Vote now and save yourself a headache. There’s still time — early voting ends
April 29. Check out the Chronicle endorsements this issue on Page Two if
you like. Follow our stories on the races for Place 5 and Place 6 this week,
and the Mayor and Place 2 next week. This and more election info is now on the
Chronicle`s online Election Board, /. Also check
the City’s election site, http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/election. And while we’re
on the subject, another city council candidate — Place 6’s Willie Lewis — got
his page up and running this week at http://www.willielewis.org …
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Fish & Wildlife Acting Director John
Rogers got slapped with a lawsuit this week by the Save Our Springs Alliance.
The group alleges the two violated the Freedom of Information Act by “illegally
hiding” the identity of folks who lobbied against listing the Barton Springs
Salamander as an endangered species. Meanwhile, Babbitt has until April 25 to
decide the salamander’s fate… — A.S.
It’s “goofier than goofy.” That’s Councilmember Jackie Goodman’s assessment of
the CyberPatrol software on Freenet computers in city libraries. Goodman is
convinced that the Internet-censoring program is making Austin a laughing stock
all over the country. “When we start to become nationally known, I start to get
worried,” she said. — K.V.
Ronney: Old Mayo
Signs, signs, everywhere are signs. And if you interpret them, you see thatmayoral candidate and pro-developer Ronney Reynolds is a wanted man in the
inner city. Many of the big red “Ronney Reynolds for Mayor” signs have been
targets of creative vandalism, some defaced with acid, others gutted with
exacto knives. After a nimble edit, for instance, one read: “Ronney Old Mayo.”
Reynolds, of course, is not amused. He says his campaign has replaced “at
least 25 signs.” That’s a pretty penny, since they can cost upwards of $50 a
pop.
Reynolds blames the supporters of his main opponent, Kirk Watson: “I believe
that Mr. Watson has some extremist friends that are trying to show support for
him by cutting up my signs,” says Reynolds. “I’m embarrassed for the Watson
campaign.”
Watson says he doesn’t know who the culprits are: “If it is my supporters,
I’ve made it clear that I don’t appreciate it and it’s not appropriate.” —
A.M.
Bedbug Bites Back
Linda Curtis, coordinator for Austinites for a Little Less Corruption, iscontinuing to mount a case against the city for throwing out a petition that
sought to put campaign finance reform on the May 3 ballot.
The grassroots group, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas,
has sued the city for its refusal to recognize nearly half the
voting-registered signatures gathered during the petition drive last year. City
Clerk Elden Aldridge threw out the signatures after deeming them invalid.
A federal court judge has set a trail date for June 26, but that’s not soon
enough for Curtis, who had hoped to have the referendum up for a citywide vote
in the upcoming city council elections. Curtis concedes that her group was
unprepared for a court hearing on the case last month and had asked for a delay
to allow more time to prepare arguments. But Renea Hicks, a private attorney
retained to fight the city’s fight, one-upped the group by winning an even
longer delay — until after the election.
While a majority of City Council voted last December to keep the item off the
ballot, Curtis said she believed Mayor Bruce Todd influenced the decision
outside chambers. “I can’t prove a thing when it comes to who politically
motivated the clerk, but knowing Bruce Todd and knowing his political
treachery, I strongly believe he was behind the scenes directing the clerk in
doing this hatchet job,” Curtis said. “I don’t think [Aldridge] would do this
unless he was directed to.”
To which Todd retorted: “She’s crazy as a bedbug.” Todd said that while he
supports campaign finance reform, the city has yet to find the proper mechanism
for instituting such a plan.
That’s because, Curtis asserts, the city is too busy coming up with ways to
thwart it. Curtis adds that it was inconceivable that Aldridge could throw out
50% of the collected signatures on the petition when 99% of Austin residents
are registered to vote. She said 29,200 signatures were turned over to
Aldridge, while only 15,900 were needed to get the item on the ballot. “When
these signatures were checked, there were 16,000 out of 300,000 [people] not
registered to vote,” Curtis said. “50% of the homeless were registered to
vote.”
Jay Jacobsen, executive director of the ACLU, said the city “improperly struck
names” from the petition which possibly could have remained. “The law is fairly
well established that the policy should be a liberal one to allow things on the
ballot,” Jacobsen said.
Approval of the petition would have allowed voters to decide on whether or not
future candidates for elected city positions should be limited to maximum
donations of $100 per contributor, said Curtis, who is campaign manager for
mayoral candidate Max Nofziger. The proposal would also have called for total
political contributions not to exceed $75,000 per campaign. Too late now.
Mayoral hopefuls Kirk Watson and Ronney Reynolds already are sitting on a wad
of cash well above the proposed cap. Since last July, over $481,000 has ended
up in Watson’s collection plate, while Reynolds has raised $275,298.
— L.S.
Suicide or Scam?
What was supposed to be the world’s biggest gold deposit now looks like thebiggest fraud in the history of the gold industry. And what initially appeared
to be murder or suicide now looks like part of the scam. Michael de Guzman, the
Filipino geologist who was instrumental in finding the Busang gold deposit and
reportedly fell to his death last month from a helicopter flying over Borneo,
may not be dead after all.
According to an April 11 story in The Sydney Morning Herald, the
dental records from the body recovered by Indonesian police in Borneo do not
match de Guzman’s. In addition, the paper reported that “some 9 million Bre-X
shares belonging to Mr. de Guzman were traded shortly after his reported
fall.”
In addition to the possibility that he is a scam artist, de Guzman was
apparently a bigamist. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that
de Guzman had married three different Indonesian women, one in Jakarta, one in
Borneo, and one in Manado. He also had a wife and six children in Manila.
De Guzman’s employer, Calgary-based Bre-X Minerals, had claimed that Busang
contained in excess of 70 million ounces of gold. Bre-X’s CEO, David Walsh,
made some $80 million by selling some of his stake in the company to other
investors. New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold won a 15% stake
in Busang in mid-February after extended negotiations with Indonesian dictator
Suharto. Now, the island of Borneo is crawling with journalists, none of whom
are being allowed onto the Busang site. In addition, Rudy Vega, a metallurgist
who worked for Bre-X, has also turned up missing.
Finally, both sides are claiming victory in the ongoing litigation over
Freeport’s gold, copper, and silver mine located on the western side of Papua
New Guinea. On April 9, U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood Duval dismissed a
suit brought by Amungme tribal leader Tom Beanal against Freeport. But Duval
also ruled that Beanal and other tribal members had standing to sue the company
in the U.S. for human rights violations. More on this in next week’s “Environs”
column. — R.B.
For Bikes’ Sake
Members of Bicycling Advocates of Texas and the Yellow Bike Project took overthe UT West Mall Wednesday in a public forum to garner voter participation in
the May 3 city election.
Doug Lewin, a member of Bicycling Advocates, said before the forum that he
hoped students would listen to the city council candidates (all of whom were
invited) and become more involved in Austin politics. “In national elections,
the single vote gets lost in the massive hugeness of it all,” Lewin said. “It’s
locally where we can make a difference.” The issues concerning Bicycling
Advocates deal mainly with the city’s traffic congestion, and how
transportation can be improved without harming the environment. “We are
basically advocating the rethinking of our urban transportation environment,”
he added.
While light rail could solve some of the traffic congestion, Lewin said he has
not seen a viable plan for constructing light rail without having a negative
impact on the local environment. More bike and pedestrian lanes are also needed
along Austin’s streets to encourage less traffic, and to make bicycling and
walking safer for residents, he said.
Lewin added that while it is not illegal for drivers to park along bicycle
lanes in Austin, doing so makes the lanes ineffective and dangerous when
bicyclists are forced to swerve around parked cars and into traffic. —
L.S.
GOP Regress
Republican leaders want to change the Texas tax code, but they don’t appear tobe worried about how the changes will affect the poor. Last month, during a
hearing before the House Select Committee on Revenue and Public Education
Funding, Rep. Talmadge Heflin (R-Houston) promoted his far-fetched idea of
abolishing all property taxes in the state and replacing them with a statewide
sales tax.
Helfin’s plan would tax everything including food and medicine, while capping
the sales tax burden at 11cents per dollar. When asked about the effect of his
plan on the poor, Helfin said he believed that property taxes were more
regressive than sales tax. And he added, “Personally, I don’t see regressivity
as the end of the world.”
Last Friday, during a brief press conference, Gov. George W. Bush danced
around the issue, saying, “My main concern is that they [legislators] develop a
plan that will achieve the broad objectives and one that will get out of the
House and then get over to the Senate.” And what about concerns that it hits
the poor? “That’s what has to be debated,” said Bush. “I think that the most
regressive tax there is is a property tax on people, poor people who own their
homes. You’ve got one choice: sell or pay your tax.” — R.B.
This article appears in April 18 • 1997 and April 18 • 1997 (Cover).