Photos by Amy Denney and Lyndsey[/caption]

City of Austin leadership changed hands Jan. 6 as new City Council members were sworn in, giving North and Northwest Austin four representative voices on the dais in districts 4, 6, 7 and 10.

“With all of the City Council [members] recently living north of the river and south of 45th Street, there are large parts of the city that have felt disengaged and uninvolved because they’ve been disengaged and uninvolved,” new Mayor Steve Adler said Jan. 5.

“I think there are lots of different voices and perspectives in this city, and I think we will be stronger when those voices and communities and new leaders are sitting at that council table together for the first time.”

The historic change in 2015 to 10 geographic single-member districts is designed to improve representation of residents citywide, but new council members understand the work is just getting started.

“Something I consistently said on the campaign trail was that 10-1 is a great opportunity for more voices to get heard, but it’s certainly not a guarantee of it,” District 4 Councilman Greg Casar said.

Council operations

Uniting council members on common ideas has already allowed the new council to move forward. On Jan. 8, Adler unveiled proposed changes to how the new council would operate.

The structure resembles the committee model used in the Texas Legislature. It was developed with the goals of hosting shorter meetings, creating more citizen engagement earlier in the process of creating an ordinance or resolution, allowing for more transparency and delivering better customer service to Austinites.

Instead of public meetings taking place prior to City Council votes on an ordinance or resolution, those meetings will now occur in front of a Committee of Council made up of four council members while the item is still being shaped. A decision on which council members would sit on each of the 13 committees could be determined as early as Jan. 29.

Having public hearings earlier in the process will allow for better public input to shape policies instead of the public testifying to council members who have already made a decision on the issue, Adler said.

The new structure will also allow for Committees of Council to do “deep dives” on topics so the best solution is put into law instead of council having to revisit an issue every few months, Adler said. The process for how the deep dives would work has not yet been formalized.

“I hope this council can join together to propose a new way of doing governance that enhances community participation, makes deliberation more thoughtful, … more long term, more proactive,” Adler said.

The Committees of Council will likely meet in the evenings to allow working Austinites a chance to have their voice be heard at public hearings without interfering with their work schedules, said Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo, who represents District 9 and is the only incumbent council member.

Late-night meetings that became common for the previous council are roadblocks to public participation, District 6 Councilman Don Zimmerman said.

“That’s how you kill civic participation: Ask somebody to wait eight hours to talk for three minutes,” he said. “What good is your three minutes doing? Most council members have already decided how they’re going to vote before they walk in.”

He said having committees should allow council members to get more information and make better-informed decisions. As an example, he cited the defeat of the urban rail bond Nov. 4 by voters even though the previous City Council supported it unanimously. Zimmerman said there was a lack of diverse opinions because council members were only given the benefits of urban rail.

“I think that’s what’s been happening,” he said. “The responsibility lies with the city manager and one-sided information being fed to council.”

District 7 Councilwoman Leslie Pool said having council members sit on committees would reduce time spent vetting issues during meetings, she said. City Council committees include public health and human services, economic incentive, judicial and Austin Energy oversight.

“We would all be working in tandem, developing information and then bringing it to council for a decision,” she said. “That doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be any public hearings at council meetings, but we are going to try to reduce the amount of time [the council meetings take].”

Committees, Pool said, could also be restructured, such as adding one for Austin Water Utility and splitting the Audit and Finance Committee in two committees.

District 10 Councilwoman Sheri Gallo said addressing the structure of council meetings would ensure the public could feasibly be part of the discussion and decision-making process.

“We’re going to manage the agenda differently,” Gallo said. “We’re not reducing the workload, but we’re spreading it out to different days so that the timing can be better structured. … We don’t feel like we’re tied to the old way of doing things at all.”

Common ground

All four council members in Northwest Austin will serve two-year terms and will likely form alliances on common issues given they share boundaries.

Affordability, land use and development, such as projects along Bull Creek Road, affect both districts 7 and 10, Pool said.

Gallo said mobility on roadways such as MoPac, Loop 360 and US 183 is an important topic for District 10. Although there has been opposition to building new roads in the past, Gallo said many Northwest Austin residents in District 10 now support new roads because many drivers take alternative routes through their neighborhoods.

“The traffic is here; it’s not going away,” she said. “I don’t know that it will ever get better, but we can certainly keep it from getting worse by continuing to build roadways.”

A small way to help mitigate traffic could be to increase the city’s attention to synchronizing traffic lights, Gallo said.

Zimmerman said traffic gridlock is arguably the No. 1 issue affecting District 6, which includes areas surrounding RM 620. Increased development along that corridor has only made traffic congestion worse. He plans to work with the Texas Department of Transportation and Travis and Williamson counties to spur road construction.

“The idea I’ve been talking about—an outer loop that is not tolled like we have in other cities—I think is going to gain some traction in the suburban districts, which is the majority of the districts now,” he said. “… The traffic is a problem everywhere. I’m hopeful we can come to an agreement everywhere. Those are my early ambitions.”

Demographically, Casar said District 4 shares the economically and culturally diverse character found in district 1–3. However, he said districts 4 and 7 have common issues such as ensuring access to affordable housing for all income levels.

“Policies on quality of life and on social equity and prosperity being shared are going to be the cornerstone of whatever work I do,” Casar said.

Casar said he also understands the need to inform his constituents of what City Council can do for them. The lack of knowledge of city government was reinforced during his campaign. Casar—and some other council members—plans to host town hall meetings in his district and forge relationships with civic groups and nonprofits that work with minorities to ensure more voices are represented.

“There were a lot of people who did not trust the city,” he said. “I don’t know how you get over that hump yet, but I think it’s got to start with being accessible and transparent. I hope having their own representative will put a face to it.”

Additional reporting by Jennifer Curington