Josh Rosenblatt

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 is under growing strain, and a supplemental funding plan, approved in 2005, won’t be sufficient […]

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 discussing the proper ways to leverage the city’s limited resources and striking a balance between […]

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 before the members of the Transportation Bond Citizen Task Force.   Attendees wasted little time […]

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 allow the tract to remain in the vertical mixed use (VMU) overlay district.   On […]

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 last considered before those changes go into effect.   The six houses – all of […]

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 Committee to make recommendations on the way the city should prioritize community needs and procure […]

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 4-3, on second reading, in favor of excluding 4020 Airport Boulevard (tract 3) from the […]

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.   Austin Transportation Department Director Rob Spillar and Assistant Director Gordon Derr presented the initial […]

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 dramatically reducing service. Cap Metro staff is even looking into the possibility of instituting bus […]

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 initiate code amendments to the historic rezoning process.   The resolution initiates and directs the […]

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 from the utility’s Public Information Office, by the time crews were able to stop the […]

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 newly compiled list of prioritized projects for the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan.   Their concern […]