Burnt Orange Report: - Lee Leffingwell

Austin Solar Panel Financing up for First Vote (Updated)

Michael Hurta — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:59:16 GMT

Today, less than two months after Mike Villarreal's HB 1937 became effective, the Austin City Council will vote on a resolution to act upon the bill's intentions. Agenda Item Number 39, sponsored by Mayor Leffingwell, would order the City Manager to "study and evaluate the means of implementing a program under HB 1937 to finance the installation of energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy resources by property owners in the City of Austin, in a way that has no cost impact on the City government."

In other words, the the council can take the first step towards a plan that would allow solar panels added to homeowners' houses through property tax based loans. Council Members Randi Shade and Mike Martinez also co-sponsor the legislation, and hopefully the rest of the council will join in support. If passed, though, the council will still need to vote on the final implementation, which would probably occur in January. Regardless, the mayor sounds excited about the idea:

"If successful, it will help make solar energy accessible to many more local residents, help them save money on their home energy bills almost immediately, and continue to build on Austin's growing reputation as a national leader on renewable energy initiatives," Leffingwell said.
Leffingwell said the program could potentially allow the installation of solar panels and energy efficiency upgrades with no up-front cost. The loan would also be tied to the home and would convey when it is sold, the statement said.

Of course, the plan still has its kinks, too. I imagine the City Manager, the Mayor, and their staffs will be able to work them out.

Austin Energy General Manager Roger Duncan is an advocate of solar power but worries that if too many people install solar panels too quickly, the city could have trouble maintaining its grid unless it comes up with a new business model for the utility.
The city government has been promoting solar mainly by offering to pay part of homeowners' installation costs. That subsidy money comes from fees collected from all electric-utility customers.
But the subsidy, or rebate, has proven so popular that the city has had trouble keeping up with demand - $3.3 million of the $4 million the city budgeted for this fiscal year was already committed by Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year.

Thankfully, a loan program like this, more useful to consumers than simple subsides, will can also save the city some money. Unlike those subsidies, the long-term budgeting implications would barely be effective under a solar panel loan program. Worst case scenario: I'd imagine the city could place a cap on the amount of loans it gives out per year. We might need such a restriction, because Austinites are certainly the type to jump on an opportunity like this.

At the current pace, Austin can set itself up to be the first Texas city with such a plan, which may serve as the impetus other cities need to follow through. Rep. Villarreal follows the issue on his blog, and he informs us, "The City of San Antonio and other stakeholders around town have been working to figure out how to implement the program in our community."

Perhaps Austin will show the way.

Update: The Austin City Council passed the resolution on a 7-0 vote.

Birthday Boys Today

Karl-Thomas Musselman — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:54:02 GMT

I haven't been on the blog today because today is my 25th Birthday, although technically it won't be until very late tonight, within 10 minutes of midnight. I want to thank the like 75 people that have given birthday wishes on facebook and others on twitter. And if anyone has a desire to get a gift, I do have an Amazon Wishlist or my AIDS Walk page.

But I'm not the only one of note in politics today that has a birthday. Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell also has his birthday today and is turning 70. I've put a collection of his accomplishments so far in office below the fold. I only learned about his birthday yesterday- so how about a joint birthday party in 2010 or 2011 Mayor?

And one other political birthday is Glenn Bass, the gay Republican candidate running against Democratic Rep. Donna Howard. While I'll extend some birthday wishes, I'll stop short of congratulating him on any electoral success.

For those that have asked, I'm bad about organizing big birthday plans. I'm having dinner with some of the BOR staff tonight. Instead, I'm actually taking some time off in the coming weeks with trips to Kalamazoo, Michigan and spend some time with the One Kalamazoo campaign and then a trip to Nevada next month during Election Day. Don't worry, I'll still have time to early vote for a few days in the riveting 2009 Texas Constitutional Amendment elections.
Formed and convened the first meeting of the 33-member "Mayor's Community Cabinet"
http://www.statesman.com/blogs...
http://www.austinchronicle.com...

Launched "Go Local" policy to award more City contracts to Austin-based companies
http://www.austinchronicle.com...
http://www.statesman.com/news/...

Negotiated for deferment of FY2010 pay raises with Austin Police and EMS unions, avoiding massive cuts in the FY2010 budget
http://www.statesman.com/news/...
http://burntorangereport.com/s...

Led approval of FY2010 budget, which preserved front-line public safety and social services funding, and avoided City employee layoffs or furloughs
http://www.kvue.com/news/top/s...
http://www.dailytexanonline.co...

Convened Town Hall meeting on Water Treatment Plant #4 proposal, which drew more nearly 500 attendees to Palmer Center
http://www.austinchronicle.com...
http://www.dailytexanonline.co...

Sponsored successful legislation to ban texting while driving and create a 3-foot buffer for bicyclists, with Mayor Pro Tem Martinez
http://www.statesman.com/news/...
http://www.dailytexanonline.co...

Directed the Water Conservation Task Force to recommend new water conservation strategies by January 2010
Directed the Solid Waste Advisory Commission to recommend new residential recycling strategies by January 2010
Successfully testified at the Texas Housing Commission in favor of state tax credits for local affordable housing projects

Sponsored successful legislation to allow more speakers to participate in Citizen Communications
http://www.austinchronicle.com...

Worked with City staff to launch CityWorks Academy, a new 10-week-long citizen education program
http://impactnews.com/central-...
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/l...

Worked with City staff to issue a new Request for Proposals for City website redesign project
http://www.dailytexanonline.co...

Partnered with Texas Campaign for the Environment to publicly oppose expansion of Waste Management landfill in northeast Austin
http://www.austinchronicle.com...

Announced plans to call for nationwide ban on environmentally-damaging coal-tar pavement sealants at next U.S. Conference of Mayor's meeting
http://oakhillgazette.net/defa...

Appointed new Chair of the CAMPO Transit Working Group by Senator Kirk Watson
Hosted City Hall receptions for the Austin Young Chamber of Commerce and the International Game Developers Association

Partnered with the Austin Samaritan Center to launch the RecognizeGood.com website
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/l...

Served as Honorary Chair of fundraising events benefiting the Austin Public Library Foundation and (upcoming) the Hill Country Conservancy
http://www.austinchronicle.com...

Spoke at public rallies in favor of health care reform, and the Sonia Sotomayor nomination
http://www.dailytexanonline.co...
http://burntorangereport.com/s...

Received a standing ovation following a welcome speech to the Austin meeting of Democratic National Committee
http://www.austinchronicle.com...
http://www.statesman.com/news/...

City of Austin Call For Roadway Safety Ordinance, Ban Texting While Driving

Matt Glazer — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:27:43 GMT

With the proliferation of texting, tweeting, facebooking, mobile internet, push notification, and e-mail everywhere, American's and Austinites are on their phones more and more. Texting while driving bans is a new public policy floating around similar to the hands free headset requirements for talking in the late 90's and early part of this decade.

That debate has come to Austin.

Mayor Lee Leffingwell, Mayor Pro Tem Mike Martinez and Councilmember Chris Riley are sponsoring a City Council resolution calling for the prohibition of text messaging and internet use while driving.

"Studies make this very clear," said Mayor Pro Tem Mike Martinez. "And, common sense reinforces what we already know; using a phone while driving is very dangerous and is factor in many traffic incidents."
The City Council agenda item directs the City Manager to prepare ordinance to prohibit the writing, sending or reading of text messages, instant messages and emails or viewing the internet on a mobile phone or other portable electronic device.
"Multi-tasking while driving is not a good practice," said Mayor Lee Leffingwell. "With kids headed back to school we should all take this time to be very aware on the road and put an end to text messaging while driving."
The City Council resolution also calls on the City Manager to create an ordinance requiring a three-foot safe passing distance for vulnerable road users.
"We are a bicycling community. We need to immediately create a safer environment for bicyclists and other vulnerable road users," said Councilmember Chris Riley. "Let's share our roadways together, safely".

This is a smart, timely proposal. Countless studies have already shown the risk of talking and driving. Texting and internet use seem far worse. Both require you to actually take your eyes off the road for long durations of time, and in a city that doubles in size every 20 years, our roads are getting too full to take these risks.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has shown that text messaging while driving increases the risk of a crash or near crash by 20 times.

Already, Texas State law beginning September 1, will ban all drivers in Texas school crossing zones from talking on hand-held phones and texting.

This Saturday: Health Care Rally with Rep. Doggett & Sen. Watson

Ian — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:19:44 GMT

We have a real opportunity to fix our broken health care system. Let's get the job done!

This Saturday afternoon, you're invited to a local health care rally featuring: Congressman Lloyd Doggett, Senator Kirk Watson, Mayor Lee Leffingwell, Council Member Sheryl Cole, Former State Rep. Ann Kitchen, TCDP Chair Andy Brown and others.

Our goal is to make Saturday's rally one of the biggest in the country. Spread the word!

WHEN:
* Saturday, July 25
* 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
* Click here to RSVP

WHERE:
* AFL-CIO Hall (new location)
* 1106 Lavaca Street
* Austin, TX 78701

Health care reform. Yes we can!

Unplugged at the Grove Shut Down Due to Noise Complaint

Phillip Martin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:39:03 GMT

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.

Apparently, the opening act went beyond the 75 decibel limit (remember -- the 75 decibel limit is somewhat similar to chamber music being played in a small auditorium). Neighbor No-Fun threatened to do the same the following week.

From Austin 360:

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.

By stex5150
June 11, 2009 9:19 PM | Link to this
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.
By YeahIsaidIt
June 11, 2009 9:23 PM | Link to this
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.

Austin Mayor-Elect Lee Leffingwell Selects Staff

Karl-Thomas Musselman — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:17:13 GMT

Mayor Elect Lee Leffingwell won't be sworn in until June 22nd, but he has indicated who will be stepping into office with him on Day 1 as his staff at City Hall. You'll noticed some new faces as well as members of his current council staff being carried over into the Mayor's office.

Mark Nathan (chief of staff)
Nancy Williams
Matt Curtis
Amy Everhart
Janet Jackson

Congratulations to Lee and to the new "Lee Team".

Austin Firefighters Claim Major Role in Leffingwell Victory

Karl-Thomas Musselman — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:41:02 GMT

The following is from today's press release form the Austin Firefighters. Relevant claims highlighted with a response of mine following.

The Austin Firefighter's Association today released polling data that points to their efforts as the deciding factor in Lee Leffingwell's higher than expected margin of victory and subsequent concession from opponent Brewster McCracken. "No one expected Councilman Leffingwell to win with such a high margin.
Our campaign analysis shows that efforts by our PAC were successful." said PAC Chair Lt. David Lundstedt. Many political experts expected Leffingwell to top out between 39 and 44 percent and lead McCracken by 10 points and were surprised by his 48% vote total and 20 point margin. PAC Vice-Chair and coordinator of the Leffingwell effort Fire Specialist Randy Moreno says the results are not a surprise to him. "We knew going in that turnout would be low and that a concentrated, grass roots, get-out-the-vote campaign could be successful.
Polling data provided by the AFA PAC shows an increase in voter turnout of almost 50% from 2006 in the precincts targeted by the firefighters' team. Additionally, Leffingwell won 7 of the 11 targeted precincts by well over 50%. As a result, "When we endorse a candidate we don't just lend them our name," says Association President Stephen Truesdell. "We back it up with money, time and effort."
Firefighters also point to the targeting of minority voters as crucial to Leffingwell's success. They employed a strategy to reach out to Hispanic voters, traditionally ignored by other campaigns. Efforts included Spanish language get-out-the-vote TV commercials and ads in local print media such as Arriba and La Prensa. They also used new media and social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter to reach out to younger voters. As a result, the Firefighters canvassing team knocked on over 5,000 doors and contacted over 14,700 voters.

I certainly applaud the Firefighters for their work and attempt to look back at the election results to measure the impact that they had. Measurement and analysis of actions to results is something that we see far too little of in politics and I'm not even talking about what is made public. There is far too little of it done for private means a well.

That being said, if one is going to make such claims in a press release, it would be appropriate to release data that can be analyzed by third parties to verify the validity of such claims (which is lacking here). Without an ability to verify claims, they remain simply that- claims.

For instance, the Firefighters also had expenditures and support for Place 1 candidate Perla Cavazos who garnered less than 35% of the vote yet nary a word about the effectiveness of their efforts in that race. Just because she lost doesn't mean that their efforts weren't effective- they very well could have been responsible for thwarting a larger loss. That information is just as valuable and relevant to validating the effectiveness of their efforts in the Mayor's race.

So I'm curious as to which precincts were targeted, even as I acknowledge that the best targeting this cycle may not have been by precinct, but down to the "next most likely voter" in any precinct which was a factor in Chris Riley's election. I'll ask the campaign staff to what extent they might be willing to share some insight into that strategy.

And to put some actions to my own questions and critique, I'm doing a little analysis on those precincts targeted by the 10,000 Austin Progressive Coalition doorhangers since technically sat on that board this year. Look for that post (hopefully) later this week.

Update: Thinking about it a bit more, a ratio of 7 out of 11 precincts being won is far less than the percentage of precincts won by Leffingwell citywide. And from what I was told by other sources during the campaign after putting up this post, it's my understanding that the targeted precincts were in Southest Austin largely in the 4th County Commissioner District. Year over year, that area had the worst turnout by percentage (pdf) and raw votes (pdf) of any place in the city so a 50% increase of the vote there likely represents less than a thousand vote difference in turnout. In a best case scenario based on the turnout of ~58,000 voters, that would be a shift of less than 2% points. Certainly helpful, but just a part of the greater puzzle that boosted Lee's total.

If what I'm told is wrong and the precincts referenced are elsewhere, I'll happily stand corrected. I'm just working with what was shared in the press release and during the campaign.

Update 2: I read this press release slightly different and likely incorrect as pointed out by David in the comments. I also have received the precinct level data since writing this post and will follow up tomorrow on it (though I received it from another member of the local media, not the firefighters media contact who I asked).

The 2009 Austin Mayor's Race by Precinct

Karl-Thomas Musselman — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:15:00 GMT

This map is courtesy of the Austin American-Statesman which did a great job putting it together after the election. I expect we'll see some more from the Austin Chronicle tomorrow.

I think it's pretty clear that Lee if Mayor of Austin, all of it. Though Brewster was able to win one west campus precinct and the downtown precinct covering 6th Street. Other than that, it was slim pickings for Carole and Brewster on the peripheral precincts.

Statesman Editorial Board Still Petty About Leffingwell

Phillip Martin — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:10:47 GMT

Let's do this point by point:

If Lee Leffingwell proves as effective at running the city as he did running for mayor, the people of Austin will be well served.

What a nice back-handed compliment to start us off!

Having endorsed McCracken, we were disappointed and, frankly, surprised he did not run a better campaign. On election day, he put out an e-mail that said "the mayor's race will be very, very close." But it wasn't close at all.

Really? You were surprised? How is that even possible? I mean -- I was one of the only supporters of McCracken on this site (I even voted for him when we were deciding who to endorse as a site). I wrote a huge solar energy piece that raised McCracken's #1 issue to the front of our site; I wrote about the tech-related stuff a lot; and I never touched the transportation contrasts between Leffingwell and McCracken.

But even I knew he had a major uphill battle ahead of him -- and I'm not even living in the city right now.

Former mayor Carole Keeton Strayhorn's campaign was far more visible on television, while Leffingwell succeeded in mobilizing the Austin Democratic machine

I'd be more impressed with the "machine" talk if I had any evidence that the Statesman wasn't just repeating lines from Brewster (and myself) about the Austin political machine. Brewster was exactly the kind of candidate that could have re-shaped the electorate and done things differently, but (for whatever reason) never got quick enough traction in his campaign.

But one thing that is way worse than any machine -- and I never saw the Statesman editorial board write about this -- are anonymous leaflets, anonymous websites, and last-minute robocalls. I was fine with my support of the McCracken campaign until the Brewster Nation parking ticket fliers came out -- after which the Brewster Nation website was "mysteriously" pulled down and no one from the McCracken campaign really addressed if they were behind it or not. After that, and the robocalls, it became pretty clear that there are things far worse than political machines in our City Council races.

Anonymous leafets from an anonymous website is probably against the law (which is why, I'm sure, the Brewster Nation site was taken down), and even if it's not, it violates so many principles of freedom of speech that we at BOR (and the Statesman, for that matter) should hold above other issues.

But it seems the Statesman just put buried their head in the sand on that one, preferring to talk about other made-up, fictionalized issuess:

Leffingwell, 69, is a retired commercial airline pilot, and he showed the public a studied cockpit calm in his campaign that, he suggested, was just the ticket for the storms beating on the city's financial wings. It's important, though, that he not rely too heavily for advice on the unions, particularly the police and firefighters' unions, that supported him.

First of all, that first sentence about "cockpit calm" is just offensive to me as an English major.

Second of all -- STILL WITH THE UNIONS? I guess one should never pick a fight with someone that buys ink by the barrel (even if they will only be able to afford that ink for a few more years). Again, for anyone that cares to learn any truth about the Lee/union saga the Statesman ed board fictionalized entirely on its own, read here.

For now, Leffingwell has earned our congratulations for his victory and best wishes for a successful term as mayor of a city we all love.

A city the editorial board loves so much that they are surprised by its election outcomes, promote ridiculous statements about the Mayor-elect's ties to unions, and decided twice that George Bush would be the best person to represent the city's interest.

Brewster McCracken was graceful in his congratulations for Leffingwell. It is too bad the Statesman couldn't muster the same respect for our new Mayor.

Help Lee Leffingwell Retire His Debt; 12am TONIGHT is deadline.

David Kobierowski — Tue, 12 May 2009 01:40:49 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Jeff Jack sent out this email. Per Jeff's email, Lee needs our immediate help. Please share widely.

What a GREAT Day in Austin!
This afternoon Austin officially has a new Mayor, Lee Leffingwell! Brewster McCracken concedes the election at 4:00 and Lee will now be our next Mayor.
But while we all may appreciate that Brewster did the right thing by getting out of the runoff, it has presented a problem for Lee.
Due to our election laws, Lee can only raise money to pay off his campaign debt until midnight tonight.
As many of you know Lee had a late start in the campaign due to his pledge to not cause a special election when he decided to run before filling out his term as the place one council member.
So to be able to match Brewster's early fundraising, Lee had to put on the table about $100,000 of his own money to be competitive and now has only until 12:00 tonight to raise money to cover his campaign debt.
So many of you getting this e-mail worked hard for Lee realizing that he was the best person in the race to protect our neighborhoods and environment, support our small businesses, and ensure the continued support for our health and human services.
And many of you also expected that there would be a runoff and may have been holding back a little money to help him in that anticipated runoff.
But his over whelming show of support from all over the city (Check out the Austin American Statesman Map in today's paper!) has convinced Brewster to pack it up. So there will be no runoff but there is still a big campaign debt.
It is not unusual that the financial backer of the losing candidates will jump on the band wagon late, and may round up some money to help make amends, it probably will not be enough to get Lee out of debt...
Therefore if you had not given to Lee or had not given all that the law will allow ($350 per person or $700 for a couple) now is the time to make a pledge and help retire Lee's campaign debt. Whether it is $350 or $5 everything will help. You do not need the cash tonight, but you will need to make a pledge to the campaign before midnight. Please go to the link below and help Lee pay off this campaign debt.
info@austinleadership.com
And please send this message to everyone who you know that is thankful that our new Mayor will be Lee Leffingwell!
Thanks
Jeff Jack
Better Austin Today
Zilker Neighborhood

Best,
David Kobierowski