Hurry Up and Wait (Updated)

It's been a peculiar day at City Council so far, with all the action taking place off the dais and behind closed doors. This morning, a coalition of groups opposed to changing Austin's panhandling ordinances held a press conference outside City Hall. Taking issue with Jennifer Kim's assessment of six panhandling-in-traffic-related deaths, look for speakers to question this number – specifically, whether they died while soliciting – after APD makes their 2pm presentation (now looking more like 3:30-4pm) on current solicitation laws.

But that's not the only hot-button subject today. We hear one of the reasons council's stuck in executive session today is regarding whether to renew the agreement between the city, the Urban Renewal Agency, and the Austin Revitalization Authority (an agency we speak to in our issue today). And furthermore, we hear some surprising decisions may be coming down later today from council.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Finally outta executive session – some three hours later – Will Wynn blames the delay on this being their first meeting since the budget adoption. Yeah, right …

ARA discussion and action are still on the agenda, after the solicitation/panhandling presentation.