Austin City Council voted Aug. 18 to approve the first reading of an ordinance that would increase the amount of time tenants have to find new housing, provide educational resources for displaced tenants and offer a stipend to cover some moving costs. The ordinance was first proposed in November, when council asked city staff to investigate options for tenant relocation assistance. It would require developers to give tenants in multi-family residences at least 120 days’ notice that a demolition or building has been filed and 270 days’ notice for tenants in mobile homes. No one spoke during the public hearing for the proposed ordinance. District 6 Council Member Don Zimmerman voted against the first reading of the ordinance without commenting Aug. 18. He told Community Impact Newspaper in May he opposed the policy because the cost burden would partially fall on residents rather than the city or developers. District 10 Council Member Sheri Gallo abstained from the vote and said the proposed ordinance's price tag—about $1.6 million—should be part of the broader fiscal year 2016-17 budget discussion. Council is expected to vote on the second and third readings of the ordinance in two weeks. Here are other items City Council took up at its meeting Thursday:

• Environmental advocates asked City Council to approve an Austin Resource Recovery rate increase to fund a citywide composting program. Andrew Dobbs, program director for Texas Campaign for the Environment, said more than 18,000 people have signed a petition in favor of the compost program, which would allow Austin citizens to put food waste and tree trimming that would go to a composting facility rather than the landfill. The base charge for both residential and commercial customers is proposed to increase from $13.05 per month in fiscal year 2015-16 to $14.05 per month in FY 2016-17.  Dobbs said Austin needs to implement this program in order to reach its goal of being Zero Waste by 2040. He said if all Austin households were to compost, that would stop 44,000 tons of food waste from being dumped into the landfill each year. The curbside organics collection program launched as a pilot program in 2013, with a few Austin neighborhoods chosen as pilot areas. Austin Resource Recovery will give council a formal budget presentation Aug. 24, and City Council is expected to vote on the budget—and the proposed increase in rates—Sept. 14.
• City Council approved extending the expiration date of a potential ordinance that would address late-night, or non-peak hour, concrete pouring in business and public districts. The new ordinance would allow the delivering, placing or pouring of concrete between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m., or in special circumstances, 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. District 6 Council Member Don Zimmerman voted against extending the expiration date, saying it had been a work in progress for too long and it was unlikely to ever come to fruition. Greg Guernsey, the director of the city’s planning and zoning department, said city staff is close to finalizing the ordinance and has to figure out how best to enforce the ordinance.
• At the request of District 8 Council Member Ellen Troxclair, council voted to approve a resolution that would create a task force responsible for analyzing how the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax, or HOT tax, is used. The tax is collected from hotel guests, and this year, the city of Austin is slated to get more than $90 million in revenue from the HOT tax, the city’s third-largest revenue source.  Right now, the tax is used to fund the Austin Convention Center, the Austin Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and the Cultural Arts Program, but Troxclair wants to look at whether the tax could be used toward other events and facilities that bring visitors to town, like festivals, parks and museums. The task force will be made up of members of the music, special events, technology, parks, arts, public safety and hotel industries.
• City Council held its first public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2016-17 budget and heard several hours of citizen comments. The proposed budget is $3.7 billion, with $969.2 million proposed to come out of the city’s general fund, or primary operating budget.  The proposed budget is a $58 million increase from last fiscal year’s budget. Several children, teachers and parents of Austin ISD asked council—in English and Spanish—to fund after-school programs, and several groups, including Communities of Color United and Undoing Racism Austin asked that City Council freeze or cut the Austin Police Department’s budget.