Newsletter Signup
The Austin Monitor thanks its sponsors. Become one.
Most Popular Stories
- Firefighters to seek firing of Chief Baker
- Office slowdown sparks new downtown housing ambitions
- City leaders evaluate surprising ideas for water conservation
- Downtown Historic Resource Survey eyes seven new districts eligible for designation
- With cap of $687M, bond task force to weigh $4.4B in city needs
-
-
Discover News By District
-
Popular Whispers
Sorry. No data so far.
City Hall
Commissioners ponder putting millions into jail revamp
If the Sheriff’s Office gets its budget request granted, inmates in Travis County correctional facilities may soon be sporting radio-frequency identification wristbands to track their whereabouts within the jail at all times. According to the Sheriff’s Office, it intends to…
Budget • By Seth Smalley • Aug 23, 2021
Committee accepts critical city hiring audit
Members of the City Council Audit & Finance Committee delved into details of the city recruiting and hiring audit at yesterday’s meeting, questioning both the audit staff and Human Resources Director Joya Hayes. As noted in Wednesday’s Austin Monitor, only…
City Hall • By Jo Clifton • Aug 20, 2021
City not tracking its interlocal agreements
The city of Austin has entered into a multitude of interlocal agreements, with Travis County, local school districts and even the state of Texas, worth millions of dollars. Yet no one at the city knows exactly how many of these…
City Hall • By Jo Clifton • Aug 19, 2021
Questions linger on both sides of $1.1M guaranteed income pilot program
Initial details of the city’s forthcoming pilot program to provide guaranteed income assistance to vulnerable families are expected to emerge later this fall, with just over 100 households expected to receive around $1,000 per month. A spokesperson for the city’s…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Aug 19, 2021
Audit: City failing to hire equal numbers of women
While the city has achieved its overall goal of hiring racial and ethnic minorities in numbers equal to the local population, only 39 percent of Austin’s Municipal Civil Service workforce are women, compared to 50 percent of the Austin-Round Rock…
City Hall • By Jo Clifton • Aug 18, 2021
Commissioners approve the creation of Emergency Services jobs
At Tuesday’s meeting of the Commissioners Court, county budget chief Travis Gatlin delivered updates about the 2022 budget and made specific requests to finance staff positions from the 2021 budget. Additional budget hearings will continue later this week, where the court…
Budget • By Seth Smalley • Aug 18, 2021
Subscribe to our newsletter
Austin moves forward with new vaccine incentives for city employees
A plan to pay vaccinated city employees a $100 stipend has been scrapped in favor of a new incentive program for those who work for the city. The incentives, Mayor Steve Adler explained, are designed to promote vaccinations and to…
City Hall • By Elizabeth Pagano • Aug 17, 2021
Council funds guaranteed income pilot program
Joining the ranks of a handful of other cities interested in adopting some form of ongoing assistance for low-income residents, Austin has committed more than $1 million to study the creation of a guaranteed income program for the city’s most vulnerable…
Budget • By Chad Swiatecki • Aug 16, 2021
Austin passes $4.5 billion budget, increases police budget per state law
Austin city leaders approved a new budget that boosts spending on policing and puts dollars toward public transit planning and housing. All told, City Council members OK’d a $4.5 billion budget Thursday evening, representing a 7 percent increase over the…
Budget • By Audrey McGlinchy, KUT • Aug 13, 2021
EDD provides a breakdown of federal funds under its purview
While the Covid-19 pandemic has posed a host of unprecedented challenges for the city, it’s also led to an influx of federal funds under the American Rescue Plan Act. A recent breakdown of these dollars shows how the portion of…
Austin • By Amy Smith • Aug 13, 2021
Animal commission asks Council to make changes at city-run shelter
The Animal Advisory Commission voted Monday to ask City Council to immediately implement a set of recommendations to alleviate logjams at the Austin Animal Center in an attempt to ward off the specter of animals being euthanized as a management…
Austin • By Amy Smith • Aug 11, 2021
Last year Austin cut its police budget by millions. A new state law means it'll likely reverse that move this week.
The same day Austin City Council members voted to reduce the police budget by roughly $150 million, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pledged to make it so cities could never do it again. “Austin’s decision puts the brave men and women of the…
