Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 9 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
The Austin City Council work session of April 21, 2026 opened with public comment on a proposed economic development agreement for a hotel/conference center at Circuit of the Americas in Dell Valley (item A6) and on the five-year financial forecast (item B1). The Council then met in closed executive session on legal issues related to the transportation user fee lawsuit (Cunningham et al. v. City of Austin) and SB 4 immigration enforcement. Upon return, Budget Director Carrie Lang and Deputy Director Eric Nelson briefed the Council on the five-year financial forecast, including FY26 revenue updates, sales tax and property tax projections, expenditure drivers, reserves, ARPA funds, the capital improvement program, and unfunded Council resolutions; council members questioned staff extensively on IT savings (OneATS/application rationalization), civilian wage increases, fire overtime, housing vouchers, debt service, and inflation assumptions. The meeting concluded with a discussion of the Dell Valley hotel partnership agreement, with Council Member Fuentes presenting the proposal and staff answering questions about the financing structure; no votes were taken.
1:23 Good morning everybody. It's nine oh one and I'll call to order the work session of the Austin City Council
1:27 on April 21st, 2026. We have a quorum of City Council present and we are meeting in City Council chambers
1:33 located in Austin City Hall at 3 0 1 west second street in Austin, texas.
1:38 Um, members, the way we'll go is we have some speakers, so we'll hear from our speakers, and
1:45 then, uh, we will go into an executive session to take up a discussion of two items.
1:50 Once the executive session is complete, we will come out and we will hear, uh, we will go
1:54 with the briefing on the financial forecast, and we'll follow that with the, uh, agenda item a six.
2:01 So with that, I will turn to the city clerk and ask that you please call the speakers.
2:07 Thank you, Mayor. We're gonna start with remote speakers.
2:09 First speaker is susanna woody.
2:18 Good morning, honorable Mayor and Council Member.
2:20 My name is susanna, led woody, and I serve as the president of the dell valley community coalition.
2:26 I'm here today on behalf of our organization to express our support for the proposed economic development agreement
2:33 for the hotel project at circuits of the americas.
2:37 This development represents a real long awaited opportunity for dell valley.
2:42 For years, our community has needed a true economic anchor, yet we have been consistently overlooked and under
2:49 investment. This project has the potential to shift that trajectory by bringing stable jobs and pathways for advancement,
2:57 creating meaningful employment opportunities close to home for our youth, and attracting services, amenities and gathering spaces that
3:06 we don't have in dell valley and have to travel far to access.
3:10 We respectfully ask for your support for this project, and we urge the city to ensure that revenue
3:16 generated is reinvested into the dell valley community within city limits.
3:21 This is more than a development project.
3:23 This is an opportunity to begin addressing years of underinvestment and ensure that dell valley is not left
3:31 behind. Thank you for your time and your consideration.
3:34 If you have any questions, please contact us@atx.dcc.org.
3:40 Again, thank you for your time.
3:42 Y'all have a good day.
3:45 Next remote speaker for item a six is luke, uh, charlton.
3:58 Good morning, Mayor and Council Member luke charlton.
4:01 I'm the chief operating officer of rita, proposing to be the developer of the hotel, and I'm available
4:07 for questions, um, when the item comes up.
4:10 Thank you. Thank you, sir.
4:14 We're gonna switch to in-person speakers for item a six, as your name is called.
4:18 If you can please make your way to the podium and state your name for the record.
4:22 Rachel melendez, bill bunch. Juan rodriguez, April brown, and michael whalen.
4:36 Good morning Mayor. Uh, council rachel melendez.
4:39 I'm the political director for unite here, local 23 and here to speak, um, on item a six.
4:46 Uh, we are in strong support of this.
4:49 Um, we've worked with rita, um, across the country, particularly in here in houston.
4:55 Um, and we are very excited about them developing this hotel.
4:59 I think as, uh, the president of the neighborhood association said, um, this is a huge opportunity for
5:04 working people, um, in dell valley and, um, I think as many of you know, we've been able
5:10 to, um, really increase wages and benefits for working people in the city of Austin and we're very
5:16 excited about this project.
5:18 Um, yeah, that's, that's really all I had to share and I'm happy to, uh, talk with anybody
5:25 about this project. So thank you.
5:26 Thank you, please. Good morning, honorable Mayor, uh, and City Council.
5:34 My name is juan rodriguez.
5:35 I'm the project manager for the valley community coalition.
5:38 Um, and I'm here behalf of dvcc today to support the read agreement with, uh, a potential read
5:44 agreement with the city of Austin and the dakota hotel happening at c the americas.
5:49 Uh, our organization has worked well with c uh, sacred the americas in the past.
5:52 Um, and this is an opportunity we're very excited, um, to have a new partner like rita help
5:57 us expand the work at crescent.
5:59 Um, as I mentioned previously, you know, this is an economic opportunity that this, that the valley has
6:04 not had in the previous, um, previous years.
6:07 Um, this will bring in jobs and will bring in park lands a will bring a lot of
6:11 opportunity and people at the valley to deserve to have a place to work and where they live,
6:16 uh, without having to commute an hour and a half, uh, to here.
6:20 Um, but yeah, uh, a little bit more.
6:24 Uh, this kind of scale of projects does not occur very often in our community wants and if
6:28 there's more options and opportunities without having to go across the city to find them.
6:32 Um, but yeah, if you have any guys have any questions, please feel to contact me.
6:35 Chair roger gas.org. Thank you.
6:38 Thank you. I think April brown's waving for the clerk, uh, michael whale on behalf of rita.
6:47 As you've already heard, this is a transformative project to dell valley creating a long awaited economic anchor
6:53 for dell valley and the eastern crescent.
6:55 Rita takes on full financing, construction operations and risk.
6:59 The project is estimated to cost more than $950 million and generate over $10 billion in overall direct and indirect
7:06 economic benefit for the community over the next 30 years.
7:10 The city has no upfront payment, none.
7:12 This is completely performance-based reimbursement.
7:15 If rita does not book rooms and generate hotel occupancy tax, the city of Austin rebates $0 and
7:22 rita is still on the hook for property taxes on the hotel itself.
7:25 This is a model that other texas cities have followed often in those cases with upfront payments or
7:31 abatement of property taxes, neither of which are being sought here.
7:36 Unforeseen events can occur such as pandemic war or fire that would reduce or eliminate guest reservations and
7:42 therefore reduce or eliminate any reimbursement to rita.
7:45 Although property tax collection, which goes to the general fund, would continue at an estimated $600 million for all
7:53 local taxing jurisdictions over 30 years.
7:56 This includes over $160 million in property taxes to the city of Austin and over $260 million to dell valley
8:03 independent school district. There will also be sales tax of at least $40 million over the 30 year term.
8:09 More significantly. This economic development agreement provides an opportunity to invest meaningfully in austin's workforce.
8:17 Rita will be entering a labor agreement with unite here, local 23, which will create significant job opportunities
8:22 for the community of the 900 permanent jobs on site.
8:26 Rita estimates that 650 to 700 will be unite here jobs.
8:30 This position, these positions and the project really serve as a workforce investment and a long-term generator of
8:37 new economic activity and revenue for the city.
8:40 Of course, we are all available to answer any questions.
8:43 Thank you. Thank you.
8:46 If your name has been called, please make your way to the podium, xia joseph and April brown.
8:55 Okay,
9:14 thank you Mayor council, I'm zeno joseph as it relates specifically to item a 0 0 6 circuit of america's
9:22 hotel. My opposition is to the language and backup, which specifies that you are approving an ordinance waiving
9:29 the staff presentation, public announcement and portal setup and public hearing requirements.
9:36 I'm not quite sure why you would lack transparency on an item that I just heard is $950 million.
9:43 So I would ask you to recognize that you do have a public participation plan through hud and
9:48 specifically community development block grant is used in this, uh, not necessarily in this area, but it is
9:55 specified by hud. So I just want you to recognize the need to be more transparent.
10:00 If this is such a wonderful project, I would ask you to brief the public.
10:04 I would also ask you to recognize that your past agreements with samsung and apple have not garnered
10:11 the jobs that they have specified, and specifically it was only $4.7 million for the metro rapid in 2020
10:19 to serve samsung to apple.
10:21 And to date you have done nothing to provide low income residents in northeast Austin, northwest Austin access
10:28 to the jobs. I'm not sure how you anticipate that anyone who lives north of us, 180 3 northeast
10:35 specifically would be able to get to the circuits of america jobs.
10:39 And so I just want you to recognize, Mayor, my comments as they always are, are in the
10:43 context of title six of the civil rights act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color,
10:50 and national origin. And specifically if you receive the federal fin funding, then all of your programs must
10:56 be non-discriminatory. And as you are aware, the transit system is discriminatory and blacks and immigrants and also
11:04 the hispanics northeast of us 180 3 have infrequent, unreliable, disconnected routes.
11:10 So I would just ask you to be more transparent with the public.
11:13 If you have any questions, I'll gladly answer them at this time.
11:15 Thank you, ms. Joseph. You're welcome.
11:18 Continuing on to item b one.
11:20 We have bright and summers, david cruz, andia, joseph,
11:41 good morning Mayor and council.
11:42 I'm brian summers, president of asme local 1624, the union that represents city of Austin and travis county employees.
11:48 I know we've all been waiting for this day.
11:49 We're very excited to see what the sales tax projections are gonna look like and start to dig,
11:52 dig into the budget.
11:54 And this is sort of a kickoff to the budget season because it sets parameters for that conversation
11:58 and in the spirit of setting parameters, I want to clarify where our union stands on projections we
12:02 saw last week for it savings that will be factored into the budget.
12:06 To put it very clearly, ame supports the application rationalization.
12:10 The audit and finance committee received a briefing on last week.
12:13 It's evident to our members, to the it workers throughout the city that that money tied up in
12:19 software and various contracts is not being spent wisely and we want that money too.
12:23 We know that every dollar we're able to save represents a dollar that's available for employee raises, for
12:28 social service contracts, for parks facilities and more so where the union can help support efforts to realize
12:34 those savings. We're a ready and willing partner, but I want to state just as clearly that a
12:39 reorganization of the city's it workforce is not required to achieve these savings.
12:43 You'll hear that the consolidation of hundreds of it personnel is a necessary cog in the wheel of
12:49 savings from that from application rationalization.
12:51 But that wasn't the case on March 4th when director, director lakey presented to auden finance committee.
12:57 That wasn't true. When de director lakey presented to auden, uh, Austin technology commission on March 19th, lakey stated
13:03 that even though those are both technology optimization initiatives, they are not the same initiative.
13:09 And so what has changed is that the majority of the workforce have spoken up.
13:13 And so now I want to stress that we can solve problems without creating new ones.
13:18 It spending decisions are choices.
13:20 They can be improved by governance protocols, exploring and improve federated model and committing to sound contract management.
13:27 I also wanna take a moment as we start this budget process to say that a 0% cost
13:30 of living raise for city employees is not acceptable.
13:33 It does not show value to our public servants.
13:35 It drives away our talented workforce.
13:37 And so that must be a top priority this budget cycle.
13:39 Thank you so much.
13:40 Thank you. Please. Good morning.
13:44 My name is david cruz.
13:46 I am with afscme 1624 stop one a ts campaign.
13:50 Last week, director lakey presented to the audit and finance committee on the application rationalization initiative.
13:56 Over the last two months, it workers have expressed consistent support for this effort in public and in
14:01 private. Afme supports application rationalization because it shows that modernization doesn't require centralizing hundreds of it workers into
14:11 one tiny department that is not ready to manage a high performing workforce with diverse specifications.
14:18 Reducing overlapping software vendor contracts and licensing is the real path to savings.
14:24 But today when you hear from director lang, she will call these savings one a ts, even though
14:30 management has regularly said that one a ts and application rationalization are two separate initiatives.