Council Preview: Are You Reddy for This?

Illustration by the Austin Chronicle staff

If you were wondering how eager City Council is to resume its discussion of policy matters at Austin Energy, Tuesday's work session offered an answer – let's punt it to August. After months of wrangling over whether they should create an independent board to manage AE business, Council instead created a subcommittee for the purpose – and appointed themselves all as members. How will you know if you're at a Council session or an AE subcommittee meeting? They'll wear little lightning bolts on their heads, like Reddy Kilowatt.

The descent to a committee-of-the-whole inevitably reflects some ongoing tensions on the dais, exhibited also Tuesday in a lengthy discussion of competing proposals on landlord registration for code enforcement purposes: Item 49 (sponsored by Bill Spel­man and Sheryl Cole) would focus primarily on repeat code offenders; Item 50 (Kathie Tovo and Mike Martinez) would designate pilot neighborhoods for universal registration and see how that works to bring apartment buildings into compliance with existing codes. The debate centered somewhat on the expense and supposed "self-funding" (through landlord fees) of such a procedure, and whether this would reach the tipping point where it would have an effect on rental rates. Not much was resolved, it seems, so we can expect members (and perhaps stakeholders) to resume the debate at today's meeting, Thursday, June 6. These proposals would be in the form of directions for staff to draft a potential ordinance, so the discussion will certainly continue.

As I wrote last week ("Never Do Today ..."), there are plenty more cans kicked down the road from earlier agendas: what to do about EMS and city/county collaboration (Items 14, 15, 16); controversial staff recommendations concerning plans for Rainey Street (morning briefing, Item 58); trying to determine how to regulate freelance "ridesharing" without creating unfair competition for taxicabs (Item 45); the latest revisions of the University Neighborhood Overlay (including affordability standards, Item 85); and a return of the unresolved question of possibly sharing parkland parking spaces with nearby businesses (Item 86, aka the Casa de Luz Proviso). On that latter issue, Chris Riley indicated that he would suggest dropping that proposal and instead have staff consider metering the nearby park lots in order to discourage free-riders (or -squatters) and keep some spaces open for all users (Item 48, co-sponsors Martinez and Cole).

The agenda also features a family-friendly proposal (Spelman, Martinez, Mayor Lee Leffing­well) that would establish 30-day paid parental leave for non-union city employees (beyond accrued leave) and potentially a shared "leave bank" (union employees are covered by negotiated contracts). The honored musicians of the day is the "IDR" band GOBI; among the proclamations, a "certificate of appreciation" for WalMart.