Wednesday, July 22, 2026, 10 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
This was a City Council budget work session covering two related agenda items on the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget: community health and sustainability, homelessness and housing, and social service contracts. The meeting began with extensive public comment (roughly 60 speakers) urging protection of social service contracts, community violence intervention funding, harm reduction, immigrant legal services, and other programs, with many criticizing a proposed $25 million police increase while social services face reductions. Budget Director Carrie Lang then briefed council on department budgets and a rubric-based framework for proposed social service grant reductions of approximately $5.1–8 million. Council members questioned staff on parks security, library funding, animal services spay/neuter numbers, homeless encampment management costs, permanent supportive housing funding, and the social services rubric. No votes were taken; staff committed to several follow-up reports.
0:08 You are watching a meeting of the Austin City Council with Mayor Kirk Watson, Mayor pro, tim cheadle,
0:17 Vela council members Natasha Harper Madison, Vanessa Fuentes, José velazquez, Ryan Alter, crystal lane, Mike Siegel, Paige Ellis, zoe
0:40 cadre, mark uchin, city attorney deborah thomas, city clerk erica brady, and city manager tc broad.
0:59 Good morning everybody. It's 10 o'clock in the morning on July 22nd, 2026, and I'll call to order this Austin
1:06 City Council budget meeting.
1:08 Uh, we have a quorum of the City Council present.
1:11 We are meeting in City Hall in the council chambers at 3 0 1 west second street in Austin, texas.
1:18 Uh, before we get, the way we're gonna proceed today, uh, council members and, and public is what
1:24 we're gonna do is we're gonna call on the speakers that we have signed up to speak first,
1:29 hear from all the speakers, and then we will go to the two agenda items.
1:34 And, uh, because the two agenda items are basically the same item, um, we're just gonna go item
1:40 one and item two for the, with, with regard to the speakers.
1:44 Before we do that, um, let me just also say that the way, uh, I think we'll approach
1:50 when we get to the questions after the briefing that, uh, our professional staff gives us, what we
1:56 will do is we will then go first to, uh, staff with community health and sustainability and allow
2:04 the council members to ask whatever questions they have in that regard.
2:09 Then once that's complete, we will go to homelessness and housing, and once that's complete, we will then
2:14 go to social services contracts.
2:17 Before we begin that part of it, um, let me again remind everyone and anyone that, uh, watches
2:26 this about how we're moving forward in this budget process.
2:30 Uh, as everybody knows, today is July 22nd, and that's going to be the work session, the council budget
2:35 work session that we have on, uh, social services, and as I've just indicated, community health and sustainability,
2:41 homelessness and housing and social service contracts.
2:45 On Tuesday, July 28th, we will have another budget work session that will cover economic and workforce development, mobility
2:53 and critical infrastructure and, and high performance in government.
2:56 One section, one of that.
2:58 On Thursday, July 30th, we will have a City Council budget work session covering public safety and some additional
3:05 high performing government issues.
3:08 We will also conduct a public hearing on that day at three o'clock.
3:12 It is part of the same council meeting, so it's not a separate council meeting, it's just a
3:18 time certain for a public hearing at three o'clock on that day.
3:23 And we will also set the maximum tax rate, and, and once we've conducted the public hearing on
3:29 Tuesday, August 4th, uh, we have tentatively scheduled a City Council budget work session for that day as well
3:36 in case we need it.
3:37 That is also the day, um, that we are asking all council members to have in their proposed
3:44 amendments to the budget and their proposed ifcs.
3:48 Thursday, August 6th, we will have a budget work session where we will take up those budget amendments in
3:52 those ifcs and be able to talk about them.
3:55 And then Wednesday, August 12th, Thursday, August 13th, and Friday, August 14th, we will have, we are scheduled to have council
4:04 meetings. Uh, so if, if we need three days to pass the budget, we will have those three
4:09 days. I also wanna point out that if you go to the city clerk's website, the city clerk
4:16 has what I just laid out, uh, on the website, you can, and it also gives you instructions
4:23 on how people can sign up to be heard on any of those days, and it tells you
4:28 when those, uh, sign up times open and when they close, so that you'll be able to, to
4:34 sign up, uh, members, unless you have questions or comments, uh, or objections.
4:41 I think we'll now go to the public comment.
4:44 All right. With that, I'll turn to the city clerk and ask you to help us.
4:47 Thanks, Mayor. Starting with item one and remote speakers, I have lily ann ortiz.
4:56 Hello everyone. Thank you so much for your attention and your time.
5:00 So being a public servant means that we answer to the public right, not to the Mayor, not
5:06 to any other elected official, but to the public.
5:10 We answer to corporations, not to people who move here for their own profit and capitalism sake.
5:15 We are seeing so many offite once again, show up with the best of intentions with statistics and
5:23 data, with facts, absolute facts to support the work we engage in all year round.
5:30 How the city could even consider cutting funding for so many social service nets at this particular time
5:37 is astounding. It is astounding, and it is ridiculous.
5:41 Here we are again, asking our City Council to do the right thing, do the intelligent thing, do
5:47 the fiscally responsible thing.
5:49 Since data shows how these social service programs benefit the city financially, we are hoping our City Council
5:57 will vote in an intelligent, progressive way that mirrors its constituents.
6:01 Please do not take funds away from the very programs and people who are doing some of the
6:06 hardest work. It is hard work caring about others and their wellbeing.
6:10 It is emotionally heavy and hard work, putting that care into action.
6:15 The truth is, we are not well.
6:17 If others are not well, we are not safe and stable.
6:20 If others aren't safe and stable, we need these people and programs.
6:24 Thank you for your time.
6:26 Can you please state your name for the record?
6:30 Okay. Okay, that's all I have.
6:34 Oh, I have one more remote speaker.
6:35 Hold on just one second.
6:37 Shelby Madison, item one.
6:43 Hi, uh, my name is Madison selby.
6:45 I've been an Austin resident, uh, my whole life since sworn here in 1991.
6:49 Um, and I'm calling in today to make a public comment to the council about funding for safe.
6:56 Um, it's absolutely critical, um, having worked personally in health education, um, especially for, uh, our federally qualified
7:06 healthcare centers where our people are indigent and cannot afford other care will go.
7:10 It's incredibly, uh, lifesaving resources that I've personally contacted, uh, say many times on behalf of my patients,
7:19 um, and my clients in order to be able to have resources for them to have a safe
7:24 place for them to go, um, to have support for them after they've been assaulted, uh, to have,
7:31 uh, any kind of resources and expertise, um, and an answer, uh, for families and for women who
7:38 have found themselves in these situations.
7:41 Um, and so it is something that is really important that our city continues to fund fully and
7:47 not try to foist that off on hospitals who do not have appropriately trained staff and do not
7:53 have the resources and the care that are available to our citizens of the city at safe services.
8:01 Uh, thank you so much for your time and, uh, yeah, I, I'll be back tomorrow.
8:06 Rl that is all I have on one for remote speakers, I'm switching over to in person.
8:14 We'll start with hands maverick, john, branch, Ryan pop, or poppy, sabrina bat.
8:22 If I've called your name, please come ahead to the podium and state your name before you begin
8:26 speaking.
8:33 Mayor Watson, Mayor proto council members, good morning and thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
8:39 My name is hans maverick.
8:41 I live in council district 10, and I am a policy and research organizer with grassroots leadership here
8:46 in Austin. I'm here to express my support for the community investment budget or cib.
8:53 Grassroots leadership is a member of the coalition that developed the cib because we want the city to
8:58 promote programs that support people who are impacted by the criminal legal system and immigration detention system, rather
9:06 than programs that catch more people up in those systems.
9:10 The principle behind that is that an, uh, ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
9:16 For example, Austin started the office of violence prevention last year.
9:20 The program takes a systems level coordinated community-based approach to identifying and addressing the root causes of interpersonal
9:27 violence. We are asking the city to not go through with proposed cuts to the ovp.
9:33 The ovp follows a model of identifying and assisting the people who are at most at risk of
9:38 being either perpetrators or victims of violence and intervening to prevent that violence before it occurs.
9:45 By the same token, immigrant legal services support the estimated 12% of individuals in Austin who are either
9:51 undocumented or live with someone who is undocumented.
9:55 They work in every area of the city and every economic sector.
9:59 The city provides funding for nonprofits that provide legal services to immigrants, but the budget for next year
10:04 includes cuts of up to one third of this funding.
10:09 Despite drastic increases in the federal budget for immigration enforcement, immigrant legal services prevent family separation and disruption,
10:17 so their funding needs to be maintained or increased, not cut.
10:21 In the meantime, I need to express my dismay at a proposed increase of $25 million in the police
10:26 budget, of which 13 million is discretion discretionary.
10:32 At the same time, the budget proposes a drastic cut in social services.
10:35 Thank you. Thank you.
10:42 Hi, my name is sabrina butra, and today I want to advocate to not increase, uh, electricity rates
10:48 and incorporate rate cases into our system.
10:50 Which rate cases is a formal process where a utility company seeks approval from a regulatory, uh, body
10:56 to just its rate accordingly.
10:58 A little bit about me is I'm a ut Austin student and I currently reside in west campus,
11:03 which is notorious for being super expensive when it comes to rate, and me and my fellow students
11:08 are already, um, struggling to afford rate, um, rent prices in ut Austin.
11:14 Uh, increasing electricity would just make it worse.
11:17 I know for in west campus, the one bedroom apartments are 64% higher than the median of a
11:23 regular one bedroom apartment in Austin.
11:25 So it's really crucial that we have these, um, things like rate cases that could be incorporated into
11:32 our system. So struggling students that are already not being able to afford rent prices at u uh,
11:38 west campus and even Austin beyond, like we've seen housing pricing in Austin that's gone up 2.8% since
11:45 last year. So yeah.
11:47 Thank you so much.
11:48 Thank you. Good morning, Mayor and council.
11:52 My name is Ryan poppy.
11:54 I serve as the legislative aide for cwa local 61 54, representing the dedicated behavioral health professionals at integral
12:03 care. I'm here today to ask you to protect all city funding integral care contracts, whether they support
12:10 behavioral health, crisis response, substance use, treatment, homelessness services, hiv services, intellectual and developmental, developmental disability services or
12:23 care coordination. That's a lot.
12:25 These programs, though, are essential to keeping austinites healthy, safe, and connected to care.
12:31 One example is the expanded mobile crisis outreach team or ott.
12:36 Austin became the first city in the nation to give 9 1 1 callers the option to request a mental
12:42 health response. Today, ott resolves 85% of all men mental health, 9 1 1 calls without police involvement, saving taxpayers
12:52 more than $12 million annually while allowing police officers to focus on public safety.
12:59 But mcos only one part of integral care's work.
13:02 There is no excess funding and these contracts, they're already funded only to provide the services our community
13:10 needs today. If these contracts are reduced, integral care will be forced to reduce services and lay off
13:18 behavioral health professionals. The need for care won't disappear only the ability to provide for it.
13:25 We respectfully ask you to exempt integral care as contracts from your proposed social services and behavioral health
13:33 reductions and identify savings elsewhere in the budget.
13:37 These services save lives, reduce cost, and strengthen public safety.
13:42 Please protect integral care's workforce and the essential services our community depends on.
13:48 Thank you. Continuous item one, christina delgado, britta thompson, maggie luna, scott cobb, and bianca billett.
14:00 If your name's been called, please come forward.
14:15 Please go ahead. Hello again, everyone.
14:18 Um, my name is maggie luna.
14:20 I am here again to talk about how thra saves the money.
14:23 City, I mean, saves the city money.
14:26 Um, every day at our drop-in center, our outreach team and community partnerships, we are providing wound care,