No Regular City Council meeting this week, following last week’s adoption of the FY 2018 budget. The next regular meeting is Sept. 28, featuring consideration of Mayor Steve Adler‘s “Downtown Puzzle” proposal and 99 other Items. See “Council: Yes, We Have a Budget,” Sept. 22.
CodeNEXT Discussions Continue: Draft two was rolled out Sept. 15, with simplified nomenclature but continuing controversy. Council and the public are split on the land use code revisions, scheduled for at least one more draft before potential adoption in the spring. See “Imagine Austin With CodeNEXT,” Sept. 22.
Smart Enough to Die: Texas’ Court of Criminal Appeals ruled 8-1 on Wednesday that John Battaglia, convicted of murdering his two daughters in Dallas in 2001, is competent to face execution, and remanded the case back to the trial court for an execution warrant.
AFD Lt. Marcus Reed has been placed on administrative leave (with pay) pending investigation into allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in his city-owned truck while on duty in March.
Body Cam Update: APD plans to distribute 198 Taser-made cameras to beat cops working out of the department’s East substation early in October, plus 234 to cops at the Eighth Street headquarters in November, and 228 to the South substation after that. Asst. Chief Chris McIlvain told the Statesman last week that APD will request funding to equip the remaining patrol officers (roughly 750) next year.
Attacking the Plaque: House Speaker Joe Straus has requested the State Preservation Board remove a Capitol plaque that claims slavery was not the underlying cause of the Civil War, following complaints from state Rep. Eric Johnson, D-Dallas. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott haven’t issued any show of support for the request.
Travis County Commissioners approved Central Health’s tax rate and budget on Tuesday. The average CH taxpayer will see a $12.50 (about $1.04/month) increase in their bills, bumping the health district’s total tax revenue by 4.5%. Out of the $181.8 million in property tax revenue CH collects in FY 2018, 96% will flow to health care for low-income and uninsured Travis County residents.
An Austin man deported by ICE was found dead in Mexico last week. Juan Coronilla-Guerrero‘s wife had previously warned a federal judge that her husband would likely end up killed if he was forced back to Mexico.
CM Ann Kitchen filed an application with the Transportation Dept. on Wednesday to propose renaming the street currently known as Robert E. Lee Road to honor the late Austin resident (and Barton Springs enthusiast) Azie Taylor Morton, the only African-American to serve as United States Treasurer, under President Jimmy Carter.
This article appears in September 22 • 2017.