Pool reflects on housing and environmental progress as she closes 10 years on Council

Leslie Pool faced something of a quandary nearly two years ago, when she considered running for the office of tax assessor-collector for Travis County. Knowing that her time as a City Council member would expire in 2024, she saw the county post as an opportunity to further extend her role in public and an opportunity to serve in a different way.

But she opted out of the potential move into the assessor’s role, in a race that was ultimately won by Celia Israel, because she wanted to help lead City Council on the passage of housing reform she saw as essential to help the city recover from the shock of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“If I had left, I would have had to resign my seat, and I would have missed all of it,” she said in a nod to the passage in late 2023 and early 2024 of the two HOME policy packages that were aimed at increasing housing density.

“None of what I did in the last two years … I wouldn’t have been there for any of it, because I would have had to resign my seat and I would have missed all of it. It was important for me to bring a number of important initiatives to a head and to get some finality on them,” she said.

The HOME initiatives marked a dramatic change in Austin’s approach to land development and housing density. Many saw Pool, who served as mayor pro tem in 2024, leading on a pair of pro-density initiatives as a big pivot in her approach to housing. She said that characterization was “not entirely accurate,” and that the rent increases and other economic pressures seen in the aftermath of the pandemic made it apparent the city had to prioritize lower-cost housing.

“The pandemic hit and changed almost everything about how the city lived and worked. And when we came back from that with the new dais in January after the 2022 election I could see that we needed to have a different approach,” she said. “If I wanted to make a difference and to lead, I felt it was incumbent on me as someone who was the longest-serving Council member, I needed to reflect the direction that our city was poised to head in.”

Looking back on the past year, Pool said other actions that stand out are the passage of the new contract with Austin Police Association, and the adoption of the Water Forward Plan and other infrastructure efforts.

“We had been working for years to have (Water Forward) fully implemented and we finally did that, including some big support votes to expand our infrastructure for our water treatment plants around the city,” she said. “And then, of course, finalizing the update to the Austin Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan with Austin Energy. And again, chairing that oversight committee for Austin Energy was a big project with a big lift.”

Along with her focus on environmental matters, Pool said the work she did as an incoming member of the new 10-1 Council format in 2015 will likely resonate quietly because of the role she and the other new members had in redesigning city processes and practices.

“As a member of the 10-1 Council, I was on the ground floor creating new procedures and accommodating the change to our governance. That story really hasn’t been fully written or really written, but we did a lot, my colleagues and I, in the first few years to get the city organized in a way to accommodate the larger Council and to steer the city through massive growth,” she said. “The inflection points that we had were things like the pandemic, the police contract issues and the way that our focus on homelessness expanded.”

With her time on the dais at an end, Pool still sees big questions and responsibilities ahead for the Council that will include three new members when it convenes in January. Among those will be making decisions about at least one bond proposal that will head to voters by 2026, with a total city budget staff have said should not exceed $600 million.

“The citizen bond committee and the work ahead of them is important, and I hope that the members of that board listen to what our financial officers are saying about the city’s bonding capacity,” she said. “We are bumping up against the limit of that, and we need to be very mindful and not overextend past what our budget and finance staff have said we could spend. There was some interest in pushing out (a proposal for) $60 million in 2025, which strikes me as out of sync with what our CFO is recommending. I’ve been arguing for us to get back on the six-year cycle.”

Asked if there’s a different elected office or public service role she sees as a next step, Pool said she plans to wait for roughly a year before making any decisions about what’s next.

“I’m deliberately not planning anything. It feels good to reflect back on the accomplishments of the Council over the 10 years. I haven’t fully comprehended it all, to be honest,” she said. “I’m giving myself the space to think it over and reflect. And at this point, my main feeling is one of appreciation and gratitude.”

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Posted In: City Council, District 7