City Council

Thursday, February 26, 2026, 10 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall

Video of the meeting

On the agenda

Roll-call votes

Documents

Summary

The Austin City Council met on February 26, 2026. It adopted a large consent agenda (with Council Members Alter and Fuentes voting no on item 4), then took up pulled items: item 36 (AFSCME consultation policy, adopted as amended to include the union president), item 23 (RecTrac contract, adopted with direction to survey users), and item 38 (vehicle noise ordinance, adopted after failed Siegel amendment and adopted Velásquez amendment requiring a warning before citation). The Council adopted item 50, the citywide comprehensive efficiency assessment (audit) ordinance, heard public comment at noon, and recognized musician Austin Kimball. It adopted the bond decision framework (item 55) and social service contract rubric resolution (item 56), approved several eminent domain and public hearing items (57–62), and adopted zoning items 67–80 with various postponements. After an executive session, item 83 (sign ordinance/kiosks and billboard relocation) was postponed indefinitely. The Council ended with a closed session on personnel evaluations (items 63–66) and adjourned.

Transcript

0:05 You are watching a meeting of the Austin City Council with Mayor Kirk Watson, Mayor pro timm cheadle,

0:14 Vela. Council members Natasha Harper Madison, Vanessa Fuentes, José velazquez, Ryan Alter, crystal lang, Mike Siegel, Paige Ellis, zoe

0:37 cadre, mark uchin, city attorney deborah thomas, city clerk erica brady, and city manager tc broad.

0:57 Good morning everybody. It's 10 o'clock in the morning on February 26th, 2026, and I will call to order the

1:04 Austin City Council for this regularly scheduled meeting of the Austin City Council.

1:08 We have a quorum of the council present and we are meeting in the City Council chambers located

1:13 in City Hall at 3 0 1 west second street.

1:16 What I'll, uh, do is I'll walk through now the order of the day, uh, so that everybody

1:22 will be aware of what we're gonna do today, and then, um, we'll proceed, uh, in a minute

1:27 I'm going to read changes and corrections into the record and, uh, then we will go to our

1:33 consent agenda. We will have, uh, speakers on the consent agenda.

1:38 There have been two items pulled so far from the consent agenda.

1:42 Those are items 23 and and 38, 23 and 38 items that are not on the consent agenda.

1:53 Those who have signed up to speak on those items, we will hear from you.

1:57 When we call up those items, we will then, after the consent agenda, we will, uh, after we

2:04 hear the speakers, we will vote on the consent agenda, and then we will go to the items

2:08 23 and 38. Then we will go to items that are generally labeled non-consent items.

2:15 Those are items that come from council committees.

2:18 So we will take up item 55 and item 56, um, members on item number 55 and and

2:26 for the public, just so that everybody will be aware that is the proposed, uh, decision tree.

2:32 Uh, Council Member Ellis had a number of, uh, um, uh, proposed amendments that are improving that improve

2:40 the decision tree. And so what I'm going to do is I'm, I'm going to have delivered, uh,

2:45 and so that everybody will have it a, a copy of the one with the changes in it,

2:49 a a different version because what I want, what I, I think we all want is for the

2:55 public to be able to look at one document and not have to go and say, oh, was

2:59 this amendment? That kind of thing.

3:01 So we will incorporate Council Member ellis's changes.

3:04 We will have both one that shows the changes in version two, but we will also have what

3:12 is hopefully a, a final document that'll be on yellow paper that doesn't have underlines and that kind

3:18 of thing so that the public will have a decision tree and be able to look at one

3:23 place and not have to look around.

3:24 And, and that's okay with you, right?

3:25 Council Member? Yes, I, I think that's great and I appreciate all the work that's gone into it

3:30 through the committee and, and through Council Member's input and, um, agree that the public would probably like

3:35 a very clean version just so we can understand where it ultimately lands.

3:39 And, and by the way, that will also include changes that if, if you go to the message

3:42 board, you will see that Council Member Siegel had some thoughts.

3:45 Um, I, I reacted to those and put, uh, proposed changes on the message board as well.

3:50 So anyway, I I just wanted to explain that so when we get to it, and so that

3:55 the public that May be here to speak on item number 55, understand what the process will be.

4:01 We'll also take up item number 56 as an item from a council committee coming from the public

4:06 health committee. We will take up imminent domain items.

4:09 We have a number of public hearings and we will take those up.

4:13 Item number 83, uh, is an item that requires a public hearing and it was not on the

4:19 consent agenda to begin with.

4:20 We will probably go not probably, we will go into an executive session on item number 83, uh,

4:26 and we will take it up at the, whenever, uh, we come out of executive session.

4:31 We also at noon or as clo, uh, when we get to noon, depending upon where we are,

4:37 we will, uh, probably break for the purposes of taking up the 12 o'clock time certain, the noon

4:44 time, certain which is public communication at 1230 or 1235 when the public com communication is complete, we

4:52 will recess until one 10, uh, so that we can have music and we will come back and

4:58 at one 10, we will, uh, also, uh, move forward at two o'clock.

5:03 We have our zoning items.

5:05 Two o'clock is a time certain for zoning and, uh, neighborhood planning items, and we will take those

5:11 up as close to two as we can.

5:13 And we also have a scheduled executive session related to an evaluation of a council appointee, the city

5:19 manager. So with that, unless there are questions or comments from the council, um, I will read changes

5:26 and corrections into the record.

5:28 Uh, item number 46 has been withdrawn.

5:33 Item number 46 has been withdrawn.

5:36 Item number 47 has been withdrawn, so if 47 has been withdrawn.

5:42 So if you are planning to speak on items 46 or 47, those items have been withdrawn.

5:49 They are no longer on the agenda, so we will not be hearing public comment on those two

5:54 items. As I indicated, items that have been currently pulled off the consent agenda are items 23 and

6:01 38, items 23 and 38.

6:05 With that being said, and again, unless there's questions or objections from the council, we will turn to

6:11 the city clerk and I will ask you to call by item the consented, the items that are

6:17 currently on the consent agenda, and let's, uh, ask our speakers to come up.

6:20 For those that are here wishing to have your voices heard, what we would ask is when she

6:25 calls your name, she's gonna call 2, 3, 4, 5 names at a time.

6:29 Please come down front so that you'll be ready.

6:32 And if there's an open seat, go ahead and take that seat.

6:35 And we just ask that you please state your name for the record prior to you beginning your

6:41 testimony. If I stop you to ask you for your name, it's not that I'm being rude, it's

6:45 just that we need to have that in the record.

6:46 So with that, I'll turn to our city clerk.

6:49 Thank you, Mayor. For item three, I have anita toho, and then jennifer robosho for item four.

6:57 Please come forward.

7:09 Good morning, Mayor and council.

7:11 My name is jen robo.

7:13 I'm a longtime Austin resident, a homeowner and taxpayer.

7:17 I believe in common sense leadership and accountability.

7:19 And I'm speaking against item four.

7:22 Imagine waking up to your front door, exploding off its hinges, bullets flying through your windows, a glass

7:28 line rupturing in your home, all because law enforcement used your house as covered during a neighbor's standoff.

7:37 That's what happened to glenn and mindy shield.

7:39 On August 6th, 2023, an innocent couple was handcuffed and detained for three hours and a police car while officers

7:46 ransacked their home causing over $23,000 in damage.

7:51 They were terrified, violated in their own home and left to pick up the pieces.

7:57 Glen shield has shared openly how they spent two years calling city departments for answers and help.

8:02 He said, if they had come the next day and apologized and paid for the damages, we wouldn't

8:06 be here. But the fact that for two years they refused to answer any questions, the shields simply

8:14 asked the city to make them whole.

8:17 The city said no claiming police power, immunity.

8:20 Now we're spending $610,000 of tax payer money, including this amendment today to fight them in federal court

8:28 instead of doing the right thing at a time when the city claims a budget crisis.

8:33 Failing to settle $23,000 in damages while approving hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend against these innocent

8:40 neighbors simply doesn't make sense.

8:42 Why are we taking this to court when it should be resolved outside?

8:46 Why fight citizens who want restitution while passing the bill to taxpayers leadership owns mistakes, shows empathy, and

8:54 does the moral thing, which is voting no on this item and directing the city attorney to settle

9:00 fairly with the shields.

9:01 Thank you. I have luke humphrey on the line for item 18.

9:12 Luke, are you there?

9:15 Uh, yes, ma'am. Thank you.

9:17 And, uh, can everyone hear me okay?

9:21 Yes, we can hear you.

9:23 Okay. Uh, first, thank you very much for, uh, taking the time, uh, uh, to hear me on

9:31 item number 18. I am, um, against item number 18 and, uh, we'll provide some backgrounds here.

9:40 Um, this, uh, on June 23rd, 2025, the city published this rfp for crane and heavy equipment operations training on

9:51 August 7th, 2025. Proposals in response to the solicitation were received and opened.

9:58 One of them, uh, is from us at train for the crane.

10:03 My name is luke humphrey.

10:05 I am the owner and ceo of train for the crane.

10:09 And then on October 20th, 2025, uh, train for the crane submitted a timely protest to this, uh, decision.

10:19 And on December 16th, 2025, we received a response from chief procurement officer james scarborough that, um, uh, their determination

10:30 was that they found no legal or factual grounds to sustain any of our protest claims.

10:37 And I am challenging this committee on this, uh, decision.

10:42 This, um, in this agenda item, uh, there was a, a file number 26 dash 10 29.

10:50 Associated with this agenda item is states, uh, in the additional backup information that this is a new

10:59 contract and evaluation team with expertise in this area evaluated the offers and scored train tech llc of

11:09 the best to provide the services based on project concept, strategy and company qualifications.

11:20 Thank you. Next I have item 25, elizabeth baker, jennifer robow, and zenobia joseph.

11:47 Good morning. My name is elizabeth baker, the executive director of the other ones foundation.

11:52 I just want to thank council Mayor Pro Tem Mayor Watson for, uh, for your support of item

12:01 25. The other one's foundation is deeply honored to be selected as the operator of the south bridge

12:06 shelter. Over the past several years, we have refined and non congregate shelter model that centers community, dignity

12:13 and pathways forward. We're excited to replicate that model to southbridge in partnership with the homeless strategy.

12:19 Office chief has already begun engagement with neighborhood leaders to build strong relationships and explore strategies to increase

12:26 community cohesion. We're confident that through this project, we will show the power of true partnership and collaboration

12:33 to improve outcomes. Thank you, ms.

12:37 Rho. Good morning, Mayor and council.

12:40 My name is jen robo.

12:41 I'm a longtime austinite and a taxpayer.

12:44 I'm speaking against item 25 authorizing a contract with the other one's foundation for bridge shelter, operations and

12:50 social services at the south bridge.

12:52 Shelter, $2.7 million for the first year and up to $20 million over four years for 145 beds and support

13:01 services for the first year.

13:03 That comes to $1,400 a month per bed, roughly the same cost as an average one bedroom apartment

13:10 last year. Prop q damaged public trust.

13:13 The other one's foundation was a prominent supporter.

13:16 They and other homelessness nonprofits donated to the campaign in an attempt to seek more tax dollars from

13:22 voters to fund their industry and residents see the pattern contribute to campaigns for more funding than secure

13:30 massive city contracts. There were several other proposals from capable nonprofits, including incumbents as well as new and

13:37 fresh organizations. Yet council is voting today to give yet more work to the other one's foundation and

13:42 organization that already holds over $20 million in active city contracts and is slated for tens of millions more

13:49 on this very agenda.

13:51 This directly contradicts the proposed homeless strategic plan, which calls for bringing in more and smaller service providers

13:57 to create a more inclusive and competitive landscape.

14:00 The other one's foundation holds a disproportionate share of the homelessness related contracts.

14:05 While they've struggled to articulate a clear long-term vision for actually ending homelessness, Austin residents want service providers

14:13 who truly want to see an end to homelessness, not a self-serving system that seeks to perpetuate itself.

14:19 Thank you, ms. Joseph. You oh, she's coming down.

14:36 Thank you, Mayor counsel, I'm zia joseph.

14:39 My comment, as they always are, are in the context of title vi of the civil rights act

14:44 of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, and national origin as it relates to this, to

14:51 f contract up to $20 million.

14:55 I would ask you, Mayor, to recognize that it was approximately $4.7 million for the metro rapid to serve