I'm catching up on some key stories before heading out for Thanksgiving back home in Fredericksburg with Mayor Tom Musselman and the First Frau. Chief among those would be city politics in Austin. While last week wasn't the start of filing for office, it was the beginning of the fundraising period and public announcements by incumbents as to whether they are running for re-election.
Places 1, 3, and 4 are on next May's ballot and incumbents Chris Riley, Randi Shade, and Laura Morrison have all announced they are running for re-election with the following treasurers and advisors.
Place 1: Chris Riley
Democratic and neighborhood activist Mike Clark-Madison will serve as treasurer of Riley's re-election campaign. Longtime Austin political consultant David Butts will help lead the campaign, with support from fundraising consultant Susan Harry, who also worked for Riley's 2009 campaign. More information is available at Riley's re-election campaign website: www.ChrisforAustin.com.
Announced challengers include former Mayoral candidate Josiah Ingalls who received less than 1% of the vote in the 2009 contest against Lee Leffingwell. Riley won Leffingwell's unexpired term that year and as a result is back on the ballot aiming for a full term.
The only other rumors in the race involve Austinites for Action's Dominic Chavez who was one of a handful of people opposing this November's Proposition 1 Mobility Bond campaign. Chavez is also considering running against Laura Morrison in Place 4 but has yet to make a decision on which seat he'd prefer to run in, if either. The only thing that's different about the two seats is the margin Chavez would lose by and how much money he'd have to waste in the process.
Place 3: Randi Shade
Of the three races, this is the "hottest" but that's still not saying much. Burnt Orange Report's Katherine Haenschen, who's coming off leading the 2010 Travis County Democratic Party coordinated campaign and managed Riley's 2009 successful campaign, will be managing Shade's race. Susan Harry will serve as Shade's fundraiser. Well known consultants Mike Blizzard and Mark Littlefield will act in advisory roles.
Shade is up for her first re-election bid after defeating incumbent Jennifer Kim with 64% of the vote in 2008 which was nearly equal to then Councilmember Lee Leffingwell's margin against Jason Meeker & Friends. Shade definitely has a base from which to start but this race is already being defined as a referendum on the incumbent, much like her original race three years ago. Shade has not been one of the more visible councilmembers due in part to her governing style as well as the birth of her second child Emme just two months after taking a seat on the council dias- something Shade's campaign acknowledged in their first email to supporters.
Rumors of challengers started back in October with much of the attention being focused on former Democratic State Representative Ann Kitchen who was being urged to challenge Shade focusing on the debate over Water Treatment Plant #4. WTP4 has split the local environmental community and the council with a series of 4-3 votes pushing the project forward. Kitchen has since withdrawn her name according to the Austin Chronicle leaving environmental activist Robin Rather's name in the mix.
Rather would be a credible candidate and would occupy a lot of space to Randi's left flank which is somewhat exposed with quiet grumblings among some union players and some members of the GLBT community who don't see Shade as a fierce advocate on their behalf. But the talk about Shade keeps coming back to the Water Treatment Plant which isn't a broad enough or damaging single issue for a challenger to run on. Based on polling I've seen over the last two years, the public is pleased with the city council at above average levels and messaging around WTP4 actually works in Shade's favor. As much as people are pro-conservation in this town, when push comes to shove, they aren't willing to risk their water supply to two half century old water treatment plants (already down from three) as the city doubles in population yet again by ~2030.
I hate to say this 6 months out from the election, but the clock is ticking. If the forces behind Kitchen and now Rather don't formalize an announcement by the second week of December they will be severely weakened. That means they would have to be canvassing key voters and city political players right now to get their ducks in a row in time; every day that goes by in this 'silent campaign' period is one day closer to victory for incumbents. Even for the "buzziest" of the 3 seats, there has been remarkably little chatter, leaving Shade an opportunity to solidify some of her more 'squishy' support and pull in a lot of cash.
Place 4: Laura Morrison
Consultant David Butts will be chief consultant to Laura Morrison's re-election bid with Jim Wick filling in a campaign manager. Wick was largely responsible for Karen Sage's upset victory over Mindy Montford in the 2008 judicial primaries and recently led Rep. Valinda Bolton's field campaign. Dean Rindy will be the media consultant with Jeff Smith as pollster and former Leffingwell field hand Shawn Badgley doing field.
Morrison has evolved and grown into her position on the dais- and in a good way from most anyone you talk to. She's disarmed many potential opponents and does not have any announced challenged other than the same rumors of Dominic Chavez (see my notes under the Place 1 area). If you asked folks 3 years ago if Shade or Morrison would have a tougher re-election the vast majority would have said Morrison, myself included. That appears to be wrong. Morrison has shored up her (non-neighborhood) left flank since being elected and doesn't face any particular issues with the environmental community (she voted with Riley opposite of Shade on WTP4). That doesn't leave a lot of space for a challenger, at least among the traditional city electorate and power bases.
I expect that all three council members will end up being re-elected, continuing a long period of stability on the city council. It's quite possible that we'll have a 5 year stretch of the Leffingwell/Martinez/Cole/Shade/Morrison/Spelman/Riley council- at least until Austin votes on an expected Single-Member District plan in 2012 which could alter the makeup of the dias considerably. And both of those things, and in that order, might be what Austin needs as it finalizes a number of major long range planning processes in the next couple of years.
Seeing Chris Bradford's piece today on the new makeup of some of the key City of Austin Board and Commission memberships, I'd thought I'd expand a bit in laying out the membership of two of them which he was referring to. In either case, his original post is still worth reading in it's entirety though I do quote from it here.
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).
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 improved 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.
The first full day I was back in Austin a couple weeks ago, I went to Unplugged at the Grove. For those who don't live in Austin, Unplugged at the Grove is a concert series hosted at Shady Grove, a cool Austin restaurant on Barton Springs road in South Austin. They have local artists play for ninety minutes to two hours in a small setting; you can eat food, drink beer, and see free live music from some of Austin's best artists.
That is, until Captain No Fun calls the cops on you, which apparently happened yesterday.
Thursday’s opening act Sahara Smith was in the middle of her set when Austin Police showed up with a decibel meter and ordered the show stopped. Headliner Jimmy LaFave never played in front of a crowd estimated at 600. “Unplugged” booker Marsha Milam said the complaint came from a neighbor who told Shady Grove management that he’d call the cops next week, too.
“We’re gonna be back with live music next Thursday and the Thursday after that,” vowed Young. “I’ll pay the bands even if they only play five minutes. We’re not gonna give up the fight.”
I think you all know where I stand on this -- the music ends before 9:30pm, its on a loud, loud street in Austin anyway, and considering that my best friend lives a block off of Burnt Road in Central Austin where they have been bulldozing and building new apartments for several months, the idea that Unplugged at the Grove is too noisy is laughable.
Here are competing sides from the comments at Austin 360.
It is carpetbaggers like this that need to just pack up and go back to wherever they came from. They have no idea what Austin is all about or what made the company the carpetbagger works for want to locate in Austin. If you are stupid enough to buy a house or condo without researching the area for noise, traffic or crime then you really are not the genius you think you are. The Austin music scene was here long before 75% or more of these carpetbaggers got here but they all want to complain about the noise in their overpriced condos that were built right in the middle of the “Live music capital of Texas”. Think before you buy or go back to wherever you came from, preferrably sooner than later.
They shoulda arrested the whole lot of them! Don’t want to hear no stank’n music in this overpriced town. Used to have a good neighborhood till all the weird crowd showed up and brought their drugs and tree huggers with them. And not to mention the bike losers. We don’t need know Stevie Ray statue…we need a statue of W…he saved America. Hail the New World Order and down with dull and awful live music. Anyone know the guy that called the cops? He needs a medal! Yeah I said it!
The noise ordinance thing -- pushed by neighborhood associations and Austin City Councilwoman Laura Morrison -- is complete nonsense. When I go camping at state parks (which I also did when I was back in Texas), then quiet hours don't start until 10pm. Before then (and normally after), you'll have lots of families running around, pick-up trucks playing country music -- and in the middle of nowhere.
And everyone is fine with it. And everyone has a good time.
But in the middle of a city, where there have been restaurants for decades, noise exceeding chamber music levels at a small auditorium is considered unruly at 8pm? Are you serious? Did someone confuse Barton Springs road with Georgetown's Sun City or something?
Whoever wants to run against Laura Morrison next election cycle, I'll support you.
Mayor Leffingwell -- let's see what we can do about this.
Update:
Just got an interesting e-mail: the homes across the street from Barton Springs have been around a long time, and those neighbors are (A) used to noise, and (B) the traffic on Barton Springs is loud, too.
The only new living areas there are those condominiums they put up where the trailer parks used to be -- those parks where, ironically, Jimmy LaFave -- who was headlining last night -- used to live for a while. Which means, more than likely, the complaint came from someone that just moved into the neighborhood willingly.
Either that, or Laura Morrison is just traveling the city, telling kids to get off of her lawn.
The Early Vote is in and Laura Morrison won it 60/40 but the margin is only 2,000 votes. While it's unexpected that the dynamic of the race changed much from this Tuesday to today's election day- low turnout could always result in surprises. BOR is not projecting a win at this time until the first E-Day results are released.
Results from Travis County ElectionsFINAL 207 of 207 Precincts Reporting
EVote EVote% EDay EDay% TOTAL TOTAL%
Laura Morrison 6,064 60.19% 7,767 69.73% 13,831 65.20%
Cid Galindo 4,010 39.81% 3,371 30.27% 7,381 34.80%
7:25- A couple of notes as I look at the precinct by precinct votes. The perfect storm of a) it being a runoff, b) a June election, and c) a Saturday election is clearly shown in that there are only 5 total early votes cast in the University of Texas campus box. Morrison won Pct. 148 3-2 (actual votes). Morrison won the other low turnout West Campus boxes... Pct 277 was 75%-25% (16 total voters) and my home Pct 266 was 70%-30% (60 total voters).
8:20- The first 10% of Election Day precincts have reported. Morrison's margin widened from 20 points in early vote to 50 points on election day.
Based upon this and commentary from the campaigns, Burnt Orange Report is calling the race for Laura Morrsion. We will continue to update the results as they come in.
8:45- Over half reporting now and Morrison continues to rack up the election day margin.
8:50- More regular updates coming out now with another 25 precinct reporting, this time, even more favorably for Morrison.
9:00- Cid Galindo managed to win both of the votes cast the University of Texas campus precinct today. As a result, he has reversed Morrison's 1-vote lead there and won the UT Campus by a 4-3 vote.
9:05- Cid Galindo has conceded and is talking to his supporters. I have to personally say that I did appreciate him running. At some point I'd like to go back to school and do my master's work in urban studies and geography (my undergrad minor) so I have a real appreciate for the perspective he brought to the table in this race.
10:05- Final report is in. Morrison wins 65-35 with almost exactly 5% total turnout for the election for a grand total of 21,212 votes cast.
By the end of the night, we will have a new councilmember for Place 4. While the last month of the campaign has been dominated by negative mailings and robocalls, we should remember that both candidates are actually well-qualified candidates and that neither is half as bad as their opponent would have you believe, as the Statesman's editorial this morning pointed out .
Both are good candidates, experienced in city government and possessing a long list of civic involvement. Morrison has been president of the Austin Neighborhoods Council, and Galindo has been a member of the city Planning Commission.
Despite their considerable achievements, the runoff campaign has been bitter, with charges, countercharges and repeated phone calls to voters’ homes. The candidates have attacked each other in advertisements for a month.
This page has endorsed Morrison in the runoff. We believe she has a broader grasp of city issues, and her years working out neighborhood disputes should give her good experience in resolving conflicting viewpoints on the council. Also, Morrison’s background in engineering and business should serve her well.
What are your thoughts on today's election?
While endorsements and her nine point lead in round one probably make Morrison the favorite, with turnout estimated to be at 25,000, Galindo certainly has a chance to pull an upset.
(Disclosure: I work for Laura Morrison and support her candidacy 100%. Because of my involvement in her campaign, I present these ads for you with no commentary.)
(Cross-posted from my crackplog with some new introductory text)
The McMansion ordinance specifies a limit of 0.4 FAR (floor to area ratio) for single-family-zoned property in Austin. This means if you have a 6000 square foot lot, like I do, your total living space must be 2400 square feet or less, with a few exemptions (this is a big change from the prior rules which allowed an unlimited FAR; 2.5 to 3 stories; but 40% maximum impervious cover). A few exemptions apply, such as habitable attic space and basements (both too expensive or too impractical for most folks) and for detached garage space (but not garage apartments - and I'd like to have one of those on top of my detached garage someday too). I worked hard against this ordinance in 2006 and 2007; even partially succeeded in getting the Planning Commission to approve a 0.5 FAR where garage apartments and duplexes were present to mitigate the drastic impact this would have on affordable housing; but in the end the City Council passed the ordinance as-is (0.4 FAR).
My next-door neighbors (family of 5 in about 1100 square feet with a garage apartment which is currently being used by the kids' aunt) were left with about 300 square feet with which to expand, thanks to this ordinance. They've decided to build back rather than up, so they can fully utilize that 300 square feet rather than having any of it obstructed/unusable due to stairs; so despite being rammed through in response to a "drainage emergency", there's pretty strong anectdotal evidence that the ordinance will actually increase impervious cover!
FAR isn't the only thing in the ordinance, but it's the one that hurts the most. Laura Morrison was the chairwoman of the task force that wrote the ordinance.
Laura Morrison chaired this task force - and lives in a home which, according to TravisCAD, is worth $1.4 million and has 8,537 square feet. Pretty big, but I had previously assumed it fit well within the 0.4 FAR required by McMansion. Yes, this is a big old historic house, but that's not the metric of the ordinance (it doesn't say "big houses are OK if they are stunners", after all).
A few days ago, though, I was alerted by a reader that Morrison's lot is actually too small -- but she's not subject to the ordinance anyways, because according to said reader, her lot is zoned MF-4 (the McMansion ordinance only applies to single-family zoning). A little history here: the Old West Austin neighborhood plan (which I worked on in a transportation capacity) allowed landowners to choose to downzone their lots from multi-family (most of the area was zoned that way after WWII even though existing uses were houses) to single-family (SF-3) if the property was still being used that way. Apparently Morrison passed on this opportunity (many others took it up; I remember seeing dozens of zoning cases come up before City Council on the matter).
So let's check it out. Unfortunately, TravisCAD doesn't have the lot size, but Zillow does.
Home size: 8537 square feet
Lot size: 20,305 square feet
FAR (before loopholes): 0.42
Caveats: I do not know if Morrison is using the property in ways which would be comforming with SF-3, but I found it very interesting that her ads are attacking Galindo for building duplexes which actually comply with her ordinance yet the home she herself lives in would be non-compliant in a similar scenario, or require loopholes to comply. It's often referred to as a "converted four-plex", and the owners' address is "Apt 9", which may suggest continuing multi-family use, which would also be evidence of hypocrisy given her stand against any and all multi-family development in the area except for a few cases where that plan mentioned above quite effectively tied her hands. Either way, Morrison clearly broke the spirit of her own ordinance and her own activism against multi-family housing, and anyways when you write the ordinance, as she did, it's really easy to make sure your own property is just barely compliant. You notice that you're right over the edge; so you exempt attached carports, for instance, which, oops, you just happen to have!
Again, I can't believe I missed her the first time around - her hypocrisy on this ordinance is more odious than that of McGraw and Maxwell combined. I apologize for my lack of diligence on this matter.
(Hey, BATPAC: yes, your latest cowardly anonymous attack on me did indeed motivate me to finally take the time to write this! Good show!)
No wonder Laura Morrison and Cid Galindo have gone negative on each other (as negative as one can be in a runoff election). Nobody's voting. Through yesterday, just 8,053 voters cast a ballot for 1.89% turnout.
Today's the last day to vote early before Saturday's election. Burnt Orange Report has endorsed Laura Morrison.
In a new e-mail, Laura Morrison accuses her opponent Cid Galindo of "harassing voters" with "deceptive phone calls."
Here's an excerpt from the e-mail, the full text of which can be found after the jump.
Today I called on my opponent – Cid Galindo – and groups supporting him to stop the telephone harassment of voters, especially seniors, during the runoff election for Austin City Council, Place 4. While we have only placed one automated call to refute false charges made by her opponent and one live call, voters have been assaulted by repeated phone calls on behalf of Cid Galindo – with some voters complaining of receiving upwards of 30 calls.
Laura Morrison has been endorsed by Burnt Orange Report, the Austin Chronicle, the Austin American-Statesman and every endorsing Democratic club.
Early voting ends tomorrow (pdf list of locations) and Election Day is Saturday, June 14.
Cid Galindo is having a rough week. After spending 7 days trying to deceive voters on issue known as point of sale, Galindo is now being taken to task for repeatedly misleading Austin voters on issues like affordable housing and even his Democratic credentials.
On Tuesday, the Austin Chronicle fact checked one of Galindo's recent hit pieces and it looks like the piece was heavy political rhetoric and light on facts.
Galindo Mailer: "Pay a big tax just to sell your home."
Facts: No tax is proposed, or has ever been considered by the city. Home sellers would not be required to pay for any upgrades. Homeowners would be investing in their own house, not paying monies to the city.
Galindo Mailer: "Every home in Austin would have to pass a city energy efficiency inspection before it can be sold."
Facts: The task force is considering a voluntary program only, initially. Homes would not have to pass an energy efficiency inspection. Sellers would be required to have an energy audit, and to provide that data to prospective buyers. Homes built in the last decade would be exempt.
Galindo Mailer: "Homeowners could be forced to spend thousands of dollars on new air conditioners and appliances."
Facts: Expensive items like HVAC units and new windows would not be required. The program would prioritize low-cost improvements such as weather stripping and duct sealing. A spending cap of 1?2 of 1 percent of the sales price has been proposed ($923 for a median-priced home). A home buyer's up-front investment would be offset by subsequent utility bill savings. Long-term, the upgrades would provide homeowners with continued monthly savings, reducing the cost of homeownership.
Galindo Mailer: "Waiting for the city to get around to inspecting a home would cost homeowners even more."
Facts: As directed by city council, the task force is developing a program that would not hold up property closings. City inspections would not be required.
The week got worse when yesterday, FOX and KVUE both ran stories questioning Galindo's commitment to affordable housing.
The KVUE story highlights the community outrage as half million dollar homes pop up in traditional, historic east Austin neighborhoods. The FOX story goes one step further discussing his failure to disclose the development projects in East Austin while Galindo sat on the Austin Planning Commission. A mistake he didn't disclose at all on the planning commission and didn't fix until March for his city council race (three months after he started running). Galindo even admits this was a mistake. We of course agree.
Both stories show local Austin residents questioning Galindo's commitment to affordable housing, when he is jacking up property values and displacing east Austin residents.
One story that hasn't been told yet is the fact that Cid has deep ties to the Republican Party.
After a little research it appears that Governor Rick Perry is a long time family friend. Cid's father and business partner is a "Bush Pioneer" who raised over $100,000 for George Bush. Cid himself is on record as donating $1000 to Senator Phil Gramm during his doomed presidential bid.
Cid is president of the Galindo Group, which says on its company website that it is a strong supporter of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the James Leininger funded radical right wing "think tank" in Texas. The Foundation, which is closely connected to the Texas state GOP, supports vouchers, opposes environmental laws and recently crusaded against pre-kindergarten programs in public schools.
In February he began to deceive Austin Democrats when he sent out blatantly partisan e-mails to Democrats announcing:
"This week I cast my ballot in the Democratic Presidential Primary that has captured the imagination of our nation and imbued us with a determination to turn the page and set a new course for our country."
Galindo's constant deception is one of many reasons Burnt Orange Report endorsed Laura Morrison. Don't forget to vote early voting lasts until Tuesday June 10 and Election Day is June 14.
