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Austin City Manager: Dallas discard vs Austin retread

Council members make policy. The city manager’s job is to implement those policies. A great city manager can get that done and keep the ship of state sailing smoothly. A good city manager can get most assignments done and avoid...

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Steve Adler Land Developer

Steve Adler Land Developer

The mayoral candidate profited from not
having to comply with the SOS Ordinance

Investigative Report by Ken Martin
© The Austin Bulldog 2014
Part 6 in a series
Posted Tuesday August 5, 2014 10:25am

Steve AdlerEnvironmentalists sharply criticized mayoral candidate Stephen Ira “Steve” Adler for representing land owners who avoided compliance with current environmental ordinances, as The Austin Bulldog reported in Part 4 and Part 5 of this series.

A review of several hundred pages of public records obtained through research and public information requests indicate that Adler himself personally profited from not having to comply with the Save Our Springs Ordinance for development of a tract in Oak Hill.

The steeply sloped 16-acre tract that Adler and law partner Michael Barron bought in January 1995 carried with it a Restrictive Covenant executed in December 1987—more than 10 years before any development plans were filed. The Restrictive Covenant granted rights to 65 percent impervious cover on the tract. If subject to the Save Our Springs Ordinance, enacted more than two years before Barron and Adler purchased the tract, impervious cover would have been limited to 25 percent.

The site plan for development of the property was filed by Barron and Adler in May 1998, more than three years after they bought the land.

A post-bust bargain?

Neighborhood Leader Files Ethics Complaint

Neighborhood Leader Files Ethics Complaint

Land Development Code Advisory Group Member
Neslund accused of failing to register as lobbyist

by Ken Mart in
© The Austin Bulldog 2014
Posted Thursday, July 24, 2013, 10:34pm
Updated Friday July 25, 2014 9:55am to link recording of statements made at press
conference
Updated Friday, August 15, 2014 8:15pm

Update: The Ethics Review Commission met the evening of Tuesday, August 12, 2014. After spending more than an hour and a half in executive session, the Commission heard testimony from the complainant’s attorney; Fred Lewis, from respondent Melissa Neslund; and from her attorney, Casey Dobson of Scott Douglass & McConnico LLP. After hearing testimony the Commission members asked questions, debated matters, and on the motion of Commissioner James Ruiz, seconded by Commissioner Dennis Speight, voted 4-2 to dismiss the complaint. Voting in favor of the motion were Commissioners Ruiz, Speight, Austin Kaplan, and Peter Einhorn. Voting no were Commissioners Donna Beth McCormick and Velva Price.

Mary IngleThe president of the Austin Neighborhoods Council, acting as an individual, lodged a Sworn Complaint Filed by Mary Ingle July 24, 2014 with the City of Austin alleging that an appointed member of the Land Development Code Advisory Group failed to register as a lobbyist.

The complaint names Melissa Neslund, a senior associate and project director for land use and entitlements with Bury Inc., a consulting firm founded by professional engineer Paul J. Bury III in 1984, according to the firm’s website.

The Austin City Council approved the establishment of the Advisory Group December 6, 2012, “to assist in the development of a new Land Development Code per the Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan.” The minutes for City Council Agenda Item 74 of December 6, 2012 state the resolution specifically prohibited members “who are registered or required to register as a lobbyist under City Code Chapter 4-8 or who are employed by a person registered or required to register under that chapter.”

The Austin City Clerk’s website lists the names of 65 lobbyists registered with the city. That list does not contain Neslund’s name or the name of anyone else The Austin Bulldog could identify as working for Bury Inc.

In a e-mail responding to The Austin Bulldog’s request for comment, Neslund provided a written statement, as follows:

Melissa Neslund“I am not a lobbyist (registered or unregistered), and I do not undertake in lobbying activities. My role at Bury is to support real estate industry clients through the City’s land development process.  At no time during that process do I lobby or solicit support for my projects from any City official. If I (or my firm) are working on a project that requires lobbying, we refer our clients to a land use attorney. 

Travis County Democrats Upbeat

Travis County Democrats Upbeat

Pep rally revs crowd to achieve
the dream of turning Texas blue

by Ken Martin
© The Austin Bulldog 2014
Posted Tuesday July 22, 2014 1:59pm
Updated Wednesday July 23, 2014 1:24pm to link recording of speeches

Kirk Watson with Randall Slagle and Lloyd DoggettWell you can’t blame the Democrats for wanting what they haven’t won in the last two decades, and that’s the election of the governor who will succeed Rick Perry.

The year 1994 marked the end of an era for Democrats. Governor Ann Richards lost her reelection bid to George W. Bush, but, in a last hurrah, Democrats Bob Bullock, Dan Morales, John Sharp, Martha Whitehead, and Garry Mauro all won another term. Ever since then every statewide race on the ballot has been won by Republicans.

Yet hope springs eternal in eternally deep-blue Travis County, the scene for a Saturday evening Democratic Party rally featuring the tried-and-true combination of barbecue, beer, and stump speeches, all emceed by State Senator Kirk Watson of Austin. A crowd estimated at more than 400 sprawled out over the grounds of the new party headquarters on East Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

In introducing U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin), Watson said, “Here we are in the heart of Travis County, the heart of the city of Austin, but we ain’t in his congressional district, because we’re sitting in the congressional district of somebody from Fort Worth.” (This is the result of the last legislative redistricting that left Central Austin in the congressional district of Representative Roger Williams, a Republican whose district stretches from almost to Cowtown all the way to Wimberley and includes the State Capitol.)

“This is really a place of hope, right here,” Doggett said. “And every time we walk another block, we call another person who might not otherwise have voted, you write a check, you put up a sign, you expand that hope for Texas. But it’s not just hope for Texas. It's hope for our entire country.”

Scruggs Runs for District 8

Scruggs Runs for District 8

The man who organized Circle C Democrats
loves to knock on doors and meet voters

by Ken Martin
© The Austin Bulldog 2014
Posted Thursday July 10, 2014 2:14pm
Updated 10:10am Monday, July 14, 2014

Ed Scruggs addresses the crowdIt would have been impossible to pack more people or more energy into the side room of the Santa Rita Tex Mex Cantina on Slaughter Lane in southwest Austin when on June 24 Edward Scott “Ed” Scruggs launched his bid for the District 8 seat on the Austin City Council.

Being in the heart of the Circle C Ranch development in Southwest Austin, Scruggs, 49, started his talk by recalling that he and Steve Urban, who co-chairs Scruggs’ council campaign, led the charge to convert the homeowners association from developer control to homeowner control “and it was a tough job,” he said.

“We had a slate of five of us that ran, walking door to door and we managed to all come into the board at the same time and it’s never been the same since.”

Just as Circle C’s governance changed, so has the City of Austin’s. This election will put control in the hands of council members from 10 geographic districts in which they live.

Circle C Ranch was not part of the City of Austin until annexed December 18, 1997. Circle C is among most populous parts of District 8’s south end. The district stretches west nearly to the Village of Bee Cave and north to Lady Bird Lake and includes Barton Springs Pool. Yet all five candidates who have appointed campaign treasurers for the District 8 race live south and west of Loop 360 (Ben White Boulevard).

The candidate’s speech

Undoing Racism Forum Confronts Candidates

Undoing Racism Forum Confronts Candidates

Speakers provided tough talk to some
two-thirds of declared council candidates

by Joseph Caterine
© The Austin Bulldog 2014
Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2014 3:00pm

Citizens and City Council candidates alike filled the small conference room in the Westminster Branch Library June 24 for Undoing Racism Austin’s City Council Candidate Forum on Racism. About 40 candidates attended, with future voters making up the rest of the crowd

Marisa PeralesMarisa Perales, a lawyer with Frederick Perales Allmon & Rockwell PC, who serves on the City's Environmental Board, opened the briefing, expressing her gratitude for the number of people who showed up and emphasizing that the presentations were intended for the candidates. She asked the audience to defer to the candidates during the question-and-answer session at the end, adding, “this is a safe space. There are no stupid questions.”

Despite this assurance, tension began to build as presentation after presentation confronted the would-be city leaders with hard facts about Austin's history of institutional racism.

Anika FassiaAnika Fassia, a program associate from the nonprofit Public Works, set the stage for the other speakers, defining the “racism” being discussed as not necessarily the prejudice imposed by one individual upon another, but rather intentional policies that disproportionately exclude or negatively affect people of color. “Intentional policies do define opportunity in the United States.” she said.

Investigative Reports

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