Council members form ‘cabinets’

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Council Member Ann Kitchen mentioned that she had a “cabinet meeting” in the afternoon. Wondering what that meant, the Austin Monitor asked Kitchen’s aide, Ken Craig. Craig said that since the Covid-19 crisis sent everyone home from City Hall, staff members were not available to meet with Council members in their offices, as they have been in the past. In addition, the staffers are all incredibly busy with different aspects of the Covid-19 crisis. So in response, some Council members have put together informal committees, interest groups that have two or three Council members on them, that meet with staff (presumably by Zoom) to discuss various policy issues. Topics to date of these cabinet meetings include social services, economic recovery, legislative affairs, and the fiscal health of businesses and individuals.

This has been corrected.