City Government
The 10-1 Council
Ten council members, each from their own district, plus a mayor the whole city votes on. Austin switched to this setup after a 2012 ballot measure, and it changed who city hall answers to.
Welcome back
A plain-English guide to how Austin governs itself.
Austin's city government is more open than most people think and harder to follow than it should be. The meetings are public, the agendas are online, and almost nobody reads them. In Fact Daily has covered city hall here for a long time, and we are picking it back up with a simpler goal: explain how the place actually works, in words a normal person can use. Not the press-release version. The version you would want if you were about to speak at a council meeting for the first time.
City Government
Council-Manager System
Elected officials set policy and budget; a professional city manager, hired by the council, runs day-to-day operations and city departments.
Your Money
The City Budget
Once a year the council decides your property-tax rate and what it pays for, from police to libraries. It happens on a fixed schedule with public hearings, and hardly anyone shows up.
How to follow city hall
Austin city government is designed to be watched. A few durable ways to keep up:
- City Council meetings are public and posted in advance with agendas.
- Most boards and commissions publish agendas and minutes online.
- Public comment is part of the process, and residents can register to speak on agenda items.
- The city budget and tax rate are set on a published annual schedule with hearings.
About
About In Fact Daily
In Fact Daily is an independent publication about Austin city hall. No party, no donors, nothing to sell you. If a page here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it, which is more than a lot of the internet will promise. Read more →