Bruce Todd

On Monday afternoon, Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe announced his appointment of former Austin mayor Bruce Todd to serve out the unexpired term of Pct. 2 Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt, who resigned to run to replace Biscoe, who is retiring.

Todd will be a controversial choice to succeed Eckhardt, even on an interim basis (the appointee will hold office until Jan. 2015). He is best known as a business-oriented public official, who now works as a registered lobbyist for local developers and other commercial interests. He has represented the Shady Hollow Homeowners Association, strong advocates of the completion of SH45SW, strongly opposed by area environmentalists and by Eckhardt. In a letter to the Chronicle, Save Our Springs Alliance executive director Bill Bunch wrote: “The top qualification should be a candidate who will continue Commissioner Eckhardt’s policies, thereby representing the voters of her precinct. Bruce Todd is not that person.”

NewsDesk will have more on the Todd appointment as more information becomes available.

This article appears in May 31 • 2013.

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Contributing writer and former news editor Michael King has reported on city and state politics for the Chronicle since 2000. He was educated at Indiana University and Yale, and from 1977 to 1985 taught at UT-Austin. He has been the editor of the Houston Press and The Texas Observer, and has reported and written widely on education, politics, and cultural subjects.