Judge halts November charter election

Judge Daniella DeSeta Lyttle granted a temporary restraining order against the city of Austin on Thursday. The order prevents the city from moving forward with November’s charter election, which has 13 proposed amendments to the city’s governing document. The judge found that the city did not provide adequate notice for the charter election item at its Aug. 14 meeting, in line with the Texas Open Meetings Act violations that Save Our Springs Alliance alleged in its suit, filed on Monday. “The purpose of the Open Meetings Act is openness and transparency and the conduct that is described frustrates this purpose and makes it so that plaintiffs would suffer irreparable harm,” Lyttle said in issuing the order. A full evidentiary hearing for a temporary injunction has been set for 9 a.m. Thursday.