Reporter’s Notebook: Very arcane issues

Details, details… Recently, a complaint by the Board of Adjustment brought to light their perceived issues with city-provided legal counsel. It also brought to light a misconception about Austin Monitor coverage. In William Burkhardt’s “Bar Grievance Complaint Against Mr. Brent Lloyd” (as embedded below) we couldn’t help but note the following passage:

Brent Lloyd: You can write to council members because, what nobody, this is,
seems like a very arcane issue and nobody is really thinking about it [BOA
proposed rules], it doesn’t appear in the Austin Monitor [electronic newsletter] or
anything. But, I am here to tell you if this [proposed BOA rules] happens you may
find all of the sudden a whole slew of stop work orders, cause people are going to
be like…

While we are miles away from filing a grievance about it, let the record show that the Monitor did, in fact, cover this arcane bit of City Hall minutiae.

Download (PDF, 92KB)

Slow and steady… During his time on the Music Commission, local composer Graham Reynolds has become something of a sarcastic but sage observer of the slow roll of city-level bureaucracy, with an ability to take the temperature of the room and sum up his counterparts’ feelings and frustrations with the perfect quip. He burnished that reputation Monday after more than an hour of discussion about the meticulous way in which the city will go about allocating $12 million in bond money on local creative space projects. Noting the need to deploy the money quickly to help struggling arts groups while admitting that city government has an often unshakable inertia, he told observers that he and other commissioners were doing the best they could: “We’re hurrying up as slowly as we can.”

Setting the record straight… Last week, City Council held off on making any decisions on the proposal that would change several city ordinances in the direction of decriminalizing homelessness. However, as we reported, the postponement didn’t mean tough conversations were put off. Those conversations continued on social media, where several Council members called out campaigns against the changes.

Chief, please see the proposed changes. Nothing changes your ability to “address chaos and uncivil behavior.” The council can’t and isn’t changing the Texas Penal Code. Unfortunately, it doesn’t address chaos causing and uncivil social media campaigns. 😏 https://t.co/uVQSLlquTA

— DeliaGarzaD2 (@DGarzaforD2) June 7, 2019

Not a photoshop, but unfortunately here’s one place that factual error been used. pic.twitter.com/fo7pFk0ZYE

— Jimmy Flannigan (@JimmyFlannigan) June 4, 2019

This week’s Reporter’s Notebook comes from the notebooks of Chad Swiatecki and Elizabeth Pagano.

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