Our history of growth and change, and our future of growth and change, is really why I ran for City Council in the first place back in 2005, and it's why I'm running for reelection. Our great challenge as a community - and as a Council - is to manage our growth and change such that we protect and preserve the things that we all love about Austin – our natural environment, our neighborhoods, our businesses, and our essential character.
My primary focus on the City Council over the last three years has been on exactly these issue, especially environmental protection, public safety, social services, transportation, and on ensuring transparent, accountable government.
The highlights on environmental protection include the effort I led to implement an aggressive citywide water conservation plan that will cut water leaks by at least one-third, save rate-payers money, and delay the construction of a new treatment plant by at least three years (I also led the effort to plan for a new water treatment plant away from an environmentally sensitive site near the headwaters of Bull Creek). I led the effort to implement the nation's first ban on coal tar surface sealants in Austin, which will improve water quality and the aquatic health of our streams and creeks by keeping dangerous toxins out.
I also worked over a period of more than a year with a diverse group of community leaders to revise our city's land development code in southwest Austin to help clean up existing developments that are polluting our aquifer and the Barton Springs watershed, preserve more land as permanent open space, and permit older developed sites to be modernized and prevent sprawl beyond the city's jurisdiction. Finally, I led the effort to dramatically reduce the number of plastic bags entering Austin landfills, to recycle more plastic bags, and to get more Austinites to take reusable bags to the grocery store.
In the area of public safety, my main focus has been leading the initiative to consolidate all City police groups - the Austin Police Department, Parks Police, Airport Police, and City Marshals - with uniform standards for hiring, promotion, training, and operations for every City employee who carries a gun and enforces the law. During my time on Council, I also led the effort to conduct an independent assessment of public safety services in the city, with input from the City Auditor, public safety departments, and the three Austin public safety unions.
On the social services front, I worked to expand mental health care services in our community, and to create a new "ombudsman" program for assisting returning U.S. veterans in Austin, who in my view have been treated disgracefully by our current federal administration. I have also worked hard through each of the three budget cycles I've been a part of to deliver increased funding for our network of partner social service agencies in Austin, who help provide critical services to so many people and families in our community who need a helping hand to get by. I currently serve as Chair of the Council subcommittee for Public Health and Human Services.
During my term, I also served as a Board Member of Capital Metro. My work there focused primarily on trying to resolve ongoing labor conflicts in order to allow the agency and its employees do the job of helping solve our community's worsening traffic crisis and deliver a regional transportation system that alleviates congestion.
Finally, I've led several initiatives to help make City Hall more open and transparent. I've been working with City staff to redesign and relaunch the city's website to make more information available, relevant, and usable for citizens online; that process is underway right now. I also led the way a lobbying reform initiative to make the City's business more fair and open, and prohibit prospective contractors and vendors from lobbying City Council members and city officials during the city's procurement process.
I led the effort to reform our economic development policies to ensure that the process for validating economic development agreement performance requirements is transparent (it would also disallow economic incentives for future retail projects). Lastly, I've worked closely with Council Member Mike Martinez on the effort to amend the City Charter to achieve a better balance of power between the City Council and the City Manager. This included a successful proposal to allow the voters to expand the powers and the City Auditor, and an (unfortunately) unsuccessful proposal to allow Austin voters to decide whether the City Attorney should report directly to the City Council rather than the City Manager.
On some of the other "hot button" issues that came up during my term that I know people are interested in: I voted against the forgivable loan for Las Manitas restaurant; as noted above, I led the effort to stop construction of Water Treatment Plant 4 at Bull Creek and find a new site, which has now been done; I supported an ordinance requiring big-box retail projects to go through a new conditional use approval process; I supported building a new animal shelter but also supported keeping an adoption center downtown; and I supported giving Austin citizens the chance to vote on single-member districts, or a mixed system of representation. I have also voted to reduce our tax rate every year that I have been in office.
If I'm re-elected, I'll continue to focus on the big issues that I've been working on over the last three years - environmental protection, public health and safety, and open government - as well as other issues that are important to Austin.
Specifically, I want to significantly expand the city's recycling programs and move us forward toward our important long-term goal of zero waste. I also want to work to execute on the ambitious Austin Climate Protection Plan, which I was proud to co-sponsor with Mayor Will Wynn.
In a second term, I'll also focus on ensuring that we are protecting our neighborhoods and our community's fundamental character by holding the line on Capitol view corridors and the Lady Bird Lake overlay, and preventing the demolition of historic homes and structures in our neighborhoods and citywide.
In fact, I was one of the first Council Members to pledge unequivocal support of the Town Lake Overlay, and I'll obviously stand by that pledge in a second term. And, I've recently begun work on a "demolition by neglect" ordinance that is designed to protect historic structures by penalizing property owners who deliberately fail to maintain an old structure to the point where it deteriorates into an unsalvageable state.
If re-elected, I'll also continue to focus on our big transportation challenges by prioritizing funding for road and sidewalk construction and maintenance, and by promoting mass transit solutions including improved bus service and a passenger rail system, which I believe we desperately need.
Finally, I'll keep working to grow our local economy in a sustainable fashion by attracting the right kinds of employers - especially renewable energy, health sciences and digital entertainment companies - and by helping our local entrepreneurs and their businesses succeed by delivering reliable, affordable city services and a stable regulatory environment.
I ask for your vote for re-election on May 10.
