City Council members will have a series of knotty problems to solve at today’s meeting, including who should pay parkland dedication fees and how much those fees should be. In addition, they will be looking at perhaps the most controversial issue of all: When should commercial developers be required to pay the fees? Council Member […]
Jo Clifton
Jo Clifton is the Politics Editor for the Austin Monitor.
Posted inCity Council
ANC calls on city to improve public participation, ethics rules
The Austin Neighborhoods Council has issued a call for City Council to reform its rules for public participation, calling the current procedures for taking public input “anti-democratic practices that undermine public participation and trust,” according to ANC President Ana Aguirre. ANC adopted a resolution last week urging Council and Council candidates to support 10 specific […]
Posted inAustin
Austin loses advocate for the environment and people
Jack Goodman, who worked to convince the Texas Legislature to create a conservation district to help protect Barton Springs and the Edwards Aquifer and then served on that district’s board for 22 years, died Aug. 24 after a lengthy illness. He was 76. His wife, former Council Member and Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Goodman, told […]
Posted inWhispers
Friends donate to help after Jack Goodman’s death
Staunch environmental advocate Jack Goodman died last week at the age of 76. Jack served on the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District Board of Directors for 22 years, leaving office in 2012. The job was a labor of love, paid nothing and offered no retirement benefits. When he was incapacitated following a stroke several years […]
Posted inBudget
Council postpones deliberation on parks fees, plate readers
At the urging of Mayor Steve Adler, City Council members put off consideration of two controversial items from this week’s budget agenda. Council will now consider reinstatement of the license plate reader program for the Austin Police Department, as well as an ordinance that would require commercial property developers to pay into the city’s fund […]
Posted inWhispers
Delgado still hoping to get on the ballot
Bertha Delgado is running for the City Council District 3 seat, but the city clerk rejected her first application for a place on the ballot because of a previous felony conviction. A spokesperson for the city said via email that Delgado’s application had been rejected “because it does not meet the statutory requirements under section […]
Posted inWhispers
Clerk rejects mayoral application
Three potential City Council candidates recently filed campaign treasurer designations with the Austin city clerk but only two of them will apparently make it onto the ballot. Esala Wueschner has designated himself campaign treasurer for a District 3 race; Melonie House-Dixon chose Seth Fowler as her campaign treasurer to run against Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison […]
Posted inWhispers
Statesman PUD talk now set for Aug. 30
Although city staff hoped to have a special called City Council meeting on Aug. 22 to discuss the Statesman planned unit development and the South Central Waterfront plan, Council members were unable to agree on a time they would all be available before the Aug. 30 work session. This information comes via Mayor Steve Adler’s […]
Posted inBudget
Council set to modify, adopt city budget
Mayor Steve Adler is proposing a raise for City Council members and the next mayor starting in 2023 after he has left office. His proposal will be considered as part of the City Council budget adoption process, which starts tomorrow – although it’s hard to know whether they will complete the job the same day. […]
Posted inCity Hall
Kitchen seeking more funding to house the homeless
It’s budget time, and although City Manager Spencer Cronk’s team has put together its proposed budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year, each City Council member will be presenting their ideas for making the city a better place in the form of budget amendments or riders. Council Member Ann Kitchen has presented the first budget rider […]
Posted inWhispers
One added to mayoral lineup as Littlefield tweets candidate facts
Pollster and political prognosticator Mark Littlefield has put together an impressive series of statistics about all the people signed up to run for mayor and for five seats on City Council this November. After Littlefield posted his tweets, Craig Allen Blanchard III designated himself as his own treasurer to run for mayor. Blanchard, 37, told […]
Posted inParks
Harper-Madison argues against increasing parkland fees
Austin’s residential parkland dedication fees, which the city uses to buy parkland, more than doubled last year as the price of land increased. Now city budget writers are proposing to double those fees again for 2023. Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison posted a message to her colleagues on the City Council Message Board Tuesday, notifying them […]