Keep Austin Weird, with Clean Air and Water with Commissioner Brigid Shea

David Martin: This is the good government show.

Brigid Shea: I don’t know of any other place in the world that has a clean, flowing spring, like big spring in the heart of a major urban area. You want to save money? Encourage your utility to move toward renewables. I was watching my kids grow up and I just thought, I can’t sit this out knowing what I know on climate change, I can’t just say, well, good luck.

I hope it all works out for you. I just thought, we’ve got to do more to prepare people and be honest with people about what’s coming. It’s hard to figure out how people get good information, and therefore how they can evaluate whether or not, their government is truly representing them. But I think elections are a pretty good barometer.

Government works best if there’s people participate. Democracy is a participatory style of government. And if you sit it out, you won’t be represented. I’m.

David Martin: Welcome to the good government show. I’m your host, Dave Martin. You’re about to hear from an advocate and advocate for fresh water, for clean water, for clean air, lower carbon emissions and choosing the right place to make a difference. Action. That’s what Travis County Commissioner Bridget Shea is all about. A newspaper article she read about climate change was her call to action that led her to Austin, Texas, to work for an environmental organization.

In our conversation, what she says is she realized that if we all don’t start working on this issue of environmental change, we should all start measuring for our costs. It’s pretty strong stuff, but our action got to work on environmental issues and now on the county commission. I met Commissioner Shea about a year ago with the National Association of Counties conference in Austin, Texas.

And I should add, it was hot. It was real hot. It was over 100 degrees every day in Austin. And we talked about her city. She talked about how she saved her favorite spot, a clean, clear water lake right in the middle of the town. And if you didn’t know it, the unofficial motto of Austin is Keep Austin Weird.

Brigid says Austin’s not as weird as it once was, but the spirit of creativity of arts and music that helps keep Austin a thriving city that’s in some ways a lot different than other Texas cities. But I did ask, Is Austin still weird? Listen for answer and a good definition of the city. So after my break, my conversation with Travis County Commissioner Bridget Shay, that’s coming up.

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Brigid Shea: My name is Brigid Shea. I’m a county commissioner for precinct two which is the most urban of the county precincts in Travis County, which means it’s mostly the city of Austin. I have a few areas that are outside the city, and I help run the county government here.

David Martin: And we are in Austin. Tell me, the best parts of Travis County where we.

Brigid Shea: Are, you know, one of my favorites is Barton Springs. It’s this beautiful, cool, massive spring fed pool in the heart of the city, and people make pilgrimages to come see it because it’s so rare. I’ve challenged people, and I don’t know of any other place in the world that has a clean, flowing spring, like big spring in the heart of a major urban area.

And the reason why is because we fought to protect it. I had the great privilege to head up the S.O.S. initiative, which is the Save Our Springs initiative, and it was our great David and Goliath story. We beat the company that owned the world’s largest gold mine to protect Barton Springs. So that’s it’s always my favorite. It’s my.

It’s this really sacred, special place.

David Martin: No, I have to disagree with you on one point. Having never been to Barton Springs, you said. Cool. I’m from Brooklyn. We’re here in Austin in, July. It’s 104 degrees. Is it really.

Brigid Shea: Cool? Yeah. It is. It’s a constant, pretty constant temperature of around 72 degrees. So it is the tonic for the unbearably hot weather here. Yeah.

David Martin: It must be very popular.

Brigid Shea: It’s incredibly popular. It’s packed.

David Martin: So you were able, as you just said, you were able to save this. What were they trying to do? And what were you able to do?

Brigid Shea: Well, Freeport-McMoRan, which owns the world’s largest gold mine, was trying to develop a city the size of Waco in the watershed for Barton Springs. And they were seeking a bunch of variances from what was then a pretty weak, water quality protection law for the city of Austin. And the residents of Austin rose up and said, no way.

You’re not going to ruin and pollute our favorite swimming hole. And, we organized and we passed literally by a two thirds margin, well, 64% to three quarters, majority in the highest voter turnout for a non presidential election in the history of the city to that point. And we passed the strongest water quality ordinance in the country by citizen initiatives.

David Martin: And did they really want to shut it down, cemented over, put up a big building. What was the plan.

Brigid Shea: And we’ll say built a city the size of Waco in the watershed for the springs, it would have polluted the springs. And 31 years later, we’re still able to swim in Barton Springs because of what the citizens did to protect it.

David Martin: Is it a very popular spot?

Brigid Shea: Hugely popular.

David Martin: How often you do that?

Brigid Shea: There’s often, as I can. Yeah. It’s really remarkable.

David Martin: How many people are probably there right now.

Brigid Shea: Thousands.

David Martin: Yeah.

Brigid Shea: Yeah.

David Martin: It’s that big.

Brigid Shea: Too. It’s massive.

David Martin: How did you get involved in the, project to save it?

Brigid Shea: I was, working here. I was working for an environmental organization in Austin at the time, of the city council hearing on the, request by Freeport-McMoRan for their Barton Creek properties development. They wanted to get a bunch of variances and skirt having to comply with what was then a pretty weak water quality ordinance. And thousands of people showed up for the hearing at the city council.

It went on all night long. And at the end of the hearing, which was about 630 in the morning, the council switched the vote. Going into the hearing, they were all in favor of granting the variances. At the end of the hearing, they voted it down.

David Martin: And how long have you been a county commissioner? And Travis here in Austin?

Brigid Shea: This is my ninth year. I was first elected in 2014.

David Martin: Your mission seems to be to protect the environment as a county commissioner locally, doing what you can. How did you get interested in this? How did you get involved in this?

Brigid Shea: I actually came to Texas in 1988 because of Doctor James Hansen’s testimony to Congress about climate change was a front page story in the New York Times. I literally read that story, and I put the paper down and called friends in Washington and said, we all have to drop what we’re doing right now and work on this, or we can measure our coffins and get in.

And, people said, there’s an organization that’s starting an operation in Texas, and they’re looking to hire and they do really good policy work, and they do good electoral work. And I said, sign me up. so I was hired and came down here to work for clean water action, in the summer of 1988. And I’ve been here ever since, really focused on trying to, stop climate change and then prepare people for the impacts of it.

We weren’t doing enough of either.

David Martin: Since 1988. Are you more optimistic or less optimistic today?

Brigid Shea: I agree with, the consensus of the global scientific community. We have a ten year window to get this right. And after that, the kind of feedback loops, the warming of the oceans, the things that we’re seeing happen will be incredibly difficult to reverse. And we can’t control what happens after that. So, I do believe we have the tools and the technology to solve this.

What we need is the political will. And I think the people, by and large have it. We need our leaders to develop the political will and the backbone to do, to, to take action because we have all the technology and the tools to solve it.

David Martin: Have you won over commissioners? one at a time here.

Brigid Shea: we are in, I would say very, significant agreement on this. The entire commissioners court is I’d say the majority of the Austin City Council is as well. We have a pretty progressive community in the heart of Texas. So the political leadership here is on board in general on this stuff.

David Martin: What about the rest of the state?

Brigid Shea: I think it was Rick Perry running for president who said, Austin is the blueberry in the tomato soup. but a lot of other parts of Texas are changing. Most of the urban areas are strongly, progressive, in favor of addressing climate change. the suburban areas are flipping and the rural areas are losing population. So, the state’s changing.

David Martin: Should we all feel optimistic that things are heading in the right direction?

Brigid Shea: Well, if we start electing people to do the right thing, yes, it’s up to the people and people need to pay attention. I mean, that’s the other thing that surprises me is, I find so many people aren’t paying attention. When I ask them why, they say it’s depressing and like, I get it, but.

David Martin: Wait till you see reverse.

Brigid Shea: Yeah, exactly. Well, you see what’s really coming down the pike. Yeah.

David Martin: I understand you were able to get some wind projects started here. tell me about them. And what were you able to do?

Brigid Shea: Well, I was on the Austin City Council in the early 90s, and, we worked with, then state leaders who were progressive and who wanted to put together a wind project in, far west Texas. It was the General Land Office and the Lower Colorado River authority in the city of Austin. So the three of us partied together, joined together, and, put in the necessary investment to place the first wind turbines in the state of Texas, in West Texas, and then the city of Austin, which has a municipally owned electric utility, sort of like a co-op, except in some municipally owned, bought the energy from it.

And so it started Austin Energy on a path of very ambitious, renewable energy. More than half of the energy source, from the city of Austin now is renewable.

David Martin: Yeah, but the problem with wind turbines is they kill birds and they’re ugly.

Brigid Shea: We’ll look at what fossil fuels do. It kills the planet. I think I, I understand the issue with bird migration. I don’t think they’re ugly. I think they’re incredibly beautiful.

David Martin: But but that’s the argument, right? That’s the argument against them.

Brigid Shea: Yes, it is, but I think it pales in comparison to the downside of virtually every other source of energy. Sun is that is the most, has the highest potential. It’s got the greatest amount of energy. And, and so the greatest potential as a renewable energy.

David Martin: But there’s really no one all purpose fix, is there?

Brigid Shea: No. I think you need a combination of things. So solar, wind, geothermal energy efficiency, it’s an enormous amount of energy that can be saved by just having building codes that require homes to be more energy efficient, all buildings to be more. In fact, we’ve done that in the city of Austin. I know because my husband worked on it.

despite the growth, which has been enormous in the city of Austin in terms of population, the peak load use, which is what you have to build extra power plants for, is when you peak, has stayed relatively stable considering the massive population growth. And it’s because we have codes that require our buildings to be energy efficient. We’re not wasting energy all over the place.

David Martin: What do you say to folks who argue, I don’t want my gas prices to go up? solar panels are too expensive to install. I, you know, electric vehicles are silly because I can’t go far enough, and the technology’s not there. for batteries. I mean, how do you argue that I’ll.

Brigid Shea: Start with natural gas. they need to do their research if they’re saying that, renewables are more expensive than fossil fuels, that is not accurate. market. check the market data. There may be occasional peaks due to weird fluctuations, but if you check the data on a market basis, renewable energy is now equal to or cheaper than fossil fuels.

So you want to save money, encourage your utility to move toward renewables.

David Martin: Tell me about the wildfire drills.

Brigid Shea: We asked people when I first got elected, what would be useful for the county to do. We’ve got a limited range of authority, but what do you think would be useful? And, someone whose house had burned in a wildfire to the east of us in Bastrop said, you know, we do fire drills in school and sometimes at work, but we never do them at home.

and and when the fire hit his community, people didn’t know what to do or where to go. And so we reached out. We found a community that was, very fire vulnerable. They were at the end of a long, windy, one way and one way out road. And we asked them, would you be willing to be part of an experiment to see if a fire drill is a useful thing to do?

And they said, absolutely. We’ve been trying to organize it ourselves so we can’t all by ourselves. So we spent about a year and a half practicing planning. We were actually ready to go sooner. But then there was a real fire. And so all of the all of the first responders that have been working with us said, hey, time out.

we actually have to go find a real fire. But when we ran the drill, about half the residents participated, and we had a social scientists do a survey, of all the participants, and they said, it reassured them because now they knew what to do in case of fire, instead of just being worried about it and be they got to know their neighbors better.

And there was just a greater overall sense of security and well-being as a result of it. So we think there’s tons of value in, in doing a, and doing a drill. We just think there’s a lot of value in doing a fire drill.

David Martin: So some friends just stop by.

Brigid Shea: Actually, I think I know them, but I can’t be sure.

David Martin: Okay. Well, we’re we are we are here in, in, Travis County at the National Association of Counties convention. you’re one of the hosts. What are you excited to show off here?

Brigid Shea: You know, I feel like we we have some remarkable programs. We just did a presentation this morning on our, habitat conservation plan. We, we’re a unique ecosystem. We’re sort of a mash up of the coastal plains and the, tectonic plates being lifted up and forming the hill country. And we have, a really large number of endangered species.

Because of this mix of ecosystems, we created a habitat conservation plan to protect the species and protect their habitat in the late 80s, early 90s. And it’s been incredibly successful. It’s managed to preserve large swaths of beautiful green, rolling hills, which people love. It’s improved the property values for the developments around it, and it’s allowed developers to develop more quickly because they are also contributing to the fund to preserve more land.

So it gives the developers more certainty about the time frame, rather than waiting years to go through the federal Fish and Wildlife approval process, they can get an approval process through the county in a matter of weeks. but the trade off is their, property tax revenues go into the fund that allows us to acquire more land and preserve more land.

And it’s been a huge success. We’ve got over 27,000 acres of land that we’ve permanently preserved and protected.

David Martin: How did you switch from being an advocate to a county to an elected official? What made you made that make that jump? That’s not it’s not always easy.

Brigid Shea: I still view myself as an advocate, too. but yeah, it was harder to go from being a journalist to being an advocate because that’s really frowned upon. Yeah. and I was a journalist in a past life, but, I, you know, honestly, it was my kids. I was watching my kids grow up, and I just thought, I can’t sit this out knowing what I know on climate change, I can’t just say, well, good luck.

I hope it all works out for you. I just thought, we’ve got to do more to prepare our people and be honest with people about what’s coming.

David Martin: Why did you think that as an elected official, you would be better than you would be as an outside advocate.

Brigid Shea: I’d be able to implement policies that could make a difference. And we’ve done that. So we did the, fire drills. we did, change in the emergency notification system. most people aren’t aware it’s, the federal government that funds, for instance, the 901 system in all communities around the country and also funds emergency notifications so that when there is a disaster, you’ll get a warning on your phone.

At least that’s how it’s supposed to work. But when I took office, I discovered that the emergency notification system here in sophisticated, tech savvy Austin and Travis County was almost entirely landline based, and nobody I knew was still using landline. So we went in, we evaluated the system, and then we just migrated it over to being a cell phone based system.

So we improved the reach from 7% to above 70%. So now when there is a real life threatening emergency, you’ll get a notification. You get a warning. We want an national word for that program as well. And then one of the other things we did was adopt a very ambitious remote work policy during the pandemic. And we’ve saved a million, 300,000 our first year on utilities, because there’s not as many people were in our buildings, and we don’t have to heat and cool and light them as much.

and we’ve dramatically reduced the greenhouse gas emissions from our employee commute. And our two largest source of emissions from the county operations were the energy we used in heating and cooling the buildings and the employee commute. And we’re also transitioning our fleet to electric vehicles.

David Martin: So the motto for Austin is Keep Austin weird. Is that fair?

Brigid Shea: we’ve we’ve all embraced it.

David Martin: Is Austin weird and is it staying weird?

Brigid Shea: It’s not as weird as it used to be. It’s now horribly expensive, and a lot of the people that made it weird have been forced to move out because they can’t afford to live here.

David Martin: What made it weird? What what was the weird part?

Brigid Shea: really a lovely mixture of, sort of a hippie, mentality. that was very attractive to musicians and artists and, people who were very creative and thoughtful and, participated in the community in many, many interesting ways. The community created EA’s birthday years ago, from, you know, college students. And it’s still, a huge and wonderful festival that happens every year.

South by southwest grew out of the weekly alternative newspaper, The Austin Chronicle, and it’s still, from my mind, the best gathering for tech and music and film. I mean, I haven’t been to every festival like this everywhere, but, it’s a it’s a phenomenal gathering of creatives smart, unique individuals. And that’s been sort of the hallmark of Austin and Travis County for a very long time.

David Martin: And this is Willie Nelson’s home.

Brigid Shea: Yes, yes.

David Martin: Oh, that’s that’s that’s a pretty good creative.

Brigid Shea: Exactly.

David Martin: All right. So now that was all the warm up. So that was the warm up. Now we’re going to get to we’re going to get to we’re going to get to the our Good Government show questionnaire.

After you get done with this episode, hear more good government stories with our friends at How to Really Run a City. Former mayors Kasim Reed of Atlanta and Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, and their co-host, journalist and author Larry Platt talk with guests and other mayors about how to really get stuff done in cities around the nation. Check them out where you’re listening now or through their nonprofit news site, The Philadelphia Citizen.

Dot org slash podcasts.

All right. Here we go. From where you said as now county commissioner, previously city council member. What is good? Government defined it.

Brigid Shea: Taking care of people who can’t take care of themselves. Bottom line, government should take care of people who can’t take care of themselves. And it should. And it should represent the everyday person, not the super wealthy who can take care of themselves.

David Martin: How do you judge your success.

Brigid Shea: Ultimately will be whether or not we can reverse climate change.

David Martin: Are you feeling? Are you feeling confident you have success?

Brigid Shea: I’m somewhat hopeful.

David Martin: How can voters, the constituents, the people who live here or anywhere, know if they’re getting good government? What should they use to hold people accountable?

Brigid Shea: That’s a good question. I feel like because media has become so fragmented and social media has been just polluted with so much fake information and fake accounts and people utilizing and for really, you know, dishonest purposes.

David Martin: But we’re trying to help.

Brigid Shea: Exactly. Yes. This show, is is not that but, it’s it’s hard to figure out how people get good information and therefore how they can evaluate whether or not, their government is, is truly representing them. But I think elections are a pretty good barometer. And I’ve now been elected three times.

David Martin: If people feel like they’re not getting the government that they want or maybe deserve, what should they do about it?

Brigid Shea: Vote that person out. Vote in office. A better person.

David Martin: You’ve been in city government now and county government for, I think about 15 or 20 years now. Yes.

Brigid Shea: Something we, I was first elected in 2014 to the Commissioners Court. So this is my ninth year, and I was on the Austin City Council for three years. So 12 years.

David Martin: What would you like people to know from your experience of the last 12 years? What would you like people to know about how government works?

Brigid Shea: Well, government works best if if people participate, if if it’s just left up to the special interests who are there to make money off of government policies, then it’s not going to work well. And it does mean the people have to pay attention and they and they have to participate. Democracy is a participate style of government. And if you sit it out, you won’t be represented.

David Martin: Who is your political hero?

Brigid Shea: Well, that’s a hard one. FDR, actually, LBJ go to the LBJ Museum while you’re here. I had no idea how much good he did. but I think those people really, did remarkably important things for our our government and our country.

David Martin: Okay. You’ve been in Texas for how many years now?

Brigid Shea: 35.

David Martin: 35. Before that, you lived in.

Brigid Shea: North Dakota, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Washington, DC.

David Martin: All right, well, let’s just stay with Texas. I’m here. I’m here in Travis County in Austin. I’m going to be here for a few more days. What must I make sure I have? What’s what’s your favorite local dish? What must I eat? Where? Where should I go?

Brigid Shea: You definitely should try Salt Lake Barbecue. And I know I’m going to a appeal a bunch of other barbecue makers, but that’s my personal favorite. But you hardly can go wrong with any kind of barbecue here. And I would recommend a pilgrimage to Barton Springs. You don’t have to jump in, but just look at it. Just go see it.

Brigid Shea: It’s beautiful.

David Martin: If you’re having a dinner party at your house, what are you serving?

Brigid Shea: something I can fix easily.

David Martin: Okay.

Brigid Shea: Especially in the summer. I have a favorite pasta dish with fresh tomatoes and Brie and basil. just marinate it and then.

David Martin: So it’s barbecue. Just to say everybody here in Travis County eats in Austin.

Brigid Shea: Oh. Barbecue tacos. there’s a there’s a there’s a tremendous amount of really great local food, grown and produced locally.

David Martin: From local farms.

Brigid Shea: Local farms.

David Martin: What do they grow here?

Brigid Shea: lots of vegetables. there’s a great, production of, I would say healthy, organic meats, lots of great cheeses, especially goat cheeses. And, cheeses that are more easily made that, don’t have to, ferment quite as long. But, you have a lot of good choices.

David Martin: You’ve had, interesting career as a as a journalist, as an advocate, and as a politician. Did you aspire to politics growing up? Was it something you thought about, or was it something you always avoided? Where did you want to be? Where your class president did you want to be a president of the United States?

Brigid Shea: You know, I when I first saw the Austin City Council at work, I was horrified. I literally when we were when we were trying to protect Barton Springs, I had to sit in the back of the council meetings on a number of occasions. And I thought to myself, oh, thank God, it’s not me up there. What a terrible job.

And after we passed S.O.S. in the summer of 1992, people said to me, you need to run for city Council. And I said, I’ll run, all right, as far away as I can. It was a very difficult decision because I was not, drawn to it. I was not attracted to it. But at the end of the day, I felt like I needed to, to protect what we had won in passing, as was by Citizen Initiative.

And I served one term on the Austin City Council and was done, and it wasn’t until I forgave some of my enemies from that time period that I was even willing to consider running for county commissioners court.

David Martin: Do you love it?

Brigid Shea: I did, I do I feel like I feel like I’m in the right place at the right time. I feel like I can do things. then make a difference, particularly around climate change, and I can help educate people about it.

David Martin: Give me an example of a good government project that you were involved in. I know you mentioned Barton Springs. Is that is that the one for you?

Brigid Shea: That’s a big one for me because it affects so many people on a regular basis who who love Barton Springs and enjoy it. one of the things that we’ve really pushed hard on and been, I think, somewhat successful in is advancing the availability of affordable housing. Austin has gotten just unbearably expensive, and we’ve driven a lot of people out, but we’ve partnered with developers, on a mechanism for buying down the cost of of housing.

And we now have in the pipeline some on the ground and some in the process, almost 12,000 units of housing, three quarters of it deeply affordable, 60% am I in below area median income and below. And I’m proud of that. It’s it’s not well known at the county. but I’m I’m proud of that work.

David Martin: Bridget Shay, county commissioner, Travis county Austin, Texas. apparently I have to go to Barton Springs and go swimming in the cool water. and I have to get more barbecue, I guess, while I’m here. Is that is that it? Absolutely.

Brigid Shea: That sums it up.

David Martin: All right. Thank you so much for taking time. Thanks for talking with us. Good luck. enjoy the conference.

Brigid Shea: You’re so, You’re so welcome, I enjoyed it. Thank you.

David Martin: Thank you. Where do you get your news from? Where do you get your state and local government news from? Because that’s getting harder and harder. And it’s essential to stay updated with your community. And it’s becoming increasingly important to know what’s going on in other cities and states, because they’re likely facing challenges that you’re grappling with. Two are you’re going to face eventually.

That’s why we’d like to welcome our new partner, route 50, to the show. Route 50 is a leading online publication covering state and local governments across the country. They’ve written about states protecting themselves against the rise in cyber attacks, counties using AI to better support citizens services, local responses to crumbling infrastructure and extreme weather, and much, much more.

There’s a lot there. It’s a one stop shop for issues affecting state and local governments and their residents. That’s you. That’s all of us. Do yourself a favor and go to route 50.com to see the topics and solutions they cover, and learn what other people in government are doing. They also deliver a daily newsletter called route 50 today.

I see it in my inbox every morning. I check it out and you should too. Thanks again. Route 50. We’re excited to have you on board and being a partner here at the Good Government Show.

What is it the county government does? That’s the question county commissioners get asked the most. And the simple answer is everything on the Good Government show. We’re so lucky to have talked with so many county commissioners and other county officials that have shown us how effective county government is. County government dates back to get this 1634, making it one of the oldest forms of government in the United States.

Think about it. Roads. Highways. Hospitals. Schools. Recycling. Law enforcement. Water. Sewers, and most of the county. Those services are maintained by the county that’s county government. The National Association of Counties represents all 3069 counties across the USA. Naco helps county government work better together through things like sharing best practices. When county government works well, well, that’s just good government.

Well, I’m ashamed to admit it, but I didn’t get to the LBJ Museum. But it’s on my list for my next visit to Austin. I did manage to eat a lot, and that’s a lot of barbecue while I was in Texas. It’s all good. And the work she did preserving Barton Springs, a clean, refreshing lake in the middle of the city sounds like it’s made a huge difference from a journalist to an advocate to a county commissioner.

I wouldn’t say her journey is complete, but she’s taken action and work to make a difference. And that’s what good government is all about. Well, that’s our show. Please like us and share this with your friends and viewers right here where you’re listening. And check out our website. Good Government show.com for extras. Help us keep telling stories of good government in action everywhere.

Join us again for another episode right here. I’m Dave Martin and this is the Good Government show.

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**This transcription was created using digital tools and has not been edited by a live person. We apologize for any discrepancies or errors.