Council: Fire in the Hole

The new 10-1 Council (photo by Jana Birchum)

We're about to get our first direct experience of the new 10-1 City Council in action – today (Thursday, Jan. 22) features both a 10am meeting and a 6pm Town Hall, inviting citizen input on the proposed changes to Council committee, meeting, and public hearing structure. The Town Hall meeting (to be preceded by a brief, one-item session) has been well publicized – city staff has been promoting it online and in press releases, and the new Council members have been reaching out to their districts and the media to promote the meeting itself, and to other avenues for citizen comment.

The morning meeting hasn't gotten quite as much play – only two items, and the first, "Legal issues related to hiring in the Austin Fire Department ...," is an executive session consultation with the city's legal counsel, presumably bringing the new Council up to date on the status of the U.S. Depart­ment of Justice consent decree covering AFD firing. That will be followed (anybody's guess on the timing) by a public briefing on "workforce issues": "City as an employer." In their campaigns, at least – seeking the endorsement of the Austin Firefighters Association – not all of the new members were on board with the consent decree (neither were all members of the previous Council), so the discussion may reveal some 10-1 fault lines early on.

Council also held its first work session Tuesday morning, including an introduction from the IT folks to the various "functionalities" (i.e., functions) of their brand-new dais touch screens controlling their mics and recording their votes and requests to speak – early sentiment from members was mostly to raise their hands in the conventional manner. They also held a "mock" regular meeting, rehearsing the standard order of business, and heard briefings on zoning policy as well as their larger plans for collaborative brainstorming on policy issues. (Surprise, the whole thing took about three hours, longer than they had anticipated.)

The evening Town Hall is focused on the Council proposals to revise the meeting and decision structure. But before they get to that, posted for 5:30pm consideration is a proposal by Mayor Steve Adler and Council Member Ora Houston (District 1) to enable (not require) Council members to adjust their office budgets to reduce their own salaries by shifting money elsewhere. (Adler, independently wealthy, has previously indicated he won't accept his mayoral salary; long odds that anyone will vote against this one.)

Under the proposals drafted by the mayor and the new members, a baker's dozen of Council committees (roughly twice the current number) would hear most proposals before they moved to Council, and those committees would also hold most public hearings; zoning cases and executive sessions could move away from the regular meeting agenda. More Council meetings would presumably require fewer late nights, and (in theory) earlier public input would mean more consensus – except, of course, for those folks who lose the argument at the earlier meetings.

Pushback has already begun – Sun­day's Statesman argued that the Council should "mend not end" the current structure, specifically calling for the retention of public hearings before the entire Council. Council is actively soliciting public input: You can offer your two cents in various ways: In person at today's meeting; by phone, 888/400-1932; or by tweet, #myatxgov. You can also comment through Jan. 26 at SpeakUpAustin.org; call 311; or continue to tweet #myatxgov. Council expects to vote on a final proposal at its Jan. 29 meeting – which will also feature the return of the proposed busking ordinance, a mere 22 zoning cases, and a National Wear Red Day proclamation.