 15 d-2, neither complied with city superseding rules for public use of city properties nor paramount constitutional law. She did not follow city code [10:22:24 AM] 1-2 to revise APL's rules, though she had more than one year to do so. Thus, Terrell neither demonstrated she could perform those essential functions nor showed she had the required knowledge, skill, ability, and experience to do so, making her ineligible for director. Though Broadnax knew Terrell lacked those basic requirements for the job, he appointed her director over Kathy Donelan, who was the top candidate based on merit, fitness and experience. In his announcement, Broadnax claimed interim director Terrell, quote positioned APL as a national and international destination bullcrap. Former director weeks enjoyed that because time magazine named brand new central library one of the world's greatest places. In 2018. Terrell did not join APL until November 2021. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely, but he that perverted his ways shall be known. Proverbs chapter ten, verse [10:23:25 AM] nine. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. >> Item 46. Carlos. >> Leon soy Carlos Leon. First and foremost, gracias a dios for letting me speak to item 46. Though city is doing its part to support Austin's sonshine camps, we austinites can do ours by grocery shopping at top sponsor H-E-B, but do not buy Jeni's ice cream. Boycott Jeni's and their shops immediately and permanently because Jeni's wrongly issued a cease and disorder order. A cease and desist order against me for rightly whistleblowing feminist and lgbtq employees targeting me, a straight Christian man with their disrespectful, unprofessional, backwards verbal and psych warfare attacks violating their own safe space policy. Jeni's two page letter and my 15 page evidence based response should have been forwarded to you, council by city clerk before this meeting, and will soon be posted on idms for online [10:24:26 AM] public access. Jeni's blatantly misnamed me and made multiple false statements and misleading representations against me because several of their statements appeared defamatory. Jeni's may be held liable for libel, protects a civil practice and remedies code 73.001. Jeni's words and actions appear to be part of a larger misinformation campaign about and against me, attributing the content of spurious claims onto me to injure my reputation and thereby expose me to public hatred, contempt or ridicule or financial injury, or to impeach my honesty, integrity, virtue or reputation. Like cap metro's Darrell jamail, Jeni's repeatedly tried projecting their misconduct onto me to try blaming the target and gaslighting the public into accepting their false, upside down, anti-reality opposite true reality that dishonest, abusive, controlling, cynical behavior must be defeated and its works destroyed. A false witness shall not be unpunished, [10:25:27 AM] and he that speaketh lies shall not escape. Proverbs chapter 19, verse five. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Thank you, mayor and city council. >> Thank you sir. >> We will now move to remote speakers on item 47. First we have Jeremy Hendrix. >> Good morning, mayor and council members. I'm Jeremy Hendrix with the laborers international union of north America and the central Texas building trades. I'm also president of the Windsor hills neighborhood association, and I reside in district four. I'm here in strong support of council member Siegel green social housing policy, because often cannot afford to keep doing housing the same way and expecting different results. For too long, we relied almost entirely on the private market to solve our housing crisis. What we've gotten instead are skyrocketing, skyrocketing rents, displacement, and entire communities pushed further and further from opportunity. Green social housing is often a new, necessary tool, one rooted in [10:26:28 AM] public purpose, long term affordability and stability. This model, which has worked in cities around the world, allows the city to help create permanently affordable homes that are protected from speculation and remain affordable for generations. That matters for the people who keep this city running teachers, first responders, city employees, and frontline workers who deserve to live in the community they serve. This policy is also smart climate policy by centering energy efficient construction, clean energy and transit oriented development. Green social housing helps us reduce emissions while lowering long term utility costs for residents, building homes near transit jobs and services isn't just environmentally responsible, it's how we reduce traffic, cut costs for families and create a healthier, more connected neighborhoods. What I appreciate most about this proposal is that it recognizes a simple truth housing is infrastructure. Just like roads, parks, water and schools. It requires long term public planning and public leadership. Green social housing doesn't [10:27:29 AM] replace our existing tools. It strengthens them and helps ensure affordability doesn't disappear the moment the market heats up again. Austin prides itself on being innovative and values driven. Supporting this item is a chance to live up to those values. To say that we believe in building a city that works for everyone. I urge you to support this policy and take a meaningful step toward a more affordable, sustainable and inclusive Austin. Thank you and have a. >> Great day! >> Speaking remotely on item 47, Reece Armstrong. Reece, please unmute. Next on item 47, speaking remotely is Hayley Campbell. >> Hi everyone. Can you hear me? Okay. >> Yes. >> Thank you. My name is Hayley Campbell. I am a resident of district one and I am calling in strong support of item 47, which is to do a study on the [10:28:32 AM] possibility of implementing green social housing here in Austin, Texas. One thing that I love about living in the city of Austin is I think that we can kind of gloss over the green part because we're a city that cares deeply about our environmental impact. We all know what green buildings look like. They're built with environmentally friendly materials, and the infrastructure within the buildings is designed to maximize resource efficiency, both for the residents themselves to help them save on utility bills, which is fantastic, and also for the health and well-being of all of the folks within. Often I'm deeply supportive of this program and this study to create green social housing because of the income disparities that I see within my own neighborhood, and because of the fact that the previous approaches that the city of Austin has taken to address housing inequality simply haven't produced the results that I, as a resident, would like to see within my own neighborhood. My home is I mean, I would describe it as lavish. We live a very safe, comfortable, happy life with great dignity. And within a five minute walk of my home, there are homeless encampments. I care deeply about my unhoused [10:29:32 AM] neighbors, and I believe that green social housing is the logical next step, the next thing to try in order to help address the dignity and the care that I want our city to extend to our unhoused neighbors, it also makes good financial sense. It's the right thing to do. As an additional anecdote, a study was recently produced that I read about on NPR about the hope six program. This program created a large number of mixed use housing complexes. And what the study produced was that if children are raised in an environment where lower income children have access and exposure to children of other mixed income levels as they grow, their ultimate earnings potential as adults is exponentially greater than children who live in environments where they are only exposed to folks at their same income level if their families are economically disadvantaged. So this is another hidden benefit. >> Of a very much. >> Housing program. >> Next, we will move to in-person speakers on item 47. [10:30:33 AM] Brydan Summers, rich Harmon, Daniela silva. Cole weaver. Please state your name and begin speaking. >> Good morning, mayor and council. I'm Brian Summers, president of local 1624. We're the union for city of Austin and Travis county employees. I want to thank councilmember Siegel's office for bringing this item forward. I also want to thank mayor pro tem vela council members altar, Velazquez, and Fuentes. Affordability is a key issue for our members, as I'm sure some of you know, we have quite a few members that are not able to live within the city, whether it's our city of Austin members or our Travis county members. And so that is a real challenge for folks to serve these communities, but not be able to afford to live in them. And this issue has been so important to us that our union has created a workforce housing committee within ourselves to explore what can be done to promote greater affordability for our members. And I think that what we have found is that [10:31:33 AM] we need stability for our members to know that housing prices are going to remain stable and something that they can actually achieve either if they're looking to buy, if they're looking to rent. But how can they get here? And so we appreciate this effort to bring stability today. I think when faced with a tough challenge, it's a good idea to take an all of the all all of the above approach. Right. And that's what I see this as. It's representing one tool in the affordability toolkit, just in the same way that city council has looked at zoning and code changes and permitting changes, and really been open to exploring whatever we can do to tackle affordability. I see this as another step in that process. We also appreciate the inclusion of the better builder program. We know that that's important to our greater community. We know it's important to the workers that would be on these projects, and ensuring that they would actually be able to live in the places that they have helped create. So we are very excited about this. We're looking forward to see the progress on it after today. Thank you so much for bringing it forward. [10:32:33 AM] >> Silva. >> Good morning, mayor and council. My name is Daniela silva. I'm the Austin policy coordinator at workers defense action fund. I would like to thank council member Siegal's office for putting forward this item, as well as mayor pro tem vela council members Fuentes, Velasquez and altar for co- sponsoring as an organization representing members of the immigrant community who are often the ones building housing they will never afford to live in. We are particularly excited about the permanent affordable units that will be integral to these future developments. Providing abundant workforce housing is one of the many tools that can be used to bring more equity and parity into our city, and I'm glad to see our elected representatives wielding this tool in a way that also prioritizes environmental sustainability, from lowering utility costs to improving air and water quality. It is wonderful to see plans for housing that benefit from sustainability measures be made available without having to sacrifice affordability. Working class austinites deserve dignified and safe places to live just as much as they deserve dignified and safe places to work. It is our [10:33:35 AM] demand for this safety and dignity at workplaces and job sites that makes us particularly proud to see the inclusion of the better builder program in this resolution. Better builders standards ensure that workers are earning wages they deserve, have the safety protections they are owed, and, most importantly, can trust that bosses are being held accountable through the rigorous independent third party monitoring that is so unique to the program. I want to thank each of you for your commitment to finding creative and sustainable solutions to the housing challenges so many of us austinites face, and look forward to meeting with you all so you can hear firsthand accounts of the vision our members have for the types of housing they'd like their families to live in. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Okay. Hello, my name is Cole weaver, and I'm speaking on behalf of united workers of integral care. As workers providing community based mental health and services, one [10:34:37 AM] of our ongoing priorities is supporting clients with housing needs, especially as it relates to their mental health and or disabilities. We have, and always will, reiterate that stable and safe housing is a fundamental component of recovery. However, there are very few options for affordable housing in Austin, especially for many of our clients. Unable to work and living on fixed incomes. Of the properties that do exist, the affordable properties that do exist, or accept vouchers for permanent supportive housing. Many of them lack protections for tenant rights or are unaccommodating to those with physical and cognitive abilities or mental health needs. Examples of how this affects our clients include, but are not limited to failing to meet rigid and ableist requirements to pass inspections. Having needs unheard by landlords because of stigma, or being forcibly evicted because of having one bad day with mental health symptoms. This is why our clients are in need of social resources like social housing. By being under community control and having tenant security, housing can be made to ensure accessibility for a [10:35:38 AM] wide variety of needs, especially mental health. And I'd also by enforcing permanent affordability and being socially owned, our clients can be guaranteed a path to recovery through safe and stable housing. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We're going to move back to remote speakers. We were able to get Reese Armstrong back on the line. So on item 47. Reese, please unmute. >> Hello? Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> You can you hear me? Okay. Yes we can I am Lisa. I am Reese Armstrong, the co-chair of the McAllen democratic socialists of America and a candidate for Travis county commissioner, precinct two. But I am speaking in my personal capacity. I really want to commend councilmember Siegel for putting forth this motion. I believe it is crucially important to build out a stock of public social housing in order to anchor the market to a lower price and increase [10:36:39 AM] standards for tenant rights and protections in that lower end of the affordability market for housing. I also want, you know, if we believe housing is a human right, we have to start acting like it. Building public housing program. So. Yeah, I just want to I just want to urge everyone on council to vote yes for this. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Moving back to in-person speakers and Morris, Ryan Pawlak, Joseph Hernandez, Jen Robichaud. Jay Popham. Please state your name and begin speaking. >> Whoever wants to take off, just say. >> My name is Joseph big Joe [10:37:41 AM] Fernandez. I'm a journeyman licensed journeyman electrician and an organizer for the international brotherhood of electrical workers local union. 520 I'm a native austinite born in Brackenridge hospital and raised in Dover springs. I'm a part of the working class that has built this city and has continued to do so to this day at 34 years of age. Currently, I didn't have an opportunity to buy a home. Once I came into my license before the boom, I should say not wishing to leave this city. Now I choose to opt to rent. Every day I recruit members who who build, continue to build this city but can't afford to live in it. Apprentices. Young apprentices starting off at anywhere from 16 to $20 an hour, yet have a two anywhere from a 2 to 4 hour average daily commute to build a city that they can't afford to live in. So with. I stand strongly in support of this, of this, of this motion right here. And I ask for council's continued support in supporting [10:38:42 AM] the citizens that build this city every day. Thank you. >> Thank you, miss Robichaud. >> Good morning, Austin city council. I'm Jen Robichaud, a district two resident. I'm speaking against item 47, the resolution to create green social housing policy. While we all want more affordable housing, this proposal takes the wrong path for Austin. The resolution says the private market has failed. But the real problem is that government rules, especially high fees and complicated permitting, makes it very expensive to build here. The home builders association of greater Austin found that these fees add tens of thousands of dollars to every new home or apartment that costs get passed, gets passed straight to renters and buyers. Before the city starts a huge new housing program. It should look first at its own rules and cut the barriers that are driving prices up. Montgomery county's model isn't right for Austin. They say $100 million creates 1500 units, but the [10:39:44 AM] real cost per unit is far higher. Adding public banking or land banking brings serious risks. Political decisions can override good economics, costs can spiral, and taxpayers end up covering losses. The bigger issue is this kind of approach tends to favor large, well-connected companies and adds more layers of bureaucracy. It makes it harder for smaller businesses and innovators to compete. The opposite of what Austin needs Austin thrives on private innovation and entrepreneurship. Heavy government ownership isn't the path forward here. Before we create new government run housing systems that will cost more money and complicate everything for everyone, we should use an efficiency and affordability audit to examine how the city's own fees, rules and processes are making housing less affordable. We can't tax our way to affordability. We can't spend our way to affordability. I urge council to reject this resolution and vote no on this item. This is not the right policy for Austin. Thank you. [10:40:47 AM] >> Good morning, mayor and council members. My name is Ryan Pollack, and I'm the executive director and secretary treasurer of the Texas state building and construction trades council. I've called Austin home for the last 19 years, currently in district nine. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today in support of item 47. Austin's workforce is being priced farther and farther from the jobs that keep the city running. When more than half of renters are cost burdened, the status quo is not working for not for working families, and not for Austin's long term economic health. This resolution creates a practical pathway for the city to expand mixed income housing supply in a way that is community driven, permanently affordable and resilient through market cycles. We support this effort because it aligns with what we hear from our members regularly. Working people need stable, attainable housing where the work and training is. The city can play a constructive role here by leveraging public land, public financing tools and partnerships to deliver mixed income housing at scale. A revolving housing production fund is a fiscally responsible [10:41:48 AM] model that can produce housing while replenishing public dollars for future projects. And by incorporating green building standards, we can lower housing utility bills, improve indoor air quality, and advance Austin's climate and water goals all at the same time. But I want to emphasize what matters most to our members. Public projects should uphold Austin standards. For workers, that means strong safety protections, prevailing wage standards and apprenticeship utilization so that the housing built for working people is also built by well-trained workers earning family supporting wages. This framework should continue to be developed in partnership with stakeholders, including building trades and labor unions, affordable housing advocates, tenant organizations and workforce development partners. That collaboration will be essential to delivering projects high quality, cost effective and durable for decades. These reasons, we respectfully urge you to support this resolution and direct staff to deliver a comprehensive green social housing policy that is effective, that is financially [10:42:48 AM] sustainable. Thank you. >> Continuing on item 47, Brian Weldon, missile Ramos, Jason Haskins. Please state your name and begin speaking. >> Good morning. Honorable mayor, honorable mayor, esteemed council members, my name is Brian Weldon, member of aacme 1624, Austin native, longtime resident of district three. I'm here to speak in favor of councilman Siegel's green social housing policy. It starts with a very simple thing the people who keep the city running and the people who build it. Indeed, all working class people, they deserve to live where they work. Over the past few years, many of our membership and everyday austinites have been pushed out to communities outside of the city due to high prices. Despite working in Austin, many [10:43:48 AM] of my coworkers indeed they commute from San Marcos from Jerrel. This is a widespread problem. More than half of Austin renters are rent burdened. For those of you keeping score at home, that's defined as paying more than 30% of your monthly income on rent, and an internal study of asthma membership that we conducted last year found that more than 66% of our membership, who make less than $110,000 a year, are also rent burdened by providing affordable housing. People who work in the city can actually reside in the city that they build and run. Democratizing housing is in line with union values. Just as we push for democracy in the workplace via labor organizing, we support the democratization of housing via this program. Housing built with the green social housing framework will provide the opportunity for our city to be a model for democratic housing practices, such as tenant representation and renter protections, while also building trust within the community by materially demonstrating our support for affordable housing. These housing developments must also [10:44:49 AM] be built in collaboration with pro labor programs and organizations such as the worker defense projects better builder program, the Austin infrastructure academy, and the apprenticeship ratios consistent with the department of labor. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. >> Good morning y'all. How are you doing? My name is Marcel Ramos and I'm here representing district run as a community member. First, I want to say I wholeheartedly support social housing, and I'm in favor of this resolution making publicly owned housing accessible to austinites of all incomes and doing it in such a way that makes housing truly affordable for residents most impacted, should be applauded. Dion has been ground zero for gentrification and displacement. We've seen neighbors pushed out of their communities, and when I think of the possibilities of social housing, I see these community members being at the center of Austin's social housing model. I see a city where we build affordable units for working class families and [10:45:51 AM] individuals. And if done right, these goals can complement each other. The fundamental purpose of social housing is to provide the ability to cross-subsidize rents from households with moderate incomes. When I was chair at bcdc, we implemented a social housing model on a smaller scale. We were able to support our tenants with the lowest incomes while providing housing for folks on the higher end, at some of which actually worked here for the city. And if done right, these social housing developments will provide opportunities for our city workers to move closer to their place of employment and allow those that have been pushed out or displaced due to affordability constraints to return. This resolution is a great opening for social housing in Austin, and we should continue exploring ways to get towards deeper mfis at 0 to 30% during black history month, I am compelled to highlight that black residents are disproportionately unhoused community members, and many of them are Austin natives. When we decide to not prioritize households making 0 to 30% mfi, [10:46:53 AM] we are also deciding to not prioritize black people. Again, I support this resolution and social housing and we can enter center the most in need by ensuring our social housing resolution incorporates the priorities pushed by vocal Texas dsa and community powered atx. Thank you. >> Thank you. Please. Good morning. My name. >> Is. >> Jason John Paul Haskins, and I am a member of the executive committee for Austin housing coalition. And I apologize in advance for trying to add some nuance to conversation in city hall. I know it's not always welcome. I just wanted to come and clarify Austin housing coalition's current position on the resolution today, because we heard last evening that some other organizations were hearing from council members that we were supporting it, and our position is unchanged from our the letter that we sent out a couple of weeks ago that said, we are very excited about the changes that have been made so far. The current version is is a significant improvement in in [10:47:54 AM] clarifying the intent for this to be a study and not a program, you know, immediately implementing a program. And we really appreciate the efforts over the last week to reach out to local experts and more stakeholders. And we look forward to that ongoing during this study through a real robust stakeholder process. That said, there's a few things that still are points of concern about what's actually being directed to staff and what that will do to their workload, and assurances that this will not negatively impact the good work that we are doing in the city of Austin going forward. But we trust that these can be worked through, as we said, in a stakeholder process. Now, if I can take off my official hat and just speak personally, I do. I do personally think there is a greater opportunity for public options and social housing in the space overall, but it needs to be balanced to be meeting needs that that the existing systems are not are not meeting. [10:48:56 AM] And as someone recognized by the city of Austin as a net zero hero for my work in affordable, sustainable housing, and one of the only folks who has done the better building program as a multifamily provider, we don't actually have a sustainability problem in affordable housing. 15% of all multifamily projects are ag rated in the last ten years, 67% of projects with an affordable component are. So we are doing well and we just need to keep going. >> Thank you, thank you. >> We had a remote speaker join on item 47 away says are. >> Near mayor pro tem council members. Thank you all so much for giving me the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Sara and I serve as the executive director of housing works Austin. I just wanted to reach out today on item 47 and thank council member Siegel and his co-sponsors for postponing this item previously and accepting our recommendations. When we initially started this discussion with the co-sponsors [10:49:57 AM] and councilmember Siegel office, I think there was a lot of focus on looking at housing, serving renters who make between 80,000 to $100,000. So really, I think folks who fall within the moderate to higher income categories, particularly for the city of Austin, we are really excited to see that in the latest draft. There is a real focus on low income housing requirements serving those below 50%, median family income and lower. And of course, from our perspective as housing advocates, we really want to see particularly where city resources and funding are being expended, that we are truly focused on providing housing to those most in need, those critical workers who make our community move forward and frankly, often are earning below that 50% median family income. So we're excited to see that that has been added in here. We're also excited to see that the council member is co-sponsors, took recommendations from us addressing issues around fees, ensuring that, you know, that housing rents were based on essentially a 30% formula, so [10:50:58 AM] ensuring that it is truly affordable to those households living within them, and then also ensuring that there is no discrimination in housing choice voucher programs. We're also excited to see more clarification on how this can be a true exploration with community partners, and how we can work with city staff and others to really move this conversation forward, along with ensuring that this works in conjunction with our other programs and looking at the amazing work the city has done on existing affordable housing programs. How do we move all of this forward together while this process, uh, has been fr with challenges and communication. Right. >>Thank you.Thank you, sir. Continue on. >>Item 47, susan spataro, enovia, joseph, peter kim and ben sotheby, unless that's a phone call for money for affordable housing. please turn off your phone. >>susan ro i live in district eight and i'm not really in general against this project, but i'm thinking about what happened with prop Q I'm thinking of what people said during that and what they're expecting. And so I hope that as you're looking at big projects, that you're taking those lessons and applying them, you know, accountants call taxes involuntary taking. And and I think it's good to keep that in your head because, as usual, people who are down here testifying normally benefit or get money, but that money doesn't come from nowhere. It comes from someone in most of those people are working. They can't come down here and they voted no on prop Q so I think that it's important as as you're looking at this, for instance, there needs to be fiscal notes in these kinds of studies. For instance, when the government takes over private land, there's a fiscal note to that, because it's not going to generate property taxes anymore. So I think there should be a fiscal note if, in fact, you need large infrastructure increases, there needs to be a fiscal note. Of course, it's [10:53:14 AM] not perfect, but that has to be looked at and I don't think it is. The other thing that people talked about many people during during prop Q was how much is the city spending on these hotels and housing, blah, blah, blah? And I think it's a fair question, and I think that during your study, it would be good if you thought about what percentage of housing do you believe should be subsidized. I think that's a fair question. I mean, is it 10% of the inventory or 60% or what? But I think that's a fair question, and it's a question that people are asking. So what I would ask you to do is look at fiscal notes, and that makes you look out at a project and also look at the final goal of what we think we're going to have here. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, miss pitaro. Either one of you, you have the floor. >> All right. Hi there. I'm [10:54:17 AM] Peter Kim, I'm a resident of district one, and I'm also here to just speak in support of this resolution. I don't think there's anyone in this room who doesn't think that affordability is the key issue of our day, and the ideas put forth in this resolution, and the spirit that motivates, motivates it are compelling to me. I think most people agree that housing is not just a commodity to be traded and invested in, but it is a fundamental human right, especially when we have the means to provide for it. Now, in the 21st century and here in the wealthiest country on the planet. But as a community, we not only need to just believe this, we need to put this into real practice, and we now have the opportunity to do so. The idea is put forth in this resolution, such as the revolving loan fund are not new. Montgomery county, maryland and portland, maine and many other municipalities have enacted similar initiatives. And these have allowed them to not only build new supplies of housing quickly, but ensure that those units remain affordable. Um, these days, um, i've been seeing articles here and there, uh, touting how the median rent in austin has fallen for the past two years or so, and i think council should feel quite pleased that they had some part to plan that. Um, but that being said, uh, the situation is still precarious with the state and federal governments actively doing their best to defund social welfare programs so they can re redirect those dollars, um, to instruments of oppression. Um, and so the best way to ensure that this trend continues, especially in the current climate, where now is to press our advantage and to build lasting infrastructure while we are pulling ahead, rather than wait for the next affordability crisis to hit us and scramble to find a solution. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Kim. >> Mayor and council. My name is Ben sutterby, resident of district four. Hello, mayor pro tem. I'm here on my in my own personal capacity, not speaking on behalf of anyone to speak in strong support of this resolution, basically echoing what you heard from siblings in the labor movement here, said this morning, I wanted to address, though, some of the folks who may be feeling some trepidation or concerns about this. If you look at the language this is instructing the city manager to evaluate a comprehensive social housing policy through research, stakeholder engagement and council discussion. This is kicking off a conversation. This isn't silencing or pushing out. Any one of the approaches [10:56:47 AM] that people advocate for this is talking about what is the best way or what are the best ways. What are we doing currently? What other options exist out there? This is exploring and finding solutions. This is one of the reasons I'm so strongly in supportive of this. In conversations in the community. One of the most consistent themes, regardless of the topic of the forum or or whatever we're talking about that day, is people are saying we need housing, we need the city to do more in this area. And part of that, I will say to some of the naysayers, is informing people of what you're currently actually doing. But another large part of it is what other areas, what other stones have not yet been unturned, turned over, looking for solutions. And that's what this conversation will allow. It will allow input from stakeholders. It will allow input from the public. It'll allow looking at best practices all across the country and seeing how we can put an Austin [10:57:48 AM] twist on that and pull together all the best ways of doing it. So I really encourage you to engage in this process, to vote for it, and for anyone who may be feeling some trepidation to view this as a yes. And this is an opportunity to do the best and pull together Austin for housing. >> Moving to item 57, Stacy Schmidt, Jen Robishaw. >> Good morning, mayor and council Stacy Schmidt with opportunity Austin. I'm here speaking in support of item 57 on behalf of our 400 investors in this community, I first want to start off by saying thank you to the city staff, to doctor Johnson and his team, and to all of you in these council offices for working collaboratively together on this project and several others. This project is meaningful to [10:58:49 AM] Austin because it will be creating 200 jobs, and it will really be able to strengthen our life sciences ecosystem. As we all know, this is a collaborative effort as we continue to grow life sciences, as well as an international company who will be coming here and really focusing on the talent that we have in this community and bringing a better quality of life in the healthcare and life sciences space. I want to say commend this council and the mayor for his long term vision and really working towards strategic growth that focuses on our talent, our innovation and the quality of life that we have in the city of Austin. The collaboration and working together with all of you is really going to move us forward and put Austin on the map. >> Good morning, Austin city council. I'm Jen Robicheaux, district two resident. >> I'm speaking against item 57, the resolution to negotiate a $200,000 job subsidy for 3 [10:59:51 AM] billion us incorporated. While new jobs and life sciences are welcome, this is an unnecessary corporate welfare that distorts markets and shifts tax burdens to Austin residents. This foreign company, a us affiliate of a Korean parent, is already establishing its North American operations in Austin. We don't need to subsidize international firms when our city's strength in biotech talent and innovation are the real draw. Austin is a great place for business handouts like $1,000 per job. Just reward companies that would come anyway. Instead of financial incentives, Austin should focus on safety and quality of life to make it safer and more appealing for entrepreneurs, including global citizens, to move businesses and families. Here, the tragic murder of akshay Gupta last year, a talented health tech innovator who chose Austin for its promise, is a heartbreaking reminder of how public safety issues can deter the very talent we want to attract. Let's prioritize investments in public safety and policies that [11:00:52 AM] improve affordability so the American dream can expand to even more people. The $200,000 incentive, funded by taxpayers through the economic incentive reserve, comes at a bad time. After the recent budget cycle, and election shows voter frustration with spending. Before approving this contract, the city should release full contract terms for transparency and, better yet, use an efficiency audit to review these subsidies and ensure they're truly needed. I urge for council to stand for fiscal responsibility and vote no. Thank you. >> Moving to item 61, we will begin with remote speakers. Marina Roberts. >> My name is marina Roberts and I'm a resident of d4. I'm calling in support of the trust ordinance. As an activist who has worked over the last year on a variety of anti-surveillance measures, I'm grateful to see a push from city leaders to enshrine thoughtful procedures, providing adequate notice for the public to meaningfully [11:01:53 AM] engage in shaping policy around artificial intelligence and the use of ai by city departments. What has become clear to me is that city council faces the litany of tough problems, and that you all have become targets of tech companies devoted to profit, who will represent their products in ways that are dishonest in order to win your buy in. Just this week, we mobilized against ai surveillance in our parks, a proposal that remains baffling to me when zo recently, so many of you were swearing to do everything in your power to stand with immigrants. And when we also know this, technology feeds into the surveillance apparatus being used to hunt our immigrant neighbors, these positions are fundamentally irreconcilable, but addressing harmful behaviors in neighborhood parks is a real challenge, and these tech companies claim to offer you the solution. In reality, surveillance is a solution that moves harm from a surveilled area to a less surveilled area, creating the illusion of solving one problem while opening up a new site of harm elsewhere. The harm continues. Ai, while flashy and impressive, [11:02:54 AM] solves very little ultimately, and we pay for it in dollars and in freedom. We pay for it in cook stacks at your favorite taqueria, and in five year old little girls. The reason tech companies like liveview and floc can outbid their competitors is often because they simply don't care how much money they make in contracts with municipalities like Austin, their profit comes from selling our data, not from public safety contracts. That should tell you where their motives really lie, and we should treat them with a lot more scrutiny than I have so far seen in our processes. It is a privilege for the work of your life to be finding solutions to the myriad issues we face. I hope that you pass the trust act so you can hear from more of us to the policies you pass can work toward real solutions, and not just the performance of doing something in a moment when our democracy. >> Is very much. >> Speaking remotely. On item 61, Monica Guzman. >> Good morning. I'm Monica. >> Guzman, policy director at Garza. Austin Austin, speaking [11:03:55 AM] on item 61. We appreciate the work done by mayor pro tem vela quorum on the trust act. We also appreciate and support the postponement request posted by council members Ellis and duchen. Valid concerns have been voiced about exigent circumstances that, quote, require city department to temporarily acquire or use a surveillance technology or the information it provides without obtaining a surveillance use policy approved by council, unquote. And that, quote, ex exigent circumstances expenses must be for specific investigative or public safety purposes and not mere convenience, unquote. Public safety is open to interpretation. Withdrawn. Item three is a perfect example of what was considered for crime reduction and the community pushback on the grounds of reduced safety, especially for vulnerable families and communities. In the current political climate. We urge you to post item 61 with sufficient time for input from community based and nonprofit organizations who work with and [11:04:55 AM] or support vulnerable communities. Also, I didn't get called for 47, but Garza appreciates the updated version. The redlining and low income being included. However, in light of the results on the Austin housing blueprint, only 2% has been achieved for people, 30% below mfi and 39% I believe it said for 31 to 60, item 47 needs to be more of a focus on the truly low income working poor versus workforce housing, which tends to be 80 to 120% mfi. Thank you. >> Moving to in-person speakers on item 61, Brandon Ferrand fort Daniela silva, Hans maverick. Ashley Copeland. Please state your name and begin speaking. >> Thank you council members [11:05:56 AM] Brandon Ferrand for speaking in support of agenda item 61. I'm an attorney, but I'm speaking here in my personal capacity. I have a tech background, and I've observed the city had a bit of a storied history, past and present, with surveillance contracts, and so I'm happy to see that that's we're turning the corner on that. I think there are three major concerns that any use of surveillance technology should take into account. There's the possibility for misuse because once data is out there, it needs to be limited. There's what happens when a vulnerability is discovered in the system because the door gets left open. And breaches are not a matter of if, but when. And then finally, the level of accountability and transparency for when surveillance technology is used, so that if a problem comes to light, we can identify it very quickly. I think that the the trust act in particular addresses all three of these [11:06:57 AM] concerns. And so I'm very grateful to the city council for working on that and directing manager Broadnax to come back with a proposed ordinance. And thank you in particular to mister Siegel for meeting with advocates on this issue. We really appreciate the opportunity to have our voices heard, and I'll pass the podium. >> Good morning, mayor council. My name is Daniela silva. I'm the Austin policy coordinator at workers defense action fund. I would like to thank mayor pro tem and council member Siegel, as well as council members Fuentes, Laine and Velasquez for bringing forth and sponsoring the trust act, an item to create transparency around surveillance technology contracts. Many of our members at workers defense are deeply concerned about what feels like a rotating door of surveillance technology, particularly those with ai capabilities that they don't hear about until it's already been implemented. With the current state of our political landscape, both nationally and statewide, our members have a deep fear of how any kind of surveillance technology will be used to [11:07:57 AM] target or even harm them and their families. This resolution is a step in the right direction, slowing down the procurement process to allow for public insight, deeper council review, and more mindful adoption of ever changing technologies that have the opportunity to do more harm than good. While I'm speaking in support of this item, I would like to share some concerns around the current language, mainly around the four month loophole created for technologies that are claimed to be needed for exigent circumstances. This four month duration of the emergency exception is far too long. An exemption of this length risks becoming a de facto authorization period rather than a true emergency measure. Surveillance technologies can rapidly amass sensitive personal information, creating serious risk of misuse, internal abuse, or sharing with outside agencies, including federal immigration authorities. Please reduce that amount of time by at least 50% to a two month exception. Our members already have a strained relationship with the police, holding very little trust and not knowing who to call when they feel unsafe. Quietly implementing these technologies, [11:08:57 AM] especially those with ai capabilities, further erodes that trust. As workers defense members are deeply concerned about what is happening with their data and who is using it. They were excited to hear about this measure when I brought it up at the last member meeting, and support any kind of measure to more deeply scrutinize any kind of surveillance technology that could be used to put our immigrant communities at risk, please consider reducing the exigent circumstances period, in which case we robustly support this item. >> Thank you, miss silva. >> Thank you. Good morning, mayor Watson. Mayor pro tem vela, council members, I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts with you today. My name is Hans maverick. I'm a resident of council district ten, and I'm also a policy and research organizer with grassroots leadership here in Austin. For the record, I'm speaking for item 61, not against. There does not seem to be a way to sign up to speak against one item and in favor of another during the same council meeting. The reason I'm in favor of this item is that I want to see greater transparency and accountability [11:09:58 AM] brought to decisions the city makes about surveillance technology. I was just here Tuesday at the work session, speaking out against ai enabled cameras in public parks. The reason I spoke against that item had a lot to do with concerns about the lack of transparency of private tech companies. I hope that if the city adopts an ordinance based on item 61, the residents of Austin and our elected official will have greater leverage to put a pause on technology that doesn't respect our rights. When I attended Tuesday's work session, I listened carefully to council member Ellis's concerns about crime in zilker park. Zilker park is a crown jewel of Austin. I want people to feel safe going there. I want people to feel safe from crimes like theft and vandalism, and I want people to be safe from crimes like identity theft and cyber stalking. It's been said before, but it bears repeating. The only data that is safe from hacking is data [11:10:58 AM] that is never captured in the first place. While item 61 does not prohibit all forms of surveillance, it does at least give the community a greater chance to weigh in. While I am generally supportive of this resolution, I take issue with section 6.8.4, the section that gives city departments 120 days to utilize a mass surveillance system under exigent circumstances, without council approval. I believe that that period is too long. >> Thank you, thank you. Please. >> Hi. Good morning mayor and council. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be here. My name is Ashley Copeland, and I'm here on behalf of the central Texas public safety commission. And what we have to say is that the expectations placed on Austin public safety system are significant. We expect timely emergency response, thorough investigations, and the ability to help people when they're experiencing the worst days of [11:12:00 AM] their lives. Any policy that affects those systems deserves careful consideration, especially when it changes how tools are approved and accessed. Safeguards matter. Transparency matters. Oversight matters. These are all values that we can agree that we share. In addition to that, operational readiness also matters. The ability for public safety systems to function reliably when they're needed is incredibly important. When used appropriately, technology can strengthen accountability. Digital tools can create records, audit trails, and clear boundaries around how and when they're used. Public trust depends on two things at the same time strong guardrails and a system that works when the people need it to. We don't have to choose one over the other, and we should aim for both of them. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Continuing on, item 61, corby jastro Jen Robicheaux, [11:13:01 AM] Jay Popham. Brian Weldon. >> Please go ahead. Mr. Jastro. >> Good morning, mayor and council. My name is corby jastro, a lifelong awesome, awesome night resident of district ten. Every added layer of delay, uncertainty or administrative complexity it is is a decision with consequences. It affects how fast help arrives, how quickly cases move forward, and whether problems are addressed early or allowed to grow. Austin is already operating under strain, staffing shortages, increased demand and limited resources. In that environment, technology often fills gaps. It saves time, reduces workload, and helps systems keep up with reality. When commonly used, tools are slowed down or treated as extraordinary, the work does not disappear, it just gets [11:14:03 AM] pushed onto people. More overtime, more fatigue and more backlog. That's not neutral, that's a trade off. And it's one the public ultimately feels. Oversight is important, but precision matters. The question isn't whether Austin values privacy. The question is whether our policies allow public safety systems to function when timing matters most. I thank you all for your continued service to our great city. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good morning, Austin city council. I am Jen Robicheaux, district two resident. I'm speaking on item 61. This is a complex issue, and I want to start by expressing my gratitude to mayor pro tem vela for bringing this resolution on the transparent and responsible use of surveillance technology. Forward surveillance technology can be a powerful tool to assist law enforcement, helping solve crimes, deter wrongdoing, and keep our public spaces safer. At the same time, it [11:15:04 AM] carries serious risks to personal privacy and civil liberties if not handled with strong safeguards. I support moving forward with this resolution, but I believe the ordinance the city manager returns should include stronger protections, surveillance restrictions and data retention should not obstruct law enforcement's ability to investigate crimes or prosecute criminals. We need mandatory human oversight in all uses of surveillance data and ai features, so technology supports decisions rather than replacing judgment. We need robust, secure transmission of data to protect against breaches, hacking or exploitation by foreign actors and cyber criminals. And we need meaningful public review time far more than the current two weeks for this ordinance and any future surveillance contracts, use policies or related agreements. A 30 or 60 day public comment and review period would better serve transparency and trust. I encourage the council to direct [11:16:05 AM] the manager to develop a strong ordinance that give the community plenty of opportunity for meaningful input before final adoption. Thank you for your time. >> Please. >> Hello again, Brian Weldon, district three aacme 1624. As we have seen, both government entities and private corporations adopt mass surveillance technologies, so have we also seen the targeting of politically disfavored groups, overpolicing of already overpoliced populations, and misuse of this technology by bad actors and federal agencies as union members in a state that is not always friendly to our interests, we have a right to be concerned with the increased usage of these technologies. While these technologies are still relatively new, they're also unproven. However, there have been a few peer reviewed studies about similar systems in other cities. Shotspotter, for instance, overpromised and under-delivered. A peer reviewed study regarding its use in Kansas City, Missouri and Chicago, Illinois, showed that the technology did not significantly increase the likelihood of evidence collection or case clearance and shooting incidents, and concluded that ddt may not add [11:17:07 AM] investigative value to police responses to shooting incidents and may in fact increase patrol workload. There's a lot of fear and concern among the community about these programs, and rightfully so. Implementation of mass surveillance technologies in other cities has proven to be an expensive boondoggle that under-deliver on their promises while simultaneously putting citizens data and, paradoxically, safety at risk. For instance, flock was kicked out of mountain view after their system was unauthorized several hundred times by state and federal agencies. Flock has also been used by Texas deputies to enforce abortion bans. Any ordinance regulating proposed mass surveillance technologies needs to be written to hold any proposal to the highest possible standard of data security, privacy, actionable public safety benefit, and appropriate use. In addition to being evaluated through a lens of community justice and racial equality, there must also be strong penalties for companies who misuse the information they collect or fail in their duty to safeguard the data they gather on our citizens. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Continuing on item 61, Susan Spataro, Peter Kim, Nick [11:18:09 AM] Cavallaro. Please state your name and begin speaking. >> Susan Spataro and I live in district eight. I think that I listened to the work session, and I thought it was just excellent to hear what went on. I thought the parks department did a really good job of presenting what they're doing and what they're testing. I agree that there are some really bad things about technology, but what I see missing from this study, and I hope it is added, is what is the consequence of not doing it. And really the work session I think showed that. In other words, there really wasn't any problem with with the tech. It wasn't it worked fine, it didn't abuse anyone. But if you don't have that, then there's the crime in the parking lots and in and in the parks. There's no sense buying more parks and spending money on parks. If people feel unsafe to go there. And I appreciate that. [11:19:11 AM] Council member Ellis, you bringing that up in our district. So I think that when you're looking at the study, you should be looking at the technology and what it brings, the value of a tool for law enforcement. But if in fact you don't like that, what is your solution? The solution is not. Well, I mean, we just let the crime happen in the parks. Someone was saying that people wanted to walk to parks, and there was just an article by community impact that said only 70% or 70% of our residents cannot walk to a park, which means they have to drive. And that means that the parking lot should be safe. So I hope that you will look at all alternatives. If you don't want to use a surveillance, what do you want? Put more police. That's put more park rangers. But it's not acceptable just to say, well, I mean we'll just let the cars be broken into and stolen. So I hope in the study and as you're examining this, you will also have that, you [11:20:13 AM] know, it's easy to be negative on a solution. What's not good is what's what do you do about it. And you know, the problem needs to be solved. >> Thank you. Thank you, miss Mr. Kim. >> Hi there. My name is Peter, resident of district one and I was here earlier this week on Tuesday in a bit of a foul mood. But I'm much happier to be here today to ask for council to vote for this. I want to I want to reiterate again that I am an advocate for public safety, and I want to highlight that public safety encompasses more than just making sure that cars don't get broken into. It also means that we keep our community as a whole safe from the predatory instincts of mass surveillance. Wholesalers and big data brokers such as palantir and floc, as well as their customers. In other words, I want to say that I am for reducing the amount of petty crime break ins, thefts, and other property damage that do actually occur. My car has been broken into multiple times, and [11:21:14 AM] my partner's car has been stolen multiple times, and it would just be a good thing if that just happened less often. But we need to do it in a way that doesn't expose our personal data and our whereabouts to the likes of Peter Thiel and his buddy Joe Lonsdale. Like our worst neighbor who is on the record saying, you know, that he thinks the best solution to solving homelessness is to just kill them. Kill them all. These are the kinds of people who would be the ultimate recipients of data that is collected without oversight, without regulation, and without protection. And so I just again urge you to vote yes on this and ensure that we as a community get to have that decision making power to make sure that we keep us safe and that we don't outsource that responsibility to billionaires and their shareholders. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. Please go ahead. >> Good morning everyone. My name is Nick Cavallaro and I am in favor of item 61. The debate [11:22:17 AM] on surveillance cameras is not over. Even after item three was pulled yesterday. When I drove here this morning from Houston, I passed under four flock camera towers just to get on the freeway. That did not make me feel any safer. It makes me feel like a criminal in my own hometown. The debate isn't over and I'll drive here to attend every city council meeting if I have to, just to say no to flock lvt or any other mass surveillance company. Thank you for your time. >> On item 61, Lillian bemporad and Ben suddaby. >> Hello, my name is Ben suddaby. I'm speaking on behalf of myself. I am a proud member of the union that represents city and county workers. Aacme 1624 I can say that as someone who lives by a park that has a [11:23:20 AM] lot of complaints about those who are unhoused hanging out there, my bus stop, you know, I bike in through there pretty much every day. I, I hear the concerns of people who say, hey, I want to use the park. I don't feel safe. I don't think the solution is technology that makes the other half of our city feel unsafe and unwelcome and monitored when visiting these parks. So I really am supportive of this, of us establishing a framework that has mechanisms for for council oversight on the awarding of these contracts and having consistency. I would quibble on some of what I view as loopholes 120 days of an emergency thing. I think we can narrow that down, you know, make it make it be 60 days. The other one that concerns me even more is that the extension, without reporting back to y'all, I, I worry about that make that 30 days. It could be in a closed session like I understand sensitivity of of investigations. But the concept [11:24:22 AM] is, you know, we could have a city that, you know, staffs our parks by having a park ranger. I you know, I actually agree with miss pitaro on that one. You know, have a have a park ranger that's visiting our area parks in a area of the city. You get to know them. They they may connect people with services. Let you know about a program that's coming up. It's a community based approach that will not only provide a good job for a park ranger, but also help us tie together members of our community who may think that they're at odds but are actually wanting the same thing access to our our public spaces that are free from crime or also free from being made felt unsafe from surveillance. >> That concludes all speakers for the consent agenda. >> Thank you very much, members. As you've just heard, that concludes all of the speakers on the consent agenda. Let me ask, is there any member that wants to pull an item from the consent agenda as it's [11:25:22 AM] previously laid out? That being the case, what I would suggest we do is I will call for a motion on the consent agenda, and then council member qadri moves approval of the consent agenda, seconded by councilmember harper-madison. We'll now go to discussion and comments from council. Councilmember qadri, I'll recognize you. >> Great. Thank you. Mayor, I just had a quick question for staff on item 36. And as staff comes down, I want to thank the neighbors who are still who stuck around for item 36. We had a conversation with them as a as a team, and I'm looking forward to to future dialog. So I just want to thank them for still being here. So I had two questions. Could you clarify the affordability levels of the project that they talk about in item 36? We've heard today from some neighbors that half of the units are income restricted, but they had originally been told that 100% of the units would be income restricted. Could you could you tell us if it's going to be half or if it's going to be 100%? [11:26:23 AM] >> Absolutely. Thank you so much. Good morning. Brendan Kennedy, division manager with Austin housing. So the applicant's proposed unit mix is reflected in the agenda materials. It is 75 total units. And all of those units are proposed to be income restricted. This includes eight units that are proposed to be affordable at 30%, mfi 29 units at 50%, mfi 34 units at 60% mfi and four units at 80%. Mfi. Um, the developer has committed to a hundred percent affordable project, uh, and the unix will be finalized in the coming weeks, uh, and will ultimately be reflected in their application, uh, for low income housing tax credits that will be submitted to the texas department of housing and community affairs. Uh, and that application will be submitted by february 27th. >>Great. I think you already, you already answered my second question. I was gonna ask you what the next steps were in the state funding process, and you, you went ahead and answer that. >>Correct. >>So this resolution is in support of their application for tax credits. >>Uh, the resolution will be included along with other materials, and again, that will be, um, prepared by the applicant finalized in the coming weeks submitted to t-d-h-c-a by february 27th. >>Great. Uh, and mayor, is this the time i could also make a comment on the item? >>Sure. >>Great. Uh, well, i appreciate the answer once again. I appreciate the neighbors for still being here. Uh, today's vote on item 36 is about affordable housing on site, and i just want to further clarify. There will be a rezoning case in the future, and i'm committed to working with the community, uh, with the neighborhood, but also making sure the applicant works with the community in the neighborhood. And I believe we already have a meeting on the books for next week, with the neighborhood and with the applicant and with my team. So I'm really looking forward to future conversations as we as we move forward. >> Thank you. Councilmember qadri. Councilmember Velazquez, followed by the mayor pro tem and councilmember Siegel. >> Thank you, mayor. I apologize. I wasn't expecting to be called on so soon on item. >> You want us to. >> No, no, no. I'm good, I'm good on item 60. Colleagues, I'm glad to see this item come before us today. I want to thank Cynthia Simmons and Tara tucker of scaling safety for working with our office to ensure that this item came to fruition. With our budget shortfalls, it is imperative that we continue to prioritize and apply for grant grants and funding opportunities that we're eligible for. This grant, if funded, will allow us to continue, continue doing much needed work with our youth and support violence prevention programs. Shout out to my CVI Familia item 61. Want to thank [11:28:55 AM] the mayor pro tem for bringing this forward as technology continues to develop, especially surveillance technology, it's important that we establish regulations that will protect everyone in our community, especially those most vulnerable to unjust infringement of civil liberties in their daily lives. This item is coming before the city of Austin Dyess, as the state and federal governments are having or excuse me, are invading our privacy. I am proud to be a cosponsor of the trust act, a resolution that takes one step towards setting regulations on surveillance technology and on item 46. I want to thank councilmember qadri for bringing this forward. I am a former sunshine as I know council member Natasha harper- madison is. It is a wonderful organization that exposes kids predominantly that grow up in rough areas. Well, ours was all it used to be, all of east Austin back in the day and exposes them to camping and other fun activities. And mayor, [11:29:57 AM] I know that we have kept a a strong sense of solidarity on this dais as we move on things. You know, there was an article that came out the other day that said that there isn't much debate or or bad energy up here, and I agree with that. It's because I believe that this dais is more agreeable and has a shared vision of how we want to move, but I did hear that that that council member qadri wanted that smoke. So I, I am I am challenging councilmember qadri to run with me at the sunshine run on may 3rd. And so I, I didn't want to have to do it in front of everybody, but but but there we are. Thank you mayor. >> Sure. In the in the spirit of us always being on the same page, I'll take you up on that offer and and I'll wear a, I don't know, a football Jersey of a winning team. And you could wear a Jersey of the cowboys. >> So see it's it's already getting bad up here. Yeah. [11:30:58 AM] >> Well I sure appreciate your messing it all up, councilmember Velasquez. Yeah. My my memory is that that it was the comment was by a fairly prominent guy here in town that has been involved in a number of elections over many, many years that there was not much mustard, but a lot of mayonnaise, which says he ought to not be talking to the reporters when he's hungry. So with that being said, let's go to mayor pro tem vela, followed by councilmember Siegel and then councilmember alter. >> Oh, man, how do I follow that? Yeah. So I wanted to start off just highlighting item four, which is a tiny little addition to one of our urban trails, but a really critical addition. This essentially would push and this is in district seven, actually, it's not in my district, but it's a great item. And it's important as we move toward a more walkable, bikeable Austin. This essentially is going to push the shoal creek trail under 2222, fixing a critical [11:32:01 AM] gap in the trail and making it just a much, much easier, better way to to bike and to to get around Austin. I also wanted to highlight that, again, this is probably not even a quarter mile of trail $3 million. We we've done a great job in building out our trail network, but we kind of, you know, pushed to the to the back of the line, you know, some of the more expensive, more difficult sections, you know, it's easy to put up flexibles and paint the street and put up the little buttons on armadillos. It's much harder to do something like, we're doing a $3 million project, but it's critical if ultimately, if we're going to have a solid urban trails and bike system where people can truly get around the city on their bicycle, these are the kinds of improvements that we have to make. And just in with the bond talk and looking toward, I think these kind of fixing these tiny little gaps that we have in what's already a quality bike network is, is absolutely critical. And then let me just comment on on the trust act. The first thing I [11:33:01 AM] have to do is thank the folks that have worked so hard on this in my office. Rainey co has been working on this, got six months or so, and Emily Garrett in district seven, Mike's chief of staff, has been working hand in hand with us. This was and also actually deputy city manager John fortune have been involved in at virtually every step of the way to this is a really thoughtful item. We looked at what do again, this is the first thing I do honestly, whenever. What do other cities do? How do other cities handle these kinds of things? And we found a handful of cities. Not a lot of cities are doing anything like this, but there were a handful out there, and the one that really kind of rose to the top was Santa Clara county, which has a lot of this ordinance is based on what Santa Clara county in California does, where they just have a basic transparency mechanism for whenever they're doing any kind of surveillance technology. Just understanding, [11:34:02 AM] you know, what it is, what are the features that are in it, what are the protections and safeguards that are in it? And the idea is that we want to have an informed and productive debate around these issues and not just kind of have misinformation flying around and yelling and whatnot. We need to to think through these kinds of issues. There can be public safety benefits, but there are obviously dangers to to civil liberties and to privacy. And we've got to try our best to balance these. I think this is an important step forward in trying to to balance those issues. And at the very at the very least, just trying to get a framework for a better debate and discussion. And then finally, I just want to thank my my co-sponsors, councilmember Mike Siegel, Jose Velasquez, Vanessa Fuentes, and Krista Laine. Thank you all so much for your support and just looking forward to to to staff bringing this back in in a few [11:35:02 AM] months with the final version and seeing where we where we end up with it. Thank you mayor. >> Thank you. Mayor pro tem, councilmember, councilmember. Altar. Councilmember Laine. >> Thank you mayor. Just a few comments. First, on item 46, I was inspired by councilmember Velasquez. I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor and contribute $500 towards the fee waivers. >> Without objection, councilmember Siegel will be shown as a co-sponsor of that item. >> I'd like to go watch this this race as well. >> I thought you were going to volunteer to wear a Jersey, but I want to hear what that was. >> And yeah, on the I trust actually want to thank mayor pro tem vela. Thanks for giving the staff a shout out. I think this is a really important step forward for the city to improve our internal systems, to bring procurement and law and individual departments and technology staff together, to create public transparency and to do the analysis on the front end to understand what we're buying before we acquire a tool with surveillance technology. So this this way, we're going to have a lot of public sunshine two weeks before council takes action. There's going to be a report published, and then we'll really know what [11:36:03 AM] we're voting on and what the capabilities and risks are of any surveillance contracts. And so I hope this is an example of council doing our part to create better governance. I know there's been some tension about the apr and ai parks camera items, and hopefully this is us kind of making it easier for staff to to work through these items and avoid surprises and disappointments. I'll also say, definitely hear the concern of the community about the exigent circumstances aspect of the resolution, and we'll definitely look at that carefully to make sure we're we're maintaining the community's trust in this policy, and I'm hopeful this will become a framework that's a model and inspiration for other cities in Texas and across the region. Also wanted to comment on item 47. This is the green social housing study and stakeholder process. This has taken a lot of work, even though it's kind of just a a small step forward in policy creation. So I do want to thank really dozens of people who worked on this, including my staff, Kayla Simon, Heidi Sloan, [11:37:05 AM] co-sponsors, mayor pro tem vela, council members Velasquez, Fuentes and altar. Actually, their staff played a huge role. Timothy brie, Victoria hall, Sophia morales and Krista Weatherford want to give them shout outs. The housing department, many Demayo and director Dean, acm Johnson, housing advocates, labor advocates. A lot of folks worked on this to to bring this to this point. And so just to summarize, you know, the idea of green social housing is to bring permanently affordable, climate friendly and publicly controlled housing to Austin. This was definitely inspired by some of these labor leaders you heard today who talked about the struggle of their members to live in the city where they work. We're thinking of the folks who build Austin and make it great and economically successful, and we want them to have affordable places to live. There's a lot of inspiration from other cities across the country, as well as around the world, that we can look at for this. And I want to comment a little bit on how it might be strategic, because some people are hearing about falling rents. Why is this the time for the city to potentially invest in more housing? And this is what [11:38:05 AM] is called counter-cyclical investment, because we know Austin is continuing to grow all these investments in infrastructure, semiconductors, manufacturing. We know people are going to continue to come here. And if we create a public option for housing through city investment, that could lock in future affordability for all the workers that are going to continue to come here. So I really want to thank everyone for being a part of this. We hope we can create a public option for affordable housing and look forward to the work ahead. Thank you mayor. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember. Councilmember. Councilmember. Ellis. >> I just want to pick up where councilmember Siegel left off and both thank and congratulate him on on item 47. Every time we talk about affordable housing, there's no one solution, right? It's a whole toolbox. You have to have a bunch of different tools. And we do have a lot of really great tools, but hopefully this is one that we can add to that toolbox and be able to create even more affordable housing here in Austin. So I just want to thank you for continuing to expand our range of options here, and I look forward to [11:39:06 AM] seeing what it results. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember. Councilmember. Councilmember. Harper-madison. >> Thank you. Mayor. May I ask a question of Austin energy? >> I see somebody can answer that. >> Good morning, Stuart Riley Austin energy general manager. >> Thank you. Regarding number item seven, I am interested to know if 311 services are a part of what will be considered in this contract. >> I believe this is a separate contract for our for the Austin energy side. And it it it talks to people, post calls with our customer contact center people who participate in our rebate programs. So it does focus groups, phone calls, online research. >> Thank you for letting me know. I do find the content of [11:40:06 AM] the contract to be directly relevant to the concerns that I've been raising since election, and really appreciate that I'm seeing something come to council about that. I will just flag that 311 services are another area of frequent concern, and perhaps after my comments, we can talk further about what might work in that area. >> We'll follow up. >> With that. >> Thank you, thank. >> You. >> Thank you, Mr. Riley. >> So with that, I will turn to consent comments. First, in relation to this contract, the Austin energy customer satisfaction market research, I want to make a couple of general comments that relate to external consulting contracts. There's really no one size fits all answer as to whether a project is most effectively and efficiently completed in-house, versus by an external consultant. If we hire too many external consultants, we we will absolutely waste city resources. But in a city, the size and complexity of Austin, we will also raise resources. [11:41:07 AM] If we don't hire enough consultants, it is because of the one one size fits all nature of the calls for 100% external efficiency audit that I do not support that, but I want to highlight this Austin energy contract as an example, where we are best served and will most effectively be stewards of financial resources by approving this contract. As general manager Stuart Riley noted this, this research will include customer satisfaction, program participation, low income weatherization evaluations, and focus groups on core services. The data collected will be invaluable to ensure that our utility continues to deliver on the needs of our community by contracting out what is both critical and extensive work required to accurately measure attitudes of Austin energy's residential and commercial customers. We will actually empower our Austin energy staff to focus on operations while still making effective, data [11:42:07 AM] driven strategic decisions about where to shift resources in order to improve reliability resilience for those parts of the service area that continue to suffer from interruptions in power service and other core services. This is exactly the type of consulting contract that that I believe adds value, and I am pleased to support it. The other item I'd like to comment on is item 57, which is the economic incentive agreement relating to the south Korean company 3 billion. So it's no accident that this Korean company that works in technical fields has chosen this location in Austin's district six to to locate as this is the district that I represent, I'll comment that, you know, we have one of the highest rates densities of immigrant population in the city. We also have the highest [11:43:07 AM] density of Asian population in the city. And having raised my children in this district, they attended an elementary school that was 54% Asian, predominantly immigrant, working in fields just like this. This company has selected a strategic location that is accessible to 620 highways, but also to really significant infrastructure that this city has already invested and paid for in the red line. This this location is is very close to the lakeline station rail stop, which is a rail that also provides freight service, strong schools and and other characteristics, including a lot of diversity, that are all reasons that a south Korean company would choose to locate here. And I am here to say quite explicitly that even those who think about wanting a homegrown company or local to [11:44:09 AM] support our local community, our local community includes Korean families and who have had children that are born and raised here never lived anywhere but district six. We have a lot of them, and so I personally am quite excited to see this company choose this location. It is also located near Round Rock ISD's new career technical and education facility, and I anticipate having seen firsthand the ways in which our high tech workers work with the school system, that we will uncover new opportunities to train, grow, learn from this company that I know its employees will be interacting consistently in our schools with our community. And so I just wanted to say how much I how pleased I am to welcome this company to district six and how pleased I am that the economic development office has put in the work to create an incentive plan that works for Austin as [11:45:12 AM] well as the company. And the reason I say that it works for Austin is because this is the type of investment that can start to create stimulus in an area, a red line station that has been previously not fully developed. And and the cost of the incentives is, is small relative to the benefits that we're getting. But it's also been a very carefully crafted incentive package and I'm just very pleased to support it. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember. Councilmember harper-madison. Councilmember duchen. >> Thank you, mayor, for the recognition. And you'll have to forgive me for my allergies. It's the spring elm. I guess it is this time. I wanted to speak very directly about item number 61. I know I had posted on to the message board that I would be supportive of a postponement. It doesn't seem like there is a lot of other folks that want a little more time to work on this, and I understand that there has been a lot of work by the sub quorum and their staff members to get to a place where [11:46:12 AM] they have a really good working document, but those of us that weren't in the sub sub quorum have not had the same amount of time to be able to digest the information. There is a lot in it. There are 16 pages of be it resolves. And so I know that this conversation is going to continue to get more detailed, and that a lot of questions have been asked along the way, and we're going to be able to work with staff in the coming weeks to be able to make sure that we are all on the same page as we move forward. I do think this is a moment that's an opportunity for us to be the example of getting it right. There is a very common goal that's happening here in this conversation that everybody saw play out on Tuesday, and that is that our public spaces should be safe for everyone in Austin at the exact same time, we can want information to be safe from the entities that are not beholden to the city council and are not working in ways that the city of Austin supports. And we can also want to make sure that those very same populations are not unfairly targeted in our park spaces, whether that is by murder, by hate crime, and, yes, by theft. In some instances, [11:47:14 AM] the state of Texas has very lax gun laws. We have had public safety officials go and testify to our state legislature that they are creating dangerous environments for everybody in Texas. This is not something that we want to make sure that folks that do not know how to responsibly handle weapons are using them in our public spaces. There was a report that APD had done in 2018 that showed that stolen guns were four times more likely to be stolen from cars than from homes. So what's happening is people will break into vehicles, they will find things, whether those are computers, debit and credit cards, other personally identifiable information and weapons. And so I have done a lot of work over my tenure to make sure that we are not letting people who are criminals get their hands on weapons that they are not supposed to have, and that they don't know how to safely utilize. So I think this is a really important moment. The city council, I think the common goal is, is the same here, and I think we can truly step up and be a leader in the state of Texas about how to [11:48:15 AM] balance the needs of personal security with information and the way that technologies are tracking people, and also make sure that our most vulnerable communities are not unfairly targeted at the exact same time. I look forward to being able to move through this conversation. Everyone's heart is in the right place, and there's a lot of good minds working on this, and I look forward to seeing this over the next couple of weeks to see where we can land and how we can lead by example. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember harper-madison, followed by councilmember duchen. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor, I appreciate it. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor, I appreciate it. I want to ask procedurally, would it be possible for me to say, with the exception of item 46, for which I'm already a co-sponsor, I'm so inspired by my colleagues, I'd like to co-sponsor all of the consent agenda. Items I'd like to be added. Is that is that a thing. >> I can do? Objection. Councilmember harper-madison will be shown as a co- sponsor of any item that was brought by counsel where we have sponsorships. >> Thank you, I appreciate it, and I also appreciate getting the opportunity to watch this [11:49:16 AM] race. Forthcoming private commentary coming soon. So I'd like to start with the millennium youth entertainment complex item. That's item number two. My team and I, every iteration of it, have been advocating for the millennium since prior to council. And then day one, 2019. So the relationship had always been a third, a third party management company. A lot of folks don't recognize that it's our facility, it's dedicated parkland, but it was managed by a third party entity. We now have the proud honor of our very own in-house aacme our arts, culture, music and entertainment department, taking the lead as the steward for the space. And so there's an item that's being approved today for funding, but it's funding that we otherwise would have allocated to the third party management company on behalf of the space, and I'm really happy to see it coming. Also, a lot of folks don't know what why, where, how the millennium, the 90s, east [11:50:18 AM] Austin, the o2 east site, tameca Ross and Juan cotera lost their lives to gun violence on the east side, and the people of Austin decided that it was high time that we created a place in a space for black and brown youth to be able to spend their days and their time after school and outside of responsibilities in a way that was safe and where they could remain in the community and have activities and programing that were specific to them. The you know, somebody told me one time, in fact, I'll go ahead and write her out. It was one of my teens. She goes, mom, nobody plays arcade games. And it occurred to me as I was watching this evolution of the millennium, the space, it occurred to me that my kids are playing roblox with somebody in Singapore right now. They're not going to video game arcade. So watching the evolution of that space to accommodate the needs of our current generation of young people who still need safe places to go, I'm really excited to see the progress move forward for this [11:51:19 AM] relatively new department for the city of Austin with a lot, a lot to carry. And so I also would like to encourage our community to be patient and also be supportive of of aacme and their efforts. So the dissolution of that management contract, it's the beginning of the next chapter. And so as a resident district one, I'm looking forward to what may come. You know, my term ends this year. And so I keep thinking about all the district one assets that I get to enjoy next year as a constituent. And so this is this is fun also. So we have a low income housing tax credit development on Springdale. And in district one. I basically just want to say anything that's offering over 70% of units at perpetual affordability. I'm a fan of. And so I really just appreciate having this item come forward. There are so many pockets in northeast Austin and the northeast planning district that are on county land. A lot of our constituents don't recognize the very distinct [11:52:19 AM] difference between the county and the city, but we are separate entities, and so a lot of our assets are on county land. So my office frequently works with our partners over at the county and within the interlocal agreement with Travis county, with our counterparts. So these two corridor plans will go a long way to really improve mobility in this part of the further part of northeast Austin. Lastly, the comprehensive efficiency assessment. I'm really happy to see this move forward. I'm really happy to see it articulated in a way that it's being received so well by both the community and our colleagues. The one thing I'd like to ask, and I'm not sure who the most appropriate person to ask is during the course of the execution of this audit, you guys might know that. >> That item was withdrawn. >> Oh you're right, thank you. And then oh, but you know, I do have a question for. But I'll pose it. Not here. >> No. No longer posted. >> Right. And so. Oh lastly the you are amending east 11th and [11:53:22 AM] 12th to increase max building height. 11th and 12th continues to be sort of a difficult area to develop. You know, I used to say Austin is changing as a native. Austin Austin is changing. It ain't all good. It ain't all bad. But it's all complex when it comes to the east side. And so I like very much that there's so much effort being paid to paying attention to the nuances of development in the historic African American cultural heritage district. And that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Councilmember harper- madison. Councilmember duchen. >> Thank you. Mayor. I just wanted to touch on two agenda items. One is the item 47, which I'll be abstaining on, even though I know that we've incorporated some of the suggestions that we've asked for, I still worry that some of the protections and regulations and requirements that are currently in the ordinance are very well intended, but could dramatically increase the cost of producing affordable housing. [11:54:22 AM] And I would say an even bigger concern is the inclusion of general fund allocations and possible funding through c-o bonds, or certificates of obligation that would not require taxpayer approval, especially after what we heard from our community last November. That said, I'm still looking forward to working with our stakeholders here on this program, working out any kinks that we may run into and seeing what how we could scale this kind of program should. If we can do that without undermining the good work that we've already accomplished in this space. The other item is item 61, as I indicated online, and to build on councilmember Ellis's observations, I'm really grateful that my colleagues and staff have invested a lot of time in developing this policy, and I agree with them that a smart, thoughtful lens to view for for us as a city to view surveillance tools and technologies is going to make [11:55:23 AM] it a lot easier to evaluate and select technology tools going forward. And I also appreciate the responsiveness and changes they've already made to to the policy. But a significant part of my concern is just how we went about this, that we added a 17 page policy last Friday at the end of an addendum agenda that gave those of us that were unfamiliar with the policy basically three days to understand the resolution, which is then going to be up until the changes would have been converted to an ordinance in less than two months. And that would have basically meant that the provided guidelines for future technology. Would have meant not just the future technology, but reviewing really every single legacy technology or tool that might have had a surveillance component in the city. And I've gotten a lot of advice over the last year about just how to proceed with general counsel processes and how we go about getting business done and moving things through council [11:56:23 AM] committees and getting input through the public and getting soliciting our board and commission members and and generally providing people enough time to understand and provide feedback on policy and to ask the questions and to get the clarity during our work sessions, and that we do have appropriate committees and commissions to provide that kind of input. So I'm just really urging us to be mindful going forward, how we approach these kind of items, how we approach these kind of policies, make sure that we we approach when they are sensitive policies, that they're in line with the goals and the language of the policies themselves that we've seen this happen more recently on financial items and processes from our audit and finance committee. We could do that with this kind of work as well. So in the end, I'm like council member Ellis, I'm looking forward to working with mayor pro tem and staff and delivering a version in April that we can all get behind that balances both protecting our public spaces, but also our community and residents as well. Thanks. >> Thank you. Councilmember duchen members. The consent the consent agenda. The motion has [11:57:24 AM] been made by councilmember qadri, seconded by councilmember harper-madison. Is there anyone wishing to be shown abstaining other than councilmember duchen on item number 47? Is there anyone wishing to be shown abstaining from a vote on any item on the consent agenda? Anyone wishing to be shown recusing themselves from a vote on a specific item on the agenda. Anyone wishing to be shown voting no. Councilmember alter. >> Shown no on item 57, please. >> Councilmember alter will be shown voting no. Anyone else wishing to be shown voting no on an item on the consent agenda. Hearing none. Without objection, the consent agenda is adopted with councilmember duchen abstaining on item number 57 and councilmember alter voting no on item number 57. Members that will take us to item number 48. And let me just in advance and preemptively ask everyone to take their conversations outside before they start their conversations. Item number 48 is a public hearing. Without [11:58:25 AM] objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 48. The public hearing is now open and I'll turn to the city clerk. >> We have no speakers on item 48. >> Members. There are no speakers on item number 48. So without objection, I will close the public hearing on item number 48. And that public hearing is now closed. I'll entertain a motion with regard to item number 48 motions made by councilmember Siegel. It is seconded by councilmember qadri for adoption of item number 48. Is there discussion on item number 48? Hearing none. Item number without objection. Item number 48 is adopted. Members. Item number 49 is also a public hearing. It is a public hearing where we will not be voting at this meeting, but it is a public hearing on an annexation. So we will have the public hearing on that annexation without a vote. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 49. The public hearing is now [11:59:27 AM] open and I will turn to the city clerk. >> There are no speakers on item 49. >> Members. There are no speakers on item number 49. So without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 49. The public hearing is now closed. As I indicated, this is an item that there will not be a vote at this point in time, but we needed to conduct the public hearing. That public hearing has been conducted and is now closed, and we're going to see whether the mayor is capable of talking about item number 49 for another 10s. Yes. Good. Go ahead. >> Yes. This colleagues, this segment of road is in del valle. It's one of those many areas of my district where a road is half in the city and then partially in the county and then back in the city. So I'm very pleased to see this item move forward. It was approved by Travis county commissioners court to allow the city to annex to annex that portion of Ross road. And so this will allow us to ensure that the [12:00:28 PM] safety of our streets and roadways are done with the community in mind to facilitate better improvements. And so I'm really pleased to see this move forward. >> Great. Thank you, councilmember members, that takes us to our 12:00 time. Certain. And with that I will turn which is public communication. And I will turn to the city clerk to please ask that you start calling the names for those that have signed up to speak. If your name, you've signed up and you know that the order. So if you are here to speak, come, please come forward. Go ahead and take the take a seat if your name is called, so that we will be able to efficiently hear from you. So I'll turn to the city clerk. >> First we have Lauren Ross. >> Doctor Ross, you have the microphone. >> My name is juniper. Lauren Ross. I'm a long time Austin resident, a queer white woman, an environmental engineer, and an organizer with undoing white supremacy Austin, a collective of more than 2000 of your [12:01:29 PM] constituents. I'm here today to speak in support of the city's equity division and their legal, transparent, parent and courageous racial equity work. Across the country, we see attacks on immigrants and people of color, not just across the country, but in our own city. We also see attacks on anyone who stands up to protect our communities and the public institutions that name race as a factor in unequal outcomes. Families are living in fear. Cities are pressured to fall in line or face sanctions. That context matters. Trump's doj investigation happened in a political moment when racial equity work is being framed as unlawful simply because it challenges entrenched power. Thank you. Council members Laine, Fuentes and Siegel. When this investigation was announced, you said publicly that equity [12:02:30 PM] is both legal and necessary, and your support mattered to those of us watching to see whether or not Austin will stand strong. As an engineer, I'm trained to look at systems when racial disparities show up in our city over decades, in hiring and environmental exposure, in flooding and housing instability. That is not random. That is the system doing exactly what it was designed to do. The undoing racism workshop has given staff a framework to understand how institutional racism functions. The Texas model, developed by Joyce James, remains the only intervention that has closed racial disparities across Texas. When something works, don't abandon it because it's politically inconvenient. Before the current federal pressure before trump was elected, there were efforts to scale back equity work in this [12:03:32 PM] city. Your campaign donors make bank on inequity, and they exert influence. That is exactly why independent community, accountable equity infrastructure matters. As a white person, it is my responsibility to speak out when equity work is under attack, to take on some of the risks so that black and brown communities don't carry it alone. I urge this [12:44:59 PM] okay. We're all good. >> Good afternoon. Austin, Texas. My name is Natasha harper-madison, and I am the proud council member for district one on the Austin city council. Something that we get to do, not as frequently as I would like, is say thank you to our staffers. And so a big thank you to our staffers is in order. But more importantly, a real general big thank you to a multi-talented staffer who is a policy aide in the district one office. But today is a rock star. So Austin, Texas and city hall chambers, I want y'all to give a big, fat welcome to where are the bats? I didn't hear it. There it is. Where are the bats? Is an Austin based pop punk and pop punk and Emo band whose members hail from both coasts, the midwest and the lone star state itself. They're mixed covers. Their mix [12:45:59 PM] of covers and originals has rung through the halls of the worlds live music capital since August of 2025. Its members are Andrew Michelle Jordan, Andy Rivera, Thomas brooks, and city hall's own Sean morrow. Without further ado, where are the bats. >> Sasha. [12:47:17 PM] >> Stewart Cecile everything you meant to me. I just wish I saw it to. But I think that you'll find everything. Everything's fine. Making my way through it this time. And every thing I've. Everything, every thing being fine. Everything, everything. Never again will I do everything I promised you. Who knew I'd feel so free? And I think that [12:48:18 PM] you'll find. Forcing our love into life. It wasn't for us at the time. And every thing I've asked. Everything. Everything. Is my everything. Everything. I didn't want to tell you. I didn't want to freak you out. I didn't want to tell you. I didn't want to let you down. Didn't want to tell you. I didn't want to freak you out. And I think that you'll find everything. Everything's fine. Making my way through it this time. And every day I. [12:49:25 PM] Everything, everything, every thing is fine. Everything. Everything I told you. What did you want with you again? I told you I didn't want to let you down. Did you tell you I didn't wanna freak you out anymore? >> Let me see you move city hall. [12:50:44 PM] >> I wanna hold you close to me. Stuck like a car wrapped around a TRE. You were always supposed to be the one who I love. Till I couldn't breathe I call you and take back the things I did wrong. But you're just a notebook of unfinished songs. When echoes, tears. The memories of the nights we never knew. There's music in your veins. But you. Give it up for Andy on the guitar. We [12:51:49 PM] were all that my heart could see. And now there's a knife where you used to be. Do I let you still torture me? I trade all the pain for a rope and TRE I call you and take back the things I did wrong. But you're just a notebook of unfinished songs. When echoes pierce the memories of the nights we never knew. There's music in your face when I'm touching her. But I'm feeling you. It's Thomas on the bass. Finally. Andrew Jordan on the drums. [12:53:33 PM] Thank you, city hall, we are where are the bats. Please follow us on Instagram. You're at. Where are the bats at on Instagram? Thank you. >> Awesome. Give it up for where are the bats. >> Wu. >> Awesome. Great job you guys. Can you repeat that again? I think we were too busy cheering. We said where we can find you. >> Where are the bats at on Instagram. >> At where are the bats atx live music capital of the world. Thank you very much. Thank you guys. I'm gonna read into the record now your proclamation. I'd like to preface this by saying, this is my first time doing this. It feels really special. It feels so special to be a part of this thing that makes city hall really special on Thursdays. So thank you all of y'all for performing today. 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 [12:54:35 PM] 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 not Kirk Watson, Natasha harper-madison, along with our mayor Kirk Watson, the mayor of the live music capital of the world and the remainder of the council do hereby proclaim this day, February 5th, 2026, as where are the bats day in Austin, Texas. You know, I gotta put you on the spot. Would you like to share a few words? You know, I gotta put you on the spot. Would you like to share a few words? >> Oh, really? Quick. >> Well. Thank you. >> Our first show is. Our next show is February 25th at come and take it live. So please come to that if you're able to make it. Even though it's a Wednesday night at 11 P.M. You know, I know not the logistically most convenient time, but we'll be there. It'll be a good time. I want to shout out my city hall friends for [12:55:35 PM] for being such a good crowd. Yeah, I was really nervous, so I appreciate the support. I was telling my bandmates I was more nervous for this than I would be for a regular 40 minute set in front of people I don't know. So I appreciate you guys a lot. I want to shout out my bandmates. Thomas actually will be joining us as an intern in a few weeks. And yeah, once again, that's Andy on the guitar. We got Andrew on the drums, then. Michelle. Where's Michelle? She's our manager. Michelle. Michelle a shout out to. Yeah, it's often a year and a half ago, in large part because of everything, all the great things I was hearing about the live music scene here. And yeah, it's definitely lived up to and exceeded my expectations. And you guys all have helped make that happen. So thank you. >> Thank you. Welcome home, welcome home. Thank you for joining me. Mayor pro tem, would you like to join us for some photos? >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. We don't pay for them here. Okay, then. [1:00:31 PM] >> Good afternoon and thank you for joining us today. My name is Kimberly Faulkner and I am the 2026 president and board chair of the Austin apartment association. Today is a special day as we officially launch the partner and safety alliance, a new program of the Austin apartment association created in partnership with the austin-travis county ems association, the Austin firefighters association, and the Austin police association. This initiative is designed to support our first responders while strengthening the connection between residents and the professionals who serve and protect our community every day. The partner and safety alliance is a voluntary program that allows Austin apartment association member properties to offer housing incentives to first responders. These incentives may include waive fees, reduced deposits, or rent discounts, making it easier for first responders to live closer to where they work and within communities they serve. Austin apartment association will maintain an online directory [1:01:31 PM] listing participating properties and the available incentives. First responders will be able to browse properties, view photos, and explore locations through a map view. Participating properties will also benefit from optional safety walkthroughs conducted by the Austin police department. These walkthroughs can help identify opportunities to improve lighting, door locks, and address signage, making properties easier to navigate and respond to during emergencies. In addition, properties that join the program will have the opportunity to host community engagement events that allow residents and first responders to connect in a casual and welcoming setting over a meal. Austin apartment association will sponsor several of these events and assist properties in connecting with local first responders, including APD district representatives, fire personnel and ems teams. We encourage the multi-family housing sector to join us in this meaningful initiative, not only to show appreciation for our first responders, but also [1:02:32 PM] to foster stronger relationships between residents and those who serve our community. We look forward to seeing this program grow and make a positive impact across Austin. Thank you. It is now my honor to introduce councilmember Krista Laine, a steadfast advocate for affordable housing, thoughtful public safety, and the overall well-being of our community. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for being here. I'm councilmember Krista Laine, representing district six in northwest Austin. I want to start by thanking the Austin apartment association for launching the partner in safety alliance program. It's a thoughtful and community based response to a real challenge that our city is facing. Affordability continues to be one of the biggest issues in Austin. Too often, that means the very people who serve our community as police officers, firefighters and ems professionals struggle to afford living in the city they work so hard to protect. This program is a meaningful step towards closing that gap. By [1:03:33 PM] encouraging apartment communities to offer discounts and incentives for first responders, the partner in safety alliance helps make it possible for them to live in and near Austin, where they serve. That benefits everyone through quicker response times, stronger relationships, and deeper connections between first responders and the people they serve. When the people who keep our city safe can afford to live here, our entire community is stronger and safer. I also appreciate that this program encourages community events where residents and first responders can get to know one another when people see each other as neighbors, and not just as uniforms or job titles. Trust grows strong. Communities are built through these kinds of relationships. This is exactly the type of collaborative and practical solution that I am proud to support. It brings together housing providers, first responders, and community members to address very real needs in a way that is proactive and constructive and brings us closer rather than divides us. I want to express my gratitude to the 62 and counting housing providers who [1:04:33 PM] have stepped up to participate in this program. I also want to thank the first responder union leaders who are here with us today representing police, fire and ems. Your leadership and partnership are so important, and I'm grateful for the work you do for Austin every single day. Finally, I want to offer a sincere thank you to Emily Blair and the Austin apartment association team for their leadership and commitment to making this program possible. Your efforts help ensure that the people who care for our city can also afford to call it home. Thank you. And now I'll pass it over to Michael bullock from the police association. >> Thank you, council member, council members, for being here. And also thank you to Kimberly, Emily and Hanna, the entire apartment association team. This has been a ongoing project that is very exciting to be announced and to be launched. Developing these types of programs is not only beneficial for building those community relationships and getting officers to be able to live in the city that they serve, but also an important tool for us [1:05:34 PM] to be able to recruit and driving affordable housing solutions is a great way for us to be able to attract new recruits and cadets to come here to Austin. So these interactions are extremely important, and we've had a version of this to a degree, but thanks to the apartment association, it's getting turbocharged and their leadership is really taking it to a whole nother level where officers can actively participate not only in affordable housing and taking advantage of that, but also by trying to provide public safety solutions at local complexes to where they can try to identify gaps and ways that property crime, that other types of crime can be reduced in those complexes, which ultimately benefits the department as a whole, and reducing the call load and the demands that may be placed on patrol. So as a whole, we're just very excited about this program and being able to be a part of it. And thank you all again very much for your leadership and for helping us make this happen. So with that, I'll turn it over to James monks with the association. >> Thanks. >> Good afternoon everyone. My name is James monks, and I'm the president of the Austin ems [1:06:34 PM] association. And when people think about public safety, they typically picture sirens, uniforms, flashing lights. But the truth is, public safety starts well before we get the call for 911. It starts with it starts with whether the people that you're going to rely on the paramedics, the emts, police officers and firefighters are actually going to be available to serve that call and a live in the community that they serve for ems, this isn't an abstract issue. If a medic has to live an hour outside of town because rent keeps climbing, that's an extra hour of driving right before they go to a 24 hour shift. It's less sleep, it's more stress, and it's a higher chance of burnout. And when burnout rises, as we know, vacancies rise, response times can grow, and the entire system becomes more fragile. Affordable housing is part of workforce stability. It helps with recruitment, retention and the resilience of our public safety workforce. That's why programs like apartner and [1:07:34 PM] public safety or partner in safety alliance matter because they recognize something simple. If we want first responders to keep showing up for their communities, their communities also have to continue showing up for them. And by partnering with apartment communities that offer practical incentives like reduced fees, lower deposits and rent discounts, this program helps keep ems professionals closer to the people who need them the most. I see a major benefit when first responders live in the same communities that they serve. It grows trust. Like councilmember Laine said. Neighbors become familiar faces and safety becomes a shared goal for the community. So this afternoon, I want to thank the Austin apartment association for creating this program, and I ask that moving forward, all of our public and private partners work to treat affordable housing as a public safety part of public safety infrastructure, continue to support the policies and the partnerships that help keep medics in Austin. Right answer the next call. Thank you. Oh, I'll pass. >> It off. Okay. >> Hello, everyone. Thank you [1:08:35 PM] all for being here today. I'm Adam Finkbeiner, I'm the secretary treasurer of the Austin firefighters association. And I just want to start off by saying thank you to the Austin apartment alliance apartment association for for setting up this partner and safety alliance. It's a great value to our members. We have the ability now for first responders to forgive me, to live in the communities that we serve. We appreciate these added benefits and we value a partnership in growing partnership in building a safer, stronger Austin. Thanks. >> To. Jakku. All right. That's it. All right. Any questions from the media? Yeah, I was wondering. >> Which of the 60 how did you guys determine which 62 providers would be a part of this? And also, is it just like a couple apartments that each place that are being offered or, you know, how does that work? >> I can speak to that. So [1:09:35 PM] Emily Blair Austin is Emily Blair Austin apartment association. So it's a voluntary program. Apartment communities can sign up with the apartment association. They select which properties they want to participate. And typically it's not unit limited at the property. If a first responder Walkes into the property to apply, they'll probably be presented with a discount information or the incentive information at that property. So yeah. >> Hi I'm Sydney grey with KXAN. What kind of discounts are we talking about? I know you said the sari incentives. Yeah the incentives. But can we get more specific as far as like the rent, I know it'll be different place to place. >> It is it's different place to place. Each owner and management company will make a decision of what they'd like to offer for that community. So it might be a wave security deposit or it might be a few weeks free. It really depends on the incentives. Some of the incentives have a time restriction and they might change them in six weeks again. So we're keeping up with those properties to keep those fresh and, you know, available in community located to the first [1:10:36 PM] responders that might be interested. >> My apologies if you already answered this, but how did you identify those 62 properties? I know it's voluntary. >> They self-select. So yes, we targeted properties that are near key areas, such as the training center for APD and also council member lane's district. To start, just where there is some interest in employment. Obviously, we want to focus on the areas that are convenient for first responders. >> And how long did it take to put all of this together, something you all have been working on? >> We've been building this probably for almost two years, so we're really excited for today. Yes, yes. >> And I know that Mr. Bullock mentioned that it could, you know, people living in these communities could possibly reduce property crime or just crimes in general. How would that work? Are they policing it while they're living there? >> So there's a few components in the public safety partnership with this. One of it is education for property managers about how they can be more mindful in different property features to make the property more safe and secure for residents in the community. Overall, we have a couple [1:11:37 PM] representatives who and specifically Allen Vaughn with Colin creek that can speak to that. He has direct experience with that and having kind of a walk through of the property and also updating certain things like lighting and safety and security systems and Gates, for example, access points. So all of those things kind of make the community more secure and safe overall. And it's just an education effort as well. Good question. >> All right. >> Any other questions? >> Austin any questions. Over. >> Thank you all. Appreciate it. >> Thank you thank you. [1:59:57 PM] It's 2:00 on February 5th, 2026, and I will call the city council back to order after a brief recess. Members, we will go to our 2:00 time certain. We have two public hearings that were set for 2:00, and the first one is item number 50. It is a public hearing. Without objection, I will open the public hearing. And the public hearing is now open. And I will turn to the city clerk's office. >> We have no speakers for item 50 members. >> As you've heard, there are no speakers on item number 50. So without objection, we will close the public hearing. The public hearing is now closed, and the chair will entertain a motion to approve item number 50. Motion made by councilmember Ellis. Is there a second? Second by council member Fuentes. Discussion on item number 50. Hearing none. Without objection. Item number 50 is adopted. That will take us to item number 51, which is also a public hearing. Without objection, we'll open the public hearing. The public hearing is now open, and I'll turn to the city clerk. [2:00:58 PM] >> We have no speakers for item 51. >> Item number 51. There are no speakers. So without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 51, and I'll entertain a motion to approve item number 51. Motion made by councilmember duchen, seconded by councilmember Fuentes. Is there discussion? Hearing none without objection. Item number 51 is adopted with councilmember Laine temporarily off the dais. And by the way, for the record, councilmember Laine was temporarily off the dais on item number 50 as well. Members, that will take us to our 2:00 time certain on zoning, and I'll recognize miss harden. >> Thank you, mayor and council. Joy harden. With Austin planning your zoning agenda begins with item number 52 c14 2025 0110. This item is offered for consent on all three readings. Item 53 is c814040187 .03. S. This item is offered as a staff postponement to your March 26th council meeting. Item 54 c14 2024 0160. This [2:02:01 PM] item is offered as a postponement by council member qadri to your March 26th council meeting. And item 55 is c14 2024 0179 and this item is offered for consent on all three readings. This concludes the reading of the zoning agenda portion of your agenda. And as always, this is at your discretion. >> Thank you. Council member. Have questions of miss harden? All right, members, I'll entertain a motion. The consent agenda will be item number 52. All three readings. Item 53 a postponement to March 26th. Item 54, postponement to March 26th. And item 55 on all three readings. Is there a motion? Motion made by councilmember duchen, second by councilmember Velazquez. All turn to the city clerk. For any people that have signed up to speak. >> Yes. On item 53, we have Zenobia Joseph. >> Miss Joseph, are you here? She does not appear to be here. >> On item 54, we have Nicole pullido. [2:03:03 PM] >> Please come forward and speak to the merits of the postponement. >> Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Nicole. I'm the executive director of the red river cultural district. I'm here to speak on behalf of our board and our community. The cultural district has reached out to the property representative for 1000 red river starting in October. During that same period, we understand that the property representative had met with other downtown stakeholders. During this time. We met with zoning staff and other stakeholders to understand what this case was about, and had submitted a letter to city council for our concerns and our postponement since the postponements on December 11th. In January 22nd, we've since met with the property owner, shared our vision for the site and also our willingness to be a partner in this space. The cultural district is officially recognized as a city and state cultural district, and it is the highest concentration of [2:04:03 PM] independent live music venues per block in the country. This is not just a neighborhood, it is a working cultural ecosystem and a major economic engine and tourism engine for Austin. This site is three acres. It is a full block gateway that connects the convention center, Waterloo park and the expanding greenway and the developing innovation district. I-35, captain stitch and red river's music mile from fifth to 15th street. This site has potential to be a catalyst and anchor, and a connector for our eastern part of downtown. For these reasons, we ask that while we're postponing today, we ask that the council consider any sort of approval of this contingent on a couple of conditions. We really would like to be perceived as the respected organization that we are and have a meaningful, meaningful and collaborative relationship with this property owner. We'd really like to see some ground floor activation at this space. It's a huge lot. [2:05:04 PM] And currently all four sides do not invite any pedestrian activity. As you know, being in a cultural district, there is adjacency to live music venues. >> Thank you. We appreciate what you do and we appreciate you being here and laying that out. Thank you. >> Next on item 55, bill bunch and Zenobia, Joseph. >> Mr. Bunch, miss Joseph, bill bunch, Zenobia, Joseph, neither one are here. >> That concludes all speakers. >> Thank you. Members, as you heard that concludes all of the speakers on the consent agenda. Let me ask if there's discussion on the consent agenda. Yes. Councilmember qadri. >> Thank you. Mayor. I just want to quickly touch on item 54. I've asked for postponement until March 26th for the case. The goal for that postponement is to allow additional collaboration between the [2:06:04 PM] applicant and the area. I appreciate both of them so much, especially on the red river cultural district, which I believe is a critical partner in this conversation. The site sits at the convergence of two significant areas that are cultural district and the emerging innovation district. That intersection gives us this property enormous potential, but potentially matters if we get this process right. And I want to ensure that there's enough time for real good faith engagement and this extra time, you know, I want folks, I want the applicant and stakeholders to work toward shared understanding and have time to reach an agreement on how engagement will continue throughout this process. The eastern eastern crescent of downtown is going to evolve, and I don't disagree with that reality. But evolution without intention can leave people behind, and that is not something that I believe anyone wants to see. We have to be thoughtful about how change happens, and that means intentional engagement and making sure that people and institutions that built this area are part of its future. We always claim that we care about the red river cultural district. [2:07:05 PM] I think it's important that we act like it. And if we say we, we value culture and community, our process has to reflect that. I want to see the cultural district and innovation district thrive together, not in competition, but in partnership. And that starts with thinking about the red river street as a holistic placemaking effort. And I just want to say I appreciate the work that's been done, but I really do look forward to the collaboration between the applicant, the red river cultural district and other downtown stakeholders. You know, I hope for a constructive process and I'm looking forward to seeing this item back on March 26th. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Any further discussion? Yes, councilmember Fuentes. >> Thank you. Councilmember qadri, thank you for moving to postpone item 54 or putting that as part of the consent agenda. I appreciate that postponement, I support it. I think it's absolutely necessary, especially that area of downtown. When this item comes back to us in March, I am going to be looking to see if the applicant can speak to how those engagement efforts have gone to ensure that we are [2:08:05 PM] preserving what makes Austin so special when it comes to our live music. And just wanted to reiterate my support for postponement to share that. I hope to see those conversations move forward and to see a plan fleshed out. >> Thank you, councilmember members. Is there anyone wishing to abstain from a vote on the consent agenda? Is there anyone wishing to be shown as recusing themselves from a vote on any item on the consent agenda? Anyone wishing to be shown voting no on any item on the consent agenda? Hearing none. There being no further discussion on the consent agenda. Without objection, the consent agenda is adopted. Members. Councilmember Laine was temporarily off the dais when we took up items 50 and 51, and she would like to be shown voting in favor of items 50 and 51. Her vote would not change the outcome of the vote the previous vote. So I would move that she be shown voting in favor of items 50 and 51, seconded by councilmember Ellis. Is there any discussion? Without objection, [2:09:06 PM] councilmember Laine will be shown voting in favor of items 50 and 51 members. That concludes the agenda for this regular meeting of the Austin city council for February 5th, 2026. So, without objection, the Austin city council is adjourned at 2:09 P.M. Thanks, everybody. Thanks.