Edited by Audrey Duff, with contributions this week by Roseana Auten, Andrea
Barnett, Nelson England, and Alex de Marban.
AUTONOMY’S JUST A WORD: Besides a very public loss of face, the October 9
expulsion of University Baptist Church (UBC) from the Austin Baptist
Association means that the 74-year-old church is “cut off from a number of
ministries,” including Baylor University, said UBC pastor Larry Bethune. The
forced disfellowship occurred over UBC’s decision last year to ordain a gay man
as a deacon in the church. Many longtime church members quit the congregation
in protest, and there has been a strong word-of-mouth campaign on the UT campus
against UBC, Bethune said.
Unlike some other Christian denominations, the Baptist church has a
congregational governance structure; autonomy of the individual church is a
primary tenet of the faith. So the Association’s decision to kick out UBC is,
in itself, rather questionable, Bethune noted. “It is a betrayal of the Baptist
understanding of local autonomy for the Association to do this,” said Bethune.
He added that UBC will likely be expelled from both the Baptist General
Convention of Texas and the Southern Baptist Convention.
UBC is also allied with the American Baptist Convention, but that ap-pears to
be no insurance against being shunned once again. Last month, a major American
Baptist church in the Columbus, Ohio, area was kicked out of its local
association because the church extends its ministries to gays and lesbians,
without requiring them to become straight. – R.A.
ELECTROLYSIS ON REBATES: Slimming down for the expected onslaught of
competition, the city’s Electric Utility Department (EUD) plans to “reengineer”
the ever-contentious energy conservation rebate program. The move may
eventually result in reduced electricity rates, says Roger Duncan, assistant
director of the Environmental and Conservation Services Department (ECSD). The
ECSD administers the rebate program with EUD money.
“We’re doing a massive relook at the way we’re doing things,” says Duncan.
Part of that includes smaller rebates to businesses and homeowners that install
energy conservation measures; the EUD is proposing a reduction of about 5-20%
beginning April 1, 1996. The ECSD expects to recommend the reduced rebates to
the council in either December or January. Duncan expects the bulk of the
reductions to come from commercial rather than residential rebates. The move
should appease Councilmember Eric Mitchell somewhat – he unsuccessfully
targeted commercial rebates for elimination in early June.
As for the more commonly used residential program, the reductions are already
underway. Sort of. The ECSD reduced its rebates slightly in the spring of 1994
to accomodate increased participation during the summer. Since then,
participation has remained high enough that the ECSD can ill afford to raise
the rebates back to their previous levels, as would be expected, says Duncan.
To Chris Strand, a member of the Austin Air Conditioning Contractors’
Association, the ECSD’s refusal to increase residential rebates indicates the
EUD’s growing favoritism towards its larger commercial customers. Those
customers are the most likely candidates for departure from the EUD’s grid once
the Legislature allows retail competition, which some experts say may come
before the end of the decade. “It’s an indication that the ECSD’s commitment to
the residential customer seems to be slipping,” says Strand, of Strand
Brothers, an energy conservation company that serves residential customers. –
A.M.
EAST MEETS WEST: The Austin Transportation Study (ATS) held a public
hearing October 9 on a proposal by Councilmember Gus Garcia to turn Fifth
Street east of I-35 into a major arterial connecting with West Fifth Street.
Currently there are only four continuous downtown thoroughfares between West
and East Austin: Cesar Chavez, Seventh, 12th, and Martin Luther King. According
to Garcia, not only is there a need for another East-West thoroughfare, but the
proposed arterial would also complement a future transportation corridor on
East Fifth Street that is part of the ATS’s 25-year-plan. The proposed corridor
would include Capital Metro’s proposed Intermodal Facility, the light rail line
from East Austin to downtown, the federally funded public space Plaza Saltillo,
and a pedestrian promenade to be called “Rambla East.”
Seven East Austin business owners and neighborhood representatives spoke in
favor of the project, saying that it would reduce the I-35 barrier between East
and West Austin, open up a commercial center in what is now an area of vacant
lots and high crime, and relieve traffic on Cesar Chavez and East Seventh.
However, two members of the East Austin neighborhood group, El Concilio, said
that the planned arterial would displace some East Austin residents in order to
benefit businesses. The priority for East Austin should be affordable housing
rather than commercial development, said Robert Donnelly, president of the East
Town Lake Citizens’ Association. The ATS will allow further public comment at
its November 13 meeting, before voting on whether to include the East Fifth
arterial in its transportation plan.
Lucy Buck, representing the Downtown Austin Alliance (formerly the
Downtown Maintenance Organization), presented another plan for reducing the
I-35 barrier, in which the main lanes of the freeway would be submerged beneath
ground level. To further reduce the East-West barrier effect, Buck proposed
eliminating the overhead ramps descending into downtown from I-35, and allowing
14 ground-level street corridors between East Austin and downtown to pass over
the submerged freeway. The freeway frontage roads, also at ground level, would
be converted to tree-lined commercial boulevards. Major exits from I-35 to
downtown would be restricted to the two ends of the area, on Cesar Chavez and
15th Street.
At next month’s meeting, the ATS will select three priority road projects, and
send a delegation to the Texas Transportation Commission to request additional
funding for them. The three projects will be selected from among nine proposed
segments of the US290, US183, MoPac, and the Outer Loop, totalling more than
$140 million in costs. – N.E.
FREEDOM TO GAY-BASH: The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court weren’t the only
ones considering the merits of Romer v. Evans last week. The case of
Amendment 2, the Colorado law that would deny legal protections to gays,
lesbians, and bisexuals, was also the topic of a brown-bag lunch discussion at
the University of Texas School of Law, led by Professor Elvia Arriola.
The case calls into question a state constitutional amendment passed by
Colorado voters in 1992, prohibiting local governments, school districts, and
state and local agencies from enforcing measures designed to prevent
discrimination against homosexuals. The Supreme Court’s decision will likely
turn on whether the justices find that prohibiting the prevention of
discrimination violates the14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by denying
gays, lesbians, and bisexuals equal protection under the law.
“Imagine that [Equal Protection] is like a blanket that sits all over you as
citizens. It doesn’t matter if you’re a member of a protected class or not,”
Arriola says. “This [law] is like taking the blanket, carving a little hole in
it, and saying `everyone is protected but you.'”
Arriola says that the defense – the pro-amendment advocates – are putting
forward six arguments, only two of which have much legal foundation: states’
rights to make their own laws, and the rights of religious people to
discriminate based on their beliefs. “This is what drives the coalition,” she
says. “They have an absolute, sincere belief in their right to discriminate
against homosexuals.”
Gay rights groups and conservative religious advocates across the country are
awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling. (The justices held a secret vote last
Friday, but won’t hand down a decision until next summer.) If the amendment is
upheld, it could give the go-ahead for similar legislation in other states. But
if the court rules that the amendment is discriminatory, Arriola says, that
avenue of attacking homosexuals will probably be closed. –A.B.
OFF THE DESK: Early voting continues until November 3 on the 14 proposed state
constitutional amendements. Call 473-9553 for polling locations. Election day
is November 7. The Chronicle will offer a complete list of the proposed
amendments next week… The #2 Dinner at G�ero’s shall henceforth be known
as the “El Presidente” dinner; that’s what President Clinton ordered when he
visited the South Austin eatery this past Sunday. (See page 26 for more on El
Prez.)
This article appears in October 20 • 1995 and October 20 • 1995 (Cover).