The creative dry spell is over. After a relatively unproductive term, Max Nofziger is a man inspired. More initiatives have poured out of his office in the last six weeks than in the latter six months of 1995. Never mind that he's only got two months left in office; his council digs veritably glow with a new level of energy. Why, he's even making occasional appearances in the office on Fridays. "We'll go out with a bang, not a whimper," his executive aide declares. There was no council meeting this week, so we'll take this opportunity to look at this new spurt of energy from Max's office.
Things started heating up around early March, about the same time Austin's favorite eccentric kicked off a Wednesday night solo gig at the Common Market. In that month's first council meeting, the crooner and armchair guitarist won first-step approval for a string of motions aimed at protecting the environment. Critics who had blubbered that the enviro-liberals on the council hadn't done enough did a double take as proposal after proposal flew onto the agenda.
One of the more well-received items was to increase knowledge about the Barton Springs and Bull Creek Watersheds, providing specifics on the impact of pollution there, so that retrofit controls and specific development limitations can be appropriately placed. Another successful motion will create an information center about Barton Springs and the Edwards Aquifer at the Austin Public Library. And there was a bold move to check City Manager Jesus Garza's bureaucratic chess-playing. To many, Garza's partial dissolution of the Environmental and Conservation Services Department in January left the city's commitment to the environment in doubt. Now, Nofziger has partly allayed those fears with a motion to create a cross-department environmental officer. Other initiatives include anti-air pollution campaigns for gas stations and commercial users of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).
But he didn't stop there. Like melodies from his guitar, the motions just kept flowing. Two weeks later, he got a resolution passed to eradicate oak wilt disease from trees on city property, and also directed staff to prepare a report on the effects of growth in the metropolitan area. The next week, alternative transportation was the theme, and Nofziger got the 1995 Bicycle Plan guidelines passed on the first of three expected readings. Another motion for a pedestrian coordinator also sailed past. And finally that week, a measure for better tree maintenance on city property, at a cost of $124,000 a year, passed into law on third and final reading. Waiting in the wings is a list of ideas longer than a Stevie Ray guitar lick, including one to eliminate some one-way streets downtown -- in order to slow traffic and make downtown more pedestrian-friendly.
While most of the measures still await final authorization, having only been sent to the city manager for further development, they do represent the biggest and most complex environmental package yet seen from any member of the liberal coalition. This, despite the fact that some of the proposals have been on the city's eternal replay list, having been studied, dissected, and contemplated for years with no action.
So what's been the hold-up? "First of all, because of the passage of SOS, there was a lot of fall-out, in terms of people attacking it in the courts and in the Legislature," explained Nofziger in an interview last week. "I think it's real natural that after you make a huge gain then you have to defend that. [And then there were] some personal issues that we had to deal with." (Nofziger's mother died just after Christmas.)
And whence Nofziger's newfound ambition? The headiness of the SXSW music fest and his new gig? Perhaps, but more likely the sparkplug is Robin Cravey, the aformentioned aide. Cravey is a former law clerk with the Save Our Springs Legal Defense Fund, and a recent graduate of the UT Law School. For the last 20 years, he's sought solutions to the ill effects of Austin's overcrowding, getting the chance to implement them upon becoming Nofziger's right-hand man last September. There's speculation that Cravey is the brain behind most of the initiatives, but in his unassuming manner, he refuses to say whether that's true. He says only that they resulted from "brainstorming sessions" between him and his boss, with input from the environmental community and Brigid Shea's office. "Everything I do is Max's," he says. But in separate conversations, he has acknowledged that he started the initiatives for a cross-department environmental officer and a study of the watersheds. As for the rest of the ideas, Cravey is certainly the one ushering them through the city's system, and if not for him, Nofziger wouldn't look nearly so industrious. So credit Nofziger with a very smart personnel move. After all, every good singer needs a great songwriter, and Nofziger is no exception.
That's certainly true if you've ever attended one of his shows, where the artist officially known as "Max" painfully stammers out an array of classics. Fortunately, in between discordant versions of songs like the "The Girl from Ipanema," he graciously tosses in a therapeutic mix of witticisms. While it's too late too say don't quit your day job, it'd also be unwise to ever underestimate Max. Who ever thought the former flower trafficker would win a council seat, anyway? And who expected him to come storming back from obscurity with this endless swansong of initiatives?
With Nofziger, you never can tell. Of course, like his music, his ideas still need some serious fine-tuning. The bike plan and the tree ordinance are the only ones that haven't yet gone to the city manager for approval. They're expected to return to the dais by the end of April, but the real test is yet to come: funding approval in the form of mid-year budget amendments. Eric Mitchell and Ronney Reynolds (ER) and Mayor Bruce Todd say they like the environment, but they like money better. Only Gus Garcia and Jackie Goodman are sure bets. That leaves the ever-parsimonious Shea, who's held the line against increased taxes for three years straight. She and Nofziger have had their differences in the past, over funding no less. Getting the items through will take all the leadership skills Nofziger can muster as the budget considerations develop over the next few weeks. But as he and Cravey are proving, anything is possible. Who knows what Max's future holds?
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This week in council: Circle C is requesting council approval to issue $2.75 million in bonds; Nofziger continues his offensive, asking the city manager to come up with a plan for what to do with Seaholm Power Plant, and also to facilitate a development corporation to do a master plan for the re-use of Robert Mueller Airport. Eric Mitchell wants a staff assessment and plan to remove lead-based paint from city playgrounds. The Citizens' Planning Commission will release its final report for council consideration.