City Council Notebook

Agenda highlights for the Thursday, Feb. 28 meeting

Items 2 & 3: Regulating heavy-duty truck idling. Only in Texas could this prove mildly controversial.

Item 9: "Authorize negotiation and execution of a 12-month lease with Perry Lorenz for ground space at 315 Sabine St., with four optional 12-month extensions, at an annual rental amount not to exceed $166,939.96, ratify payments made under a previous lease in the amount of $152,243.87, and authorize payment to Mr. Lorenz of $210,424.02 in hold-over rental charges accrued to date, for a total authorized amount not to exceed $1,197,367.69." You don't say! What, Toby not pay the light bill neither?

Item 15: $230,000 in legal fees to Denton, Navarro, Rocha & Berna for counsel in upcoming public safety negotiations. Against odds, could the Statesman find a way to bitch about these costs and the undue influence those eeeeeevil labor unions hold over us? If anyone could, it's Rich Oppel …

Item 16: $250,000 more to ROMA Design Group to transit plan-up their Downtown designs. I'll draw you a bus line for my light bill and some Kanye tickets!

Item 55: Identifying projects for the city's Webberville tract, or, Look! A Landfill!

Item 56: "A pilot program for LED (Light Emitting Diode) countdown crosswalk signals." Uhh …

Item 57: Levying fees on "animal traders" and adding "an animal processing fee." Again, uhh …

Item 58: Jennifer Kim's "neighborhood planning tool to utilize the affordable housing incentives for single-family development."

Item 60: Some real action: Betty "Knows Best" Dunkerley, Sheryl Cole and Brewster McCracken present a multi-part resolution "establishing criteria that must be met before Council considers a proposal to conduct a charter election on single member districts." Protective measure? Or poison pill? Debbie Russell ain't having it, yo.

Item 67: 10:30am presentation on evaluation and implementation of the Residential Design & Compatibility Standards, or "The McMansion Ordinance and the Damage Done."

Item 81: Presentation on single-member districts, featuring Democratic redistricting defendant J. Gerald Hebert as the map-man.

Items 89-111: A brief smattering (ha!) of zoning concerns.