Photos by Jo Clifton.

Members of AFSCME Local 1624, representing employees of the city of Austin and Travis County, held a noisy rally and press conference Thursday in the City Hall plaza. They wanted to reinforce the idea that interim City Manager Jesús Garza’s proposed telework policy did not work for them. Garza has said all employees should return to the office at least three days a week. They called on Garza to “postpone implementation of any telework changes until March of 2024 to allow adequate time for data-driven policymaking,” according to AFSCME business manager Carol Guthrie and Local 1624 President Ben Suddaby. Stay tuned.

Planning on getting married? You and your beloved might want to wait for June 26, when the Travis County Clerk’s Office plans to hold free wedding ceremonies, conducted by Judge Nicholas Chu, to celebrate Pride Month and the eighth anniversary of Marriage Equality. Couples that would like to get hitched during the Marriage Equality Day Celebration should schedule an appointment on the county clerk’s website and get their marriage license by June 22 in order to meet the 72-hour waiting period deadline. The ceremonies will be held at the clerk’s office at 5501 Airport Blvd. from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The wedding parties may include up to 10 people and should arrive 15 minutes before their appointment. Travis County Clerk Dyana Limon-Mercado said, “In February 2015 the Travis County Clerk’s office issued the first marriage license to a same-sex couple in Texas. In the face of extreme attacks on the LGBTQ+ community from the Texas State Legislature, our office will continue to support and celebrate the rights of all Texans to participate fully in our society, including the right to marry whoever they love, regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression.”

Today’s City Council agenda includes a few items that may raise the temperature in Council chambers. That includes one related to getting rid of occupancy limits based on familial status. A number of groups – the Austin Justice Coalition, Austin Housing Coalition, Austin Cooperative Business Association, Planning Our Communities, Farm & City and Aura – jointly put out a statement Wednesday urging Council to ditch the rules. According to their statement, “34 percent of Austinites are cost burdened by housing and 15 percent are severely so.” The groups said that “eliminating occupancy limits would do a huge amount to allow Austinites greater flexibility and affordability in their housing choices immediately, without costing the city or taxpayers anything.” However, Council Member Mackenzie Kelly has a different viewpoint on the issue. On the City Council Message Board, Kelly proposed an amendment to the item that would considerably slow down the process of changing the section of the Land Development Code governing occupancy. She proposes directing “the city manager to conduct a comprehensive study of the areas affected by these proposed changes.” The study would gather feedback from the community and “establish a stakeholder working group consisting of members from the impacted areas.” The proposal does not change occupancy limits related to health and safety, which are in the city’s building code. The item is sponsored by Council Member Zo Qadri with co-sponsors Vanessa Fuentes, Leslie Pool, José Velásquez and Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis.

A group of organizations led by the Govalle/Johnston Terrace Neighborhood Contact Team and PODER that includes Sierra Club, Save Our Springs and the Austin Neighborhoods Council will hold a press conference today to address the proposed redevelopment of the Borden Dairy Plant on Austin’s east side. “This project, as proposed at 120 feet with up to 95 percent impervious cover, will instantly overwhelm the bottleneck transportation access infrastructure, from 500 trips to over 21,000 trips per day, and the proposed impervious cover will contribute to acceleration of flooding runoff and contribute to the heat island effect,” said Daniel Llanes, chair of the Govalle/Johnston Terrace Neighborhood Contact Team. “Further, seven new development projects within 3/4 mile of this site, including two slated riverfront developments, have all developed within the existing 60-feet development criteria.” The organizations are calling for more environmental review and consideration, including Dark Skies standards to protect the nearby wildlife, restricted access to the wildlife sanctuary and an extension of the city’s Waterfront Overlay. If the project moves forward without more extensive review, they ask that it move forward with protections consistent with the Waterfront Overlay, including setbacks from the river and parkland and height and impervious cover consistent with “what normal commercial zoning would permit.” City Council is slated to take up the proposed redevelopment Thursday.

The union representing city employees, AFSCME Local 1624, will hold a rally and press conference Thursday to protest a proposed telework policy that will send them back to the office. The “Rally to Save Telework” will call on interim City Manager Jesús Garza to postpone implementing changes that reduce telework to two days per week for most, and eliminate it entirely for executives. The rally asks for a data-driven policy based on things like feedback, productivity rates established during the pandemic, and climate goals. A press release from the union invites all city employees to join the rally at noon on Thursday and notes, “The City of Austin is in a near crisis of recruitment and retention, and this policy proposal would hobble the City’s ability to compete for the best of the workforce. Now, more than ever, the City should be looking for ways to expand the benefits and privileges of working for the City, not implementing changes that would make City work environments less desirable.”

Though the exact shape of police oversight in Austin has yet to be determined after a May election, the person that will be running the city’s Office of Police Oversight is now established. A memo from interim City Manager Jesús Garza announced the appointment of Gail McCant as interim director of the office beginning Monday, June 5. According to that memo, “McCant has over 25 years of experience enforcing civil rights, human rights, and employee rights. She has served as Human Rights Director for persons with disabilities and Lead Investigator, investigating abuse and neglect complaints, employment discrimination complaints and housing discrimination complaints.” McCant served as the administrator of the city of Austin’s Office of Civil Rights and as an employee relations partner for Travis County.

The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) Board of Directors has approved a 2024 business plan of about $565 million and endorsed about $1.17 billion in energy, water and public service projects. “Our fiscal year 2024 plans carry on our tradition of investing in infrastructure that will help the people of Texas continue to be successful in their businesses and their communities,” said Timothy Timmerman, chair of the LCRA Board of Directors, in a statement to the press. “Planning is key for enhancing economic growth, and LCRA is committed to supporting our state’s growth with the water, electric power and electric transmission needed to thrive.” The plans can be read here, but a press release from LCRA notes that the capital budget includes a new, natural gas-run “peaker power plant” that can pick up the slack when demand surpasses the power available. The river authority also plans to (eventually) spend $3 billion on new and improved transmission facilities, $159 million developing new water supply projects and $38 million “in rehabilitation projects to help ensure the dams continue to operate safely and effectively, meeting all state regulations for dam safety.” LCRA is funded by its business revenue, not state appropriations or taxes.

This Monday, May 29, Capital Metro will be running on a “Sunday Level” service due to Memorial Day. You can read the full holiday service schedule here for details, but, in short, the transit authority will be cutting rail, UT shuttles and Express service for the day, but Pickup bus service will remain normal.

The city is thinking of adding protected bike lanes, improving pedestrian crossings and making improvements to intersections in the name of safety on North Loop, East 53rd Street and Hancock Drive. But before it does, Public Works officials would like to hear from the public. More information about the project and its current proposed path can be found on a city website dedicated to the topic that also includes a survey, which is open to the public through June 11.

At the beginning of the year, the city and Pease Park Conservancy signed a park operations and maintenance agreement, making their relationship official. But the work the conservancy was doing predated the agreement, as detailed in the 2022 Impact Report, which has now been released and is available to the public. The short report details the number of attendees to free events in the park (6,300); weddings, engagement parties and rehearsal dinners (48); as well as revenue ($2,041,813) and expenses ($2,301,637) for the year, among other things.

During last week’s City Council meeting, zoning officer Joi Harden said the Brodie Oaks PUD would be heard on third reading at 1 p.m. July 20. The date was no surprise, but almost all zoning cases are set for 2 p.m. That has been the rule for several years, and Council Member Alison Alter questioned why the change was being proposed. “We normally meet at 2 and we’re switching to 1, and I would just like to know the background on that and the rationale,” Alter said. “I don’t know if that’d be more appropriate for our work session discussion, but you’re setting a hearing for 1 p.m. and it’s normally setting hearing at the request of staff.” Harden replied that she did not make the decision, but she had heard from “staff above my level” that zoning would be at 1 p.m. starting in July.

Assistant City Manager Veronica Briseño was on the dais. She said, “We did direct staff to start posting zoning items at 1 to allow for flow of your meeting. We’ve had a couple of gaps these past couple of weeks, so you’ll get to continue on and hopefully end the day earlier.”

That did not sit well with Alter. “So I’m not sure whether that will continue and I’m comfortable trying that, but I would reserve the ability to move back since we haven’t had any discussion about that,” she replied. “I think some of us use that time wisely and (it) is helpful for our day. Let’s have this motion and if we need to we’ll figure that out.”

Mayor Kirk Watson took the hint and said they should set the hearing for 2 p.m. on this particular case. So, we look forward to future discussions on this question.

City Council Member Alison Alter represents District 10, one of the districts closest to the area of Travis County most likely to be impacted by wildfires. At 9 a.m. this morning, Alter will be hosting a Wildfire Awareness Month event and proclamation at City Hall. Joining her will be some of her Council colleagues and leadership from the Austin Fire Department. The press conference will also feature a Smokey Bear mascot inside City Hall and an inflatable outside City Hall, as well as community wildfire awareness guides. It’s that time of year when fires are most likely, so Austinites should take heed. Financial services company CoreLogic has ranked Austin as fifth most at-risk city in the U.S. The first four are all in California.