Who do you represent?
Council Member Harper-Madison opines about representation.
The same video segment can be found on Youtube.
The context is the zoning segment of the June 5, 2025 council meeting. Council has just heard the developer’s representative, expert testimony in opposition, and neighborhood opposition to a zoning change in district 9 (CM Quadri). Next up is another contested zoning case with considerable opposition from the people about to be displaced and neighborhood opposition. These are council agenda items 107 and 103 respectively. The transcript for the short video segment above starts on p. 21 if you care to read it.
Also for the sake of context I include this photo from an article in the Austin Monitor on item 103. The meeting was well attended by neighbors in opposition to the two rezoning cases, neighborhood association members, and contact team members. There were residents of Acacia Cliffs (item 103, district 10, CM Duchen) who are going to be displaced.
Council Member Harper-Madison represents district 1. Roughly speaking the demographics of district 1 are 65K residents with 46K of them of voting age. In her recent re-election campaign she received 12,731 votes and her three opponents garnered 11,186. I don’t know if anyone has recently asked her who she represents but every council member I have ever heard answer that question says that they represent their district. They also usually state that they represent even the people who voted against them and I have heard her say this from the dais. What is usually left unstated when this comes up is that she represents (1) district 1 residents who are unaware of their council representation, (2) district 1 residents who don’t register to vote, and (3) district 1 residents who aren’t of voting age.
Yet in the case of the neighborhood association and contact team officers Council Member Harper-Madison is addressing in the video she denies that they represent the groups in their own geographic areas where there are likewise people who voted for them, against them, who are unaware of their existence despite Google, Facebook, Nextdoor groups and signs giving notice of meetings.
Just by watching council meetings as I do you will become aware that there is much more going on here than what I have detailed above but I will let you discover that for yourself if you haven’t already.
Having been both a neighborhood association and contact team officer myself I recall the several times I have been challenged on this issue since ca. 2016. The neighborhood officers, everyone who shows up for meetings, and everyone in the various neighborhoods who show up or write in for public testimony count.