Josh Rosenblatt

Austin could be losing up to $300,000 in tax revenue every year due to deficiencies in the way the city keeps track of short-term vacation rental properties, according to a report to the Council Audit and Finance Committee.   That finding was the result of an audit conducted by the Office of the City Auditor […]

Ask Walter Moreau, the executive director of Foundation Communities, and he’ll tell you it’s not easy convincing a neighborhood to accept a new affordable housing project, especially when that neighborhood is already home to the most affordable housing units in the city. Sometimes not even a restrictive covenant will do the trick.   This was […]

For nearly a year, City Council and city staff have been working to come up with amendments to the No Sit/No Lie ordinance that will make it both more humane and more enforceable. Last week, the Council’s Public Health and Human Services Committee agreed to several linguistic and structural changes to the ordinance they believe […]

It will be the end of an era Feb. 25, when Ester Matthews, director of the Austin Climate Protection Program, retires after more than 25 years in city government. During her tenure, she’s worked for a Council member, the Austin Music Network, and Austin Energy, but in the end it might just be her three […]

Let the digging begin. Council members approved a series of contract authorizations, ordinances, and amendments to prior agreements on Thursday that will at long last enable work to begin on the Waller Creek Tunnel Project.   According to city documents, the purpose of the Waller Creek Tunnel is to “provide 100-year storm event flood protection […]

As city staff continues to prepare recommendations for a revised historic landmark ordinance, a split vote on a historic-designation application at Thursday’s Council meeting highlighted just how divisive the debate can be.   The property in question, the Fitzgerald-Power-Lynn House, is just the kind of home to inspire disagreement among Council members. Built in 1928, […]

The Austin Water Utility is estimating that Water Treatment Plant 4 will come in more than $10 million under budget. However, AWU Director Greg Meszaros was quick to point out to the Council’s Audit and Finance Committee last week that that estimate is something of a moving target.   As of Jan. 24, Meszaros said, […]

The city’s new utility billing system, which was originally approved by City Council almost two years ago, won’t be up and running by its projected go-live date. According to city officials, the Custom Care & Billing system will likely miss its expected April 4 arrival date by about six months.   At yesterday’s special called […]

NRG Energy, Inc. has offered to buy Austin’s share of the coal-fired Fayette Power Project and replace the energy currently generated by the plant with nuclear power from the South Texas Project. In addition, NRG President of Advanced Technology Juan Garza says the company will work to reduce emissions from the coal plant by use […]

The City of Austin gained a new Fire Department battalion chief last week, and in the process, managed to lose a knotty personnel problem.   City Council members resolved a longstanding dispute involving the Austin Fire Department and one of its officers by approving the department’s request to increase the number of fire battalion chiefs […]

Note: This story has been corrected since an earlier version.   A rate increase of more than 10 percent is coming for all Austin Energy customers sometime between 2012 and 2013, General Manager Larry Weis told Council yesterday. That increase, he said, is necessary if the city hopes to meet the goals set out in […]

When Nancy McClintock began working as a field biologist for the city of Austin in 1986, environmentalism was not quite the science it would become over the course of her 25-year tenure. Instead, she and her fellow municipal biologists, conservationists, and engineers had to develop their own criteria for protecting the city’s waterways.   “When […]