The Austin Monitor thanks its sponsors. Become one.
City Council
Austin law requires job seekers with criminal pasts get a fair shot. But it's not being enforced.
When Lauren Johnson started job hunting in the early 1990s, she walked from business to business, filling out applications by hand. “It’ll be so much easier someday when this is all computerized,” she remembers thinking. Two decades later, job applications…
City Council • By Audrey McGlinchy, KUT • Mar 8, 2018
Council extends paid sick leave to city's temporary employees
On Thursday, City Council made good on its promise to apply the same sick leave requirement to city government that it voted two weeks ago to impose on private employers. In a 9-2 vote, Council approved a resolution directing city staff…
City Council • By Jack Craver • Mar 2, 2018
Council buys local on computer training contract
City Council rejected the advice of city staff and awarded a technology training contract to a local group over a national nonprofit that only recently arrived in Austin. Staff had recommended that the city contract with Community Technology Network to…
City Council • By Jack Craver • Mar 2, 2018
Council to vote on extending paid sick leave to all city employees
Two weeks after approving an ordinance that will require private employers to provide paid sick leave, City Council is scheduled to vote on a similar measure to extend the same benefit to all city employees, including its many temporary workers.…
City Council • By Jack Craver • Feb 28, 2018
Council puts off decision on digital contract
Faced with the question of whether to approve a digital education contract for an out-of-town bidder chosen by city staff or extend the contract of a tried-and-true local company, Austin Free-Net, City Council decided last week to postpone the decision.…
City Council • By Jo Clifton • Feb 22, 2018
Council approves paid sick leave ordinance
Shortly after midnight on Friday, Austin became the first city in the South to require employers to provide workers with paid sick leave. The ordinance, authored largely by City Council Member Greg Casar, will require businesses and nonprofits to provide…
City Council • By Jack Craver • Feb 16, 2018
Subscribe to our newsletter
Sick leave arguments heat up
An ordinance that would force all private Austin businesses to provide paid sick leave for their employees may prove to be the most divisive issue to come before Council since 2015 when the Council district system started. Sponsored by Mayor…
City Council • By Jo Clifton • Feb 14, 2018
City Council considers prescribing paid sick leave for private employers
Mornings at Hoover’s Cooking are spent hammering beef to make it thin enough for the restaurant’s best-selling dish: chicken-fried steak. “Other things that are good sellers are our fried catfish … and pork chops,” said Hoover Alexander, who has owned…
City Council • By Audrey McGlinchy, KUT • Feb 13, 2018
Another postponement for Champion case
City Council decided Thursday that a legal and political battle surrounding the Champion tract in Northwest Austin that has spanned two decades will be extended yet another two weeks. Council voted 7-4 to postpone action on an amendment to a…
City Council • By Jack Craver • Feb 5, 2018
New negotiations for police, EMS contracts
Several City Council members, particularly Jimmy Flannigan and Alison Alter, sharply criticized city staff during Tuesday’s work session discussion of the Austin Police Association contract, with Flannigan and Alter claiming staff failed to communicate as the contract was being crafted.…
City Council • By Jo Clifton • Jan 31, 2018
Equity Office tries to make good on year-old institutional racism report
Austin’s Equity Office is considering how to make good on a report published last April that laid out more than 200 recommendations for how the city can combat institutional racism. “We sent out the report to all of our city departments…
City Council • By Audrey McGlinchy, KUT • Jan 31, 2018
Resolution: Wall builders need not apply
Led by Council Member Delia Garza, five Council members are sponsoring a resolution directing the city manager to study the potential impacts on Austin of construction of President Donald Trump’s threatened wall between the United States and Mexico. According to…
