As early voting commenced, the city’s Ethics Review Commission announced that it would delay hearing ethics complaints concerning Mayor Kirk Watson and his opponent Doug Greco, who are accused of accepting contributions from non-Austin residents exceeding the legal limit. City regulations restrict these contributions to prevent outside monetary influence on local elections.
Complaints filed by former Commissioner Betsy Greenberg allege that both candidates received more than $46,000 from outside the city. However, Watson’s attorney, Jim Cousar, requested a postponement for the next commission meeting on October 23, as he would be out of the country. The commission will instead address scheduling the complaints on that date, with a hearing anticipated for November 13, eight days after the election. Cousar did not respond for comment.
Following the decision to delay Watson’s hearing, Greenberg similarly asked for Greco’s hearing to be postponed. Greco had previously filed a lawsuit against the city to challenge the regulations on outside contributions, but a federal judge dismissed it, suggesting he could refile after the ethics commission’s ruling.
The commissioners will also discuss complaints against District 10 candidate Ashika Ganguly and District 6 candidate Krista Laine, who missed a filing deadline for financial reports. Their respective opponents, Council Member Mackenzie Kelly and Marc Duchen, have filed ethics complaints against them, which will also not be addressed before the election.
Greenberg expressed concern in an email, emphasizing that campaign violation cases should ideally be heard before elections. She noted that preliminary hearings for both Greco’s and Watson’s cases could have taken place during an earlier meeting.
Furthermore, Duchen raised issues regarding a political action committee, Vibrant Austin PAC, which falsely claimed an endorsement of Ganguly by the Travis County Democratic Party in an advertisement. James Murphy, executive director of the party, clarified that no endorsements had been made in this race. Skyler Korgel, the PAC’s treasurer, acknowledged the error and stated it was unintentional, indicating that the endorsement claim appeared only in that particular ad and would not occur again.