Mayoral candidate Steve Adler may not have a very good time at Austin Environmental Democrats today since the Austin Bulldog published a story Tuesday outlining how Adler and his law partner, SteveMichael Barron, benefited from an old restrictive covenant on land within the Barton Springs zone of the Edwards Aquifer. The group plans to endorse one of the mayoral candidates today, as well as either Kathie Tovo or Chris Riley for District 9 in the November election. According to the Bulldog, Adler and Barron’s property carries a restrictive covenant allowing development at an impervious cover level more than twice what the SOS ordinance would allow. The story is long and complicated but the Bulldog reported, “Bill Bunch, executive director of the Save Our Springs Alliance, slammed Adler for using the restrictive covenant to avoid compliance with the SOS Ordinance, saying, ‘He is trying to say building under the restrictive covenant is different from grandfathering. It is not.’” The meeting begins at 11:30 a.m. at the El Mercado Restaurant on South First Street. (Whisper corrected to reflect the correct name of Adler’s law partner. It is Michael Barron not Steve Barron.)

There was some news on the City Council campaign trail this week. District 3 candidate Frank Guajardo told the Austin Monitor that he was “seriously dropping out of the race” after filing his campaign treasurer report on July 15. As far as we can tell, Guajardo managed to run his three week campaign without letting it slip why, exactly, he was running. However, despite Guajardo’s withdrawal, the field of City Council contenders has expanded. Mayoral candidate Stephen Fabian and District 7 candidate Zachary Ingraham both filed their treasurer designations on Monday. Fabian, a financial analyst by trade, told us that he was running for mayor because he loves Austin, but not the direction in which the city is going. Ingraham told us that he got involved with city politics after working with City Council and the Austin Police Department in 2013 to mandate training for handling aggressive dogs. The chance to represent his district under the new 10-1 system further convinced Ingraham to run. “I think that one of my goals will be to repeal city ordinances more so than to pass new ones,” said Ingraham.  Remember, we are keeping track of all 70 or so candidates at The Hall Monitor so you don’t have to. (Trust us, it’s a lot of work.)

This week’s Council agenda – 179 items long – could keep members, staff and interested citizens up late Thursday night, or more likely, early Friday morning. Council is likely to postpone at least one downtown zoning caser. City staffers say they erred in posting notice about the request for CBD–CURE zoning for the tiny piece of property at 619 Congress Avenue. Attorney Richard Suttle is representing the applicant, who wants to put a hotel on the property next to the Hideout Theatre. Attorney Jeff Howard represents the owner of the theater property, who is worried that construction next-door will damage her tenant’s business. The argument this week will be about whether to postpone the case to Aug. 28 or Sept. 25.

Austin City Council members engaged in a brief discussion about a potential ban on driving while using handheld devices Tuesday morning. Though they took no action — and one is expected for another two or three weeks — Mayor Lee Leffingwell did express some skepticism over a portion of the ordinance that would limit such activity even while stopped. There, Leffingwell appeared to side with Public Safety Commission Chair Kim Rossmo, who Monday voted against such a ban.

At Tuesday’s work session, the City Council discussed a proposed interlocal agreement between the city and the Texas A&M University System to investigate potential future uses of unmanned aerial vehicles (aka drones) and other robotics in emergency response situations. Austin Fire Department Assistant Chief Richard Davis stated that the agreement would have no fiscal impact on the city, and that “the technology has promise.” Davis explained that the goal of the four-year project is to have developed a plan for implementing the technology by its end. Council Member Bill Spelman, who requested the item, expressed concern about how the public might perceive such a project. He suggested that the Fire Department split the program into four, yearlong projects, with progress reports at the end of each year.

City officials will discuss actions today that will be taken to respond to concerns about issues arising from the heavy use of the Barton Springs Spillway, the area just north of Barton Springs Pool, at a news conference. The Austin Parks and Recreation Department and the Austin Police Department have seen a 40 percent increase in crime-related activities in this metropolitan park area. Activities such as use of alcohol and illegal substances; theft; smoking; and other violations such as dogs off leash, will be addressed. PARD and APD officials plan a news conference at 11:30 a.m. today near the spillway just north of the Barton Springs Pool.

The Environmental Board meets at 6:30 p.m. in Room 325 at One Texas Center, 505 Barton Springs Road . . . The Police Monitor Citizen Review Panel meeting is canceled. . .

District 1 candidate Ora Houston filed the documents necessary to get her name on the November 4 ballot Monday at about the same time that Steve Adler filed his paperwork for the mayoral ballot.

The current phase of the CodeNEXT rewrite of the city’s Land Development Code is fast coming to an end, and that phase is already set to cost the city about $500,000 more than originally anticipated. The current contract with Opticos Design, Inc. will end in October 2014, and has had several adjustments to its scope and schedule. Council originally approved up to $2 million for the rewrite process. About $1.25 million of that has already been spent, leaving just $750,000 for Phase II of the project. The second phase will cover drafting new or revised code, reformatting and reorganizing the code, and testing new code through modeling software. A memo responding to a budget query from Council Member Laura Morrison details how Phase I costs accrued, and explains that staff did not anticipate a number of costs that have arisen. Items that pushed the budget a half-million bucks over the line include: public CodeTALKs, additional Envision Tomorrow software modeling, integration of other code amendments currently in process, monthly trips by the lead consultant to talk with stakeholders, and the cost of shifting the timeline for so the new 10-1 City Council can vote on it.

The City of Austin has received praise recently for its work with Geographic Information System applications. The city was recognized with two awards for unique GIS application solution. The first was from the Public Technology Institute for Significant Achievement in GIS for the Infrastructure Management, Mapping, Planning and Coordination Tool. The second award was from the ESRI SAG Awards for special achievement in GIS. For more information, go to the city website.

Travis County Commissioners are scheduled to vote today on the request from Charles Schwab, a San Francisco-based brokerage and banking corporation, for an $8.5 million economic incentive agreement to expand its offices in Austin. If the court approves the motion, the corporation will also get $4.5 million from the state. The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce support the agreement, while local taxpayer organizations like ChangeAustin.org oppose. More citizens might show up to oppose the measure today, since there was only a three-day notice that the item was going on last week’s agenda last week.

Austin Environmental Democrats will gather Wednesday to hear candidates for Mayor and City Council District 9 and make endorsements in those races. The group will meet from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at El Mercado Restaurant on South First Street. Only members who paid their dues by July 6 will be eligible to vote. The group decided to limit proxies to one per member attending in order to prevent the practice of sending one member with numerous proxies for a particular candidate. Council Members Sheryl Cole and Mike Martinez and attorney Steve Adler completed the group’s questionnaire in the mayoral race, as did Council Members Chris Riley and Kathie Tovo in District 9. The group plans further endorsement meetings later in August.