Gov. Rick Perry has named one of a his favorite Texas Democrats as his new legislative director. State Sen. Ken Armbrister, a Victoria Democrat who spent much of his career bashing Austin's water-quality rules, is retiring from office at the end of this term and joining Perry's staff in January. Armbrister's new job will have him shilling for Perry at the Lege. Perry figures that Armbrister's Democratic ties, however threadbare, will help the governor win bipartisan favor on critical issues. But considering the number of times Armbrister has bailed on his Democratic colleagues, you have to wonder if he has anything left to collect from the old chit jar.

On Channel 6, of course.

Will Wynn is soundchecking. He's rocking a pale blue Austin shirt. Decidedly casual.

"Even though it's only 1,400 square feet, this is a very important project for us," says Wynn. Normally, it takes 214,000 square feet to get noticed, huh?

"Soon will be opening the Ruta Maya coffee house, on the western corner." WTF happened to Austin Java?

OK, he messed up. It's still Austin Java… eventually. God, how long has it been since that thing was supposed to open?

That was Woody Woods on the guitar, ladies and gentleman.

Toby Futrell is on about the "grand experiment" at City Hall. The jokes write themselves, people. "Those eclectic, special, local places" are getting her holidays bucks.

Holy smokes, there's an oversized novelty pair of scissors to physically cut the ribbon with. Must be what Futrell uses to castrate Council.

"It's open, now go shop!"

With the city manager's Wal-Mart conflict-of-interest rapidly receding into the rear-view, garnering the hearty shrug at City Hall we feared it would, comes word of a different type of conflict-of-interest, this too involving the rapacious retailer. Yesterday, the Austin Business Journal described local advertisers GSD&M's decision not to again pursue Wal-Mart's newly open advertising contract. The offending passage:

"GSD&M had long handled the retailer's advertising account, along with independent Bernstein-Rein Advertising Inc. of Kansas City, Mo., but the Wal-Mart account came up for review in May. Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) chose Interpublic Group of Companies' Draft FCB and Aegis Group's Carat for the account, but recently reopened the bid for its $580 million creative and media account because of a scandal involving a top Wal-Mart executive who was fired for inappropriate behavior, including accepting gifts from companies vying to become Wal-Mart's advertising agency."

Oops!

UPDATE: Here's GSD&M's Roy Spence, in a story in today's New York Times:

“We helped build Wal-Mart from $11 billion in sales to $312 billion,” said Mr. Spence, who worked closely for many years with Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart.

“We declare victory,” he added. “And we are moving on.”

Excuse us while we go projectile retch.

Austin City Council forms 2006 Bond Oversight Committee:

"The Austin City Council today established a 2006 Bond Oversight Committee, setting up the framework for the public to monitor where, when and how $567.4 million in recently approved bonds are spent."

Austin City Store to Open Doors:

"Join City officials as they host a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of the Austin City Store at 2 p.m., Friday. Dec. 15... The ceremony will begin with music and refreshments at 1:30 p.m."

City proclaims Dec. 15, 2006 as Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos Day:

"Retiring State Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos of Austin received a proclamation today from the City of Austin honoring him for his three decades of public service in the Texas Legislature."

Wow, yesterday's meeting sure had it all – protests, lots of citizen input, and even a hint of danger what with the fire department stomping around city hall and all. I laughed, I cried, I kissed 10 hours goodbye. For a recap of the Northcross debate, revisit the liveblog here, and for more on the Redeemer saga (which apparently ended in agreement between the church and the neighbors), click here.

The hour is late, and Council finally wrapped up Item 82, the Northcross discussion. I didn't hear anything about revocation of the site plan per se, but lots of noise about directing Lincoln/Wal-Mart to work with the neighbors and city, plus a hardcore traffic analysis, in light of some screwy trip numbers. How much that actually signifies, we'll have a better idea tomorrow.

Big Box is on now, but this kitty cat ain't scratchin' on all three readings until January.

Just when you thought the evening couldn't get any weirder. And no, we're joking; there is no fire, at least not that we know of, but everyone has been evacuated out of City Hall until the fire department figures out what's causing the smoky smell in chambers.

OK, the scare's over. People are filing back in, but I'm so going home. Hello, Channel 6!

Thank God. It is finally upon us. A few considerations, before we get underway:

–The previous speaker sign-up numbers got blown out of the water, with the arrival of a large post-work Northcross crowd. Hopefully, the 45-minute limit still stands.

– Will Futrell even rear her head? She's been in and out all day, appearing to pose with Barrientos, but assistant CM Michael McDonald currently sits in the city manager's chair. Maybe the rumors of her recent vacation time burn-through are true.

Tammy Williamson will be "walking us through the site plan," says Laura Huffman. For now, Huffman is going through the ultra-lax zoning standards the original mall has.

"We did find a mistake which we made, which is notice," says Huffman. Goes over the "interested party" requirement detailed here. Translation: we're sorry, Wal-Mart! Don't hit us!

"The site plan review was solid." TA-DOW!

Tammy Williamson is going over the proposed site plan. Ooh, pretty pictures!

Wow. Remember the Fed Ex speed talker? She's kinda like him.

Numbers everywhere. 375,000 total space at Northcross, only 269,000 currently used. Will be 424,000 square feet after Wal-Mart's built. Damn, that was hard.

Liveblog continued inside…

To answer to our earlier question, no, it wasn't incriminating, lascivious photos attorney Richard Suttle draped across each council member's seat earlier this afternoon (so that's what council did at the Crossings); it was letters from several local musical and audio wonks begging them to let Redeemer Presbyterian Church go to 60 feet in order to build a "reverberant, modest-sized room, which has been carefully planned not only to have beautiful acoustics but to have a quiet ventilation system." (Almost as nefarious, we know.) Sweet – who needs bus stops and rail when you've got that? Council's currently trying to hack the zoning case out.

The transit oriented development controversy enveloping the project will likely continue on into next year, as Council looks likely to punt their third and final decision into their next meeting, in 2007. Suttle, of course, will return momentarily to deliver Lincoln Property's side in the Northcross Wal-Mart hearing.

Audience's first audible groan of the night: Suttle telling council a more binding agreement between Redeemer and the neighbors isn't needed, because it's "a letter from a church."

UPDATE: Vote is tabled after Redeemer threatens to pull their application and go home if they don't get all three readings tonight. WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!