CSC: Take Two
Political Push Ups
By Jenny Staff, Fri., March 12, 1999
Then came item 57, a proposed Community Development Block Grant in the form of a deferred-payment, forgivable loan of $625,000 to the Push Up Foundation, a group providing housing and other services to the homeless. It was the kind of item that usually results in passage on consent. But by the time the council approved the grant they had been accused of everything from dumping undesirable projects on the east side of town to heading down a path to genocide patterned on Central American dictatorships and Hitler's Germany.
Angry Eastside neighbors, led by El Concilio member and East Town Lake Neighborhood Association president Robert Donley, objected strenuously to Push Up's plans to use the money to build a 50-bed facility for homeless men on East Cesar Chavez (Push Up currently runs a facility for women and children on E. Second). "So far everybody has missed the real issue," said Donley. "The real issue is a policy. Not one single neighbor in the community was aware of what's coming down over here. You are circumventing the neighborhood associations because you have set up your own puppet regime," he said, referring to the neighborhood leaders who participated in the East Cesar Chavez Neighborhood Plan, presented to the council earlier this month. The East Cesar Chavez group, which is generally friendlier with city leadership than El Concilio, chose to neither support nor oppose the Push Up grant.
"You take these tactics from the old Central America, and Hitler," Donley said. "Gus Garcia is the perpetrator. He has been directing you to do this." Donley warned that the council would be repaid for its treachery by increased Eastside activism: "You did a good thing. Because you woke up the sleeping giant." Councilmember Daryl Slusher then questioned Donley on the events of the previous night's meeting between neighbors and Push Up supporters, where Push Up's homeless clients were reportedly called "trash," their informational pamphlets thrown outside, and a city staff member who tried to address the meeting shouted down. "I'm not here to answer those kind of questions," said Donley. "That meeting was held in a very upright manner and nobody was denied the right to speak."
Push Up's supporters, including homeless people whose lives have been changed by Push Up, left little doubt that the organization is a good one. But residents said their capacity to help serve such individuals by hosting their housing facilities is taxed to the limit. "We are each other's brothers' keepers," East Cesar Chavez neighbor and former school board member Diana Castañeda said. "Unfortunately in this neighborhood, we are keeping a lot of brothers and sisters."
But Councilmember Spelman cited a state of Texas study indicating that East Austin does not have a disproportionate number of facilities like the one Push Up wants to build. The burden is being shared by most of Austin's neighborhoods: There are 16 facilities in the south part of town, 17 in the east, 23 downtown, and 24 in the northwest. "If I thought there really were a preponderance in any neighborhood, I would vote against" putting another in that neighborhood, said Spelman. The rest of the council seemed to agree, approving the grant by a vote of 6-0-1 (Willie Lewis abstaining).
No-Scandal Scandal
Finally, a juicy airport construction scandal? Normally, a city project like a new, $600 million dollar airport is a real boon for the adversarial press. The conventional wisdom says there's nothing like a major construction project to smoke out the tendencies of city officials and bureaucrats toward inefficiency, graft, and the doling out of sweetheart deals to their friends in the business community. To this point, the construction of the new Austin Bergstrom International Airport has provided precious little in the way of such scandals. But at last week's council meeting, that changed a bit as Councilmember Willie Lewis accused city staff of orchestrating a bailout of BellyPort, owners of the BellyFreight airline service.
The agenda item was a $150,000 settlement to defray the cost of a canceled contract with Hilman Constructors Inc., a construction company that was going to remodel a couple of buildings for city use at Bergstrom. The city canceled the contract when they were approached by BellyPort, who were unable to fund a planned building at the airport after one of its big tenants, the U.S. Postal Service, pulled out of the deal. "They came to us, and said we don't have enough tenants to get this building started. We had to get it started," said Aviation Director Chuck Griffith.
But in the end the deal was revealed to be more practical than devious. Airport Project Team's Arnie Rosenberg said the city originally hired Hilman to renovate two buildings that were in the path of airport expansion, forecasted to take place in 10 to 12 years. However, more recent growth projections (including five gate additions) made a five- to seven- year expansion (and therefore the obsolescence of the renovated buildings) seem more likely.
So even though the upfront price tag seems higher, the city will get more for their money because they can use the buildings for a longer period of time. Says City Manager Jesus Garza: "In hindsight, we might have done something different. We scrambled, but we think it's a good thing. Even with the settlement, it's still a financially better place for us to be."
But Councilmember Lewis remained unconvinced: "People that understand the operation of the aviation department know that all this is, is a bailout of BellyFreight." City staff reminded Lewis that the lease with BellyPort is a done deal; the council approved it a couple of months ago. Nevertheless, Lewis successfully requested that the settlement item be postponed pending a report on its affect of the cost per square foot on the BellyPort lease.
Reproductive Services
The council approved a $286,302 contract with Caton Services Inc. to provide nurses and surgical technicians to provide reproductive services at city-owned, Seton-managed Brackenridge Hospital. The deal was part of the city's efforts to ensure reproductive services at Brackenridge while letting Seton off the hook with the Vatican (see related features). Spelman congratulated Seton Health Services "on being willing to be flexible with info they consider to be proprietary. We hope to continue that in the future."
Salamander Preserved
After a relatively painless public hearing, in which nobody accused councilmembers of Salamander genocide, and the main stakeholders were Barton Springs regulars worried about their daily swims, the council voted to proceed with salamander-protecting renovations at Barton Springs Pool. The work, which will deepen the "beach" end of the pool by about two feet, will likely keep the pool closed for most of April.
This Week In Council:It didn't make it onto the council's regular agenda, but a public hearing on the new CSC proposal will be held at 6pm tonight, Thursday, in City Council chambers. City staff said the mistake was a simple oversight, but since the March 10 hearing date was widely publicized through Assistant City Manager Futrell's presentation of the plan to neighborhood groups around town, the item appears as an addendum to the regular agenda.
The council will also consider a $3.9 million contract with Gilbane Building Co. to serve as program managers on the Austin Convention Center Expansion Project, and a contract for over $5.7 million with Page Southerland Page Architects for design and construction services. In other downtown news, the council will authorize the negotiation and execution of the lease of Palmer Auditorium to ARTS Center Stage.
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