New developments in the May election campaigns are happening virtually daily (preoccupying “City Hall Hustle“), so it’s sometimes hard to concentrate on what’s happening with our current City Council – the folks actually running city policy at the moment. Please welcome an occasional feature – let’s call it “City Counseling” – where we’ll be putting council issues and initiatives on the couch for further analysis.
Wildflower Replanted
The biggest item on council’s comparatively light agenda last week (Thursday, Jan. 29) didn’t even come up. Approval of planned unit development zoning for Wildflower Commons, the controversial mixed-use development proposed in far Southwest Austin, over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, was postponed by council to its Feb. 12 meeting. The Save Our Springs Alliance is already claiming a victory, posting on its website, “Because of our collective action, the developer of the proposed 265 acre shopping mall/multi-family [project] is offering changes.” Steve Drenner, the project’s attorney (and former Hill Country Conservancy president), is bristling at the blog-burst, telling City Hall watchdog newsletter In Fact Daily the SOS “shopping mall” descriptor is “the most absurd characterization I have ever heard.” The project, slated at MoPac and State Highway 45 South, is on land covered by the original SOS Ordinance and a related agreement formed with landowner/developer Gary Bradley, limiting impervious cover on the project. The heated argument is over whether or not it will comply with the Bradley Agreement.
Not-So-Special Election
Almost silently, council did settle one controversy surrounding the mayoral election last week without comment: when the special election to fill Lee Leffingwell‘s vacated Place 1 seat would occur. Leffingwell insisted that announcing his run for mayor within 120 days of the May 9 general election meant the election to name his replacement could occur on that same day. However, in a letter to City Attorney David Smith, mayoral rival Brewster McCracken questioned whether the 120-day window should instead count back from a potential run-off in the Place 1 race – possibly triggering an expensive special election. Apparently Smith agreed with Leffingwell (backstage, in executive session), as the council indeed set the special election date for May 9, the same day as the general election. Council passed the measure, silently and unanimously, on consent.
In the Chamber
City Hall itself was open to the public a little bit more last week. An item sponsored by Leffingwell, Randi Shade, and Sheryl Cole made Council Chambers and City Hall’s Boards and Commissions Room available as “free speech spaces” every Tuesday, if you book a reservation. The rooms had previously been available for public use only with a council member’s sponsorship. “In the grand scheme of things, this is a symbolic issue, but symbols are important,” open-government advocate Paul Robbins said at the item’s passage. “This is one of dozens of things that need to be done to restore participatory democracy in Austin, but it is a positive step.”
This article appears in February 6 • 2009.