Council Members Chris Riley and Mike Martinez have sponsored a resolution on the August 25th agenda affirming council support for the Barton Springs Pool Master Plan. It's item number 70.
We want to show our appreciation to the council. Please call or email them supporting the resolution and the master plan.
Council initiated the Master Plan process in 2006 after members of FBSP presented a list of deferred maintenance and improvement projects for the pool.
From 2006 through 2007 there were dozens of stakeholder meetings and numerous public hearings formulating the plan.
In 2007 we identified about 20 short-term projects that needed immediate attention. Council allocated $6.2 million (plus contingency) to fund those projects.
What I learned from SOS and the Austin Sierra Club about Water Treatment Plant #4.
A coalition of area environmental groups (Save Our Springs Alliance, Austin Sierra Club, Environment Texas, Clean Water Action, Responsible Water Austin, Stop the Shaft) are asking the City of Austin to halt construction of the infamous Water Treatment Plant #4 http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/wat... The coalition believes the City should "preserve and protect what's already been spent" on building the project, but wait till the (distant) future to consider if, and when, Austin might need more treatment capacity before finishing the build.
When it comes to the next 20 years of Austin water, these groups believe we need more efficiency, not more treatment capacity.
Re: Water Treatment Plant #4, coalition leaders say:
1. We need a water efficient economy. Ground-based water supplies are decreasing. Water capacity is finite. Droughts are expected to increase in coming years. Finishing WTP4 means devoting over $1B to increasing water treatment capacity, during an era of financial strain. Yet according to the City, Austin has more than 140 miles of leaky pipes in its current water delivery system. Austin's plumbing leaks billions of gallons of water every year. Construction and operation of Water Treatment Plant #4 will not remediate that problem.
2. The City of Austin already admits water usage is decreasing. "When it rains, we use less. When there's drought, we use less." Even as Austin continues to rapidly grow, and even in this record drought, 2011's peak water usage is well below the peak record set 10 years ago in 2001. Environmentalists believe this trend demonstrates Austinites' ability to make more efficient use of their water and that programs to reduce the City's water waste and improve the community's water usage are more in the public interest than increasing water treatment capacity.
3. Water rates will skyrocket as a result of this project. The coalition believes water rates will increase 66% over the next 5 years in part because of the WTP4 project. Investing in water efficiency would, of course, reverse such a trend for bill payers. To learn more about the SOS Alliance view on how your bills will increase visit http://savewatersavemoney.org/
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According to the US Drought Monitor, Central Texas has been under severe drought conditions since May of this year. Currently, less than 1% of Texas is not in some stage of drought, with 74.5% of the state now in severe drought conditions http://www.drought.gov/portal/... The US Drought Monitor predicts severe drought conditions will continue in Central Texas through at least October 2011 http://www.drought.gov/portal/...
Last fall, I listened to Paul Scott, the new executive director of AIDS Services of Austin, talking about what your donations do & I wanted to pass this information on to you. Fifty dollars supplements food for 1 person for 1 month from the Helping Hands Food Pantry. One hundred dollars provides the Prevention Team with supplies to educate 370 people, a $250 donation assists 3 clients in financial crisis with support paying basic living expenses. A $500 donation provides 3 preventive oral hygeine visits at the Jack Sansing Dental Clinic. And when you - that's you people - have given a thousand dollars, you have: helped with more than 40 visits to the Food Pantry, a complete restorative treatment at the Dental Clinic and more than 20 hours of HIV Case Management to support clients living with HIV.
One of the organizations that benefits from donations to the Walk is:
The Wright House Wellness Center
Since 1988, The Wright House Wellness Center has offered care and compassion to Central Texans living with or at risk of HIV and other chronic illnesses and provided resources for support, education and empowerment.
come below the fold to find out more -- and for a matching donation challenge
(Laurin is a good friend and Salsa has some great news for Austin. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Greetings, BOR Readers!
My name is Laurin Manning, and I'm the community manager for a company called Salsa Labs headquartered in Washington, DC.
I know what you're probably thinking. "This stuff's made in ... Washington, DC?" Don't worry. We make a different kind of salsa. Our Salsa is a robust, web-based organizing platform built for progressive campaigns, non-profits, and advocacy organizations to manage their internet operations -- raising money online, communicating with members, mobilizing volunteers, and more.
This week we announced that Salsa Labs has secured $5 million in growth capital. This investment will enable us to expand our toolset as well as our staff, and we're excited to be growing our team in Austin from 12 to 30+ in the next year.Click here to check out our current open positions in Austin (and elsewhere), and stay tuned for more job opportunities on the horizon. We encourage you to apply!
I just wanted to stop by BOR for a moment to introduce Salsa Labs to the progressive community in Austin and throughout Texas. We're looking forward to working with each of you to build the progressive movement in the Lone Star State and around the country.
Check out our website at www.salsalabs.com and feel free to reach out to us online or in person if you have any questions or just want to say hello. Our Austin office is located downtown at 720 Brazos Ave., a block north of The Driskill Hotel and across the street from The Omni.
Hi. I'm raising money for AIDS Walk Austin, which benefits AIDS Services of Austin and several other agencies like the David Powell Clinic, the Wright House Wellness clinic, and others. This is the diary where I'm going to tell you the bad news -- why this fundraiser is so necessary & why I set my goal so high ($5,000).
First, this news from a CBS article -- people with HIV can live longer than before, but at a cost of over $600,000. There are agencies to help people out, but they have been facing cuts for years, and in this budget environment, things are much, much worse.
If you want to donate without reading all the depressing numbers, here's my donation page
Rosemary Lehmberg, Travis County District Attorney, announced today that she will seek re-election to a second term.
Lehmberg took office in January of 2009, the first woman to hold that office in Travis County history. In announcing her bid for a second term, Lehmberg pointed to the successes of her office during the last two and a half years of her four year term.
“I am proud of my amazing staff who work tirelessly to keep the people of Austin safe,” said Lehmberg. “Over the last two and a half years we have implemented important initiatives like the deferred prosecution program, mental health team, and the environmental prosecution unit.”
Lehmberg’s campaign team will consist of general consultant David Butts, campaign manager Katie Naranjo, fundraiser Susan Harry and treasurer Bill McClellan. “Rosemary is one of our finest public servants working to ensure the integrity of our government with a watchful eye across the state,” said Butts.
“It has been my honor to serve this community for the last two and a half years,” said Lehmberg. “I look forward to expanding our environmental prosecution of industrial polluters and continuing to create new approaches that end the cycle of incarceration.”
Lehmberg’s kick-off will be hosted by former opponents, Asst. District Attorney Gary Cobb and former Asst. District Attorney Mindy Montford this Thursday at Threadgill’s.
What: Re-Election Campaign Kick-Off for District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg
Date: Thursday, July 14, 2011
When: 6PM to 8PM
Where: Threadgill’s, 301 West Riverside Drive
The event is open and free to the public and all are welcome to attend. For more information about Rosemary Lehmberg's campaign visit: www.rosemarylehmberg.com
The Texas Legislative Session 2011 did support a few things that are good for the broad community. Check out TexasImpact.org's summary here: http://texasimpact.org/content...
And tonight, in Austin, there's a no cost symposium on some of these new initiatives, via the Interfaith Environmental Network. Learn more about "funding opportunities for greening up Texas faith communities" here: http://www.austinpost.org/cont...
In last week's epic thread comparing Randi Shade and Kathie Tovo's campaign contributions to Democrats, there was some concern expressed in the comments that someone was running a "Push Poll". One of our longer time users wrote the following.
Shade is using dirty tactics running her run-off campaign
I've been getting streams of push-polls, almost two a night, from a company called TTO Research (or that's at least what the pollster had said). I know they're push-polls because as soon as I ask what kind of poll this is, the pollster was frazzled and only completed 2 questions: who I'm voting for and if I might change my mind, after I called him out. Plus, the number was blocked (000)000-0000, and when I was polled last time from the company, they were pushing me towards voting for Shade with "Would you change your mind if..." questions regarding Tovo. No legitimate polling company I've ever heard from runs their business like this. I'm sorry, but I won't vote for a candidate that uses push-polls. Period. Democrat or Republican, I don't think the tactic is a good one and it's borderline harassment. You can bet your ass I'll be voting against her in the election. I'm slightly concerned about Tovo, mainly on music issues in Austin, but I really want a change now.
and followed up with
I'm aware of what a push poll is, having been a campaign manager for several candidates, and I am also aware that some push pollsters attempt to mask their true goal by portraying their poll as a data gathering poll. The poll that I participated in was certainly a push poll, as it included leading questions that were certainly intended to push my vote away from Tovo. If the campaign is not a part of it, someone else certainly is, and I encourage you here to denounce the use of such electioneering. It degrades all of us that have worked on campaigns.
I agree that push polls shouldn't have a place in our campaign toolbox, though there is often confusion over what constitutes one. Another of our long time readers Colin, who is very familiar with the polling industry, commented at the time that TTO Research (disclaimer: The Tyson Organization for whom BOR founder Byron LaMasters works) was unlikely to have actually run a push poll due to company policy. I agree that professionally Tyson wouldn't do something like that as well as the simple fact that the phrase "push poll" gets abused. The polls in question that the commentor (no met) claims were push polls weren't push polls. Most polls worth their salt are going to test how respondents react to various messages- that's the whole point of message polling.
In any case, the recently released campaign finance reports are out and it would appear that the Randi Shade campaign telling the truth when it claimed it wasn't running any such poll.
In fact, the polls were payed for by the Kathie Tovo campaign. Here's the relevant page from their campaign finance report.
Good polls try to remove bias from their questioning, and part of that is wording a poll so that the respondent can't figure out who's interested in asking the questions. Clearly, TTO Research did a really good job at that. Maybe even too good a job.
Bottom line: It wasn't a push poll and it wasn't paid for by Randi Shade. So maybe instead of making accusations that Shade is a Republican, using Rovian tactics, and running push polls we could take a breather.
Councilmember Randi Shade held a press conference at City Hall this afternoon to outline her rationale and issues on which she plans to campaign headed into the June 18th runoff election against challenger Kathie Tovo. Below and in the extended entry are her full remarks. Regardless of where one stands in this election, it is encouraging to see the campaigns focus their message to better define their differing visions for the City of Austin. I encourage you to read the full piece, especially the final bulleted remarks in the extended entry.
I'm extremely gratified to be joined by so many good friends and supporters. The last few days have been more exciting and more energizing than any time during this entire campaign - or even during my first campaign, three years ago.
I've literally been inundated with hundreds of phone calls and emails since Saturday from people urging me to stay in this race.
This is not about personalities, it's about priorities.
I want to say that again, because it's important: This is not about personalities, it's about priorities.
Specifically, it's about the enormous differences between me and my opponent when it comes to some big decisions that are critical to Austin's future.
Let me say right off the bat, I know that some of my opponent's supporters have been saying since Saturday that I should quit this race and save the taxpayers the cost of holding the run-off election. But I want to be very clear about this.
There is much more taxpayer money than $500,000 at stake in this run-off election.
I believe my opponent's positions on one issue alone - Water Treatment Plant 4 - could end up costing the citizens of Austin millions and millions of dollars.
As most of you here know, my opponent has refused to say whether she would vote to stop construction of Water Treatment Plant 4 if she were elected to the Council. Personally, I believe that means that she would vote to stop it.
And if she did, it is very clear to everyone that terminating our construction contracts on that plant would result in lawsuits, hundreds, if not thousands, of lost jobs, and lost sunk costs that would easily tally into the millions of dollars. So let me say again - there is clearly much more money at stake here than the cost of holding the run-off election.
I also believe that I can win this run-off, which is another reason I don't intend to quit.
The turnout on Election Day was essentially tied with the lowest turnout percentage in Austin's entire history. In terms of raw votes, it was the lowest turnout in more than 40 years. The margin between me and my opponent on Election Day was just over 4,000 votes.
That's one-half of one percent of Austin's population. That's fewer people than fit into the Austin Music Hall. That's less than the number of students and parents at Bowie, Austin, Crockett or just about any of our local high schools. It is also about the same number of people expected to move to Austin this summer.
And, there have been several examples over the last 15 years where candidates have made up larger vote deficits than mine to win in a run-off.
So what I intend to do on June 18 is not without precedent. I am absolutely confident that it can be done, and that we will do it.
I'm extremely gratified to be joined by so many good friends and supporters. The last few days have been more exciting and more energizing than any time during this entire campaign - or even during my first campaign, three years ago.
