Josh Rosenblatt

With Central Texas in the midst of a historical drought, a report released yesterday confirmed many people’s worst fears about the resulting economic impact on the Lake Travis area: that low lake levels can, and most likely will, have a devastating effect, quite possibly to the tune of $21 million a year.   The report, […]

City Council weighed in on the thorny issue of development in the budding East Sixth Street “entertainment” district at its meeting Thursday, voting unanimously to deny the construction of a cocktail lounge in a neighborhood that has seen an explosion of them in the past five years.   The proposed Dram Shop would have been […]

The city’s social service contracting process hit another snag this week when staff informed Council that they will have to make changes to two items on today’s agenda. As of Wednesday night, staff had yet to resolve the confusion. A city spokesperson said a memo to Council members is forthcoming.   On Sept. 15, the […]

The leaders of the Austin Fire Department and the Austin Firefighters Association (AFA) have signed off on an agreement to alter the process the department uses to hire new cadets. Their nearly yearlong dispute could be over as early as this week, after the union rank and file votes on the compromise.   However, if […]

Nearly a year after Council voted for a new competitive social service contracting process, the Public Health and Human Services Committee has approved a staff-recommended funding list for three-year contracts with 30 agencies. The committee also approved divvying up $380,000 to three social service groups that currently receive some city funding but that didn’t make […]

A little more than a week away from the start of their official deliberations on the proposed FY2012 budget, City Council members spent Wednesday afternoon hearing from some of their constituents on the matter, and one thing was made very clear: They were not happy with the idea of an Austin Water Utility rate increase. […]

The age-old Austin issue of city zoning versus private restrictive covenants reared its head again at last week’s City Council meeting. At issue was a property located in a prime real estate spot just east of South Congress Avenue that for years has been home to nothing but a vacant church and a conditional use […]

As the city inches closer toward adopting its FY2012 budget, City Council Member Bill Spelman and Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo remain at odds over how best to fund the Austin Police Department. The two men continued their debate on the subject yesterday, when Acevedo went before Council to present his department’s proposed $282.9 million […]

After nearly a year of deliberation, a city advisory committee has recommended changes to the Council’s Third Party Agreement Resolution. At a meeting of a Council committee on minority contracting, members of city staff and the Law Department gave their support to about half of those recommendations but argued that the city could face legal […]

City Council voted Thursday to amend a controversial extension of paid parking hours downtown. The new guidelines, which are slated to go into effect Sept. 6, will limit the number of hours paid parking will be in effect on certain days of the week. However, the ordinance will not change the geographic boundaries of the […]

It looks like Council members may have found a way out of their stalemate over the extension of paid parking hours downtown. A proposal put forward by Council Member Mike Martinez and co-sponsor Mayor Lee Leffingwell responds to the concerns expressed by some of their colleagues by limiting both the hours of the original proposal […]

With the Texas Legislature signing off on a FY2012-13 budget in May that will include $15 billion in cuts, Travis County will feel the belt-tightening, as the Commissioners Court found out at a budget meeting Wednesday. Generally the county gets about $44.3 million from the state, but county staff is estimating that number will be […]