City Council

At 12:10am this morning, after taking nearly three hours of public testimony, the Austin City Council voted 5-2 (Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Council Member Bill Spelman opposed) to put on the ballot the exact plan long advocated by Austinites for Geographic Representation. The five votes in favor meant the motion made by Council Member Mike Martinez and seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole passed on all three readings.

The proposal calls for 10 council members to be elected from geographic districts, only the mayor to be elected at large, and an Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw a council districtricting plan that the council would have no choice but to adopt.

At 12:17am the council voted 4-3 (Cole, Martinez and Spelman opposed) to also put on the ballot the 8-2-1 plan. But because the motion did not get five votes, it only passed on first reading and will have to come back to the council—which doesn't meet again until August 2—for further consideration.

The 8-2-1 plan, sponsored by the mayor and Council Member Chris Riley, would have the mayor and two council members to be elected at-large and eight council members to be elected from geographic districts. This proposal does not include an Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. Instead,according to the draft ordinance for this agenda item, “The boundaries of geographical single-member council districts shall be drawn by ordinance from time to time.”  Meaning the council districts could be drawn in such a way that the City Council would decide the boundaries.

Strong financial solvency is a trait shared by the mayor and other members of the Austin City Council. But properly reporting their income and assets proved to be a problem for some of the council members.

Austin Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole failed to report her husband’s sources of income, clients, and board positions as required by City Code in her sworn financial statement filed March 12. 

She also did not include in the document four out of the eight properties she owns.

The Austin Bulldog discovered these, and several other, flaws in its review of the mayor and council members’ financial statements covering the 2011 calendar year.

The reports help citizens monitor possible conflicts of interest in government decisions by outlining elected officials’ sources of occupational income, gifts from non-relatives, board positions, business and real estate interests, and other personal financial information.

The Austin Bulldog opted to publish Austin City Council members’ state and City Code financial statements in this article to provide greater transparency and allow increased scrutiny of these elected officials.

Citizens Group To Make Final Petition Push

Austinites for Geographic Representation Claims to
Have 17,000 Signatures, and Shoots for 13,000 More

by Ken Martin
© The Austin Bulldog 2012
Posted Monday, June 4, 2012 11:01pm

It's been 15 months since Austinites for Geographic Representation held its first meeting in February 2011 at Huston-Tillotson University and the group has been steadily building a coalition of supporters and rounding up endorsements ever since.

The group's proposal to have 10 council members elected from geographic districts and only the mayor elected at large, and to have geographic districts drawn by an Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, has gotten a lot of traction—including endorsements from a range of groups including the League of Women Voters of the Austin Area, Austin Neighborhoods Council, the and the Travis County Republican Party. (To see the full list of organizations and individuals endorsing the plan, click here.)

Even the council-appointed 2012 Charter Revision Committee backed the 10-1 plan with an Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, though by a narrow 8-7 vote that triggered work by some on the losing end to continue lobbying for a hybrid plan that includes a couple of at-large council seats in addition to the mayor.

What the 10-1 plan has not gotten so far is broad public support from members of the Austin City Council. To date, only Council Member Mike Martinez has voiced unequivocal support for the plan.

Hence the grassroots effort by Austinites for Geographic Representation continues to gather the signatures of 20,000 registered city voters.

The long-running struggle to find balance between owners who want to rent their property for short periods and neighbors who object to the problems caused by some short-term rentals continues.

The Austin American-Statesman’s story Monday summed up the situation in which the Planning Commission’s efforts to find an acceptable middle-ground have been unsuccessful, and both sides vow to continue the battle.

Amid this ongoing controversy, on May 21 an Austin-based company established a website that provides a way for people who support short-term rentals to e-mail a form letter to City Council members en masse.

The site was initially anonymous but The Austin Bulldog’s check into the website, VisitorsBenefitAustin, determined that it is being paid for by HomeAway, an Austin-based company with worldwide reach promoting short-term rentals.

A private movie screening at Alamo Drafthouse, an end-of-the-year celebration at Dave and Busters, and an outing at Main Event Entertainment to bowl and eat barbecue are among the publicly funded events held to recognize Austin Energy employees over the past two and a half years.

As City Council members grapple with a proposed electric rate increase for Austin Energy customers, The Austin Bulldog paid $281 to obtain hundreds of documents through open records requests submitted in March outlining how the city-owned electric utility company manages spending for employee parties, business dinners, and travel.

The records indicate that Austin Energy spent at least $123,065 related to holiday, retirement and employee appreciation events from October 1, 2009 to February 29, 2012.