Last call for early voting is Tuesday, April 29. Ongoing info on the city council campaigns can be found on the Chronicle‘s Election Board, /election/, and the city’s webpage, http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/election…
A delegation of folks from hither and yon is banding together to support Zapatista women in Chiapas in their efforts to create weavers’ cooperatives as a form of economic resistance against the federales. They will display and sell the Zapatista women’s handmade textiles at Hill Country Weavers, 1701 S. Congress, beginning with a slide presentation and sale at 7pm Friday (April 25). The sale continues from 10am-6pm Saturday… — A.S.
Salamanders Forever
It was a collision of politics, science, and the law. And while politics was able to stave off science and the law for several years, the latter entities finally prevailed on Tuesday afternoon, when Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt phoned Gov. George W. Bush and told him that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will add the Barton Springs Salamander to the Endangered Species List.
Bush immediately issued a scathing press release saying, “Texans will have a hard time trusting a federal government that makes an agreement then turns right around and breaks it.” Bush had supported a plan that would have allowed several state agencies to protect the salamander. But that plan was deemed inadequate by local environmentalists and by the U.S. Geological Survey, which said the plan didn’t do enough to address non-point source pollution.
And while Bush called Babbitt’s move a “breach of trust” that could threaten federal and state cooperation on other projects, the reality is that Babbitt had few choices. The science on the salamander was overwhelming. On the legal side, Babbitt was painted into a corner by a lawsuit filed last October by lawyers for the Save Our Springs Alliance, Bill Bunch, Amy Johnson, and Myron Hess, after Babbitt had removed the salamander from the proposed endangered species list. The March 25 ruling by Senior U.S. District Judge Lucius D. Bunton III, which said that Babbitt had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in failing to make a decision about the salamander, forced Babbitt to make that decision no later than April 25.
“This is a rare win of science over politics,” said David Hillis, a professor of zoology at the University of Texas who has studied the salamander extensively. “There’s no controversy among any competent biologists about the salamander being one of the most endangered vertebrates in the U.S.”
The salamander decision coincided with two other events: Earth Day and the issuance of a massive document by the city’s Drainage Utility Department called the Barton Creek Report. The 400-page report concludes that state water quality regulations in the Barton Springs Contributing Zone are “particularly inadequate.” So while the decision to extend federal protection to the salamander ends litigation for the time being, the fight over development in the Barton Springs watershed won’t end any time soon. For the full text of Bush’s statement, see the Chronicle’s website on Friday at /. — R.B.
Plastic Watson?
Standing before Philosopher’s Rock at the Barton Springs Pool, mayoral candidate Max Nofziger attempted to crack Kirk Watson’s seemingly impervious environmental record. But environmentalists who worked beside Watson when he chaired the Texas Air Control Board between 1991 and 1993, and have flocked like grackles to support Watson’s campaign, immediately held a counter-press conference to defend their candidate.
Specifically, Nofziger took Watson to task for a 1992 vote approving a controversial air permit that a Taiwanese-owned corporation, Formosa Plastics Corp. — at the time one of the world’s biggest polluters — needed to complete its $1.3 billion expansion plans along the Texas coastline. Nofziger also slammed Watson for accepting a $1,250 campaign contribution from Austin attorney Pam Giblin, of the Baker & Botts law firm. Giblin represented Formosa before the Air Control Board.
“The timing of this is the great irony,” Nofziger said. “Back in 1992, I was duking it out with Freeport-McMoran, one of the biggest polluters in the world, to defend Barton Springs. Meanwhile, Watson was brokering a backroom deal with Formosa Plastics, another world-class polluter. Watson’s not fooling anybody. He can’t be an environmentalist when he’s taking dirty money from friends of Formosa.”
Watson acknowledged that he voted for the Formosa permit, based on the recommendation of an administrative law judge. “To call this a backroom deal shows a lack of understanding of what they’re talking about,” he said. “I met individually with the Formosa people many times and raised all sorts of cain with them to get their act together. I wanted them to know that I was watching them. My work obviously led to a greater compliance record on the part of Formosa.”
Among the Watson environmental supporters who turned out for the press conference were Brigid Shea and Bill Bunch of the Save Our Springs Alliance, and Ken Kramer, director of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter. Kramer read a statement from Neil Carman, the Clean Air Program director of the Sierra Club, who was involved in the Formosa’s permitting process. Carman says that Watson was outvoted by the Republican-dominated board and that the law gave him no choice but to approve the permit. Carman, who was present at the TACB board meeting when Formosa got their permit, notes that Watson raised serious questions about Formosa, which had a history of major violations. Others at the press conference note that, partly because of Watson’s highlighting of Formosa’s embarrassing past, Formosa has cleaned up its act. — A.M.
Vying for Dollars
Local organizations are coming out of the woodwork trying to get their hands on more than $2 million in newly available federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) dollars. Federal Housing and Urban Development division (HUD) authorities issued a June 30 deadline to the city’s Neighborhood Housing and Community Development division (NHCD) to spend the long-since-allocated funding, or risk losing the money altogether. It is possible that most of the under-utilized funding will go to the One Stop Career Center, a job-training program housed out of Austin Community College’s (ACC) Eastside campus — but not if Councilmember Eric Mitchell has anything to say about it. Because ACC is a taxing entity, Mitchell doesn’t believe the One Stop should be entitled to CDBG money.
Rather, Mitchell wants $1 million directed to Vision Village, a housing development that would combine an elderly residential facility and a juvenile halfway house. Mitchell has been trying to get Vision Village off the ground for more than a year. Also at the top of the list of projects likely to receive funding is another of Mitchell’s pet projects, the Central City Entertainment Center.
At an April 2 council work session, Mitchell upbraided NHCD staff during a presentation of their proposed CDBG reallocations. NHCD has known since last summer that slow spending was putting CDBG dollars in jeopardy, but the department only recently began getting the word out to council. Mitchell expressed his concern that the community had not been properly informed about the funding reallocation. “How do we hope that people will come forward if they don’t know we have this money?” he asked.
That concern should not be a problem anymore. The Community Development Commission (CDC), which makes recommendations to NHCD, met April 21 to consider the reallocations. CDC vice-chair Cecil Ramirez described the meeting as a virtual mob scene of organizations clamoring to get their development proposals heard.
CDC recommendations are not likely to favor the same pattern of large outlays to single programs which got NHCD in trouble to begin with. “I’ve always sensed that these monies were being hoarded by our elected officials for their pet projects,” says Ramirez. “The big dollar projects are eating our lunch,” he added, citing Mitchell’s Austin Revitalization Authority as one of the worst offenders. “We need programs for the community, people programs.”
However, Mitchell, for one, finds more fault with city staff than with his own high-dollar programs. At the April 10 council meeting, he used the opportunity of an agenda item approving $700,000 in additional funding for the Scattered Cooperative Infill Project (SCIP II) to express his anger with NHCD staff, despite the fact that SCIP funding is not in jeopardy. “I’m glad to see someone new [as head of NHCD] that I think will get things rolling down there,” Mitchell said, fueling ongoing rumors that it was he who pushed for the recent resignation of NHCD head Bill Cook, only two days after his department presented its CDBG spending recommendations. Mitchell, who recently met with HUD officials, said that the officials had complaints about city staff. “HUD said `Your people knew that they were jeopardizing this project.’ My question is, were they doing it intentionally?” Mitchell then turned to glare at NHCD staff for several seconds.
City Manager Jesus Garza immediately stepped in to defend his staff. “We are not trying to deliberately thwart this policy. We understand that we have issues with our staff, but I also say there are some issues on the other side of the ledger,” he said, suggesting that Eastside development programs have been hindered by the consultants and development corporations running them.
The argument is not likely to stop there. The brawl over where to spend CDBG dollars has only just begun. After an April 24 public hearing on the matter, the councilmembers will likely have to sort through dozens more proposals, while rooting for their own pet programs. — K.V.
Mayoral Mudbath
A lavish ballroom and a wealthy audience did not deter mayoral candidates Max Nofziger, Ronney Reynolds, and Kirk Watson from slinging mud Tuesday at a forum at the Four Seasons Hotel. The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce affair started with a bang when each candidate was asked how he would rate himself on a scale from one to 10 — one being liberal and 10 being conservative.
While Watson, a local attorney, refused to rate himself, claiming Austin politicians are in the habit of labeling each other, former councilmember Nofziger and current Place 2 incumbent Reynolds responded enthusiastically. “I’m very conservative in conserving our environment,” Nofziger said, who added that his decisions while on City Council would make him “a solid five.” Reynolds attacked Watson’s claim that the labeling must end. In his hand he held a letter, allegedly authored by Watson, in which Watson “blasted” Reynolds, he said. “This is the politics of the past,” Reynolds stressed. “Go with someone in the middle.”
Watson and Reynolds again butted heads on the issue of improving relations among councilmembers. Watson referred to the regular Thursday council meeting as “the fight of the week,” prompting Reynolds to question why Watson has never been to a single council meeting. Watson maintained that a major obstacle to harmony on the council is getting members to listen to each other. — L.S.
Flowerman Max
Is that former Councilmember Max Nofziger handing out carnations at his old street corner? It is!
“I guess some things never change,” said Nofziger, wearing his familiar blue jeans, tennis shoes, and baseball cap, and waving bouquets of flowers at the afternoon traffic jam last Friday. This is where it all started for Nofziger, catty-corner from the HEB at Oltorf and South Congress, where he sold flowers in the late Seventies and early Eighties to help support his numerous bids to elective office. Now, he’ll be making guest appearances at his old corner, though this time with campaign workers and Max-for-Mayor signs, hoping to muster support for his gasping mayoral candidacy. “Just like old times,” he beams.
Yep, just like old times. Do you recall his fourth unsuccessful bid for local office in 1985, when he pulled in about $5,000 in contributions and forced a run-off between Frank Cooksey and Ron Mullen after getting about 20% of the vote? Well, Nofziger is now expected to force a run-off between opponents Ronney Reynolds and Kirk Watson, while taking in about $5,000 and getting about 20% of the vote. There’ll be no television or radio advertisements, just his “old power base” at Oltorf and Congress. Nofziger says he’ll return periodically as long as the weather holds. Today, the sky is an industrial grey, a foreshadowing of rain. Perhaps Nofziger should be handing out black roses. — A.M.
This article appears in April 25 • 1997 and April 25 • 1997 (Cover).