Time away from Council has prepped Tovo for mayoral bid

Having spent nearly two years away from the City Council dais after more than a decade as a Council member, Kathie Tovo said watching as a private citizen as city business has been conducted has given her valuable perspective. From land use to homelessness to the details of the long-in-coming contract with Austin Police Association, as she makes her bid for mayor she has concerns about moves that have been made and details she thinks have been overlooked either willingly or unintentionally.

Aside from major policy decisions, Tovo said the tenor and pace of City Council meetings since her departure as of 2023 have taken a turn toward downplaying the role of public involvement, or even Council members who have questions or differing views from Mayor Kirk Watson and former interim city manager Jesus Garza.

“There has been a concerted effort, certainly during the period of time where the interim city manager was in place, to shut down Council member questions on the dais multiple times. (Watson) had an obligation, in my opinion, to stop that business. Those were Council members who have every right to ask questions. They have every right to raise concerns,” Tovo said, referring to multiple discussions over city contracts she felt were cut short prematurely.

“The mayor’s job is to equip the Council members on that dais to make sure that that meeting is run in such a way that Council members have the ability to lead fearlessly, to represent the needs of their constituents, and to make sure that the public has authentic opportunities, not just to be heard, but to be really listened to,” she said.

Tovo’s stance on housing remains mostly the same from her views during her multiple terms representing downtown’s District 9. She acknowledges the need for more homes to keep up with demand from new residents but said plans and policies that encourage density often aren’t designed to balance considerations like flooding and other environmental effects or the impact on middle- and lower-income residents.

In her view, the HOME and HOME2 initiatives aimed at infill housing were passed without the city trying to take advantage of the entitlements for additional units that were already baked in to existing land use regulations.

“What we still haven’t been able do, though, is have a genuine, thoughtful, productive conversation about who the housing is serving. The market is not going to produce truly affordable housing at the levels we really need it without more solid provisions that require that,” she said. She pointed toward what she interpreted as an increase in demolition permits since the HOME packages were passed.

One of Tovo’s first housing-related priorities if she is elected would be pursuing regulations and comprehensive licensing of short-term rental units, which she said could increase substantially as property owners start to take advantage of the ability to have up to three dwellings on a lot. Along with navigating existing and still-evolving state laws on STR regulations by cities, Tovo said she’d push for an equity overlay in areas at risk of displacement that would include measures to prevent displacement due to market forces including STRs.

She also wants to reboot action taken during her time on Council to create a loan program to help lower-income property owners construct accessory dwelling units.

“The question should be posed to staff, this was something that you were directed to do several years ago: what work has been done on it? Getting that loan program in place could be very meaningful and would allow our low- and moderate-income property owners to construct an ADU on their property,” she said.

“What the mayor and Council passed with regard to HOME One is primarily going to benefit investors,” she said.

As Council moves toward debating the police contract, Tovo said she’s concerned about the considerations for public oversight of Austin Police Department and information regarding complaints made against officers.

“I see very general statements from the city and the city manager that do not answer that question. It’s just a fundamental question,” she said regarding the fate of the G file and personnel documentation on hand prior to the contract’s expected passage.

With city finances forecast to run into a deficit within the next five years in part due to the state’s annual cap on property tax increases, Tovo said the question of holding a tax rate election to generate more revenue for the city is inevitable, though she would prefer to avoid asking voters to approve higher taxes. Instead, she’d support looking at programs throughout the city related to issues such as homelessness that haven’t been successful – and restructure or eliminate them to save money.

“We should work in all areas, whether we’re talking about climate investments, investments in homelessness, investments in our police force, the mayor and the City Council should work as hard as they can to avoid raising people’s taxes,” she said, acknowledging that climate issues, homelessness and public safety are three of the most likely needs to be connected in any tax rate election.

“I will seek all kinds of other revenue opportunities and budget cuts that don’t involve city staff before I go out and ask the voters in the city to increase their taxes,” she said. “I just think it’s a really challenging time from the city’s perspective.”

Regarding homelessness, Tovo said the move to keep the Marshalling Yard Emergency Shelter open beyond its planned closure in early 2025 shows a lack of long-term planning by Watson and the Council. While she believes emergency shelter needs to be part of the system for stabilizing those experiencing homelessness, more resources are needed for prevention and supportive services that can have more positive results at lower costs.

“This is not the system that we’ve been working to create in Austin, which is one where we invest in preventing homelessness, we invest in emergency shelter, we invest in transitional housing, we invest in permanent housing. And along the way, we have those services that help people be successful at every place in that system,” she said.

“There was a lot of collaboration between several Council members and support for the private fundraising effort. That needs to be a priority. The city of Austin is never going to be able to make homelessness brief, rare and non-reoccurring on its own. … We need the private sector to be a participant in this. That is a major focus the mayor has to lead on.”

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Posted In: Elections, District 9