Austin City Government - Circus of the Insane

[Pasken 1309]

It's looking more and more like District 2 Council Member Garza will seek Travis County attorney. This PAC launched: https://www.draftdelia.com

Anyone live in south east Austin want to run for city council next year?

[Bozo_Casanova 26614]

I'm extremely disappointed that she would apparently have a clean shot at this than run for Mayor, but I get it. She'll be a great county judge in a few years and that is arguably a better job. 

Edited August 23, 2019 by Bozo_Casanova

[Pasken 1309]

45 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I'm extremely disappointed that she would apparently have a clean shot at this than run for Mayor, but I get it. She'll be a great county judge in a few years and that is arguably a better job. 

I think mayor is going to be Jimmy Flannigan vs Anne Kitchen.  

[Guest Lobo]

Lemme know when kitchen declares.  We have a mountain of evidence of her manipulating bond issues.  That and her illicit campaign fundraising techniques.  She’s about as ethical as the Tony Montana Spring Break travel agency. 

[atomheartbevo 89895]

convention center ballot language is finalized.

https://www.kut.org/post/austin-city-council-finalizes-ballot-language-convention-center-vote

Quote

Shall an ordinance be adopted that prioritizes the use of Austin's hotel occupancy tax revenue by continuing the city practice to spend 15% of the Austin hotel occupancy tax revenue on cultural arts and 15% on historic preservation limiting the city's spending to construct operate maintain or promote the Austin Convention Center to 34% of Austin's hotel occupancy tax revenue and requiring all remaining hotel occupancy tax revenue to support enhance Austin's cultural tourism industry to the potential exclusion of other allowable uses under the tax code and requires the city to obtain voter approval and public oversight for convention center improvement and expansion costing more than 20 million dollars?

 

[atomheartbevo 89895]

Oh, and anybody looking for a six-figure job with the city.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/city-mulls-role-of-a-possible-new-top-climate-resilience-officer-to-address-climate-needs/

Quote

The city of Austin is fine-tuning the job functions for a new position that would help the city fight the effects of climate change. Earlier this month, City Council approved a resolution to declare a “climate emergency.”

In May, City Council asked the Office of Sustainability to review climate resilience plans in other cities, look for funding opportunities and present recommendations on how best to create a city-wide climate resilience plan. In a city memo filed Monday, the Office of Sustainability and City Manager’s Office presented its first phase of recommendations including a new executive-level leadership position. 

The new position, Chief Climate Resilience Officer, will lead the city’s planning and strategy to combat the effects of climate change, will coordinate efforts across departments and be the primary point of contact for the community.

City Manager Spencer Cronk’s office recommended that the executive-level role be filled within the next six months at a salary of $100,000 to $150,000 per year with benefits.  

The city also plans to immediately start identifying which parts of Austin are most at risk in the event of a climate-related natural disaster. In the past several years, the city has felt the steep effects of climate-related disasters and local leaders have made big changes in response.

 

[ChickenSandwich 9856]

Vote every single one of them out. 

This isn’t WEIRD. it’s WOKE

[BabaYaga 15332]

4 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

Vote every single one of them out. 

This isn’t WEIRD. it’s WOKE

I don't know what kind of chicken sandwich you are....but if you're not a POPEYES CHICKEN SANDWICH, then you can rightly fuck off!

Sorry, carry on.....born and raised in Austin, left in '98, never looked back.  Fucking city is broken.

[Orange&White 5539]

Jesus this town is fucked.

[Pasken 1309]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

convention center ballot language is finalized.

https://www.kut.org/post/austin-city-council-finalizes-ballot-language-convention-center-vote

 

Bullshit. This is who funded %95 percent of that petition:

 

 

A huge chunk came from condo owners living next to the convention center and a lot of other money from real estate investors. 

[Longhornfan1024 1707]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

convention center ballot language is finalized.

https://www.kut.org/post/austin-city-council-finalizes-ballot-language-convention-center-vote

 

Wait . . . that's the actual language?  I thought it was a joke making fun of how the city usually uses poorly worded proposals.  It's like a Trump tweet that you think has to be fake and then ends up being real.

[BabaYaga 15332]

Quote

Shall an ordinance be adopted that prioritizes the use of Austin's hotel occupancy tax revenue by continuing the city practice to spend 15% of the Austin hotel occupancy tax revenue on cultural arts and 15% on historic preservation limiting the city's spending to construct operate maintain or promote the Austin Convention Center to 34% of Austin's hotel occupancy tax revenue and requiring all remaining hotel occupancy tax revenue to support enhance Austin's cultural tourism industry to the potential exclusion of other allowable uses under the tax code and requires the city to obtain voter approval and public oversight for convention center improvement and expansion costing more than 20 million dollars?

Dafuk wrote this nonsense?

[Wally Pryor 5266]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

Oh, and anybody looking for a six-figure job with the city.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/city-mulls-role-of-a-possible-new-top-climate-resilience-officer-to-address-climate-needs/

 

Meh, I'm surprised the salary isn't more.  There have been and are no limits to the unbridled and maniacal lunacy.  Hell, a few years ago we were paying $95,000 (maybe $100K) to a Director of Bicycling.  I"m guessing that position is still intact and now has a staff of 4 or 5. 

 

 

 

[BabaYaga 15332]

36 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

Meh, I'm surprised the salary isn't more.  There have been and are no limits to the unbridled and maniacal lunacy.  Hell, a few years ago we were paying $95,000 (maybe $100K) to a Director of Bicycling.  I"m guessing that position is still intact and now has a staff of 4 or 5. 

 

 

 

[B00M 6520]

29 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

Dafuk wrote this nonsense?

So if I'm parsing this gibberish correctly, it limits how council can spend tax revenue and requires a vote regarding $20M+ convention Center expansions... so they wrote it like assholes. 

Pasken, 

Why should we oppose the opposition because 95% of the petition funding came from that list of people? Who was supposed to fund it? 

[atomheartbevo 89895]

1 hour ago, Wally Pryor said:

Meh, I'm surprised the salary isn't more.  There have been and are no limits to the unbridled and maniacal lunacy.  Hell, a few years ago we were paying $95,000 (maybe $100K) to a Director of Bicycling.  I"m guessing that position is still intact and now has a staff of 4 or 5. 

I will take their Climate Resilience Officer position for $99,000.  I will then work to discourage more people and businesses from coming here, and will work on getting people who are already here to move elsewhere.  I will also take occasional trips to South America and Africa to attend a one-hour lecture on the dust and smoke that they send our way.  

[Pasken 1309]

5 hours ago, B00M said:

So if I'm parsing this gibberish correctly, it limits how council can spend tax revenue and requires a vote regarding $20M+ convention Center expansions... so they wrote it like assholes. 

Pasken, 

Why should we oppose the opposition because 95% of the petition funding came from that list of people? Who was supposed to fund it? 

It's how hotel taxes are spent. 

The proposal absolutely guts the existing budget of the convention center which is bad for Austin. Conventions provide business for a lot of people in the city and also help promote and expose the city to more people. It attempts to allocate that money to Austin’s Cultural Tourism Industry which you can't even do by state law.

 

Expanding the convention center is not only good for the city and business community but it would also lead hotels in the area to agree to a special tax district which would be an ADDITIONAL tax of about 4 million a year that could be spent on the homeless issues or other problems in the area. This would delay expanding the convention center for a year since it would have to go to election in Nov 2020 when we already have previous voter approval to spend hotel taxes on the convention center. 

[Wally Pryor 5266]

Asleep at the wheel given the day-to-day tomfoolery of the tribe running the city.   Much of it has been concentrated on the cluster fuck handling of the homeless situation.  Deservedly so.

This one deserves its own post.  How in the fuck do you need to spend $1,000,000 on a study to determine why a certain segment isn't getting a fair shake on city contracts?  I mean, we know this city has specialized over the last 10 - 15 years in unbridled lunacy when it comes to hiring consultants - engaging them to do a study and hiring more consultants to study its study.  But this shit is mad - what in the hell can you possibly be doing to blow 7 digits on something like this?  Are you based in another solar system and needing transportation to and from Austin in order to do a few interviews?

 

Holy shit.  

 

City leaders are preparing to spend $1 million on a study looking into disparities in the number of minority- and women-owned businesses awarded city contracts.

 

https://www.statesman.com/news/20200117/austin-council-could-spend-1-million-on-minority-business-disparity-study

[atomheartbevo 89895]

So it’s a white guy doing the study.  

[CooterBrown 18038]

I’ll tell you why. Every small MBE/WBE would rather be small and be a sub contractor to a large, probably white owned, firm. Why? Much less risk and as a sub, you can be on many of the teams bidding on work. When I was in consulting, there was one Asian owned engineering company in Austin. Part of their deal when they joined your bid was they were not exclusive. A certain percentage of each COA project has to go to each category of MBE/WBE. As a result, this firm was always on the winning team and always got their percentage of work with minimal business development risk or expense.

Hell, there were some subs we just cut a check to for doing no work because the COA contract guaranteed them a percentage.

Why prime a competitive bid and risk losing when you can have a steady income stream by subbing?

[B00M 6520]

14 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

A certain percentage of each COA project has to go to each category of MBE/WBE. As a result, this firm was always on the winning team and always got their percentage of work with minimal business development risk or expense.

Hell, there were some subs we just cut a check to for doing no work because the COA contract guaranteed them a percentage.

 

If that's not progress I don't know what is! Let's pat ourselves on the back.

[atomheartbevo 89895]

2 hours ago, B00M said:

If that's not progress I don't know what is! Let's pat ourselves on the back.

[Armybrat 40942]

2 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

I’ll tell you why. Every small MBE/WBE would rather be small and be a sub contractor to a large, probably white owned, firm. Why? Much less risk and as a sub, you can be on many of the teams bidding on work. When I was in consulting, there was one Asian owned engineering company in Austin. Part of their deal when they joined your bid was they were not exclusive. A certain percentage of each COA project has to go to each category of MBE/WBE. As a result, this firm was always on the winning team and always got their percentage of work with minimal business development risk or expense.

Hell, there were some subs we just cut a check to for doing no work because the COA contract guaranteed them a percentage.

Why prime a competitive bid and risk losing when you can have a steady income stream by subbing?

In the Early 1990s my ex-DIL worked as a secretary for a minority female contractor who got a lot of gigs with the CoA. She only hired white male engineers to perform all the work, such as it was. Lol

[ZB'Tejas 594]

Is there a better thread on the ongoing Austin Land Development Code?

 

Austin Chronicle just published this piece on the

Unintended Consequences that the new Land Code could generate. I didn't really keep up with CodeNext but with this new version starting discussions next week I'm interested in seeing what transpires. 

 

[Pasken 1309]

4 hours ago, ZB'Tejas said:

Is there a better thread on the ongoing Austin Land Development Code?

 

Austin Chronicle just published this piece on the

Unintended Consequences that the new Land Code could generate. I didn't really keep up with CodeNext but with this new version starting discussions next week I'm interested in seeing what transpires. 

 

Chronicle is a terrible source for that subject . The paper's owner is a Hyde park millionaire that wants hit keep his low density central Austin neighborhood as it is and it's usually him writing the fear mongering articles including the one you linked.

 

He's not interesting in following the facts. He's interested in finding whatever he can that support his ultimate position which is backwards for a "journalist".

Edited January 24, 2020 by Pasken

[ChickenSandwich 9856]

1 hour ago, Pasken said:

Chronicle is a terrible source for that subject . The paper's owner is a Hyde park millionaire that wants hit keep his low density central Austin neighborhood as it is and it's usually him writing the fear mongering articles including the one you linked.

 

He's not interesting in following the facts. He's interested in finding whatever he can that support his ultimate position which is backwards for a "journalist".

Not doubting you, but it is easy to throw this conjecture out there and a personal attack on the writer without posting a single point or fact you disagree with.

 

I would like to see the proof work on these

Density doesn't equal affordability. Areas of Austin that have already seen big increases in density have also seen big increases in rents. Moreover, consultants have been unable to point to a single growing city in the U.S. where the kind of upzonings proposed by the new code have actually resulted in greater affordability.

• Upzonings will increase sales prices and rents. Financial analysts and real estate professionals estimate that the proposed increases in entitlements in the new RM1 zoning, for example, will cause valuations in central neighborhoods to increase by 50%-70% for the land alone, meaning sales prices and rents will follow. In theory, homeowners could add an income-producing second unit if they had $150,000-250,000 on hand, could wait years to recoup their investment, and didn't mind losing a chunk of their homestead exemption for the portion of their property that now contains a rental unit. In practice, they'd likely be better off selling to a developer and moving to Pflugerville or beyond. Renters, of course, will be displaced without any such payout.

[Bozo_Casanova 26614]

Imagine thinking real estate is the single market where prices are rising faster than incomes wasn’t primarily addressable through expanding capacity, but also imagining that you could somehow contain demand for centrally located housing in a city that has doubled in size every two decades for the last 140 years.

Barbaro is ignoring his own experience in Austin, where the period of extreme affordability in the 1990s was the direct result of the 1980s home construction boom and consequent oversupply during the subsequent recession.

 

[Updawg 2295]

And savings and loans troubles.

[Updawg 2295]

 

After 22-years chugging through Zilker Park with cars full of giggling children and smiling families, managers of the Zilker Zephyr announced Wednesday they would not repair or continue to manage the miniature train.

 

The train was derailed in May 2019 after a series of storms eroded part of the track along the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail, but managers said in a Facebook post Wednesday that complications with their contract with the city ended their run.

 

The online post said the contractor who ran the Zephyr made plans after the track was damaged to make repairs, but the contract with the city was set to expire before fixes could be completed.

 

Management discussed the possibility of a five-year extension of the contract that would allow them to make repairs and earn enough to cover their cost, but that didn’t happen.

 

“In October 2019, despite us spending countless hours and tens of thousands of dollars on designs and preparing paperwork for Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and City of Austin permits, all our efforts were met with us getting told that instead of allowing us to make the repair and offering us a contract extension, both the Concessions and Contracts Committee and Parks and Recreations Board voted on putting the Zephyr contract (out) to bid,” the post said.

 

Management reached out to discuss the contract, and eventually received a “final offer” for a guaranteed three-year extension with two optional one year options, which they turned down, according to the post.

 

“Due to the amount of money we had projected we would have to invest for the repair - we understood only a contract with a guaranteed five years would make financial sense for our level of investment,” the post said. “We are sorry we have to say goodbye like this because the Zilker Zephyr has been our family’s love and passion, and we know the people of Austin and around the world loved it as well. Again, thank you for allowing us to serve you the last 22 years.”

 

Austin City Council Member Greg Casar said just because the current vendor has stepped away doesn’t mean the train won’t return.

 

“If they don’t want to run the train, we’ll find someone else to run the train,” he said.

 

https://www.statesman.com/news/20200129/zilker-zephyr-managers-say-theyrsquore-done-running-austinrsquos-tiny-train

 

 

[DalTxHornFan 3121]

F*** Casar and the COA.  I'm sure that the new train RFP from the COA Parks Department will be giving bonus points to solar-powered or other "environmentally sustainable" approaches to the train route.  Perhaps a gender-neutral pedal-powered "train" that includes homeless accommodations will emerge as the preferred solution? 

[Cajun 11760]

Signed the recall petition for Adler and some of the other human shaped viruses running their scams.

Won't do shit, but sure felt good.

/csb

[Wally Pryor 5266]

The Zilker Zephyr thing is quite a fiasco.  We can somehow budget to spend $65MM / year on the homeless but can't figure out a way to keep a kiddie train going that quite a few childeren have really come to love over 20-25 years.   

Maybe someone will tell me this is 100% on the train operator but I'm guessing there's just more city lunacy involved.  Set me straight. 

 

[atomheartbevo 89895]

42 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

The Zilker Zephyr thing is quite a fiasco.  We can somehow budget to spend $65MM / year on the homeless but can't figure out a way to keep a kiddie train going that quite a few childeren have really come to love over 20-25 years.   

Maybe someone will tell me this is 100% on the train operator but I'm guessing there's just more city lunacy involved.  Set me straight. 

It’s getting stupid.  

https://www.kxan.com/news/local-news/battle-over-zilker-zephyr-mini-train-leads-to-city-of-austin-requesting-a-restraining-order/amp/

I’m leaning towards 75%, if not more, on the city.  There were a lot of repairs needed after the storms or whatever, and it sounds like the company had little left on their contract, and so they would have lost money if they did the repairs.  Basically get it repaired and only have a very short time to recoup their costs.   The company wanted a contract extension to help cover/spread the repair costs out.  

But the contractor should not have started pulling up track.   So they are a problem   

Somebody in city management probably has a nephew who thinks he can run the rain just fine.  

Edited February 6, 2020 by atomheartbevo

[atomheartbevo 89895]

So on Shoal Creek between 39 1/2 and 38th streets, they fucked up the bike and auto lanes.  

From what I’ve seen the past few days, they are going to be doing two pedestrian crosswalks across Shoal Creek between 39 1/2 and 38th.   

Traffic will be even more lovely in the mornings when kids are headed to school.  

[Armybrat 40942]

40 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

The Zilker Zephyr thing is quite a fiasco.  We can somehow budget to spend $65MM / year on the homeless but can't figure out a way to keep a kiddie train going that quite a few childeren have really come to love over 60+ years. 

Maybe someone will tell me this is 100% on the train operator but I'm guessing there's just more city lunacy involved.  Set me straight. 

 

Fify

[Guest Lobo]

Mayor ordered that they close  off two northbound lanes of Lavaca from 3rd to 6th.  Local businesses and offices asked if they could release the bus lane for that stretch to general through traffic (beyond the usual ability to use it for turning).   City said nope, dedicated bus lanes are for just that.  So for next several weeks, the main northbound artery for employees coming into the SW side of downtown from South Congress, South First, Barton Springs, Riverside, and the Eastbound turn lanes of West Cesar Chavez, you’ll know have one lane to work with as all of you merge to get north on Lavaca to points beyond second street.  
 

One of you apologists for this ‘progressive’ city leadership tell me why this is acceptable?   We’re all gonna get so pissed, we give up driving?   How about I fist fuck your grandmother instead.   Go drive this section later today.  It is literally impossible they’re this stupid.  Just put up construction signage for a few blocks that says bus lanes are okay for local AND thru traffic. 

[atomheartbevo 89895]

2 minutes ago, Lobo said:

One of you apologists for this ‘progressive’ city leadership tell me why this is acceptable?   We’re all gonna get so pissed, we give up driving?

That seems to be the goal.  

[Updawg 2295]

Exactly. We spend money on the dumbest shit but can't keep that train running in our flagship park. It reminds me of when there wasn't money for the trail of lights. I guess that $100 million slush fund from Austin energy only goes so far.

[Goodman 3273]

God I can’t wait for my kids to finish high school so that I can move.

[Cajun 11760]

Happening for me in May.

Already got my place lined up in SA.  Spent last weekend there with my oldest daughter.  The lack of agressive panhandling there alone was worth the time spent.  In fact, I don't think I ran across one panhandler the entire time.  What a breath of fresh air that was.

Never thought San Antonio would be significantly more attractive than ATX.

Well done COA, well done.  Buh bye!

[Paco 1934]

That seems to be the goal.  

That's been the goal for a looooooong time.

[Orange&White 5539]

3 hours ago, Updawg said:

Exactly. We spend money on the dumbest shit but can't keep that train running in our flagship park. It reminds me of when there wasn't money for the trail of lights. I guess that $100  $150 million slush fund from Austin energy only goes so far.

fify. 

And you know Pachanga Fest can't be expected to pay for itself.

[CooterBrown 18038]

4 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

So on Shoal Creek between 38th streets and Anderson Ln, they fucked up the bike and auto lanes.  

The entire redesign is a clusterfuck.  The bike lanes end on newly introduced curves in the lanes to make way for the pedestrian crossings.  The reasoning we were told by COA is that the crosswalks were needed so that pedestrians didn't have to cross Shoal Creek Blvd all at once. They can now stop between the lanes in a median, wait, and then continue.  You know, because traffic is so fucking heavy it's impossible to cross that street.

This is the same logic that's getting rid of the turn lane on Burnet Road. They said it's to improve safety.  When someone in our HOA plotted all the traffic accident data points from the past couple of years between 45th St and Anderson Ln, there were exactly zero accidents that occurred at any location other than an intersection.  How do you improve on an accident rate of 0%?

 

[Cajun 11760]

Oh, and one other breath of fresh air in SA.

Not one fucking shitty ass toll road.

Such a beautiful thing.

[Armybrat 40942]

Better TexMex too.

Edited February 6, 2020 by Armybrat

[Pasken 1309]

7 hours ago, Lobo said:

Mayor ordered that they close  off two northbound lanes of Lavaca from 3rd to 6th.  

How did the mayor order this?

[Guest Lobo]

I skipped for the formal 5 intermediary steps to keep this thread from slipping even deeper into tediousness.  He had a chance to just make a simple directive and he passed.  

[Pasken 1309]

20 minutes ago, Lobo said:

I skipped for the formal 5 intermediary steps to keep this thread from slipping even deeper into tediousness.  He had a chance to just make a simple directive and he passed.  

Council doesn't micro manage shit like that. Please send me the link if I'm wrong.

[Guest Lobo]

I'll send you the minutes from my last bond meeting about the mobility projects.  Obviously we're the finance side, not the timing/Project management side.  But it still came up in our hearing (I think it was November IIRC).  They dropped it as a slight mention.  I gotta dig through my hard copy binder.  But the slide deck and the staff's real time commentary is available online.  The initiatives like this run completely aside from the permitting office who knows when/where construction holds on lane closures will occur.  They draw from the same pool of money but this hearing proves they never fucking talk to one another.  Anyway, all that drama aside, developers and two major employers on Lavaca just went straight to their council members and mayor and basically said, "look, we get it...shit's getting built o'er here.  But it's down to one lane for a few critical blocks.  Can we just toss up a few signs via 'Super Important Ordinance #137, this here bus lane kosher for next few blocks'????"  Not Adler himself, but his Chief of Staff told them to go get bent.  I'm paraphrasing.  If you ever want to get into the granularity of this shit, I'm happy to but it's gonna be on your time on your bar tab.  But that's the non-hyperbolic gist.  

[Guest Lobo]

Found out yesterday from the head of Austin libraries that his permitting process to get a roof replaced at one of his east side libraries (so, not Adler's downtown toy) has already taken 6 months and is projected to take another 6 months on top of that.  He went all the way up to City Council and they told him they couldn't do any special favors for a city building.  Which, I completely understand but also don't treat a city project and leader extra shitty either.  

A leaky roof.  On top of a library.  Do I need to explain to the permitting office what a 22 year old leaky roof does to BOOKS?  If this is what the public sector is dealing with, what possibly hope does the private sector have?  

He took his position over right after the downtown library was finished.  The leadership team conveniently all left the department after construction was finished, which was $35 million over budget and 18 months late.  He finds that very curious.  He's also not happy about the CapEx required to keep up the downtown branch is as much as the next 10 libraries combined.  

And the head of Cultural Centers (Asian-American, Carver Museum, Mexicarte Museum, MACC, et. al.)...told me he has absolutely no idea where the figure $27mm for the MACC expansion came from.  We voted for it, we sold the entire bond amount already, expansion plans are under way, but neither he nor City Council knows how we arrived at $27mm.  Literally nobody knows, not the MACC staff, not Council, not the Department Head, nobody.  We just sold bonds to pay for "an expansion project."  And of course, the best part---the $27mm won't be enough...they at least do know that it'll take another $27mm or so to finish out the expansion plans on the renderings.  But they only know that now because they're underway with the contractor.  But not a single person involved with these projects knows why we asked voters for $27mm.  Somebody literally just threw the number into the bond proposal the week before it was due to to the ballot registrar.  And we weren't even trying to pry, he just voluntarily gave up these facts.  If you were to start actually looking around and FOIA some shit, you'd find a lot more bond amounts totalling in the hundreds of millions were proposed simply because they sounded good and we needed big, round numbers.