Several City Council members agree with their colleague Leslie Pool, who says the city’s Historic Preservation Office is “desperately understaffed” and badly in need of more funding in order to make sure that Austin can keep many of its historic structures. Pool is sponsoring a resolution on this week’s agenda along with Mayor Pro Tem […]
Jo Clifton
Jo Clifton is the Politics Editor for the Austin Monitor.
Posted inWhispers
CodeNEXT legal hearing set for June 27
After City Council decided not to put a measure on the November ballot that would have allowed citizens to vote on whether to approve any ordinance coming out of the CodeNEXT process, attorney Fred Lewis filed suit on behalf of a group of citizens. Lewis announced on Thursday that the request for mandamus would go […]
Posted inCity Council
Questions arise over CodeNEXT votes
Attorney Bill Aleshire has alerted Mayor Steve Adler that a constituent saw a problem with the new method of counting City Council votes at Tuesday’s work session on CodeNEXT. That method required members to signal their support for an idea by raising one to five fingers for mild to enthusiastic support and a fist for […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Adopting code a significant challenge
Mayor Steve Adler continued his quest to gain consensus on CodeNEXT Tuesday as City Council began to deliberate adoption of the new Land Development Code. In pursuit of that end, Adler gave each person on the dais – including City Manager Spencer Cronk and staff from the Planning and Zoning Department – a hard hat […]
Posted inWhispers
Houston weighs in on tax exemptions
As the Austin Monitor reported Tuesday, City Council members Ellen Troxclair, Ora Houston, Leslie Pool and Ann Kitchen are sponsoring a resolution on next week’s Council agenda to raise the homestead exemption for homeowners. That exemption is currently at 8 percent and could be expected to rise to 10 percent if six members vote for […]
Posted inCity Council
Homestead exemption talk on the agenda
District 8 Council Member Ellen Troxclair is once again working to increase the general homestead exemption for property owners. She has worked on this issue since she was elected in 2014. Although City Council voted for a 6 percent exemption in 2015 and raised that amount to 8 percent in 2016, last year Troxclair was […]
Posted inWhispers
Robinson joins MLS crew
Kelan Robinson started his city career in the office of Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole and then joined the staff of Council Member Bill Spelman. After that, he worked for a while for Council Member Ann Kitchen before joining Michele Haussmann at her firm, Land Use Solutions. Then Robinson joined the law firm of Armbrust […]
Posted inLand Development Code
City sued over CodeNEXT sign information
Billboard company owner Billy Reagan, who helped fund the petition drive to put the new Land Development Code on the November ballot, has sued the city. His suit is not to be confused with the lawsuit filed last week to attempt to force the city to put CodeNEXT on the ballot. In his suit, Reagan […]
Posted inCity Hall
Health department faulted in foundation audit
Members of the city auditor’s staff have found that Austin Public Health’s monitoring process for contracts with the African-American Youth Harvest Foundation has been ineffective and that the department cannot verify that the foundation has fulfilled the intended purpose of one of its contracts with the city. The city currently has two contracts with the […]
Posted inWhispers
Remembering Kelly
Friends and family of advocate and lobbyist Mike Kelly will gather to celebrate his life this Sunday, June 3, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Threadgill’s on Barton Springs Road. Kelly passed away on May 1, just a few days short of his 73rd birthday, from a pneumonia-related illness. Friends will remember a staunch liberal […]
Posted inCity Hall
Employees coming, going at City Hall
The city of Austin has lost two well-known employees in the last few days, including Mark Dreyfus, Austin Energy’s vice president of regulatory affairs and corporate communications. According to a memo from Jeff Vice, AE director of local government relations, Dreyfus has retired “after nearly 19 years of dedicated service to Austin Energy.” But there […]
Posted inWhispers
More opponents line up against Dripping Springs
The Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District and the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District have officially joined the fight against a permit that would allow the city of Dripping Springs to dump up to 995,000 gallons per day of treated sewage into Onion Creek in the Texas Hill Country. The two parties were added as the […]