City Council

Thursday, April 9, 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 April 9, 2026, with Mayor Watson presiding; Council Member Velásquez was absent and Harper-Madison joined remotely. After public comment, the council adopted the consent agenda, including a $250,000 settlement of a personal injury lawsuit and numerous contracts and land acquisitions. The council, sitting as the Austin Housing Finance Corporation board, adopted 11 housing items including loans for ownership and multifamily developments funded by Project Connect funds and 2022 GO bonds. Public hearings on items 43, 44 and 45 were opened, closed and approved, and the two o'clock zoning agenda (items 46-56), including indefinite postponements, postponements to May 28 and April 23, and consent rezonings, was adopted. The meeting also featured student speakers on pedestrian safety, hostile architecture, Lady Bird Lake, paid participation disclosure, and the golden-cheeked warbler, plus a live music performance by Bars Robinson, who received a proclamation.

Transcript

0:07 You are watching a meeting of the Austin City Council with Mayor Kirk Watson, Mayor pro, tim cheadle,

0:16 Vela council members Natasha Harper Madison, Vanessa Fuentes, José velazquez, Ryan Alter, crystal lane, Mike Siegel, Paige Ellis, zoe

0:39 cadre, mark uchin, city attorney deborah thomas, city clerk erica brady, and city manager tc broadnax.

0:59 Well, good morning everybody.

1:00 It's 10 o'clock in the morning and I will call to order the regular, uh, coun Austin city

1:04 council meeting, uh, that is scheduled for today, April 9th, 2026.

1:09 We have a quorum of the Austin City Council president, uh, Council Member harbor Madison is joining us

1:14 remotely, and Council Member of Velásquez will be absent today.

1:18 Uh, we, uh, our meeting in the City Council chambers, which are located at City Hall at 3 0 1

1:23 west second street in Austin, texas.

1:26 Uh, quickly I'll run through the order of the day in just a minute.

1:30 I'm gonna read changes and corrections into the record.

1:32 Then we will go to our consent agenda.

1:34 Members. We do not have any items that have been pulled from the consent agenda to my knowledge,

1:39 so if you have something that you want to pull from the consent agenda, please let me know.

1:43 Uh, we will then we will hear from the public on the consent agenda items, at which point

1:49 we will have discussion and vote on the consent agenda at 10 30 or as close to 10

1:55 30 as we can get.

1:57 We will recess the Austin City Council meeting, and we will, I will call to order the board

2:02 of directors meeting of the Austin housing finance corporation.

2:05 We will take up the agenda items for a hfc and we will adjourn that meeting and we

2:10 will come back to the Austin City Council meetings where we will take up non-consent items.

2:15 Members. I'll read this into the record, uh, for the officially here in just a minute.

2:19 But item number 41, which was a non-consent item, has been withdrawn.

2:24 Item number 41 has been withdrawn.

2:27 We'll take up items 43, 44 and 45 at noon.

2:32 We will, uh, pause wherever we are.

2:36 Uh, we will pause and we will take up our 12 o'clock time certain, which is public comment

2:42 and music. We will recess until at le once we finish the public comment, we will recess until

2:49 at least one 15.

2:51 I'm anticipating that May be until two o'clock.

2:54 And at two o'clock we will take up our other time, certain item, which are zoning items.

2:59 Unless there's questions, I will read changes and corrections into the record.

3:04 Seeing none on the, as I indicated, the one item that is a, an official change in correction

3:10 to our agenda is item number 41 has been withdrawn.

3:15 Item number 41 has been withdrawn.

3:18 So members, unless there's objection or any questions or comments, I will turn to the city clerk to

3:25 ask the city clerk to please start calling the names of people that have signed up to speak

3:30 on the consent agenda.

3:32 Thank you, Mayor. We have no remote speakers this morning, so we'll begin with in person on item

3:37 one, jen robo.

3:56 Good morning City Council.

3:57 I'm jen robes show, a longtime Austin resident.

4:00 I'm here today to speak about trust.

4:03 Taxpayers deserve representation, and our government exists to serve us first and foremost.

4:09 On March 12th, City Council voted to take a step backward and choose to reduce transparency, avoid accountability, and

4:16 erode trust. Amendments to the lobbyist ordinance were shortsighted and counterproductive, and your constituents want to know who

4:24 has your ear. As the remote speaker pointed out, you've also missed an opportunity to show how well

4:30 you attend to your constituents.

4:32 Tracking community engagement in making the data public is more than simply holding lobbyists accountable for their attempts

4:38 to influence local policy.

4:40 It's also an opportunity for the city to demonstrate that you are in fact listening to your constituents.

4:47 I am grateful to my Council Member of Vanessa Fuentes and to Ryan Alter for taking a stance

4:52 against these changes to the lobbyist policy.

4:55 However, I'm disappointed in the council members who justified the changes as a way to save resources and

5:00 improve efficiency. This shows a lack of understanding the problem and a lack of creative problem solving without

5:09 assuming any negative intent.

5:10 This body as a whole opted for a lazy solution rather than a well considered one.

5:16 Trust is a delicate thing.

5:18 It is hard earned and easily broken, and when it is broken, it takes an enormous effort to

5:23 restore. This was a step backward.

5:26 Voters do not see this as an efficiency measure.

5:29 They see it as a way to avoid accountability.

5:32 So I'm appealing to you to revisit the lobbyist ordinance to correct this error in judgment and to

5:39 look for creative ways to efficiently and effectively collect data and build trust with the community.

5:44 Thank you. Thank you.

5:46 Before we go to the next item on members on item number two, item number two is, uh,

5:52 related to a potential settlement.

5:55 And so we will ask, uh, legal counsel to make a presentation.

6:11 Morning, mr. Mayor, Mayor prote, members of the council, I'm assistant city attorney jeremy thompson, and I'm here today

6:19 to recommend that you approve a settlement payment and a personal injury lawsuit that appears on your agenda

6:25 as item number two.

6:27 Item number two, we recommend that you approve a payment totaling $250,000 to settle the marvin reyes.

6:34 Jeremiah te daniela te is next friend of nr and nt minors versus city of Austin.

6:41 This lawsuit relates to a July, 2023 car accident involving an Austin police department vehicle where the plaintiffs seek

6:49 payment for injuries allegedly sustained in that accident.

6:53 In exchange for the payment, the plaintiffs will release any and all claims against the city from the

6:57 accident, and will also dismiss, uh, their petition and intervention filed in the district court of travis county.

7:03 The Austin city attorney's office recommends that you approve payment based upon these terms, and I'm available to

7:09 answer any questions you May have.

7:10 Thank you for the presentation.

7:11 Members. Are, are there any questions of legal counsel?

7:15 Thank you, sir. Thank you.

7:17 I'll turn back to the city clerk.

7:20 Next item will be for bill bunch on item number six,

7:28 mr. Bunch, you have multiple items, so if you could just stay seated, I'll call the next one.

7:42 Good morning, Mayor. Council members, thank you for your service to our community.

7:45 Uh, bill bunch, attorney and executive director with save our springs alliance speaking on, I'm gonna combine this

7:52 one with the next one, six and seven, uh, six being $9 million for mowing and tree care with

7:59 Austin energy, and then another 24 million for Austin energy, also for vegetation management along power systems.

8:10 Of course, we have to be super careful with our energy system and make sure it's maintained safely,

8:17 uh, but cutting trees that don't need to be cut, uh, excessive mowing, mowing too short during hot,

8:26 dry conditions, and especially with climate change and drought, we have can do, uh, extremely long-term damage.

8:34 Uh, it is absolutely important that this city, not just Austin energy, but across our systems, Austin water

8:41 parks, wake up to the fact that we're in changed circumstances and that we review our vegetation management,

8:50 especially our mowing. I'm seeing severe damage in zilker park itself where we're mowing too short and too

8:59 frequently, and if that happens through the summer, we're gonna have a dust bowl disaster if we don't

9:04 get more rain. So please wake up, review all of these vegetation management, uh, activities and contracts across

9:13 the city, um, and I bet you not only will you get a much better result, but you'll

9:20 save millions of dollars on work that's not needed, uh, or is, uh, overdone or improperly done.

9:30 Um, this is critical for climate change, water protection, parks, wildlife, and urban heat island issues.

9:39 Thank you for your consideration on item 10.

9:42 Bill bunch, mr. Bunch.

9:43 Hang, hang on. You've signed up on like 10 items.

9:49 Um, yeah. Okay. So yes.

9:56 Item number 10 is $7.3 million to ratify a contract already entered by staff, uh, on what's, uh, purported

10:08 to be a emergency basis for erosion and drainage, uh, control project, uh, along little walnut creek.

10:16 Uh, this absolutely May well be an emergency, but the backup doesn't tell us when this problem arose.

10:24 Um, we've seen issues that should have been addressed very quickly, just sit there for years and years.

10:31 What we also see frequently, and again, you're in a budget crisis, we're in environmental crisis.

10:38 Um, a whole lot of times these erosion issues can be handled, which must smaller scale, lighter touch,

10:48 especially if you jump on 'em right away with current staff who has the expertise to do riparian

10:58 vegetation, riparian erosion management.

11:02 When you do nothing, the the problem balloons and becomes millions of dollars.

11:09 And I'm guessing this is example number one on this agenda with another one coming up shortly.

11:17 Thank you, mr. Bunch.

11:19 You have item 11, I'm passing on that one.

11:23 Item 12, bill bunch, passing on that one.

11:26 Item 13, bill bunch.

11:29 Item 13 is the one I just referenced.

11:32 This is on the banks of little barton creek.

11:35 For those of you who enjoy the hiking bike trail, you know that this has been a problem,

11:41 and the backup tells us it's been a problem for 10 years.

11:45 When, uh, a storm event washed out a part of the, uh, butler hike and bike trail just

11:53 before the, uh, barton creek joins lady bird lake on the north shore, excuse me, on the south

12:00 side of, of, uh, barton creek.

12:03 Um, it was about 30 feet stretch that slumped your staff that has the expertise could have gone

12:13 out there with netting and your standard erosion controls replanted vegetation and took care of the problem instantly

12:23 for literally no money.

12:27 Those scars sat there for almost 10 years with no action.

12:33 When we have the trail conservancy allegedly taking care of the trail, they put their name on this

12:40 thing, they did absolutely nothing.

12:43 And you're here today being asked to add $81,000 to a $5.8 million project to stabilize a slope that

12:56 literally could have been stabilized for free if it had been done immediately.

13:03 And with your watershed protection staff jumping in and taking care of it, your backup has a huge

13:10 false statement. It says, not only does it stabilize the slope, but it restores environmental function.

13:17 If you go look at this project, which you can see from the opposite side of barton creek

13:23 on the butler hike and bike trail, you can look across it completely destroys environmental function on barton

13:31 creek. For a very long stretch, thank bunch, don't do this anymore.

13:37 Save some money, save our riparian habitat.

13:40 Thank you very much.

13:41 But hang on. Moving to item 18, jeffrey bowen and jennifer robo,

14:02 you wanna go first?

14:03 Jen, knock yourself out.

14:11 Good morning, City Council.

14:13 I'm jen reio, a longtime Austin resident.

14:15 As stated earlier, I'm here today to talk about trust council isn't a ceremonial role, and I know

14:22 you know this, and I don't say it to be disrespectful.

14:25 Rather, residents often wonder what level of due diligence this body exercises in reviewing agendas.

14:32 In recent weeks, we have seen counsel put in questioning trust in the legal department and the city

14:37 manager place unchecked trust and consultants.

14:40 In both instances, we've seen admissions that recommendations should have been evaluated more carefully, but only after constituents

14:48 spoke up. While trust is a wonderful thing, it must be earned.

14:52 And as stewards of the city, it is not unreasonable for you to verify the agenda.

14:58 Qa for item 18 weren't posted until yesterday, so I had a hard time finding information about austin's

15:04 outstanding reimbursements. I did find some in the qas from last budget cycle, and I find that it's

15:11 too bad that these weren't included in the backup.

15:14 While I do believe that the city will see a return on this spending, there is a simple

15:18 issue of arithmetic that undoes this whole item.

15:22 The contract for $362,000 exceeds the available budget of $201,000.

15:33 And I'm wondering, who has noticed that the contract exceeds the budget?

15:37 Who has raised any questions about this?

15:40 What is your plan to reconcile this budget shortfall?

15:44 And all this begs the question, how does the council do their research and make decisions on these

15:49 items? And with that, I urge you to take your job of oversight more seriously.