Stories by Josh Rosenblatt
Staff proposal would make city employees work longer before retirement
A series of proposed changes to the city’s pension program would require new employees of the City of Austin to work longer before they can retire with full pension benefits. According to city financial staff, the city’s pension fund…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jul 9, 2010
City inches closer to new approach to social service contracting
Two weeks ago the Council’s Health and Human Services Committee met to begin reconsidering the way the city engages in social service contracts. After that meeting, HHS Director David Lurie envisioned that committee members would spend their time this week…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jul 2, 2010
Business reps voice complaints over transportation bond package
Now that Transportation Department Director Rob Spillar has presented City Council with staff’s initial recommendations for the proposed $85 million transportation bond proposal, the contentious process of finalizing the package through committee input has begun. Yesterday, Spillar brought staff’s proposal…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jun 29, 2010
Council votes to allow denser development on disputed tract
The months-long debate over the state of the Upper Boggy Creek Neighborhood Planning Area and its stubborn tract 3 has finally come to an end. On Thursday Council reversed its last decision on the Airport Boulevard site and voted to…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jun 28, 2010
Facing new criteria, Council delays final vote on six historic homes
Two weeks after approving a resolution to initiate code amendments that would greatly limit the number of properties granted historic landmark status, City Council yesterday put off making a final decision on six applications that may prove to be the…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jun 25, 2010
Staff presents ideas for reworking social service contracts
The city is currently deep into the process of reconsidering the way it engages in social service contracts. Last week, Health and Human Services Director David Lurie and Assistant Director Vincent Cobalis appeared before the Council’s Health and Human Services…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jun 24, 2010
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Council votes to exclude tract from Boggy Creek VMU overlay
The lengthy story of the Upper Boggy Creek Neighborhood Plan got another chapter Thursday when City Council voted, just barely, to amend the plan’s vertical mixed use conditional overlay. Moving against the wishes of the neighborhood’s contact team, Council voted…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jun 16, 2010
Transportation Department presents first draft of 2010 bond package
Faster buses and boardwalk trails may be in Austin’s future if a proposed transportation bond package made public Monday is able to snake its way through committees, task forces, and City Council this summer and win voter approval in November.…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jun 15, 2010
Projected Cap Metro FY2011 budget shortfall could mean fare hikes
Capital Metro is facing a projected budget shortfall of $1.4 million for FY2011, and staff at the transit agency is currently in the process of soliciting and studying citizen input on how best to cut expenses and increase revenue without…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jun 14, 2010
Council votes to begin amending historic landmark zoning process
Six months after grudgingly approving historic zoning status for a record number of properties on the understanding that staff would return with recommendations for revising city code on the issue, Council members voted last week to approve a resolution to…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jun 14, 2010
Sewer line break pours 115,000 gallons of wastewater into creek
Yesterday morning, Austin Water Utility crews were on the scene of a wastewater spill from a broken 10-inch sewer main near the 4900 block of Manchaca Road. The spill was originally reported at about 9:40am. According to Jill Mayfield…
Uncategorized • By Josh Rosenblatt • Jun 9, 2010
Transportation Department explains bond priorities
With nearly $100 million in transportation projects under consideration in a potential bond election this November, the members of the 2010 Transportation Bond Citizen Task Force spent time Thursday questioning Transportation Director Rob Spillar on the specifics of his department’s…
