Austin Councilman Bill Spelman Explains Support for Grayco/South Shore PUD

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Thu Oct 01, 2009 at 09:30 AM CDT

The other day I posted in full a reply from Austin Councilmember Chris Riley on his preliminaty vote to approve a zoning case with regard to development along the southeast shore of Lady Bird Lake and Riverside. Today, I'd like to post remarks from Councilman Bill Spelman on the same issue, as he and Riley were specifically targeted as 'swing votes' on the issue. I certainly invite any of the other 4 members of the council and the Mayor to send me a similar posting if they wish to.

From Councilman Bill Spelman, posted on his website.

Last Thursday, I had a difficult decision to make on the Grayco/South Shore Planned Unit Development (PUD) request. I had to weigh the public benefit of the proposed development against its potential infringement on our treasured Lady Bird Lake waterfront. I spent hours considering campaign declarations, environmental impacts, affordable housing, and tangible positive outcomes. After that deliberation, I feel I have made the best choice for Austin.

During my campaign, I wrote in one of the candidate questionnaires that I would vote against any request that would supersede the Waterfront Overlay because of my desire to uphold the spirit of the Waterfront Overlay. By offering my tentative support to a project that can protect and enhance the natural values offered by this portion of the waterfront, I believe I retained my commitment to the spirit of the Waterfront Overlay. While the project does pose an infringement on the Waterfront Overlay’s height limits, I felt it was necessary to consider more than that one metric to guide me to a decision which best protects the interests of Austin.

The PUD developers own the land and have entitlements to develop the property. Consequently, the decision before us was not a vote to allow development or not to allow development; it was a vote on whether to develop the land with community benefits, for which the developer was requesting additional height, or to develop the property without any community benefits and without the additional height. With that in mind, I examined the community benefits to determine whether they were a good deal for the City, compared to what we might be giving up.

In exchange for the additional height, the PUD developers have offered to provide the following considerable public benefits, plus others:

Affordable Housing. My strongest single concern was for affordable housing. I pushed hard for the developers to help mitigate the loss of affordable housing stock, and they proposed to provide a significant amount of money to the City to buy affordable housing or provide it onsite, as well as a program to help relocate the existing tenants to other appropriate units nearby.

Water Quality. The developers are providing a drainage pond that will not only be a great environmental benefit to clean currently untreated runoff from neighboring properties, but which will also be an attractive natural-looking area as well. The runoff from the developers’ site will also all be treated before it is returned into Lady Bird Lake.

Community Benefits. There will be onsite space for a daycare and a police substation, and the development will preserve many important trees. The trail and Lady Bird Lake will be preserved through a significant setback from the Lake and tree cover, which will make it nearly impossible to see the development when enjoying the trail or the Lake.

In sum, these community benefits are significant. I anticipate that the impact of this development on the Waterfront can be managed and minimized, and I believe that this version of development compares much more favorably to having a development with no community benefits. I am still committed to the Waterfront Overlay and to our crown jewelLady Bird Lake, and I believe that this development will not impinge upon that treasure. I do appreciate your feedback, and look forward to our on-going conversation about these issues and others.

With best wishes,
Bill Spelman

Austin Neighborhood Council Gains Ground on Key Austin Commissions

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 04:39 PM CDT

It is well known that the City of Austin Planning Commission is a pipeline for higher office and whose appointed membership greatly effects the direction and design of the city. This May's race between Chris Riley and Perla Cavazos, both former Planning Commission members being case in point. But with the current retirements, expirations of terms, replacements, and upcoming term expirations, it's clear that the Planning Commission as a whole has drifted towards a heavier influence by the Austin Neighborhoods Council.

Here is the new make-up of the Planning Commission with the year in which their terms expire (so most recent appointments are at the top).

2011: Chair, Dave Sullivan (Reappointed- Shade)
2011: Vice Chair, Jay Reddy (Reappointed- Riley)
2011: Danette Chimenti (Spelman)
2011: Kathie Tovo (Morrison)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2010: Mandy Dealey (Wynn)
2010: Clint Small (Wynn)
2010: Saundra Kirk (Cole)
2010: Dave Anderson (Wynn)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2009: Gerardo Castillo (Martinez)*

*term expires this Friday

The bolded names are brand new to the board and both are very closely aligned with the ANC. Councilman Spelman's appointment Danette Chimenti was Morrison's successor to the ANC. Morrion's appointment Kathie Tovo, former Bouldin Creek Neighborhood Association President, was almost a candidate this spring in the Place 1 race and is thought to still have council aspirations. Commission member Dealey ran previously in 2005 for Council, losing in a 4 way race to Jennifer Kim.

With the Planning Commission having in the last year lost Chris Ewen (not reappointed) this indicates a shift on the board. A close eye should be given to Martinez's next appointment as Castillo's partial term expires this Friday. Beyond that, Mayor Leffingwell will get to replace all 3 of Mayor Wynn's appointments next summer so given his close relationship with Martinez, will make or break the direction and diversity of the Planning Commisison in its next iteration.

Also of note from Bradford's piece was the Board of Adjustment which is the funnel through which variance requests are routed (for instance, business designations for noise requests). Another 9-member board like the Planning Commission, two "nay" votes can kill a variance request.

Councilwoman Morrison has appointed quintessential neighborhood activist, and once again, former ANC President Jeff Jack to the Board of Adjustment where he will join former ANC President Bryan King who Bradford notes as "a reliable nay vote". The other appointments from last week include former ANC South Central Representative Clarke Hammond (Leffingwell) and the reappointment of Nora Salinas (Martinez).

And then there's Morrison's choice of Mary Arnold for the Waterfront Planning Advisory Board which guides the development debate along Lady Bird Lake. That one's already stirred up controversy beyond Bradford with the Austin Chronicle critiquing the choice as not following the Waterfront Overlay ordinance's commands for a diverse professional board with specific categories of representation which Arnold may or may not particularly fit.

In sum, none of this is to say that appointments to city boards and commissions will behave or vote in similar patterns just because they have similar backgrounds in their activism and interaction with the City. But Bradford's closing statement in his article is all to true, and is reflective of what happens under our current system of local government.

Someone should just draw up a list of the dozen or so neighborhood representatives who seem to serve on every board and commission.   When one is appointed, we can cross her off the list and move to the next name.  When we get to the end of the list, we can simply return to the top of the list.

I thought Austin had a deeper pool of neighborhood activists.

I've commented on this before. So long as Austin is captivated by low turnout and lack of interest from the broader electorate, we will be captivated by a limited pool of dedicated activists whose ranks are not growing in proportion to the city's population. While some of those long time activists are revered institutions and others reviled (it often just depends on which side of a local skirmish you are on), the question might be would Austin's citizen-government be improve by having more activists on top of just long time activists?  

On a personal note- it is easy to offer a critique in Austin and I think that's healthy to the larger debate we as a community are having on the nature and structure of our government (single member districts, campaign finance, public financing, etc). But in addition to words, there is action. And along those lines, I'm now serving with the newly created Austin Bike Theft Task Force which is making some real progress, and am in discussions to help restart my own inactive neighborhood association, Kealing, in Central East Austin.  

Election Night Party!

by: Bill Spelman

Wed May 06, 2009 at 11:01 AM CDT

Now it's time to celebrate! You're invited to our election night party at Joe's Bar & Grill. We'll have local live music featuring Brent Adair, so I hope you can celebrate with us this Saturday evening.

Election Night Party
Free Appetizers
Live Music Featuring Brent Adair
Saturday, May 9th
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Joe's Bar & Grill
506 West Avenue
Austin, TX 78703
(next door to Frank & Angie's Pizza)
RSVP on Facebook

Join Us Tomorrow for our Town Hall on Affordability

by: Bill Spelman

Fri May 01, 2009 at 10:25 AM CDT

Friends,

Please join us tomorrow morning for a community town hall meeting to discuss affordability, the social safety net and how that affects the long-term sustainability of our community.

Austin faces some tough challenges ahead, but by working together, we can leverage our city resources to get the most bang for our taxpayer buck. If you can't make the event, then please share your ideas online.

Thanks for your support. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow morning.

Best regards,

Go Vote: Austin Early Vote Locations, Endorsement Recap

by: Burnt Orange Report

Mon Apr 27, 2009 at 09:00 AM CDT

Texas municipal elections are decided by a small minority of registered voters, so your vote will make a huge impact regardless of where you live.

If you live in Austin, Elise Hu has done a lot of heavy lifting already to make sure you know where to go vote. Here is a complete list of every early vote location in Austin.

For early voting information, visit the Travis County Clerk's website.

We also want to encourage you to vote for the Burnt Orange Reports endorsed candidates:

• Mayor: Lee Leffingwell
• Place 1: Chris Riley
• Place 2: Mike Martinez
• Place 5: Bill Spelman
• Place 6: Sheyl Cole

If you aren't from Austin, please contact your local Democratic Party office or County Clerk's office from information on where and when you can vote.

Austin City Council Place 5 Endorsement: Bill Spelman

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Wed Apr 08, 2009 at 07:36 PM CDT

A former councilman and current University of Texas professor, Spelman will bring to the city council an intelligent, balanced perspective having both served inside and outside city government in the past decade. Rather than coming to the table with a preconceived bias or opinion, we feel that Spelman will draw on a wide ranging store of personal knowledge and experience to guide his reasoning.

No one has to teach Bill Spelman how to dig into the background data that should guide decision making on the council. What he does not know, he will find out. This is evident in his campaign's continuing efforts to host forums and work sessions to garner feedback and information from a wide variety of regional groups and interests. Spelman needs only to vote for himself to get elected, but it is refreshing to see a candidate who is already living the job we are going to elect him to do.

We enthusiastically endorse Bill Spelman for Place 5.

On the Web: www.BillSpelman.org

What are your priorities for Austin?

by: Bill Spelman

Wed Apr 08, 2009 at 04:19 PM CDT

I believe the weak economy and the tight budget are the most pressing issues facing Austin today. Please join us next Tuesday evening for a town hall meeting to discuss them.

You're invited to share your ideas and be a part of the solution. Austin faces some tough challenges ahead, but by working together, we can leverage our city resources to get the most bang for our taxpayer buck. If you can't make the event, then please share your ideas online.

Thanks for your support. I look forward to meeting with you personally to hear how you think we can best improve Austin.  

In Fact Daily Publishes Cool Piece on Bill Spelman

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Wed Mar 04, 2009 at 09:00 AM CST

As such, In Fact Daily (subscription only) has published a really key interview a couple days ago now that has made the rounds and I think expresses this. Some clips below.

In Fact Daily, Michael May: Former Place 5 City Council member Bill Spelman wants his old job back, and it looks at this point like no one is going to stop him. Spelman doesn't have an opponent so far, and there is freedom that comes with that. In a wide-ranging conversation with In Fact Daily, Spelman was not shy about wading into the tougher issues facing the city, like where to cut the city budget if the economy doesn't improve. "We're doing better than most cities," he says. "But we have to prepare ourselves for hard times. I think the next budget year is going to be worse than this one."

With city leaders already cutting back on everything from hiring new employees to library hours, Spelman says the Council is going to have to make tough choices in the years ahead. "Some budget cuts are easy," he says. "But some are hard. We only have contracts with our public safety employees. It's always easier to cut into libraries or parks, where the employees don't have contracts. But at some point we're going to run out of options. I don't think the public safety contracts should be on the table now, but if the economy gets worse, we're going to have to investigate that."

It's not that Spelman doesn't think public safety is important. This is a man who left the City Council in 2000 to run a national community-policing program. He just thinks that Texas' collective bargaining rules - which only allow the police, fire and EMS unions to negotiate contracts - skew city priorities.

Spelman is what you might call a progressive pragmatist; it is an attitude he also brings to the recent Wildflower PUD controversy. He believes the Council did the right thing by postponing a vote on the project, rather than killing it outright. "The developers can already build retail with single-family housing in back," he said. "I'd like to see something better than that. The developers say they are willing to set a higher standard, and they say they have a plan that will protect the aquifer, but they didn't prove their case. So, right now, I'm not sure which vote would have better protected the environment."

Spelman is in a rare position. He's been on the Council, but he's spent most of the decade teaching public policy at the LBJ School at UT. It's given him a different perspective on what city government should be doing.

"It's hard to see the big picture when you are making decisions everyday," he says. "On Council, you're always stuck in the weeds, having to make a decision about this zoning case or that one. And you can make good decisions about which weeds to cut, but the important stuff happens at a higher level."

For one thing, I think it's a fool's errand for anyone to file against Spelman now who launched over 750 supporters this weekend and has been going all over town with town halls, policy meetings, and neighborhood events not to mention garnering all the endorsements that one could possibly get so far. And the second point is that it's really exciting to be able to have some honest discussion and debate outside of the Mayor's race and to a lesser extend the Place 1 contest which in the big picture helps to drive the discussion this spring.

Austin Municipal Round-Up

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Thu Feb 26, 2009 at 05:20 PM CST

Mayor's Race

• Carole Strayhorn is apparently too busy to attend 3 forums this week with her opponents. Maybe she'll be too busy to attend City Council meetings as well if she's elected Mayor.


• Wells Dunbar issues a warning about the proxy campaign.

  As McCracken has founded his own campaign on forward-looking technologies such as solar power, his adamant defense of the project was no surprise. And as Martinez is surmised to be Leffingwell's proxy on issues the candidate would rather not wade into at the moment, his fulsome call for caution shouldn't surprise either. Maybe most surprising was Lef fing well's virtual absence from the debate - as politicians take pains to appear cautious, they may not want to remain overly so.



• The Statesman cares about libraries. Who knew?


• EMS Paramedics endorsed Lee Leffingwell.


• Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt writes an unprompted explaining of her endorsement of Leffingwell on her website. Go read it, but also did anyone notice the URL of the post? "a-word-about-jennifer-gale"? I KNEW IT. Jennifer Gale is reaching out to us to endorse Lee Leffingwell from the world beyond.


• Speaking of endorsements, Leffingwell is apparently rolling out 2 more groups and 6 more elected officials Friday at Noon at his campaign office. Could that be the turning point? Maybe if those officials start working their communities. I don't think we've seen anything like that in a municipal race in many years.

Austin City Council, Place 1

• The Firefighters endorse Perla Cavazos.


• The Police and EMS endorse Chris Riley.

Austin City Council, Place 2

• Mike Martinez unopposed. Iterated his support for Leffingwell during the University Democrats meeting yesterday which I sense is leaning more towards Lee now. That's important because Leffingwell is pretty much guaranteed to win the Central Austin Democrats endorsement meaning he'd get the Austin Progressive Coalition endorsement and 5000+ doorhangers in central Austin as a result.

Austin City Council, Place 5

• Bill Spelman unopposed, though there is still a week and a half to file. Not that we want anyone to file since Bill would be excellent on the council.


• Upcoming events include...
  South Austin House Party (Oak Hill)
  Saturday, March 7
  2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
  Home of Valerie & Brian Reis
  6516 Rotan Drive, 78749

  North Austin House Party
  Thursday, March 12
  5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
  Home of Dawn & Fred Lewis
  4509 Edgemont, 78731

Austin City Council, Place 6

• Sheryl Cole still only faces Sam Osemene. Really. That's it. This race is even more boring than Place 2 & 5 and Cole actually has an opponent. Then again, the only question is if she wins by 20 points or 40.

Community Town Hall on Public Particpation in Local Government

by: barkeng

Mon Feb 23, 2009 at 11:37 AM CST

For those of you who could not attend, we're working to get our notes up on the website www.billspelman.org.  And I encourage you all to continue to conversation on our policy page (http://www.billspelman.org/?page_id=124) or here on BOR.

We're looking forward to our next community town hall on April 4th during which we'll discuss ideas for stablizing our economy and budget.  Place and time are still TBD but we'll get the word out soon.

Thanks for participating and continuing to help improve the way we work together.

Best,
Barksdale
Policy Advisor for Bill Spelman for Place 5