The Austin City Council approved a new committee to help honor Austin accomplishments during a public meeting Monday.

The Pillars of the City Committee will be in charge of selecting honorees to commemorate with a plaque on one of 76 pillars of downtown Austin’s flood wall near the Cedar River, which was created through the North Main Flood Control project last year.

“It’s excellent,” Mayor Tom Stiehm said.

Stiehm has been a vocal proponent of the project to honor Austin residents over the past few years. He will serve on the committee in an advisory role, along with a city staff member and Jeff Anderson of Anderson Memorials.

A nine-person committee will come together each year to choose residents who have been nominated for the award. The award winners may also get a vote in choosing future winners as well.

Anyone will be able to nominate a current or former resident.

The plaques will bear the nominee’s name, picture and a digital barcode which will lead mobile phone users to a website containing more information about the nominee. Each plaque will be made of bronze and cost up to $2,700.

Council members also decided to let the committee nominate up to five residents in its first year, with up to three nominees each subsequent year.

The nine-person committee has already been chosen and will serve rotating three-year terms. They will come together this fall, while the nomination process will open until Dec. 31. The committee will review nominations in January and February, and select finalists by April 1. The first plaques are scheduled to be unveiled in fall 2016.