TECHNOLOGY COMMISSION SPECIAL CALLED MEETING Wednesday – April 30th, 2025 – 6:30PM City Hall – Boards and Commission – Room 1101 301 W 2nd St, Austin, TX 78701 Some members of the BOARD/COMMISSION may be participating by videoconference. The meeting may be viewed online at: http://www.austintexas.gov/page/watch-atxn-live Public comment will be allowed in-person or remotely via telephone. Speakers may only register to speak on an item once either in-person or remotely and will be allowed up to three minutes to provide their comments. Registration no later than noon the day before the meeting is required for remote participation by telephone. To register to speak remotely, email Dan Martinez at dan.martinez@austintexas.gov. CURRENT BOARD MEMBERS/COMMISSIONERS: Steven Apodaca, Chair Keith Pena-Villa Thomas Rice Benjamin Combee Suzanne Heritage Sumit DasGupta Carina Alderete, Vice Chair Brian AM Williams Rachel Frock Nicholas Eastwood Ibiye Anga AGENDA CALL TO ORDER PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: GENERAL The first ten speakers who register to speak no later than noon the day before the meeting will be allowed a three-minute allotment to address their concerns regarding items not posted on the agenda. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. Approve the minutes of the Technology Commission meeting on February 12th, 2025. 2. Approve the minutes of the Technology Commission meeting on March 5th, 2025. DISCUSSION ITEMS 3. Presentation on PANO AI, a wildfire tracking system (Christopher Vetromile, Wildfire Mitigation Manager, Austin Energy) 4. Presentation on Austin Free Net’s public resource distribution strategy (Jasmin Vargas, Program Coordinator, Austin Free Net) 5. Housing Department update on their annual Action Plan, their application to Housing and Urban Development’s formula grants and the potential impact on local communities (Rocio Peña-Martinez, Grants Program Manager, and Julie Smith, Engagement Specialist, Housing Department) DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS 6. Review and approval of GTOPs Core 2025 selected recipients 7. Officer elections, discussion and approval of chair position 8. Officer elections, discussion and approval of vice chair position WORKING GROUP UPDATES 9. Public Surveillance working group updates regarding further interviews with stakeholders and subsequent action items 10. Artificial Intelligence Working Group updates on next steps on strategic direction and timing of next meeting FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS ADJOURNMENT The City of Austin is committed to compliance with the American with Disabilities Act. Reasonable modifications and equal access to communications will be provided upon request. Meeting locations are planned with wheelchair access. If you require Sign Language Interpreters or alternative formats, please give notice at least 2 …
M E M O R A N D U M TO: Mayor and City Council THROUGH: Jon Fortune, Deputy City Manager FROM: Carrie Rogers, Intergovernmental Relations Officer DATE: February 25, 2025 SUBJECT: Federal Legislative Update / Potential Reductions at the Department of Housing and Urban Development As a follow up to memorandums issued on January 29, 2025, February 11, 2025, and February 17, 2025, the Intergovernmental Relations Office (IGRO), along with partner departments, continues to review federal administration actions relating to direct and discretionary funding awarded to the City of Austin. On Thursday, February 20, 2025, public reports began circulating of a planned 50% reduction in staff across the entire workforce at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In some HUD divisions, the cuts could be deeper – up to 84% at HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) – according to reports. Such a drastic reduction would likely have a significant impact on efforts across the nation to address homelessness and make housing more affordable. CPD includes many programs critically important to the City of Austin, such as HOME Investments Partnerships Program (HOME), Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG), Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA), and Continuum of Care (CoC) programming. The City of Austin receives approximately $14 million per year in HUD block grants. An additional $14 million was awarded this January for CoC programs, which primarily support services to address homelessness in Austin through non-profit partners. City of Austin HUD Community Programming Based on the information we have today, and in reviewing the City’s Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER) with the Housing Department, the Homeless Strategy Office and Austin Public Health, staff identified the following areas where drastic reductions to HUD personnel and/or a reduction in funding would impact the City of Austin’s community programming: Page 1 of 3 HOME Program ($3,073,266) • HOME provides Tenant Based Rental Assistance to 65 families/individuals experiencing homelessness. The contract is administered through the Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA) and coordinated with our Continuum of Care (ECHO). • HOME provides funding for Down Payment Assistance (DPA) for 25 low- to moderate- income homebuyers who are first-time homebuyers. Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) - $7,223,444 • Currently, CDBG funding provides programs or services to more than 14,000 Austinites. • CDBG provides critical mental health services, childcare services, and services to …
TO: Technology Commission M E M O R A N D U M FROM: Dan Martinez, Business Process Specialist, Financial Services Department DATE: April 9, 2025 SUBJECT: 2025 Grant for Technology Opportunities (GTOPs) Awardees The purpose of this memorandum is to request the Commission review and to advise staff on the twelve (12) 2025 GTOPs Core Awards, as scored by the GTOPs Grant Review Committee (the Committee) from April 4, 2025, with specific award amounts set by formula and the process described below. GRANT PROGRAM PURPOSE GTOPs provides matching grant funds to Austin organizations that promote resident access to information technology, or that offer literacy programs that create digital opportunities and foster digital inclusion, particularly in underserved segments of our community. The goals of the program are to: ○ Increase use of digital and communications technology devices ○ Increase knowledge and skills of digital and communications technology ○ Increase access to and usage of the Internet AWARDEE SCORING AND SELECTION PROCESS Letters of Interest (LOI) for 2025 GTOPs Core were accepted from November 15, 2024 through January 8, 2025, thirty-four (34) LOIs were received. Grant applications were accepted from January 15, 2025, through February 12, 2025. The Technology Commission appointed a volunteer Grant Review Committee comprised of nine (9) qualified community representatives, three (3) of whom dropped from the panel prior to final scoring. The City received a total of twenty-five (25) applications for GTOPs 2025 Core. Prior to final scoring, the applicants were given the opportunity to respond to questions generated by the Committee. The Committee scored these applications using the GTOPs scoring criteria, including: Impact • Alignment with GTOPs Goals • • Success/feasibility • Budget and fiscal responsibility After the final scores were submitted by the Committee, the scores were ranked ; the top and bottom reviewer scores were then dropped in accordance with the Olympic style scoring system adopted in 2022. The remaining scores were averaged to give the formal score. Bonus points were allocated as programmatically 1 required, giving the final application score. The final application scores were then entered into an algorithm that distributed awards proportional to the scoring of each organization, within program parameters. The parameters considered by the algorithm are: 1) $315,000 in GTOPs funds available. 2) The minimum amount awarded to any organization is 70% of the requested amount. 3) Funds are distributed proportional to differences in scoring. 4) All funds must …
