City Council Regular Meeting Transcript – 5/28/2026 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 5/28/2026 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 5/28/2026 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. [10:00:10 AM] Good morning everybody, it’s ten o’clock in the morning on May 28, 2026, and I will call to order this regular meeting of the Austin city council. We have a quorum of the city council present. We are meeting in the city council chambers, which are located in city hall at 301 west second street in Austin. Members. What I'll do is I'll give a rundown of what the day is going to look like in a moment. I'll read changes and corrections into the record, and then we will go from there to our consent agenda and the speakers that have signed up on the consent agenda. Members right now, the items that have been pulled from the consent agenda are. Item number 41 has been withdrawn. Item number 60 has been withdrawn. Item number 90 has been pulled and item number 92 has been pulled. Members, I would also point out that item number 97 will be taken up after item 102. Just as we go through the day, we'll we'll hear from the speakers. We will get a motion in a [10:01:11 AM] second and comments and discussion on the consent agenda. Once the consent agenda is complete, we will then go to probably the Austin housing finance corporation board of directors meeting. So what I will do is I will recess the council meeting. Call that board meeting to order. We will deal with that, adjourn it, and then come back to the council meeting, at which point we will take up pulled items. We also have other nonconsent items. We have one item that's coming from council committee. We have eminent domain items. We have public hearings at noon. We will wherever we are, we will stop at noon and we will take up our general. Our time, certain general public communication. There will be no music today and at 2:00 we will also have a time. Certain members. We typically know that we have zoning matters at a time certain. But we will also have item number 67, which is a public hearing. But we will take that item up at 2 P.M. Because it relates to zoning [10:02:12 AM] item number 75. And for those that are here to speak at the public hearing on item number 67, that will be brought up at 2:00, then item number 92 will be taken up at 2 P.M. With the zoning item number 75. And and here's the way that's going to work. And just so that you. Because it if I say it later, I won't say it a couple of times. One is if 67 and 75 don't pass, then we will take up item number 92. If they pass, item number 92 will be withdrawn by the staff. And then of course, we will take up our zoning items. So get your money in on the pool. What time you think will finish today? Let me now read changes and corrections into the record. Item number 41, as I indicated, has been withdrawn. Item number 58 should add council member Ryan alter as a co-sponsor. Item [10:03:12 AM] number 59 should add council member Jose Velazquez as a co-sponsor. Item number 60 is withdrawn. Item number 67. As I indicated, this public hearing item will be taken up with the 2:00 pm zoning item number 75. Item number 92 has been pulled from consent to be heard with the 2:00 pm zoning item number 75, item 73 and 104. When those public hearings are taken up, these items will be postponed to July 23rd, 2026. Also, for the record, council member harper-madison and council member Fuentes are not going to be here today, so they will be listed as absent on votes that we take. And when I call the vote, as we go through the day, I probably will not each time call out their names as absent, but the record will reflect [10:04:12 AM] that they are not present and not voting. So members, unless there's questions or objections, we will turn to the city clerk and ask that the city clerk start calling out names for people that are speaking on our consent agenda. Please begin. >> Thank you, mayor, for item one, Jeffrey Bowen. And then for item two, three and four, Zenobia Joseph. >> As Mr. Bowen comes forward, members, I want to talk about item one as he comes forward in your backup. So the way it was originally posted, there was a number put into item number one. This is related to the tax exemption in your up. There is a blank in part four, line 18 that needs to be filled in. When we adopt the ordinance, our financial staff has told us that the amount necessary to provide equivalent tax relief to what was provided by the exemption we adopted last year [10:05:14 AM] is $204,000, $204,000. When I take a motion on the consent agenda, the motion will include that the ordinance be approved. Item number one, the ordinance be approved with the amount of the exemption in part four, line 18 being set at $204,000, which, as I've indicated, our financial staff has informed us, is the amount necessary to provide equivalent tax relief to what was provided by the exemption we adopted last year. Sorry to take up time, Mr. Bowen, but I want to make sure we have all the information out there. And now the floor is yours. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Morning, ladies and gentlemen. Mr. Mayor, city council members, Jeffrey Bowen, district eight. That was one of the questions I had, sir, and I appreciate you helping me fill out the blank there. I didn't bring my big chief Creola to to fill that in. But but we did that. So as a [10:06:17 AM] member of the city of Austin, that actually was looking forward to my hitting 65 and being able to get my exemption. I appreciate that. I appreciate the fact that we are doing those type of exemptions. And here comes the but. But I also have a question regarding how is that working towards us that we have to keep increasing exemptions because of affordability issues? How well are we actually working on that, that premise of saying we're trying to make things more and more affordable? When I look through the agenda last over the last several days, I noticed there's a lot of money going here, going there. So I again, I appreciate the fact of the increase. I imagine my some of my senior friends I know my elderly aunt would is appreciating the exemption. And there are many others that are disabled that are appreciating [10:07:17 AM] this. But again, the question comes back down to how well are we working on the affordability issues in order to have to keep offering these exemptions? So my question to you is please, please be considerate when you're looking at items that you're trying to do or you're looking at programs you're wanting to try to fund and figure out how that works within this affordability window, that constantly seems to be a constant conversation, not only here, but across the city. Again, Mr. Mayor, thank you for letting me fill in that blank on my on my cheat sheet. Thank you so much. >> Let us know when you turn 65. >> I'm sorry sir. >> Just let us know when you turn 65. >> I will as soon as I'm able to get my my transportation deduction. So. >> Miss Joseph, there you are. [10:08:26 AM] >> Thank you. Mayor. Council. I'm Zenobia Joseph. My comments are on two, three and four. Does that mean six minutes? Mayor. >> You get to speak on two. Then you get to speak on three and you get to speak on four. So yeah. >> Certainly. So item two is the $5 million defeasance item specifically related to the saint John property, which is 19 acres. I just want to call to your attention and back up. It actually references the October 5th, 2023 action that you took. I am still confused as it relates to the third option. It says that the city cannot or chooses not to exercise options 1 or 2. Option one was for the housing authority of the city of Austin or public facility corporation or Austin housing finance corporation to take over the property after 60 years. Option two was for the city to purchase the property at fair market value after 60 years. But option three specifies that [10:09:27 AM] if you don't exercise options 1 or 2, the property reverts to market rate for the remainder of the 99 year ground lease 39 years with no affordability component, at the end of which the city can buy the property back for $1. I am having some difficulty finding where that language disappeared to. I emailed Olivarez, which was in backup, and didn't get a reply back, so it would be helpful. Mayor, if you were transparent with the public or the city manager who appears to be paying attention while you're not specifically, I want to call to your attention that the reason that you're breaking this 19 acres into two parcels is because the investors want a better return on investment. As best I understand it says specifically, following a comprehensive review of the saint John and has south development and north development, it says walker and Dunlap concludes. An item three [10:10:31 AM] continues with the same project that the market rate development is not financially feasible under current market conditions, given prevailing rent levels and investor return requirements. In Austin, Texas, I'm not sure what the return requirements are. If you could be a little bit more transparent, that would be helpful. I can tell you that the reason the property has only 30 of 526 three bedroom units is because the developer was transparent. After the African American resource advisory commission chair asked once upon a time why there weren't very many three bedroom units for families to return specifically, I understand that if the developer created only one unit, then they would need three of those one bedroom units to create the three bedroom unit, and then they wouldn't get a good return on investment. So it's a little disingenuous because the backup is not transparent. I would just ask you to recognize that [10:11:31 AM] on item three, you're specifically talking about connectivity and access to amenities that exist. I want you to recognize that capital metro has eliminated or removed the bus stop. That was actually across from the senior development, which is adjacent to this old Home Depot site at saint John's and I-35 and on the west side of I-35, right at the gas station. Their capital, metro, eliminated the bus stop that is near the school. So I want you to understand that while it sounds good to put connectivity in the backup, that specifically is disingenuous. I'm not sure if there's something more to the information that you're sharing with the public, but as it relates to what is actually in existence today, capital metro is not trying to connect black people or hispanics specifically to the amenities on the west side, specifically. >> Mayor item number four. [10:12:34 AM] >> Well, that was for mayor. Oh, okay. >> That was three. >> Sure. They're all interrelated. So I don't I don't know that I have much more to add other than to give the acreage for the public to know what we're talking about. So the saint John north would be 13.6 acres, $79.7 million. Saint John south is 5.5 acres, $41.9 million. If you want more information about this project, may 21st, 2026, specifically, is when the housing authority of the city of Austin had their meeting to discuss the. Now, approximately 70% of the units will be income restricted. I know that sounds good, but I would just ask you to recognize, mayor, that this is a concentration of poverty. I understand that there will be income restricted units in the southwest corner of the property, and specifically, you are not in compliance with the fair housing act of 1968. I want you to recognize that [10:13:36 AM] across from this development is an income restricted, affordable development for senior citizens. So it would be helpful for the city manager to provide an overlay in the future so that the public can actually know what the area median income is in this area. And I would ask chito vela to look at the transportation conditions today and recognize that the people in this area are not being served. I want you to recognize that the amenities that are northeast of us 183 are actually not the same as it is on the west side. And so it is disingenuous for you to use transit to actually bolster this project. I would ask chito vela to go into his district and to actually look at the amenities in the Cameron area, the area that's on saint John's, and to recognize that there's no real time information for people who are using the transit, who are transit dependent riders. And specifically, if you have any questions, mayor, I'll gladly answer them at this time. But my comments, as they always are in the context of title six of [10:14:37 AM] the civil rights act of 1964. >> Thank you, Joseph. >> For item five. Paul Robbins and Raphael Schwartz followed for item seven is John branch. >> Please come forward if your name has been called. >> Please start my time. Council. I'm Paul Robbins. I urge you to reject the franchise language you have here today, because Texas gas service has not negotiated in good faith. You asked for pollution reductions. The company was provided with a number of options that would not cost a penny in profits. The company chose only one and left the rest on the floor. The company is so hard hearted that it cannot come up with a paltry $250,000 to help the poor with emergency bill assistance. The company, which considers itself a paradigm of free enterprise, [10:15:38 AM] continues to force existing customers to subsidize much of the cost to connect new customers. Hence, existing customers are subsidizing increased profits. This is in fact, a twisted form of socialism. Since 2019, the company's residential rates have increased by $360 a year, 124%. Its commercial rates have increased by over $2,000 a year, 167%. Many austinites wish council would rein in these excessive bills. The rigid schedule that your staff has set for this second reading is placing the city at a disadvantage. They're basically signaling to the company that this franchise does not mean that much to Austin. It's like the dog who played poker. He knew all the odds. He could [10:16:40 AM] even count cards, but he lost every hand because he wagged his tail. I hope you will be better card players. >> Please go ahead. >> Morning. My name is Raphael Schwartz. I'm on resource management commission. I want to urge council to not take this item up today, but rather take advantage of the opportunity to push back and delay the second reading to give the city more time to negotiate the items in the motion. After first reading on may 7th had asked for improvement on three things, which were low income customer assistance, capital recovery fees which subsidize system expansion and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. I was disappointed yesterday to see that no meaningful improvement on most of these issues were in the draft agreement. One example is emergency bill assistance for low income. This is lower than it's ever been before, and it's not required to continue at all in the [10:17:40 AM] agreement. A second item that our MC resource management commission pushed for is the energy conservation program, which is paid for by a minimal customer charge that costs the utility nothing. These programs have existed for at least 30 years in Austin, and they were a requirement in the 2006 franchise agreement. The last one. The new proposal completely eliminates this long standing program, which is a step backwards for energy savings. There's no reason to let the utility kill a decades old conservation program. It's a simple item that we can add to fund more energy efficiency, save energy, and improve outcomes. For Austin, this is an opportunity on both climate and affordability, with a meaningful return on investment. Please delay this vote today. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to item nine, Jeffrey Bowen and William bunch. And then for item 13, Aaron Monday. >> Mr. Bowen, Mr. Bunch. Mr. Bunch is passing. [10:18:49 AM] >> It's that old thing, you know. You got to get up. Back out of that chair, sir. Okay. Jeffrey Bowen, district eight. I'm speaking on item nine this morning based upon just really a couple of issues. And and I've had this conversation with the city manager referring to deferred maintenance. And I realize that there's many items on this list that appear to be a lot of deferred maintenance. So the question is always how much deferred maintenance is still out there that we need to do. When I look at one of these and we're looking at a fire department that we're still doing lead and asbestos abatement, I go, we haven't had all that taken care of yet. How much more is we do? We still have out there in our city facilities that our city employees or city associates are working in, not questioning the amount of money, even though it does add to our debt and so on and so forth. But I [10:19:50 AM] look at how long does it take us to get a project done in this town? How many change orders are we getting based upon bad estimates versus the bid? And also how many more times do we have to come back? And council has to approve more money for projects. The mayor had had his item up there for. Looking at how we do some of our processes. This is one of the processes when it comes to all of our construction projects, on any of our projects, that really needs to be looked at with a fine tooth comb and understand what's going on. Why is it take two years to do a library renovation? Why is it take over 90 days just to put some asphalt at a at a small library parking lot, and it's even got an issue with it, with the charging station in the middle of a walkway. So where is our inspection people? Where are our people that are looking at these things that can really start scrutinizing the amount [10:20:51 AM] of money we're spending versus the quality of work we're getting. Thank you sir. >> Thank you. Aaron. Monday. >> Moving on to item 21. Zenobia Joseph and Katy cam then 26 Zenobia Joseph. >> Please begin. Mr. >> Joseph thank you, mayor. Council. I'm Zenobia Joseph. I'm just going to read into the record so the public knows what we're talking about. This is a Burleson stasney high crash intersection, $2 million, $2.3 million with the contingency. Well, I certainly don't doubt that there is a need for some transportation infrastructure there. I just want to call to your attention. It was August [10:21:52 AM] 18th, 2016, that there was a contract with voters for the $720 million mobility bond. And I want you to recognize that the voters put north Lamar, number one. And so I would ask the transportation and public works department to reprioritize these funds and put them where there have been fatalities. I have said it before, 2009, there was a study that said mid-block crashes is where people get killed the most. You are well aware that on August 5th, 2025, that is when the assistant city manager actually did a recon with me. And Mike Rogers saw for himself that there is not any type of pedestrian hybrid beacon in the area by not your ordinary school. I want you to recognize here at stasney and Burleson 6505 Burleson, which is specifically where the goodwill is. There is a bus stop, but there's not a paired stop for veterans to get from the va clinic. On the other side of the road. I want you to [10:22:53 AM] recognize that, yes, the bus runs there, but it's actually it ends early. It doesn't run on Saturdays and Sundays. I do understand the traffic in the area. But again, mayor, the voters spoke and the city manager has an obligation to comply with the language that's in the contract with voters. And so I'm asking you to reprioritize these funds and not fund this area at this moment. Specifically, you are well aware of Mr. Norton, who was killed in 2016, and the Imam who was killed in 2025. And yes, I recognize there's a pedestrian hybrid beacon that's going up by the Muslim church, but that's not enough. Thank you. >> Thank you, miss cam. >> Hello. I am Katy cam of district nine. This item is to approve a construction contract to make intersection improvements to Burleson stasney high crash intersection. The plan is to add raised medians for access management, enhanced pedestrian, bicycle and bus facilities, striping changes, and signal infrastructure upgrades. I want to highlight that this was an opportunity to design a [10:23:55 AM] multi-modal roundabout instead, which is known to reduce speeds and reduce crashes, fatalities and injuries. A roadway network of roundabouts intersections creates a more efficient transportation system as well. Instead, for this project, the traffic signal will remain. This is a missed opportunity to create a safer, more efficient network. I'm seeing this happen for multiple intersections across the city. For costs. There are low cost, quick build options to create roundabouts. Arizona D.O.T. Just had a webinar a couple days ago about this and they're the working really well. The quick build ones. Please direct city staff to design to best practices so that we can truly have safe streets for all. Additionally, the city of Austin is producing designs for pedestrians, bikes, busses, and cars. But there is a set of what we can potentially call missing middle mobility modes, which are low speed mobility modes that are being embraced by other communities and that I'm increasingly seeing in use in Austin golf carts, low speed vehicles, e-trikes and [10:24:56 AM] quadricycles, which are the three and four wheeled cycles where in the roadway space can people use those modes? Designs are outdated and based on where mode choice is going. In the us and in Austin, with Austin strategic mobility plan wanting to increase mode share of non-car modes, we need the roadway to be designed to accommodate them. In conclusion, we are missing opportunities to create a safer, more efficient transportation system and to create space for the missing middle mobility modes. To avoid this, please require all roadway projects to incorporate roundabouts and space for those vehicles. Thanks. >> Thank you, miss Kim. Miss Joseph, you're on 262. >> And then for item 29, I have Andrew Henderson. Potentially it says Hefner one of my system. [10:25:58 AM] We don't have that notated. >> Miss Joseph, please go ahead. >> Thank you. Mayor. Council. I'm Zenobia Joseph. This is a $500,000 item. Americans with disabilities act, a transition plan and a self report, but in fact is really about marketing and about branding the city as compliant with title six. If you look at the backup materials specifically, it says the current city of Austin Ada transition plan was last updated in 1996 and is outdated. It goes on to say the contract will result in an updated transition plan, staff training, self-evaluation, completed public outreach, a digital accessibility review for external websites, and the updated title six implementation plan. And as you are aware, my comments are always in the context of title six of the civil rights act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. I [10:26:58 AM] want you to recognize that you go on to talk about regional brand alignment, brand management and media support. So you're going to brand the city as being welcoming to African Americans. While you have an aversion to us specifically, I want you to recognize northeast of us. 183 the real time information that was once at Walmart. Norwood no longer exists. There is no real time information at north Lamar transit center. So. Chito. Vela, I would encourage you to go to your district and take a look at the amenities that no longer exist. I want you to recognize as it relates to Americans with disabilities act. I continue to tell you about Yeager and north Lamar. You've seen the pictures. You recognize that people in wheelchairs, walkers and canes cannot get in the ditch to push the button to cross the street. But yet we have the transportation public works department that unilaterally decide that they're going to beautify burnet road, airport boulevard and other projects [10:27:58 AM] that were not ranked first in the $720 million mobility bond, as well as subsequent bonds. If you have any questions, I'll gladly answer them. >> Okay. Moving to item 45, Emily Blair, Allen Vaughn, Shelby. Bauer, Travis Rocha. Travis, are you here? >> He is. >> Okay. What about Hannah Garcia? Okay, she's donated time to Travis. >> Okay. >> Good morning, mayor, mayor pro tem and esteemed council members. My name is Allen Vaughn, and I'm a property owner in district four, specifically the north Austin civic association and a member of the Austin apartment association. Unequivocally, I can tell you, by talking to the fellow property owners within. Certainly naka, we are for 100% [10:29:01 AM] transparency with our residents. It's extremely important to us. I do want to speak briefly about the implement implementation realities and why January 1st, 2027 effective date is so important. The systems used to advertise apartments, generate lease quotes, calculate utilities, disclose fees and process applications, are not controlled entirely by on site staff or even individual property owners. Many rely on third party software vendors, listing platforms and standardized lease systems used across Texas. Even relatively small changes require months of programing, testing, training and coordination before they can be implemented accurately and consistently. That is why we respectfully ask council to amend the applicability so that all properties, regardless of size, have until January 1st, 2027 to comply. Without adequate lead time, you risk creating confusion for renters, inconsistent disclosures across [10:30:02 AM] platforms, and compliance problems that neither residents nor housing providers want. We also support the amendment clarifying the definition of advertisement a clear definition. Definition creates a more workable ordinance and reduces uncertainty about what communications are actually regulated. Again, our concern is timing, not transparency. Austin's rental housing providers are already moving toward greater transparency. Many have invested heavily in disclosure tools and resident facing technology. We simply ask for enough time to implement this ordinance carefully and correctly, so the end result is meaningful and transparency. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Go ahead. >> Good morning, mayor, mayor pro tem and council members. My name is Shelby Bauer, and I'd like to speak specifically about the people who will actually be implementing this ordinance. Every day leasing agents, assistant managers and on site staff. These are hard working austinites. Many are young professionals, single parents, or people just starting their careers. They do [10:31:02 AM] not Wright policy. They do not own the properties, and they often do not control the software systems they are required to use. Yet under the current draft, the ordinance could expose these individual employees to criminal liability for an inadvertent compliance mistakes made during the ordinance course of their jobs. Texas law already reflects concern about this issue. Texas local government code section 250.003 limits local government's ability to impose criminal or civil penalties directly on landlords, employees acting within the course and scope of employment. That is why we respectfully ask you to adopt an additional amendment to correct the definition of provider. So liability remains appropriately focused on the housing provider entity itself, not individual frontline employees. We support transparency, but transparency can be achieved without placing disproportionate, disproportionate legal risk on leasing professionals who are simply trying to help residents navigate increasingly, increasingly complicated leasing processes. And again, our concern is timing, not [10:32:03 AM] transparency. A January 1st, 2027 effective date for all properties would provide time for proper training, software integration and standardized implementation across the market. That timeline protects both renters and employees by reducing confusion and improving compliance from day one. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you sir. You'll have four minutes. >> Good morning, mayor, mayor pro tem and council members. My name is Travis rosha, and I'm here today as a member of the Austin apartment association and our nearly 1400 communities and the thousands of employees who work every day to manage the communities where most austinites live. That's a responsibility we take very seriously. We want to be clear at the onset, offset the the excuse me, that the Austin apartment association association fee transparency. The apartment industry has already moved significantly toward greater fee transparency. The Texas apartment association lease has listed non rent fees prominently since 2021, and [10:33:03 AM] many properties now provide online fee calculators and disclosure tools to. Renters can better understand their housing costs before applying. So today, we are not here in opposition to rental fee transparency. We're here to address concerns with item 45 and advocate to targeted improvements to the ordinance language, so that the city establishes a framework that allows housing providers to deliver a consistent, transparent and legally compliant leasing experience for prospective tenants. This supports effective and workable compliance at the property level, and maintains appropriate and balanced boundaries regarding penalties for violations of these new requirements, we appreciate the work of city council members and staff have put into the ordinance, and we especially support the amendment defining advertisment more clearly. That clarification provides more guardrails and makes compliance more realistic for housing providers and the platforms they rely on. We also [10:34:04 AM] respectfully ask that you support narrowing the definition of provider, so that criminal liability does not extend directly to the individual leasing agents and on site employees across the city, there are thousands of leasing agents, property managers, and other on site rental housing professionals. These employees are not corporate decision makers. They are working austinites, doing their jobs and increasingly complex software systems and regulatory environments. If an inadvertent mistake occurs while acting within course of and scope of employment, it seems fundamentally unfair to expose an individual employee to a class C misdemeanor. Finally, we respectfully request a January 1st, 2027 implementation date for all properties to allow the industry sufficient time to integrate disclosure forms and compliance systems consistent consistently across the market. Thank you so much for your consideration. >> Thank you. Please begin. [10:35:05 AM] >> Good morning, mayor, mayor pro tem and council members. My name is Tiffany blankman, and I am speaking today as a member of the Austin apartment association to address the broader regulatory landscape surrounding rental fee transparency. We support the goal of helping renters better understand housing costs, but we are also asking the council to consider the very real risk of overlapping or conflicting regulatory standards. The federal trade commission has already announced potential rulemaking related to housing rental housing fee disclosures. That means housing providers may soon face a separate federal disclosure framework with potentially different definitions, formatting requirements, timing obligations, or advertising standards. If Austin moves too quickly before that process concludes, providers could be forced to build one compliance system this year, only to rebuild it again once federal standards are finalized. That is expensive, disruptive, and ultimately unhelpful for renters who benefit most from the consistent and standardized [10:36:05 AM] disclosures. This is why our concern, again, is timing, not transparency. We respectfully request the council to adopt a January 1st, 2027 effective date for all properties to allow time for the federal process to develop and to reduce the likelihood of conflicting requirements. We thank you, council member alter for amending the. To clarify. Advertisement because clearer definitions reduce ambiguity and improve enforceability. And finally, we ask you to support narrowing the definition of provider. So individual leasing agents are not personally exposed to criminal penalties for inadvertent mistakes while carrying out their jobs. Thoughtful implementation will produce better compliance, better transparency, and better outcomes for renters and housing providers alike. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. >> Continuing on 45, I have Brad Massingill, Shoshana Kreger, and Taylor Smith, and then for 46, also Brad Massingill. [10:37:10 AM] >> Please begin. Just state your name for the record. >> Yes. Hi. Good morning everyone. My name is Shoshana Kreger and I'm the project director of Basta building and strengthening tenant action. We work with tenants throughout Austin to help organize and form tenants associations and conduct outreach, and advocate on tenant's behalf. And junk fees are an issue we have been seeing for quite some time. It's an issue which is happening both locally and also nationally, and the amount of different fees we have seen proliferate over the last five years is pretty astounding. I just asked our team members right before coming here, what was their favorite fee that they have seen. And some things that I heard were packaged concierge and valet trash and valet trash at one complex also has a trash service fee and another trash fee, and those weren't disclosed or known to tenants before before they signed their leases. Other fees [10:38:10 AM] which folks talked about were pet rent and pet fees. My personal favorite is a fire hydrant fee that I saw on a ledger a while back. What this resolution, what this ordinance does is it starts to level a really, really uneven playing field. And all it's doing is saying that that landlords have to be straight up with how much they're going to charge. We were in one meeting with a with a developer not that long ago who said, but I can't include all the fees in the rent because I'll be at a competitive disadvantage because everyone else is doing it, which is basically admitting to the fact that the reason they're doing it is they're trying to pull a bait and switch on tenants. And so what this is doing is it's leveling the playing field. So this has been a number of years in the making. There was the UT law report on junk fees, which is well over a year ago, I think it was two years ago. And the time has come to finally get something done here in [10:39:11 AM] Austin on this issue. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Mr. Massingill. >> Hi, Brad. Massingill, district three. I'm also the on the executive committee for the Austin neighborhoods council, but I'm here speaking for myself and for tenants of Austin. In case anyone is wondering what this is about, it's to rein in excess fees on rental properties and require landlords to expose upfront before even sign a lease. What those fees are going to be. I have a a nephew that rented an apartment for X amount, and when he was finished, they added 25% onto his rent. We're talking about affordability in this town, and you're looking for something that you can afford, and all of a sudden you're in over your head because these fees just start piling in on top of you. This is a bad situation for for a lot of renters. The other thing I'd like to encourage you all [10:40:12 AM] to tack on to this bill is to rein in software management tools like realpage that are price fixing on these apartments. This is this is we heard earlier that there's there's some sort of national thing coming down the pipeline, but we don't we're not assured that any of that's going to happen or if it's going to benefit our population, we need to rein this in and make sure that our, our. Landlords and apartment buildings here aren't inadvertently colluding with one another to make these prices artificially high, because they want to get as much as they can out of the market. It's, it's y'all can do this. And I think that's appropriate. Thanks. >> Good morning, mayor and council. My name is Taylor Smith. I represent the Austin board of realtors and our more than 16,000 central Texas members. While a board is neutral on item 45, we greatly appreciate city staff for releasing version three of the [10:41:13 AM] ordinance, which includes language that further clarifies that the ordinance applies only to landlords who own five or more rental units. This clarification aligns the with the original intent of the resolution council approved back in 2024, and help ensures that the ordinance is implemented as intended. Staff's version three of the ordinance balances council's goal of providing prospective tenants with greater transparency during the leasing process, with the cost and liability concerns raised by small housing providers and practitioners, most landlords and property managers of single family homes, duplexes and small, smaller rental properties, particularly those who use the Texas realtors rental residential lease agreement, already provide prospective tenants with the costs associated with renting a unit, including rent, fees and utilities, upfront before a prospective tenant signs a lease. We'd like to thank city and council staff for their hard work and for engaging with all stakeholders during this throughout this process. Thank you for your consideration and for your public service. [10:42:14 AM] >> For item 49 William bunch. >> Mr. Bunch, he's passing. >> Okay, then I do have a remote speaker for 51, Monica Guzman. >> Good morning, mayor and council. I'm Monica Guzman, district four resident. I just speaking in support of item 54. I have had the the privilege of being able to see the area from Daniel Lianes backyard. And I think it would be great. He's very much a long time advocate, and it would be great if y'all approve. Item 54. Thank you. >> Miss Guzman. This is 51. >> Oh, that was fast. Oh, man. On a second. Well good morning, Monica Guzman. I'm Monica Guzman, Gaar policy director, [10:43:15 AM] speaking in opposition to item 51 in lines 150 to 154. We suggest and request adding, quote, the Austin equity and inclusion equity division and utilize existing community input and expertise, unquote, to the list of stakeholders to ensure input from transit dependent writers who rely on public transit due to lack of access to private vehicles, as well as multifamily property tenants. In light of a council meeting only one week ago, we urge you to postpone this item, allowing the community sufficient time to review this item and reach out to relevant staff with questions and concerns. In addition, postponing your vote allows time to further inform the community, especially low income residents with limited or no English proficiency. Thank you. >> And in person for item 51. I have Brad Massingill, William [10:44:17 AM] bunch, Zenobia Joseph and Katy cam. >> Name has been called and you want to speak. Please come forward. Mr. Bunch, are you waving on this one? All right. Miss cam. You'll be first. >> Hi. I'm Katy cam, resident of district nine. I support efforts to improve the design of the built environment and streets. However, similar to my past testimony or earlier this morning, I want to address what's missing from this resolution. This resolution states that it wants to enhance multi-modal mobility, but only lists walking, biking and transit. The resolution needs to list low speed vehicles, golf carts, trikes, quadricycles. Those mobility modes are becoming increasingly popular in Austin and in other communities. They are safer modes because they are low speed, moving 25mph or less. They are more affordable. To give an example, this vehicle can be purchased for about [10:45:17 AM] $3,000, and you only have to pay about $200 a year for vehicle insurance there. Space efficient, taking up less space than a conventional car, and lastly, an electric form, their emissions free helping the city meet climate goals. There are many cities around the U.S. To look at, for example, the street design guidelines that incorporate these low speed modes many in southern California, northern California, peachtree city, Georgia. I'm happy to be a resource for this, since I've been looking into this for the last ten years and see huge potential and transforming the city of Austin's transportation system to be safer, lower speed, efficient and fun. So thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Massingill. >> I don't have a whole lot to add. I just I wanted to. Concur with Monica Guzman that the definitions in the proposed ordinance, it the a participant [10:46:18 AM] isn't big enough. It just says stakeholders in there. And that's a pretty wide open term. We need to, to make sure that we're including citizens in these kind of talks, especially since it's something that's going can really affect people who who aren't going to be here and do these types of things because they are dependent on public transportation and they're out working. So let's let's postpone this and let some more people participate. >> Joseph. >> Thank you. Mayor. Council. I'm Zenobia Joseph. My opposition is to line 99 on page five, which specifies project connect design. You also mentioned mid-block bike pedestrian crossing improvements in conjunction with the new development and locations. What about the existing mid-block stops, specifically the metropolitan park in district seven that you've heard me speak of ad nauseam? I want you to recognize that looking forward for gentrifiers need does not [10:47:20 AM] comply with title six. I want you to recognize as well that the sponsors have not even looked in their own areas, specifically Krista Laine, if you will recognize route three, 83 is the only bus that is there for transit dependent riders, and it barely runs on time. With 30 minute headway, it was reduced June 3rd, 2018 for Capri map, so your constituents can't even work the second shift. Chito vela you recognize that on Cameron road, they've retrofitted a little bit of terra cotta? Based on my comments for the bike ped area near cross park, I want you to recognize the system is inequitable. And specifically you mentioned Austin strategic mobility plan 5050 mode. Share on page one. And specifically that is just a proxy for race discrimination because you're not building mixed use development northeast of us. 183 and while I [10:48:20 AM] certainly can respect the previous speaker wanting to help with improvements to multimodal connections, go to northeast of us. 183 and you will not see that on burnet. You'll see it on burnet. Excuse me, but not on north Lamar. You won't see it on desert road and you won't see it east west on Parmer Laine. This is disingenuous. I would ask you to pull this resolution down. If you have any questions, I'll gladly answer them at this time. >> Thank you, miss Joseph. >> You're welcome. Mayor. >> I have a remote speaker for item 52, Tamara Orenstein. >> Good morning, mayor and council members. My name is Tamara arenstein. I live in district nine in the old west Austin neighborhood with my husband and two young children. I've been working with council member qadri on this issue, and I was eager to come and speak to the council about the overnight noise we've been experiencing on a regular basis. I am speaking in support of the resolution in item 52. I've [10:49:22 AM] lived in old west Austin since I moved to Austin 11 years ago. I love the city as a whole. In my neighborhood in particular, we have wonderful neighbors and importantly, a mix of housing types that we're thankful to have multifamily units, single family homes, and retail areas that create a vibrant neighborhood and a great mix of neighbors. That said, our home is next to a small apartment building, and this building has a dumpster that's about 20ft from our house. It's emptied every Wednesday in the early morning hours, generally between 1 and 3 A.M. It's incredibly loud. The truck lifts the dumpster up into the air, banks the dumpster against the truck to empty it, and then slams the dumpster back to the ground. It wakes our entire family every single week, and my four and a half year old goes to bed on Tuesday saying it's the worst night because of the truck that comes and how loud it is. We also have an infant to sleep is hard enough to come by as it is, but truly, every awesome resident should be able to sleep without being woken up by excessively loud dumpster activity. As stated in the resolution, several other large cities in Texas already have such ordinances in place, prohibiting overnight dumpster pickup and restaurant and [10:50:23 AM] residential areas. I do want to respectfully request that the city manager consider ensuring that the ordinance brought before council includes pickup from both commercial and residential properties so that it addresses situations like our own. So I hope you will favorably consider this item. And thank you for allowing me to speak today. >> For item 52. Brad Massingill and then item 54. Susana Almanza. >> My time has already started. The. This is a long overdue ordinance. I'm surprised this hasn't been in effect years ago, I. I would encourage you all to extend the. The the trash nighttime trash pickup noise ordinance to include the all these being used y'all are bringing online because technically they're commercial [10:51:24 AM] properties and they're going to be in residential areas. So we need to make sure that we're not going to be having the dumpster pick up 25ft away from our established neighborhoods. This is a. Also along the, this transportation corridors that y'all are setting up these these are a lot of them. They're very thin barrier between them and residential neighborhoods. So when you're allowing all these developments to, to put apartments in concentration along these commercial areas, again, you're going to have dumpsters all times of night and day. I live two doors down from the sagebrush bar. Their trash pickup comes at seven in the morning. CVS, it's elevated above our neighborhood. We get trash pickup in the middle of the night, 2 or 3 dumpsters. You know, you can hear it for blocks away. Beep beep beep [10:52:26 AM] crash, crash three times in a row. You know, it's it's it's a problem all over. And thanks for, for putting this on the agenda and beef it up some, please. >> Zamesnik. >> I have a powerpoint. Mayor. If you wait, that's at the time. Okay. Good evening, mayor and city council members. I am Susana Almanza. Daniel Lianes was grounded in the roots of mother Earth. Daniel and I were concheiro danzantes honoring our cultural and spiritual identity and preserving ancestral traditions of honoring mother Earth and the cardinal points we understood. It's not changing. We understood that being a danzante involved walking on the path with the with the community to achieve justice. Daniel was a member of the [10:53:27 AM] keepers of the Colorado river park, which included the Colorado river park wildlife sanctuary, parks that provide critical urban habitat for wildlife and well as public access to the wall river. Daniel understood that nature, kind and humankind were interwoven, interlocked, and inseparable. We recognize that our major struggle was a land struggle and a struggle to protect our living waters. Daniel Lianes, Chris brown, Linda Guerrero and I founded were founding members of the Colorado river conservancy project dedicated to river conservation. Valerie Menard presently coordinates the Colorado river conservancy for four decades, right up until his death, Daniel tirelessly advocated for the river and the maintenance of his natural character. He championed and held developed the core rules of the waterfront overlay, which established development setbacks that have proven highly effective at facilitating new development along the corridor in a. That protects and preserves the [10:54:28 AM] riparian green belt, he advocated for the clean up and improvement of the area under the montopolis bridge in the years when it had become a dumping site. Even as he was dying of cancer, Daniel was out leading parks leaders on walks through the Colorado river park wildlife sanctuary, advocating for its stewardship among a new generation who had not been around for the work that led to its creation. Beaudet thankful for many issues. Just wanted because they stopped me and said, I just want to thank you for honoring Daniel Lianes and his work by me, by renaming Colorado river wildlife sanctuary in his behalf. >> Thank you, thank you. >> Continue on. Item 54. Pedro Hernandez Jr, Valerie Menard, Lee Ziegler, Monica Guzman, and Rita Thompson. [10:55:28 AM] >> Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Pedro Hernandez and I'm with the Vasquez hills neighborhood association. For decades, Danielle dedicated himself to protecting the Colorado river and its surrounding parklands. He helped shape policies that preserve the natural character of the river corridor, supported responsible development, and advocated for the acquisition and stewardship of the parklands that we now that now make up Roig park and the sanctuary wildlife sanctuary. His leadership helped safeguard one of Austin's last remaining stretches of river, wild river and riparian habitat. Beyond his policy work, Danielle had a gift for helping people, especially young people, feel their connection to the land. I want to share a moment that captures who he was at his core. One day he held the young scholars for justice. He led the young scholars for justice on a walk into Roig Guerrero park. We began near lakeshore boulevard, surrounded by the noise of the city, cars rushing [10:56:29 AM] by Hawkins engines, all the sounds that drown out the connection to the nature. As we walked deeper into the park, the noise faded. Daniel stopped. The grant stopped. The group asked them. Ask the students to close their eyes and simply listen. He spoke about the wind in the trees, the birds calling to one another, the insects humming and the quiet heartbeat of the Earth. He reminded the youth that they are not separate from nature, but part of it. As he spoke, his voice trembled, tears filled his eyes. His love for the land was so sincere that it moved me to tears as well. In that moment, I felt exactly what he felt, the sacredness of the place and the responsibility to protect it, and the beauty of being connected to something larger than ourselves. I will never forget that day. Danielle didn't just teach environmental stewardship. He embodied it. He helped us feel it. Renaming the sanctuary as the Daniel Lianes Colorado river park wildlife sanctuary is a fitting and [10:57:29 AM] necessary way to honor his life's work and preserve the community. >> Thank you very much. >> Mayor. I'd like to donate my time to Carmen Lianes, who will be speaking later. I just filled out the form. >> And you need to go over here and get that done. >> I did, I fill out the form and she's so she. >> We don't. >> We do this every week. We have a process. If you'll go over there and do that, we'll make sure. >> She did. And they said, it's too late. Will you allow it please? >> Who said it was too late? Okay. >> Do what you want. >> I believe you tell me every week. I can't, Mr. Whaley. I'm glad you finally came around. Yeah, we will do that. We will do that if you'll just go so that they have it in the record and we can do it in the record. We'll of course do that. So thank you. I just want to make sure we have the have it set up right. >> Bobby Levinsky, Adrian Macias and Maddie Gutierrez while we sort this out. [10:58:32 AM] >> Please go ahead. Just state your name for the record. >> Rita Thompson, district five. Great. In a time where we're struggling with keeping our connection to all that is good in our humanity and appreciating our connection to nature and the environment, this is an opportunity for you to do a right and honorable thing. And please name this after Danielle Lianes and and make our city proud. >> Thank you, thank you. >> Okay. I'm going to continue calling for this item. Jeffrey Bowen, Betsy Greenberg, Barbara Macarthur. >> Oh. >> Good morning, ladies and [10:59:33 AM] gentlemen, Jeffrey Bowen, district eight. Also speaking on behalf of the Austin neighborhoods council as their president. Daniel Lianes was one of our key members and contributed a lot. And so I really when we were asked to support this, that was a no brainer for us because we were always looking for a way to deal with this. I'd like to thank council member Velasquez and also all the co-sponsors mister mayor Marc duchen. Oh, there he is. Mayor pro tem vela and also member Ryan alter. Daniel will be missed. He was not only a friend. I know that's sometimes hard to believe, but we would have actually really good conversations. Laugh, cut up, talk about some of the the different things. But I'll miss his humor also. But he was an extremely valuable member of the city of Austin and contributed more than many people will ever know. So we [11:00:34 AM] are in total support of changing the name of this wildlife sanctuary in his honor. Again, Daniel will be missed. I know he probably won't be missed. Coming to council, talking about a lot of the different things that he did, but at least he was not afraid to to speak his mind and show his passion for the environment, for this town and for the items that he dearly loved. Again, please pass this and thank you again for being sponsors and co-sponsors of this. And thank you to poder for bringing this forward also. >> Okay, I'm going to call the rest of the speakers for this item. Brad Massingill, Roy Whaley, William Bunge, and then Carmen Lianes, who we now have time donated from Valerie Menard. [11:01:41 AM] >> Danielle was, if nothing else, he was a warrior. I mean, he believed in the things that he believed in, and he fought for him and his community and this area of Colorado were were definitely high on his list of priorities. I, I worked with him on and off over the past 30 years. And I've also had the privilege of, of being involved in a lot of native American celebrations and protests all across this country and meeting elders. To show respect. You call your call them grandpa or grandma, grandma, you know, that's the way things were, you know, and during the last couple of months of Daniel's life, I made the mistake of calling him grandpa. And he let me know that that was not the thing to do. He was young at [11:02:41 AM] heart, and he was fiercely into being alive and being part of nature and the things around him. And that includes you all. Even so, I think this is a very awesome opportunity to to let his legacy live on. And maybe future generations can find out more about not just his environmental activities, but his his advocacy for indigenous rights. The poor people, you know, >> Our community and just in general, a peace advocate and a social justice hero. So thanks for for doing this. >> Mr. Whaley. >> Howdy, y'all. My name is Roy Whaley. I'm speaking as an individual and an environmentalist and a proud friend of of Daniel Lianes. [11:03:45 AM] Daniel was a man of of great heart, of great love. And he shared it. And he, I know that I can come down here and kind of be a pain in the, the bottom end sometimes Danielle would be a huge pain in the and thank god for him for that. And I'm so glad that y'all are seeing that and still honoring him with this with this. We're we're you can't I can't walk through that area without thinking about Danielle. And he was always in my thoughts, frequently in my thoughts. I think this is a great thing for you to do. I suggest all of you sign on as co-sponsors of this. But this is only a beginning. This is a beginning. To name them after him. In a future council meeting, you're going to be looking at Cesar Chavez street and thinking about [11:04:45 AM] renaming that. Don't go back to first street. You want to say something to Danielle, say, this is Danielle Lianes boulevard. Change the name to a local hero. And he was a local hero. Kahn. Kahn mutual. Marie Romano. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Bunch. >> Thank you, mayor, council members bill bunch, save our springs alliance, district five. I just want to thank all of y'all for supporting this very important honor for Daniel Lianes. He has inspired me and so many other environment, neighborhood, social justice, environmental justice advocates since back all the way back in the 80s, he never fell for the [11:05:48 AM] divide and conquer tactics that were so often thrown at us. He you know, he was a staunch advocate for east Austin, especially. But he bridged over and he understood we had to protect the west side as well. The hill country and our water supply watersheds, Barton springs, lady bird lake, and so on. He was an advocate for the arts as well artists, musician, dancer. He was an all around citizen who cared about the well-being of this community and imparted that to so many people. This wildlife sanctuary designation is so appropriate. He lived right there. He knew it backwards and forwards, and then he embraced the newcomers who were interested in helping [11:06:50 AM] protect it. Working closely with Christopher brown and so many of these stories and and recognition of the specialness of this place, this particular wildlife sanctuary documented by Chris in his book field guide to empty lots. And certainly natural history of empty lots. Excuse me. Hope you'll read that. It's it's it's in it in its own way is a dedication to Danielle. So thank you all so much. >> Good morning. Carmen Lianes, district nine. I am Danielle Lianes daughter. And I want to say to all my relations, all my extended family and this room, all of those whose lives in Austin are made possible by our [11:07:51 AM] very own yanaguana, the one we know as the Colorado river. I want to thank Susana and all the citizens who wrote to you and called in support of the renaming to honor my father's legacy. And I can tell you that his desire to be personally recognized only existed to the extent that it promoted the interests of his neighbors, his wildlife neighbors. That includes the fish eagles, that includes the great blue heron and the little blue heron, the foxes, the white tailed deer, the animals as big as the bobcat that we've spotted along the river, and as industrious as the leafcutter ants. He also cared immensely about his neighbors, and he truly understood that neighbors and our care for each other as neighbors is what makes life livable. Before the Colorado conservancy, he helped start friends of the Colorado, and in the last decade especially, he got to know his neighbors downriver and including those along hergatz Laine. You heard from them last week. We begged [11:08:52 AM] you not to allow 100% impervious cover on 2600 acres of the Colorado river, right next door, where all our animal, plant, fungal and human neighbors currently live downriver. And I can't be my father's daughter without speaking to that truth. Because, in his words, we got to be real. Being an east austinite often feels like being in an abusive relationship, given a gift in public after being hurt very badly, and he probably wouldn't have been able to forgive you for what you did to our river last week and our public process and voting in executive session for those natural gas peakers. But I am hopeful because I appreciate that you've still taken these measures to honor him, not for him, his ego, but for his legacy of protecting our natural world and our neighbors in it. I want to say thank you. Thank you to all the community members who supported this measure. Our mother may forgive [11:09:52 AM] us because she knows that you don't know what you did last week, but there's still a future. There's this little piece we can carve out of habitat, and we can work together to try and protect what we have left. So again, I say thank you for honoring my father and respecting his legacy. And I hope my wish and my prayer and that of his, I believe, as well, is that you can be moved to honor and respect our mother as well. Thank you. >> For item 55. Brad Massingill and Zenobia Joseph and then for 56 Fred Richardson. >> Mr. Massingill, are you here? Are you going to speak on 55? [11:10:56 AM] If you are, please come on forward. Go ahead and begin, miss Joseph. >> Thank you. Mayor council, I'm Zenobia Joseph. Item 55 is specifically directing the city manager to look at affordable housing by down affordability. I'm not sure why fee and lieu is included. However, I just want to call to your attention where it mentions the 60 to 80% area median income on page on line 18. This morning I wrote to gary.gates@house.texas.gov and senator Campbell, her staffer, replied back, she'll look into this item. I want you to recognize that what the city manager needs to look at is the housing authority of the city of Austin belle Vernon projects. There are 23 since 2021. These are 60 to 80% area median income. Most of these properties are over 90% [11:11:57 AM] occupied at the time they do the deal. So these are just a few of the opportunities. But I want you to recognize that the bus doesn't go to the high opportunity areas. So we could start with north east west connectivity. There are the 11th asset was extremely high opportunity, 98% occupied. That was the belle Vernon deal over. Basically rolling oaks apartments. There was the belle Vernon deal on fm road 2222, 94% occupied. And that first property that I mentioned was $136 million. It goes on. And I just would say the steiner ranch one, there's no transportation there. These properties start at $1,600. And so, city manager, I would just ask you to recognize that the housing authority of the city of Austin has the data and 0 to 1 voucher holders are often in [11:12:58 AM] these properties, even though that's how they get the deals done. If you have any questions, I'll gladly answer them at this time. >> Thank you, miss Joseph. >> You're welcome. >> Okay, moving on to item 58, I have Monica Guzman. >> Six. Your name was called for 56. That's why I asked people to come down. So I know you're here, mister mayor. Thank you. >> Good morning, Mr. >> Fred Richardson, council district three. I'm here to speak on behalf of the amigos to Zaragoza, the park adopter group for park Zaragoza, the oldest park in east Austin. Established in 1931. We are strongly in support of council member Velasquez's resolution for item 56 for Edward Rendon senior metropolitan park, with the directive to staff for Austin parks and recreation to collect community feedback regarding design and content of interpretive signage there, we'd like to suggest a [11:14:01 AM] modification to this agenda item to include parking Zaragoza as part of the directive to a pr staff that. They also collect community feedback on the creation of interpretive media for park Zaragoza regarding the financial authorization there. We're not asking park Zaragoza to be included in that. We're looking to have this interpretive media created by and installed by 2031, which will be the 100th anniversary of park Zaragoza. And so we're proposing to find funding for the design and installation of that interpretive media separately, outside of council member Velasquez specific office budget. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. 58 Monica Guzman. >> Good morning. I'm Monica Guzman, dawa policy director, speaking on item 58. The draft [11:15:01 AM] resolution lacks sufficient clarity regarding redevelopment of park amenities, Garza and other park supporters and champions are concerned about the potential impact to zilker park, chicano park and other park land. Thank you. >> Okay, for in-person speakers for item 58, I have Rita Thompson, William bunch, Zenobia Joseph, Jeffrey Bowen, Scott Johnson and Michael Mazzola. >> Please come forward. If your name has been called and you wish to speak. >> Hello, Rita Thompson, district five. I have to acknowledge that I haven't looked at the backup thoroughly, but I looked at it enough to be concerned. While at first blush it looks good about enhancing parks and enabling some pocket parks to have concerns addressed. But then as I read on, I'm starting to see things like waivers, including site [11:16:03 AM] plan waivers. Please postpone this and wait for that till there's further review. I don't know if this has been presented in a work session to your parks and recreation board. I don't know if there's a plan for this to go before any commissions about concerns they have. It doesn't give me pleasure to say this, but you don't have our trust. After the zilker vision plan, after exploring alcohol sales at Barton springs by any account, I went and did some research on that, by the way. And there is no public policy entity that thinks selling alcohol at a pool, much less something like Barton springs is a good idea. And since those things have been floated here and taken into consideration before, I'm very concerned about anything through without more oversight from the parks and rec board and for more citizens input. So, [11:17:04 AM] respectfully, I ask you, pull this, postpone this, and wait till you get some input and respectfully stop telling us what you know, what's best for us and listen to us and take some time. Thank you. >> Good morning, mayor, council members bill bunch, executive director, save our springs alliance, urging you to vote no on this proposed resolution, or at least amend it to make it clear that this has to go back to environmental commission, parks board, commission. Et cetera. This is a resolution to streamline, basically deregulate the paving, construction, commercialization, and privatization of our parks. In the first couple of whereases, I make it a wolf in sheep's clothing, clothing, making it sound like it, like it's just for playgrounds and neighborhood pocket parks. It's [11:18:06 AM] not. It goes way, way beyond that encompasses all of our parks. Your next to last. Whereas in the red line volume two, version two version references. Parks and rec has prioritized a list of park improvements, renovations, and replacements to be implemented with future bond funding. That list. This prioritized list is not in the backup. What are you even talking about? Future bond funds. You know that we don't have a bond package that's been approved. Okay, this this is not right. We need to be informed before we act. If you're going to move forward with this, which you probably almost certainly are, make sure this goes to environmental commission parks board at a minimum and and Terrell and put it in the resolution so that [11:19:07 AM] we're not just back here ignoring the normal community process for considering these kind of changes. Thank you. >> Thank you, mayor council, I'm Zenobia Joseph. I'll just piggyback off of Mr. Bunch as it relates to the bond funding line. 26. I just want you to recognize that when the bond election advisory task force actually heard the final recommendation, nothing was in backup. The the community didn't even know that they could speak on those items. And so I would ask you to recognize comments that were made earlier as it relates to distrust. We have reason to distrust you because you're not being transparent with us. When I asked Nicole, the staff liaison, she blamed the city clerk. [11:20:08 AM] Apparently, the information wasn't provided in a timely manner. But the citizen shouldn't be penalized because the information isn't there. But yet you continue to move forward. So I would just remind you of Ryan alter's comments on Tuesday where he basically, and I'm paraphrasing, saying that you circumvent the law by basically figuring out what it is you want to do. And then after the fact, you then figure out the policy to support your work. I would ask you to recognize as well on page one at the bottom, high capacity transit chito vela. You are well aware that route 325 is the only bus route with 15 minute headway in your area, and it barely runs on time. And so while you support project connect, which is also specified there, it will never serve the constituents northeast of us. 183 it will never serve the constituents from Samsung to apple, the 425 acre development east village. And so I would ask you to [11:21:09 AM] recognize the need to pull this down and to be truthful with the public and to recognize as well on rundberg by I-35, that is actually in the environmental impact statement, because it's an area of interest for txdot, and that area was not improved. So why should we believe that you're going to do anything with this parkland now. Thank you. >> Thank you, miss Joseph. >> And just to be clear, the next three speakers are for item 59. Jeffrey Bowen, Scott Johnson and Michael Mazzola. >> If you're ready. Go ahead sir. >> Thank you. Good morning, council members Scott Johnson here. I strongly support item 59. I'm a regular sit down, Vespa type scooter rider. Electric scooter binds outside on second street. The DMV [11:22:09 AM] categorizes electric bicycles as ones that can't go over 20mph. They have only 750w maximum, which is equivalent to one horsepower and other factors. Last year, in March April, I sent a message to the former chief of staff from APD, robin Henderson, indicating that I'm seeing these in growing numbers, and the sheet may have already been passed out to you. The most egregious one is this Saran non-road or off road electric motorcycle. You could see kids on that as young as 14 or 13 coming down Stratford Laine, riding on the hike and bike trail, where the speed limit is only ten miles per hour whipping around. So she thanked me for that. She sent it to the training academy so they could put together a bulletin and become aware of this growing issue. E-scooters, again, are a danger to vulnerable users of the butler trail because they're going [11:23:10 AM] faster, weaving in and around traffic. Even e-bikes will always go over, almost always go over ten miles per hour. So enforcement should be there. With the trail foundation. You should collaborate with them. Other things E skateboards, E unicycles, one wheel, two wheels, even bicycles, all these other vehicles are ones that are clogging sidewalks, which is a challenge and something that hopefully this is a comprehensive look and you're getting feedback from people like me rather than just the testimony that I'm giving today. So it's important to know when you have a vehicle that goes over 28 that has more than 750w, mine does. You need to have an endorsement for motorcycles. You need to have also at plated, and you need to have liability insurance. Please keep these things in mind. Thank you. >> Jeffrey Bowen, district eight. Actually, I, I kind of like this, this, this agenda [11:24:10 AM] item. In my younger days, I had a dirt bike, believe it or not. And we rode throughout the woods and there was a thing called enforcement for me back then because when I did something wrong, I was held accountable. My my motorcycle was taken away from me by my father for a certain amount of time. When I did something that wasn't, wasn't, wasn't proper or wasn't condoned. Yesterday as I left the construction show, I went down west Riverside, and as I was going down west Riverside, going over towards Lamar, there was a young man on one of these bikes doing wheelies on the parking lot or on the the sidewalk, going back and forth in front of the big hill there by butler park. And I thought to myself, wow, just an item that I was talking about was going to talk about. And here he is. I was always held accountable for my derelictions in my younger days and sometimes now, but I, I question going through all of this, how are we going to enforce this? How are we going [11:25:12 AM] to do these type of things in enforcement when we're not even able to enforce some of the other issues that we have out there, whether it be with scooters, whether it be with jaywalking, whether it be with talking hands free, so on and so forth. So I do urge this, but I also look at this as a safety issue, because people are going to get hurt by people not being responsible in their younger years. Again, I appreciate this coming forward. And to those sponsors that have looked at this, even traveling down bluebonnet quite frequently as I do, I see a lot of these these type of vehicles in the bicycle lanes running at very high speeds and even on the roadways, somebody's going to get hurt. And this needs to be addressed. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yes, sir. >> Good morning Michael. Missoula, district nine. I'm a bicycle rider and electric motorcyclist. I care about responsible riding and safe transportation options, and I [11:26:13 AM] support the enforcement against the dangerous behavior outlined in the resolution. Nobody wants people riding recklessly on sidewalks through traffic, but I urge the council and city manager to to be careful about creating additional local regulations for vehicles that are already covered under the Texas transportation code. The resolution correctly recognizes that most of these vehicles are not legally e- bikes under state law, and the transportation code already considers these vehicles as motorcycles or mini motorbikes, each with their own rules around licensing and how and where they can be operated. So I worry that layering Austin specific rules on top of this could create even more confusion for riders, parents, and law enforcement and make it more difficult for users of low powered electric vehicles. I also want to emphasize the recreational side of this issue, not just the enforcement side. Austin has steadily lost legal places for people to ride off road motorcycles, and [11:27:14 AM] motorcycle trail access has been reduced over time, and Austin motocross park closed because of development. Meanwhile, these vehicles have become more popular with young people looking for recreation. The city has successfully supported this kind of recreation in the past by creating legitimate spaces, instead of just increasing enforcement. Skate parks and ninth street bmx trails are great examples of the city working with riding communities to create a place where people can safely ride and build community. For many teenagers, these vehicles aren't just toys, they're transportation or hobby to get them outside. And introduction to mechanics and motor sports. If we continue to removing places without creating alternatives, riders will naturally end up in these places. They shouldn't be so awesome and safer outcomes. The answer is a mix of education, targeted enforcement, and legal places where people can responsibly ride. >> Thank you, thank you. >> Item 62 Zenobia Joseph. [11:28:28 AM] >> Thank you, mayor council, I'm Zenobia Joseph. Item 62 is the fair free voting item. I'm neutral. I think it should be fair on election day. But respectfully, the capital metro bus fair should be fair every day. So I would ask you to recognize the need to ask capital metro to actually tell you what the cost would be for the system to be free. It's an equitable on soccer days, you know, the white people, the choice riders, they don't pay because it's too crowded on the train. So they have automatic passenger counters that double and triple black people. March 25th, 2024. If you go to capital metro's board meeting, the staff explain if you take three busses, then you get counted three times. That way you're able to inflate the ridership. So my comments, as they always are, are in the context of title six of the civil rights act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. I appreciate the sponsors, but do you realize that capital metro is changing [11:29:29 AM] the fare structure? June 1st, 2026. In a few days, $1.25 on every bus that you ride. And they have lied to the federal transit administration and said only 3% of the riders are impacted. If you live north of U.S. 183 northeast, you have to take two busses. So you already at 250 before you even get to work. If you have to go somewhere after work and get home, you're at $5. You could end up spending $10 in a day more than the commuter bus pass. For the white choice riders who can afford to pay for it. So Paige Ellis and chito vela, please look at the data and stop putting people's lives at risk. North east of U.S. 183 chito vela. It used to be a one seat ride from Walmart dawa to Walmart north cross, and now you have to take two busses. It is disingenuous for you to ask for only one day relief election day and maybe early voting. So I'm neutral. But if you have any questions, I'll [11:30:29 AM] gladly answer them at this time. >> Thank you, miss Joseph. >> You're welcome. >> For item 98, I have Monica Guzman. >> Before we go to 90 before we go to 981 second members. Item number 87 is a legal proposal for a legal settlement. So I'm going to call on our city attorney to make a presentation. So if you have any questions. >> Thank you. Mayor. Council item 87 is a recommendation to approve execution of an agreement settling claims related to the yogurt shop criminal cases. As you recall, in 1999, four young men were arrested and charged in connection with crimes known as the yogurt shop murders in 2025, based on new forensic evidence, the men were cleared of involvement. The individuals pursued federal civil rights and related claims against the city. After mediation, a proposed settlement totaling $35 million was reached. The action before you authorizes the city manager to execute the [11:31:29 AM] settlement agreement, which includes filing agreed federal court documents and issuing an initial $450,000 payment to the claimants from the liability reserve fund. The city manager will return to council for approval of an ordinance to ensure to issue general obligation refunding bonds for the remaining amount owed. We are available for any questions you may have. >> Members. Any questions of counsel right now? All right. Thank you very much. Now let's go to item 9098. >> Monica Guzman. >> For 98. >> Good morning. I'm Monica Guzman, policy director, speaking on item 98. And expect us to come up so fast. I'm glad or we are glad that you're developing a policy proposal to limit and mitigate impacts of areas negatively impacted by gas Peaker units. However, I will also add, while I did not [11:32:30 AM] speak on it, the council meeting last week, we are opposed to gas speakers. They are not safe. They negatively impact health. I wouldn't want to live anywhere near a gas Peaker and while it may come up on another item, there is concern about the description talking about equitable locations. Yet the sorting process shows more than half of the final 14 locations in east Austin, east Austin, east of the interstate, has borne the brunt of so many damaging projects, policies, initiatives, whether economically, racially, environmentally, health wise, this is just another one. Gas speakers are not the answer. Thank you. >> Cyrus reed. [11:33:33 AM] >> Yes. Can you hear me? >> Yes, yes. >> Cyrus reed, district nine, speaking on behalf of the Sierra club. I'm speaking in support of item 98. I want to thank council member alter, but all the other council members and the mayor for supporting this resolution. As you're well aware, as part of the gen plan, it did say, to the extent we do invest in speakers and obviously, you know, Sierra club was opposed to that item last week. We should have emissions guidelines. This resolution establishes those emission guidelines not only for carbon dioxide but importantly for nitrogen oxide, which, as you know, can then combine with volatile organic compounds to produce ozone. This is going to be particularly important for the hot summer months to make sure that we're not adding to the smog problem we already have in Austin. So very much appreciate this resolution coming forward. And I look, I [11:34:34 AM] look and I do support as well the the version two that adds the potential for looking at retirement of some of the existing speakers. And my understanding is that Austin energy would come back with a proposal, you know, in about 18 months to look at some of these emissions guidelines to the extent we do invest in these new peakers. So thank you to all the members for putting this on agenda. It's very important. Thank you. >> And Bob Hendrix. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. Hi, I'm Bob Hendrix, a volunteer climate activist, chair of the Austin Sierra club, vice chair of the Sierra club and state coordinator for citizens climate lobby. I speak on behalf of all of these. More than 6700 Austin area members and more than 30,000 members statewide. I'm here urging you to vote for resolution 98. We are in a worsening climate [11:35:36 AM] crisis. We see it in increasingly destructive wildfires, fires, floods, droughts, extreme storms, and disasters like winter storm uri. Unless greenhouse gas emissions decline rapidly, these impacts will continue to anticipate intensify. Austin has been a beacon of hope among cities confronting this challenge. This council has passed major climate resolutions, culminating in the Austin climate equity plan. Austin energy has generated more renewable electricity than any utility in Texas and has adopted many forward looking policies. I continue to believe that the expanded solar energy and battery storage would be ultimately more affordable and sufficiently reliable than new gas Peaker plants, which are likely to increase customer electricity costs. But resolution 98 is fundamentally about accountability and guardrails. It asks the city manager to study how Austin can reduce emissions associated with these plans, and bring recommendations back to the council. That is both reasonable and necessary. If these plants are used only sparingly during emergencies. [11:36:36 AM] If they displace dirtier and less efficient generation, and if they include the strongest available pollution controls, Austin can still maintain credibility as a climate leader. But once fossil fuel infrastructure is built, there will be enormous pressure to run it as often as possible, whenever it becomes profitable. That is why this council must establish strong guardrails. Now, Austin has already reduced harm from its participation in the coal plant through programs like reach. We should apply the same principle here by placing an internal price on carbon emissions from fossil fuel generation, especially those new Peaker plants. So financial decisions align with Austin's climate response commitments. Resolution 98. >> Thank you very much. >> Direction. >> Thank you, thank you. >> And then I have some in-person speakers for item 98. Paul Robbins, Brad Massingill, Rafael Schwartz, and William bunch. >> Council. I'm Paul Robbins. I [11:37:40 AM] support the intent of this resolution. However, this does not mitigate the glaring problem with the lack of transparency that took place with the vote on the gas peaking plants last week. I am asking for a companion resolution on your next agenda to more fully inform the public of your actions. Thank you. >> Mr. Massingill. >> The next, next four items are all pretty much related to speakers. I'm really disappointed that this is great, but why didn't we think about this before we passed the resolution? This is all stuff that should have been done beforehand. It harkens back to what Paul was saying about transparency and participation in civic government. We need to definitely look at these [11:38:41 AM] emissions and put as a harsher cap as we can on them because. As usual, it looks like we're going to crap on east Austin with this. You know, I think it would be more appropriate if we were asking, instead of density bonus programs for these big buildings, why don't we offer bonuses to have them put extra battery storage in these new buildings? Just load all these new buildings up with with, with battery storage and get some capacity going so that we don't have these peak problems. You know, we heard testimony last week from seniors and elders and, and people that depend on oxygen and equipment at home to survive during a, a, an outage. What we need to prioritize these citizens to put battery storage in their houses. This this should be priority. They should not have to suffer through the outage. And they can at the same time [11:39:41 AM] be contributing to the robustness of our grid by having batteries in their in their property independent of solar. You can still have batteries in your house. I think every senior in every shut in, in, in, in the city should have the option of having a battery in their house. And again, the these emissions shouldn't even be a problem if we didn't need the speakers to begin with. So. >> Morning again, my name is Raphael Schwartz, district two and Austin Sierra club. I want to thank council members alter and Siegel and all of the sponsors for taking this item up in an effort to set up guardrails that recognize Austin energy can achieve financial insurance and grid reliability, and still limit the operation of gas Peaker units from running at a level beyond which the existing Peaker fleet runs. Today, I want to point out that the plain text of this resolution could be read as incentivizing the utility to run the Peaker fleet more than it currently does in the year before the. [11:40:42 AM] The new units are installed. This would allow the utility a higher baseline from which to work with. For the next three decades. I don't know that the that this requires a policy change or anything, but it's something to keep in mind if the plants are going to be used sparingly. I am grateful for council for doing this and looking like and looking at the nox and carbon carbon dioxide emissions and looking at retiring the oldest units. Again, thank you very much for your work on this and recognize the compromise to be had here. Thank you. >> For item 99, Cyrus reed. >> Yeah. >> Good morning. This is Cyrus reed again, district nine, speaking on behalf also of the Sierra club in support of item 99. This is really about being a good neighbor to the extent new peakers are built and are in neighborhoods. This resolution says, let's look at mitigating those impacts by investing in those communities with utility funded solar [11:41:43 AM] storage or other resources that can help the community that's most impacted by those speakers that are going to be coming online. So very much support it and appreciate council member Siegel and the other members who signed on to this resolution. Thanks. Thanks very much. >> And Bob Hendricks for 99. >> Hi, this is Bob Hendricks again, Sierra club and citizens climate lobby. Winter storm uri was traumatic for many austinites, but the long term threat posed by unchecked climate change is even greater. Climate scientists are clear that if humanity continues adding greenhouse gases that anything close to the current rate, global temperatures will continue, rising, climate damages will worsen, and major climate tipping points become increasingly unavoidable. The uncertainty is not whether continued warming will produce catastrophic consequences. The uncertainty is how quickly those consequences escalate, and how much suffering humanity chooses to accept before acting at higher levels of warming. The risks described in the ipcc [11:42:45 AM] reports do not become less likely because of uncertainty. They become more severe, more widespread and increasingly unavoidable. That means worsening heat waves, droughts, floods, crop failures, water shortages, ecosystem collapses, mass displacement, displacement from rising seas, economic disruption, political instability and escalating human suffering around the world. This is not a distant or abstract change. It is the future we are creating. If we continue expanding fossil fuel dependance without strict limits and rapid transition plans. This is why I'm urging you to vote for these four resolutions. 98 through 101. Austin has tried to lead rather than follow that leadership matters. Cities, influence markets, utilities, state policy, and public expectations. Your decisions today will help determine whether Austin continues moving toward a safer future or locks itself more deeply into the systems driving this crisis. That is the real threat to the safety and future of our children, who deserve a far better inheritance. Thank you very much. [11:43:46 AM] >> And then I have some in-person speakers for item 99, Paul Robbins, Brad Massingill, and William bunch. >> Council. I support the first part of this resolution to mitigate the effect of Austin's power plants. The second part leaves me confused. There are few, if any, homes within a mile of sand hill power plant, deck or power plant was originally built in a rural area before Austin grew around it. It is geographically impossible to live close to it. Further, in the last decade, a luxury resort was actually proposed for decker lake, calling into question the undesirability of the location. To the extent that mitigation is needed, it seems to me that it would be needed for noise [11:44:48 AM] and possibly traffic, as opposed to solar cells. This resolution will probably pass unanimously, but unless you amend it, you may not be addressing the real concerns. Thank you. >> Mr. Massingill. >> Yeah. >> That the resolution it reads directing the city manager to develop a policy, a proposal to limit and mitigate impacts to areas negatively impacted by gas and Peaker units and other emergency energy generation, and establish a program to benefit residents negatively impacted by location of past and future fossil fuel generation facilities, and report back to council. Are we going all the way back to holly power plant? I mean, this this is a tradition that we have of of putting these things. We're politically powerless. People [11:45:48 AM] apparently live. I'm glad we're addressing this, but I want this to be something that if we're going to address it citywide and we know we're going to get pushback from some of these more affluent neighborhoods that don't want this, that if there's not going to be any there, there's not going to be any anywhere. We can't be pushing these things off over and over again into the poor, less represented portions of our city, especially since east Austin, if you look at it from space, there's less trees, more concrete, lots more emissions. You know, all this ground hugging ozone, all the all the pollution that can come off these types of even though they're natural gas and more efficient than the other ones, there still will be affecting the neighbors. And they're politically less powerful. People are going to be the ones that take the brunt of this. So I encourage you all to be very fair and open about where you're going to put these and propose putting some over there. And west Austin, northwest [11:46:50 AM] Austin on top of these tall buildings. We can't just be putting them in the same place over and over again. >> Thanks for item 100. Cyrus reed. >> Yeah, again. Cyrus re district nine speaking on behalf of Sierra club. Very much also support 100. That really was in the gem plan that y'all well, some of you that were in office then passed back in 24. That said, to the extent we do build new peakers, we need to be equitable in the siting. We can't just put them in the same area. We've always put them. So I appreciate the spirit of the resolution by council member Velasquez and the other co-sponsors, and believe that this is a needed resolution to make sure that Austin energy follows the generation plan. So thanks very much. >> And for 100, Paul Robbins. [11:47:50 AM] >> I support and pass. >> For 101 Cyrus reed. >> Yes, I'm trying to go fast because I. Yeah. Cyrus reed, district nine. Also speaking on behalf of the Sierra club. Thank you, council member qadri and the other folks who are supporting this resolution and bringing it forward. This is really not directly related to the speakers. It's saying, as we potentially develop these new peakers, let's do everything we can on the distribution side of the equation in terms of both residential batteries and evs, to look at being leaders in those programs and appreciate the version two of of the resolution, which gives a little more time to Austin energy to come back and look at that benchmark study and look at what we can do, and also making sure it goes through the uc and the R, M C for more [11:48:52 AM] input, as well as back to city council. So definitely something for us to look forward to so that we don't need to use the speakers as much because we've got programs on the distribution side that can serve the same purpose. So thank you to the council members who brought this forward and look forward to report back from Austin energy by December of of this year. Thanks. >> And then for 101, Paul Robbins and Brad Massengill. >> Council. I serve as vice chair of the resource management commission. The item on electrical vehicle charging is long overdue. Thank you for putting it on the agenda. I want to give a call out to the members of the commission who championed this idea. Trey farmer, appointed by council [11:49:53 AM] member Siegel and Allison Silverstein, appointed by council member qadri. Thank you. >> Brad Massengill again, I. I definitely support this. I encourage the the council to look into to not only battery storage, but some other technologies like genset generators. It. We've got so much tech companies in this in this city. Unfortunately, a lot of them have a very small real estate footprint. So trying to use real estate as a mechanism for funding. Housing and all, you know, all of our, our city needs is, is, is, is tough. We need, we need to be able to ask, ask or, or leverage our relationships with these, with these companies to supply more technology to the city. We've [11:50:55 AM] got property in the city that we could be offering for energy campuses for development, and they could put the power right on the grid and use our city property as places for establishing some of these projects and some of these cutting edge technologies for storage and whatnot. I mentioned earlier all these big buildings that are coming in, it should be requirement that some space be taken up for battery storage and capacitance so that we can have resilience during peak times. Winter. Summer doesn't matter. We we have the technology. We've got lots of money floating through this town. It's just going over our heads. We're not able to grab any of it. We need to be able to have some of this stuff benefit our, our, not only our citizens, but our quality of life and preserve nature that we have. And putting Peaker plants all throughout the city is not going to be good for kids or elder people. So this [11:51:55 AM] is a a good first step. But we need to be looking at real alternatives to, to the resiliency problem. Thanks, mayor. >> That concludes all speakers for consent. >> Thank you for those that are here for our 12:00 time, certain of public communication. What we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and have the discussion on the consent agenda and vote on that. Since we have eight minutes, I don't I don't know whether we'll be done by 12:00, but I just want to let everybody know we typically just stop at noon and do that. But since we're so close to having this done, I'm going to go ahead and deal with the consent agenda. Members. Are there any other items that anyone would like to pull off of the consent agenda? That being the case, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as made by council member Velasquez and seconded by council member Elaine? We will now go to discussion and I will recognize council member Ellis, council member Laine council member Velasquez. >> Thank you mayor. I am [11:52:56 AM] excited to be bringing the item from council today, number 59, which speaks to E motorbikes. So this is a conversation that was brought to our attention. A lot of us have seen these out in the wild. A lot of neighborhoods have been reaching out to us. And the concern is that there are now these very powerful devices out on the streets that are sold and marketed like they're an electric bicycle, but in reality, they are a small motorcycle. A lot of them can reach speeds up to 50 or 60 miles an hour. And the children that are riding these are not trained. They haven't been to driver's safety classes or anything of that nature. And so a lot of people have seen them zipping around, sometimes into oncoming traffic or cutting corners really tightly. So we started talking with the Austin police department a number of months ago about what are the rules and regulations around these motorbikes, where is it appropriate for them to be, and how can we enhance safety for the kids that are riding these bikes? A lot of them don't have an adult with them. They're [11:53:56 AM] riding around in water quality detention ponds, park spaces out on the road, on the sidewalks, and it's turned into a bit of a chaotic situation that is scaring people. The last thing that anybody wants here is for kids to get hurt, or for them to hurt other people when they simply don't know the appropriate ways to behave with these motorbikes. And so this item addresses four different things. One is updating the city code and administrative rules to regulate the use of E Motos, the creation of a sustained public education and safety campaign regarding the motorbikes, a review of APD officer training and general orders relating to the use of the motorbikes with a goal of promoting consistent enforcement and safety regulations. And fourth, because we realize that there has to be an appropriate place for kids to have fun safely, is to look at the feasibility of creating some sort of dirt bike park or other sort of recreational facility so that folks can safely play. So we know that these are gifts that [11:54:57 AM] are typically given to kids for birthdays or Christmas. And with summer approaching very quickly, we wanted to make sure we took proactive and dedicated action to be able to look at how we can enhance safety among kids who really are just trying to play, but are oftentimes doing so in a dangerous way. And we're trying to make sure that we're promoting public safety along the way. And so I appreciate the collaboration with the Austin police department. Specifically, assistant chief chancellor has been very helpful in working with us on a way to move forward transportation and public works, parks and recreation, and Austin water staff, and to the many district eight constituents that have reached out, and also to the co-sponsors, which are council members Walter duchen Laine and now council member Velazquez has just been added on as a co-sponsor. We realize that kids need a safe place to be able to play. We know that folks get a little bored over the summer, and parents don't necessarily have the time to stay with them at all hours of the day, but we do want to make [11:55:58 AM] sure that we're promoting safety and that there is a place for kids to be able to have fun. We just want to make sure that nobody gets hurt doing so. Thank you. >> Thank you, councilmember councilmember Laine. Councilmember Velazquez, councilmember qadri. >> Thank you, mayor. First, as it relates to number 54, renaming the Colorado river park wildlife sanctuary in honor of Daniel Lianes, I wanted to thank all of the speakers who came to speak in his honor. Today, I am probably the newest entrant to politics on this dais, and I haven't had the privilege of meeting him or most of the speakers today, but I really appreciated the opportunity to hear about him and his significance in this city. And I would like to be added as a co-sponsor. >> Without objection, you'll be shown. Councilmember Laine will be shown as a co-sponsor. >> Thank you. As it relates to number 55, the housing affordability buydown, I wanted to thank council member alter for bringing forward this item and continuing to advance the conversation around how we can incentivize deeper affordability, because it is [11:56:58 AM] much needed in our city as it relates to item, and I'm happy to be a co-sponsor of that item with respect to number 58 relating to park amenities, I would like to thank mayor pro tem vela for bringing this item forward. I'm happy to be a co-sponsor on it. It will make it easier to deliver the kinds of amenities and improvements that make our parks more welcoming and functional for families and residents across the city, which is only more important as financial struggles increase around our city. By streamlining processes, we can more quickly add the everyday features that people appreciate and rely on while enjoying our parks. From playscapes and fitness stations to drinking fountains, drinking fountains, shade, restrooms and other basic amenities. And finally, as it relates to number 5059, the I. Fc that council member Ellis was just speaking of, I'm proud to be a co-sponsor of this item, and I thank her for her work as she responded to the many emails and phone calls that both of our offices receive from [11:57:59 AM] constituents on the issues of many motorcycles and electric dirt bikes. And out in my district, which is doesn't have any parts that are in central Austin, it's a regular sighting that we also see underage students riding e-bikes to and from school, on roads that don't even always have a place for them to move off of the road on. So I'm very happy to be able to join this effort to bring a more comprehensive view to how our city handles these issues. While I fully support everyone using micromobility solutions, as you all know from my many comments on the dais, this really is an emerging public safety issue that we need to take action on, and it is a particular threat to our youth. Thank you. >> Thank you, councilmember councilmember Velazquez, councilmember qadri, then the mayor pro tem. >> Thank you, mayor, on item 45 and 55, I'd like to thank council member alter and his policy advisor, Krista Weatherford, for all their work and collaboration on these items. And thank you for allowing us to work on them with you. First, on item 45. We [11:59:01 AM] are a majority renter city, so it's crucial that the community has full transparency on their total expected housing costs. At the point of making that decision on where to live. Second on item 55, using fee and Lou to buy down for deeper levels of affordability. These are more of the creative, out-of-the-box solutions that this council has brought that are going to allow us to chip away at our affordability crisis, and I'm here for it. Thank you. Councilman, today's regarding item 54. Today's a special day for parks in the east side with the leadership of Susana Almanza. We have renamed the Colorado river wildlife sanctuary to the Daniel Lianes wildlife sanctuary sanctuary. Daniel Lianes is known in the community as a musician and choreographer. However, he is also an advocate for preserving the natural river and wooded floodplains near the Colorado Colorado. From the 1980s until his passing last year, he fought against commercial development that felt that he threatened wildlife and natural [12:00:01 PM] environment near the river, and he did so relentlessly. Thank you to the many community members and environmental activists who came here to speak before this dais. And now, in honor of his legacy, his name will be remembered by all who visit the the wildlife sanctuary, keeping his memory alive. Thank you to my co-sponsors, the mayor, the mayor, pro tem council members, duchen alter and Laine. Thank you to the d3 team, Mo cooper and Alice de la Fuente for all their tireless work on this item. Item 56 as a fourth generation east austinite, item 56 commemorates something that is very important to me. My all. My office has worked on this initiative for some time and has collaborated with groups in our community to ensure that the language in this resolution is just right. Thank you. To the east Austin community groups that have provided us with input on language, on the language before us today. These groups include mosque, the Johnston school, rams foundation, el barrio car club, and the east town lake citizens neighborhood association. They have each played a pivotal role in this process. Also, big [12:01:02 PM] thank you to the parks department for helping us make this a reality. This resolution does not just create a sign. It acknowledges chicano park as a cultural anchor for the east Austin chicano community. For generations, chicano park has been a gathering space for chicano civil rights activists, car clubs, family cookouts, vendor markets and fiestas for days like Cinco de mayo de septiembre and quinceaneras. I did not have mine there, but I've heard that they do go on there and. And it's finally time. Chicano park has a physical marker acknowledging its historical and present day community impact. I can't wait to see what our final sign will look like, the one that we will be creating together. And thank you to the mayor, mayor, pro tem and council members Ellis and alter. Thank you to the d3 team, Mo cooper, Elise de la Fuente and Benjamin Romero. And finally, item 100. We were trying to add this as an amendment to last week's Peaker convo, but procedurally we were precluded from doing that. So [12:02:02 PM] today we're bringing it over the past 100 years, Austin Austin's eastern crescent has disproportionately shouldered the impacts of decisions imposed by them, by a ruling class that devalued their health and well-being. With this item, and in the interest of environmental and social justice, we are prioritizing a balanced range of sites across our city, bearing in mind that the ten existing speakers are exclusively located in east Austin. Thank you to my co-sponsors, the mayor, pro tem, council members, alter and Siegel who have all been in the trenches with us on this issue. And thank you to our policy director, Victoria hall, for putting up with all of my mania last week around this and for hustling to get this on the >> Agenda this week. >> Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember, councilmember qadri, mayor pro tem and councilmember duchen. >> Great mayor. Well, to kick it off, I'd love to be added as a co-sponsor to item 52, which is councilmember Siegel item around the dumpster activities. We've had constituents galore. [12:03:02 PM] You know, reach out to us about that. And I know the constituents, Tamara from the neighborhood had reached out. So I appreciate councilmember Siegel's office for leading on that and would like to. >> Without objection, councilmember qadri be shown as a co-sponsor of item 52. >> Would also like to be added as a co-sponsor to item 54, which is councilmember. The council member Jose Velasquez. Item. >> Without objection, councilmember qadri be shown as a co-sponsor of item 54. >> And then lastly, would love to be added as a co-sponsor to both items 99, which is councilmember Segal's item and councilmember item number 100, which is councilmember Jose Velasquez. >> Without objection, councilmember qadri be shown as a co-sponsor of items 99 and 100. >> And with that, I will speak on two items. First, item 51. I'm really proud to bring item 51 forward. I want to thank my staff for their hard work on the item. The resolution initiates a holistic update to our code to enhance, standardize and streamline street design standards citywide to align with our transit corridors and smp street tirz. It provides better [12:04:03 PM] clarity between our code and tc M, which is currently duplicative, fragmented, and conflicting. It initiates a work plan to implement design standards citywide to address pressing everyday issues such as shade and public safety. The item also helps to streamline the development process, will more clearly and predictably developing in a way that moves us closer to our climate and mobility goals. As a city. It's also aligned and dovetails with former council member Paul's green infrastructure resolution that is quickly advancing the city's efforts to get more street trees on the ground. The resolution calls for a robust stakeholder engagement process to get this right, and that includes advocates, the general public, the development community, and it also includes our transit dependent writers, renters and others with lived experiences in our communities. Bottom line ensures Austin is developing as quickly as possible. As a city, we want to bike and stroll and walk in and take transit in. So I want to thank once again my, my my staff for their hard work on the item, my co-sponsors, city [12:05:04 PM] staff, and our community leaders and advocates who took the time to provide input on this very, very important item. And then also want to speak on item 101, which once again, shout out to my staff on the item for their help on it and their work on it, as well as my co-sponsors. But Austin is now one of the top three cities in the United States for electric vehicle ownership, and that number is only continuing to grow. To me, this resolution is about planning ahead responsibly. We have a real opportunity not only to incentivize more residents to transition to evs, but to do it in a way that actually helps the grid by encouraging charging during low demand periods before peak demand occurs in the first place. During the passage of the Austin energy resource generation plan in 2024. Doctor Webber's analysis found that unmanaged ev charging represented the single largest potential driver of future peak demand. Among the scenarios studied, the same report also showed that smart charging strategies that limited ev [12:06:04 PM] charging to no more than 10% of vehicles at once could reduce projected 2040 peak demand by more than 3400mw. For context, that reduction is many times larger than the capacity of the traditional generation resources we rely on today in Austin, including decker and fayette, which generate 200mw and 600mw, respectively. That shows the scale of opportunity in front of us as we invest early and thoughtfully in these strategies. My hope is that this resolution helps Austin continue leading our innovation, while also setting a long term path toward reducing reliance on Peaker plants and other higher emission energy sources over time. So once again, I want to thank my co-sponsors. I want to thank Austin energy staff advocates, district nine commissioners on the and the electric utility commission and resource management commission, Cyrus reed and Allison Silverstein. And I also wanted to provide additional clarity on expectations tied to the resolution and acknowledge that this item is a significant ask of a staff. My goal for the December eoc meeting is to [12:07:06 PM] better understand our existing incentive programs, current resident participation levels, and where gaps or opportunities may exist. And I also want to better understand what programs or strategies could realistically be implemented, along with potential timelines and responsible and scalable manner, without negatively impacting customer rates, while also taking into account operational, regulatory, regulatory, and market factors that affect public utilities in Texas. That's it. >> Thank you, councilmember mayor pro tem, followed by councilmember duchen council member Siegel. >> Thank you very much, mayor. Let me start with item 43. This is just a small acquisition by the parks department. We're basically buying a residential lot that is going to create a kind of a back door access to a park that we also just purchased and are standing up. These are the small but important acquisitions by parks that are just making it easier for people to get to their [12:08:07 PM] neighborhood park. You know, if not for this acquisition, you would have to walk a long way to get around to the front of the park and actually enter. This just gives that entire neighborhood there south of William cannon and just east of congress, good pedestrian access to the park. I also want to point out that this is a very smart use of our parkland dedication funds. So again, kudos to to parks and please keep on making those small acquisitions that get good pedestrian and bicycle access to our, our neighborhood parks. I want to thank council member qadri for the item 51. I'm a co-sponsor on the item, and it's going to do a lot of good. But one of the important elements is, you know, we have a urban kind of design standards, and then we have suburban design standards. And from from my district, one of the three is largely the division between the urban and suburban design standards. And I don't think that's a bad place to draw the line. But major roadways such as Lamar and Cameron, they really belong [12:09:07 PM] more in the urban design standards. We want to make those major roadways pedestrian friendly, bike friendly, and I think by extending those urban design standards along our roadways as a into the suburban areas. That's one of the items that's in the in item 51, one of the provisions that's in item 51. I think that's a very good idea, and I'm looking forward to see what staff thinks about it when they come back with more hashed out version item 58. I'm excited to to bring this item. We. One of the themes, and I think the mayor has really been a champion of this theme, is trying to get out of our own way when we are doing good things. We've tried to do that, I think extensively in housing, with zoning reforms and permitting reforms. This is one for parks everybody likes. And as council member Laine mentioned, you know, water [12:10:08 PM] fountains, playgrounds, benches, pavilions, really, really small, simple structures that we don't need to put through a full kind of site plan process, a full, you know, code process. We, we need to have a more simple, streamlined approach to getting these amenities out into our neighborhood parks and our major parks as well. This is asking staff to go out and look at that and then come back with recommendations. And again, I'm really excited to see what those recommendations are. But again, we want to improve our our parks. Keep moving forward on that. We've got to streamline our our regulatory processes. And then last but definitely not least, items two, three, and four. That is the saint John redevelopment that's finally moving forward. And I am just so happy. A lot of y'all may know this as the old Home Depot location just east of I-35 and north of saint John's. It's about a, I want to [12:11:09 PM] say 12 acres, 13 acres, a large site that has been sitting empty for for quite some time. But it is ready to go. We have the deal together and it's going to be a tremendous development. When it's all said and done, the saint John park is going from one acre to about four acres. We are putting housing on that site, 500 units, 70% of which will be affordable in in at levels ranging from 50 to 80%. And there's going to be a lot of amenities there two swimming pools, fitness rooms, community rooms, and then we have commercial, which was a big request from the saint John neighborhood. They wanted access to commercial to to stores, to services. And that's going in as part of the development. So it's just so great to see this finally happen. And I am going to put on my glasses. And because [12:12:09 PM] there's so many people to thank that I had to write them all out. And I just want to thank them because I know how hard people have been working on this. First of all, greystar, which is our private partner, and the city of Austin, are the three entities that have been working on this. Mike Gerber and hakka have done a great job on it. They have passed the item at their may 21st agenda. He has been just tremendous as a leader of hakka, and hakka has been just great in moving this forward and partnering with us on this with greystar. I know there's a lot of folks over there, but Carly Phillips and David Walsh are the two that I've been working with. And of course, Catherine Knisely, who is their advocate here at council, always keeping me informed. They've been great partners and it I'm so excited to to see what they actually build there at the property. City staff, oh, so many folks that have put so much time and effort into this from economic development. Christine and Christine Mcguire, thank you all so much for years of work on this project. Financial [12:13:11 PM] services. Katie Goss, thank you so much. Dsd Keith martin and his team have been great at expediting. There are a lot of last minute changes. There were some planning changes. They got the replat done, they got the permitting done. So we are moving forward. Austin water and Austin energy also. We're huge in in expediting this process here at the end to make sure that that construction gets going. The housing department, Mandy Demayo, has been just a huge help on this. And it's and it's so exciting because we're looking at construction starting in the, you know, late June, July time frame. So this is finally, we're moving from an idea to a real project here. I've got to thank. So vela Gomez Chao, who worked on this with council member Cassar, worked on this with with me when she was at the district four office. Now she's in the other Jose's office, but she still works on it. And she's still we still talk about it. And because she it's a project that she's been very passionate about and, and I just want to thank her for [12:14:12 PM] all the time and effort she's put in Rainey co as well. He's been running point on it since since he left and he has done a great job. And then again, last but not least, I've got to thank my predecessor, then council member Cassar, who initiated this years ago. He, you know, got this going. We talk about it all the time. He wants to see it just as badly as I do. And he started the race. He passed me the baton. And thankfully I'm going to be finishing the race. And again, thanks to him and looking forward to having the the the ribbon cutting with him there to again, just thanks to everyone for this project. It's a huge accomplishment. It shows that the city can build housing, affordable housing on its own property, which is going to be key to affordability as we move into the future. So, mayor, thank you so much. >> Thank you. Mayor pro tem council member. Duchen. Council member. Siegel then council member alder. >> Thank you mayor. I'm going to start an order. And I think mayor pro tem vela was probably [12:15:13 PM] a lot more persuasive and effusive than I was. But I'm going to start with items two, three, and four. These are all positive developments for the saint John's area. Investments like this in housing and infrastructure allocate resources to address very limited housing in Austin and the city. And this is an effective way that comports with current usage. I want to talk about the Texas gas contract. And there are two things I want to acknowledge out of the gate here, which is, first, this isn't a perfect deal. It might not even be a great deal. But I do believe in this moment of time, after a tremendous amount of back and forth, I do think it's the best deal we can probably realistically achieve. And I say that because it's become increasingly apparent as the days go by, that we have virtually no leverage over our private utility, managed by a board of directors and executive management that live in a different state. And this is why, as I've said before, [12:16:15 PM] we're incredibly fortunate that prior city leaders have safeguarded and nurtured our public electric and water utilities here. Outside of finding billions of dollars to either buy out tgs local infrastructure and create a new Austin gas public utility, the next best solution I can come up with, and I use that term incredibly loosely, is to somehow collectively acquire a large enough interest in one gas, which is tgs parent company, to somehow influence policy here in Austin and Texas. And outside of either of these two incredibly expensive options, we have very, very limited leverage. So I want to acknowledge the hard work that our negotiators, miss man and miss Norton, have invested in this process, knowing that we have very little to work with here. I also want to thank councilmember alter and his team for their work on this. I [12:17:16 PM] know that we contemplated a lot of odd strategies, including publicly shaming Texas gas services representative over the deal. But really, to what purpose? Because maybe I can make him feel a little bad about it. Not helping customers with spiraling gas prices. But at the end, he also has limited leverage over the managers and directors and shareholders. And we can delay, as some people spoke about this morning and requested. But all we're doing is perpetuating the current agreement, which will roll over, and then that's worse than the new agreement. So while I'm personally disappointed that our negotiations didn't result in some benefits, we thought they would, that might have been easy or certainly tgs could afford. I think there are a number of changes that we did win. First, we changed the contract term from 20 years to ten years. That clarifies and also clarified our purchase option for tgs. We got tgs to implement a low income assistance program. We got tgs to submit more reporting for things like capital improvements and leak detection. When tgs has future rate [12:18:17 PM] increases, they're going to have to face customers more directly with new requirements for public engagement and public meetings. We've enhanced protections for public right of way and easements that are environmentally sensitive areas. We've added language to ensure tgs follows statewide terms and tariffs related to covering development initiatives and more. And so, bottom line, with gas prices rising, with Austin not having its own gas utility, the best way I can come up with to make sure that you all have someone looking out for you as a consumer, is to pay attention to what you vote for. The railroad commission regulates oil and gas, and we select the commissioners. When we vote, we potentially have the best opportunity we have in years this November, maybe decades. So I hope that we seize on it for item 23, which is aquifer storage and recovery. Although I'm disappointed the larger project in in bastrop derailed. I'm very glad to see Austin moving forward on this project, because we've got a great many demands on limited water, and this project is going to [12:19:18 PM] support the water forward plan and help us prepare for the future. For item 59 on motorbikes, I want to thank council member Ellis for her tremendous leadership on this. We've had a lot of issues with these motorbikes in our district and are glad to see the city moving forward to making us a safer place. I also request to be listed as a co-sponsor to items 98, 99, 100 and 101. In light of the hard decisions that council has made last week, these items are going to help address some of the concerns, both environmental and equity, that all of us share. And then finally, for item 54, I was lucky to have known Daniel Lianes over the last few years, and proud to have worked with him alongside him on the Austin neighborhood council and executive committee for a number of years. And he brought an incredibly valuable perspective and tremendous energy to his advocacy. More than an advocate, I remember him also as an artist and musician, as a father, as a [12:20:19 PM] community leader, I can think of few better ways to honor his work than with this renaming, and few people more deserving of this kind of legacy recognition. Thank you mayor. >> Thank you, councilmember duchen. Without objection, councilmember duchen will be shown as a co- sponsor of items 98, 99, 100 and 101, councilmember Siegel, followed by councilmember alter. >> Thank you mayor. >> I just want to start out with item 45. I wasn't here in 2024 but want to thank council members alter, Fuentes, qadri, vela and Velazquez for this rental fee disclosure initiative, which protects renters and given. The council member zo qadri presented a proclamation to Basta this morning celebrating ten years of tenant advocacy. Really thankful for you all setting in this motion. Item 52 is not maybe the flashiest resolution, but it's about dumpster noise, and I just want to peel back the curtain a bit about constituent services and how this policy came to be. The [12:21:20 PM] constituent services liaison in district seven office, Sarah swallow, has been fielding calls for a long time from unhappy residents who live in residential housing, but neighbor commercial properties that have dumpsters. And basically the pickup for these dumpsters often occurs at 3 or 4 in the morning, waking people up, sometimes multiple times each week. And our current code does have noise regulations, but the the act of picking up a dumpster is exempted from the code. And so we've tried all sorts of troubleshooting, we've talked to code, but APD is responsible for overnight hours of. APD doesn't have a lot of extra resources for nuisance abatement. We talked to business owners, landlords to see if they could change pickup schedules. We were talked to haulers directly to see if they could change their routes, and we got some relief for some of our impacted residents. But this is a persistent concern. So the goal of the resolution item 52 is to see if we can look at other Texas jurisdictions that have different approaches to regulating haulers and see if we can get relief for austinites and help neighbors [12:22:21 PM] get a good night's sleep. Item 55 just wanted to be asked to be added as a co-sponsor of the affordability by down item. >> Without objection, councilmember Siegel be shown as a co-sponsor of item number 55. >> Thank you mayor. Item 62 is about voting and in particular, fair free voting. This is an exploratory resolution inspired by our African American resource advisory commission that wants us to look at talking to capmetro about making it free to ride the bus during early voting, as well as election day. And so the goal here is for city management to look at the costs and the effectiveness, to speak with capmetro and to talk to the county who have at least some representatives have indicated to me that they would be interested in potentially co-sponsoring this program, but wanted to thank the commission for the recommendation, given the attacks on voting rights in this country right now, including the recent supreme court decision that weakens the voting rights act and weakens protections for African American voters. Just want to do everything we can to improve access to the polls. Item 97 is [12:23:23 PM] a bond item. I want to thank councilmember alter for getting this resolution together, which asks staff to continue to develop possible bond programs. >> Item 97 is not on the consent agenda. >> Oh, and I'll save my comments on that for later. Thank you mayor. >> It's good to know how you're going to vote, but I'm 97. >> No, I just want to see if you're paying attention. Mayor. Thank you. Then the last thing items 98, 99, 100 and 101. These are kind of our collective effort to mitigate the impacts of the Austin energy Peaker decision. We know that last week's approval for investment in new peakers will require vigilance from this council over the coming years, so that new peakers will not derail efforts to pursue renewable energy sources, and so that these peakers will not cause inequitable or unnecessary harm in our communities. So I'm so grateful to join so many of the other council members in demonstrating that vigilance today. Thank you. Council members alter Velasquez and qadri for bringing forward important strategies that would limit emissions, evaluate site proposals with equity top of [12:24:24 PM] mind, and update our electric vehicles and battery storage programs. And thank you to the co-sponsors of item 99 Velasquez Alton Ellis. This is the resolution I'm bringing forward to establish a program for community driven and comprehensive impact mitigation strategies for folks, both for people who are going to be neighbors of these new peakers, but as well as people who've been living and working with speakers operating nearby for many years to make sure that the strategies to mitigate the impacts include access to solar and battery investments supported by E. Kind of in the spirit of the solar for all program that was cut after we lost EPA support. So thank you to all the advocates and organizers who have spoken up over the last few weeks, and ask that you continue to help us take more meaningful steps towards climate justice. Thank you. Mayor. >> Thank you. Council member, council member. Alter. >> Thank you very much. Not much left to be said when you go. Last, but one item that I will mention it has not been discussed is item number one, and that is raising the senior [12:25:24 PM] homestead exemption. You know, we have certain tools that are at our disposal to help people age in place to be able to live here affordably. And this is a very powerful one. Ever since I've been on council, every year, we have raised that homestead exemption so that individuals who are on a fixed income can afford to live in their home and stay in their home. And so I'm glad that we are taking that step again today. I won't rehash the Texas gas service franchise, but I will say I want to certainly thank all the work of the resource management commission that they have done. Our staff, who have been working tirelessly on this Texas gas service, has put things in this agreement that we have never had before, and that is we've moved the needle in the right direction. And so I, I want to recognize that there are limitations to our power. And ultimately, the railroad commission is who's going to have the ultimate authority [12:26:24 PM] over rates. So if we want to lower cost meaningfully, that has to be done at a different body. I also it was mentioned before, but on items 45 and 55, which are making sure we disclose our fees for renters and to promote more housing affordability here in the city. Krista Weatherford in my office has been working tirelessly, tirelessly on these, and I want to thank her for that work. And then, of course, last but not least, on the discussions around reducing emissions and reducing the harmful impacts that are related to any kind of new generation, the Peaker generation, that we are mitigating those impacts, not emitting more than we do without them. So I'm excited to see what we, Austin energy, is able to develop in order to mitigate and offset these impacts. So with that, I'll send it back. [12:27:25 PM] >> Thank you, councilmember. Councilmember Ellis would like to be shown voting in favor of item number 50. I'm sorry. Be shown as a co-sponsor of item number 54. So without objection, she'll be shown as a co-sponsor of item 54. And councilmember Laine would like to be shown as a co-sponsor of item 56, 62, 95 and 101. Without objection, she will be shown as co-sponsor of each one of those items. I'm going to back clean up here and speak just quickly on item number 87, because today the city council is taking another step in addressing a terrible tragedy, an incident that devastatingly impacted our city over three decades ago. Horrible crimes took the lives of four teenage girls. The loss of these wonderful young women impacted our whole city and we feel it today. Last September, after a thorough investigation that included the use of advanced technology that didn't [12:28:25 PM] exist in 1999, Austin police announced a significant breakthrough. In that case, the identification of a lone suspect also pointed to the wrongful accusation of four young men previously accused of committing these crimes. The lives of those young men Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Morris pierce and Forrest wellborn were also dramatically and irrevocably changed that night. They were accused of terrible acts, and that was wrong, an awful mistake. And for that, as Austin mayor, I apologize to these men and their families today. Policing has changed. Investigations have changed, technology has changed, and we have changed. There's nothing that we or I can say to undo past wrongs. We can only mitigate our mistakes with action. I've said previously that I hope the [12:29:26 PM] exonerations bring some relief and closure, and I hope that this proposed financial settlement agreement also brings some relief and closure. So with that, members, we have a motion. And a second on the consent agenda. Is there anyone wishing to abstain from any vote on the consent agenda? Anyone wishing council member duchen. >> Yeah, I'm going to. >> 67 council member duchen is abstaining on 67 and 75. Anyone wishing to be shown recusing themselves from a vote on the consent agenda. Anyone wishing to be shown voting no on any item on the consent agenda. That being the case, without objection, the consent agenda is adopted, with council member duchen being shown abstaining on item 67 and 75 and there being two absences members. What we will do now is we will go to our public comment at the [12:30:26 PM] end of the public comment. We will recess and take up the Austin housing finance corporation board of directors meeting. And following that, we will take up item number 90. So with that, I'll turn to the clerk and ask you to please start calling people for the public comment. Folks. Hey, everybody, pay attention in the back of the room. Pay attention. We need you to take your conversations outside, please. As happy as you might be. >> 75 or zoning. >> For the record, before we do that, for the record. Council member duchen. Hang on a second. Yes. Councilmember duchen cannot be shown voting, abstaining on item number 75, because item number 75 is a 2:00 time certain matter. So for the record, and 67 is also [12:31:27 PM] been pulled and will be taken up at 2:00. So both of those items that I called on the vote. So now with that being the case, let me make sure we're clear on the vote. Without objection, the consent agenda is adopted with no abstentions, no recusals and no vote, no votes, but two absences. Thank you. >> Silver, white mountain. Maryland Howell Carroll Baxter and Carolyn rose Kennedy. >> Please begin. >> I am silver white mountain council mayor. I'm here to defend waymo. Just kidding. They can defend themselves. I'm here to play a song. Dedication to council member Natasha harper-madison play. [12:32:50 PM] >> Hold me like the river Jordan. And I will then say to thee, you are my friend. Carry me like you are my brother. Love me like a mother. Will you be there? And. >> Honor. You? >> Mary? Tell me, will you hold me when room. Will you scold me when lost? Will you find me? But they told me I meant to be [12:33:51 PM] faithful and walk when not able. And fly till the end. But I'm only human. >> And you. You. Everyone taking control me see that. >> The world's got a role for me. I'm so confused. When you showed me. You'll be there for me. And care enough to bear me, hold me, show me. >> And Rosie. >> Told me. >> Something and boldly. >> Yeah. >> Hallelujah. Amen. >> I know that you're. >> Brie me. >> Hold me. >> Love me and keep me. Kiss me [12:34:52 PM] everything. Yeah I will bless. >> I love. Qadri. Carrie. >> Carrie. >> Carrie. >> And slowly. Dawa Cary me. >> I'm gonna do the same. Me did. >> You me and baby. >> Give me a. Give me up. >> Help you save me. >> Thank you. >> Amen. >> If you've been called, please go ahead and come on up. >> If your name's been called, please find a seat and make yourself comfortable. And then state your name for the record and begin speaking. >> I have first names to Watson. >> Well. >> I'm sorry if we need to get those to the clerk. >> So you. So you know what I'm talking about. It'll make more [12:35:54 PM] sense what I'm talking about. >> Would somebody please help? >> My name is Marilyn Howe, coming from Houston, Texas, with my husband. To me, this is a very serious matter. I'm talking about trying to get prayer back in school and getting a bible class back in school. I'm starting off with my community, my city, and my state. Like the lady that took prayer out of school, she lived here in Houston in Austin, Texas, and her name was Madeleine O'Hara. Okay. And she went to supreme court in John F Kennedy. And they took and let her get prayer out of school. We were on the right track. We had a foundation of having prayer in school. And if you can see her face, you know, maybe who I'm talking about. Because she lived here for a while. Eventually her, her son and her granddaughter was murdered by the gentleman that used to work for her, which was [12:36:55 PM] a tragic death. Nobody should die like that. But I'm here to try to get that dark cloud that she left over the school districts. I've seen enough school shootings. I'm at my breaking point. Where the girl in Ohio shot herself in the head in the cafeteria. The little six year old came to the school, shot his teacher. So my heart is heavy and whatever I have to do, and even if I have to go to the back to the supreme court, I will. But all I'm asking will you please support me in any way you can? If you seek any information that you can help me, because I know y'all run into different people in your lives. And, you know, there probably might be talking about school and getting prayer back in school. I've heard it quite a few times on the news where people are trying to get prayer back in school. Like I say, this is my mission, this is my purpose, and I'm going to keep fighting for it. And so I can see it [12:37:58 PM] come to pass because I'm not ashamed of god one bit and what he's doing with me in my life. So all I'm just trying to ask you is for your support. That's all I'm trying to ask you for. So I will be going back to Houston, Texas, and I will continue to talk to people there, go to council meetings there and just keep continue to fight for this. >> Sir, a young lady. Sir. >> Could you please state your name? >> State your name for the record. >> My name is Ken Howell. Ken. How? Kennet. >> I'm sorry, I don't have you registered for noon public communications. >> I'm just with my wife. >> Well, if you haven't signed up to speak, you're not able to do that. I'm. I'm sorry, sir. >> Okay, okay. >> Well. Thank you. I came here to do you. >> You had your. You said your piece. Thank you very much. I appreciate your being here. And be safe driving home. Okay. Thank you. Please. It's your [12:38:58 PM] time. Please, please go ahead and start. Me. Yes. >> Oh, okay. Thank you all for serving all. >> Of you. Is your microphone on? >> Can you move the mic closer to your mouth. >> And state your name for. >> The record? >> Yes. >> Right there. >> And state your name for the record. >> Okay. Sorry. Lord. There's a little white. Duck. Oh, man, I don't feel very good. Sorry. There's a little white duck. Bartz. Good lord, there's a [12:39:59 PM] little white duck walking on the water. A little white duck. I think. There's a little white duck. Oh. There's a little white duck waltzing on the water. A little white duck doing what she ought to. She jumps right off of a lily white pad, flapped her wings, and she says, I'm bad. There's little white duck waltzing on the water. All right, all right. There's a little brown man hanging at the border. A little brown man waiting for an order. [12:41:02 PM] The kids and their mom screamed and cried all night because he packed his bags, and he took another flight. There's a longhorn bowl waiting at the market. Needs to take a crap. I don't know where to park it. They all touched down and they throw it up. Oops. Oh, he forgot his cup. There's a high white tower built inside a boardroom. A high white tower waiting for a quorum. They ate and they drank and they laughed and played well. The peons worked and became their slaves. There's a little little girl up there. There's a little white girl climbing up a TRE. A [12:42:02 PM] little black boy fell from her arm, not fell from mama's knee. They're hungry, tired, and they're so confused. Look at the little we, the people being used. There's a little yellow girl born to serve a man. A little yellow girl doing what she can. She reaches up but he slaps her down. And now she's working for a party clown. >> Thank you very much. Could you state your name for the record, please? >> Carolyn rose Kennedy. Thank you, thank you. >> We also have Paul Robbins and David Cavin. And just for the record, we had two remote speakers that did not call in, and both Tamara and Justin informed us they no longer wish to speak. >> Okay, if your name has been called, please come forward. She's called all of the names that people signed up on. Public comment. [12:43:10 PM] >> Council. I'm Paul Robbins, I'm asking for transparency and fiscal responsibility regarding the gas peaking plants that you endorsed last week. Well, I would have preferred. I would have preferred a lease as opposed to ownership until energy storage is more fully developed. I'm not against a gas plant as an interim measure, but voting in secret and not even telling the voters what you voted on is beyond the pale. And what is even more anemic is the cost. Comparing respected benchmark studies in the power industry to Austin energy's sketchy estimate of price, Austin will be paying over $600 million in excess of what these units cost three years ago. [12:44:11 PM] With interest added, you will be asking every person in the service territory to pay almost $1,200 in increased costs over the plant's lifetime, because we are not waiting to buy at a reasonable price. Again, $1,200 per person. I've been involved in Austin civic affairs for close to 50 years. Without exaggeration, I have never seen a city government do any this city government do anything this secretive, and the amount of money that you'll be that will be wasted certainly rivals other past fiscal mistakes that Austin has made, including the south Texas nuclear project with a 460% overrun, the outrageously priced biomass plant and building the Hancock's water treatment plant a generation before it's needed. [12:45:13 PM] It was needed. And so I'm asking the following. First, go back and tell people how you voted and why. Second, pair back the purchase from 400mw to 100 or 200mw. It was only a year ago that Austin energy stated it would need 200mw, not 400mw. Third purchase later rather than sooner when data centers are not driving up prices. And fourth, if they do not exist, tender formal competitive bids for the generators if such bids exist, I'm not aware of them. Let me caution you that Austin energy staff is not always right, and if the wheels come off this project, they can just take retirement. It will be the customers who bear the excessive costs. >> Thank you, Mr. Robinson. [12:46:15 PM] Those are all the people. Yes, ma'am. All right. Members, that concludes our public comment period. So what we will do is we will recess the Austin city council meeting at 12:46 P.M. So that we can call to order the board of directors meeting of the Austin housing finance corporation. So without objection, we are in recess of the Austin city council meeting at 12:46 P.M. >> I'll now call back to order at 12:51 P.M. On may 28th, 2026, the Austin city council meeting and members. The first item we will take up is item. Excuse me, I apologize. Item number 90. Council member alter you pulled item number 90 and so I'll recognize you and. And I'm hoping what I recognize you for is a motion. And then we'll take up your proposed amendment to that that item. >> Thank you very much. I move passage of item 90. >> Council member alter moves passage of item number 90. Is there a second? Second by council member Siegel council member alter you're recognized for discussion of your proposed. Okay, we have a speaker. So before I take your motion on that, we'll go to the speaker. [12:52:32 PM] >> Jeffrey Bowen, item 90. >> I had actually looked up and didn't see him, and that's why I think I in my head, I subconsciously. Mr. Bowen, are you here? Okay, that concludes all the speakers. I'm sorry for interrupting you. Council member alter you have the floor. >> Absolutely. So this item is the item that we talked about at our last work session. We've been able to work with staff and what they're going to do, assuming the direction passes that I'm going to be motioning for here in a second is to give us more information. This is a five year contract, but one year out and then every year thereafter tell us what the what they were spending those dollars on and the source of funding, and then what they expect to be spending that money on. So we can just kind of check in and say, does this still meet the priorities that we have as a council in terms of spending on things versus sometimes you have to [12:53:34 PM] prioritize or compete that against spending on people. So I appreciate all the work the staff has done to help get this to a good spot. And so with that, I will move the amendment. CM alter one to item number 90 council. >> You have in front of you a motion sheet labeled CM alter number one to provide direction for item number 90. Is there a second? Second by council member Laine discussion on the motion to amend item number 90. Hearing none. Without objection, the motion to amend is adopted with. With mayor pro tem vela and council member Velasquez off the dais and two absences. We will now go back to the main motion, which is item number nine, to approve item number 90, as amended. You speak. Sorry. All right. We have we have a motion and a second. It's we'll be voting on item number 90, as [12:54:36 PM] amended. Is there any discussion? Without objection, item number 90, as amended, is adopted with council member Velasquez off the dais and two absences. All right. Thank you. Members. What I'm going to do for continuity or what I perceive to be continuity, is I'm going to go to item number 103, which is an item from a council committee members. This comes from the audit and finance committee. As chair of the audit and finance committee, I will move that we reappoint and designate Kevin Mullins as chair of the municipal civil service commission, and we appoint Courtney Carruthers and Ronald Bennett as members of the municipal civil service commission. Is there a second? Second by council member? Laine is there discussion on this item? And I don't believe anybody signed up to speak. [12:55:37 PM] >> No speakers. >> Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. Without objection, item number 103 is adopted with council member Velasquez off the dais and two absences. Members, I'm going to go to item 63, 64 and 65 and try to take those up. Those items are eminent domain items. Let me first turn to staff and see if anyone has signed up to speak. >> I have one speaker for item 63. William bunch. >> Mr. Bunch, are you here? Mr. Bunch? Bill bunch all right, members on items 63, 64 and 65. With respect to those items, they are nonconsent condemnation items. The motion that I will accept is to the effect that the city council of Austin authorizes the use of the power of eminent domain to acquire the property set forth and described in the agenda for [12:56:37 PM] the current meeting for the public purposes and uses that are described therein. Is there a motion? Council member Laine and makes. The motion is seconded by the mayor pro tem. Is there discussion on items 63, 64 and 65? Hearing none without objection, item 63, 64 and 65 are adopted with council member Velasquez off the dais and two absences. We will now go to public hearings. Item number 68 is a public hearing. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 68. The public hearing is now open and I will turn to the city clerk. >> There are no speakers members. >> There are no speakers on item number 68. So without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 68. The public hearing is now closed, and I will entertain a motion to consider the resolution. Mayor pro tem moves approval of the resolution. It is seconded by council member Siegel. Is there any discussion? [12:57:39 PM] Hearing none. Without objection, item number 68 is adopted with council member Velasquez off the dais and there being two absences. Item number 69 is a public hearing. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 69. The public hearing is now open and I'll turn to the city clerk. >> We have one remote speaker, Patrick Barry. >> Good afternoon, mayor and city council members. Patrick berry. I'm the director of development at Beltran partners. We're the applicant for elm ridge, a preservation transaction off of airport boulevard. The 4% low income housing tax credit rehab project, where we will be preserving and modernizing 130 existing units. All residents will remain in place. We've been working closely here with a, H, C and the entire team over there to put together the application and have had no objections. And importantly, this resolution does not obligate the city financially. It simply allows us to move [12:58:41 PM] forward with our application for federal low income housing tax credits. Appreciate your consideration. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> That's all. Speakers, members. >> Those are all the speakers on the public hearing for item number 69. So without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 69. The public hearing is now closed. The mayor pro tem moves approval of item number 69. It is second by council member Laine. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Without objection, item number 69 is adopted with council member Velasquez off the dais and two absences. Item number 70 is a public hearing. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 70. The public hearing is now open and I'll turn to the city clerk. >> There are no speakers. >> There are no speakers at the public hearing on item number 70. So without objection, we will close the public hearing. The public hearing is now closed. The mayor pro tem moves approval of the resolution and item number 70. It is seconded by council member Laine. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Without objection, item number 70 is adopted with council member Velasquez temporarily off the dais and [12:59:42 PM] two absences. Item number 71 is also a public hearing. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 71. The public hearing is now open and I will turn to the city clerk. >> I have one speaker, Greg and drew. >> Please state your name for the record so we will know who you are, and maybe we'll pronounce it right the next time. >> I'm Greg Andrulis. >> And she did it. She did all right. >> I'm representing the owner and I'm the author of the floodplain impact study for this property. And I'm speaking in support of the variance requests. And I'm here to answer any questions, if you have any, about the technical aspects of the study. >> Great. Thank you for being here. Members. Those are all the speakers that have signed up on item number 71. So without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 71. The public hearing is now closed, and the mayor pro tem moves approval of the ordinance and item number 71 and a second by council member duchin. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Without objection, item number 71 is adopted with two absences. [1:00:44 PM] Item number 72 is also a public hearing. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 72. The public hearing is now open and I'll turn to the city clerk. >> Alan da bon. That one I did mess up. >> You get you get a shot at clearing it up. You always do. Go ahead. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor Watson and mayor pro tem and city council members. My name is Alan darbone and my fiance, Mary Watson, sitting in the back. And we're the owners of the >> The property at 4502 avenue F. The request for seeking for the variance has been thoroughly reviewed by the watershed protection department. And importantly, my understanding that the support approval of the variance. I'd like to thank Kevin. Rebecca Shamir with watershed, as well as Melissa Beeler for her help with this project. The proposed home improves drainage conditions through a pier and beam design, elevated two feet above the 100 year floodplain. [1:01:44 PM] Additionally, based on calculations that I had my engineer prepare on the property that existed on this lot for nearly 100 years, my proposed construction will displace approximately eight and a half times less volume than that house that sat on there for nearly a century. For regional use of this property, this variance is necessary. Denial would create an unnecessary burden due to the unique constraint conditions affected affecting the site. We believe this project represents a thoughtful improvement to the property and to the Hyde park neighborhood. We intend to be active, long term members of the community. With. Odom vela engineer, has provided a letter concluding the proposed development will not increase flood elevations or adversely affect the adjacent properties. We have received strong support from adjacent neighbors and with your permission, I'd like to just read a quick letter from both the neighbors on this property. Ashley and Colin. These are the neighbors north of the property at 4502 avenue [1:02:44 PM] F to members of city council. We are writing to express our enthusiastic support of the home constructed construction proposed by Marion Allen for the vacant lot located at 4502 avenue F, as residents of the property immediately adjacent to this lot. We have had the pleasure of meeting the couple and discussing their vision for the future. A vacant lot. >> I'm sorry your time has expired. >> Okay. >> I think you're good, I think. Thank you. Good shape. Even without the endorsement there. So thank you. Members. Those are all the people that signed up to speak for the public hearing on item number 72. So without objection, we'll close the public hearing on item 72. The public hearing is now closed. I will entertain a motion with regard to the ordinance granting the variances in item 72. Motion made by council member duchin, second by council member Laine. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Without objection, item number 72 is approved with two absences. Members. Item number 73 is a public hearing, but it is. As I read into the changes and corrections, it will be postponed to July 23rd. Item number 74 is also a public [1:03:46 PM] hearing. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 74. The public hearing is now open and I'll turn to the city clerk. >> There are no speakers. >> Members. There are no speakers on item number 74 for that public hearing. So without objection, we will close the public hearing. The public hearing is now closed, and I will entertain a motion with regard to the ordinance on item number 74. Council member duchen moves approval of the second by the mayor. Pro tem. Is there a discussion? Hearing none. Without objection, item number 74 is adopted with two absences. The final public hearing members is item number 104. And as I read in the changes and corrections earlier in the day, that will be postponed to July 23rd. Members, now we will go to items 102 and 97. And what I'm going to do, unless there's objection, is take up item 102, which relates to financial policies, before I take up item 97, which relates to potential bond elections. So. [1:04:48 PM] On item 102, hang on one second. We don't have we don't have anybody that signed up to speak on 102. Is that right? >> I have one speaker for 102. >> Okay. I'm sorry I missed that. Then why don't we call that speaker. >> William bunch? >> Oh yeah, I see it now, Mr. Bunch. Mr. Bunch. All right, I guess he's here. So, members on 102. And we have financial staff here if we need anybody but on 102, the item has proposals from the city, the professional financial staff on items one through nine and then on item ten. It provides an alternate. I think the reason this was originally put on the nonconsent is because it was seen as almost an item coming [1:05:49 PM] from a committee. But what I will tell the whole council is it came from the audit and finance committee, and at the time it came from the audit and finance committee. There were four members of the finance committee there, and all four of us could count. It looked like it was going to be a split vote, 2 to 2. And so there is no recommendation as such from the audit and finance committee. So if so, here's the way I would ask that we do this if we're going to if we have a motion on this, the motion would be to direct the city manager to incorporate the changes to the city's financial policies shown in changes one through nine, and then the motion choose either ten a or ten B of the version two of exhibit a posted in the backup into the proposed city fiscal year 2026 2027. Financial policies that he brings as part of the proposed fiscal year [1:06:49 PM] 2026 2027 budget for council consideration and further direct the manager to assess the city's ability to comply with the council approved bond decision framework if those financial changes are adopted. Our. Adopted by the council and return with the results of that assessment to council no later than the August 12th council budget meeting. Is there a motion with regard to item number 102 council member alter. >> Yes. >> Sorry, I move adoption of. Item 102. And then this is the moment where I'd say with alternative a, I mean with all a or B. >> A or B, yes. >> Yes, with alternate policy B, but I do have a question after this. >> Okay. Councilmember Siegel seconds the motion. He also tried to make the motion. I just didn't see him. That's why you're I'm not dissing you. All right, councilmember alter, you'll be recognized. >> So my I just have a question [1:07:51 PM] at the top. And we received notice. I can't remember if it's this morning or last night about Austin energy looking to not change some of their financial policies. Yes. And I just want to double check that that requested non change is incorporated here. >> Good morning. >> Good afternoon. >> Kerri Lang director, budget organizational excellence. Yes those changes are those non changes are included in the backup documentation. >> Okay very good. I just wanted to start on that. And then just to kind of highlight, we have had a number of discussions at the audit and finance committee. And I appreciate the mayor bringing it forward a number of times. So we could have a number of conversations to really make sure that we're we're getting this right and figuring out the issue. The reason why I believe it's it's important to go with [1:08:53 PM] that ten B instead of ten a is I think that we have seen that there are bond categories that spend their money and I should say bond propositions that are able to spend their money within the time period envisioned, sometimes even a little faster than that, better than others. And looking at a single category, not holding us up for the capital needs of other categories, I believe is important. And I also believe just the the system with which we do our bond elections. I don't believe doing everything once every six years makes the most sense. We talked about it a couple of times. You know, how you might be able to do a couple in one year and then two years later do a couple different ones, and then two years later do a couple [1:09:53 PM] different ones and have staff be planning that way. But it makes them more bite sized. Staff is able to dedicate more time into each of those two year windows still with a six year horizon. So all that to say is this allows for us to both have a consideration right now, as well as think about how we do bond projects in the long term. And if we want to do everything at once, or if we want to take a slightly different approach. This would allow for us to do that. So that is that is all I really have to say about that for now. >> Thank you. Members you have in front of you a proposed motion to amend item number 102 from council member duchen. So I want to recognize council member duchen. It's labeled item 102 may 28th, 2026cm duchen one. >> Thank you mayor. Colleagues, I'm introducing this as a [1:10:57 PM] compromise between the competing versions that we've got, which are options a and B, per councilmember alter's comments, this is trying to address a bond timing issue. At the same time as we're also trying to address his point that some project categories are spent more quickly than others, and this would help address or satisfy certain departmental or other needs. But at the same time, ideally giving us additional options to solve that, that don't necessarily trigger or explicitly trigger having the bond election, that particular cycle. And so in my mind, it's an opportunity to restore some financial discipline at the same time as giving us some flexibility regarding our our bond cycle process. And. Last thing I'll say is, although that motion mentioned, certificates of obligation, I [1:11:59 PM] could happily change it to just alternative funding because there's probably additional options beyond that that could do that. My understanding right now from staff is that if we used C os or alternative funding to fill these gaps right now in our current situation, we might need somewhere in the realm of $190 million that would satisfy the parks, the watershed transit, some parkland acquisition, and that way we would still preserve the overwhelming amount of our debt capacity for future geo bonds, but also get back to this routine bond cycle. I'll I'll just say as context. Maybe as a reminder that for 16 years, we have put on the ballot for voters, some kind of city bond going back to 2010. Not all of them passed. These were in addition to, in many cases, a county and aid or other bonds. And so starting in [1:13:04 PM] 2010, pretty much every single even year, voters have had to make a critical decision about what we're, what we can afford and what we're paying for. And we've seen with this approach that the city struggled to spend down bonds in a timely and effective way, in some cases to plan to, in some cases, struggle to plan for future bonds and in some cases, even struggle to provide basic reporting on the status of projects. And it's led to capacity issues where our ability to spend down the bond is complicated by our capacity to spend and manage those projects across disparate capital project needs and areas. We heard last week during work session that we are a significant outlier compared to our peer cities in this regard. Quote, Austin stands alone a little bit in terms of the frequency of the bonds that we've done in the past several years, and I think staff was being kind in that comment. And so because we've struggled to complete these projects in a timely way, my hope is that this strikes the right balance [1:14:06 PM] between giving us a solution that we can look to when we do have these categories that are spent down in different ways, or faster or slower than others, but that doesn't necessarily automatically compel us to do a bond, a particular cycle. And so we've invested a tremendous time in decision trees. And I think it's important that we communicate very clearly to people that we're ready to be financially disciplined. And I think this is a way that we can negotiate between the two options that we currently have. >> Do you want. We've got it in front of us, but you've you've indicated you might want to change it. And so that it reads with certificates of the next to next to last line, address those project needs with certificates of obligation or alternative funding until the next yes. Members. I usually ask for things to be in writing, but that. >> I actually do have a. >> You have a different version of it. Okay. [1:15:08 PM] >> But it just strikes. >> CEOs with alternative funding. >> All right. Why don't you pass that out? Okay. Handing out something on a different item. Yeah. Okay. >> Yes. >> Ignore it. >> For now. Ignore it. Yeah. >> Members, the motion to amend by council member duchen is the one that you have in front of you. Now, that is the third from the bottom line. It says address those project needs with strikes, certificates of obligation, and puts alternative funding until the next regular bond cycle. The motion has been made to amend item 102 by council member duchen. Is there a second to the motion? I'll second the motion to amend members discussion with regard to the motion to amend. >> I question. >> The sure council member. >> I'm curious, councilmember [1:16:08 PM] duchen, and maybe a question for you, maybe a question for cds, but the the meaning of the word projects, how specific that is. And, and the reason why I'm really want to make sure we get clarity on that is I was looking at the 2018 bond projects list that the city puts out and. Some of those are broad. Something like library planning. Some of those are very specific. University hills branch roof replacement. And my concern is that if we if projects is too narrow, then let's take something like park improvements where that as a kind of broader category might be at 90% or not because of a single project. Impacting that. [1:17:09 PM] So I was curious if you could help. >> Yeah. So Eric bailly deputy director of capital delivery services, good to see everyone today. So in terms of how we define projects in a bond program, right, we have our, our standalone named projects, you know, for specific things that tend to be larger. And then we also have our programmatic buckets, which contain a collection of projects that are within them. I think that's kind of the crux of the question. So the answer to the question is really kind of we do both, you know, we have it that it's both ways. The way a project is defined can be as small as a assignment from the sidewalks bucket to do from point a to point B of an individual project, or it can be part of a larger a larger project, say, you know, mexic-arte or a roof replacement or a, you know, bridge replacement, things like that. So we define it kind of both ways. Usually we use the term program when we come to this, a collection of smaller projects. And we for the standalone projects are tend to be the larger things that are related to individual facilities or individual [1:18:10 PM] structures. >> So then thinking about parks again as just an easy example, if we had four pools that we wanted to repair or replace, aquatics would kind of be the program, but then those named projects would be the projects. >> Exactly. >> Yeah. Okay. And so I think what we're trying to get at through the, the alternate policy be is looking at that, that bond category, which is the proposition. It does mention projects within that category, but that's projects collectively, which is not at the individual project level. And so I'm just concerned that this would be so narrowly scoped at that project level that we wouldn't if we did. You know, the Doherty arts center is always the one that that [1:19:12 PM] sticks on my mind, right? You've got single named project, but the program itself is, is held up because of the project. And then even the bond category or proposition. And so drilling down this, this narrow. I worry about the implication or the if it gets to where we're trying to go in terms of looking at that larger programmatic level, that's my only kind of concern in this. But I do think it's worth us talking about how we kind of band-aid things to future years. I'm I think that's a worthy goal here. >> All right. Further discussion. In that case, those. I'm going to call for a vote on the duchen motion to amend item 102. Those in favor of the motion to amend. Raise your hands. All those opposed, raise [1:20:15 PM] your hands. All right. The motion to amend fails with two yes votes, that being councilmember duchen and the mayor and the others voting no with two absences that will now take us back to the main motion and the main motion I want, just for clarity purposes, I want to read the main motion again and make sure everybody's clear. And and I get it right. I got it right. What the maker of the motion wanted to do, and it would be to direct the city manager to incorporate the changes to the city's financial policies, as shown in changes one through nine and ten B of the version two of exhibit a posted in backup into the proposed city fiscal year 2026 2027. Financial policies that he brings as part of the proposed fiscal year 2026 2027 budget for council consideration and further direct the city manager to [1:21:15 PM] assess the city's ability to comply with the council approved bond decision framework. If those financial changes are adopted by council and return with the results of the assessment to council no later than the August 12th council budget meeting. Council member alter. That's your motion, right? All right. And. Discussion on that. I'm going to make a couple of comments, but I want to make sure we've covered everybody that wants to talk. I'm going to vote no on this because I believe that the alternative be weakens our financial and debt policies. We've talked over and over again how in the past cycles, several cycles, we've had multiple election after multiple election in violation of our financial policies. In many instances, which has created the box we now find ourselves in, where at a time when people want to have a bond [1:22:16 PM] election, some would believe that under normal circumstances, we would need to have a bond election, but we can't do it and stay in compliance with our policies. If we follow our financial and debt policies, I believe we wouldn't and shouldn't have a bond election this year. And I realize that's a problem for those that want a bond election. In the past, if the policies inconveniently got in the way of an election, councils just held an election anyway. In fact, as I've just said, that's what created our current difficulty. We've talked about this many times. We've acknowledged this. Our professional financial staff has recommended pursuing a 2028 bond election. And what they said was they would have us do that to, quote, to align with the framework of the decision TRE the council adopted and to ensure compliance with the city's current financial policies. So the city is out of compliance with current [1:23:17 PM] policies and and won't be in compliance, but will until 2028 and importantly, would be in 2028. And I want to say, I really appreciate the way staff tried to create as much flexibility as they professionally could in providing an alternative policy recommendation. But as I've indicated, I think this waters down our policies. If we only support financial guardrails until they become inconvenient, then we shouldn't be surprised when the public questions whether we really mean them and frankly, whether we can be trusted. My concern is less about the staff recommendation and more about the fact that we're easing standards we know are important in order to get to a desired outcome. Good governance governance that builds confidence requires more than finding technical pathways [1:24:17 PM] to do something. It also requires asking whether we should change the guardrails because they now constrain us. If we soften those policies because they stand in the way of an outcome we want, then we're simply recreating in a more sophisticated form the same behaviors that created the problem we find ourselves in in the first place. I get responding to political desire, but we're responding to political desire by relaxing standards before we've reestablished discipline. And I don't think we should do this. So I'm going to oppose the motion. Councilmember duchen. >> Thank you, mayor, I just want to add two things. I'm also struggling with this and have struggled with this because it very much feels like a situation of can versus should. And it's frustrating to hear the conversations around [1:25:19 PM] our decision TRE. If you will be more about whether or not a bond would pass this year versus whether it's prudent for us to do that. And whether there's the necessity for that. And I agree that there's a legitimate concern about departments and programs and projects that are at 90% spending already and that need a pathway to make sure that we're not jeopardizing infrastructure and personnel and other things. But at the same time, you know, certainly the goal with with the alternate alternate policy was to show that there was a different way of solving that problem, that we could still get there. And, and that there were potentially upsides to that approach. So I'm also very much struggling and will be voting no on this as well. Thank you. [1:26:20 PM] >> The vote will be on the motion. It will be on item 102, on item 102. Councilmember Siegel, please. >> Thank you, mayor. And just a brief clarification. You might be able to answer this, mayor. The you're saying the bond decision TRE prohibited what we're trying to do right now. >> As currently worded. And part of what the motion is that has been made is to bring this back to see if it complies with the change in policies. But as as our professional staff has indicated, they they believe it would not comply with our current policies. And that's why there's a being a suggested change to those policies. >> Okay. Well, I'll just make a brief comment, mayor. And I, I respect your point of view, but I feel like I've attended a lot of these audit finance meetings and other discussions. And I feel like I heard something a little bit different from finance staff and capital delivery services leaders that [1:27:20 PM] from finance staff's point of view, we are still within our overall debt limit goals as long as we stay under, you know, $750 million in new capital investments. And of course the resolution that's going to be separately considered is far below that. And that the idea of delivering all bond projects within a fixed six year period. What I remember talking to acm Rogers about in public at a hearing was that there wouldn't be a problem if we had two alternating cycles of bond programs. So I don't think this creates financial risk for the city. We haven't predetermined what any proposed bond would be, but what I do know is that our because of past actions by prior councils, our bond programs are on differing cycles and they're not aligned. And the idea, for example, that we have a 2018 vote on a parks bond was the last time voters considered a parks bond. I [1:28:20 PM] don't think that's just a political concern. I think that's a policy concern that we haven't been able to make continued investments in parks, open space and these kind of amenities that the people of Austin enjoy. And so I guess I'm just going to disagree with your characterization that we're that we're putting the city at risk, or that we're undermining the confidence of the voters. And that's why I'll be supporting councilmember alter's motion. >> Thank you, councilmember councilmember alter. >> And just a clarifying question. The motion itself, and I forgive me, I missed, I think the tailpiece. There's something related to August that I thought I heard you say, and I can you just clarify. >> Because what the motion would do is it would bring back. It would ask the manager to bring back with the new with the new change. And if a policy, if if we when he brings back recommendations for a bond election, whether or not it complies. >> And what was there something about August or did I make. [1:29:20 PM] >> That up? Yeah. No, you got it. The August 12th council budget meeting. >> August 12th. Okay. And I just want to. >> No later than that. >> Okay. So if we because under the decision TRE, we would have that conversation first in audit finance, then as a council. Would we would need to have that conversation at the committee. >> Sometime before that, that August meeting. >> Okay. I just want to make sure that we're able to do that before potentially July. If we're going to talk about a different item here and what what conversations we have in July, but just flagging that for the manager and acm Rogers as we work through this. >> He's standing right behind you, looking over your shoulder. >> So he is all right. That's right. He's he's learned. I might ask him a question. All right. Well, I just wanted to clarify because I thought you said that and I just. >> That's great. >> Thank you. >> Very good. Thank you. All right. The vote will be on item [1:30:21 PM] number 102. Those in favor of item number 102 raise your hand. Those opposed. So the motion carries. Item 102 carries with the mayor and council member duchen being shown voting no. And to absent. Now what we will do is we will go to item number 97. I pulled item 97, but the reason I pulled it was so it would follow item 102. And. And everybody, I think, is aware that item number 97 is related to asking the manager to bring back something related to a bond package. We have a number of people that have signed up to speak. So I'm going to turn to the city clerk. >> Thank you, mayor, for item 97. We have Brian Dolezal. With time donated by Barbara Scott. Is Barbara Scott present? >> She just. >> Okay, we have two minutes. [1:31:23 PM] >> Thank you. Council. Miss Scott had to leave very quickly, so I'll be as brief as possible to share her comments. I'm here today to urge the inclusion of a combined colony, park library and public health facility in any future bond package, should you choose to do one two vital community pillars that would be also provide child care services for more than half a century, colony park and other communities in the eastern crescent have lived in the shadow of delayed promises and uneven investment. While other parts of Austin flourish, this area was left navigating barriers that no community should have to face. Today, residents still live in what can only be described as a resource drought, where healthy food is scarce, medical services are distant, affordable care is limited, and educational support for young children is painfully inadequate. A library is more than a building filled with books is a launch pad for opportunity. It becomes a lighthouse for children learning to read, for teenagers, preparing for the future, and for adults seeking workforce skills and digital access. Likewise, a public health [1:32:23 PM] facility is not simply a clinic, it is a safety net, a preventive shield and a doorway to healthier lives. Together, these facilities would serve as the heartbeat of the community. One trusted and accessible places, a place where families can learn. He'll grow and thrive. The city of Austin already owns land in colony park, zoned for civic use. That means the foundation is already beneath our feet. The blueprint exists. The need is undeniable. What remains is the political act, political will to act. Equity cannot remain a slogan printed on planning documents. It must become visible in brick and mortar and meaningful investment, continuing to overlook colony park and communities in the eastern crescent only deepens the very disparities that you and several councils before you have pledged to eliminate. We know that the city of Austin has many priorities, but this shared library, health and daycare center is the priority among priorities. Today, we are asking you to transform decades of conversation into concrete action. Thank you. [1:33:24 PM] >> Thank you very much. >> Continuing on item 97, we have colon Mcmorrow, Laura Bennett, Garrett hill, William bunch, Seth Johnson. Is Seth Johnson present? He has time donated by Andrew Henderson. So Seth Johnson will have four minutes. Please state your name for the record when you speak. >> Yeah, my name is Cullen Mcmorrow. I'm with several groups Austin ridge riders, mountain bike club, Austin outside the trails and active transportation committee of that bike, Texas, David Phillips foundation. And I'm a safe routes to school pta leader for my kids school. So representing biking entities, I actually very much support what the mayor is saying about financial discipline and adherence to timelines. My kids [1:34:25 PM] are getting older. We want to see improvements in parks sooner than later, and we want to see things that our club has been talking about years ago. I mean, we were part of vision planning for Walter long for little walnut creek, greenbelt for Trevino. We've gone to these meetings, we've got our opinions put into vision plans, and then the vision plan goes on the shelf. Right. When is that vision plan going to get built? So I see the bond, a narrowly tailored bond process with fiscal and timeline responsibilities being really important, keeping the momentum going, building what's already been planned. And I can't say plan been vision planned, and hopefully cool things get built in the parks before my kids are too old to enjoy them locally before they've gone off to college. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yes, sir. >> Hello. My name is Seth Johnson. I have a presentation here. I'm here representing the [1:35:26 PM] diverse and inclusive residents depicted in the picture on the screen right now. And I wanted to remind the council that in 2019, this body made a commitment via vote to adopt the recommendations of the long term parks and recreation plan. This is something that some of the people on this council voted for, and some of these votes came from your predecessors, who, to continue the metaphor that mayor pro tem made, pass the baton on to you to carry. The thing about carrying batons for people is they generally look at how the baton was carried by the by their predecessors when it comes time for them to carry the baton. This next slide is taken from this parks and recreation. Long term planning guide. I wanted to draw attention that in terms of [1:36:27 PM] skate parks, the. The distribution is is very unbalanced in that these facilities do not exist in the north, southwest or west section of the city. It's the least evenly distributed resources. In this plan, there are only 0.03 skate parks per 10,000 residents as per 2018. When this plan was. When this was researched. So this next slide also comes from the parks and recreation long term plan. And it highlights another dimension of why Austin is better than Dallas and Atlanta, and that San Antonio has set a good example for delivering park amenities as requested by the residents. As you can see again, the skate parks are quite small in. Relative to the. The other features provided by parks and recreation. And the last slide I want to provide [1:37:29 PM] from this from this long range planning guide is that the priorities defined in the guide highlighted skate parks as outdoor amenities worthy of investment. But how do we tangibly deliver on this investment over time? One way that was proposed was outside of parks and recreation funding, and that was within the cap and stitch vision plan. Obviously, that's a very expensive way to deliver park land floating over I- 35 and the section of the project that was considering putting a skate park in has actually been deleted from consideration, which is probably better off because it would have been perhaps the most expensive skate park in the world. Last month, I read this article in the Austin courant with great optimism. It highlighted that there are options for siting these type of facilities in our city. It also highlights a rational and [1:38:30 PM] responsible planning for the future that our cities conducting. By setting aside this parkland for future development. But as we find ourselves more than halfway through the current long range plan, I don't see any skate parks that have been funded in the past 20 years, let alone now. I worry that our city, our city planning is is caught in a sense of fatalism where we're unable to move forward on the on the commitments we've made. But 2026 is an opportunity for us. I know there's there's a lot of concern about taking on more debt, but I do want to point out that in 2000, we did put forth a light rail bond initiative that sadly failed by 2000 votes. Many people say it was because of the name. >> Thank you, but I'm sorry your time is expired. >> Okay. >> Continuing on item 97, lalo [1:39:31 PM] Estrada, Fleetwood. Jacobs, Mike pinotti, Sylvia orozco, Alyssa vargas. If I've called your name, please come forward and take a seat. >> Has been called. Just take a seat and find a microphone and state your name for the record. >> Okay. >> Good afternoon, mayor and council members. I'm Sylvia roscoe, the one of the founders and co- founders, and I'm now the executive director of mexic-arte museum. Thank you for your support, your service and contributions to the city of Austin. Great cities like Austin's are made up of great leaders, engaged community, high quality institutions, libraries, and parks. Austin continues to evolve and flourish for today and for [1:40:31 PM] future generations because of the Austin city council's visionary decisions. Many of those you will make today, we ask for your support of the bond election for 2026 and the inclusion of mexic-arte the museum. Item 97 to support a potential bond package for November of 26. We urge and we commend your support to approve the resolution that includes the cultural arts proposal of mexic-arte, the museum, the paramount and Umlauf sculpture gardens. Mexic-arte museum is at the center of congress avenue historical district, a project that bridges our communities and the official state designated fifth street Mexican American cultural district bond funding will complete the construction of a beautifully designed building that will be the pride of downtown Austin, showcasing local artists as well as [1:41:31 PM] international exhibitions for families, schoolchildren and tourists. The new building will enhance art and education programs. The museum will qualify for accreditation from the American alliance of museums. This year will begin our third, our 43rd year of serving Austin through exhibitions, citywide events, schools and public programs, and a growing permanent collection of art and cultural materials that record the stories of the Latino community in Austin. We ask the city to support item number 97. >> Thank you. >> Good morning, mayor. City council members. My name is Fleetwood Jacobs, and I'm the executive director of zilker. 3510351 is a nonprofit conservancy that was formed in 2022 to ecologically steward all 351 acres of zilker park [1:42:32 PM] and to ensure every austinite feels welcome in our beloved green space. Over the past year, we have removed many invasive species and planted 280 trees. This fall, we will continue to remove invasive species and continue to plant trees and wildflowers. We are also launching zilker first historical audio tour, but today we are here to support item 97, the resolution to develop a bond package. The parks bond, the tiff committee and city staff all agree that parks are critically underfunded and as council member Siegel mentioned, parks haven't been funded through a bond since 2018. So the time is now. But whether through bond or budget, I specifically want to address funding for the stretch of Barton creek from the spillway to Barton springs road. Known to most austinites [1:43:34 PM] as barking springs, this area is an active ecological decline. Years of flooding, stormwater runoff, erosion, invasive species and intense public use have destabilized the shoreline. Tree roots are exposed, soil is collapsing into the creek, and trails have narrowed to the point that they are unsafe for children, seniors and people with limited mobility. Barton springs pool charges a mission. Barking springs is a free alternative where families from all over Austin come to swim. They take their dogs and they find relief from the heat. Thank you so much. My colleague Mike kennerty will. >> Yes, sir. >> Greetings, council. My name is Mike coonerty. I serve on the board of zo qadri 51. The good news is there's the problem that you described is solvable with parks bond funding. That is very popular with Austin voters. We have a park improvement project, which we call the Barton creek [1:44:35 PM] spillway shoreline project. That is a community consensus project from the council approved 2009 Barton springs pool master plan. This project will stabilize the creek bank, restore the native vegetation, improve trail safety and accessibility along the creek, reduce erosion and protect the water quality at Barton springs spillway area, which is outside the pool and therefore free to all comers, with an estimated cost of about $3 million. Zilker 351 stands ready to raise matching funds from private philanthropic donors, and this one meets the goals of resolution 97 before you today, which prioritizes bond projects that offer partnership opportunities and leverage matching funds. But philanthropy follows partnership. Private donors need to know that this is a priority for the city before they're going to donate. This is what we've learned in fundraising for Barton springs bathhouse, whether through bond package or another pathway like budget allocation or formal project designation, public [1:45:35 PM] commitment is a key that will unlock private donations. Should council move forward with decision on the bond election, we would certainly hope zilker will have some of the love, but if zilker bond funding is not possible, we want to begin planning for necessary repairs in the upcoming fiscal year budget funding so that we can update the scope and costs for the spillway engineering and remediation project. Maybe this is something you add to the direction to the city manager in the resolution before you. We are not asking the city to do this alone. We're asking the city to partner with us. We need your leadership so that we can help you. Thank you very much. Council. >> Thank you sir. >> Continuing with item 97, Cecilia hogan, Derek Hanson. And that concludes all speakers for item 97. Mayor. [1:46:37 PM] >> So do I go. Okay. Good afternoon. I'm Derek Hanson representing casulo cycling initiative in support of adding a bond package for transit and parks just also helps youth and adults across Austin access their world safely by bicycle. Each year, we teach bike skills and rules of the road to over 2500 youth through in-school clinics, after-school bike clubs and community bike busses. A large portion of our programing takes place in title one schools, but we also assist with bike ped, infrastructure activations and special events for the city across all districts, from affluent neighborhoods to the historically underserved, we have seen significant progress on bike pedestrian infrastructure from the previous bond cycle, and we're grateful. But we need to build on this momentum in order to finish the job, provide safe transit across the city. Today is the last day of school for aid. So a couple examples. In August with the new redistrict redistricting, Casey elementary in the south will receive an influx of 200 new students but [1:47:38 PM] no safe bike lanes to reach their school. Gus Garcia middle school and Barbara Jordan elementary in the northeast share a single, narrow sidewalk, but no bike lanes and substandard crossings. These are just a couple examples from a long list of unsafe and and or incomplete routes to school. A small bond package can help move this forward to ensure all of our kids are safe, we would also like to see bond renewal for park development, as many of our friends here have have said, so that our children can have safe places to play and explore places like bloom district park and little walnut creek greenbelt in east Austin. These are large parcels with master plans in place just waiting for bond approval and funding, both of which I'm proud to say I was able to contribute to as a resident of district one in the planning of of these visions for the past 14 years, these parks will offer cycling amenities and trail connectivity in areas that have traditionally been slower for development. In terms of public greenways, I urge council to approve this item and include a bond package [1:48:38 PM] to support transit, infrastructure and city parks. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All speakers for item 97 have been called. >> Thank you very much, members. All the speakers on item number 97 have been called. What I'll do. The way we'll approach this, I don't think we have any proposed amendments on 97. So it'll be a straight up vote if we have a motion on item number 97. Council member Siegel moves approval seconded by the mayor. Pro tem councilmember Cecile, you wish to speak? Yes, ma'am. Okay. >> I just want to thank council member alter again for getting this resolution together, which asks staff to continue to develop possible bond programs so that we can make a final decision this summer on what to recommend Austin voters, if anything. And I'll just say that for me, I continue to believe we should ask voters to invest in Austin parks, which have not received a bond investment since 2018. Parks are one of the amenities almost universally enjoyed across our community and our green spaces, [1:49:38 PM] our play spaces and our open spaces are a big part of what makes Austin great, and I look forward to the continued discussion. Thank you mayor. >> Thank you, council member. Mayor pro tem. >> Thank you, mayor, a strong supporter of this item, a strong supporter of a parks bond. It has been too long and if we wait till 28, that's a decade between parks, bonds. And I just don't think that's acceptable. I also wanted to point out that parks are one of the few areas that were able able to leverage our private partners, donors and other supporters that are willing to step to the table and fund parks. Austin parks foundation jumps out as one. The zilker 361 folks that were just talking about that, you know, we can't really do that with watershed or, you know, no one's volunteering to donate money to, you know, repair streets and those kinds of things. So there's, there's opportunities here and we need to, to take advantage of them. [1:50:38 PM] Strong supporter of this. I did want to I love the, the skate park and bmx idea and the zilker three, six one plan there at barking springs. That's a it's a beautiful area. Thousands of people go there. It's another. There's many parts of, I think, zilker that have been loved to death, but barking springs maybe, maybe more than any other individual spot. It really does need some some safety and accessibility improvements. And I think that the plan put together by the supporters is, is, is excellent. So and we look forward to supporting this item. >> Thank you. Mayor pro tem council member alter. >> Thank you very much. I just want to really clarify, especially in light of the conversation. We just had around 102, that this is moving the process forward. It's not the decision itself. You know, I think the mayor has laid forward a very robust process for us to decide whether or not a bond is appropriate. And as councilmember duchin mentioned, you know, should we not can we [1:51:39 PM] Wright are these issues of the level of need and import that we should go to voters and ask for them to make these investments? But we can't do that if staff doesn't do the necessary prep work behind the scenes. And that's what this is asking for. Here's a framework. Basically, build the menu and let us come back in July and have that ultimate discussion of should we do this? Is it in compliance with policies, with the decision TRE, and is it the right decision in terms of asking the voters to, you know, to put that before them? And like I said, make those investments. So as we move this forward, I appreciate all the work so far done by delivery services. Acm Rogers and then hope that come July, we can have that full discussion of what, if any, of this we should move forward in doing. And, you know, no secret, I, I think our our parks are in desperate need. [1:52:41 PM] But let's have that conversation in July about what types of investments we make in parks and other areas of the city. >> Councilmember. Thank you, councilmember. Thank you, councilmember alter. Councilmember duchen, you're recognized. >> Thank you. Mayor, just a couple of things. In response to some of the comments of my colleagues. One is I'd really wish we could focus on what specifically is the problem we're trying to solve here. If the problem we're trying to solve is to invest in the places that we've already exhausted prior bonds. As I detailed earlier, I think there's an alternate way to do that that may not arrive at $390 million. From my conversations with staff, we can get there for probably half as much. And my conversations with staff about parks there need to bridge us over to 28 is around $70 million. That includes at least $10 million of land acquisition. So I'm [1:53:44 PM] unclear about what specific problem this is solving. By going to essentially twice the value that I understand that we might actually need to get us to 2028, because the other implication of this is, is that if we're not going to 750 now and we're just doing and we're doing 390 and we're covering certain pieces that we are basically committing to doing a 2028 bond of whatever the remainder categories are that aren't funded right now. And so we're perpetuating this again, 16 year cycle where every two years, apart from a gap in 2024, we've basically asked voters to pony up money for different things. And I think we're seeing the results of some fatigue on that. So that's the reason that I'll likely be voting no on this. >> Thank you. Thank you, councilmember. I'm going to say a few things, and I want to start off by saying this isn't easy for me. And but but as [1:54:48 PM] councilmember Walter just said, it's beginning the process. And and so it creates an opportunity for, I think all of us to speak plainly about where we stand on something. And that includes me and be very clear about where I am on this. And I'm going to be voting no on this because I don't agree with the process that's putting into place, and it's not because I oppose parks. It's not because I oppose cultural facilities or any of the other investments that I know people care deeply about in what's shaping up to be what I think is shaping up to be a bond package. I support many of those priorities very strongly. For me, it's about where we are as a city and where we are as a council, and how we're going to govern, how we're going to steward this city for for a decade, this city has drifted. It stepped away from its financial policies and its debt management policy practices. As [1:55:50 PM] I said earlier, we all know that we've discussed it. We've acknowledged it publicly. Some of us have said it mattered. All of us have acted like it mattered. And this council has unanimously adopted a financial reforms intended to restore alignment and rebuild trust. We created, as we've talked several times, and I appreciate the recognition of the effort to create the decision making framework, that decision TRE for having future bond elections. We also acknowledged after the failure of the TRE, that we needed to restore public confidence in our fiscal management, and we passed policies to demonstrate a reason to trust us. In that regard. We passed a stronger policy regarding the use of council office accounts. We initiated a systemic citywide audit process. We began this budget cycle looking at a no new revenue tax rate as part of [1:56:51 PM] the forecast. And then just last week, we approved stronger oversight for consulting contracts and grants. Those were important. They ought to be meaningful. But public trust isn't restored simply by passing new policies. It's restored by proving discipline. I hope that somebody calling with money. It's restored by. By proving we have discipline. Either answer it or hang up on them. And that discipline is especially important after voters clearly express concern. The tax rate election was only seven months ago, and it failed by a large margin. Everyone knows from our debate and our discussions at the time, that we went to the voters with a tax rate that was more than I liked. I supported a compromise [1:57:53 PM] position that was higher than I personally wanted, in hopes of building consensus. And I'm I won't do that again. The voters spoke clearly and dramatically all over the city in Republican and democratic precincts, in the richest neighborhoods, and importantly, in the poorest neighborhoods. And things haven't gotten better financially since that time. Not for the city and not for those living in our city. People are struggling, and I don't believe we've yet done enough to justify asking the voters this quickly for additional debt. While we remain outside the financial alignment that we said that we acted like mattered. In fact, asking them when we're out of alignment and when we're changing policies to get us, perhaps get us to the result we want. I think risk adding to the distrust and the lack of confidence. Importantly, our professional staff is [1:58:54 PM] recommending an election in 2028, and I believe they're right. If our again, I want to say it again. If our fiscal policies apply only when they're convenient, then they're not really policies. And we we're doing things maybe differently, but it's the same sort of behavior that has caused the problem in the first place that we're now worried about. Our leadership sometimes means saying, yes, but our leadership also means being willing to say, not yet. Especially when saying yes would be politically easier in the moment because of people wanting a bond election. I believe we can and we should bring forward significant investments in the future. In fact, if we restore compliance with our financial policies and we maintain the discipline, we actually will have greater future capacity to do more for this community in 2028. But I [1:59:57 PM] believe stewardship requires timing, sequencing, and credibility. And I believe the better course is to continue rebuilding trust, continue demonstrating discipline, restore alignment, and come back stronger and more responsibly positioned in 2028. So while this begins the process, I'll still be voting no. Members. The vote will be on item number 97. The motion has been made and seconded. Those in favor, raise your hand. Those opposed raise your hand. You abstaining? All right. The vote passes with two no votes. The mayor and council member duchen and council member Laine abstaining on the vote. So the motion passes. All right, members, that will now take us. Oh, look at that. 2:00 almost on the dot. I worried about that, but I could have talked a [2:00:57 PM] little longer if I needed to. I'm not sure it got me any more votes, but it sure got us to 2:00. All right. With that being said, we're now at our 2:00 time. Certain members. The way I'm going to do this is we're going to take up item number 67, and then we're going to take up zoning item number 75. And the reason we're doing that is because if those two pass, then item number 92 is going to be withdrawn by staff. So the first item is item number 67. And I'll turn to the city clerk's office to call our speakers. >> Thank you mayor. We have a remote speaker for item 67. Maura powers. >> Hi, this is Laura powers. I am from district ten, and I'm here to speak on behalf of Travis audubon. We're a bird conservation nonprofit that [2:01:58 PM] encourages birding. Our members appreciate birds and support their survival, which is now at risk for many North American species. For this reason, we're very grateful for the inclusion of bird collision deterrence in this proposed ordinance for downtown high rises. High rises are the cause of more more bird deaths per building than any other type of building. Last year, Austin watershed protection completed an extensive study of these types of ordinances in North American cities and towns, where they have been enacted and proven their effectiveness in protecting birds and providing energy savings for buildings. We look forward to when council passes a resolution for the drafting of a broader ordinance on bird protection from building collisions. Thank you very much for the inclusion of collision deterrence in this [2:03:00 PM] ordinance. That concludes my statement. >> Thank you very much. >> Moving to in-person speakers for item 67, Alexandra Boone, Jeffrey Bowen, Alexander miles, Hannah Rangel, William bunch. If I've called your name, please come forward and state your name for the record. >> Alexander miles. It's a pleasure. Good afternoon, mayor and council. My name is Alexandra miles. I'm a resident of district nine, and I've worked alongside teams helping move projects from concept to reality. I'm here today in support of item 67 and the modernization of the downtown density bonus program. And I think the question before us is bigger than zoning or incentives. It's about what kind of future we are building for the people who call the city home. Because when growth slows down in the urban core, it doesn't stop. It just spreads further outwards. Families get pushed further from the jobs, from schools, from community and from [2:04:01 PM] opportunity. Traffic worsens, infrastructure costs rises, and over time, the city becomes harder to afford and harder to move through for the very people who helped build it. But there is another path, a future where more people can live closer to where they work, where downtown remains active, safe and economically vibrant, where growth strengthens the city instead of stretching it thinner and thinner outwards. Because the infrastructure is already here. And from what I've seen firsthand, when responsible reinvestment becomes realistically achievable, people build, businesses invest, housing gets created, and public benefits get delivered, and momentum turns into opportunity for real families trying to build stable lives in Austin. I think sometimes we forget that behind every project, our future residents, people want a shorter commute home to their kids, workers trying to stay near their jobs, and young families hoping they build a future in this city. What I appreciate about item 67 is that it recognizes an important reality. Public benefit programs only work when participation remains achievable. This proposal maintains affordability and community benefit expectations [2:05:02 PM] while moving towards a framework that is clearer, more functional and more economically realistic to navigate. And I believe that gives Austin a chance to keep growing in a way that creates more opportunity, more connection, and more hope for the people who will call this city home in the years ahead. I appreciate the opportunity to speak today. Thank you all so much. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon, Hannah Rangel with the downtown Austin alliance. On behalf of the downtown Austin alliance board of directors, I'm sharing our position on the phase one downtown density bonus update. While some of our recommendations have been supported and adopted in this process, and we thank planning and council staff for the collaboration, we still feel that the proposal falls short in aligning policy goals with market realities and the long term economic positioning of downtown. A core goal of any downtown policy should be to ambitiously position the district to attract and maximize future growth, in order to continually expand a tax base that supports programs across the city. Instead, the current proposal artificially limits it by dictating a maximum height cap and further [2:06:02 PM] disincentivizing hype by creating a fee jump at 750ft, the effect will be fewer housing units and less taxable value. Two things in high need. Our recommendation is to return to these aspects of the proposal to ensure maximum density is a central objective of the program, we recommend further increasing the height limits within db 400 and db 850. We also recommend recommend eliminating the 20% fee escalation between the two tiers, which disincentivizes additional density. Lastly, we recommend exploring a further increase to base entitlements to prime the pump for the next cycle of growth in downtown. These changes will help empower downtown to provide the growth, density, and investment needed to expand Austin's tax base and support citywide priorities for decades to come. Thank you for your consideration, your service to the city of Austin and your continued support of downtown. >> Thank you mayor. >> All speakers have been called for item 67. >> Okay. Thank you members. [2:07:04 PM] We'll now take up item number 67. There are two. Potential amendments to item number 67 to be offered by council member qadri. I'll recognize council member qadri to make a motion on item number 67. Council member qadri moves approval of item number 67. Is there a second? Second by council member Ellis now I'll recognize council member qadri on these two amendments unless somebody has anything they want to say on the main motion before we go to the amendments. Okay. Councilmember qadri, you're recognized on qadri motion to amend number one to item number 67. Members. You have both of his proposed amendments. The one that we're looking at begins. I move to amend sections of part eight of the draft ordinance as follows, and reorder the remaining sections accordingly. So I'll start with that and recognize you. >> Great. Thank you. Mayor. Yeah. Colleagues in front of you should have motion number [2:08:04 PM] one does not say number one, but it's the one that's stapled. We worked with law to ensure planning commission and design commission's recommendations were incorporated as fully as possible in this phase, while also balancing development realities. A lot of volunteer time and resources have gone into this work at a record pace, and it's important to ensure commission feedback is incorporated as much as possible. This process with city staff has taught us a lot about how to implement urban design standards and move forward. I'm bringing this motion to align with planning commission's recommendation in this phase, because it's important to show how far we've come and do the best we can today, knowing we need to refine this further in phase two. So with that, I. I look to adopt motion number one. >> Councilmember qadri moves to amend item number 67 with qadri. Amendment number one. Is there a second? Second by council member Velazquez? Discussion is on qadri motion to amend number one to item number 67. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Without objection, the motion [2:09:06 PM] qadri motion to amend number one for item number 67. Okay. Is is adopted with council member duchen abstaining from the vote. That will now take us to qadri. Motion to amend number two to item number 67. Council member qadri, you're recognized. >> Thank you mayor. In front of you all you should have item 67. Motion number two. Further direction. This motion should further provides further direction on phase two in any future phases of the downtown density bonus, including red river cultural districts. Next steps, historic preservation tools, south central waterfront, and the next steps needed on the urban design standards. It's needed to ensure to support and collaborate with our downtown community partners. So I look forward to the work ahead. And with that, I move adoption of motion number two. >> Councilmember qadri moves adoption of his motion to amend number two to item number 67. Is there a second? Second by council member Siegel discussion on motion to amend [2:10:06 PM] number two. Hearing none without objection. Number qadri motion to amend number two. Item number 67 is adopted, with council member duchen being shown abstaining. That will take us back to the main motion on item number 67, as amended. Council member qadri had moved to approve item number 67 and he made the two motions to amend. Is there any discussion on item number 67 as amended? Councilmember alter. >> Just one note. We've had a number of times where we've asked a question related to programs like the zonings like this, where we say, you know, we're interested in doing X or Y, how can we do that? And the answer comes back, well, we can't do that because the notice was sent out to only do X, and we find our like I said, this is the first time this has [2:11:06 PM] happened. And so if there is a way for us before notice goes out to have even the most preliminary discussions so that we can give guidance on, hey, we might be interested in this or that to send out the notice in a broader sense, or tinker it some way to match what we might want to do. I think that would be very helpful. So that's just a flag. I know it's complicated in the behind the scenes as y'all are doing things, but it would be very helpful for us to anytime we have a notice going out. And then it's limiting our ability to make changes, to have a conversation before that notice goes out. >> Thank you. Council member. Other discussion. All right. The vote is on item number 67, as amended. Know there being no further discussion, item number 67, as amended, is adopted, with council member duchen being shown abstaining and two [2:12:06 PM] absences. All right. That will take us to item 75. And I'm going to recognize miss Hardin on item number 75. Members. Item number 75 is a zoning item in our in our zoning agenda for today, but we're going to take it up separately because it's going to make it could make yes, we're going to take it up separately because if item 75 fails, then we're going to take up item number 92. So just item 75 for right now. >> That works for me. Mayor and council joy Hardin with Austin planning item 75 is C two zero 2024 018. This is the downtown density bonus item, and this item is offered for consent on all three readings. >> Members, you've heard that this is offered on all three readings, and we have one person signed up to speak. So I'll recognize the city clerk. >> Thank you mayor. We have Hannah Rangel to speak on item number 75. >> You've done you've done your deal. Okay. Very good. All [2:13:07 PM] right. Good testimony. >> All right. No more speakers signed up to speak. >> For this. That being the case, members on item number 75. The motion is to adopt it on all three readings. The motion will be to adopt on all three readings. Is there such a motion? Council member the mayor pro tem moves approval on all three readings. It is seconded by council member Siegel discussion with regard to the item. Hearing none. Without objection, item number 75 is adopted with council member duchen abstaining from the vote. All members because items 67 and and 75 both passed. Staff withdraws item number 92. Now we will go to our regular zoning items and miss Hardin, it's all yours. >> Okay, so we will start your zoning and neighborhood plan amendment portion of your agenda with item 676npa2024000 [2:14:13 PM] 5.01. This item is offered as an applicant. Postponement to your July 23rd council meeting. The related rezoning is item 77 C one for 2024 0099. Again, this item is offered as an applicant. Postponement to your July 23rd council meeting. Item 78 is C one 420 250114. This item is offered for consent on all three readings. The related item is item 79, C 1481037rct, this item is offered for co c14h20260018. This is a. This is an historic landmark rezoning. The home is recognized for its architecture from John chase, as well as the contributions from the hill and Thompson families. And with that, this item is offered for consent on all three readings. Item 82 is C one 420 250120. This item is offered for consent on all three readings. Item 83 is C one 420 260006. This item is offered as a [2:15:15 PM] neighborhood postponement to your July 23rd council meeting. Item 84 is C 14060117rct, this item is offered for consent, the related items is 85 C 1472299rct, this item is offered for consent, item 86 is C 81420080087.02. This item is offered as a staff postponement to your July 23rd council meeting and moving on to item 105 C one 420 250121. This item is offered as an applicant. Postponement to July 23rd. Council meeting item 106 is c14h20260013. This item is offered as a postponement by council member harper-madison to your July 23rd council meeting. I don't 107 is npa20260021 .01. This item is offered as a postponement to July 23rd. Council meeting. The related rezoning is item 108 C 814 2025 0111. This item is [2:16:15 PM] offered as staff postponement to your July 23rd council meeting item 109 C one 420 250089. This item is offered as a postponement to July 23rd council meeting and 110 a C one 420 250080. This item is offered as a as an applicant postponement to your July 23rd council meeting. And lastly, item 111. C 814 2018 0122.03 this item is offered as an applicant. Postponement to July 23rd. Council meeting. This concludes the reading of the zoning and neighborhood plan amendment portion of your agenda. And as always, this is at your discretion. >> Members, does anybody have any questions, miss harden? All right. Then. I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. And here's the consent agenda item number 76 and number 77. Postponement to the July 23rd meeting. Item 78. All three readings. Item 79 on consent items 80, 81 and 82. All three readings 83. A postponement to July 23rd, item [2:17:18 PM] 84 and 85. Items 84 and 85 will be offered on consent. They only require one reading because they relate to restrictive covenants. Item 86 postponement to July 23rd. Items 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110 and 111. Postponements to July 23rd. Everybody really look forward to July 20th. Council member Siegel moves approval of the consent agenda as it's read. Seconded by council member duchen. I'll turn to the city clerk for calling on speakers. >> Thank you, mayor, for speaking on item 80. We have William bunch, item 81, Megan king, namor, Marilyn Poole web. Mary Colley. And then speaking, if you've heard your name, please come forward, take a seat and state your name for [2:18:20 PM] the record. And then speaking on the items, the merits of postponement for item 83. >> If your name has been called, just come up and find a seat. We're ready to hear. Okay. >> Hello, I'm Megan king, namor policy and outreach planner for preservation Austin. I'm here to express our organization's support for item 81, the designation of the hill Thompson house as a historic landmark. We are so proud and honored to have worked with our long time friend Marilyn here next to me. Our advocacy committee has prepared and written this nomination, and it's really such a spectacular house and such an important piece of Austin's architectural history. Black history. The people associated with this house are incredible. You have [2:19:20 PM] Texas's first licensed black architect, John chase, who designed the home civic leader, black civic leader Irene hill Thompson, Marilyn's aunt who built this home for herself in the wake of her husband's passing, passing Oscar Thompson, who was the first black graduate from UT and a zoologist and geneticist. Really, the accolades of this home and its spectacular design, you know, you can't overstate it. And so we're just so honored to bring this nomination forward to you all. And we will be bringing more forward this year and into the future. So thank you so much for your consideration. >> Thank you. >> All right. I'm Mary kale. I'm on the board of preservation Austin, and I chair its advocacy committee. Thank you so much for your service to the city of Austin. And I am also speaking in support to encourage you to support historic designation for the hill Thompson house. We're delighted to partner with Marilyn Paul Webb, the home's owner. And as you heard from [2:20:21 PM] Megan preservation Austin staff, it's an important example of the architecture of John chase, the first African American licensed architect in Texas. And I also just want to add to this that the legacy of civic engagement that the home embodies through Maryland's relatives extends to Marilyn herself. She continues to open the home to houses and educational tours so people can learn about the house, the architecture, and the neighborhood. And she does significant advocacy within the neighborhood through a local nonprofit, the children's haven association. So for all of the reasons the family associations, the important and significant architecture, and the ongoing impact that this residence has on the neighborhood and our city, I encourage you to support historic landmark designation. Thank you. >> Thank you. Please. >> Hello, mayor. I'm Marilyn Poole Webb. I just want to say thank you very much for your [2:21:22 PM] thoughtful consideration of this application. I added to the package a tour guide that the Rogers Washington holy cross historic district has been attempting to put together for tourists who come into our neighborhood. I would like to invite all of you to come visit the Rogers Washington neighborhood and also to join us at my home. I'm happy to share it. Thank you. >> Well, thank you and thank you. When we hear the testimony of what you do to serve the city, thank you for that as well. Thank you. We look forward to getting the vote on this. Thank you. >> Moving on to item 83. Speaking on the merits of postponement, we have Evan Taniguchi. >> Mister Taniguchi, the items being postponed. Do you still wish to speak? Thank you. >> Sheila Lyon. Donna Osborn [2:22:26 PM] nope. >> They're all they're waving and waving the right to speak. >> Doug Byron and Pamela Hines. >> Anyone? Anyone wishing to speak on the merits of this postponement. You wish to speak on the merits of the postponement. Okay. >> For item 86. Speaking on the merits of postponement. >> Please come down. Is that the phone? Yes, sir. That's the phone. >> My apologies for that. My name is Doug Byron. I'm a resident, 606 west linn, adjacent to the subject property at 1608 west linn. I'm speaking on behalf of myself and some of the other residents. We delivered a dozen or so letters. Disputing or in [2:23:26 PM] opposition of the application learned yesterday those those letters really did not follow the proper form for petition. And we were also alerted just yesterday that we are required to turn over bylaws for a condo association. That detail who can who cannot speak on behalf of our of our condo association. We also speaking on behalf of Mr. Royce Gurley. He's the owner of the west sixth street apartments. He also was alerted yesterday that he would need to provide his operating agreement so the city could review it and determine, you know, who can sign a petition on behalf of his apartment property. The two of our communities make up approximately 200 individuals, residential property, residents who live next to the subject property. So we feel that a [2:24:29 PM] postponement is in order here so that we can have time to obtain the the necessary operating agreement and bylaws. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Moving to item 86, William bunch, speaking on the merits of postponement. >> Thank you. >> Left item 109. Also, William bunch speaking on the merits of postponement and Douglas Keenan speaking on the merits of postponement. >> Mr. Keenan I don't see you on either. >> Item. 111 speaking on the merits of postponement, Susan Spataro, William bunch, Zenobia Joseph. >> I don't see any of them. >> Mayor. All speakers have been called. >> Thank you very much. Members. [2:25:30 PM] All speakers have been called on the consent agenda as it was read. The motion was made and seconded. Is there any discussion? Is there anyone wishing to abstain from a vote on any item on the consent agenda? Anyone wishing to be shown recusing themselves from a vote on the consent agenda? Anyone wishing to be shown voting no on any item on the consent agenda. Just giving him extra time. There being no further discussion and that being the case, without objection, the consent agenda is adopted. Members. I believe that covers all of the items that are on the regular scheduled agenda for this council meeting for may 28th, 2026. So. Oh, hang on, one thing we're supposed to do today that we haven't done is draw for seats for the next. We're at that break. So before I before I call an adjournment [2:26:30 PM] and for for members of the public, the way this works is every six months, what we do is we draw for different seats on the agenda, and the numbers are it's one all the way. This way. The mayor and the mayor pro tem stay in the same seats. But as what number did you get? Two. Two. Seven 892. >> What do you get? >> Will you will you draw for councilmember Fuentes? Councilmember Fuentes drew for. Will you draw for councilmember harper-madison? >> I'll draw. >> Okay. Councilmember harper-madison drew five 1336. Okay. Yeah. All right. So here's the deal. When we come back in July, everybody will have their new seats. All right. Any questions? Very good. That [2:27:33 PM] does conclude our business for the this council meeting. So without objection the Austin city council is observed is adjourned at 2:27 P.M. Thanks, everybody.