Council: Something's Burning

The new City Council continues to take things slowly, still working primarily on organizational matters, but events have conspired for a special-called meeting today (Thursday, Feb. 5) with only a few matters of business, a briefing on land use and housing issues, and consideration of a resolution to address, once again, Austin Fire Department hiring matters. The city is currently operating under a consent decree from the U.S. Department of Justice, mandating a hiring process (not yet installed) intended to increase AFD minority hiring – but the previous Council was split on a response to that decree, and the current Council (several of whom were elected with support from the Austin Firefighters Association) has received an immersion in city hiring policy as well as a pointed rejoinder from AFA President Bob Nicks. The city and the AFA are officially at an "impasse" in contract negotiations, and management is reluctant to reopen talks – indeed, city attorneys reportedly suggested to Council last week that doing so would violate the DOJ decree.

Under a resolution authored by District 4 Council Member Greg Casar, and co-sponsored by CMs Ora Houston (D1), Delia Garza (D2), and Pio Renteria (D3), Council would direct staff to re-enter negotiations on the hiring issue, with the mutual goals of increasing AFD diversity and maintaining high standards. That would require a withdrawal of the pending Request for Proposals from vendors to manage the process – management and union disagree on whether pulling the RFP will result in unacceptable delay of a cadet class expected to be enrolled in the fall.

Explaining his proposal on the Council message board, Casar said the city and the union will inevitably have to work together in the future – "for a successful bargaining process that will result in more racial diversity, great new firefighters, and the positive labor-management relations that we need to move forward" – so they might as well begin now. With a couple of additional co-sponsors already offered, Casar appears to have at least a majority – whether management (and the DOJ) will be willing to sign off on the negotiating detour is another matter. (See "Point Austin: One Last Chance," Feb. 6, 2015)

Beyond the AFD question, how long this particular four-Item-agenda meeting will last is anybody's guess. The policy Deep Dives are finally supposed to begin – earlier versions were apparently only doggie-paddling – with a two-hour session on the comprehensive plan in the morning, and two hours more on housing in the afternoon. In addition to the AFD resolution and ratification of appointments (including both commissions and Council subcommittees), there's an executive session discussion of personnel policy on Council appointments. Time may fly.

In case you're wondering, the draft Feb. 12 agenda is at 82 Items and counting – pending Items from Council still to come.

Riding the Rap: Fresh from his revelation that defeated District 3 Council candidate Susana Almanza had donated $10,000 from her remaining Fair Campaign funds to PODER, which pays her salary (she subsequently repaid the money to the city but refused to answer reporters' questions), the Austin Bulldog's Ken Martin has reported that D6 CM Don Zimmerman paid his wife $2,000 for campaign work (which may violate state law), and that D9 CM Kathie Tovo paid $82.50 in campaign funds to an employee of her husband's architecture firm (which is probably okay).