Eight candidates for the District 9 City Council seat met at City Hall on Thursday to share their positions with voters. 

District 9 boundaries include central Austin neighborhoods like UT, North University, West Campus, Downtown and Travis Heights, and it is currently represented by council member Kathie Tovo. 

Zena Mitchell 

Mitchell has worked as a tradeswoman, a congressional liaison and a teacher at an Austin area high school.

Mitchell said her priorities lie with the people of Austin. She said she opposes the use of license plate readers by APD due to civil rights concerns and opposes investing more money into Interstate 35 expansion and improvement projects. 

“We’ve invested heavily in Project Connect, and I don’t think I can support more money going to roadways for single vehicular traffic,” Mitchell said. 

On the subject of housing and affordability, Mitchell said she supports the city’s housing bond and has a “rent to own” proposal for high density living. She said the city needs to negotiate with the private sector for more affordable housing and address those that oppose density.

“There’s been too many neighborhoods that vote out the affordable housing because of how it’s going to affect them,” Mitchell said. “We’re going to have to address the ‘not in my backyard part.’” 

Zohaib “Zo” Qadri

Qadri has nine years of experience in electoral organizing, legislative and advocacy work at the local and state levels in Austin and across the country. He said that a lack of equity is causing Austin to fail its most vulnerable citizens.

Qadri opposes the use of license plate scanners and said they could be used to target marginalized communities or those leaving the state to receive abortions. He supports the Affordable Housing Bond and said that updating Austin’s land development code and expediting the permitting process will help enable that affordability.

“We have to look at the fact that the lack of updating has affected hundreds of thousands of folks … and has pushed out a lot of folks in this community,” Qadri said. 

Qadri said he agrees with cap and stitching I-35, a project in collaboration with the Texas Department of Transportation to build “a community-centered effort to co-create new public spaces over I-35,” according to the city of Austin’s website. However, Qadri said that he is not willing to support cap and stitching if these improvements also come with I-35 expansion. 

“At the end of the day, that expansion by I-35 will displace so many individuals, so many businesses that it will further segregate the city,” Qadri said. 

Greg Smith

Smith has 35 years of experience in private business working in management and problem solving. 

Smith said he was in favor of license plate readers with the stipulation that the data collected be held for a limited amount of time. He said he also supports the cap and stitch program, and funding the development of walkable and bikeable infrastructure that he said would eliminate the barrier that I-35 imposes. 

On development, Smith said he would ensure that all of the proposed bond money is put towards its intended use and that the building process is expedited.

“We have to make sure that it is as easy as possible to get those affordable units on the ground as quick as possible,” Smith said. “The fees that are associated with some of this stuff just has to be eliminated.” 

To those that oppose density in their neighborhoods, Smith said that development, specifically along Project Connect corridors, is a critical opportunity to ease Austin’s housing and affordability crisis. 

Joah Spearman

Spearman is an entrepreneur, has served on nonprofit boards and at City Hall as the vice chair of the Austin Music Commission and the Downtown Commission. 

Spearman opposed license plate readers and said that there are other tools for public safety that would build trust within the community. He supports the Affordable Housing Bond and said the city should explore more solutions involving federal, state and private funding. 

Within land development reform, Spearman said that the city needs to optimize its code for those that have been burdened by housing costs. 

“We need to be thinking about the impact it’s had already, and it’s going to have, on our essential workers,” Spearman said. 

Kym Olson

Olson has served as the captain of the Texas Guard and spent nine years as a board member of the Texas Network of Youth Services doing advocacy work for unhoused and foster youth. 

Olson said that there should be more transparency along all aspects of Austin government, including in the public safety wages that are offered. 

“We don’t have enough police officers and we’re not going to get enough police officers until we can guarantee what they will be making next year, what benefits they’ll have,” Olson said. 

On the subject of the Affordable Housing Bond or I-35 expansion and improvement, Olson said she would require audits on both and would oppose them until that level of transparency was met.

“I don’t want to fund any more of these projects until we get a full audit and full transparency,” Olson said. “We have to have trust built back into this government.” 

Ben Leffler 

Leffler has experience in the city auditor’s office and the city council office, working with Austin Energy to achieve sustainability goals. He has also served on his neighborhood association and founded  a nonprofit fundraiser for progressive Austin organizations. 

On the subject of a public safety budget, Leffler said that there has to be equitable funding across departments, specifically to the underfunded emergency medical services department. In part to make sure that these essential workers aren’t priced out of Austin, Leffler supports the Affordable Housing Bond, updating the city’s land use code and incentivizing developers to build more affordable housing. 

“We need to build a lot more affordable housing, and District 9 is a great place to do that because we’re the central Austin district and have the best access to transit,” Leffler said. 

He also said that housing diversity leads to income and racial diversity, things that Austinites value in their city even if some citizens resist high density development. 

“In my experience, if you go out and you have a conversation and you do a collaborative public input process, we can agree that the status quo isn’t working, and we’re pricing out our neighbors,” Leffler said. 

Linda Guerrero 

Guerrero is a school teacher in Austin Independent School District with a special education classroom at Austin High School and has worked on the parks board, the environmental commission and the bond oversight commission. 

On the subject of development, Guerrero said that the permitting process needs to be simplified in order to ease construction for homeowners and developers. She said that supporting higher density across the city is important for equity and will improve the city for everyone. 

In order to keep city employees from being priced out of the city, Guerrero also said that there should be more funds devoted towards salaries. 

“It is very clear that we need to increase the budget not only for (emergency medical services), but for police and fire,” Guerrero said.  

Tom Wald 

Wald was the first executive director of Lake Austin from 2009-14, helped create and expand public transit and roadway safety provisions and has worked with nonprofits on mobility and affordability issues. 

Wald said that public safety makes up two-thirds of the city budget, so he supports reallocating funds instead of adding to them. He also said that respecting the roles of emergency medical services, firefighters and police and sending them to the correct calls will prevent escalation. He opposes the expansion of I-35 and said that improvements like caps and stitches could be funded in ways that save the city of Austin money. 

“I’ve been working for eight years with Reconnect Austin to get a project that goes forward that actually creates economic value so that can pay for those caps,” Wald said. 

In terms of development, Wald said that he supports the funding and subsidizing of affordability projects for a variety of income levels. In order to encourage density and incentivise development, he also supports the elimination of car parking requirements.