Finance
Audit and Finance seeks more input before voting on board and commission changes – Austin Monitor
The City Council Audit and Finance Committee on Wednesday deliberated scaling back about two dozen of the city’s boards, commissions and other governmental bodies but ultimately took no action pending further input from the affected groups.
The discussion centered on a City Council-approved resolution to consolidate or dissolve up to 36 citizen groups, although Council Member Ryan Alter, who sponsored the initiative, reduced the number to 26 after hearing feedback from commissioners and other volunteer members.
After lengthy consideration, Committee Chair Mayor Kirk Watson summarized the conversation by asking staff to gather more feedback from the existing bodies that would be impacted by merging with other citizen groups. A sunset review process should also be used for dissolving those governmental bodies that have been rendered inactive, Watson said.
The city clerk’s office, working with the city manager’s office, received only a few responses to each of the questions posed in an online survey, as part of the resolution’s direction. But Audit and Finance members, along with other Council members, have heard a lot from individual board members and commissioners.
The most vocal opposition came from members of the Resource Management Commission, which had been slated to merge with the Zero Waste Advisory Commission. Alter has since removed that merger from a list of proposed consolidations.
Additionally, the Urban Transportation Commission opposed merging with the Bicycle Advisory Council and the Pedestrian Advisory Council.
Alejandro de la Vega, vice chair of the Bicycle Advisory Council, told the committee that merging the UTC with the bicycle council “would actually diminish, not amplify, cyclist representation” in Austin. He noted that his group had received over 300 signatures in the last five days in support of keeping the Bicycle Advisory Council as a single entity.
Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes said she had heard negative feedback from several of her commissioners about the potential changes.
“I certainly cannot support merging some of these commissions and would like further consideration of how that should look … and more time for the community to weigh in,” she said.
Council Member Chito Vela said he couldn’t see the logic of folding the Bond Oversight Committee into the Planning Commission.
“I consider those kind of two completely different functions,” he said. He said a more understandable scenario would be to merge the Planning Commission with the Zoning and Platting Commission; however, Alter countered that the Planning Commission already has a full plate.
Indeed, when City Council formed the two commissions in 2001, the Planning Commission was struggling to consider zoning cases while also trying to plan a future Austin with a more visionary mindset.
While the duties of both commissions have morphed over time, one recommendation under consideration is reassigning the two commissions’ roles, with ZAP taking up all zoning cases citywide while the Planning Commission focuses on planning, code amendments and capital planning.
Other potential changes include merging the Downtown Commission with the South Central Waterfront Advisory Board and the Tourism Commission, plus updating membership requirements for the Airport Advisory Commission.
Another direction from the resolution has already been completed: an online tracker that monitors all the recommendations made by city boards and commissions.
Alter stressed that his resolution would be a continuing conversation and suggested moving forward at a future meeting on any proposed changes that have consensus.
“I think that the staff has really laid out a great process for us to review these bodies, whether it’s for future consolidation or just scope adjustment,” he said. “It will allow for these boards and commissions to ultimately be more effective, and that’s the goal … not to get rid of anybody’s board or commission but to make their work more effective and to make it so that staff is not having to go to three different bodies and make the same presentation.”
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When Colangelo College of Business students step into the Charles Schwab Foundation Finance Center this fall, they might feel like they’ve stepped onto a trading floor instead of into a Grand Canyon University classroom.
Renovations, which will begin this summer, come just two months after the announcement that students will be providing research for a stock exchange-traded fund as part of the college’s partnership with Christian financial firm Faith Investment Services.
Plans for the finance center’s remodeling are to incorporate a large ticker board in the center of the room, flanked by two smaller ticker boards that will scroll stock exchange listings.
“The Schwab Center not only has the look and feel of Wall Street, but the latest Bloomberg technology for our students to execute their research assignments,” CCOB Dean John Kaites said.
The frosting on the glass wall along the main corridor of the first floor of the CCOB will be lowered enough to allow tour groups to see inside the room while not distracting students during class.
The space, which will accommodate 34 students, serves as a finance learning center and lab for exams designed to help students get certified for the finance industry.
Business college leaders see the changes as a way to raise the profile of the CCOB and Schwab Center.
“As our students experience real-life research for the New York Stock exchange traded ETF: FTHB, they will have a learning environment that is compatible with their work,” Kaites said.
GCU earned national attention when the FIS Faith Income exchange-traded fund was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange (FTHB). This fund is believed to be the first ETF – a tradable fund containing a mix of investments organized around a strategy – that provides educational opportunities to students.
CCOB and College of Theology students research high-quality funds as part of that partnership. They are not paid for their work but receive valuable experience.
The CCOB lobby, used frequently for the T.W. Lewis Speaker series and club meetings, also will be remodeled. The northwest corner of the lobby, used often for studying and small gatherings, will be transformed into two offices. Space will remain so students can continue gathering and studying in that area.
The reception desk – where student workers often direct foot traffic at the busiest part of the four-story, 150,000-square-foot building – will be repositioned so it will face the college’s entrance.
The CCOB was revamped last summer to add the T.W. Lewis Center for Student Success, a multifaceted facility that features a broadcast studio with a stick ticker, a podcast room and a broadcast control room.
A Career Services Center also was added on the first floor.
GCU News senior writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]
In Q1 2026, EfTEN United Property Fund earned 461 thousand euros in net profit (Q1 2025: 703 thousand euros). The decline in profit is primarily related to the Fund’s investment in EfTEN Real Estate Fund AS shares, whose price on the Tallinn Stock Exchange increased 2.9% in Q1 2026 compared with 4.5% in the same period of 2025. In addition, interest income from the investment in the development company Invego Uus-Järveküla OÜ decreased year-on-year, as the development company repaid the principal and interest of the shareholder loan to the Fund in full in mid-March.
Despite the decline in profit, EfTEN United Property Fund AS received record owner income from its underlying funds at the beginning of 2026. This forms the basis for the Fund’s first distribution of the year to investors in Q2 2026, in the amount of approximately one million euros. The distribution is based on dividends and income received from all underlying funds, as well as interest from the Invego Uus-Järveküla OÜ and the Menulio 7 office building shareholder loans. The distribution does not include the profit from the Invego Uus-Järveküla development project, which the Fund plans to distribute largely in the second half of the year.
Since EfTEN United Property Fund’s portfolio is diversified across nearly 50 different properties in the Baltic states, developments across all segments of the regional real estate market affect the Fund’s results. There have been no major changes in the Baltic commercial real estate market over the last few quarters. In the residential real estate market, however, sales of new developments have improved in all Baltic states. In Tallinn, monthly sales of new developments grew to approximately 160 units per month in Q1 2026, compared with an average of around 100 units in 2024 and the first half of 2025. The biggest jump in the Baltic states was made by the Vilnius new-development market, where — partly thanks to expectations of funds being released from the second pension pillar — Q1 2026 sales volumes reached all-time highs, at times reaching up to 700 units per month.
The pace of sales also remained strong at the start of the year in Invego Uus-Järveküla OÜ, the development company for the Uus-Järveküla residential district in which EfTEN United Property Fund holds an 80% stake. In the first quarter, 22 units were sold (real rights contracts signed) and reservation agreements were concluded for three terraced houses. As of the end of the quarter, 8 terraced houses in the development remain unreserved. In March, Invego Uus-Järveküla OÜ repaid its entire bank loan and returned the shareholder loan to the Fund in full (1.51 million euros) along with the accrued interest (56 thousand euros). EfTEN United Property Fund invested a total of 3.52 million euros in the Uus-Järveküla development project in 2021 and 2023, and has to date received 4.8 million euros back.
Today, 2.2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water, and 3.5 billion people live without safely managed sanitation (UNSD, 2024). Action is urgently needed. AIIB’s recent Where the Water Flows report offers clear pathways for addressing these challenges in an increasingly destabilized hydrological environment. Yet, financing remains insufficient: an additional USD 140.8 billion in investment is needed annually to meet SDG targets 6.1 and 6.2 by 2030 (World Bank, 2024).
Traditional water funding modalities – tariffs, taxes, and transfers – are under strain, jeopardizing sustained investment and potentially widening the funding gap. Innovative governance models and financing solutions have a critical role to play in this evolving landscape. As the World Bank operationalizes its new global initiative Water Forward, there is a growing need for alignment and dialogue on the strategic allocation of capital for water, alongside the potential of new financing and governance models.
This event, held on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings, convened water finance practitioners actively leveraging innovative governance and financial approaches to fund water in emerging markets.
Opening remarks were delivered by Zou Jiayi, President and Chair of the Board of Directors, AIIB.
Speakers included:
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