Audrey McGlinchy | KUT

The Austin City Council approved a $4.1 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, with more money going toward homelessness outreach and an increase in the minimum wage for city employees.

Correction: The city filed a brief in response to an injunction temporarily halting its sick pay ordinance. It has not yet appealed.

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The City of Austin said it plans to appeal a state court’s decision to put on hold the city’s paid sick leave ordinance, which was set to go into effect Oct. 1.

The Texas Supreme Court has denied petitions from two Austin residents asking that the city rewrite a pair of November ballot measures.

The Austin City Clerk has reversed her decision to challenge Lewis Conway Jr.'s candidacy for Austin City Council.

The Austin-Travis County Sobering Center is a nondescript three-story building on Sabine Street in downtown Austin. Starting Oct. 1, police and EMS will be able to bring intoxicated people in 24 hours a day instead of taking them to a jail cell or a hospital bed.

Lewis Conway Jr., a candidate for Austin City Council who has a felony record, may not be able to run after all.

Austin City Clerk Jannette Goodall sent Conway an email Friday challenging his eligibility and asking for documents that he had been pardoned or "otherwise released from the disabilities" resulting from his conviction.

For the second time in a week, the City of Austin has been sued in the Texas Supreme Court over the wording of a question headed to the November ballot. This time, petitioners are challenging how the city wrote a proposition regarding whether residents should have the power to reject land-use rewrites like the now-defunct CodeNEXT.

An Austin resident, represented by attorney Bill Aleshire, is suing the city over the wording of a November ballot measure about a citywide audit.

Activists collected more than 30,000 signatures asking the city to hire a third party to conduct an efficiency audit of all its departments. Austin City Council members voted Thursday to put the question to voters.

Under a $4.1 billion budget proposed today by City Manager Spencer Cronk, Austin homeowners would pay roughly $78 more a year in property taxes and fees to the city.

The Austin City Council’s lone conservative, Ellen Troxclair, announced today that she will not run for re-election for her District 8 seat in November.

Troxclair, who represents Southwest Austin, called the decision not to run an “incredibly difficult one.”

In an emailed statement, Troxclair said she was proud to have served as "a voice of reason" and "a fiscal watchdog" on the Council and said the city's taxation and regulation had led it down an "unsustainable path."

Austin City Council members have outlined a $925 million bond to pay for items such as affordable housing, park updates and road repairs that will be put to voters in November. The bond could be paid for, in part, by raising the property tax rate.

Austin City Council members voted Thursday to ask the city manager to look into creating a new department to oversee its labor rights laws – including rules that guarantee rest breaks for construction workers and mandate paid sick leave for private employees.

Three women have sued the City of Austin and Travis County, alleging their sexual assault cases were inadequately handled because of their gender. The class-action lawsuit claims that sexual assault survivors “have been denied equal access to justice and equal protection of the law.”

If an Austin police officer stops someone for a nonviolent misdemeanor – such as possessing a small amount of marijuana or driving without a valid license – the officer has a choice: issue a citation or arrest the person. Simply put, the officer has discretion.

Austin City Council members voted 9-0 (two council members were not present) Thursday to do away with some of this discretion. Proponents cited police data that show black and Hispanic people stopped for low-level offenses are more likely than white people to be arrested than cited.

Austin City Council unanimously confirmed Brian Manley as the Austin Police Department's new chief Thursday. Manley has served in an interim role since former Police Chief Art Acevedo left to head up Houston’s police department in 2016.

The race to fill the District 1 seat in November is wide open after Austin City Council Member Ora Houston announced today she would not seek re-election.

After roughly a month of collecting public feedback, City Manager Spencer Cronk has nominated interim Austin Police Chief Brian Manley to head the department permanently. The appointment requires a City Council vote; members are scheduled to discuss it Thursday.