Board chair concerned about Council conflicts

Environmental Board Chair Mary Gay Maxwell raised concerns at Wednesday’s meeting that the proposed City Council committee meeting schedule will divert attention from Environmental Board meetings by superseding live broadcasts on the ATXN cable channels. Though Council will have to adopt its new committee schedule at next Thursday’s meeting, the current proposal would schedule those meetings every Monday and Wednesday between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the Council chambers at City Hall. The Environmental Board currently meets at 6 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of each month in the Council chambers, so it would also likely need to find a new location. “One of the things that we might want to do as individuals, you might want to contact (anybody you know on Council) and talk to them about the value of having our board be televised in real time,” Maxwell said to her fellow board members. “People do look at our board meeting, and this is the way we get information about the environment of Austin out to a larger group of people.” Maxwell also requested that the city clerk give a presentation to the Environmental Board at its next meeting about the new committee structure and schedule. Both the Board of Adjustment and the Historic Landmark Commission currently meet in Council Chambers on Monday evenings, and the Zero Waste Advisory Commission meets every other Wednesday. But those panels have not met since the committee schedule was unveiled.