Recommendation Number: 20260921-014: Request for a Public Meeting on Proposed Amendments to City Code Chapter 7-2 (Art in Public Places) (1).pdf — original pdf

Recommendation

ARTS COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION 20260921-14 Date: September 21, 2025 Subject: Request for a Public Meeting on Proposed Amendments to City Code Chapter 7-2 (Art in Public Places) Motioned By: Commissioner Schmalbach Seconded By: Commissioner Banskota Recommendation The Art in Public Places Panel requests that the Arts Commission make a formal recommendation to council for a dedicated public meeting on the proposed amendments to City Code Chapter 7-2 (Art in Public Places Ordinance) and the Art in Public Places Guidelines before the ordinance returns to City Council, currently scheduled for Economic Opportunity Committee on Sept. 25, 2026 and Full City Council meeting on Oct. 22. The changes under consideration will shape the program for decades and they deserve a hearing open to the full community the program serves. Rationale Since Council adopted Resolution No. 20250306-029 in March 2025, Austin Arts, Culture, Music & Entertainment (ACME) has run a year-long, staff-led review process. They created a multi-phase plan which would include engagement with the broader arts community, but that process has been stalled due to issues arising from discrepancies about percent calculations that came up while engaging with other internal departments. A formal engagement process surrounding these changes has yet to occur. ACME's Creative Reset initiative, which lists the AIPP ordinance among the funding programs it is “reimagining,” has not yet extended its citywide survey and listening-session process to these specific ordinance changes. We should not be considering major changes to the ordinance and guidelines before the arts community has been given an opportunity to meaningfully participate in this process. We ask for ACME leadership to host a public meeting dedicated to the proposed Chapter 7-2 amendments, held with adequate public notice and scheduled with enough lead time for artists and arts organizations to participate, before the item returns to Council. If this cannot feasibly occur before the September 2026 council meetings, these items should not go in front of 1 of 2 council until the public meeting happens. The meeting should cover, at minimum: 1. AIPP staff briefing about the resolution and process for ordinance updates 2. Concerns about the process for calculating the 2% and what potential impacts that could have on the program 3. Findings and recommendations from the AIPP ordinance and guidelines working group Austin's Art in Public Places program exists today because Austin artists and residents organized for it. The 1985 ordinance, and the 2002 increase from one percent to two percent, were the product of sustained community advocacy, not a staff-initiated policy exercise. That history matters and the program's legitimacy has always rested on the arts community's ownership of it. Changes of this scope should be made the same way the program was built-- in the open, with the people it affects. The proposed ordinance was placed on Council's consent agenda on April 23, 2026 — a path that would have allowed passage without discussion, debate, or public comment — despite unanimous recommendations not to pass the ordinance by both AIPP panel and the full arts commission. The Panel's working group has separately had difficulty obtaining basic records from City staff on how the two percent calculation has been applied historically, information that is central to evaluating the proposed changes to that calculation. Apart from the substance of the proposed changes, the process to date has not given the arts community a real opportunity to weigh in. Vote: 7-0 For: Houston, Hussaini, Schmalbach, Banskota, Kracheni, Anderson, Medicharla Against: None Abstain: None Absent: Keys, Maldonado, Pownall Attest: Jesus Varela 2 of 2