Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a new statement shared by a spokesperson of the city of Austin.

The Austin City Council violated the Texas Open Meetings Act when placing a slate of charter amendments on the Nov. 5 general election ballot, a lawsuit filed Monday claims.

The suit was filed in Travis County’s 98th District Court by attorneys representing the Save Our Springs Alliance, an environmental nonprofit; its executive director, Bill Bunch; and Joe Riddell, a former staff attorney in the Texas attorney general’s office.

It seeks to invalidate the City Council’s approval of adding the charter amendments to the ballot. As Monday is the last day to order an election, if a judge rules in favor of the group, the 13 charter amendments approved last week by the City Council would not make it onto the ballot this year.

The lawsuit asserts that the city’s governing body violated both the public participation requirements and the public notice requirements of the act when it authorized the election at a hearing last Wednesday because all of the proposed amendments were compressed into one agenda item, rather than each one being taken up individually. This limited the amount of time a person could speak on the amendments and did not give substantial public notice on what the amendments would change, the lawsuit claims. 

“The Austin City Council is becoming lawless, and this lawsuit is another example of their arrogant disdain for transparency. Mayor Watson and the Council majority are undermining democracy with violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act,” Bill Aleshire, a former Travis County judge and attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a news release.

Bunch has seen success in the courts in suing the Austin mayor and City Council over violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act in the past.

“Following a lengthy and robust charter amendment process that included multiple opportunities for public input, we are aware of the lawsuit that SOS filed today that challenges the August 14 charter amendment election ordinance,” read a statement shared by city of Austin spokesperson David Ochsner with the American-Statesman. “The city stands by the process used.”

The city charter is a comprehensive legal document of the city of Austin’s rules and regulations. The proposed charter amendments include raising the threshold of signatures needed for a recall election of a City Council member from 10% of registered voters in the council member’s district to 15%, giving the City Council the authority to appoint and remove the city attorney, and requiring that initiative elections and citizen-initiated charter elections occur in even-year November general elections.

An American-based Japanese barbecue restaurant chain will be opening its first Austin location next year. Chubby Cattle will be opening its all-you-can-eat wagyu restaurant inside of the Barton Creek Square Mall at 2901 Capital of Texas Highway sometime in 2025.

Chubby Cattle’s Austin location offers three tiers of all-you-can-eat grill-it-yourself meats, emphasizing wagyu meats. Those cuts include rib-eye, short-rib, and even the decadent-sounding wagyu paired with uni and caviar. Then there are other meats like scallops, pork belly, and lamb chops. And then there are other not-barbecued dishes like sushi, hand rolls, dumplings, soups, seafood, vegetables, and fruits.

The tier options are available at different pricing for members of the restaurant group (for use at any location) and non-members. The membership program comes with NFTs and rewards like free birthday meals, discounts, guest passes, and reservations. There are also time-limits for seated service.

The restaurant chain is known for implementing conveyor belt services and robot servers. rounded out by visual projections. The company sources its wagyu from ranches in California and Oregon through partnerships.

Chubby Cattle’s first location — dedicated to hot pot — opened in Las Vegas in 2014 with co-founders Harby Yang and managing partner David Zhao. There are Chubby Cattles also in Denver, Chicago, Southern California, Philadelphia, and Duluth — some of those are dedicated to hot pot or shabu-shabu rather than Japanese barbecue. There’s a location slated for Houston too.

The Chubby parent company also oversees other restaurants. There’s Las Vegas hot pot restaurant X Pot, Los Angeles Japanese steakhouse Niku X, Los Angeles shabu-shabu restaurant Mikiya, and others.

In recent years, Austin’s been getting a spate of all-you-can-eat pan-Asian restaurants and chain expansions. There’s Gangnam Korean BBQ in April 2023, Soupleaf Hot Pot also in April 2023, K Pot Korean BBQ & Hot Pot in January 2024 (with a second one later this year). and Liuyishou Hot Pot sometime later in 2024.

The Austin Chubby Cattle will be found on the second floor near the Nordstrom wing. Expect indoor dine-in services and daytime into evening hours.