It
shouldn’t have been
called a work session, because work is hardly a fitting description for what
happened last Wednesday. For many, it was a parable for why the council
shouldn’t manage the city’s flagship utility — the Electric Utility Department
(EUD).
To begin with, the council’s Wednesday session — devoted to EUD affairs —
started 20 minutes late. When the proceedings finally left dock, Gus Garcia was
the only councilmember aboard. “I’m king. I can rule,” he quipped, and his
royal highness launched the meeting without the necessary quorum. Five minutes
later, Garcia had to settle for an oligarchy, when Mayor Bruce Todd and Eric
Mitchell finally arrived. They were still one body short of a quorum;
nonetheless things were moving. EUD helmsman John Moore gave a quick update on
the status of deregulation in the utility industry. Then, the irony lost on no
one, Electric Utility Commissioner Cedric Grice announced the commission’s
recommendation that the council relinquish most of its EUD management duties to
an “independent operating board” of electric utility experts.
The ruling trio only asked a few questions, and after less than ten minutes,
moved to make a decision. About $300,000 worth of EUD contractual items were up
for approval, but the mayor realized that approval just wasn’t going to happen
with only three councilmembers. Besides, he wanted to leave.
“Don’t you have a job to go to?” he asked Mitchell.
“It’d sure be nice,” came the reply. With that, adjournment. And before you
could say “independent operating board,” Mitchell was flying for the exit. But
lo and behold, in the distance through the doorway, a fourth councilmember
appeared.
“There’s Brigid,” Garcia exclaimed happily. “We can have a quorum.”
“Not any more,” Mitchell responded. “I got to make a call.” A change of heart
overtook him and he wheeled around, but before he could even hit his seat,
re-assembly, passage, and re-adjournment of the meeting was carried out.
Swift, yes. Chaotic, too. But well-informed and seriously weighed? Obviously
not, which is why the commission recommends the independent board, especially
as impending competition in the electric utility industry will soon end the
EUD’s monopoly over Austin.
Voters would have to approve any management transfer, so the commission wants
the council to schedule a charter election for the next allowable election date
— August 10. If voters approve, the commission thinks an independent board
would allow more informed, and less political, oversight. The proposed
five-member board would manage the week-to-week EUD affairs such as personnel
matters, policy development, and the EUD budget. Meanwhile, the council would
retain control of debt issuance, rates, and eminent domain.
The details have yet to be worked out, like how the board members will be
appointed — which may be one reason why the council and the council-elect may
not be ready for a charter election that soon. Another reason the
councilmembers want to hit the snooze button, despite all their ballyhoo in
recent months that something must be done ASAP, is that such an early election
date would endanger a studied and well-informed vote by the populace. The next
possible election date happens farther off in January.
n
Last week’s regular Thursday council meeting was another in a series of
relatively inconsequential acts — a false idleness that should last until the
true personality of the new council (effective June 15) emerges some time
around the budget deliberations in September. With a large and very polite
crowd encouraging the council to contract with the Austin Museum of Art for the
development and operation of the proposed downtown arts mecca, and with the
council unanimously agreeing to do so, things were civil for a council meeting.
In a related item, the council agreed to pay Venturi, Scott, Brown &
Associates $300,000 to update a design completed in the late Eighties, the last
time the city committed to getting the arts center built. Excited that the
council’s wheels were once again in motion, the deliriously happy crowd cheered
every turn, even Mitchell’s usual in-your-face bravado. Mitchell vilified the
lack of commitment to the proposed African-American arts center — the Carver
museum — and threatened not to back AMA supporters in the future if Carver
didn’t move closer to reality. City Manager Jesus Garza’s assistant, Toby
Futrell, basked in the preponderance of kudos — she gets credit for
commandeering the issue to the top of the council’s to-do list. It was
Futtrell’s most publicized accomplishment to date, and many say a precursor to
a bigger role after Assistant City Manager Oscar Rodriguez is squeezed out.
Futrell already oversees four departments, and took on Parks and Recreation
earlier this year, when Rodriguez was stripped of his oversight duties to
become the city’s federal funds solicitor. Time will bear out the speculation,
but Rodriguez was originally working on the arts center, and Futtrell’s glory
last Thursday would have gone to Rodriguez if not for the change.
The party deflated with the art crowd’s departure; only the most dedicated of
gadflys and the most enslaved of reporters braved the rest of the bureaucratic
boredom. Contractual items and zoning cases somnambulated by. At long last, the
council arrived at the second reading of the so-called Austin CableVision (ACV)
franchise agreement. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is — two weeks
ago, city staff forgot to publicize the item before the second reading, so the
council had to vote on the second reading again last week. “Agreement” is a
very hopeful term, since the city and ACV still disagree on the length of the
contract, and the social services that the company will provide.
The redundancy of the vote didn’t speed the approval along, as would have
been expected. It only presented more grandstand time for Mitchell, who took
the chamber audience hostage with a tangential tirade about cable TV’s pact
with the devil. “How dare you talk about social responsibilities when you
perpetuate sex, drugs, and everything that’s wrong with this society,” he said
in a challenge to ACV.
“You’re selling all of this crap and brainwashing my kids! We’re going to hell
in a handbasket and I blame a lot of it on the media!” Mitchell then voted to
approve the contract with the rest of his colleagues, but said the “little
guys” across the country, meaning councilmembers like him, should speak out
against Time Warner, ACV’s parent company. “Now I got it off my chest so they
can come back on third reading and we can vote to give them their contract so
they can go spouting all their crap under the guise of free speech!”
n
This week in council: The last hurrah for Brigid Shea and Max Nofziger.
They’re not going down quietly, and hope to leave the legacy of an
environmental czar, to oversee the environmental performance of all city
departments. Nofziger will also attempt to add $1 million to the budget of the
pedestrian coordinator. Just kidding, says his executive assistant, Robin
Cravey. In reality, though, there will be a party for Nofziger at La Zona Rosa
after the council meeting. It’s BYOM (Bring Your Own Money), says Cravey.
This article appears in June 14 • 1996 and June 14 • 1996 (Cover).