After Mayor Bruce Todd barred environmental activist Karen Hadden from
speaking at council meetings last fall, the Mayor asked for an apology for what
he considered her disruptive behavior. Instead, he got a lawsuit accusing him
of breaching Hadden’s constitutional rights. Now, he’s shamefaced. On September
17, Todd and the city legal staff settled out of court, agreeing to pay
Hadden’s attorney, Jim Harrington of the Texas Civil Rights Project, $3,600 in
court costs. “(The mayor) will think twice about denying someone else’s
rights,” says Hadden. As part of the settlement, Todd will appoint a task force
on council meeting decorum. Why that provision was included is uncertain —
maybe to appear that Todd got something from the settlement, even though he can
appoint a task force any time he wants. Harrington joked that he’d use his
spoils to hire a first amendment coordinator for the city. As for the city, its
legal fees, paid to Dallas-based Haynes & Boone, stood at $12,781 as of
July 31. The saga is expected to continue at today’s council meeting, with
Councilmember Ronney Reynolds’ proposal to curtail public speaking… — A.M.
The Save Our Springs Alliance is challenging last week’s district court
dismissal of its lawsuit against Austin Community College. S.O.S. attorney
Philip Durst filed the pleadings Tuesday with the Third Court of Appeals.
S.O.S. claims ACC violated the Texas Open Meetings Act when it voted to buy the
79-acre Shadowridge property for a new campus in southwest Austin. ACC met
behind closed doors on the matter, but the agenda didn’t specify the topic of
discussion. Durst says he expects a ruling on S.O.S.’s request for an emergency
hearing some time before ACC closes on the Shadowridge deal in mid-October
…
S.O.S. attorney Bill Bunch says he’s a voice in the wilderness no longer.
Turns out Bunch has some legal experts agreeing that the S.O.S. ordinance was
applicable to development regulations while it was on appeal, even though the
weaker Composite II was in effect. Austin attorneys David Frederick and Mary
Kelly, along with Philip Poplin and UT law professor John T. Ratliff, are
backing Bunch’s claims that S.O.S. must be applied to development applications
filed after S.O.S. passed in August 1992 and before the Appeals Court ruled in
S.O.S.’ favor in July. They also support Bunch’s contention that the weaker
Comp II ordinance was illegally passed by council. Footnote: Bunch used to be a
partner in the law firm in which Frederick and Kelly now practice, and the firm
handles S.O.S.’ salamander litigation. Bunch also has worked with Poplin, but
not with Ratliff…
Quote of the week goes to Teresa Doggett, the GOP candidate for Congress who
this week told The Daily Texan: “It is true that homosexuals are very
capable of love…” News to us. We thought they just recruited little children.
At any rate, Doggett was just talkin’ straight on why she’s opposed to same-sex
marriages. Neither she nor the other Doggett (as in U.S. Rep. Lloyd D.), won
the Austin Lesbian/Gay Political Caucus endorsement this time around. The group
endorsed Lloyd Doggett in 1994, but that was before he voted for the Defense of
Marriage Act earlier this month… — A.S.
Privatization Means Private
Mayor Bruce Todd’s privatization blitzkrieg continues apace. And at today’scouncil meeting, the inaugural victory could be forthcoming: The emancipation
of the Austin Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (ACVB) to a non-profit board of
20-plus hotel and tourism representatives. On the table are millions of dollars
in public funding and a proposed five-year contract for the ACVB.
As with other privatization efforts at city hall, some councilmembers are
concerned that ACVB staff has unduly ignored their input in readying the center
for the transfer. What Councilmem-bers Jackie Goodman, Beverly Griffith, and
Daryl Slusher have requested in the proposed contract, but haven’t received,
are assurances that board meetings and business affairs will be open to public
scrutiny. “Every new draft [of the proposed contract] seems like the old draft
and it seems like someone [is] not listening,” says Goodman. “If they want my
approval, they [will] need to start listening.”
The concern is easily understood: The board will be responsible for about 18%
of the city’s hotel bed-tax revenue, currently $3.3 million a year. The last
time that money was in private hands, in the mid-Eighties, an auditor found
that financial records were inadequate and, contractually, cousins were
sleeping with cousins. Moreover, the board’s operating procedures, or by-laws,
approved by the council five weeks ago, are fraught with enough holes to allow
a truckload of money to drive through.
But former ACVB director Karen Jordan, who jumped ship for a similar job in
D.C. — a week after the by-laws were approved — promised the council that
public accountability would come in the contract, and Goodman joined Gus
Garcia, Ronney Reynolds, and Todd in approving the by-laws.
Well, guess what? The proposed contract has only one safeguard: The council
can cancel the contract if it’s been breached, which is a clause any contract
must have. Worse, the contract allows the corporation to amend the by-laws with
city staff’s written consent, meaning that what little public accountability
exists in the by-laws could get thrown out without council’s knowledge.
Needless to say, Goodman, Griffith, and Slusher aren’t happy with Jordan and
other staff members who orchestrated the whole thing.
To remedy the situation, Goodman hopes to win support today to make the
proposed executive committee responsible to the entire board, to ensure that
all meetings are public, and to allow the council to amend the board’s by-laws.
But without adjusting Austin’s city-manager form of government, the larger
problem, that of staff bucking the council’s wishes, will only worsen.
Especially as the council’s privatization duties increase… — A.M.
Algae Blooms Eternal
The salamander count has dropped dramatically, thousands of tiny MexicanTetras are gone, crayfish are dying off, and ugly brown clumps of algae are
floating on the water’s surface. Welcome to Barton Springs swimming pool —
Austin’s tarnished crown jewel. What’s happening here is the worst algae
outbreak in years, and an abundance of sediment washing down from roads and
construction sites, says city biologist Robert Hansen. He also believes the
sediment buildup is killing off salamanders. On September 9, he counted only
seven salamanders, compared to 29 in August. He also noted the demise of other
fish and the appearance of larger predator fish like bass and sunfish near the
main springs.
The algae, which started blooming five weeks ago after the rainfall frequency
picked up, is a product of two nutrients — nitrogen and phosphorous — passing
through the springs from the aquifer. The clumps floating on the surface are
Bluegreen Algae, moss and silt. The algae grows on the silt, which first began
accumulating on the bottom of the pool about two years ago, Hansen says. The
biggest silt culprit, some hydrogeologists believe, is the Texas Dept. of
Transportation, whose massive US290 freeway project is three miles upstream.
Possible sources of the nutrients are lawn fertilizers, leaking sewage lines
and septic tanks, animal feces and highway runoff. Visibility is also at an
all-time low. “When you’re scuba diving near the main springs,” says Hansen,
“visibility is half what it was before the rains came.” — N.E
Drug Net Nets Concerns
A letter questioning the rationale of a police raid at an Austin housingcomplex has been turned over to the Austin Police Department’s Internal Affairs
division, according to spokesman Mike Burgess.
While the department’s much-touted “Crime Net” operations at city Housing
Authority sites are, for the most part, applauded by residents who want drugs
and gang members out of their neighborhoods, one particular sweep on Sept. 12
at Meadowbrook, in South Central Austin, prompted a letter to Police Chief
Elizabeth Watson. The letter questioned the “disorganized, violent…
harassment and intimidation of people who were doing nothing but walking
through the apartment complex in which they live.” Rebeca Siegel, a teacher at
the Family Learning Center, an after-school program at Meadowbrook, and Fred
McGhee, a former Housing Authority employee, urged Watson in the letter to
reevaluate the tactics of police officers indiscriminately casting a wide net
in their search for criminal activity. — A.S.
Cap Met Mea Culpa
“We’ve sinned in the past, but now we’re on the road to reform.” That appearedto be the atonement of the Capital Metro Board and administration at a public
hearing Monday, Sept. 23, on the transit authority’s proposed $118 million
budget. That’s up $21 million from last year, thanks to an extra 1/4
cent in sales tax revenue that the Capital Metro board approved last summer.
Critics, led by long-time Cap Met gadfly, Gerald Daugherty, have lambasted the
transit authority ever since.
A few days before the public hearing, Austin American-Statesman reporter Laylan Copelin ferreted out a 1995 consultant’s report detailing
wasteful purchasing policies at the bus company. Copelin’s difficulties in
getting access to the document suggested stonewalling from a bunkered-in
Capital Metro bureaucracy. Recently appointed Capital Metro Director Justin
Augustine said he and board members knew nothing about the consultant’s report,
and that the findings were from 1994 and not relevant to today’s new and
improved transit authority.
Daugherty, on the other hand, isn’t so quick to let bygones be bygones. He
believes Capital Metro should roll back its sales tax share to
3/4 cent and kill plans for a light rail system. Many Austin
business leaders appeared to share Daugherty’s opinions until earlier this
month when the Chamber of Commerce, the Real Estate Council of Austin, and the
Downtown Austin Alliance supported letting the transit authority keep its
1
cent sales tax and setting aside the extra 1/4 cent for long-term
projects, such as the light rail.
With the blessings of the economic powers-that-be, Capital Metro board members
now have little incentive to roll back the sales tax at next Monday’s meeting,
and it looks fairly certain that the board will set aside the quarter-cent for
long-range projects — a good sign for transit advocates. — N.E.
Let the Posturing Begin
It’s finally official. At the Hyatt on Sept. 19, in an unprepared speech thatcame “from the heart,” sixth-year councilmember Ronney Reynolds announced his
desire to become the city’s mayor in 1997. As mayor, Reynolds would “not only
have vision, but have a shared vision” with his fellow councilmembers. “I’d
like to be the councilmembers’ mayor. And both business-wise and politically,
we can lift others up so there’s no political piracy. If someone has an idea we
all need to support it.”
Reynolds says the major issue facing city government is making the Electric
Utility Dept. competitive so the city can keep it. Recreational pursuits like
parks, museums, and arts deserve attention as well, he says, and he includes
the provision of clean air, water, and landscapes as one of the top three
issues facing the city. Reynolds’ strongest opponent, Kirk Watson, plans to
announce his candidacy Oct. 8. — A.M.
Free-Net Goes East
It looks like Washington has taken an interest in getting East Austin wired.The U.S. Dept. of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information
Administration has presented Austin Free-Net, the local non-profit group which
provides Internet access to libraries and an Eastside housing project or two,
with a whopping grant — $246,679 — to develop even more sites east of I-35.
Free-Net got news of the award along with congrats from the Clinton
Administration (via e-mail of course), stating the group had been chosen as one
of 67 grants awarded out of 800 applicants vying for the $18.6 million in
federal funds. Lauded as the kind of working public-private partnership that
Clinton encourages, Free-Net will serve as a model for communities across the
country to get all citizens online. Here in Austin, the project will be carried
out by the East Austin 11th/12th Street Community Network, a joint effort of
Free-Net and the Austin Learning Academy, to place Internet-capable, networked
computers at 13 public sites by 2000. — J.S.
This article appears in September 27 • 1996 and September 27 • 1996 (Cover).