The Austin City Council on Jan. 28 read into the record appointments to city council committees and to intergovernmental boards, with Mayor Kirk Watson saying he would present the final list to the city clerk to make the appointments official.

The appointments name chairs, vice chairs and members for standing committees including Audit and Finance, Housing and Planning, Mobility, Public Health and Public Safety, and assign the Austin Energy Oversight Committee chair. "What I'm gonna do, members, is read into the record where we are on this, and then the way the code works is I will present the final version of this to the city clerk," Mayor Kirk Watson said during the work session.

The council assigned Mayor Watson as chair of Audit and Finance with Councilmember Ryan Alter as vice chair; Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes and Councilmembers Jose Velasquez and Duchin were listed as members. The Austin Energy Oversight Committee was designated as a committee of the whole with Councilmember Velasquez named chair and Councilmember Siegel vice chair. Councilmember Natasha Harper Madison was named chair of Housing and Planning with Velasquez as vice chair and Councilmembers Siegel and Ellis as members after a requested substitution was recorded on the floor.

Two committeesClimate, Water, Environment and Parks, and Economic Opportunitywere read into the record but will not be effective until the council passes enabling ordinances at its Thursday meeting, Mayor Watson said. The mayor said he had posted the ordinance language to the message board and that those chairs and memberships would take effect when the ordinance is adopted.

The council also recorded appointments to outside and intergovernmental entities. Among the assignments read into the record were that Mayor Watson will serve on the Austin Transit Partnership and as an alternate to CAMPO (Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization); Councilmember Fuentes, Councilmember Kadri and Councilmember Siegel were named as primary CAMPO appointees with Watson listed as an alternate. Other named appointments included the Austin Firefighters Relief and Retirement Fund (Mayor Watson), the Austin Police Retirement System (Councilmember Alter) and Capital Metro (Councilmember Velasquez). The transcript indicates one city seat remained open for the City of Austin Employees Retirement System Board of Trustees.

Council members briefly discussed a Community Advancement Network appointment; Councilmember Harper Madison volunteered to serve and was recorded as the appointee. Mayor Watson said the "coers" position (as read in the record) would remain open until filled.

There was no public comment on the item. After completing the public portion of the work session, the council went into a closed session under Texas Government Code section 551.071 to discuss legal issues related to immigration, the mayor announced; no further public action on the committee appointments was taken during the closed session.

The mayor said he would present the final appointments to the city clerk after recessing into committee and executive session; the council noted that the Climate, Water, Environment and Parks and Economic Opportunity committees require ordinance action to be activated and will become effective only after the council vote scheduled for Thursday.