Mayor Kirk Watson slows timing for climate bond election

City Council members have been taking sides on the City Council Message Board over competing timelines for a climate bond election, and on Wednesday the proposal for a longer lead-up was left standing.

The back-and-forth on the message board – the city platform Council members use to communicate with one another without violating open meetings laws – began June 28, when Mayor Kirk Watson posted his preference for taking a “methodical approach to a model climate program … including a climate bond election as one component.” Such an election, he said, “should occur no later than November of 2026.”

The following Monday, July 1, Council Member Ryan Alter responded in a separate thread, stating his intention of bringing a resolution for the July 18 agenda that would include a directive for a 2024 climate bond election.

“To argue we must delay for even more talking about the problem or studies of potential solutions does not meet the urgency of the moment,” Alter wrote.

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes echoed the arguments for a bond election this year, citing the tragic flooding that occurred in her District 2 in 2013 and 2015 as an example of why the matter is too urgent to wait.

“Further delaying comprehensive climate action will only lead to more displaced families, uprooted lives, and destroyed communities,” she wrote. Alter told the Austin Monitor that Council members José Velásquez and Alison Alter had also signed on with his proposal.

The next day, July 2, Watson returned serve. He posted a resolution (and a request for co-sponsors) calling for a longer timeline for building a comprehensive bond package that would address climate, infrastructure and other public improvements. He did not have to wait long for co-sponsors. Council Member Chito Vela signed on first, followed by Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool, then Council Members Zo Qadri and Natasha Harper-Madison.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Ryan Alter responded – this time asking to be added as a co-sponsor to Watson’s resolution. Velásquez soon followed.

While Alter may have retreated on arguing for a bond election this year, he said he was pleased that Council was amenable to at least talking about holding an election.

“I am encouraged that this conversation, which had not been mentioned in future bond discussions, is now taking such a prominent role,” he wrote.

Alter initiated discussion of a bond election in February when he brought forward his resolution for a climate investment plan to determine how to finance the city’s many ongoing environmental projects and climate-related resolutions.

USDA photo by Bob Nichols.

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