Recommendation 20250204-004: Response to City Council Resolution 20241212-133 — original pdf

Recommendation

BOARD/COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION Urban Transportation Commission Recommendation Number 20250204-004: Response to City Council Resolution 20241212-133 WHEREAS, City Council Resolution 20241212-133 Appendix A proposes merging the Bicycle Advisory Council (BAC) and Pedestrian Advisory Council (PAC) into the Urban Transportation Commission (UTC), to be renamed the Urban Mobility Commission; WHEREAS, City Council Resolution 20241212-133 purports to take action to reduce redundancies and increase efficiency among the City of Austin’s boards and commissions, task forces, council corporations, and intergovernmental bodies; WHEREAS, the BAC and PAC are not, nor have they ever sought to be, a City of Austin board, commission, task force, council corporation, or intergovernmental body; WHEREAS, the BAC and PAC’s status as citizen-led associated entities would make a merger with a sovereign commission like the UTC infeasible and would likely lead to conflicts with existing city code and state law; WHEREAS, the BAC and PAC have not suffered from frequent cancellations or lack of a quorum, with all cancellations since 2021 having been to accommodate either a Joint BAC PAC meeting or for an off-site field visit where no action was taken; WHEREAS, the BAC and PAC do not place the burden of appointing members on City Council Offices and regularly have 50+ applications for fewer than a dozen positions, which are thoroughly and anonymously reviewed by a subcommittee that makes recommendations to the full membership; WHEREAS, the BAC and PAC are highly effective and actively engaged organizations, with the Auditor’s Special Report finding that Boards & Commissions averaged 7.5 recommendations from 2021–2022; meanwhile, during the same period, the BAC passed 18 recommendations and the PAC passed 9; WHEREAS, the BAC and PAC recommendations serve unique functions that have proved helpful for City staff, the Urban Transportation Commission (UTC), and the City Council (see BAC Recommendation 20250122-04 Appendix A);  WHEREAS, the citizen-led nature of the BAC and PAC allows the bodies to function as an important resource for feedback for City staff on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, leaning on members' lived experiences using bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure across the City; WHEREAS, the UTC’s status as a sovereign commission makes it ill-suited to provide feedback on individual projects and designs, and the UTC taking on the role of the BAC and PAC in providing that feedback would overburden the UTC’s agendas, members, staff liaisons, and monthly reports to the Mobility Committee; WHEREAS, the City Council acknowledged the BAC’s citizen-led structure in Resolution No. 20130926-080, calling the BAC a “citizen-led organization with a City staff liaison.” Since then, every City of Austin Bicycle Plan has included an action item to continue supporting the Bicycle Advisory Council (2023 Bicycle Plan Strategy 4.2.3); WHEREAS, City Council Resolution No. 20130926-080 asked city staff to provide support to the newly formed PAC and work with the UTC to develop bylaws changes and processes to work with the PAC and BAC; and WHEREAS, in response to City Council Resolution No. 20130926-080, the UTC disbanded its Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee in favor of appointing liaisons to both the BAC and PAC, and the UTC does not wish to re-establish the committee to handle the workload of the BAC and PAC; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the UTC recommends the City Council not rename the UTC to the “Urban Mobility Commission” as the name may lead residents to confuse the new Urban Mobility Commission with the City Council Mobility Committee and the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority; BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the UTC commits to working with the BAC and PAC, and/ or City Staff, to improve communication, reduce impacts on staff time, and better define the relationship between the organizations, including by submitting revised UTC bylaws to the City Council Audit & Finance Committee by the committee’s July 16, 2025 meeting; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the UTC requests the City Manager submit this recommendation and any BAC & PAC recommendations on the issue to the City Council Audit & Finance Committee at the committee’s February 19, 2025 meeting.  Motioned by: Commissioner Schumacher Seconded by: Commissioner Wheeler Date of Approval: 2/4/2025 Record of the vote: 7-2 Attest: _____________________________________________ (Staff or board member can sign)