City Council

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

Video of the meeting

On the agenda

Roll-call votes

Documents

Transcript

0:06 You are watching a meeting of the Austin City Council with Mayor Kirk Watson, Mayor pro, tim cheto,

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 broad.

0:58 Good morning everybody. It's 10 o'clock in the morning on March 26th, 2026, and I will call to order the

1:05 regular meeting of the Austin City Council for today.

1:08 Uh, we are meeting in the City Council chambers located in City Hall at 3 0 1 west second street,

1:13 and we have a quorum of the Austin City Council present.

1:17 Um, what I'm gonna do first is I'm going to kind of go through the order of the

1:22 day, and then we will b begin the actual, uh, aspects of the meeting.

1:27 Uh, in a few minutes, I will read changes and corrections into the re uh, record, uh, which

1:34 changes the agenda. Um, there are no action items that, that have have been changed, but I'll, I'll

1:40 come back to that in a minute.

1:41 Then what we're gonna do is we're gonna go to our consent agenda.

1:44 Uh, there's only been one item pulled from the consent agenda, and that is item number 31.

1:49 Item number 31 has been pulled from the consent agenda.

1:53 After we hear from the public on, with comments on the items, on the consent agenda, we will

2:00 then have, uh, council members, uh, we'll have discuss.

2:04 I'll get, I'll take a motion and get a second, and then we will have discussion among the

2:08 council members with regard to, uh, the consent agenda.

2:11 And we will vote on the consent agenda as close to 10 30 as we can get, but

2:16 it will not be at 10 30 because of the number of people that have signed up to

2:19 speak on the consent agenda.

2:20 We will, uh, recess the Austin City Council meeting, and I'll call to order the Austin housing finance

2:26 corporation board of directors meeting.

2:27 That is one agenda item.

2:29 We will take that up and, um, then we will adjourn that meeting and go back to the

2:34 Austin City Council meeting.

2:36 My guess is that's when we will take up item number 31.

2:40 Um, we have a number of non-consent items that aren't pulled from the consent agenda, but they're non-consent

2:46 items because they come from the, uh, from council committees and under our rules.

2:50 Those are non-consent. Those are items 48, 49 and 74.

2:56 Those will be taken up after we take up Austin housing finance corporation, and probably after we take

3:02 up item number 31, we also have a number of public hearings.

3:07 Items 51 through item 66 are public hearings.

3:15 I will probably, well, I, I'll, I'll wait till we get to those and we'll see what, how

3:19 we're managing time. But what I'll say is, at least right now, those will probably be taken up

3:24 in the order of their numerical order, uh, at, at noon, wherever we are, uh, on the agenda

3:32 at noon, we will, uh, move to, we, we'll pause, uh, and we will go to our time,

3:39 certain public, general, public comment period.

3:43 I anticipate that we will recess at, at, at the end of that public comment, and that will

3:48 be around 1230 to 1235, probably till about one 10.

3:53 Uh, at one 10, we will reconvene and we will just, we'll go with wherever we are on

3:59 the agenda at that point in time.

4:00 And as close to two o'clock as possible, we will take up zoning items.

4:06 So that's the, unless there's questions, um, I'll now go to changes of corrections in the record.

4:11 Uh, as I indicated, there are no items that, uh, changes in corrections that I need to read

4:17 specifically to an agenda item, but I do want to, for the record, again, say that the item

4:22 pulled off the consent agenda is item number 31.

4:26 So with that, members, unless there's objection, we will go to the public comment on the consent items,

4:33 and I will ask the city clerk to navigate us through that process.

4:37 Thank you, Mayor. Starting with item two, nalia, acmi, sankofa, make sure you have this as well.

4:58 Oh, this is too on item eight.

5:01 William bunch, item 10.

5:03 William bunch, item 13.

5:05 William bunch, mr. Bunch.

5:37 Good morning, Mayor council members, bill bunch, uh, district five, save our springs alliance speaking on item eight,

5:45 which is, um, 2.2 and a half million dollars to upgrade the parking garage at the convention center.

5:54 Uh, just wanna flag whether is this really a priority?

5:59 I mean, y'all are trying to de-emphasize car parking.

6:03 Uh, it's a whole lot of money just to, uh, clean up, add some signage to a parking

6:09 garage. This is money that could really be used for delivering important services.

6:16 Um, it says that it's not part of the convention center expansion project.

6:22 Um, but the reason it's not is because there's no such thing as a convention center expansion project.

6:31 Y'all con continue to call that, call it that, but you tore down a perfectly functional convention center.

6:38 There's nothing to expand.

6:41 You're building an entirely new project that has nothing to do with the, uh, convention center we had,

6:48 uh, except it happens to be in the same location.

6:52 Um, it's, it's a fraud on the community on so many levels.

6:57 Uh, if you read texas monthly last week, you have, uh, the south by southwest ceo, saying they

7:06 May well not ever go back to the convention center.

7:09 That was a third of the entire business.

7:13 The entire annual business of the convention center was south.

7:17 By it's shrinking. It May not survive.

7:21 And they're saying point blank, they May not go there.

7:24 It's time for y'all to quit throwing money away, millions.

7:29 And here we're talking about billions misleading the public abusing the english language with zero integrity.

7:40 Please go a different way.

7:44 Um, I'm signed up for number 10.

7:46 I am skipping on that one.

7:48 She called me on item 13 also.

7:51 So I guess I do, I keep going.

7:53 Mayor, you have, you have two minutes on item 13.

7:56 Okay. Thank you very much.

7:58 Uh, speaking here, just on my own, uh, this item and the following several items is for various

8:05 types of, uh, computer services and software, um, enormous sums of money again, that you're spending, outsourcing, uh,

8:18 just doing the same old, same old when technology is rapidly changing.

8:23 I don't see any sort of coordination or valuation of any of these contracts, uh, whether we actually

8:32 need them or not.

8:33 It seems like at this point, there really needs to be a, a timeout and, and bringing a

8:41 bunch of that work in, in-house.

8:43 Um, item 14 related to 13.

8:48 It's a $78,000 contract that now all of a sudden is a $1.6 million contract.

8:57 It's just a, just a mere tweak, but it's a order of magnitude increase, and y'all aren't even

9:03 asking any questions, thinking twice.

9:06 And yet you say you care about affordability, that you've heard the, the community about taxes and spending

9:12 and fiscal accountability. Um, you're sleepwalking through this over and over, and you got four items here stacked

9:19 up. That's an enormous amount of spending that deserves a whole lot more attention.

9:23 Thank you, mr. Bunch.

9:25 You also signed up for 19, uh, yeah, I'm gonna skip on that one too.

9:31 Thank you. Item number 24, scott cobb, item 30, sharon blythe, and 30 ben sotheby.

9:51 Hello, my name is scott cobb.

9:52 I live in district nine, and I would like a meeting with mr.

9:56 Cadre. I am here because I, I should be in class at ut.

10:01 I skipped 'cause I knew no, no one would come and speak against this.

10:06 Just like last summer, no one came and talked to y'all about the dental insurance being taken away

10:11 by hr. This is another hr initiative that would set aside two over $2 million to line up probe

10:23 management law firms to investigate claims allegations against employees that I just had done by one of these

10:34 firms. Trudy oak law firm, employers law firm.

10:40 I'm signed up to speak April 9th on that.

10:43 In no case should treaty oak ever get any more additional contracts from the city of Austin.

10:51 I specifically asked for a reasonable accommodation because of my hearing problems, and they refused to allow me

10:59 to meet with them in person.

11:01 They required her to be on zoom.

11:02 I could not follow the conversation.

11:05 I repeatedly asked my lawyer, what is they saying?

11:08 What is going on?

11:10 They violated the law.

11:11 You hire them, you hire them again, they will mistreat your labor force.

11:19 You need to decide, are you on the side of management?

11:22 Are you on this side of the workers?

11:25 You set aside this $2.25 million, you are on the side of the management that $2 million could pay for

11:33 almost 20 years of dental insurance.

11:38 They retaliated against me.

11:40 They broke the law.

11:43 This law firm affirmed that without investigating a thorough investigation, without interviewing me,

11:56 ms. Blythe, hi, sharon blythe, district six.

12:01 I'm here to speak on item 30.

12:04 Uh, very rarely do I agree with an an item.

12:07 I kind of agree with this one, other than the agenda item didn't really specif specify who's gonna

12:13 be able to use the furniture outta the warehouse.

12:17 And I would like to know that before y'all vote on it, because, um, if it, I heard

12:24 in a meeting the other day that Austin city lutherans are supporting this, and I guess they would

12:29 be one of the organizations that would be allowed to go in there and get furniture for the

12:33 homeless. But I don't know who else would be able to do that.

12:35 Is it the general public or is it just the homeless?

12:38 And is there anybody here that could answer that question for me?

12:42 We'll get somebody to answer the question for you.

12:49 Go ahead and finish your testimony.

12:51 I'm done. Okay. Well then why don't you visit with, we'll have somebody I would like to, for

12:57 the public to hear his answer.

12:59 Well, that's really not the way we've set this up, but, um, go ahead and give a quick

13:02 answer. Yeah. Uh, uh, good morning council members richard ml, director frost and resource recovery.

13:08 Uh, we're still working on the business plan, but primarily this, uh, the furniture will be, um, we

13:12 will work with non-profit organizations that are in the business of getting homeless people back on their feet.

13:17 And so we'll be working with those groups.

13:19 Um, there May be a time later where we can be able to expand that program, but that

13:22 remains to be seen at this point.

13:23 Thank you very much, mr.

13:26 Sobe. Good morning, Mayor and council.

13:29 Uh, ben sobe. I'm speaking on behalf of myself for everything today.

13:32 Uh, on a vacation day, anyone who's worried about, uh, my, my daytime employment, um, I'm here to

13:39 speak in favor of this as a d four resident and somebody who bikes past this pretty regularly

13:44 on my way to soccer games and other events, going to grab a bite to eat.

13:49 Um, I am thinking about when, uh, people I know, you know, say a young couple, uh, they

13:56 decide to get married, and they're, they're moving in together and both of them have a perfectly good

14:01 use, uh, couch. What do you do with one of 'em?

14:05 Uh, I think it is wonderful for our city to, uh, set up ways that make that less

14:12 of a burden. This is not something that should go to, uh, our landfill and take up space.

14:17 It shouldn't be, uh, a burden for our resource recovery workers who work so hard and are so

14:22 dedicated to the city for them to try and fit that into, into, you know, regular service pickup,

14:28 uh, of your neighborhood, uh, recycling and trash and, and compost.

14:32 Uh, it is good for us to have a place where people can take those things.

14:36 And for our non-profits who work so hard and community organizations to, to connect people who are exiting

14:43 homelessness, to give them some of the basic things to make their next situation feel like home.

14:48 Uh, this is a good, it is good in climate impacts too.

14:52 Think about how much energy goes into building furniture, moving furniture for it to end up taking up

14:59 space in our limited, uh, you know, dump.

15:02 That's, that's, uh, not a good use.

15:05 Having, uh, you know, the reduce, reuse, recycle as we learned in elementary school.

15:10 This is, this is that reuse is very good, good for the climate, good for the people who

15:15 are donating something and good for the people who are receiving it.

15:18 So, just wanted to come and speak in favor of this, uh, since it is in d four.

15:23 Thanks. Item 37, bill bunch,

15:31 mr. Bunch,

15:39 call. Please call some other names while we're waiting on mr.

15:41 Bunch to come down so we, people will know they're coming up.

15:44 Sure. My next speaker's remote, but I'll go ahead and call some in person.

15:46 Item 39, streetcar nalu, jeff dickerson, christian chop, and zachary fadi.

15:54 So if your name's been called, please make your way forward, mr.