On September 23, Austin, Texas City Council Member Leslie Pool intends to present a new lobbying ordinance to the Audit and Finance Committee.

On Monday, the Ethics Review Commission was asked by Pool to set up a public hearing before the September 23 date. “Council members can start raising money in May [2016], so that’s why we’re trying to keep this moving forward,” Pool said, according to the Austin Monitor.

Commission Chair Austin Kaplan told the Austin Monitor the ordinance would subsequently be addressed by the full Ethics Review Commission at its September 28 meeting. Proposed changes to the city’s lobbying law include increasing the registration fee from $300 to $350 a year for those earning at least $2,000 per quarter and eliminating the exception to register when an individual claims communications are incidental to other employment not for the purpose of lobbying.

Photo of Austin, Texas skyline by Erik A. Ellison on Wikimedia Commons.