Following weeks of deliberation, the mayor and City Council offices are receiving a boost in staffing — at least for the next few months. Council voted 9-2 Thursday to approve a resolution that will effectively add three full-time staff members to Mayor Steve Adler’s office and one full-time staff member to each Council office for the […]
City Council
Posted inCity Council, Texas State Legislature
Council OKs X Games bid for major state funding
By a narrow margin, Austin City Council voted Thursday to endorse the application of the Summer X Games to the Texas Major Event Trust Fund for 2015 only. It also voted to remove the possibility that the X Games will be able to request a waiver of $150,000 in city fees. The vote was 6-4, […]
Posted inCity Council, Fire, Public Safety
Council delays fire department reclassification plan
A proposal to modify the Austin Fire Department’s leadership hierarchy has encountered headwinds at City Hall. City Council Member Don Zimmerman moved Thursday to prevent a vote on the resolution that proposes tweaking the department’s classification system, including removing several lower-level positions and adding two new division chiefs to Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr’s executive team. […]
Posted inAustin, Budget, City Council
Council staff proposal up in the air ahead of vote
Despite committee efforts and new cost projections, a conversation among City Council members Tuesday revealed that they still have some work to do on a proposal to increase staffing and resources for the mayor and Council offices ahead of a vote Thursday. “We’re two months, already, past January,” said Mayor Steve Adler, urging his colleagues […]
Posted inAustin, City Council
Renteria making changes to barbecue proposal
In response to owners of barbecue restaurants worried about their future in Austin, City Council Member Pio Renteria is making some changes to his resolution directing city staff to create rules to regulate smoke from commercial barbecue smokestacks. Originally, the resolution was written to require restaurants and mobile food vendors who use a wood or […]
Posted inBudget, City Council
Committee tweaks, approves Council staff boost
This Thursday, City Council members will once again take up the issue of increasing their own staff. Last week, the Council Audit and Finance Committee considered the proposal for a second time. Members voted unanimously to recommend adding 12 full-time positions — one for each Council office and two for Mayor Steve Adler’s office. Most […]
Posted inPremium Types
TipSheet: Austin City Council 3.31 & 4.2
Council continues its run of brief (by comparison) voting session agendas. As always, the Austin City Council meets in an agenda work session Tuesday and for its regular meeting Thursday. Below is a list of items we’re watching for the upcoming week. In the interest of space, we’ve decided not to post the entire agenda […]
Posted inCity Council, Parks
Open Space panel urges better communication
At its first official meeting, the Council Open Space, Environment and Sustainability Committee urged city departments to keep residents better informed of changes to the Walnut Creek Hike and Bike Trail. Parks and Recreation Department project manager Marty Stump gave the committee an update Wednesday, sitting adjacent to a handful of angry neighbors who said […]
Posted inAustin, City Council, Energy, Resources
AE to seek new solar contracts by mid-April
Since City Council adopted a set of goals last year that will shape Austin’s future energy portfolio, most discussion has focused on how to fill a 500-megawatt power gap in the plan. This week, the focus shifted to a goal that gets the city to shop for large solar investments. Responding to a request by […]
Posted inAustin, City Council, Development, Land Development Code, Zoning
Adler promises to change building permit process
Speaking to a receptive audience at the Real Estate Council of Austin on Wednesday, Mayor Steve Adler said he and his colleagues intend to make sure that they fix problems in the city’s development and permitting process sooner rather than later. In response to the highly critical Zucker Report on the city’s slow, complicated and […]
Posted inPremium Types
TipSheet: Austin City Council, 3.24 & 3.26
Council has two meetings Thursday: Its inaugural Austin Energy committee of the whole and the regular Council meeting, pushed back to 11 a.m. to accommodate for the AE committee. Their agenda continues to be light, relative to those of their predecessors. As always, the Austin City Council meets in an agenda work session Tuesday and […]
Posted inCity Council
Council sends cost overrun issues to committee
City Council members approved an additional expenditure last week of a little more than $91,000 for the construction contract for restoration of infrastructure along lower Shoal Creek to Lady Bird Lake. The total budget of that project was $1,217,366 to repair erosion along the shoreline of the peninsula, restore native plants and limestone boulders and […]