Austin’s homeless may be losing sleep: The City Council voted four to one on
Thursday to impose a citywide camping ban effective January 15. Councilmember
Jackie Goodman voted against outlawing sleeping in public places, while Mayor
Bruce Todd, Gus Garcia, Max Nofziger, and Ronney Reynolds voted
for it. Eric Mitchell abstained, and Brigid Shea was at home with her
new baby… With a theatrical flair sure to spark a headline, Sheriff Terry
Keel finally made the decision to turn in his badge to seek a seat on the
Legislature, with just 40 minutes to spare before Tuesday’s filing deadline.
Keel, who is both admired for his efforts on behalf of victims and criticized
for allegedly overstepping his authority with those who get in his way, chose
not to seek another term as the county’s only elected Republican, but will
instead compete for the District 47 House seat being vacated by Republican
Susan Combs. Perhaps Keel was mulling over his decision while in the Crescent
City — he was spotted boarding the Flamingo riverboat gambling casino in New
Orleans with a brunette on his arm during Sugar Bowl weekend… Austin
American-Statesman editor Rich Oppel was also spotted over the holiday at a
more politically correct event: braving the waters of Barton Springs Pool on
New Year’s Day as part of the Polar Bears’ annual cold-water dip. Just the
night before, he partied at the Save Our Springs Legal Defense Fund New Year’s
Eve bash. Is this the same man who once lamented in one of his first editorial
columns that he could not “generate appropriate angst for the Barton Springs
salamander?” and suggested that when Robert Mueller Municipal airport closes,
“why not open a theme park called Salamanderland?”… Perennial candidate
“Crazy” Carl Hickerson, who performs street theater downtown, would like to
follow in Max Nofziger’s footsteps. Hickerson, who makes a living selling
flowers on Sixth Street, announced his bid Wednesday for Nofziger’s
soon-to-be-vacated council seat. One way in which Hickerson won’t emulate
Nofziger is his stance on homeless issues. Hickerson says he is against the
camping ban that former transient Nofziger helped pass. (Former Chronicle
columnist Daryl Slusher and liquor store clerk Eric Silvernale have
also announced their candidacies for the Place 1 seat.) —
A.D.
Water Quality Coup
In a shakeup among the city’s bureaucracy, City Manager Jesus Garza disclosedhis intentions to strip the power to regulate water quality from one city
employee whom environmentalists trust, to another whom environmentalists fear.
According to a memo sent by Garza to councilmembers on Wednesday, Austan
Librach, who has headed the Environmental and Conservation Services Department
(ECSD) since its inception six years ago, will no longer control the water
quality, erosion control, and flood control aspects of the ECSD. Those water
issues will be grouped under a new department called the Drainage Utility,
which will be run by Mike Heitz, who will give up his current position as the
director of the Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) to take the job.
Assistant PARD director Jesus Olivares will act as director until Heitz’s
permanent replacement is found.
“Austan Librach is identified with protecting water quality,” complained
Councilmember Jackie Goodman. “To take him out of that issue makes me
uncomfortable.” Under Librach, the ECSD has won national and international
recognition for its programs, and was the only agency in North America to
receive an award at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero in 1993. The ECSD has
been under fire from developers looking to weaken the department’s oversight
of development projects.
What worries the environmental community is that Heitz, a former architect who
actively supported the $20 million baseball stadium voters turned down last
year, has no experience with water-quality issues. In fact, the closest Heitz
has ever come to being involved in city water management, is his fantastical
“white-water kayaking” concept for the Colorado River Park where the baseball
stadium was supposed to go. In the words of one councilmember who spoke on
condition of anonymity, the “broad spectrum” of environmentalists do not see
Heitz “as an environmentalist.”
Councilmember Brigid Shea says, “This contradicts the commitment to me that
the head of the Drainage Utility would be someone with environmental
credentials. This sends a terrible message. Mike [Heitz] is not the right
person for it. He’s an architect. It’s no malice towards Mike, but we just need
someone with environmental credentials.” George Cofer of the Save Barton Creek
Association adds, “Librach has encouraged and nurtured the science of
water-quality. We don’t know where Heitz will be on a lot of these issues.”
Garza says the move was necessary in order to place the Drainage Utility,
which has been managed by both the ECSD and the Public Works Department, under
one department. (By splitting off the ECSD’s water quality programs, the
Drainage Utility will have its own funding source rather than having to pull
money from the general fund.) However, Librach, who supports placing the
Drainage Utility “under one roof,” is unhappy with the turn of events that has
left him with no power over water quality management. “I don’t like it,” he
admits.
Garza says he selected Heitz, who was not available for comment at press time,
for his “management experience,” and adds that Librach will continue to oversee
long-range planning for water quality.
As part of his “re-engineering” process, Garza also announced on Wednesday
that the Planning and Development Department will be reorganized as the
Department of Development Review and Inspection. Its duties will be split among
three city officials: Tracy Watson, current head of Planning and Development
(PD), will become Development Process Manager, in charge of streamlining the
development process; Alice Glascoe, currently head of Planning Services in PD,
will assume the operational functions of PD; and the planning aspect of PD will
go to Librach. — A.M.
Save Camp Mabry
Even with its bold displays of heavy artillery, Camp Mabry offers up a picturethat is serene and green and open to the outside world. So it stands to reason
that the people who live near the 375-acre property bounded by West 35th Street
and MoPac would rather have the Texas National Guard in their backyard, given a
choice between that and a retail center.
This retail scare came about when the Texas General Land Office recommended
conducting a land-use study on roughly half of the camp’s underutilized site,
to determine the property’s potential for commercial and residential
development. Governor George W. Bush has until the end of January to either
approve or nix the feasibility study. Meanwhile, the Friends of Camp Mabry, a
group of West Austin residents and political leaders, has organized to try to
keep the camp just the way it is, which is just the way it was envisioned in
the 1890s when some Texas folks donated the land through a covenant with the
state. According to the Camp Mabry group, the donors gave up the land with the
condition that it be used for military purposes. As the group sees it, a
Texan’s promise is as good as gold. As the State of Texas sees it, covenants as
old as this one were meant to be broken. According to a spokesman for the Texas
General Land Office, a number of similar covenants have been construed by the
courts as revocable.
The move to develop land at Camp Mabry is part of a recent trend by the state
whereby unused or “underutilized” property is sold or leased for private
development. A local example of this is the successful Central Market/Central
Park project at 38th and Lamar, and a still undecided development to go up on
the “Triangle Tract” at 45th and Guadalupe. The Camp Mabry site would leave
intact much of the land that fronts 35th Street, where the guard’s
administrative offices and some historical structures are located. The property
that fronts MoPac, on back to its southwestern edges, would be sold or leased
to developers. Milo Burdette, a partner in local retail developer Pat Oles’
firm, confirms that they’re interested.
But David Gaines, who chairs the Friends of Camp Mabry committee, says there’s
much more to the fight than trying to preserve the camp’s jogging track
alongside MoPac. He says that if the military unit gets crowded out, the
national guard estimates a $78 million relocation cost to taxpayers, and adds
that the city would have to provide several million dollars in road
improvements, and that any residential development would likely require a new
elementary school — which these days cost about $6 million to build.
Gaines, a Balcones Drive resident and chairman of the English Department at
Southwestern University in Georgetown, says he fears that MoPac will become
another Ben White Boulevard, the South Austin thoroughfare that’s heavy on fast
food, fast cars, and a fast buck.
“They’re supposed to be looking at unused or underutilized property,” Gaines
says of the state’s mission. “Well, here we have the Texas National Guard on
this particular property. Isn’t that enough?” — A.S.
On Your Marks…
The filing deadline for the March 12 primaries was Tuesday, Jan. 2. Here’s alist of candidates for some of the local races (all are from Austin, unless
otherwise noted). Incumbents are identified by an asterisk (*).
U.S. Representative, District 10. DEM: *Lloyd Doggett. REP: Teresa Doggett,
business consultant; Mark Wetzel, Texas Union retail manager.
State Representative: District 47.DEM: John Lindell, Dept. of Human Services
(ret.), Rol-lingwood. REP: Jo Baylor, business; Kirk Ingels, insurance agent;
Terry Keel, sheriff; Randall Riley, insurance executive; Bill Welch, business.
District 48. DEM: Daniel Gustafson, municipal judge; *Sherri Greenberg,
business. District 49. DEM: *Elliott Naishtat, lawyer. REP: Emil Bloomquist,
retired.
District 50. DEM: *Dawna Dukes, consultant.
District 51. DEM: *Glen Maxey, political consultant; Eloy De La Garza, student;
Abel Ruiz, public relations consultant. REP: David Blakely, U.S. Air Force
(retired).
Travis County Sheriff. DEM: Raymond Frank, former sheriff, retired; Margo
Frasier, lawyer; Charles Littleton, Bastrop County jail administrator; Mike
Simpson, Travis County constable; Stacy Suits, real estate agent and former
constable; Greg Zaney, lawyer. REP: Alvin Shaw, chief deputy sheriff; David
Drew McAngus, private investigator.
County Commissioner, Pct. 1. DEM: *Sam Biscoe; Ron Davis, small business
owner. LIBERTARIAN: Vincent J. May, carpenter.
This article appears in January 5 • 1996 and January 5 • 1996 (Cover).