Council Member Greg Casar sat on the (virtual) dais for his last Austin City Council meeting one week ago, Feb. 3, before packing up his office at City Hall to work the congressional campaign trail full time ahead of the March 1 primary.
Some of the people he shared the dais with during his final meeting have changed since his first council meeting in early 2015; just he, four other CMs, and Mayor Steve Adler remain from that inaugural class of 10-1 representatives first elected in 2014. And the ice storm last week, which forced the city to shut down all nonessential services for two days, denied the District 4 CM an opportunity to close out his time at City Hall physically within the Council Chamber at 301 W. Second. In a way, the pixelated signoff marked a fitting end for Casar’s tenure, given that the pandemic forced Council to conduct many of their meetings throughout 2020-21 virtually.
Despite the differences in Council makeup and meeting setting brought on by seven years of change, one through-line remained present at the Feb. 3 meeting: Casar championing policy aimed at helping working-class and lower-income Austinites. His final items from Council were resolutions directing City Manager Spencer Cronk to work with staff and community stakeholders to develop new renter protections to be codified in law as city ordinances.
The first resolution could result in a kind of “renters’ bill of rights,” ensuring that tenants across the city have the right to organize without the threat of retaliation from landlords or law enforcement. The resolution asks staff to consider a list of “tenant protections best practices” for Texas cities, compiled by UT School of Law professors Kelly Hogue and Heather K. Way, which includes ensuring tenant organizers are not barred from entering rental properties for organizing activities and that organizing activity itself, such as talking to tenants about their rights or distributing materials informing them of their rights, is not prohibited. An amendment from Mayor Adler will require staff to provide a legal analysis of any proposed ordinance changes for Council to consider; staff is directed to report back with their findings by July 28.
“Democracy is how we care for one another and we have all worked so hard these last few years to think about how we care for one another.”
– Greg Casar
The second resolution would make some of the eviction protections Council approved during the pandemic permanent. Those protections include a requirement that rental property operators post notice of their intention to evict a tenant before posting the legally required notice to vacate, along with information and resources the tenant could utilize to prevent an eviction. The most contentious aspect of the ordinance will be how much notice landlords are required to provide; the resolution suggests somewhere between 7 and 30 days, but the final length of time will be the result of no doubt tense negotiations between groups representing landlords, such as the Austin Apartment Association and the Austin Board of Realtors, and those representing the interests of tenants, such as RioGrande Legal Aid and Building and Strengthening Tenant Action.
Before voting on the renters’ rights items, which passed unanimously, Casar had an opportunity to address his constituents and colleagues one last time from the dais. “Democracy is how we care for one another and we have all worked so hard these last few years to think about how we care for one another,” he said, offering a summary of his work at City Hall. “Obviously there is still so much work to be done and we know what that work is, but I leave here very hopeful that Austin has the ability to take those challenges on.”
This article appears in February 11 • 2022.