Austin’s Ethics Review Commission opted last week not to advance a complaint filed by Tiffany Washington against Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison, ending a months-long process over allegations that Harper-Madison violated multiple provisions of the city’s ethics code. The complaint, filed in two parts earlier this year by Tiffany Washington, accused Harper-Madison of violating five sections […]
Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison
Posted inCity Council
Natasha Harper-Madison looks forward to planning progress for her district
With two years left on her term of office, Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison is looking forward to helping move the Northeast Planning District toward the bright future she envisions for it. That’s “really at the top of my list” of what she wants to work on in 2025, she told the Austin Monitor. Work on […]
Posted inCity Hall
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 deterioration in sleep patterns, eating habits and her general state of mind was accompanied by […]
Posted inCity Council
Austin City Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison takes temporary leave to address mental health
Austin City Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison will temporarily step away from her position to address her mental health, she announced Monday. “This year has been extremely challenging for me,” she said. “I live with depression and anxiety. Thankfully these issues can be treated with focused care.” Her leave is effective immediately and will last 60 days. […]
Posted inCity Council
$9.1M emergency homeless shelter at the Marshalling Yard expected to open by end of August
City Council on Thursday approved a proposal to operate a $9.1 million temporary emergency homeless shelter at the Marshalling Yard, a city-owned facility located near the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The move comes as Austin sees 10 straight days of temperatures reaching 105 degrees or higher, creating urgency for Council members worried about the serious health […]
Posted inCity Council
Harper-Madison looks to spark D1 civic involvement in 2023
After completing her fourth year in office, City Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison wishes she’d known from her first day roughly as much as she knows now about the workings of city government. Her thinking: There should be an apparatus that teaches basic process and procedures to residents who want to know more about their city, […]
Posted inPublic Health
Harper-Madison looking for improved help during heat emergencies
Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison expressed concern on the City Council Message Board this week about “how the city is addressing the stability of our electrical grid, local outages,” and the impact that has on “marginalized communities at the greatest risk of heat-related illness or death.” She said her concerns arose from a situation with two […]
Posted inPolice
APD making headway toward academy reforms, but still a work in progress
The Austin Police Department is well on its way toward implementing recommended changes to its training academy, according to a presentation Monday from consulting firm Kroll Associates. APD has enacted nearly all of the short-term recommendations and just under half of the long-term recommendations outlined in Kroll’s April 2021 report on the academy’s teaching methods, […]
Posted inPlanning
Council endorses changes to East 11th and 12th street development regulations
Before a troubled history of urban renewal and disinvestment led the city to declare the areas blighted, 11th and 12th streets were once thriving corridors in East Austin’s Black community. Now, the city is shepherding land use changes along the streets to help create a more vibrant, walkable neighborhood. City Council gave initial approval on […]
Posted inCity Council
Natasha Harper-Madison’s focus in 2022? ‘Housing, housing, housing’
Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison’s tenure on City Council has been marked by crisis. Elected in November 2018 as the District 1 representative, Harper-Madison barely had a year in office before Covid-19 struck. “What a time to have your first term in public office!” she noted. Though the pandemic has persisted into the last year […]
Posted inCity Council
Black leaders say Austin’s list of proposed sites for homeless camps is inequitable
Black leaders in Austin called the city’s list of proposed sites for public encampments inequitable and criticized staffers for placing most of the locations east of Interstate 35. The group on Monday called for a revision of the plan, which is less than a week old, at a news conference hosted by the Black Leaders […]
Posted inCity Hall
Ethics commissioners dismiss complaint against Harper-Madison
An ethics complaint against Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison was automatically dismissed Wednesday, May 12, after the Ethics Review Commission failed to reach a majority six votes on a motion to postpone or a separate motion to dismiss. The latter motion included an opportunity for the complainant, Olivia Overturf, to resubmit an amended complaint by […]