REGULAR CALLED MEETING OF THE ECONOMIC PROSPERITY COMMISSION WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2025, 6:30PM CITY OF AUSTIN PERMITTING AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER, ROOM 1401/1402 6310 WILHELMINA DELCO DR AUSTIN, TEXAS Some members of the Economic Prosperity Commission may be participating by videoconference. 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, call or email Ryan Sperling, 512-974-3568, ryan.sperling@austintexas.gov. CURRENT BOARD MEMBERS/COMMISSIONERS: Commissioner Appointment Nicole Tomaszewski Ofelia Zapata Raquel Valdez Sanchez (Vice Chair) Michael Nahas Rodrigo Cantu Shakeel Rashed District 1 District 2 District 3 District 4 District 5 District 6 Commissioner Zain Pleuthner Appointment District 7 VACANT District 8 Aaron Gonzales (Chair) District 9 Aditi Joshi Jake Randall District 10 Mayor AGENDA CALL TO ORDER PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: GENERAL The first 10 speakers signed up prior to the meeting being called to order will each 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 Economic Prosperity Commission Regular Meeting on October 15, 2025. DISCUSSION ITEMS 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Presentation regarding long-term funding of City employee pensions. Presentation by Josh Rauh, Professor of Finance, Stanford Business School, and Trammell Cooper, Certified Financial Planner. Discussion regarding utilization of the Boards & Commissions Recommendations Archive webpage. Discussion regarding expectations for commissioner conduct and decorum. Discussion regarding the Boards & Commissions Review Framework discussed at the October 15, 2025 Audit & Finance Committee meeting, and possible response by the Economic Prosperity Commission. Discussion presenting a framework for policy development and research for future commission recommendations. DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS 7. 8. 9. 10. Approve the nomination of an Economic Prosperity Commission member as the commission’s alternate representative on the Joint Sustainability Committee. Approve the 2026 Annual Schedule of the Economic Prosperity Commission. Approve a recommendation regarding improved delivery of City summer youth employment programs. Approve a recommendation regarding policy recommendations for long-term funding of City employee pensions. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS ADJOURNMENT The City of Austin is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Reasonable modifications and equal access to communications will be provided upon request. For assistance, …
RECOMMENDATION TO COUNCIL Economic Prosperity Commission Recommendation Number: 20251119-009: Summer Youth Employment & Workforce Development Date of Approval: November 19, 2025 Recommendation: The Economic Prosperity Commission recommends several key actions to strengthen Travis County’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) and City of Austin’s Summer Internship Program (SIP) to better prepare Austin’s future workforce. These policy recommendations outline how the City of Austin can make strategic investments that expand career pathways and long-term income opportunities for high school students. Description of Recommendation to Council: The Economic Prosperity Commission encourages the Austin City Council to undertake the following low- or no-cost actions: 1. Centralize the application process for both students and employers across City and County programs. 2. Improve coordination and resource sharing among all youth employment partners, including Travis County, the City of Austin, and AISD. 3. Connect AISD P-TECH internships with SYEP & SIP apprenticeship opportunities. 4. Establish requirements for Chapter 380 businesses to hire high school students for summer positions and contribute financially to SYEP & SIP, given their vested interest in developing a skilled local workforce. 5. Develop an outreach and awareness strategy targeting Infrastructure Academy partners, Capital IDEA, AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Skillpoint Alliance, the startup community, Chambers of Commerce, and other workforce industry groups. 6. Obtain employer-funded internships, with payment determined to employers’ tax status to unlock additional external funding opportunities. 7. Coordinate job-shadowing opportunities through SYEP & SIP so AISD students can visit internship sites before summer begins. These visits should be open to both SYEP & SIP participants and nonparticipants and can especially support students who lack required documentation 8. Increase public access to program data, including student outcomes and overall program performance on the 1-3 years following programs conclusion 9. Create employer-friendly guides explaining the benefits of hosting high school interns. 10. 10. SYEP & SIP will be provided for 14-15 year olds. The Economic Prosperity Commission encourages the Austin City Council to pursue the following investment-based actions: • Embed AI literacy certifications into the curriculum of SYEP & SIP career tracks. Rationale: Operations and Student Demand To inform these recommendations, the Commission met with the Travis County SYEP, the City of Austin SIP, and founding members of the City’s program, and reviewed peer-city models. We learned that of the 717 students who applied to the City’s program, only 190 were offered jobs. The County’s program reflected similar trends. The primary barrier is limited private-sector …
. RECOMMENDATION TO COUNCIL Economic Prosperity Commission Recommendation Number: 20251119-010: Pensions and OPEB Benefits WHEREAS, City Council created the Economic Prosperity Commission to advise the council on matters related to job creation and the City of Austin is one of the largest employers in Austin and retirement benefits make up a large percentage of the compensation of City of Austin employees. WHEREAS, City Council created the Economic Prosperity Commission to advise the council on matters related to job creation and the financial health of the City of Austin’s government is a signal used by employers to decide where to create jobs. WHEREAS, the City of Austin’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report says “The deficit in governmental unrestricted net position is largely due to the net pension liability of $2.3 billion and other postemployment benefits (OPEB) liability of $1.9 billion.”. WHEREAS, the Legacy Liability of all 3 pensions is expected to increase. The police pension’s increases until 2030, COAERS until 2031, and the firefighter’s until 2032. WHEREAS, the payments to reduce the Legacity Liability will exceed $190 million in 2028. And those payments will continue until 2051 for the police pension, until 2053 for COAERS, and until 2055 for the firefighters’. WHEREAS, the City of Austin has not saved any money to pay for “other post-employment benefits” (OPEB), such as medical care. WHEREAS, the City of Austin is not legally required to provide OPEB and employees have no guarantee that OPEB will continue. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Economic Prosperity Commission makes the following recommendations: • • The City should establish a defined-contribution plan to pay for OPEB for all employees hired after the plan was created. This is a legal trust where a fixed percentage of wages should be put into the fund to pay for OPEB benefits during each employees’ retirement. The City should continue to explore the cheapest way to provide medical care to existing retirees. This includes studying Chicago’s plan to use the Affordable Care Act, known as ObamaCare, as a way to get medical coverage for retirees. . • • • • The City Budget’s “Taxpayer Impact Statement” page should include the per-ratepayer change in the City’s “total governmental activities net position” for the previous year. The pensions’ rules should be simulated under random expected conditions (for example, shuffled historical data) and varying assumptions. The output of those simulations should include the range of values …
Economic Prosperity Commission Meeting Minutes Wednesday, October 16, 2025 ECONOMIC PROSPERITY COMMISSION REGULAR CALLED MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, October 15, 2025 The Economic Prosperity Commission convened in a regular meeting on Wednesday, October 15, 2025, at 301 W. 2nd Street, Boards and Commissions Room 1101, in Austin, Texas. Chair Gonzales called the Economic Prosperity Commission Meeting to order at 6:41 p.m. Commissioners in Attendance in Person: Aaron Gonzales (Chair) Michael Nahas Commissioners in Attendance Remotely: Raquel Valzez Sanchez (Vice Chair) Aditi Joshi Zain Pleuthner Shakeel Rashed Ofelia Zapata PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: GENERAL None present. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. Approve the minutes of the Economic Prosperity Commission Regular Meeting on September 17, 2025. The minutes were approved on Vice Chair Valdez Sanchez’ motion, Commissioner Joshi’s second on a 6-0 vote. Commissioner Zapata was off the dais. Commissioners Cantu and Randall were absent. DISCUSSION ITEMS 2. Presentation regarding Rally Austin’s proposal for the 2026 City of Austin Bond Election. Presentation by David Colligan, Chief Operating Officer, Rally Austin. 1 Economic Prosperity Commission Meeting Minutes Wednesday, October 16, 2025 The presentation was made by David Colligan, Chief Operating Officer, Rally Austin. Discussion reviewing an analysis of Local Government Code Chapter 380 agreements. Discussed. Discussion regarding staff and commission follow-up on action items in the City Auditor Office’s 2017 Workforce Development Audit and 2022 Workforce Development Follow-Up. Discussed. Discussion regarding efforts to encourage members of the public to apply for vacant positions on the Economic Prosperity Commission. Discussed. Discussion regarding a potential partnership with Austin Community College to explore and expand youth paid internships, employment, and education credits. Discussed. Discussion reviewing political activity guidelines for commissioners. Discussed. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. WORKING GROUP UPDATES 8. Update from the Childcare Working Group regarding its progress on forming recommendations on youth summer employment and youth workforce development. Update by Vice Chair Valdez Sanchez. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Pension Recommendation – Commissioner Nahas Staff briefing regarding pensions – Commissioner Nahas ADJOURNMENT Chair Gonzales adjourned the meeting at 8:00 p.m. without objection. 2
Board/Commission Recommendation Economic Prosperity Commission Recommendation Number 20251119-###: Pensions and OPEB benefits WHEREAS, City Council created the Economic Prosperity Commission to advise the council on matters related to job creation and the City of Austin is one of the largest employers in Austin and retirement benefits make up a large percentage of the compensation of City of Austin employees. WHEREAS, City Council created the Economic Prosperity Commission to advise the council on matters related to job creation and the financial health of the City of Austin’s government is a signal used by employers to decide where to create jobs. WHEREAS, the City of Austin’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report says “The deficit in governmental unrestricted net position is largely due to the net pension liability of $2.3 billion and other postemployment benefits (OPEB) liability of $1.9 billion.”. WHEREAS, the Legacy Liability of all 3 pensions is expected to increase. The police pension’s increases until 2030, COAERS until 2031, and the firefighter’s until 2032. WHEREAS, the payments to reduce the Legacity Liability will exceed $190 million in 2028. And those payments will continue until 2051 for the police pension, until 2053 for COAERS, and until 2055 for the firefighters’. WHEREAS, the City of Austin has not saved any money to pay for “other post-employment benefits” (OPEB), such as medical care. WHEREAS, the City of Austin is not legally required to provide OPEB and employees have no guarantee that OPEB will continue. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Economic Prosperity Commission makes the following recommendations: ● The City should establish a defined-contribution plan to pay for OPEB for all employees hired after the plan was created. This is a legal trust where a fixed percentage of wages should be put into the fund to pay for OPEB benefits during each employees’ retirement. ● The City should continue to explore the cheapest way to provide medical care to existing retirees. This includes studying Chicago’s plan to use the Affordable Care Act, known as ObamaCare, as a way to get medical coverage for retirees. ● The City Budget’s “Taxpayer Impact Statement” page should include the per-ratepayer change in the City’s “total governmental activities net position” for the previous year. ● The pensions’ rules should be simulated under random expected conditions (for example, shuffled historical data) and varying assumptions. The output of those simulations should include the range of values for net pension liabilities in …
Sustainability of Austin’s Pension and Post-Employment Benefit Plans November 19, 2025 Austin has lost a lot of money. The City of Austin’s financial position is recorded in the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (CoA ACFR). The latest report from 2024 shows that “total governmental activities net position” was positive $662,050,000 in 2015 and is negative $541,244,000 in 2024. (Table 1, page 277.) The report says, “The deficit in governmental unrestricted net position is largely due to the net pension liability of $2.3 billion and other postemployment benefits (OPEB) liability of $1.9 billion.” (Page 4) In plain English, the government of Austin has lost more than 1 billion dollars over the last 9 years due to pensions and healthcare for its retirees. This report for the Economic Prosperity Commission’s Long-term Working Group investigates this problem, what caused it, and the City of Austin’s current response to it. It proposes additional changes to prevent its repeating. Since OPEB and pensions are separate topics, the report is divided into 2 sections, covering each separately. Members of the Working Group Michael Nahas, author Aditi Joshi, commenter Zain Pleuthner, commenter Shakeel Rashed, commenter Expertise Michael Nahas, the author of this report, has a Masters of Arts in Economics from UT-Austin. His thesis was on the relationship of foreign bond prices to currency exchange rates. He worked in finance, predicting stock prices and futures prices for an options trading firm. He also wrote bond trading software for 2 other firms. He is not an accountant. He is not an actuary. He is not an expert in pensions. Members of the Working Group talked to: ● Ed Van Eenoo, Chief Financial Officer of the City of Austin ● Christopher Hanson, Executive Director of COAERS ● Keith Brainard, Vice Chair of the Texas Pension Review Board ● Joshua Rauh, Professor of Finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Summary Austin is 6th in the country in per-capita employee retirement debt. This is the OPEB liability plus the pension liability. Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) ● OPEB is a big problem: $2.5 billion risk-free net liability ● The biggest cost of OPEB is medical insurance. Insurance is getting more expensive and people are living longer, so costs are increasing. ● Austin has no savings to pay for OPEB. ● Austin is not required by law nor contract to pay for OPEB. It can stop at any time. In a financial …
Boards & Commissions Report Economic Prosperity Commission October 15, 2025 Resolution 20241212-133 directed the City Manager, in coordination with the City Clerk’s Office, to establish a sunset review process for governance bodies, enabling regular and staggered evaluations of their scope and duties. An initial framework update was presented to the Audit and Finance Committee on February 19, 2025, after which the Committee instructed staff to finalize a consistent and transparent review model. A proposed framework was formally introduced on July 16, 2025, and the Committee approved a pilot implementation, requesting preliminary findings by October 15, 2025. This report summarizes the pilot's results, including an overview of the body under review, legal considerations, self-evaluations by members and staff liaisons, community feedback, and an initial staff recommendation. Economic Prosperity Commission Report Highlights October 15, 2025 Executive Summary Objective To conduct an evaluation of the scope and duties of the Economic Prosperity Commission using a predetermined multi-step framework. What We Found The Economic Prosperity Commission advises Council on matters related to construction and job creation. There are currently two vacancies on the Commission. They have held seven meetings in 2025 with two meetings canceled due to lack of quorum. They have additional meetings scheduled for November and December. The Commission is not bound by any legal obligations that require its continuation. As detailed in a self-evaluation completed by the Commissioners, the Commission approved two recommendations this year. These were identified as closely aligned to the Commission’s core mission. The Commission also noted that it received numerous staff briefings and updates throughout the calendar year. The Commission reports having high commissioner and community engagement. They also note that public participation is moderate but that they host meetings with stakeholders in the community and invite leaders and organizations to provide data-focused presentations. City Staff reported that the Commission's actions and recommendations throughout the year mostly complied with City Council directives and bylaws. Staff also notes that over the past five years, they have approved fewer than ten recommendations which may be attributed to the Commission's broad scope, which has made it difficult for commissioners to identify and prioritize specific issues for action. Additionally, the Commission has struggled to maintain quorum. Staff also noted considerable overlap between the scope of the Commission and City Council's Economic Opportunity Committee (EOC). They find the Commission duplicates work already being undertaken by the EOC, City staff, and external organizations. …
BOARD/COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION Economic Prosperity Commission Recommendation 20251119-00x: Summer Youth Employment & Workforce Development Date: November 19th, 2025 Subject: Recommendations for Summer Youth Employment & Workforce Development Motioned By: Aaron Gonzales Seconded By: Raquel Valdez Sanchez The Economic Prosperity Commission recommends several key actions to strengthen the Summer Youth Employment Program and better prepare Austin’s future workforce. These policy recommendations outline how the City of Austin can make strategic investments that improve career pathways and long- term income opportunities for high school students from low-income households. The Economic Prosperity Commission encourages the Austin City Council to do the follow low to no cost actions ● Centralize the application process for both students and employers (ECHO) across City and County programs. ● Improve coordination and resource-sharing among all SYEP partners (County, City, and AISD). ● Connect P-TECH internships offered through AISD with Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) apprenticeship opportunities. ● Establish requirements for Chapter 380 businesses to employ high-school students for summer jobs and make financial contributions to SYEP. They have a vested interest in developing a skilled local workforce ● Develop an outreach and awareness strategy targeting Infrastructure Academy partners, Capital Idea, AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Skillpoint Alliance, the startup community, Chambers of Commerce, and other key workforce-industry groups. ● Ensure employer-funded internships, with payment structures aligned to employer tax status to unlock additional external funding opportunities. ● Coordinate job-shadowing days through SYEP so AISD students can visit internship sites prior to the summer—open to both program participants and non-participants. This can support students who lack documentation (e.g., Social Security cards) and reach those currently underserved. ● Increase public access to data on student outcomes and overall program performance. ● Create employer-friendly guides that explain how hosting high-school interns can benefit their organizations. The Economic Prosperity Commission encourages the Austin City Council to pursue the following actions requiring investment by private companies, community college partners, or the city ● AI literacy certifications embedded into the curriculum in summer youth employment tracks Rational: Operations and Meeting Student Demand Informing these recommendations, we met with the Travis County Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), the City of Austin’s Summer Youth Employment Program, a committee of founding members of the City’s program, and reviewed peer-city models. Through this process, we learned that of the 717 students who applied to the City’s program, only 213 were offered jobs. The County’s program showed similar trends. This gap is largely …
