The last Council meeting

Today was the last City Council meeting of the year, meaning it was the last Council meeting for Mackenzie Kelly, Leslie Pool and Alison Alter.

Kelly, the lone Republican, was defeated in her bid for reelection last month by Krista Laine. Like previous conservatives on the dais –– Don Zimmerman, Ellen Troxclair –– Kelly was often the only dissenting vote against many of the uncontroversial items on the "consent agenda" that Council passes at the beginning of every meeting. Today, however, as a gesture of "good faith and goodwill," she announced that she was a "yes" on every item, prompting laughter from the dais.

The Austin Monitor had an article about the three departing members of Council. I think I'll write something more in depth about all three in the coming weeks.

Council approves Austin Energy generation plan

Council approved the Austin Energy Resource, Generation & Climate Plan unanimously today, along with amendments that sets limits on carbon emissions and requires Austin Energy to check in with Council before negotiating contracts for new gas peakers.

Using AI to rig public comment

Luz Lozano-Moreno at KUT raises an interesting concern:

Robyn Land is a proud Christian Zionist. For three minutes at a recent Austin City Council meeting, she shared her thoughts about Israel's war in Gaza.

Land called in Nov. 7, during a part of the meeting where residents can speak directly to council members – in person or virtually – about all sorts of things not on the agenda.

But something about the call seemed off. 

Land's accent sounded a little put on. She didn’t stumble or use filler words like “ah” and “um.” And then she mentioned artificial intelligence.

“I am so glad that our side is finally getting organized here in Austin and we have started using an AI software to sign people up, because now we will be able to take all the spots going forward," Land said, referring to the number of spots available during public comment.

It was not clear if "Land" was even a real person.

I listened to the comments myself. I definitely don't think "Robyn Land" is a real person, but I'm not convinced that it wasn't a real person making the comments, which were obviously satirical and aimed at lampooning pro-Israel activism.

The context is that ever since Hamas' October 7 massacre and Israel's ensuing bombardment of Gaza, pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators have showed up to every City Council meeting, often taking up all of the public comment time available at noon.

Anyway:

To speak during this segment of a City Council meeting — known as general public communication — residents must register online or by calling the Austin City Clerk’s office. Just 10 people are allowed to speak, and the clerk usually accepts the first 10 people who sign up. 

Sidney Hollingsworth, an Austin-based data analyst, examined months of City Council meeting data and found those slots often fill quickly, sometimes within minutes.

That makes the process of signing up competitive. And if people are using AI to do it, she said, that's unfair. 

Apparently an easy way to prevent this from happening is to simply add an "I'm not a robot" box on the sign-in page. But just because it's easy doesn't mean it's likely to happen. Despite being a hub of world class tech talent, the city of Austin is probably one of the most technologically incompetent major city governments in the country. The city is about to take another crack at overhauling the website, though. The last attempt was a disaster.

If somebody forwarded you this email, please consider subscribing to the newsletter by visiting the website.