Jeffery Bowen

@austintexaslisa @AleshireLaw For those who did not notice, Paige Ellis was added to this discussion two weeks ago to this Bucy V Aleshire discussion. Cap Metro rider ship is FLAT vs. population growth. The PERMANENT property tax is still in place, yet little traction on more circulator service for the city.

Looking forward to @AleshireLaw on this panel. Come out if you can. Please give us the facts for those unable to make it.

@LoewyLawFirm @MattNovacek Not in this city. Lots of additional money to projects with little fanfare. This list is long and goes back many years. Examples: Downtown library Town Lake Pier Northeast Police Station - canceled not enough money in Bond City Hall - Yes, the existing one The list is long.

@MattNovacek From 2022. You ever hear of a project coming under budget ?

In a surprise to absolutely no one ….. But hey at least we are spending $10B on a train that won’t even stop at the airport.

@imjarriagada @data_atx @JenRobichaux The approval to fund office search was a consent item on ATP January board meeting. The $750,000 was approved by the five board members. On video atptx.newswagit.com/videos/372823 Item 3.7 Action Item 7. Don't blink, or you will miss it.

@data_atx @Bowen4Austin @JenRobichaux It seems there is consensus on project connect not getting their expensive work space. Nevertheless, somebody proposed it and approved it. Who are those individuals? They clearly don’t see anything wrong with it.

Thank you 🙏 could've never dreamed of saving Austin $50m in 1 weekend of posting on X. Incredible things are happening! Its a team effort. D8 Candidate @Bowen4Austin got his people involved, @JenRobichaux went on KLBJ + All the real estate bros on here backing us up was HUGE!

@JenRobichaux Even under the existing council rules, hopefully, many of you can see how 2 minutes can provide a great message. Nothing gives as much pleasure as listening to Jen's well place thoughts & data regarding a subject. Trust me, we know the difficulty it is to go and speak.

I challenged the city to take their job of oversight more seriously. From public records, it's not clear that they attend to the details of the agendas or reports before voting or implementing policies. As the saying goes, take care of the pennies...

On March 12th, Austin City Council reversed a long standing policy to require offices to track meetings with lobbyists. On April 9th, I testified about the unintended consequences - broken trust, missed opportunities - and appealed that they revisit the ordinance.

@JenRobichaux @austintexaslisa This was a great way to start the last council meeting. Jen was so elegantly with her words and once again pointed out the way to build trust and how trust is lost. Who took these words to heart we will never know. Great job Jen. Her comments on Item 18 were just as powerful.

Duchen echoed some of @Bowen4Austin 's concerns about transparency re: the agenda documents from staff Simple best practice , give each agenda item to chatgpt, and ask it for a few obvious follow-up questions based on the item. And then update the item with answers to those.

@AleshireLaw @saveaustintx @dillonwatkinstx @KirkPWatson Yet there was $750,000 approved in January for the consultant to find said property. Thanks, @data_atx, for pointing out this first. Had to see all of this on the ATP agenda. How many circulator bus routes could be established with that $$$? How many passes for waymo or zook?

Austin’ Project Connect light rail which increased taxes payers taxes by 25% forever is leasing office space for $32 million and then furnishing the leased office for $15 million. They have so much cash from the tax increase and wanted to treat themselves really nice @KirkPWatson

Austin banned public camping in 2021 -- voters approved it by 57 points. Since October, APD wrote just 20 camping tickets, and only one case of these has been resolved.

@data_atx Jen had a great presentation providing a great warm-up on this issue. She hit the NAIL ON THE HEAD. Her comments on Item 1 regarding Lack of Trust started the morning. The lack of the city providing information is nothing new. Citizens are not aware of this issue.

D8 candidate @Bowen4Austin gives a plea for more transparency from staff yesterday The context is that staff asked for an extension to a million $ consulting contract to help w/ COVID FEMA reimbursements , but didn’t give any details on the reimbursements until Paige Ellis asked and still haven’t provided much detail 🤷

@KUTnathan Brodie & Davis has a history of lots of wrecks. Car turning on Davis (either way) have blocked view on opposing turn lanes Yellow flashing arrows on un protected turns Fire station is one block away. Brodie & Alexandra, lots of running red lights. Always wait before going.

What is the worst intersection in Austin?

@data_atx Thanks @data_atx My wife just asked, "So that's where you go every other Thursday?" I guess the clip of the librarian "flipping off" the council was removed.

In honor of @Bowen4Austin announcing a run for council , here are clips of the mayor calling his name at city hall Nobody puts in the work like Jeff, he’s there more than at least 1 sitting council member, and he is doing it unpaid, for the love of the city. Good luck!

You may have noticed a change in handle. That is because I am running for Austin City Council District 8. The campaign web site jeffbowenforaustincitycouncil.com Time for some common sense at City Hall.

Here’s the deal. The Feds said they want communities to direct local funding of transit projects and that is exactly where Austin taxpayers are trapped in the Project Connect Bait-&-Switch Scheme. In other words, the Feds are attracted to the ProCon FOREVER TAX and may just ignore the fact that taxpayers were tricked into supporting it. Should federal funds help the City of Austin cheat its own taxpayers?

@k_miles Thanks, it is going to be interesting, especially with the budget on tap starting in July through August.

@Bowen4Mayor heard the Council announcement this morning! Good luck!!

Despite Austin Transit Partnership promising transparency, we continue to receive none. Attorney @AleshireLaw gave an update on @NewsRadioKLBJ on March 30th regarding what we know about federal funding for Project Connect. Spoiler: they're withholding information. Transcript - Todd: Now, speaking of city business and your money, specifically your taxes, joining us on the live news line is former Travis County judge, Mr. Bill Aleshire. And well, he's gonna offer us an update on Project Connect and some of the shenanigans surrounding the funding model for this Project Connect. Yeah, when you voted on it back in 2020, you were expecting a lot of miles of trains and new bus routes, even a tunnel. And now it's just a mere shadow of its former self. Patrick: Doesn't even go to the airport. Todd: Really just kind of a, really just a, it doesn't even go to the airport. What, less than 10 miles actually. Patrick: 9.8. Todd: On the live news line is Mr. Bill Aleshire. Bill, good morning. What can you tell us about some of the latest developments? Aleshire: Good morning guys. Todd: Yes, sir. Catch us up to date on your work. Aleshire: You bet, yeah, in consumer law, we call it a bait and switch, which is what Project Connect is. I have been trying, well, last spring, the Secretary of Transportation, Secretary Duffy, announced new, more conservative standards for federal funding of transit projects. And the basics of that required that a proposal meet a rigorous cost benefit analysis. And when I read that, I thought, federal funding for Project Connect has got to be dead now. And so I started June 3rd of last year, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the FTA, the Federal Transit Authority, for a copy of any studies or correspondence had gone on, especially between Austin Transit Partnership, the Project Connect implementer, and FTA, and any evaluations that were done of whether Project Connect could qualify under the supposedly more conservative funding standards. And I have not, to this day, received one of those documents. I've complained, I've threatened to sue. And then last week, I got a notice from them that they had a third party submitter of information that they had received, that they contacted to see if that submitter wanted them to withhold any of the records they were finally ready to give me. So I asked for a copy of that letter that they sent to the submitter, and found out they were talking about Austin Transit Partnership. And they sent me a copy of the letter, and they had notified Austin Transit Partnership of their opportunity to tell them what information they don't want the public to see. ATP doesn't want the public to see. And in that letter, it disclosed something that I find outrageous and astounding. Todd: What's that? Aleshire: And it says that the FTA and ATP have entered into a certain common interest joint defense and confidentiality agreement. Todd: What? Aleshire: Now, they said that had been in place since 2015, but that's impossible because Austin Transit Partnership wasn't created until 2021. But the question that we're gonna have that's gonna be hanging over us, and I hope y'all watch and see if we get the answers, what information about their federal funding application does the Austin Transit Partnership not want the public to see? Todd: What could it be? Aleshire: What information is FTA gonna withhold to show the public that they have actually applied more conservative funding principles? By the way, they say the reason they haven't given me the record since June 3rd of last year was because of DOGE cuts. Todd: Because of doge cuts, that's interesting. What do you think they're hiding, Judge? What do you think they're hiding? Aleshire: I don't believe the Austin Transit Partnership has been truthful about what they've told the Feds about both the legal and factual situation here. I think they have managed to mislead them. And by keeping that correspondence and that information confidential, they keep it from being truth tested. I know Austin Transit Partnership hasn't been straight and honest with the voters of Austin, but I guess I am now in a position after years of fighting over this and litigating, and finally, once the Supreme Court issues their decision that part of the case is pending with them, we're gonna be back in court later this year and finally get a chance to have the challenge on the merits of the legality of the funding system. But in the meantime, what information is ATP trying to hide? Why would they do that? And why in the world would a federal government agency that's supposed to be a neutral evaluator of their application for billions of dollars of federal funds ever agree to let the applicant decide what information the public gets to see? That's just outrageous. Todd: I thought the mayor had a goal of being more transparent. That's not transparency at all. That's deception is what that is. Let me ask you this, Judge. If there is no federal funding, if the Feds say no, does that mean Project Connect is over? What could happen after that? Aleshire: Well, it makes it certainly impossible for them to do anything close to what voters were promising. Of course, they're not even close now. They were promised 27 miles of rail, and now they're working on it for a total cost of $7.1 billion to be completed in 13 years starting in 2020. And now they're working on 9.8 miles. It doesn't even reach the airport. And it costs $8.2 billion dollars. I said billion. Todd: Billions. Aleshire: And at this point, I don't think there's anyone that can tell you. If they were gonna try to build this, I just think that we are now at the point, especially if federal funding is not, we're finally at the point where even Mayor Watson and the council have got to realize they have got to rethink Project Connect, go back to the voters with an honest price tag and a feasible plan, let voters decide whether they wanna continue to pay the enormous taxes they have paid since 2020. They've paid almost a billion dollars in city taxes for Project Connect. And then you look at, they can't balance the budget. We can't have police officers and EMS. And they, this last year in the budget that they couldn't balance, they had $186 million of city taxes that just turned over to Project Connect. Todd: Wow, wow, wow. Aleshire: And Austin Transit Partnership is sitting there with $400 million they have accumulated for which they have no existing obligation to spend. And it's just mind blowing that Austin voters have allowed the Austin City Council to continue to do this. Todd: Well, listen, what you're asking them to do, go back to the drawing board or back to the voters, that would be an incredibly politically embarrassing moment for this entire city council. It would be something that would destroy Kirk Watson's legacy, right? Aleshire: It would be an act of honesty and honor. That's what it would be. It would be an act of honesty and honor to go back to the voters and say, you know, I'll tell you what, I'll just quote the executive director of ATP, who by the way, he says their motto at ATP is they "prioritize transparency". They "prioritize transparency". We're about to see when they answer the FDA's letter. But his quote was when he got hired, he said, "the days of over-promising are over". Well, apparently we'll see. Patrick: Was that Greg Canally who said that? Aleshire: Greg Canally, yeah. That's Greg Canally who said that. In fact, his quote is one of my exhibits in the trial when we finally get back. Todd: Well, keep us up to date, Bill. We appreciate your work. You and Gerald doing some great, and others behind the scene, we appreciate your work. And well, caring about taxpayers here in Travis County in Austin, Texas. Judge, we'll talk- Aleshire: I think you're gonna see that now the question is, are fiscal conservatives actually in charge of these funding decisions and these decisions, both at the Texas legislature and in Congress? Are fiscal conservatives in charge? Because if they are, they can't justify supporting and funding Project Connect. Todd: That's a good point. That's a good point. Bill, thank you so much. Aleshire: Take care guys. I so appreciate you. Thank you. Todd: Thank you. We appreciate you. That's former Travis County judge, Bill Aleshire.

@JenRobichaux There has been little to no discussion regarding the reason why businesses left or closed. Is that part of this new program? Would seem to be related if discussing the issues getting a business going. Wonder how many businesses set up this AM for the rush of customers?

Adding more regulations rarely solves problems, right? It just adds more pages of admin to was through. That's the hardest part for me, running a small business. Am I compliant? What forms do I need to fill out? Who needs them? When's the deadline? If the city isn't careful about marketing the new front yard businesses, it's going to be a free for all at best.

Listening to Mayor Pro Tem Vela discuss Front Yard Businesses has me wondering if this is a way for Austin to make it easier for immigrants to make money without a work visa. It sounds like we already have people selling goods without filing with the State or paying sales taxes.

@cost_of_bums Yes, imagine the number of items passed with no questioning. There is still a LONG WAY to go before there is any trust for my perspective. Yet, how many would have no issues with those agendas?

@Bowen4Mayor We were were 490 votes away from Ashika being in that seat. Imagine if that AOC wannabe was sitting talking instead.

Please listen to his comments. He is CRITICAL of numerous items that most of the council were BEAMING over. Still too many unanswered questions that will never be answered or addressed. What a shame. Yes, if we all had more than 2 minutes. Yet, this is the hand we are dealt.

@TexasBlooz @saveaustintx Yep, pay to get married and pay to be buried. Not talking about the service.

@saveaustintx Earn it & They tax it Spend it & They tax it Save it & They tax it Invest it & They tax it Build it & They tax it Sell it & They tax it Live in it & They tax it Drive it & They tax it Eat it & They tax it Give it away & They tax it You die & They tax it

Austin residents: Who else is tired of all the extremely high taxes we pay to either be squandered on the homeless industrial complex with no results or go to projects downtown? When are we going to demand that our tax dollars are spent equally on all other areas of the city?