Watson, Velásquez, Alter and Qadri all won their council seats in the city's December runoff election, and incumbents Harper-Madison and Ellis return to City Hall after winning reelection in November. Watson—the previous two-term mayor returning to City Hall after more than two decades—will serve for an abbreviated two-year term while each of the five council members will be in their places for four years.
The inauguration ceremony was followed by the new council's first official business together: the election of the body's mayor pro tem. The ceremonial position is chosen by council and is responsible for running city meetings and other ceremonial duties in the mayor's absence.
The previous council divided the term of mayor pro tem between Harper-Madison in 2021 and District 10 Council Member Alison Alter in 2022. The new council continued that trend by electing Ellis for the remainder of 2023 and District 7 Council Member Leslie Pool for 2024.
Harper-Madison, Velásquez, Ellis, Alter and Qadri each shared their thanks for family, friends, colleagues and campaign teams after taking their oaths of office for their new terms.
Watson closed the meeting with remarks centered on his hopes of pursuing unity on the council dais. And as Austin continues to grow and face a range of challenges, he pointed to his and his colleagues' desire to tackle top city issues including an affordability "emergency" following what he called a hard-fought election in the fall.
"When the races are over, the work must begin. And that work demands, I think now more than ever, that we make every effort to seek out and find common ground, and ultimately to pursue a shared vision of our future together," he said.
With all new and returning members sworn in, the new council will begin its regular business in late January.
Council expectations
Ahead of the January inauguration ceremony, Community Impact surveyed City Council members for their thoughts on what they are most anticipating in the coming term. Responses are shown below.
Watson: “Part of my excitement is an eagerness to be working with this council and the individuals on this council. I’ve got a lot of respect for every one of them and the wealth of ideas. ... I think you will see us operating as a team, and my impression from watching people over the years and on the campaign trail, conversations since, that we will start from a proposition that we agree on things and let’s focus, at least at first, on the things that we agree on that we can do and that we can use to build a foundation for working on other things that we may not totally agree on."
Harper-Madison: "It’s been said a thousand times, but I’ll say it again because it bears repeating. We are in a housing and climate crisis. We need comprehensive transit and mobility solutions for all Austinites as well as our important regional partners.
"We must work together as a council to bring forward the bold, innovative actions needed to create housing for all income levels and get people moving with efficient mobility options. I believe past councils did what they thought was best with the information they had, but unfortunately we missed so many opportunities and the challenge has only grown greater.
"Housing is a key that unlocks access to job opportunities and expands access to transit and mobility options. That’s why those are the top three priorities of my office: housing, economic opportunity, and mobility."
District 2 Council Member Vanessa Fuentes: "It's important for Austin City Council to deliver on policies that make housing more affordable, childcare more accessible, and help working families thrive in the city we all love. I’m excited to work with the new council and bring on fresh perspectives to deliver policies for everyday Austinites."
Velásquez: "Just service to the people of Austin. Bringing city government as close to the people as we can. I think that there for a little while, people have been feeling that there’s a disconnect between the people and City Hall. And one of the core issues that I ran on also was accessibility, so making sure that people felt a presence, people felt acknowledged, people felt respected as far as their interactions with City Hall and especially the District 3 office.”
District 4 Council Member Chito Vela: "I’m excited to see so many pro-housing candidates taking the dais, and I sincerely hope we can move forward with improving quality of life across the city. That includes increasing the housing supply, improving public transit, addressing city staff shortages, and fighting to lower and cover I-35 through Austin."
Ryan Alter: "Everyone just has different ideas about things, and so I’m really excited to both share my ideas and thoughts but also hear what other people are thinking about and how they want to tackle, whether it’s affordability, homelessness, you name it. And figure out, ‘Well okay, we share the same goal. How can our various ideas fit together or maybe build on each other?’ ... I’m really excited to collaborate with everybody and bring some new, fresh ideas to the table to address some of these challenges that we’ve had for a long time.”
District 6 Council Member Mackenzie Kelly: "I look forward to continuing working with my colleagues to make Austin a safer place to live, work, play, and raise a family."
Ellis: "I'm looking forward to working with my new colleagues who I know will bring fresh perspectives on the issues affecting Austinites. We have a dais that is focused on making sure that people who want to build a life here in Austin can afford to do so."
Qadri: "What I’m most looking forward to is having the opportunity to work with my colleagues. At this point I’ve met with everybody on the dais ... and hearing them, especially the ones who have been in office talking about their priorities for the upcoming year, seeing where we could collaborate with them."
Alison Alter: "I am looking forward to collaborating with my new colleagues and learning from their fresh perspectives. Currently, my highest priority is addressing city recruitment and retention efforts and improving our delivery of public safety and essential services. Much of my work this year will be to see through efforts that I previously initiated to advance Austin’s long-term health and sustainability, with a focus on preventing gun violence, improving Austin’s response to hate and sexual assault, investing in our workforce, expanding access to medical care, and bolstering our climate resilience and emergency preparedness."
