Austin Monitor

City Manager Marc Ott has announced major changes to the city’s management structure, including elevation of Assistant City Manager Mike McDonald to Deputy City Manager. All of the changes, according to a memo Ott sent to Mayor and Council on Tuesday, are effective Jan. 1.   McDonald has acted as Ott’s deputy for quite some […]

The Austin City Council on a vote of 5-2 this morning approved $3.8 million in construction fee waivers and up to $500,000 for relocation of a wastewater line to facilitate White Lodging’s plan to build a new hotel on Congress Avenue. Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole made the motion and Mayor Lee Leffingwell seconded the […]

In their second big vote of the day, the Austin City Council this afternoon approved three resolutions related to locating the Circuit of the Americas Formula 1 event in southeast Travis County. Council Members Kathie Tovo—who opposed city involvement in F1 throughout her recent campaign—and Laura Morrison opposed it.   Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole […]

Challenger Kathie Tovo has scored a decisive early victory over incumbent Council Member Randi Shade. Travis County is reporting that Tovo won 54.96 percent of the nearly 25,000 votes cast by those voting in the days leading up to the runoff election.   That puts the challenger 2,465 votes ahead in the Early Voting. Shade’s […]

City Clerk Shirley Gentry on Tuesday turned over $64,157 to the Kathie Tovo campaign for use in the June 18 runoff against Place 3 incumbent Randi Shade. Tovo signed the contract upon entering the race in March but since none of the other candidates in the race had signed the contract, Tovo was not obligated […]

Council Member Randi Shade has tried another avenue to prevent her opponent, Kathie Tovo, from receiving $64,000 under the terms of Tovo’s contract with the City of Austin. Shade alleged in a letter to City Clerk Shirley Gentry on Monday that Tovo had violated that contract and urged Gentry to withhold the money under the […]

With the Early Vote counted shortly after 7pm, challenger Kathie Tovo had a strong lead over incumbent Council Member Randi Shade in the Place 3 race. In a very low turnout election, Tovo had slightly more than 43 percent to Shade’s less than 34 percent. Max Nofziger drew 15.38 percent.   This means that Shade […]

City Manager Marc Ott tells In Fact Daily he is appointing Karen Kennard as City Attorney this morning. Kennard has been Acting City Attorney since May 2010. She was previously First Assistant City Attorney. Prior to that she served as General Counsel for the Texas Municipal League.

The city’s share of sales tax revenues for December was up 1.4 percent over the same month a year earlier. That puts sales taxes for the first three months of fiscal 2011 up a total of 4.2 percent from 2010, according to information from Chief Financial Officer Leslie Browder. Austin received $16.1 million this month compared to $15.9 million last […]

On Tuesday, Travis County commissioners voted to move forward with the evaluation of a potential county sobriety center. Though a thumbs-up/thumbs-down vote on the facility still seems far away, the schedule for a potential federal grant that may pick up as much as $500,000 of its costs forced the court to take early action.   […]