Last week, City Council Member Don Zimmerman announced that he would be opening a field office for District 6 at The Crossing on Anderson Mill Road. In a news release, Zimmerman said he plans to lease the office for an initial period of six months in order to gauge its effectiveness. According to Zimmerman’s chief of staff, Joe Petronis, the Council member will be able to open the office without increasing his budget by “restructuring his Council personnel.” At the same time, Zimmerman’s constituent liaison, Trent Pool, has left the city to return to campaign work, Petronis said. The new person in that role is Nuvia Devine, who worked on Zimmerman’s campaign and is married to Texas Supreme Court Justice John Devine. She will be in the City Hall office for only a short period of time before going to the District 6 field office, according to aide Gregory Watson.

A partnership between the Austin Water Utility and the Austin Independent School District has saved the district about 11.7 million gallons of water, or enough to provide water to 195 average households for a year. AISD took advantage of Austin Water’s new Commercial Audit Rebate Program to help pay for comprehensive water efficiency audits for seven campuses that had the greatest potential water savings. Utility officials say the changes will save the district $164,000 in water and wastewater charges. This effort began in 2013 to help the district conserve water and reduce utility bills. Audited campuses included Austin, LBJ, Travis, Eastside Memorial, Crockett and Lanier high schools as well as Murchison Middle School. The seven AISD audits identified a total potential savings of 24 million gallons per year with potential annual cost savings of $530,912 at 2014 rates, according to utility officials. Audits for five more campuses are planned for 2015. For more information about Austin Water conservation incentive programs, go here.

New sculptures have recently been installed in the cellphone parking lot area at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Landscaping work around the new art was completed last week. The two new sculptures, “Checker Burst” and “Shock Egg,” are inspired by and interpretations of vapor cones (called “shock eggs”), a phenomenon that can occur as a flying object approaches supersonic speeds. The sculptures were created by artist Eric Eley. The grounds around the sculptures were fashioned by landscape architect Carolyn Kelley, who said the landscaping was designed to be an integral part of the artist’s overall concept. The works were commissioned by the city’s Art in Public Places program, which marks its 30^th anniversary this year.

As part of Cities United for Immigration Action, Judge Sarah Eckhardt has announced that Travis County will join 73 other cities and counties to file a new friend-of-the-court brief in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the Texas vs. United States lawsuit. The brief urges immediate implementation of President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. Eckhardt said the brief demonstrates support from the country’s largest cities — as well as its suburbs and rural areas — for the president’s reforms, which will provide temporary relief from deportation to immigrants who have longstanding ties to the U.S., pass a background check and meet other criteria. Eckhardt said Cities United for Immigration Action is arguing that the national public interest is served clearly and overwhelmingly by implementing immigration relief by executive action without delay. The brief also argues that the District Court judge’s decision to block executive action with a preliminary injunction is bad for the economy, hurts families, threatens law enforcement priorities and will stall desperately needed changes to the federal government’s immigration policies.

At its April 1 meeting, Austin’s Environmental Board clarified a December 2014 ordinance, which outlined board membership requirements. The issue was brought before the board by Chuck Lesniak, an environmental officer with the city. The ordinance in question could be interpreted to mean that the board is requiring some members to have a desire in the city’s environmental preservation; professional expertise in geology, hydrology, civil engineering, land planning or ecology and expertise in horticulture, urban forestry or landscape architecture, which would recruit candidates who were overly qualified, Lesniak argued. The latter clause was added because the Environmental Board is going to be combined with the Urban Forestry Board, said Chair Mary Gay Maxwell. The “and” was replaced with “or demonstrated.” Board Member Robert Deegan also pointed out that the ordinance increased board membership from seven to 11, but the clause stipulating that no more than three board members should be employed in land development-related activities did not go up in accordance. Board members voted unanimously to incorporate the changes.

Art in Public Places, a program of the City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Division of the Economic Development Department, is seeking to commission a professional artist or artist team to create a permanent exterior public artwork for Republic Square Park. Professional visual artists who live and work in the state of Texas are eligible to apply. The total budget for this project is $105,000. The program’s aim is to commis­sion works of art that advance public understanding of visual art and enhance the aesthetic quality of Austin’s public places. An Artist Information Meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. April 16 at the Cultural Arts Division offices, 201 E. 2nd St. Online applications must be submitted by May 21 through www.PublicArtist.org.

Mayor Steve Adler will join other community leaders today in thanking AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps VISTA and Senior Corps participants. The event, which is part of the Mayors Day of Recognition for National Service, will include remarks from Mary Rolle, program officer for the Corporation for National and Community Service; Lisa Lucero, One Star Foundation board member; Chris Gomon, AmeriCorps crew leader; and Bobbie Neal, Senior Corps volunteer, in addition to Adler. It will take place at 1 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall.

As part of Earth Month, the national Parks Build Community initiative is looking to award a $20,000 grant to improve an Austin park, and Austinites get to choose which one. The event is sponsored by Disney, ABC Television Group, ESPN and the National Recreation and Park Association. Through April 30, Austin residents will have the opportunity to vote to give one of three park projects a chance to receive the $20,000 for improvements. The projects are the Battle Bend Park Basketball Court Renovation, the House Among the Trees at Zilker Park and the Nature Play at Dove Springs District Park. By going here, park supporters can vote daily for their favorite project. The one with the most votes at the end of April gets the grant.

On Wednesday, the city will hold two separate meetings to address the recently released final version of the Zucker Report. The report, which asks the city to implement sweeping changes to the city’s Planning and Development Review Department, has already had an impact. Both meetings will be held April 8 in Rooms 1-5 at the Palmer Events Center. The first will start at 3:00 p.m., and the second will begin at 7:00 p.m., with both to last a scheduled two hours. At the same time, the Zucker System consultant team will be accepting public comments through April 13. Those comments can be submitted outside of the public meetings either through email (paul@zuckersystems.com), mail (Zucker Systems, 3038 Udall St., San Diego, CA 92106) or by contacting Paul Zucker at (619) 804-1769.

At last Thursday’s City Council meeting, Council members heard a highly prepared presentation on development review, inspections and the permitting process in the city. And then, with little fuss, voted 9-0 to approve a resolution directing the city manager to “outline plans addressing reform” of those processes. The resolution asks the manager to, among other things, return within 30 days with a plan to address backlogs; provide by June 30 a detailed response to the Zucker Report; and submit progress reports on the reforms at least every 60 days. Council Members Ellen Troxclair and Leslie Pool were absent for the vote.

The Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District will hold an Ask-An-Expert Open House and Water Well Checkup on April 16 at its district headquarters. The open house, which runs from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m., will feature experts on hand to discuss Water Treatment (Absolute Water), Septic System Maintenance (Agrilife Extension), Gardening (Travis County Master Gardeners), Tree Care (Texas Heritage Tree Care), Water Quality Testing (Edwards Aquifer Research and Data Center Water Quality Lab) and, of course, Hydrogeology (Aquifer District staff). From 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., the district will also be offering water well checkups. Officials said in a statement, “Well owners in the District can preregister and pick up supplies from now until the day before the checkup. The first 50 well owners will be able to bring in their water samples … to have water screened for pH, nitrate, salinity, and bacteria. After hours drop-off available starting 5 p.m. Wednesday. Samples must be taken less than 24 hours before they are analyzed to give reliable results.” The district is located at 1124 Regal Row in Manchaca. Those interested can learn more here.

What has former City Council Member Mike Martinez been up to since leaving office? Thursday, on Facebook, he made it clear that one of his activities has not been boosting the career of George P. Bush. In a post, Martinez wrote, “Thank you to those who have called and emailed me about my name being on a list of individuals who were a part of the selection process for the awarding of the Latino Leadership Award to George P. Bush. I was NOT part of that process or decision. I certainly agree that Mr. Bush is a rising leader in Texas and the Republican Party, but, had I been involved in the process, I believe there are other long time leaders in Latino community who are deserving of such high honors. I have been working with the University for the last few hours trying to clear this issue and have my name removed from any further information involving this matter. Happy Easter Weekend!”