Edited by Amy Smith, with contributions this week from Kevin Fullerton,
Claiborne K.H. Smith, and Kayte VanScoy.
Off the Desk:
Sunday, June 29, marks the 25th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision
that rocked America. The Furman v. Georgia ruling declared the death
penalty unconstitutional. Local poets, musicians, and activists will gather on that anniversary date
Sunday to commemorate the ruling with words, songs, and speeches. Food and drink
will be provided at the celebration, which starts at 1pm at the southwest corner of
11th and Congress, across from the Capitol building. The observance is sponsored
by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Call 481-0647 for more
info…
Texas Triangle writer-columnist James Garcia says he got the
boot last week from the gay and lesbian paper. Garcia covered local news for the
weekly and wrote a “Straight Talk” column — a hetero’s perspective on the
gay world. The Triangle maintains that Garcia quit because he wasn’t
satisfied with the terms of a renegotiated contract offer. Garcia, a former
Statesman reporter, is starting up a new publication that addresses Hispanics in the political
arena.
If you’re reading this and it’s still Thursday but not yet 7:30pm, then
bolt up the stairs to the fourth floor of UT’s Studio 4D in the Comm Building at 26th
& Guadalupe, for an evening of documentaries produced by MFA grad students.
Rebecca Campbell will preview her The Town That Jack Built, about the
community of Picher, Okla.; Tassos Rigopoulos will show Texas and the Death
Penalty; Steven McIntyre will screen Our Lady of the Rio Grande; and David
Plane will preview They Call Us Boat People.
Details are a mite sketchy, but expect to hear more from a new grassroots
group called the Austin Cooperative. Not a food co-op or anything New Agey
like that; rather, it’s a coalition of 16 Hispanic and African-American reps that
formed after the last city council elections left many in those communities feeling
a bit disillusioned, says one group member, who asked not to be identified. The
group is expected to bare its soul soon. — A.S.
Out the Door
Cathy Vasquez-Revilla, a chief crusader against two recycling
plants and other industrial sites in East Austin, can kiss her seat on the city Planning
Commission goodbye. Councilmember Gus Garcia, who first appointed Vasquez-Revilla
to the commission in 1991, says he will not reappoint her for another two-year
term. Instead, Garcia is fulfilling his campaign commitment to appoint more
Asian-American representatives to city boards and commissions, and has lined up Ray
Vrudhula, the owner of a computer software company, as his next appointment to the
Planning Commission.
Vasquez-Revilla is not happy about leaving the commission, particularly
with many of her East Austin land-use issues still on the table. She conferred with
Garcia on June 17 to ask if he would at least extend her term for another six
months. Garcia declined, and Vasquez-Revilla left the meeting in tears. “I said, `Gus,
I’m pleading with you, I’ve got to finish my work. I’m trying to save East
Austin,'” Vasquez-Revilla recalled of the conversation.
Garcia defended his decision. “Cathy has been on the commission for
six years and she has served her terms well,” he said. “At the same time, we
need to make sure that Austin’s Asian community is represented in city government.
We want to make sure they become a part of the fabric of this
community.”
Vasquez-Revilla says she can think of a few reasons why she isn’t
retaining her commissioner’s post for another two years. She actively supported
unsuccessful Place 5 city council hopeful Manuel Zuniga, who doesn’t claim many
friends in the environmental community. After his loss, Zuniga blasted Garcia for
“abandoning” the Hispanic community when he jumped from his Place 5 post for a run for
Place 2. Also, Zuniga labeled Garcia a puppet of environmentalists — not a good way
for a losing candidate to curry favor with sitting councilmembers. That
Vasquez-Revilla was so closely aligned with Zuniga may indeed have played a role in Garcia’s
decision. “There wasn’t any huge rift between Cathy and the environmentalists, but
Cathy believes that the environmentalists pull my chain a little too much,”
Garcia said. “But that’s not true. I’ve been an environmentalist all my
life.”
Vasquez-Revilla may have rankled the green community, too, when she began
her crusade against two recycling plants in East Austin — Browning-Ferris
Industries Inc., and Balcones Recycling. Vasquez is pushing some rezoning proposals that
would affect both facilities, but many green activists are quick to defend
Balcones, perhaps because its majority owners, Melba and AISD board member Ted
Whatley, have contributed time and money to the local progressive cause. Regardless of
ownership, says Garcia, “Balcones should be treated as a different case altogether.
Those two facilities are significantly different from each other. The two issues
need to be handled separately.”
Vasquez-Revilla is likely only the first of several post-holders who won’t
be securing reappointments. — A.S.
New City Hires
One would expect to see some familiar faces around city hall after the
election squalor calmed, but it looks like none of the campaign workers for newly
elected Councilmembers Willie Lewis and Bill Spelman are going to be
included in the hiring frenzy downtown.
Spelman, an associate professor in the UT LBJ School, has retained an LBJ
grad in Kristen Vassallo, 26. Vassallo’s political background includes
doing aide work for Sen. Lloyd Doggett, with a concentration in health care,
housing, immigration, and welfare. She also ran the phone banks for former Gov. Ann
Richards’ last campaign, and worked as an account executive for the Dallas ad firm, The
Promotion Network.
Both Lewis staff members, aide Dwight Burns and administrative
assistant Adana Barry, hail from the halls of the Texas Capitol, and both say
they are ready for the change of pace from state to local politics.
Burns, 28, earned a master’s in public policy from the LBJ School, and
later interned under another LBJ School alum, City Manager Jesus Garza. He is leaving
a permanent position as a policy analyst in the Texas Senate, where he focused on issues
of economic development. As a UT undergraduate, Burns paid his dues as a volunteer in
East Austin, especially with the East Austin Strategy Team, headed up by Lewis campaign
advisor Ron Davis. “The main reason I was brought in is because I get
around,” says Burns, citing his ties to environmental groups, the development
community, and the “established black community in town.”
Barry, 29, who left a position as an administrative assistant in the state
Dept. of Banking, says she cut her teeth in Austin-style politics as an assistant
to the general manager of Capital Metro. She was recommended for her new position by
Lewis campaign insider Sammie Glasco, who worked with Barry at Banking.
“I’ve never worked for an elected official. I believe that it’s going to be three
years of learning,” says Barry.
Although neither Burns nor Barry had met Lewis prior to applying for the
job, both are excited about the hands-on work to come. Says Burns, “I have
city politics in my blood. I love this up close and personal stuff.” — K.V.
Ready to Run?
Capital Metro General Manager Justin Augustine says he has a
plan to “fix what is broken” with the beleaguered transit company, but
some wonder why it had taken him a year to come up with a plan. Was it legislative
pressure that pushed the administration to finally make changes? Public outcry over
the tax increase?
No, says Augustine emphatically. Rather, it’s Augustine who’s driving the
“back to basics” program ahead, and Augustine who from day one has been
establishing the “finite pieces” of the greater “philosophical
plan.”
“The first thing we had to do was ensure our professionals understood
how to provide the building blocks, the core services,” the GM said in a
splashy press conference on Tuesday. “You have to crawl before you walk, walk
before you run.”
But not everyone will be along for the ride as Capital Metro moves to
tighten its ship and earn the public’s respect. Declining to elaborate on specifics,
Augustine said he had in mind “positions” and “sections” which
could either be consolidated or eliminated for greater efficiency, as well as a possible
15% reduction in payroll costs. He hinted, however, as to where the ax may fall: “We
can’t have our administrative costs out of whack with our operational
capacity.”
Capital Metro says the transit authority’s on-time percentage has
improved, and ridership is up 4% over last year. Moreover, compliments from riders are up,
and complaints are down. Augustine said he received a call from an
82-year-old blind woman who was thankful for the courtesy his staff had shown
her on city buses. Augustine’s challenge now is to keep the buses moving through
increasingly congested streets in a timely manner, without pushing efficiency and staff
reductions to the point where passengers and taxpayers start feeling like they’re being
taken for a ride. — K.F.
Rent Settlement
A vociferous group of University of Texas students, mostly married
graduate students, scored a victory last week in negotiating a reduction in what could have been
a 7-8% increase in rent at student housing properties.
Tenants and UT’s Division of Housing and Food Service settled on a 2.5%
boost. But getting to that point was no small task. Jason Turner, the
president of the University Student Tenants’ Organization (USTO), and other student
leaders had waged an aggressive telephone and e-mail campaign to UT Housing officials —
and that was only after they felt stonewalled by the housing division’s lack of
response to their initial inquiries. They also contacted Sen. Gonzalo
Barrientos‘ office. Charles Schotz, one of the senator’s legislative aides, said Barrientos
is sensitive to student housing issues, particularly those who are struggling to make ends
meet.
The students had questioned the economic feasibility of the original
proposed rent increase, particularly coming on the heels of a 15% hike in 1996 and a
7% jump in 1995. Graduate student salaries, they argued, have only risen 2% over the
same period.
Another concern was the lengthy periods of vacancies at student apartment
sites. Students complained that they were indirectly paying for those vacancies.
Doug Garrad, assistant director of the housing and food division, said that the division
“is not in the business of managing vacant apartments,” but he acknowledged
that there has been less demand for the apartments. The division’s original draft
proposal for the rent increase predicted a 3% vacancy rate for the next year, but
according to one source, 15 of 96 apartments in one section of the 200-apartment
Colorado apartment complex, or 15.6%, are currently vacant. — C.S.
This article appears in June 27 • 1997 and June 27 • 1997 (Cover).