City Council

Thursday, March 12, 2026, 10 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall

Video of the meeting

On the agenda

Roll-call votes

Documents

Transcript

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

0:41 cadre, mark uchin, city attorney deborah thomas, city clerk erica brady, and city manager tc broad.

1:00 Well, good morning, everybody.

1:01 It is 10 o'clock in the morning on March 12th, 2026, and I will call to order the meeting of

1:07 the Austin City Council.

1:09 Uh, all council members are here, and we are meeting at the, in the City Council chambers located

1:14 in City Hall at 3 0 1 west second street in Austin, texas.

1:18 Um, members, uh, the way we'll proceed today and for members of the public as well is in

1:24 a moment, I will, for the record, read the changes and corrections into the record, although there aren't

1:29 any, but I'll, I'll do that for the record in just a minute.

1:31 Uh, we will then begin with our consent agenda.

1:34 Currently, I don't have any items that have been pulled from the consent agenda.

1:39 I have no items that have been pulled from the consent agenda.

1:42 We will hear from speakers that have signed up to speak on those items that are on the

1:46 consent agenda, and around 10 30, or as close to 10 30 as we're able to do it.

1:52 Um, I, or immediately following the consent agenda and comments and discussion by members of the council, I

1:59 will recess the meeting of the Austin City Council and call to order the board of directors meeting

2:04 of the Austin housing finance corporation.

2:06 We have two items on the a hfc agenda.

2:10 We will adjourn that meeting, and then we will go to non-consent items.

2:13 We have two non-consent items.

2:14 Those are, uh, public hearings on items 30 and 31.

2:19 Uh, at as close to noon as we can, we will have our public communications, uh, at the

2:25 conclusion of the public communications.

2:27 We will recess for a period of time, uh, and we will have live music during that period

2:32 of time. And then at, uh, two o'clock, which is we have a time certain for our zoning

2:38 and neighborhood planning items.

2:41 That's the order of the agenda we will follow today.

2:44 Now, for the record changes and corrections to be read into the record, there are no changes and

2:50 corrections to be read into the record.

2:52 And as I've indicated, there are no items that have been pulled off the consent agenda.

2:58 So members, unless there's objection or questions with that, I will turn to the city clerk and ask

3:04 that the city clerk please, uh, begin calling the names of people that have signed up to speak

3:10 on the items are on our agenda.

3:13 If you're in the room and you're called upon to speak, please make your way to the front

3:18 of the chambers or, and, or take one of the seats that's here so that we'll know that

3:23 you're here and we can, uh, move through in an efficient way for those that are wanting to

3:28 speak. So, I'll turn to the city clerk.

3:31 Thank you, Mayor. We do have, uh, in-person speakers on item two, bill bunch, jennifer robo and jeffrey bowen.

3:42 If your name's been called, please come forward.

4:00 Good morning, Mayor and City Council members.

4:04 My name is jen rho.

4:05 I'm a longtime Austin resident.

4:07 I'm speaking on item two, the proposed amendments on lobbyist regulations.

4:11 As a taxpayer, deeply interested in government transparency, I see the city stripping away key accountability measures.

4:19 This ordinance originally acted in 2016, set a high standard for Austin by requiring sign-in sheets for lobbyist

4:26 visits, something no other major texas city mandates a way for Austin to be a leader in government

4:32 transparency and something that its residents highly value.

4:36 These sheets allow city officials to independently track paid influence, providing a verifiable crosscheck against lobbyists own reports,

4:46 ensuring accuracy and exposing omissions.

4:48 This also gives city officials clarity and understanding how money is being used to influence their decision-making.

4:55 The proposed revisions would eliminate these requirements, shifting the onus of reporting to the lobbyists, creating serious risks

5:02 without independent records. What incentives do lobbyists have to report?

5:07 Honestly, city officials have a duty to know who's influencing their decisions.

5:12 How do you know if you're not tracking it?

5:16 Removing this checkpoint erodes public trust, and ignorance is no excuse for unethical behavior.

5:22 So why make it harder to do the right thing?

5:25 The good news is that we don't have to choose between efficiency and transparency.

5:29 Instead of getting these protections, we can adopt smarter, modern tools, which are readily available.

5:35 Digital forms are ubiquitous, and many businesses interested in robust data use these to track their visitors.

5:41 Instant data collection removes the headaches of paperwork, enhances the auditor's reviews, makes public information requests simpler, and

5:49 builds confidence that ethics are enforced.

5:52 I'm asking you today to prioritize ethics and transparency, keep the internal tracking requirements, and instead pursue efficient

6:00 digital alternatives that make data readily available.

6:03 Thank you, mr. Bowen. Uh, good morning everybody.

6:07 Jeff bowen, uh, member of district eight.

6:10 I did remember this time, mr.

6:11 Mayor <laugh>. Um, so like my friend here, ms.

6:17 Roba, said, uh, I have an issue regarding this over transparency.

6:21 Uh, I understand that there's, uh, there's a need and there's some changes in here, but what really

6:26 caught my eye is that removing requirements, uh, this is regarding regulating lobbyists and, and changing some of

6:34 the definitions around, but I, I need to ask this one question first.

6:39 What is the line between a lobbyist and an activist?

6:45 What, I mean, do we have people here that have come and spoke in front of this council

6:49 in front of this body that have received some type of payment and just have spoke?

6:54 Um, more than likely, yes, but they're not registered.

6:58 So what is the definition of trying to make sure people get registered?

7:01 One of the other issues that I have is this, is that even in these reports that are

7:06 supposed to be done every four, every, every quarter, what if an item gets left off?

7:11 How do we know through any other ways, any other ways that they May have made a visit

7:17 to, to whatever person is the case?

7:20 What if that gets left off?

7:22 Are there any punishments?

7:23 Are there any any rules that account for that?

7:26 It, it talks about, uh, enforcement.

7:29 Okay, what's the enforcement?

7:31 You're not allowed to have supper tomorrow.

7:34 I mean, we really need to be looking at this.

7:37 This body has talked about the need to be more transparent.

7:42 How about more accountability?

7:44 So, I see issues with this in a matter of what we're trying to streamline this, but I

7:50 believe that there's issues that need to be discussed, need to be, uh, very public in order to

7:56 do this, because even the auditor gets to look at this every three years.

8:00 That's a long time between audits and trying to find out what has actually happened in that process

8:05 and what has been affected that affect us as taxpayers and as citizens.

8:09 Thank you for your time.

8:11 Thank you, mr. Bowen. We have one remote speaker on item two, tracy witty.

8:21 Good morning. Um, thank you for your public service and for considering how to improve requirements for documentation

8:26 of meetings between decision makers and lobbyists.

8:30 A primary goal of switching from an at large council to attend one system was to promote representation

8:35 that's more accessible and responsive to smaller geographic constituencies.

8:39 One very visual way to document a council office's accessibility to its constituency is to keep digital sign-in

8:46 sheets that record the names of visitors in real time, whether they're compensated for the activity and by

8:51 whom. And of course, the municipal question at hand.

8:54 And then post interaction log the calendars online in a searchable format as close to real time as

8:59 possible. Include virtual or remote meetings, as well as in-person meetings inside and outside the office.

9:05 Include informal unplanned interactions.

9:08 Expenditure of office resources is worth it.

9:10 Why would a district representative abrogate her right and c her responsibility to convey to the public with

9:16 whom she or her staff spoke about?

9:17 What, why let lobbyists tell her story unless representative's own complete records would show her time disproportionately spent

9:25 with lobbyists rather than with constituents?

9:28 I've heard that sometimes council offices don't realize their meeting with a lobbyist.

9:31 The office can access a searchable lobbyist database and require people with whom they meet to certify whether

9:37 or not they're attending a meeting for compensation before they set the meeting in their calendars.

9:41 If an error somehow occurs, an online interaction blog searchable by the public, makes it more likely that

9:46 oversight will be corrected quickly.

9:49 Today. Please rate the bar for yourself to provide complete and accurate reporting of your meetings rather than

9:54 denying your critical role in ensuring transparent government that's accountable to the people, your authority to leave the

10:00 city rest, and how you are seen to move through the world as you carry out your duties.

10:05 It begins with your commitments to transparent government that leaves as little doubt as possible about why you

10:10 take the actions that you do on behalf of the people.

10:12 Thank you. We'll move back to in-person speakers on item three, nyla sankofa.

10:25 Moving to item four, nyla sankofa, zenobia joseph on item four, and ben sotheby on item four.

10:37 You'll have two minutes.

10:45 Hello, Mayor. Mayor, pro tem council.

10:48 My name is ben sotheby.

10:50 I'm a resident of district four and a resident of st.

10:54 John's. Uh, I'm, I'm just a few blocks away from where this project is.

10:58 The, the old home depot and, and trucks lot, uh, that the city owns.

11:03 And I'm here to speak very much in favor of this project and the changes here that are,

11:09 uh, expanding, uh, deepening the affordability and making sure that this continues moving forward.

11:14 As somebody who, whose bus stop is right next to that lot, and I bike past this pretty

11:19 much every day, um, this is something that the entire neighborhood will benefit when it's implemented and the

11:28 folks who spend lots of their time in and around that area, um, whether housed or unhoused will

11:35 see great benefit. One of the biggest issues facing the working class in our country is the cost

11:42 of living and a huge component, if not the biggest is housing costs.

11:48 And one thing that we can do to make concrete progress in our city is to continue making

11:55 sure that we're building housing so people have options, and especially in mixed use projects like this that

12:03 have a, a mix of affordability in it as somebody who will be a neighbor to those perspective

12:10 neighbors. I'm here to speak again, strongly in favor of this.

12:14 The process has been accessible to us in the neighborhood.

12:17 I get the newsletters in my email.

12:19 I look forward to including art that pays, uh, uh, holds onto the history of that area.

12:27 I look forward to the water retention <laugh>.

12:29 I was talking to my Council Member about that.

12:31 I look forward to, uh, having those new neighbors in our area.

12:36 So, uh, just wanted to come down here and speak in favor of this.

12:40 Uh, I know that lots of people will come down and speak against zoning changes and against new

12:45 neighbors and against buildings.

12:47 I say, build this to the sky house as many people as you can in my neighborhood.

12:50 Welcome on item five, bill bunch.

12:57 I've not seen mr.

12:57 Bunch. Come in mr.

12:58 Bunch. Are you here?

13:01 He doesn't appear to be here.

13:03 Moving on to item six, jeffrey bowen.

13:17 Oh, uh, good morning.

13:21 Uh, jeffrey bowen, district eight.

13:23 Um, I'm actually wanting to just throw in a couple things about item six that, um, I understand

13:30 the need for wanting to have some type of temporary services.

13:33 I, I get it.

13:34 Uh, even looking at some of the, the areas that they're looking at, administrative accounting associates, dispatchers, uh,

13:42 mail service clerks, uh, and and so on, and heating and air conditioning.

13:47 Uh, one of the issues, and I know that it's come up several times, is the amount of

13:53 pay. And I'm hoping, and I, I more than likely believe mr.

13:57 Broad necks and his team are looking at what does it take to make sure that we're getting

14:02 people so that we're not having to pay an outside source.