Edited by Louisa C. Brinsmade, with contributions this week by Roseana Auten,
Andrea Barnett, and Amy Smith.
THE LONG GOODBYE: Rumors dating from last year’s mayoral race proved correct
this week when Mayor Bruce Todd announced he would not seek re-election in
1997. In his announcement Tuesday, August 22, Todd cited family and career
issues as his main reason for returning to the private sector. He has served as
mayor of Austin since 1991; prior to his election, he served as Travis County
Commissioner from 1986-90.
Possible mayoral hopefuls include Councilmembers Ronney Reynolds and Gus
Garcia, and Chronicle senior writer Daryl Slusher, who forced Todd into
a tight runoff last year and won 49% of the vote. Both Reynolds and Slusher
have publicly aknowledged an interest in the race. Asked if he would run for a
councilmember seat next year or hold off for the 1997 mayoral race, Slusher
told radio host Eric Blumberg Wednesday, “I’m still thinking those things
through.” Former Councilmember Bob Larson has also expressed some interest.
Larson says he has been encouraged to run, and that he “could be talked into
it.” Larson has scored bonus points lately with his Save Austin From
Extravagance (SAFE) campaign to put up for a public vote $10 million in public
funds approved by the council for the baseball stadium. Former Councilmember
Robert Barnstone’s name has also been passed around as a possible contender for
the position. Asked if he was interested, Barnstone replied only that he
“wouldn’t make a decision from an opportunistic point of view.”
Word is, the close race against Slusher, as well as the recent editorials in
the Austin American-Statesman that take a critical stance on the lack of
leadership apparent in Austin, played a factor in Todd’s decision. Some
observers say now that Todd has announced his intentions, he will be relegated
to “lame-duck” status for his remaining tenure, but Councilmember Brigid Shea
pointed out to the daily that Todd still has a year and half left to enact his
agenda, and that his legacy is still up in the air. –L.C.B.
RIGHTS, SCHMIGHTS: Austin attorney Roy Minton gave his opinion of free speech
the other day in District Judge Scott McCown’s courtroom. He was there to try
to convince the judge that five local anti-Nuke activists should be forced to
give depositions and hand over reams of personal papers and correspondence in a
lawsuit filed by the cities of Austin and San Antonio against the company which
runs the South Texas Project (STP) nuclear plant, Houston Lighting and Power
(HL&P).
Asking for a moment to confer with his two assistant attorneys, Minton
whispered loud enough to be heard several rows back that “I don’t care about
their first amendment rights, I’m going to depose these individuals.”
HL&P attorneys maintained to Judge McCown that the City of Austin has been
engaged in a conspiracy to attack the STP at every chance, and works in league
with anti-nuclear activists. To try to prove it, they have asked for copies of
the activists’ personal calendars, appointment books, and correspondence with a
wide range of local, state, and national officials, as well as with private
individuals and grassroots environmental, peace, and social justice
organizations.
W. Scott McCollough, attorney for three of the activists, says Minton and
HL&P appear to be trying to harass the activists purely for their
objections about the nuclear plant. As evidence, he points out that the cities’
suit against HL&P seeks reimbursement for power the cities had to buy
elsewhere when the plant was shut down. By contrast, “[t]hese individuals want
STP shut down forever,” McCollough says. “The city is suing because the plant
was shut down.”
Judge McCown, calling HL&P’s request “intrusive” and “extraordinary in its
scope,” ordered the depositions to go forward under the supervision of retired
Judge Jim Meyers. Meyers’ time will be paid for by HL&P, which has been
ordered to submit a revised list of the documents it wants, and to give
justification for the information it seeks.
The depositions have not yet been scheduled, says T. Paul Robbins, one of the
five activists. HL&P could still appeal McCown’s decision, and even if it
doesn’t, it will take time for the company to rewrite the subpeonas, Robbins
added, saying the depositions could happen as late as October. Even though
McCollough represents only three of the activists (Robbins, Bill Jackson, and
Les Breeding), Judge McCown said the other two activists could get in on the
deal, too. One, Susan Lee, is out of town and still has not yet been served
with the initial subpeona. Tom “Smitty” Smith of Public Citizen is waiting for
one of his attorneys to return to town, Robbins says. – A.B.
THE POLITICS OF RECYCLING: Next year, Austin’s apartment dwellers will receive
city-funded recycling services as part of a new program that’s still being
hammered out by solid waste officials. As the plan sits on the drawing board,
the folks at Ecology Action of Texas, Inc., are jumping up and down trying to
get the city to set up a program modeled after the way the environmental group
does things. Only they’re not so sure how much credence a city bureaucracy is
willing to give to a non-profit bunch of volunteers, even though they’ve been
in the recycling business for 25 years.
While the city tinkers with its multi-family plan, Ecology Action is putting
the finishing touches on its new drive-through recycling center, which will
open September 1 at 907 E. Ninth St., across from the Austin Police Department.
The center is believed to be the first of its kind in Texas, maybe even the
nation.
“It’s the coolest idea in the world,” says Sue Johnson, who chairs the Ecology
Action board. She credits the group’s general manager, Bob Russell, with
dreaming up the idea and styling the center after the old-fashioned gas
stations, complete with uniformed attendants.
If Johnson has her way, the city will team up with Ecology Action to fund a
network of drive-through recycling centers in neighborhoods across town. The
centers would eliminate the possibility of hundreds of blue recycling boxes
stacked outside apartment complexes, and would help clean up the clutter at
existing drop-off sites inside multifamily complexes, Johnson says.
The jury’s still out on that suggestion. Willie Rhodes, the director of the
city’s Solid Waste Services, says his office is drafting a proposal to send out
to private waste haulers to determine how they would tackle a multi-family
recycling program. An earlier idea of funding the program through a fee tacked
on to tenants’ electric bills has been pulled back for further consideration.
One other option the city is considering is reimbursing apartment managers for
what they pay private haulers to collect the recycled goods.
“That plan is like a moving target,” Johnson says. “There’s no incentive for
apartment managers to pay someone to collect the stuff. We’re looking at
recycling from apartment dwellers’ point of view, but the city doesn’t have
that luxury.”
No matter which route the city takes on recycling, Johnson says she’s not
losing any sleep over the possibility of losing clientele. “We’ll consider
everyone a winner,” she says. Besides, she adds, “We get the true believers in
recycling. These are the people who come to us because they want to recycle
their cereal boxes.” – A.S.
AND THEY EAT CHILDREN FOR BREAKFAST: Much has been said, and will
continue to be said, about the propriety of holding the United Nations Fourth
World Conference on Women in Beijing, China – and the possibility of First Lady
Hillary Clinton’s leading the U.S delegation. The Chinese government’s abuse of
human rights, including forcing women to have abortions and to be sterilized,
is the major objection the Austin American-Statesman raised in an August
16 editorial against the convention.
But another, quite bizarre, reason in the mounting argument against the United
States’ participation has been launched in this month’s missive from James
Dobson, host of “Family News in Focus” on Christian radio and president of
Focus On the Family (FOF), a clearinghouse of family-oriented materials. He
writes, “[H]uman fetuses have begun to appear on menus of Chinese restaurants
as a delicacy and health tonic.”
Where did Dobson get this information? A publication called World,
produced by God’s World Publishers in Asheville, N.C., recounts an alleged
investigation by a Chinese newspaper reporter into the rumored practice of
consuming aborted fetuses, which are said “`to improve complexions and promote
general well-being…'” The reporter was allegedly unsuccessful on the first
attempt to procure fetuses, but supposedly scored on the second visit to a
Shenzhen hospital, and was told, “`Normally we doctors take them home to eat –
all free. Since you don’t look well, you can take them.'”
Amy Wong Mok, chair of the Asian-American Alliance of Austin, is planning to
attend the UN conference and be a panelist in a discussion on the future of the
women’s movement. “This is beyond outrage,” she said, when told of Dobson’s
allegations. “I do not want to engage in such a slanderous discussion. He’s
using questionable materials to dehumanize us. If he is really concerned about
the unborn person, he should present it in a dignified way.”
Mok said her purpose in attending the conference, which runs from August 30 to
September 15, is to promote inclusion. The recent defection of Norma McCorvey,
aka Jane Roe, from the pro-choice camp “raised a concern I have,” she
said, “that the feminist movement is classist.” She believes feminism’s elitist
reputation is attributable, in part, to articulate, educated white women
gaining most of the media’s attention. “To only value one group of women above
those who don’t fit into the white, middle-class profile isn’t feminism,” she
said.– R.A.
This article appears in August 25 • 1995 and August 25 • 1995 (Cover).