My focus on the City Council has been on growing our economy sustainably, improving public safety, expanding social services, helping to fix our traffic problems, protecting our water and air, and promoting transparent, accountable government.

I'm most proud of our accomplishments in the area of environmental protection. They include implementation of a new citywide water conservation plan that will cut water leaks by at least one-third, save rate-payers money, and delay the need for an expensive new water treatment plant by years.

I also led a team effort to implement the nation's first ban on coal tar surface sealants in Austin, which will improve water quality and the aquatic health of our streams and creeks by keeping dangerous toxins out.

I worked for more than a year with a diverse group of community leaders to revise our land development code in southwest Austin to help clean up existing developments that are polluting our aquifer and the Barton Springs watershed, preserve more land as permanent open space, and permit older developed sites to be modernized to prevent sprawl beyond the city's jurisdiction.

I've also been proud to lead the effort to reduce the number of plastic bags entering landfills.

My main focus in the area of public safety has been leading the initiative to consolidate all City police groups - the Austin Police Department, Parks Police, Airport Police, and City Marshals - with uniform standards for hiring, promotion, training, and operations for every City employee who carries a gun and enforces the law.

I also led the effort to conduct an independent assessment of public safety services in the city, with input from the City Auditor, public safety departments, and the three Austin public safety unions.

On the social services front, I worked to expand mental health care services in our community, and to create a new "ombudsman" program for assisting returning U.S. veterans in Austin (who in my view were treated disgracefully by the last administration).

I have also worked hard through each of the budget cycles I've been part of to deliver increased funding for our network of social service agencies in Austin, which help provide critical service to so many people and families in our community who need a helping hand to get by.

I currently serve as Chair of the Council subcommittee for Public Health and Human Services.

During my time on the City Council I also served as a Board Member of Capital Metro. My work there focused primarily on trying to resolve ongoing labor conflicts in order to allow the agency and its employees do the job of helping solve our community's worsening traffic crisis and deliver a regional transportation system that alleviates congestion.

I led the effort to reform our economic development policies to ensure that the process for validating economic development agreement performance requirements is transparent, and I led the effort to pass a Council resolution disallowing economic incentives for future retail projects.

During my time on Council I've supported making strategic tax incentive investments in companies like HelioVolt, but opposed giveaways like the one to Las Manitas restaurant.

I've led several initiatives to help make City Hall more open and transparent. I've been working with City staff to redesign and relaunch the city's website to make more information available, relevant, and usable for citizens online; that process is still underway now.

I also led the way on a lobbying reform initiative to make the City's business more fair and open, and to prohibit prospective contractors and vendors from lobbying City Council members and city officials during the city's procurement process.

I'm proud too of a series of campaign finance reforms that create stricter reporting rules and ban the use of funds not raised under Austin's laws.

Finally, I've worked closely with Council Member Mike Martinez on efforts to amend the City Charter to achieve a better balance of power between the City Council and the City Manager.

This included a successful proposal to allow the voters to expand the powers of the City Auditor, and an (unfortunately) unsuccessful proposal to allow Austin voters to decide whether the City Attorney should report directly to the City Council rather than the City Manager.

On some of the other big issues that have come up during my time on the City Council:

- I supported an ordinance requiring big-box retail projects to go through a new conditional use approval process.

- I opposed construction of Water Treatment Plant 4 at Bull Creek and led the effort to find a new site.

- I opposed loosening the rules that would allow billboards to relocate.

- I supported building a new animal shelter but also supported keeping an adoption center downtown.

- I supported giving Austin citizens the chance to vote on single-member districts, or a mixed system of representation.

- I opposed Proposition 2 last year, not because I thought the Domain deal was a very good one (I actually testified against it as a private citizen, before I was on the City Council), but because I believe we should honor our word with people if they have honored their word with us.

- I opposed making an investment in nuclear energy but supported giving citizens the opportunity to vote on the question.

- I voted to invest in biomass energy.

Please don't hesitate to ask any question about my record that I haven't answered here.