Josh Rosenblatt

It’s been one year since Sara Hensley came to Austin to take over as director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, and during that time she’s dealt with sickly trees, hybrid grass, errant dogs, shrinking budgets, the Austin City Limits Music Festival, 570 employees, 16,700 acres of parkland and trails, and the city’s famously […]

Yesterday – coincidentally on World Toilet Day – the Council unanimously approved an amendment to the Austin Water Utility FY 2010 operating budget for water-conservation enhancements.     Under the original amendment proposal, $4 million from the utility’s Operating Fund Ending Balance (which was higher than expected as the result of additional total revenue and Operations […]

Following a few testy exchanges between members of the Resource Management Commission and representatives of the Austin Water Utility, the advisory panel voted Tuesday night not to recommend a $4 million budget amendment to the utility’s water conservation program.   Member of the commission generally supported the utility’s conservation efforts, but they were skeptical of […]

With more American soldiers coming home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, helping veterans transition back to civilian life continues to be a pressing concern for law enforcement and social service agencies across the country.   According to a study in the Journal of Internal Medicine, as many as 25-30 percent of veterans returning […]

A proposal to approve third reading of the South Shore District Planned Unit Development (PUD) ordinance was postponed by City Council Thursday, meaning Grayco Town Lake Investments will have to wait at least another month to find out how the city wants to divide up millions of dollars in affordable housing funds the developer has […]

On Wednesday the Cap Metro Board of Directors voted to approve a fare increase for bus and rail services but rejected a controversial staff proposal to begin charging seniors and riders with disabilities. The vote also moved the date the increase will go into effect from August to late January, pending a 60-day state-mandated review […]

The issue of animal welfare was pushed front and center last week at a city-sponsored meeting of local animal rights activists. The meeting, the first of its kind called by the city, was sponsored by the city’s Health and Human Services office to establish consensus priorities among the city’s various animal welfare agencies, a group […]

Advocates for the disabled and elderly argued heatedly over a Capital Metro proposal to speed up a scheduled fare increase at a public hearing Wednesday even though members of those groups would pay only 25 cents per ride.   Proponents of the fare increases, including the Austin Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Austin Alliance, […]

Supporters of Austin’s in-progress commuter rail line, MetroRail, can rest a little easier tonight, knowing that the project’s top critic, Jim Skaggs, won’t be joining the Capital Metro Board of Directors any time soon.   Skaggs, a longtime critic of the agency who was instrumental in defeating the light rail referendum in 2000 (“Costs too […]

Capital Metro ushered in a new, albeit temporary, era on Monday. At a special meeting, the agency’s board of directors named executive vice president and chief development officer Doug Allen interim president/CEO, an appointment that takes effect at 5pm this Friday.   Allen will be replacing Fred Gilliam, who announced last week that he would […]

On Thursday morning, the City Council voted to approve an ordinance establishing an enhanced review process for economic incentive proposals. The ordinance requires the implementation of a formal cost-benefit analysis to determine the costs of any economic incentive agreement proposals and a timeline to increase opportunity for citizen review and comment prior to the Council’s […]

On Monday afternoon, the Capital Metro Board of Directors approved a $164.7 million operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year, beginning Oct. 1. Despite an estimated 5 percent drop in sales tax revenue, which accounts for more than 70 percent of Cap Metro’s funding, the adopted budget does not include any “major service reductions.”   […]