Mayor Lee Leffingwell

Lee Leffingwell is a native of Austin, and grew up in the Bouldin neighborhood in South Austin. His father was an Austin firefighter and later a Travis County Deputy Sheriff; his mother worked as an admissions clerk at the University of Texas.

Lee attended Austin public schools and graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in mechanical engineering.

After college, Lee became and officer and pilot in the United States Navy and served in the Vietnam War.  After leaving active duty, he served in the Navy Reserves and retired at the rank of Commander.

He was a pilot with Delta Air Lines for more than 31 years, culminating his career as an international B-767 and MD-11 Captain.

After retiring from Delta, Lee volunteered in Austin, working on environmental issues.  He was appointed to the Environmental Board by the Austin City Council in 1999, and subsequently elected Chair by his colleagues. 

In 2005, Lee ran for and won the Place 1 seat on the Austin City Council; he was re-elected to that seat in 2008 with 68% of the vote. In 2009, Lee ran successfully for Austin mayor.

Lee is married to Julie Byers, a registered nurse. Lee and Julie are the parents of three, and the grand-parents of six.

Visit Lee Leffingwell's City Webpage.
Staff: Nancy Williams, Matt Curtis, Amy Everhart and Michelle Soeur.  Chief Service Officer: Andy Mormon.

Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole 

Sheryl Cole is the first African-American woman elected to serve on the Austin City Council. 

A resident of Austin for over 25 years, Sheryl earned her B.A. in accounting from the University of Texas and became a Certified Public Accountant in 1986, working for two years with the Big Five accounting firm Ernst & Young. 

In 1989, Sheryl returned to the University of Texas for law school, earning her J.D. and joining the law firm Wright & Greenhill. In 1995, Sheryl became staff counsel at the Texas Municipal League, where she served until 2001. 

She subsequently joined the law firm of Cole & Powell - now the Cole Law Firm - with her husband, Austin attorney Kevin Cole. 

Sheryl was first elected to the Austin City Council in 2006, and re-elected in 2009 with 83% of the vote. She currently serves as Chair of the Council's Audit and Finance Committee and sits on the CAMPO board, as well as the Downtown Austin Alliance board. 

Sheryl is a past president of the Lee Elementary School PTA, a former board member of Leadership Austin, the Austin Area Urban League, and Communities in Schools. 

Sheryl and Kevin are the parents of three boys, Marcus, Nelson and Femi. The Coles are longtime residents of the Wilshire Woods neighborhood, and are members of the Cherrywood Neighborhood Association. The family belongs to David Chapel. 

Visit Sheryl Cole's City Webpage. 
Staff: Greg Anderson, Michael McGill and Tara Long.

Council Member Mike Martinez

Mike Martinez has devoted his entire career to public service.

Born and raised Rockdale, 70 miles northeast of Austin, Mike moved to Austin in 1988 to attend Austin Community College. Mike joined the Austin Fire Department four years later, and quickly became a leader in the firefighting community.

First as Chair of the Austin Firefighters Association Political Action Committee and later as president of the Austin Firefighters Association, Mike worked for years to represent the interests of public safety professionals and their families.

His major accomplishments included leading a successful 2004 campaign to win collective bargaining rights for Austin firefighters.

In 2005, after 13 years of service, Mike left the Austin Fire Department to run successfully for the Place 2 seat on the Austin City Council. Three years later he was re-elected to his seat with 85% of the vote, and subsequently chosen to serve as Mayor Pro Tem by his Council colleagues.

A strong believer in community involvement, Mike has served on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Texas, and has worked as a diversity trainer with the National Coalition Building Institute.

He is also a graduate of Leadership Austin, as well as the LBJ School of Public Affairs West Point Military Leadership Program. He currently sits on the board of Capital Metro.

Mike is a long-time resident of East Austin, where he lives with his 11-year-old son Alejandro and his wife Lara Wendler.

Visit Mike Martinez's City Webpage or Personal Website.
Staff: Bobby Garza, Andy Moore and Laura Williamson.

Council Member Laura Morrison

Laura Morrison was elected to the Austin City Council in June of 2008.

Laura holds a Graduate Certificate in Community Preparedness and Disaster Management from the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; a Master's degree in Mathematics from the University of California, San Diego; and a Bachelor's in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley.

She moved to Austin in 1981 with her husband, Phil Morrison, a Physics Professor at the University of Texas.

During her professional career, Laura worked as an engineer for Lockheed Martin, as a consultant in export compliance, and in the field of pandemic flu preparedness.

Prior to winning office, Laura served as a community volunteer in many roles, including as President of the Austin Neighborhoods Council.

She was also active with organizations focused on affordable housing and health and human service issues, including the Community Action Network Community Council and the HousingWorks Policy Committee.

As a Council Member, Laura serves as the Chair of the City Council's Emerging Technology and Telecommunications Committee. She also sits on the Comprehensive Planning & Transportation Committee, the Public Health and Human Services Committee, and the Audit and Finance Committee.

In addition, she represents the City on the Community Action Network Resource Council and the City of Austin-AISD-Travis County Joint Subcommittee.

Laura and Phil have two sons, Will, who lives in San Francisco, and Benny, who lives in Portland. Laura and Phil have recently welcomed daughters-in-law Minjia and Dayna into the family.

Visit Laura Morrison's City Webpage.
Staff: Barbara Rush, Bobby Levinski and Grace Corpus.

Council Member Bill Spelman

Bill Spelman tries to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

In his day job, he is a professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, where he teaches courses in applied math and statistics, urban policy, and public management.

Between 1997 and 2005, Bill was also executive director of the Texas Institute for Public Problem Solving, which trained 13,000 police officers throughout Texas in the practice of community policing.

Before coming to U.T. in 1988, he spent seven years with the Police Executive Research Forum, a national association of big-city police chiefs, working with local police departments nationwide to develop the (then-new) concepts of community policing and the epidemiology of crime.

Bill has won awards for teaching, research, and community service; two of his policing projects were finalists for the Ford Foundation's program on Innovations in State and Local Government. He has written a half-dozen books and several dozen scholarly articles, mostly on police work, prisons, and urban economic development.

He holds a B.A. in political science and economics from UCLA, an M.P.P. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard.

Bill served on the Austin City Council between 1997 and 2000, and was reelected (nine years late, but without opposition) in 2009.

His wife, Niyanta, saves South American rainforests; his older son, Jasiel, is a computer ninja with a local high tech firm; his younger son, Ronan, will enter 1st grade at Lee Elementary School next fall. They all live together in Hyde Park.

Visit Bill Spelman's City Webpage. 
Staff: Heidi Gerbracht, Barksdale English and Deena Estrada.

Council Member Chris Riley

Chris Riley was born and raised in Austin. He attended Austin public schools, and served as a Congressional Page for Congressman J. J. "Jake" Pickle.

Chris attended Harvard College, where he graduated with honors in Economics, and the University of Texas School of Law. He subsequently worked as an attorney at the Texas Supreme Court for five years before entering private practice with Shields & Rusk, later known as the Rusk Law Firm.

Active in the Austin community for many years, Chris co-founded the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association in 1997, and served as its president for five years. He was later appointed to Austin's Planning Commission and served on it for six years, including two years as Chair.

Chris also co-founded Austin Carshare and the Alliance for Public Transit, served on the board of the Austin Parks Foundation, and as president of the Austin History Center Association for two years.

Chris has also served on numerous other city boards and task forces, including the Downtown Commission, the Water Conservation Task Force, and the Street Smarts Task Force.

He was elected to the Austin City Council in 2009 with 66% of the vote.

Chris lives in a historic 1890 home, which he restored. An avid bicyclist, he no longer owns a car. Chris enjoys movies at the Alamo with his partner of eleven years, Denise Brady, a lawyer and coordinator of early childhood programs for the State of Texas.

Visit Chris Riley's City Webpage.
Staff: Lewis Leff, Leah Bojo and Matt Parkerson.

City Manager Marc Ott

Marc Ott was selected to serve as Austin City Manager by the City Council in January 2008. He is the 17th full-time City Manager in Austin's history.

Marc previously served as Assistant City Manager for infrastructure services in Fort Worth. In that role, he was responsible for Fort Worth's infrastructure operations carried out by the departments of Water, Transportation and Public Works, Engineering and Aviation.

Prior to his position in Fort Worth, Marc was City Administrator for the City of Rochester Hills, Michigan, where he had administrative and managerial oversight of all municipal operations.

In addition, he was City Manager of Kalamazoo, Michigan, from 1993 to 1997. Marc also served as that city's Deputy City Manager for two years, and as an Assistant City Manager for almost a year.

Prior to those posts, Marc served as Administrative Services Manager and Director of Management Services for the Grand Rapids City Manager's Office; Administrative Assistant to the City Manager in Jackson, Michigan; and Staff Assistant for the Michigan Municipal League, in Ann Arbor.

Marc earned his Bachelor's degree in management with a concentration in economics from Michigan's Oakland University, and a Master's in public administration from the same university. He is also a graduate of the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

He and his wife, Pamela, who is a surgical nurse and first assistant, have two children.

Visit Marc Ott's City Webpage.
Staff: Rolando Fernandez, Ray Baray, Rose Marie Martinez, Myrna Rios, Kay Guedea and Leslie Hethcox.