The Monitor and its parent organization, the Capital of Texas Media Foundation, are committed to making local government in Central Texas easier to understand. Here, you’ll find a growing list of tools designed to better enable your interactions with your government.
Get Involved!
Register to Vote
Instructions from the Travis County Tax Office about how you can register to vote.
Listings for Council Offices
Here is how to get in touch with your Council member and his or her staff.
Searchable glossary of terms and concepts
A list of sometimes-unfamiliar terms frequently employed by the Monitor, city staff and Council members.
The Austin Monitor's 2015 Year in Review
Our look back at the year that was. This section includes interviews with every Austin City Council member and Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt, plus Monitor perspectives on 2015.
Data!
Searchable Commissions Database
Curious about who serves on which city of Austin advisory board and who put them there? Peruse our Boards and Commissions Database to find out!
Lobbyist Listings
We've embedded the city of Austin's online listing of registered lobbyists here.
Vote tracking
Here is where we'll put breakdowns of votes on key issues. For now, we've just got a look at the series of votes that led to the November 2015 passage of a loosening of accessory dwelling unit restrictions in the city of Austin, and a look at the December 17, 2015 TNC vote.
Austin Monitor Story Map
We've built a map of all of the Monitor stories from the past two years. This is a way for you to really see all the news that's happening around you. This project is made possible through a grant from the Institute for Nonprofit News as the administrator of the INNovation fund, on behalf of the James S. and John L. Knight Foundation and the Democracy Fund.
AMANDA – COMING SOON
We've taken the city of Austin's AMANDA database, added a bit of searchability and placed it on an interactive map. We think this will make it much easier to figure out trends in permitting across the city. Funding for the public information request that returned the data for this project was provided by the office of then-Council Member Bill Spelman.
Future Data
Your Monitor team is hard at work thinking of other interesting data tools. Got an idea you'd like us to try? Give us an email.
Upcoming Events
- Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, July 15 | 9:00am - Arts Commission
Monday, July 21 | 5:30pm - Planning Commission
Tuesday, July 22 | 6:00pm
Latest Articles
- Bond task force sees timelines, budget constraints for possible elections in 2025 and 2026
Friday, December 20 - Neighbors join forces to halt plans for new office space in Pecan Springs-Springdale
Friday, December 20 - How Austin ISD is lowering its chronic absenteeism rate, which more than doubled during the pandemic
Thursday, December 19
