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

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