Approved Minutes — original pdf

Approved Minutes

Technology Commission http://www.austintexas.gov/cttc REGULAR MEETING MINUTES Wednesday –May 14th, 2025 – 6:30PM Austin City Hall– Boards and Commissions Room – Room 1101 301 W 2nd St., Austin, TX 78701 Please go to http://www.austintexas.gov/cityclerk/boards_commissions/meetings/10_1.htm for backup materials associated with this agenda. All ATXN (City Channel 6) programming is cablecast on Spectrum, Grande Communications, and Google Fiber on their cable channel 6, on AT&T U-Verse Channel 99 and webcast online. Over 20 meetings per month, including this commission meeting, are available on demand online, typically within a found at: http://www.austintexas.gov/page/atxn-video-archive. the cablecast. Schedules and video can be few hours of The Technology Commission convened in a REGULAR meeting on Wednesday, May 14th, 2025, at 301 W 2nd St. in Austin, Texas. Current Commission Members Keith Pena-Villa ‐ Mayor Kirk Watson Brian AM Williams ‐ Council Member Natasha Harper‐Madison, District 1 Steven Apodaca – Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, District 2 Carina Alderete ‐ Council Member José Velasquez, District 3 Suzanne Heritage ‐ Council Member José “Chito” Vela, District 4 Thomas Rice‐ Council Member Ryan Alter, District 5 Rachel Frock‐ Council Member Krista Laine, District 6 Benjamin Combee ‐ Council Member Mike Seigel, District 7 Nicholas Eastwood ‐ Council Member Paige Ellis, District 8 Ibiye Anga – Council Member Zohaib “Zo” Qadri, District 9 Milena Pribic ‐ Council Member Marc Duchen, District 10 Board Members/Commissioners in Attendance in person: Steven Apodaca, Chair Suzzane Heritage Rachel Frock Suzanne Heritage Milena Pribic 1 Board Members/Commissioners in Attendance Remotely: Carina Alderete, Vice-Chair Thomas Rice Brian AM Williams Benjamin Combee Board Members/Commissioners Not in Attendance: Ibiye Anga Keith Pena-Villa CALL TO ORDER Chair Apodaca called the Community Technology and Telecommunications Meeting to order at 6:34 p.m. PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: GENERAL The first ten speakers who register to speak no later than noon on the day before the meeting will be allowed a three-minute allotment to address their concerns regarding items not posted on the agenda. There were no speakers registered to deliver comments. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. Approve the minutes of the Community Technology and Telecommunications Commission special called meeting on April 30th, 2025. Motion to approve the special called meeting minutes was made by Commissioner Heritage and seconded by Vice Chair Alderete. The minutes were approved on a vote of 9-0. DISCUSSION ITEMS 2. Presentation on PANO AI, a wildfire tracking system (Christopher Vetromile, Wildfire Mitigation Manager, Austin Energy) The presenter could not attend this session. This presentation was pushed back until the regular June session. DISSCUSION AND ACTION ITEMS 3. Technology Commission annual workplan for 2026, planning, drafting, and approval 2 Khotan Harmon, Division Manager of Economic Development Department’s Strategic Planning Division, started the conversation by asking the commission to review last year’s work plan to assess the status of last year’s priorities. Three key focus areas from last year— Digital Inclusion, Technology Infrastructure & Innovation, and Data Stewardship—were reviewed, along with recent successes like bylaw updates and the commission recommendations from 2025. Commissioner Pribic brought up the recent Artificial Intelligence (AI) resolutions that were passed on local and state levels and how the Commission should engage on this topic by iterating on the current legislation. Commissioner Eastwood and Chair Apodaca highlighted some incoming legislature on AI, and how the commission should keep a pulse on any AI related laws that are passed. Ann Eaton, Assistant Director of the Economic Development Department, recommended bringing in the intergovernmental relations team into the commission or working group meetings for updates. The Commission discussed continuing support for the Grant for Technology Opportunities Program (GTOPs). Commissioners affirmed GTOPs as a core focus. Updates were also provided on DECA (Digital Empowerment Community of Austin) a monthly gathering of nonprofits and other partners working on digital equity, with upcoming meetings and opportunities for commissioner participation. Commissioner Heritage proposed inviting ISPs to future meetings. There was a consensus on structuring upcoming community listening sessions by focusing on specific stakeholder groups and key topics like internet/mobile coverage, affordability, and fraud/scam education, especially with the rise in AI-driven scams. Commissioner Frock brought up the lapsed Affordable Connectivity Program to which Chair Apodaca and Commissioner Heritage suggested partnering with ISPs to assist with provider-level affordability efforts and proposed collecting and sharing information about these options with the targeted stakeholder populations. The discussion expanded to Austin Public Health, Austin Energy and Austin Water, recommending general engagement with their respective commissions to explore smarter, more resilient infrastructure strategies. Commissioner Heritage suggested bringing in Nora Cox to speak on the health and digital inclusion intersection. Chair Apodaca looked to bring in Austin Energy to speak on emergency response and Austin Water on smart metering and other related topics. Chair Apodaca proposed continued engagement with the city's Innovation Office, monitoring pilot programs, and exploring AI upskilling. Chair Apodaca discussed the City of Austin's proactive stance on AI implementation and the growing need to build public trust around its use. Commissioner Eastwood suggested looking at internal city use cases to improve efficiency. Commissioner Pribic proposed external engagement, such as inviting experts from cities and countries with more advanced AI legislation to share best practices. Commissioner Williams shared that initial community feedback reflects significant skepticism toward AI, which in turn reflects the need to weigh the current AI legislature against the needs of the city of Austin. 3 Chair Apodaca shifted the conversation into strategies for maintaining up-to-date databases of digital equity resources. The City partnered with Travis Country to create a shared resources document as of 2023. Commissioner Heritage suggested that rather than duplicating efforts, the commission could partner with organizations like United Way’s 2-1- 1 and ConnectATX. Commissioners expressed support for integrating these tools into community listening sessions and citywide needs assessments. Regarding GTOPs, there was discussion about potentially restructuring the grant. Liaison and GTOPs staffer, Jesse Rodriguez, mentioned that GTOPs staff is considering either increasing the grant amount, extending it to two years, or reducing the number of awardees to increase the current impact. Chair Apodaca expressed interest in revisiting the City of Austin’s website update initiative. They requested to invite the internal project team back to provide progress updates and explore the possibility of commissioners serving as beta testers. Chair Apodaca briefly discussed emerging smart city technologies including autonomous vehicles, drones, and advanced air mobility, with a desire to stay ahead of new technologies. Commissioner Heritage expressed interest in consultants to these companies expert and experts from other cities to better understand implementation, data governance, and regulatory best practices. Chair Apodaca suggested creating a working group focused on community listening sessions, but keeping all other working groups as they stand. WORKING GROUP UPDATES 4. 5. Public Surveillance working group updates regarding further meetings with surveillance stakeholders The chair of this working group was not present to deliver an update on this group’s progress. Artificial Intelligence Working Group updates surrounding development of recommendation post stakeholder engagement This working group update was pushed to the upcoming June meeting due to a lack of time. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS • Approval of a Community Listening Session Working Group • Final draft and approval of Commission workplan • PANO AI presentation • WG Updates • Applications received for GTOPs Mini and GTOPs Capacity 4 ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 9:41pm. 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 days before the meeting date. Please contact Dan Martinez at the Community Technology Divison at (512) 974- 3510, for additional information; TTY users’ route through Relay Texas at 711. For more information on the Community Technology & Telecommunications Commission, please visit their website at http://www.austintexas.gov/cttc or contact Dan Martinez at dan.martinez@austintexas.gov The Minutes were approved at the June 11th, 2025 Meeting on Commissioner Eastwood’s motion and Commissioner Combee’s second with a final vote of 6-0. 5