The work session mainly centered on three briefings from both staff and community members on the topics of cultural arts funding, wildfire preparedness and a look back at the city's handling of Winter Storm Uri. Council will next convene Aug. 26 for a regular meeting to work through a 112-item agenda.
Arts funding shifts
Council's first briefing of the Aug. 24 session, requested by District 2 Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, concerned the state of Austin's cultural arts funding programs. The briefing allowed staff to lay out some proposed changes to the city's model for supporting local cultural institutions and share an overview of the COVID-19 pandemic's effects on both artists and the city funds. Staff members also highlighted their commitment to a funding model they said is designed with equity as a cornerstone, given city reviews and community events related to recent years' funding had pointed to disparities in financial awards.
“In the community conversation and engagement conducted in the early phases of this process, MJR Partners synthesized hundreds of hours of feedback to several key observations," said Meghan Wells, Austin Cultural Arts Division manager. "Many of them stood out to us, but perhaps the most challenging of those revolves around the need for collective acceptance that historic inequities exist in the city and in our funding program, and that we must be intentional in strengthening our culturally specific organizations to build our ecosystem more equitably.”
Following a staff presentation, council members voiced support for the renewed focus on equitable fund distribution overall. However, several said they remain worried over how changes to city funding programs will roll out, the data behind staff's proposed shifts and the timing of such changes.
One key change officials zeroed in on relates to the city's hotel occupancy tax collections that flow into Austin's cultural funds and which decreased throughout the pandemic. While the arts funds currently operate based on hotel tax projections, staff are suggesting a move that will see programs built around actual returns potentially as soon as next fiscal year—a move that saw a mixed response on the dais.
“To be clear, my concern is not with moving toward an equitable model. I think that it is great and needed. ... But the question I have is, is this the appropriate time to be moving toward a model that will leave organizations that are dependent on this funding to a certain extent, is it an appropriate time to be doing that?" Fuentes said.
Council members went on to request further details on the potential adjustments to program models, and Assistant City Manager Rodney Gonzales later said it was clear that staff should transparently produce more information for both council and residents in the near term following their presentation. He also asked council members to work with their representatives on the arts commission to more closely take the pulse of Austin's creative community and help guide potential changes as stakeholders determine how best to distribute the limited funds to people and organizations in need.
“These are hard choices in front of us. There are no easy answers. At the end of the day, we have far less revenue than what we did pre-COVID[-19], and so that by itself means that there are going to be financial cuts across the board," Gonzales said.
Bracing for fires
Council members also heard from a contingent of the Austin Fire Department Wildfire Division on Aug. 24, who spoke to the city's work in preparing for the threat of large-scale fires.
Firefighters with the wildfire division touted some of the city's ongoing preparation efforts, including its adoption of fire management systems, community education and regional collaboration. The AFD representatives also warned that wildfires are likely to take place in the future regardless of any local preparation efforts and highlighted improvements to several plans as next steps the city can take.
"Just as firefighters do not stand in the creek bed and hold out our hands and stop a flood, we will not be able to stop an event like this. But we can prepare our community to be better prepared for it. Resilience means being able to take a hit, survive and come back," AFD Capt. Kregg Phillips said.
Among the initiatives the AFD division representatives spoke on were further evacuation planning, interagency coordination and the development of a broader emergency communications system for area residents. Division Chief Carrie Stewart was one of the officials who noted the danger, emotion and chaos that natural disasters and related evacuations can produce, and suggested further training for such events and contingencies as a best practice moving forward.
“If we rely on a plan that we can’t follow, then we don’t really have a plan," Stewart said.
District 10 Council Member Alison Alter, whose district is centered around areas currently identified at elevated to high wildfire risk, also said continued focus on the topic of fire danger is key to community preparedness. Both Alter and firefighters present noted the importance of preparing homes and businesses for fires, staying plugged into relevant community conversations and being aware of public emergency alerts related to such events.
"There’s a lot that we've been doing, but I think it's really important to underscore that fighting wildfire, preventing wildfire, mitigating wildfire is everyone’s fight," Alter said.
Along with county and public safety representatives, Alter and District 6 Council Member Mackenzie Kelly are hosting a virtual town hall on fire preparedness Aug. 25 at 6:30 p.m. The meeting may be accessed here.
Looking back at Uri
Council ended its work session with a presentation from several members of the city's citizen Winter Storm Review Task Force. Convened this year in the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri, the group spent months considering feedback from Austin residents on their experiences during the freeze including their thoughts on the city government's failings and examples of positive takeaways from the crisis. Task force members also shared resident recommendations on how Austin could improve its response to future natural disasters.
The task force's final report is based on input from several public listening sessions and written submissions to the group collected between April and July. The effort produced analysis and suggestions related to 10 topics task force members said were commonly raised by residents.
Topping the list was communications, which task force member Jeffrey Clemmons said was an item raised by an "overwhelming majority" of participants in the group's review process. Input included criticism of the city's use of social media posts and virtual meetings to provide information during the storm given a widespread lack of power and internet service, while alternative phone and radio transmissions were "under-utilized." Clemmons said residents also called out a lack of translated communications for non-English speakers and a lack of information and resources for the elderly and those with disabilities. Following the presentation, Fuentes said the city should examine options for a universal emergency communications system given its importance in various resilience efforts including wildfire and storm planning.
Clemmons and fellow task force members Rebecca Austen and Sareta Davis also ran through resident critiques and proposals on items such as government transparency and a related loss of community trust, access to food and shelter, and the role of community organizations in providing relief. The report was hailed by Mayor Steve Adler as one that entailed a "tremendous amount of work"—including volunteers being on the receiving end of community frustrations—that produced "significant takeaways" for city consideration. Several items raised also prompted council members to share their views on Austin's failures during the event.
"This is one of those times where when we say ‘the city,’ as a private citizen I was also disappointed in my city’s response. And so this is me extending an official apology on behalf of this body, my colleagues included, for what we weren’t able to do as a municipality," Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison said.
The task force's work ran parallel to ongoing internal reviews of the event, and City Manager Spencer Cronk said Austin's own comprehensive after-action report on the storm is expected by late September. He also said several departments are already moving forward on new resilience and disaster response initiatives, which will be further informed by that report.
