Delivering on a promise to do more outreach on the topic, City Council Member Mackenzie Kelly will be holding a virtual community meeting today about the potential return of license plate readers. The city’s License Plate Reader Program was cut in 2020 as part of the process to “reimagine public safety.” Austin police say that the readers are invaluable to their operations and they would like to see them back. However, criminal justice reform leaders and privacy advocates have concerns about the way they are used and the data they collect. Those wishing to join the meeting, which will take place at 5:00 p.m., can access it at this link, using the password “COAapd” and the event number 2485 475 9492. Kelly and representatives from the Austin Police Department will be in attendance.

Kimberly Hawkins entered the City Council District 8 race with the filing of a campaign treasurer appointment on July 11. She was not required to file a campaign finance report last week because she joined the race after the filing deadline and she has chosen a modified reporting option by promising not to collect or spend more than $940. Hawkins told the Austin Monitor that the incumbent, Paige Ellis, has not been responsive to her constituents. She added that she and her friends are tired of watching “Austin being overrun with real estate development” and complained about the high cost of living in the city. Suzanne “Zena” Mitchell, who goes by Zena, is a recent addition to the District 9 list of candidates. She said her campaign “is about people over profits,” and that her major concern is that Austin is not affordable anymore. She lives in the Mueller neighborhood. Like Hawkins, Mitchell signed the pledge to collect and spend no more than $940 on her campaign.

Though there’s technically a week left in their summer hiatus, City Council will convene Thursday for a special called meeting that is centered on the city’s reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. On the City Council agenda is the GRACE Act, which establishes the city will not fund tracking or reporting abortions or reproductive health care, including criminal investigation and enforcement of abortion laws. The proposed resolution also declares the city will not “(p)rovide information to any other governmental body or agency about any abortion, miscarriage, or other reproductive healthcare act, unless such information is provided to defend the patient’s right to abortion care or the healthcare provider’s right to provide that care.” In line with that resolution, Council will also consider a separate resolution that looks at the city’s abilities to sponsor public education about birth control and provide low-cost birth control options for employees. Council will vote on another resolution that looks into the feasibility of providing city employees “access to reproductive health care services that were previously available to them but no longer lawfully available in the state of Texas as a result of the Supreme Court ruling in the case involving abortion rights.” Online registration to speak at the meeting opens at 10:00 a.m. today, and closes at noon on Wednesday. In-person registration to speak runs from noon on Wednesday until 9:15 a.m. on the day of the meeting in the City Hall atrium.

The Austin Transit Partnership is currently looking to fill a vacancy on its board. Specifically, the board is looking for an expert in “community planning or sustainability” to help guide the Project Connect transit overhaul and to serve as board liaison to the Planning, Sustainability, Equity and DBE Advisory Committee (PSEC). According to the group’s bylaws, applicants should have:

• At least 10 years of experience in urban planning, community planning, equitable transit-oriented development (ETOD), sustainability and/or environmental planning;
• Experience with community engagement with preferably three to five years of specific experience; and
• Community expert members of the ATP board must be a resident of Austin.

With that in mind, the nominating committee also considers diversity and “an applicant’s ability to consider wholly Project Connect’s benefits and potential impacts, particularly on vulnerable communities aimed to be served by transit” when evaluating those who do not meet the above criteria. More information about the position and the application process can be found here.

Today is the first campaign finance reporting deadline for candidates running to serve on Austin City Council. On Thursday, mayoral candidate Kirk Watson was ready with the announcement that his campaign had raised a record-breaking $995,000 since declaring his intention to run in late February. The record was previously held by Mayor Steve Adler’s 2014 campaign, which raised an unprecedented total of about $366,000 during the first reporting period. (Adler’s 2014 campaign went on to raise more than $1.5 million.) Meanwhile, conservative challenger Jennifer Virden reported raising $84,506.54 since the start of this year and loaning her campaign $300,000. As of Thursday night, no other mayoral candidates had filed their paperwork on the city website. On Monday, we’ll break down the money raised in the races for mayor and districts 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9.

The latest census of the city’s music industry and ecosystem opened today and will gather input from musicians and others involved in live and recorded music until Aug. 15. The Greater Austin Area Music Census, at austinmusiccensus.org, will be used to help make policy decisions related to affordability and other issues affecting the industry. The initial version of the census released in 2014 found that a large number of local musicians and creatives earn less than poverty-level income from their performances and recording activities. In the years since, local leaders have crafted programs to try to improve musicians’ earning power and quality of life. More than 50 community organizations connected to music and the arts have agreed to help publicize and gather input on the 2022 census, with the goal of gathering more than the roughly 4,000 responses received in the previous iteration.

It’s official: Monkeypox has now progressed to community spread. That sounds pretty bad, but all it really means is that the virus “is moving at such a rate that the source cannot be identified to a single individual or population,” says Austin Public Health. There are six confirmed and seven presumptive cases of monkeypox in Austin-Travis County and the health agency is working hard to get the word out in an effort to educate the public on the steps people can take to protect themselves. Chief among those steps is avoiding skin-to-skin contact with strangers. County Health Authority Dr. Desmar Walkes notes that the practices we’ve learned from Covid-19 will also come in handy to avoid contracting monkeypox: “Try to reduce close, intimate interactions with those whose health history you’re unaware of,” she said. “Use hand sanitizer, and wear masks when in close quarters with others who have symptoms.” The latest local news on monkeypox is updated online every Thursday.

Austin Resource Recovery is taking steps to protect its workers from the sweltering heat, asking customers to take their trash carts to the curb no later than 5:30 a.m. on collection day. As the agency explains, the change “allows operators, or sanitation drivers, to begin collecting recycling, composting, trash, large brush and bulk items one hour earlier, helping to prevent them from performing collections during the hottest hours of the day.” That’s not the only adjustment ARR has made in the interest of worker safety: The number of mandatory 15-minute breaks each driver must take – called stand-downs – has increased from two to four each day. The city suspends its no-idling policy during these times so drivers may cool off in their vehicles. ARR employees also take “yearly heat awareness training ahead of the summer months,” so they can be informed of the best ways to stay hydrated and keep cool.

City officials continue to urge caution after another dog fatality that might have been caused by toxic algae. On Sunday, July 10, a dog died within an hour of visiting Barking Springs, and while the cause remains unknown, the city is investigating toxic algae as a possibility. Though harmful algae can always be present in Texas waterways, the extremely hot and dry conditions have heightened the threat, particularly along shorelines and in stagnant water. According to a press release from the city, “City scientists observed a few isolated mats of algae near rocks in (Barking Springs) and have taken samples for testing. Earlier this summer, the city of Austin detected toxins in algae samples at all monitoring locations on Lady Bird Lake and at Emma Long Metropolitan Park on Lake Austin.” Information about current algae testing and how to manage suspected exposure to toxic algae can be found on the city web page, which also contains information on reporting suspected exposure. Residents are advised to steer clear of algae and stagnant water and to rinse themselves and their dogs off after going for a swim.

There’s a new candidate for mayor: Former University of Texas student Phil Brual announced his candidacy on Facebook in June, saying, “The time has come and the race has begun! I have decided to run for mayor of this beautiful city in order to help facilitate growth and protect our city values.” Meanwhile the better-known candidates, Celia Israel and Kirk Watson, are working hard to get some attention amidst the heat and general summer doldrums. Watson is advertising his campaign office opening and day of action on Saturday, July 23.  Israel’s campaign is advertising a house concert with Rosie Flores and Leti Garza. The lone Republican in the race so far, Jennifer Virden, is promising to lower taxes and water and electric bills. Gary Spellman announced he would run for mayor in April but we haven’t heard much from him since. Fitness trainer and LGBT activist Erica Nix confirms that she is running for mayor also.

Austin Parks Foundation has announced its annual ACL Music Fest awards to parks across Austin. Overton School/Colony Park District Park, West Austin Neighborhood Park, Parque Zaragoza, Gullett School Park, Mary Dawson Pocket Park, and Grand Meadow Neighborhood Park are the lucky recipients of a total of $15,600 in grants. Some of the money will be used for specific improvements and amenities at the parks while $125,000 “will go towards Design Services awards to provide the plans that are necessary for the development of and/or improvements within the parks.” Park design director Katie Robillard explains, “Design needs are an unseen barrier to neighborhoods being able to make the improvements they desire, or turn undeveloped park space into a community hub. APF began offering Design Services in 2018 when it became clear that we could help with professional design and park planning, both of which can be quite expensive and time consuming. The design fees for vision planning and the required community engagement for even small parks can be hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is not typically available to neighborhood, volunteer stakeholders.”

An Austin Chamber of Commerce summer series for students offers four informational events focused on “direct-to-employment pathways after high school,” such as health care, nursing, manufacturing and IT. The four Learn to Earn events, hosted between July 12 and July 19, are available in person or virtually. The program, a partnership with Austin Community College, Temple College, Texas State Technical College, Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area, and Community Action, “aims to increase enrollment in short-term credential programs which prepare students for in-demand jobs in Central Texas.” Chamber CEO Laura Huffman said, “Having multiple pathways to a career is essential to having a robust economy. Businesses in our region have an immediate need for skilled workers in a variety of fields. High school graduates could learn these skills in as little as a few months and be on their way to an incredibly rewarding career.” Register for a session.