Austin Energy will move its offices on Barton Springs Road to a new headquarters at the Mueller development in North Austin, a move that is expected to save the city roughly $1 million per year. Last week City Council unanimously approved an amendment to Austin Energy’s capital budget that provides $148.7 million for the land […]
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TipSheet: Travis County, 12.18.18
Travis County Commissioners Court will convene Tuesday morning for its final voting session of the year. Below are some of the more interesting items featured on the agenda this week. The entire agenda can be found at the Travis County website. For those following closely, last week’s discussion on the merger between the District Attorney […]
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Camelback is back, but this time at the Ethics Review Commission
After so much contention and inflamed passions on both sides, it’s no surprise that the story of the Camelback planned unit development did not end with the Nov. 1 approval by Council. On Dec. 12, the Ethics Review Commission heard a preliminary case against Jim Duncan, the vice chair of the Zoning and Platting Commission […]
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Tourism Commission pushes for broader use of hotel tax dollars
Austin’s Tourism Commission wants to see the city push for more latitude in how to spend local hotel occupancy tax dollars, with an eye toward next year’s session of the state Legislature. At Monday’s meeting, the commission approved a recommendation for City Council to amend the city’s legislative agenda for the 2019 session to advocate […]
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Council ponders ways to make meetings shorter, less confusing
As part of its ongoing efforts to make government more efficient and productive, City Council is discussing potential changes to how meetings are run. The conversation was kicked off by the city’s CFO Elaine Hart, who highlighted a number of ways Council could make things easier for the city employees who staff Council meetings. The […]
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City’s federal housing funds in jeopardy
The city of Austin could lose a significant amount of federal funding if President Trump follows through on his threat to shut down the federal government on Dec. 21. Various national publications reported Trump making the threat if Congress refuses to authorize $5 billion for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. At about the same […]
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TipSheet: City Council, 12.13.18
Welcome to this week’s TipSheet. This is the last Council TipSheet of the year, as this is the last City Council meeting of the year. It’s also the last meeting for District 1 Council Member Ora Houston and District 8 Council Member Ellen Troxclair. Today’s agenda promises to be “long, but boring,” but we’ve highlighted […]
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Home repair problems continue to surface
After our story last week highlighting problems in the city’s Neighborhood Housing and Community Development home loan repair program, the Austin Monitor received information from another homeowner who says the contractor hired to refurbish his home in 2014 did a bad job but was still paid for the work. Dave Hernandez, who lives on Holly […]
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TipSheet: Travis County, 12.11.18
The Travis County Commissioners Court meets every Tuesday at 9 a.m. To help our readers stay informed, each week we offer a selection of interesting items from the voting session agenda. The full agenda can be found on the Travis County website. 6. Receive update and report from the Travis County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) and […]
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Transportation Dept. faulted in right-of-way audit
When Austinites are asked for their top complaints about the city, one of the most frequent responses relates to traffic. The central city is particularly congested and contractors working in the right-of-way exacerbate the problem. According to a report released by the Office of the City Auditor this week, efforts by Austin’s Transportation Department to […]
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Austin economy looks sunny, with affordability as the biggest cloud
Austin business and policy leaders were shown a optimistic picture of the state and local economy Thursday at the Austin Chamber of Commerce’s annual economic forecast, with the smallest concern on the horizon partly a result of the city’s strong growth for more than a decade. The fundamentals for the city remain strong. Austin is […]
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Homeowners share stories of home repair anguish
Austin city auditors found the Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Department home rehabilitation loan program left a significant number of homeowners unhappy with the work contractors did and frequently missed its own goals over a three-year period, fiscal years 2015-2017. Andrew Keegan was the audit manager and Henry Katumwa was the auditor-in-charge of the audit. […]