Shake-up at Austin City Hall leads to return of old hands

Austin interim city manager Jesús Garza, appointed after last month's winter storm outages, is shaking up leadership at City Hall.

Driving the news: Garza announced yesterday that Austin-Bergstrom International Airport executive director Jacqueline Yaft, hired in 2019 by recently fired city manager Spencer Cronk to oversee an ambitious airport expansion, had resigned.

• Assistant city manager Rey Arrellano, who was involved in the city's ongoing, contentious police contract negotiations, has retired.

Why it matters: Garza and Mayor Kirk Watson, who worked together during their time in power in the 1990s, are reshaping City Hall in their image — highly competent, professional, and deeply connected with the city's managerial class.

Catch up quick: Garza brought back a host of old city hands yesterday, including former assistant city manager Laura Huffman and former deputy city manager Joe Canales; Bruce Mills, a former assistant chief of the Austin Police Department; and Jim Smith, the long-time former director of the Austin airport, to serve in interim roles.

• Canales served as a vice president at Seton Healthcare Family while Garza was CEO at the hospital system.
• Of note: Smith was at the helm of the airport when the city agreed to the long-term South Terminal lease that the city has now been ordered to pay $90 million to break as part of eminent domain proceedings.

What they're saying: ​​"I am confident that this group of seasoned professionals … can help deliver on those issues the way the public and council expects, laying a solid foundation for the future," Garza said in a statement.

The intrigue: Huffman, who headed the Texas office of the Nature Conservancy and the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and who has long worked with Watson, would be a top candidate to be the next city manager if she puts in for the job, per a City Council aide and the head of a city commission who have worked closely with top decision-makers and didn't want their names used in order to talk freely about the appointments.

• Huffman is being hired as a "consultant in change management."
• With Watson required to run again in 2024, expect Garza to serve in the interim role through that election before city leaders hire a full-time successor.

Watch this space: More dismissals could come, the sources said, especially among the assistant city manager ranks.