Mayor Kirk Watson Says Voters Rejected Proposition I, Not Good Stewardship, as Austin's Council Runoffs Head to December 12
In his public response to Tuesday's results, the mayor argued Austinites want an ambitious city and a disciplined one, and that the efficiency assessment he and the Council adopted earlier this year continues despite Prop I's defeat. The group behind the proposition answered that it will be back.
Mayor Kirk Watson has given his reading of Tuesday's election, and it is not a concession speech. In a public response to the local results, Watson wrote that "last night's election results send an important message about what Austinites expect from their government. People are worried about rising costs. They're worried about being able to afford to live and provide for their families. They're tired of only rhetoric." Austinites, he said, also voted for continued investment in "the things that make our city special, including our parks, libraries, and public spaces."
"The lesson we can and should take from the voters is that we can be an ambitious city and a disciplined city," Watson wrote. "In fact, we need to be both." He pointed to his record since returning to the Mayor's Office in 2023 — "stabilizing basic City operations, restoring public trust, and making sure local government is a good steward of taxpayer money" — and said the city's responsibility now is to deliver its projects "effectively, efficiently, and with careful stewardship of taxpayer money."
On Proposition I, the audit measure voters rejected, Watson noted that the question did not start with the ballot: earlier this year, he proposed and the City Council adopted an ordinance establishing a comprehensive, recurring, independent efficiency assessment of city government, and he said that work is already underway. "Voters rejected Proposition I. But I don't believe they rejected a desire for good stewardship. Our commitment to that work must not and will not change," he wrote. "The need for accountability and financial discipline doesn't depend on an election result."
Save Austin Now, the group that carried Proposition I, read the same results differently: it thanked the Austinites who voted for the measure, said "we WILL be back," and promised to judge the city's internal audit on whether it is comprehensive, serious and transparently released. The local calendar now runs to Dec. 12, when two Council runoffs decide seats the first round left open: in District 3, Neha Shah challenges incumbent Jose Velasquez, and in District 5, David Weinberg challenges incumbent Ryan Alter.
