Look What Blew In

There's a new twist to the city's weatherization fiasco that's as puzzling as it is pleasing. In a memo to Council Thursday, City Manager Marc Ott said the city has secured $900,000 in fed funds to weatherize low-income homes. That's $500,000 more than what the city was set to receive before it fumbled and lost the money. Ott lays out the miracle after the jump.

According to the memo: "I contacted Tim Irvine, the Executive Director of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA), a few weeks ago to request that they consider re-allocating the funding that we recently lost. I told them that we had resolved all the issues that surrounded the delay, that we are working on the communication process with our citizen advisory boards to ensure that we have their full support for any potential future funding opportunities, and that the Mayor had committed to calling a special meeting of the City Council to accommodate an expedited approval process.

"I’m pleased to announce that TDHCA has just offered to restore not only the $400,000 but also an additional $500,000. These funds will allow Austin Energy to weatherize 54 residential units at the Mount Carmel housing development (a low income apartment complex located in east Austin) as well as approximately 128 residential units at the Chase Village housing development (a low income apartment complex located just north of Hwy 183 and just west of IH35). These funds must be expended by March 31, 2012, so we must diligently pursue the funding and execution stages. We’re preparing agenda items for you to consider accepting this additional funding on your January 12, 2012 meeting. At this point, we don’t believe that a special Council meeting will be necessary as long as you act on the 12th.

"To ensure that the communication process with our citizen advisory board improves, I contacted Andy Ramirez, the chair of the MWBE Weatherization sub-committee to discuss the “go-forward” communication process. Along these lines, we have added an item on the MWBE advisory committee meeting on Tuesday, January 3rd to continue these discussions. We will also be contacting the chairs of both the Electric Utility Commission and the Resource Management Commission. I am confident that we will positively work through all issues.

Thank you for your continued support of the Austin Energy Weatherization Program."