Leslie Pool launches into the final year of a busy decade

Leslie Pool’s ninth year on City Council has been a productive and busy one. She recalls that she started out 2023 with the intention of helping her newly elected colleagues learn the ropes and accomplish their goals. For Ryan Alter,…

City Hall • By Jo Clifton • Jan 4, 2024

In 2024, Paige Ellis will focus on her two main loves: mobility improvements and parks

The past year has been a busy one for City Council Member Paige Ellis, who served as mayor pro tem throughout 2023. She described the extra duties of the position as “a great experience.” Noting that Mayor Kirk Watson is…

City Hall • By Jo Clifton • Jan 4, 2024

Ryan Alter reflects on 'tangible results' of his first year in office

When Council Member Ryan Alter was running for office in 2022, he stressed the need for housing affordability, specifically rejecting the slow approach favored by his predecessor. When he came into office in January, he began to work on that…

City Hall • By Jo Clifton • Jan 3, 2024

Mackenzie Kelly seeks common ground while pursuing public safety, housing goals in 2024

The photo above the light switch in City Council Member Mackenzie Kelly’s office captures her slim 4 percent win in the 2020 election for the District 6 seat. It serves as a reminder that she works for the 48 percent…

City Hall • By Chad Swiatecki • Jan 3, 2024

County Judge Brown to focus on diversion center, passenger rail in 2024

In January, Travis County Judge Andy Brown told the Austin Monitor that he intended to double down on overdose prevention efforts and the county’s work to build a mental health diversion center to help more people in crisis avoid jail…

Travis County • By Nina Hernandez • Jan 2, 2024

Watson expects City Hall ‘shakeup’ to continue in 2024, with police contract a priority

Mayor Kirk Watson says he didn’t see the widespread shutdown of city services during the February ice storm as an opening to drastically restructure how the city government is organized. But he did take it as confirmation that it was…

City Hall • By Chad Swiatecki • Jan 2, 2024

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A look back: Austin’s year in review

With 2023 drawing to a close, it’s time to look back on the local headlines that dominated the news before looking forward to the year ahead. Happy News Year! New city management This year saw a strange kind of sea…

Austin • By Austin Monitor • Dec 29, 2023

After hiatus, Harper-Madison puts focus on wellness, community involvement

Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison speaks plainly about the burnout and fatigue she was facing for much of 2023, which led to her decision in September to take a nearly two-month leave of absence from her seat on City Council. A…

City Hall • By Chad Swiatecki • Dec 28, 2023

Fuentes spent 2023 on program implementation

City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes continued her focus on working families and delivering community-focused policies in 2023, bringing forward 19 items and co-sponsoring another 80 resolutions. “We’ve been very active and collaborative with my colleagues on the dais,” Fuentes told…

City Council • By Nina Hernandez • Dec 28, 2023

D3’s Velásquez says: ‘We’re doing exactly what we set out to do’

For District 3 City Council Member José Velásquez, this past year’s theme was accessibility and constituent relations. “We’re doing exactly what we set out to do, which was make the office as accessible as possible and make the person sitting…

City Council • By Nina Hernandez • Dec 27, 2023

Vela: Austin may have country's most progressive housing policy

Chito Vela has had no sophomore slump in 2023. In his second year, the District 4 City Council member has ushered in a new regimen of land use policies tackling Austin’s housing crisis at breakneck speed. “We were in a…

City Hall • By Kali Bramble • Dec 27, 2023

Report: APD investigated 47 out of 689 complaints against its officers

Austinites voted overwhelmingly last year to expand the Office of Police Oversight’s authority. Implementing the Austin Police Oversight Act, however, has proven challenging. The office recently faced criticism from the Public Safety Commission over its lack of progress on this…

Police • By Emma Freer • Dec 22, 2023

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