Flannigan maintaining campaign team

New District 6 City Council Member Jimmy Flannigan plans to maintain an office at City Hall as well as in the northwest Austin district, just like his predecessor, Don Zimmerman. Two of Flannigan’s aides, Marti Bier and Taylor Smith, have served in Council offices before. Bier, who will be Flannigan’s chief of staff, worked for former Council Member Randi Shade, and Smith, who will be a policy aide to Flannigan, had a similar position for recently ousted Council Member Sheri Gallo. Flannigan also hired Ceci Gratias and Kate Messer to head constituent services and communications, respectively. Lizzy Carol will have a part-time role in support of constituent services and communications. In addition, Flannigan will maintain a political team to continue his ongoing “What’s Next” initiative, which is aimed at engaging those who felt discouraged by the results of the presidential election in local issue advocacy. The volunteer team will be headed by political director Dale Webb, along with Melissa Lipscomb as volunteer manager, Ruben Cavazos as outreach manager and Tanya Jogee as communications manager, said Flannigan. “To my knowledge, this is something no other City Council member has done before, so we’re still working out the details,” he said in an email. “So far, more than 150 people have attended my initial organizing meetings since the election and we’re continuing to plan more (tentatively the next one will be in Avery Ranch on January 28th).”