recommended that council delay the bond<\/a> until 2028 so the city can comply with its own financial policies.\u00a0<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Supporters, including Council Members Mike Siegel and Chito Vela, pointed to long-term benefits such as avoiding costly maintenance repairs and providing public amenities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bond includes infrastructure improvements at sites including Zilker Metropolitan Park, Williamson Creek Trail, Evergreen Cemetery, Onion Creek All Abilities Playground, Springwoods Park, St. Edwards Greenbelt Trail & Park, Commons Ford shoreline and Mount Bonnell.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It also would finance playscape, restroom and other upgrades at several neighborhood and district parks.<\/p>\n
A portion of the bond also would go toward acquiring new parkland and to fund renovations or replacements at four city pools: Garrison Municipal Pool, Big Stacy Neighborhood Pool, Walnut Creek Municipal Pool and Civitan Neighborhood Pool.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
The library portion of the bond would fund renovations and expansions at Hampton Branch at Oak Hill Library and Colony Park Branch Library.<\/p>\n
Rewrite City Hall rules?<\/p>\n
Austin voters will also decide this November whether to change the city\u2019s charter on issues including clarification on the role of the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, rules around ordinances and council meeting times and whether to give council the power to hire and fire the city attorney. An independent citizen-led petition requiring regular audits of city spending will also appear on the ballot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Charter amendments, approved July 30, include:<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Deleting language requiring the council to meet at least once each week
\nDeleting language requiring the council to adopt its rules by ordinance
\nClarifying the term \u201celection\u201d and requiring campaign contribution and expenditure limits to be adjusted annually by Jan. 1, rather than during budget adoption
\nRequiring initiative elections and petitioned charter elections to be held on the next available November election date in an even-numbered year that provides enough time to comply with state law
\nGiving the council the power to hire and fire the city attorney
\nMaking non-substantive corrections to typographical errors, punctuation and sentence structure, and removing language that is moot or unenforceable because it has been superseded by state law or the courts<\/p>\n
The council also approved an amendment last week clarifying that the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission operates independent of council control.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Council Member Ryan Alter also successfully amended the proposal to correct a drafting error in the charter and allow college students to serve on the redistricting commission after hearing from a University of Texas at Austin student during public comment last Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A contentious proposal to raise the number of petition signatures needed to recall a council member to 15% of registered voters in a council district failed last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Watson successfully amended the motion to lower the percentage back to its original 10% with minor wording changes. Still, the motion failed 7-4 with only Watson and Council Members\u00a0Vel\u00e1squez, Duchen and Paige Ellis voting in favor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison was the only council member on the dais who publicly supported the full 15% increase, citing concerns about racial attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t want future-facing Black political power to be at risk because we have low voter turnout, and the people who would find nefarious purposes use this tool to recall a Black council member for no other reason, except that they are a Black council members concerns me,\u201d Harper-Madison said at the July 30 meeting.<\/p>\n
Council election incoming<\/p>\n
Five of the 10 council seats are up for election in Districts 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Incumbents\u00a0Vel\u00e1squez, Alter, Ellis and Zo Qadri are seeking reelection. District 1 will elect a new council member because Harper-Madison is term-limited after her second and final term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Downtown Austin skyline, seen from the Butler Hike and Bike Trail, June 17, 2026. Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,8002],"class_list":["post-401637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}