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What the fuck is wrong with you, Austin?

crash_davis

By crash_davis
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Orange&White

Orange&White 5526

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

What are they trying obfuscate?  It doesn't appear that conspiracy mastermind Watson went to much length to hide anything. 

Surely you must realize that terrible article is full of mischaracterizations and fully rooted in preserving a status quo that provides most of the grist for the previous 45 pages of this thread? 

The reality of maneuvering in a bureaucracy requires exploiting the system (without breaking the law) to get pretty much anything done, particularly quickly (and not picking on CofA government alone here, my wife works for big tech now and it's remarkably similar).  Watson was hired to do just that.  

Nothing says "Let's clean up the mess made by the previous leadership" by avoiding the adopted processes of the city.

"Bringing them on board through subcontracts rather than initiating new contracts, which would have required Council approval, "afforded us with the mechanism for bringing Laura and Joe on to assist me in acting quickly and decisively,""

You can bitch all you want about bureaucracy but that is exactly what City government is, and it is that way for a for a reason; to give transparency to the citizens. You don't just get to pick and choose which rules/processes/laws that you deem to be fit your needs and skirt the ones you don't agree with.

By hiding it and doing it under the cover of darkness, it makes them look as guilty as the people they replaced.

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Bozo_Casanova
Bozo_Casanova

Well for starters it’s the one and only good public buidling we’ve got and it’s so popular that pretty millennial women take their instagram shots and hang out in groups on nice afternoons on the outs

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ztejas

ztejas 43421

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, LCHorn said:

Not sure if you're intending to promote the position of the Chronicle, but this kind of thing validates my vote for Watson. 

The council and it's core constituencies have allowed (I don't think anyone directed it, rather it's grown organically and seen in quite a few other cities) a bureaucracy to grow that spends more time self-perpetuating or protecting legacy interest groups than in defining what policy adjustments it needs to make to meet the challenges of tomorrow ( @Bozo_Casanova would probably jest "or meet the challenges of 2015").  In the grand scheme of things I'd far prefer hiring a couple of experienced professionals whose acumen and experience demands a premium over a government salary and whose status as contractors allows them to be fired without cause.  Why the fuck would I (as Watson/Garza) want to give those ten council morons the potential to veto hiring two consultants lacking any decision making authority at all?

Yep. That was my first reaction. Probably have to not have council approval to actually get anything done here. 

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ztejas

ztejas 43421

Posted
Posted (edited)
13 minutes ago, Orange&White said:

Nothing says "Let's clean up the mess made by the previous leadership" by avoiding the adopted processes of the city.

"Bringing them on board through subcontracts rather than initiating new contracts, which would have required Council approval, "afforded us with the mechanism for bringing Laura and Joe on to assist me in acting quickly and decisively,""

You can bitch all you want about bureaucracy but that is exactly what City government is, and it is that way for a for a reason; to give transparency to the citizens. You don't just get to pick and choose which rules/processes/laws that you deem to be fit your needs and skirt the ones you don't agree with.

By hiding it and doing it under the cover of darkness, it makes them look as guilty as the people they replaced.

I agree with you in principle but I don't agree as it pertains to this city. 

Edited by ztejas
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PvilleStang

PvilleStang 2895

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I think the argument is the amount of pay exceeding the 72K threshold, and the possibility of nepotism here.  

Quote

The two consultants – Laura Huffman and Joe Canales – are on track to end the year as two of the highest-paid workers at City Hall (though as outside consultants, they don't get benefits offered to full-time employees, such as health care). At the rate the pair has been billing, each could make more than $420,000 by year's end – an annualized rate that exceeds that paid to Garza ($350,000) and approaches that paid to Austin Energy General Manager Robert Kahn ($475,009), the city's two highest-paid full-time workers.

...

For fiscal year 2022-2023 (which ends Sept. 30), during which the Canales and Huffman subcontracts were signed, the threshold for staff-approvable purchases is $72,000 – any expenditure above that amount requires Council approval, whether staff is using a competitive bidding process or not. Because the city did not seek to initiate new contracts with Huffman and Canales – instead using the old PFM contract – the city was able to completely skirt Council approval for the contract expenditures that, to date, have doubled the $72,000 threshold.

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texasdago

texasdago 7573

Posted
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I'm not a golfer so my opinion is tainted but F golf courses.  This is from last year but still pissed me off, especially when you factor in those dicks in San Marcos or Wimberley or wherever those a-holes were.

https://www.kxan.com/news/millions-of-gallons-of-drinking-water-used-to-irrigate-new-driftwood-golf-course/

Reclaimed, not reclaimed, whatever... this amount of water is absurd.

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Orange&White

Orange&White 5526

Posted
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3 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Pretty sure he's asking why is it nepotism.

Did you just not read the article?

Quote

It is not surprising that people with prior City Hall experience and long histories with the two men currently ruling the second and third floors of that building were brought back into the fold during a tumultuous time for the city of Austin's bureaucratic machine. In a statement, Garza said as much.

 

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BabaYaga

BabaYaga 15294

Posted
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31 minutes ago, texasdago said:

I'm not a golfer so my opinion is tainted but F golf courses.  This is from last year but still pissed me off, especially when you factor in those dicks in San Marcos or Wimberley or wherever those a-holes were.

https://www.kxan.com/news/millions-of-gallons-of-drinking-water-used-to-irrigate-new-driftwood-golf-course/

Reclaimed, not reclaimed, whatever... this amount of water is absurd.

That was my point.  Water's passing through the treatment plants as-is, so why not cycle it through the more robust processes so that it's safe for families.  

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LCHorn

LCHorn 2620

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13 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Pretty sure he's asking why is it nepotism.

Yes, this.  I don't think hiring someone who has previous, extensive, and direct experience in an industry or government body on a consultative basis has even the appearance of nepotism. 

Let's just use Laura Huffman as an example--she worked for six years as an assistant city manager and has a pretty fantastic resume since then. 

Nepotism, by contrast, is hiring your wife's son to be on your football operations staff and risk having him touch a live ball, resulting in an unsportsmanlike penalty and an ASU touchdown. 

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ztejas

ztejas 43421

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, Orange&White said:

Did you just not read the article?

 

I was clarifying the question. Not that I think this is a nepotism scandal - they're both very qualified to do the work in question. 

The issue at hand is that they skirted council approval. I think many of us would care more about it if our city council didn't have a storied history of being a clownshow and our city didn't have a storied history of spending money on the dumbest shit imaginable. 

Who spearheaded the zilker train disaster? Was that approved by the city council? Assuming it was.

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Orange&White

Orange&White 5526

Posted
Posted

To be clear, I don't have any issue with the people hired.

My issue is how they were hired, the lack of transparency of exactly what they are doing and how they are billing it, and the absolute blatant skirting of the legal process to spend City money and hire employees, consultants and consulting firms.

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105123

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

That was my point.  Water's passing through the treatment plants as-is, so why not cycle it through the more robust processes so that it's safe for families.  

Typically, the water that goes into a sewage treatment plant does not end up in drinking water pipes.  The cycle is generally this:

1) sewage comes in.

2) it's treated to safe levels to discharge.

3) it is discharged into a larger body of water (lake, river...sometimes it's "land-applied," but that's not a large volume of water in Texas, most goes into water bodies).

4) after it has mixed with/been majorly diluted by all that other water, it MAY be scooped up by a water plant downstream for treatment and use as drinking water.

And for drinking water, the cycle is typically:

1) pull water from a source (surface water or groundwater).

2) treat it to make it safe to drink

3) distribute it in a pressurized system so it stays safe.

 

Reclaimed water was never destined to be drinking water, except to the extent that it would mix with other water and be pulled out by some other water plant downstream.  And, the pipes to distribute it don't have to meet the pressure standards of drinking water pipes (I believe....not 100% certain, but I think this is a difference).  In short, using reclaimed water for irrigation takes water that would otherwise just be discharged into a lake or river, providing no direct benefit to anyone (although there are actually water bodies in this state that would functionally run dry without receiving such discharges).

The cost of treating reclaimed water to drinking water standards isn't worth it.  It's better to just discharge the treated water into the river/lake, then pull mixed water out and treat that.

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ztejas

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1 minute ago, Orange&White said:

My issue is how they were hired, the lack of transparency of exactly what they are doing and how they are billing it, and the absolute blatant skirting of the legal process to spend City money and hire employees, consultants and consulting firms.

And that's a righteous position. If they keep doing stuff like this and it becomes a trend it may turn into a larger issue. If it stands as a one-off I feel like we have bigger fish to fry.

I mean, Jesus Christ, where would this rank on the list of corrupt or amoral bullshit the last mayor pulled?

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PvilleStang

PvilleStang 2895

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10 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

Yes, this.  I don't think hiring someone who has previous, extensive, and direct experience in an industry or government body on a consultative basis has even the appearance of nepotism. 

Let's just use Laura Huffman as an example--she worked for six years as an assistant city manager and has a pretty fantastic resume since then. 

Nepotism, by contrast, is hiring your wife's son to be on your football operations staff and risk having him touch a live ball, resulting in an unsportsmanlike penalty and an ASU touchdown. 

The thing that brings about nepotism here is these hirings were brought about outside the normal bidding process, and weren't scrutinized.  And the other part of it being they're getting paid BANK and don't really have any tangible deliverables, doesn't sit well.

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texasdago

texasdago 7573

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30 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

That was my point.  Water's passing through the treatment plants as-is, so why not cycle it through the more robust processes so that it's safe for families.  

But what's killing me here is that they're pulling drinking water to water the 7th tee...

 

But the city said that won’t cover the 18-hole golf course’s full needs, and it would still be allowed to pull up to 640,000 gallons per day from the same drinking water as residents of Dripping Springs under the current drought policy.

That’s where the golf course has been pulling all its irrigation water from up until this week.

Jennifer Riechers, general manager of the WTCPUA, said Dripping Springs began its contract with the golf club in August 2019 for up to 1 million gallons a day for 10 years or until the City of Dripping Springs can provide the course with 100% of treated effluent, whichever is sooner."

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PvilleStang

PvilleStang 2895

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We're part of WTCPUA, and the new pipeline they ran down HPR has completely F-ed us.  We went from no restrictions to stage 3 in less than a month.  BC Mayor said there were houses off HPR using more water than a golf course and it was completely overwhelming the storage tanks.  She was close to going the public shaming route, but stood down for some reason.  /CSB

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Man, the quality of life in this town has fallen off a cliff. Love seeing homeless folks sitting in between Twin Liquors and the UPS store surrounded by mini bottles as you walk in to drop off a package. Or the homeless guy that wondered into our neighborhood, literally pissed on someone's house and then tried to light fire to something in the middle of the street.

Between the trash everywhere, traffic, heat, drought, and soaring taxes... it definitely has me wondering if there are greener pastures. 

 

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gsoda3

gsoda3 3258

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Posted
2 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Man, the quality of life in this town has fallen off a cliff. Love seeing homeless folks sitting in between Twin Liquors and the UPS store surrounded by mini bottles as you walk in to drop off a package. Or the homeless guy that wondered into our neighborhood, literally pissed on someone's house and then tried to light fire to something in the middle of the street.

Between the trash everywhere, traffic, heat, drought, and soaring taxes... it definitely has me wondering if there are greener pastures. 

 

after this summer? 

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Bozo_Casanova

Bozo_Casanova 26451

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13 hours ago, Deej said:

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2023/09/20/cricket-food-snack-edible-austin-texas-benefits-nutrients/70904198007/

 

3 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

I've killed 20 in the past few days,  and the dog has devoured countless. 

2B people on earth eat crickets as a major source of protein. They are healthy, delicious and sustainable. What's not to like?

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texasdago

texasdago 7573

Posted
Posted
On 9/19/2023 at 12:53 PM, FirstTimeCaller said:

Man, the quality of life in this town has fallen off a cliff. Love seeing homeless folks sitting in between Twin Liquors and the UPS store surrounded by mini bottles as you walk in to drop off a package. Or the homeless guy that wondered into our neighborhood, literally pissed on someone's house and then tried to light fire to something in the middle of the street.

Between the trash everywhere, traffic, heat, drought, and soaring taxes... it definitely has me wondering if there are greener pastures. 

 

What happened to the good ole days when my buddy could get hammered, pass out in a back alley behind a church near 6th street and comfortably sleep under a homeless person's blanket?

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Bozo_Casanova

Bozo_Casanova 26451

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Orange&White said:

How often do you eat them? What's not to like?

Chapulines?  I'll eat them anytime I'm in a place that serves them and you should too - crunchy, salty, delicious. Live a little, gringo!


I have also used the EXO protein powder and bars when on sale but usually it's too expensive which is crazy, because farming grasshoppers and crickets is super cheap. If it wasn't more expensive than whey and egg white or even beef powder, I would put cricket protein powder in everything. 

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
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irishtexan

irishtexan 11518

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5 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

 

2B people on earth eat crickets as a major source of protein. They are healthy, delicious and sustainable. What's not to like?

When I lived in Chicago the suburbs would be inundated with Cicadas every 12 years or so. My work buddy (Nebraska alum. Haha. Loser) said his little dog would go outside to piss/shit every morning and gorge on cicadas because they pretty much covered every surface, everywhere. He stopped feeding the dog for like 6 weeks. The dog's shits were nothing but legs and wings. 

I don't think my buddy ate any cicadas, even though he's a bugeater. Weird.

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Samson's Wig

Samson's Wig 3192

Posted
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2 hours ago, irishtexan said:

When I lived in Chicago the suburbs would be inundated with Cicadas every 12 years or so. My work buddy (Nebraska alum. Haha. Loser) said his little dog would go outside to piss/shit every morning and gorge on cicadas because they pretty much covered every surface, everywhere. He stopped feeding the dog for like 6 weeks. The dog's shits were nothing but legs and wings. 

I don't think my buddy ate any cicadas, even though he's a bugeater. Weird.

When I lived in Chicago I had a buddy who would cook those fuckers up ni a number of different ways when the cicadas emerged.  I was roped into his cicada feast a couple of times.   It was fine.  I don't recall shitting legs and wings, but I was drinking a lot back then.

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Updawg

Updawg 2266

Posted
Posted
When I lived in Chicago the suburbs would be inundated with Cicadas every 12 years or so. My work buddy (Nebraska alum. Haha. Loser) said his little dog would go outside to piss/shit every morning and gorge on cicadas because they pretty much covered every surface, everywhere. He stopped feeding the dog for like 6 weeks. The dog's shits were nothing but legs and wings. 
I don't think my buddy ate any cicadas, even though he's a bugeater. Weird.

My dog loves eating cicadas. She knows how to find them every night it’s interesting to watch her hunting pattern. It’s annoying as shit though. Constantly wanting to go in and out. Another reason I’m ready for this summer to be over
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YGIFS

YGIFS 19450

Posted
Posted

On the way to the football game the other day, my two girls stopped dead in their tracks ahead of us.  Put their shirts over their noses and walked back towards us and said, "Ewwww, gross."  Sure enough some corner of a parking garage just had this festering pile of dead crickets just rotting in a beam of sunshine.  Hurried them along to open space and a breeze.  I guess they didn't really know that kinda shit much in their young lives.  In the last week, come across many a dead patch of rotting crickets.  Smells like a combination of cicada mortis and Cruz's beard after clam chowder day at the canteen. 

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texasdago

texasdago 7573

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, YGIFS said:

On the way to the football game the other day, my two girls stopped dead in their tracks ahead of us.  Put their shirts over their noses and walked back towards us and said, "Ewwww, gross."  Sure enough some corner of a parking garage just had this festering pile of dead crickets just rotting in a beam of sunshine.  Hurried them along to open space and a breeze.  I guess they didn't really know that kinda shit much in their young lives.  In the last week, come across many a dead patch of rotting crickets.  Smells like a combination of cicada mortis and Cruz's beard after clam chowder day at the canteen. 

They didn't watch the crickets rain down from the DKR lights? 

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