While Yesterday’s City Council meeting may have started slow, it certainly accumulated momentum. Due to a contentious hearing on water rates, the meeting didn’t end until nearly 1am.
We’ll unpack that controversy Monday, but for now, glance at other fraught areas: Time Warner Cable‘s plans for Channel 6, and a decision in the Seaholm art wall saga.
Much earlier in the day, the item selecting an artist for the wall at Seaholm surrounding an Austin Energy substation returned, with Chris Riley moving again to award the contract to second-ranked artist Nader Tehrani over staff-selected Jim Isermann. Speaking again to the context in which the wall would go up – next to the the new central library, pedestrian plazas, and creek trails, he said Tehrani scored highest in a measure of context sensitive design, while Isermann scored lowest out of the top five in that regard.
Laura Morrison remained in her role advocating for Isermann, arguing that a protracted staff interview process underscored his sensitivity to design in context. While saying she would “always support” the ability of council to chose whomever they feel most qualified, instead of being beholden to a recommendation, she said Isermann’s selection, vetted by an arduous Art in Public Places selection process, was “not just a staff and a board and commission recommendation … [it’s] lots more than that.”
With that, their colleagues began weighing in. Sheryl Cole said she’d be supporting Morrison, saying
it was “very important to send a clear message” that disregarding the process “will be a clear exception, rather than a rule.” Randi Shade supported Riley, echoing Tehrani’s similarly high scores. With that, Morrison’s substitute motion to go with Isermann failed 3-4, joined by Cole and Bill Spelman. A vote on Riley’s original motion then passed 6-1, Morrison being the sole nay.
Also contentious was an item related to Time Warner Cable’s carrying of the city of Austin channel, Channel 6, and other government channels, as the cable giant plans to migrate public affairs programming to higher channels requiring a digital converter. The resolution called on city manager Marc Ott to “take all actions he deems necessary” to ensure the channels’ broadcast “remains uninterrupted on the basic and standard service tiers.” Ott, echoing a note made earlier by Lee Leffingwell, noted the language was “a bit vague,” especially in light of a lack of economic ceiling for his efforts. The measure passed 6-1, Leffingwell voting no. The Hustle suspects we haven’t heard the last of this one.
We’ll save the water rate revolt for next week, along with the Domain rezonings. There’s only so much fun to squeeze in one blog!
What the hell else is happening? It’s not exactly a B&C meeting, but the Austin Chronicle’s 20th Annual Hot Sauce Festival is happening this Sunday, Aug. 20 at Waterloo Park, 11am-5:30pm.
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This article appears in August 27 • 2010.