If you’re reading this issue because you’re stuck in a traffic jam and headed toward the LCRA Building for today (Thursday)’s City Council meeting, stop the car! Now! This week, council meets at East Austin’s Conley-Guerrero Senior Activity Center, 808 Nile St. The week’s main event: The expected appointment of Toby Futrell as city manager. (For more, see “It’s Toby Time,” p.15.)
Jackie Goodman and Daryl Slusher are done with the courthouse for the moment, but former mayor Bruce Todd ain’t out of the woods yet. The Texas Supreme Court refused to consider appeals by City Council challengers Kirk Mitchell and Linda Curtis against Slusher and Goodman, respectively. However, while contributions from Todd’s PAC, Citizens for Voter Choice, are no longer at legal issue, donations to the PAC may have run afoul of Austin’s campaign finance rules, which limit lobbyists like Todd to $25 contributions. Mitchell ally and adviser Mike Blizzard has taken up the matter with County Attorney Ken Oden. Meanwhile, Todd and his lawyer, Jim Cousar, hint that the charter rules may be unconstitutional. Other parts of the 1997 campaign-finance initiative involving PACs were thrown out in federal court in 1998.
This article appears in April 12 • 2002.