Council to try to override another Keller veto in ongoing power struggle over city attorney

By Jesse Jones, The Paper. — With Monday’s Labor Day holiday pushing City Council’s meeting to Wednesday, councilors face an agenda heavy on technology alongside another fight with the mayor over who oversees the city attorney.

Councilors will get another chance to take a crack at O-26-54, deciding whether to override Mayor Tim Keller’s veto while also considering his pick for city attorney, Joshua Boone, the current chief deputy district attorney for the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office. Keller vetoed the measure Sept. 3, weeks after councilors passed it 6-2. The ordinance would add reporting requirements between the City Attorney’s Office and the Council’s general counsel, giving the Council more oversight of contract attorney billing. Keller said the measure conflicts with the City Charter and state attorney ethics rules.

Other measures would expand required recycling service to all multifamily properties and city-owned buildings, set rules for digging up and barricading streets during fiber installations and establish the city government’s first set of rules for using and buying artificial intelligence.

The three-bill AI package from Councilors Tammy Fiebelkorn and Dan Champine would create a city government AI policy, an Emerging Technology Advisory Board and requirements for city purchases to follow the new rules. Councilor Stephanie Telles’ virtual currency ordinance, co-sponsored by Fiebelkorn, would ban cryptocurrency ATMs citywide and give operators 45 days to remove them or face fines and possible loss of their business licenses. Councilors will also hold a public hearing on the conditional-use permit for the overnight shelter on Yale Blvd. The hearing comes after the council rejected a Land Use Hearing Officer’s recommendations on the shelter last month, sending the dispute to the full council for final action.

The council meets at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the Vincent E. Griego Chambers at One Civic Plaza NW. The meeting will stream on GOVTV, YouTube and Zoom. Public comment sign-up is required by 4 p.m. Wednesday.

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