The Nov. 17 canvass agenda is posted, and it includes the council's first closed-door talks on appointing its own city attorney

The City Council's canvass of the Nov. 3 election is now on the calendar. The city posted the agenda for a special called meeting at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, at City Hall. That matches the time in the City Clerk's runoff calendar, as we reported Tuesday, when no meeting had been posted yet.

The agenda has six items. The first four make the election results official and set up the Dec. 12 runoffs. The last two are closed-session discussions of something the council has never done: appointing the city attorney.

The election items

• Item 1: a resolution canvassing the bond election, including the parks and library bonds, Props A and B.
• Item 2: a resolution canvassing the council races in Districts 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9.
• Item 3: a resolution canvassing the special charter election, the eight amendments on the ballot as Props C through J.
• Item 4: an ordinance ordering the runoff on Dec. 12 in Districts 1, 3 and 5.

The draft runoff ordinance sets polling hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and declares an emergency so it takes effect the day it passes, citing "the curtailed period for a runoff election." Its Exhibit A lists early voting from Monday, Nov. 30, through Tuesday, Dec. 8, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with the Travis County Clerk's office at 5501 Airport Blvd. as the main early voting site.

All results remain unofficial until the council votes on Items 1 through 3.

The city attorney items

Items 5 and 6 are posted for executive session. One is a discussion of "legal issues related to the appointment of the City Attorney" under the Open Meetings Act's exception for consulting a lawyer. The other covers "personnel matters related to the appointment of the City Attorney". The backup for Item 5 is a one-page posting with no other detail.

The reason is Proposition H. In unofficial results it passed with 65% of the vote, Community Impact reported. It lets the council, not the city manager, appoint and remove the city attorney. Item 3, the charter canvass, is the vote that makes that result official. Our charter results story covers all eight amendments.

The posting does not say what process the council plans to use, how long it will take, or how it involves the current city attorney, Deborah Thomas. Her name is in the approval line of the draft runoff ordinance. The Texas Open Meetings Act allows these discussions in private, but any vote must be taken in open session, and the agenda lists no open-session item on the appointment.

What our records add

Prop H drew no debate when it went on the ballot. On July 30, Mayor Pro Tem José "Chito" Vela moved to put the city attorney amendment on the ballot, and Council Member Vanessa Fuentes seconded. No one signed up to speak, and no member spoke on it. It passed 8-2, with Mayor Kirk Watson among the no votes and Council Member Mike Siegel abstaining.

It came from a 2023 review. In July, an assistant city attorney told the Audit and Finance Committee that the city attorney change came from the charter review commission the council formed in 2023. A similar amendment failed narrowly in 2012, KUT reported before the election.

Last year's canvass was quick. The council canvassed the 2025 election at a special called meeting on Nov. 17, 2025, and the resolution passed about two minutes in. This year's agenda adds the runoff order and the closed session.

The rest of Nov. 17

The same morning, a council work session starts at 9 a.m. with a briefing on the Lions Municipal Golf Course agreement with UT and a closed session on Austin Energy generation. The Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee is also listed for 9 a.m.

What's next

If the council canvasses Nov. 17, recount requests are due by 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, and runoff candidates have until 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 20, to withdraw, according to the state's deadlines. Here is how to vote in the runoff. Thursday, Nov. 12, is the last day to register.