It’s been another busy week in City Council-Land, although much of the action has been off the dais. Saturday evening featured Mayor Steve Adler‘s third annual “State of the City” oration, focused primarily on welcoming but managing growth (not exactly a new Austin subject), although overshadowed and redirected a bit by breaking national news. (See “Austin: ‘Strong, Unique, and Special,'” Jan. 30, for a debriefing on that speech.)
That news, of course, was the Trump regime’s executive order on Muslim immigration, and by Sunday at least a couple of council members were directly drawn into the national whirlwind of opposition, as Council Members Delia Garza and Greg Casar joined the public protest at Bergstrom Airport. Casar was widely quoted assuring the demonstrators that the city would support the legal defense of refugees and immigrants caught up in the chaos following the ban. That was not a new promise: In December, Council had directed staff to find “emergency funding” sufficient to help an additional 100 immigrants per month* needing legal services – staff is expected to submit a proposal to Council by mid-February.
As if that weren’t enough on the macro-agenda, the local to-do list marches on. Monday morning marked the formal release of “Draft 1” of the new Land Use Code known as CodeNEXT (see below), complete with a Council press conference, and Wednesday evening featured the big public rollout at the Palmer Events Center (4-6pm, followed by the meeting of the CodeNEXT Code Advisory Group). Council received its own staff-cum-consultant briefing at Tuesday’s work session, and everyone began to dip their toes into the new version – hesitation and bewilderment were the inevitable first reactions. (The work session also featured an initial presentation on the staff search for a consultant group to conduct the search for a new city manager. Very searching.) Moreover, in a fit of proaction, Council met Wednesday morning for its first, very early budget work session, on Emergency Medical Services.
In his SOTC speech, Mayor Steve Adler warned against folks who will “try to avoid consensus by talking up and even creating conflicts” over CodeNEXT.
In his SOTC speech, the mayor warned against folks who will “try to avoid consensus by talking up and even creating conflicts” over the new code. In fact, that’s already happened, via the earlier leak of a working draft: competing denunciations of the draft (“Giveaway to developers!” “Complexity problem worse!”) immediately floated through cyberspace. We can cheerfully look forward to at least a year of such pleasantries, with a hopeful adoption date of the new code in early 2018.
Meanwhile, last week’s meeting (ending mercifully just before 10pm), did accomplish some other business, including:
• Approved a pilot program for extended hours in five Red River music clubs, over strenuous objections from neighboring hotels as well as near-north neighborhoods still vibrating with music bouncing up Waller Creek; also approved a related resolution supporting music and creative industries;
• Approved a resolution supporting abortion rights, opposed by CM Ellen Troxclair, with an abstention by CM Ora Houston, who considered it too aggressively “in people’s faces“;
• Postponed to today’s meeting a final decision on maintaining an Austin Resource Recovery contract for curbside recycling of textiles (and other resalable items) after hard lobbying by nonprofits that it will undermine their donations (see “Council Takes Out the Trash?” online);
• Approved a resolution supporting the “Austin Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights,” accepted the Parkland Events Task Force Report, and a program to encourage outdoor recreation;
• Directed staff to study the current supply of market-priced affordable housing and track its demolition, with an eye to programs that would serve to maintain that housing.
On the Agenda
Today’s agenda – at 59 Items (including a couple of those postponements) – is not so daunting as last week’s, but will still offer plenty to do. Items that might trigger dais pondering include:
• A proposed ordinance (Item 4) to finalize increased and clarified authority for the City Auditor and the Ethics Commission (including commission subpoena power);
• A resolution (Item 40) to draft an ordinance to require new construction (residential and commercial) to be “solar-ready“;
• A resolution (Item 42) to draft amendments to the Land Development Code enabling “expedited permitting” (codifying the “Better Builder Program” establishing workers’ right standards approved last year);
• Postponed from last week, a resolution (Item 43) that would expand library-based “video-conferencing” to allow Citizen Communications during Council meetings from other locations (CMs apparently want more geographic distribution of denunciations of Agenda 21, chemtrails, etc. …).
The Austin Oaks PUD, notionally approved on first reading in December, is also on the listed agenda to return today. But during Tuesday’s work session, D10 CM Alison Alter proposed a two-week postponement to which nobody (including the developer) apparently objects, so that should save considerable jaw-jaw time today. The proclamations will honor Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, and Dan’s Hamburger‘s (only?) 40th anniversary. Live music honoree is the legendary Augustin Ramirez. Expect him to lay down “La Ley de Tejas.”
*Correction: Sentence updated to indicate 100 additional immigrants per month
World in a Whirlwind
A version of this article appeared in print on Feb 3, 2017 with the headline: World in a Whirlwind
This article appears in February 3 • 2017.
