Elena Guajardo to Challenge Justin Rodriguez

by: Matt Glazer

Mon Dec 29, 2008 at 10:14 AM CST

It appears this election cycle will have a rematch in the District 7 San Antonio City Council race.

Elena Guajardo and Justin Rodriguez have switched the rolls of challenger and incumbent, but the debate might be very similar.  Guajardo is claiming Rodriguez has been unresponsive to constituents and community members have recruited her to run.

This is the same thing Rodriguez said in 2007, and it helped push him to a landslide victory in the original contest.

Guajardo was one of the few openly lesbian elected officials in the entire state. Something particularly amazing in the post proposition 2 era when LGBT families were stripped of their constitutional rights.  This fact and the under current of George Dickerson created a perfect storm that made it easy for Rodriguez to win.

For those unfamiliar with the Dickerson, an employ of Zachary Construction, the Express News sums it succinctly.

In early 2006, Dickerson, a Zachry Construction employee, sent Guajardo an incendiary e-mail about the Graham Central Station nightclub from his work account. She contacted Zachry officials, who, in turn, fired Dickerson - though she asked them to reconsider. Dickerson later committed suicide.

After 2 years away from the Zachary story, 3 years after Prop 2 and another mayors race in San Antonio, this race should be all about whether Rodriguez deserve to serve again.

Of course, nothing in politics is ever that simple.

Dawnna Dukes Robocalling for Galindo

by: greentexas

Fri Jun 13, 2008 at 03:28 PM CDT

Laura Morrison's McMansion

by: m1ek

Tue Jun 10, 2008 at 01:07 PM CDT

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.

Now on to the crackplog:

In the past, you've seen me point out the hypocrisy of two or three folks heavily involved in the McMansion Task Force for living in homes which violated the expressed spirit, if not technically the letter, of the ordinance. The spirit being "out-of-scale houses (McGraw) and/or homes which 'tower over the backyards of their neighbors' (Maxwell)".

Somehow, I missed this.

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!)

Galindo Robocalls

by: greentexas

Thu Jun 05, 2008 at 01:32 PM CDT

Cid Galindo has a robocall going right now focusing on his "cost you thousands of dollars to sell your home" bullshit. I hung up when he used the word flip-flopper.

Cid's a Republican-no a Democrat-no a Republican-no a Democrat.

Who's the flip-flopper?

Blockwalking, Betty and the Budget

by: Robin Cravey

Mon May 05, 2008 at 11:44 AM CDT

As I've said many times, I learned the budget process from Betty when she was city finance director and I was a city council aide. We got to be pretty good friends then, and that has endured.

Naturally, Betty has been a leader on budget issues on the council, and many folks will be sorry to see her go for that reason (among others!). But I can assure you, I intend to devote a lot of attention to the budget if I'm elected.

I've been pleased to see the council hold a series of work sessions on the budget. I've been calling for reinstituting the council worksessions as a way to make the council's work more open to the public. With the hectic pace of the campaign, I haven't been able to attend any of the worksessions, but I'm eager to get into the budget process and start working with the other members of the council to set spending priorities for the coming year.

(crossposted to www.robincravey.com)

Jennifer Kim's Campaign Files Ethics Complaint Against Randi Shade

by: David Mauro

Thu May 01, 2008 at 09:24 PM CDT

Jennifer Kim's campaign manager Elliot McFadden has filed an ethics complaint against Randi Shade.

The ethics complaint alleges Shade's campaign failed to report the bundling of money from development firms with ties to the Domain and the Wal-Mart Supercenter at Northcross Mall.

McFadden, who filed the complaint with the City Ethics Review Commission, released this statement by press release:

“It appears from her campaign finance reports that Randi Shade has had thousands of dollars in donations bundled from certain development firms and failed to report the bundling as required by law,” McFadden stated.

City election code requires individuals that raise $100 or more from 5 people or more on behalf of a candidate be listed as a bundler. Randi Shade received contributions from 11 out of 13 principals at Endeavor Real Estate Group, 17 out of 28 attorneys at Ambrust & Brown, and all 4 partners at Reagan Advertising totaling $16,500 in bundled money.

“This begs the question of what Shade is hiding by not reporting this information.,” McFadden continued. “We have firms involved in unpopular projects, which Jennifer Kim has opposed, like tax giveaways for corporate retail, the Wal-Mart at Northcross, and billboards on scenic roadways, and Randi Shade appears to be hiding her direct association with these firms.”

Endeavor is the developer of The Domain which is expected to receive over $65 million in tax subsidies from the City and Ambrust & Brown is the law firm representing Lincoln Properties in their development of Wal-Mart at Northcross Mall as well as representing Endeavor. Reagan Advertising owns a majority of the billboards in the Austin market and had been promoting a proposal that would have put billboards on some of Austin’s designated scenic roadways . . .

The ony poll taken in this race showed Shade with a lead of 1.5%, well within the margin of error. Burnt Orange Report has endorsed both Jennifer Kim and Randi Shade. 

I know there are readers who understand election law much better than I do: what do you all think about the validity of the complaint? 

Capital City Young Democrats Endorse in Austin Municipal Election

by: PI Lawyer

Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 02:36 PM CDT

CCYD endorsed the following candidates:

Austin Community College Board of Trustees, Place 1
Tim Mahoney

Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees, District 3
Jerry Garcia

Austin City Council, Place 1
Lee Leffingwell

Austin City Council, Place 3
Jennifer Kim

Austin City Council, Place 4
Robin Cravey

Early voting in the municipal election will take place Monday, April 28, through Tuesday, May 06.

CCYD meets the first Thursday of every month at 6:00 PM.  Membership is open to anyone 40 years old or younger.

Proposal for affordable housing at Green Water Treatment Plant site

by: Robin Cravey

Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 00:37 PM CDT

It's time for a radical change of direction, starting with the Green Water Treatment Plant site. As we issue a request for proposals to have major developers tell us what to do with this property, let's remember something. This is the people's property. We know what the people need.

It's time for a change of direction in the way we are pursuing the provision of affordable housing. And it's time for a change in the way we are selling off our public property.

For the past decade, the Council has moved to liquidate the wealth of city-owned property downtown and fronting Town Lake. And since 2000, it has dedicated 40% of the city tax revenue to be derived from those properties to a fund for affordable housing. This fund will be nice to have, but it's not enough. And it takes too long.

Imagining Calamity on the Firefighter Rideout

by: Robin Cravey

Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 07:28 PM CST

Post-Incident Review

I was a fly on the wall at a PIR, Post-Incident Review, for the recent housefire on Strawberry Cove in South Austin, when one firefighter was trapped, injured, rescued and sent to the hospital. The firefighter has since made a full recovery.

Two fire companies were dispatched to the fire. It appeared to be a small fire on the outside of the house, which they began to put out. Meanwhile, two firefighters entered the house for a routine check to make sure the fire had not reached inside. But when they reached the second floor and opened a way to the attic, the house filled with dense smoke and heat. That's when one firefighter had to be rescued.

Laura Morrison Debate Watch Party

by: Matt Glazer

Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 00:45 PM CST

Laura Morrison's campaign for city council is throwing a fundraising event and debate watch party at Scholz Garten tomorrow evening.

Tomorrow is a legendary evening in Texas. We hope you will come to Scholz Garten and share the evening with special guest, Ray Wylie Hubbard for a Happy Hour Fundraiser to celebrate our campaign for City Council. Then stay for a front row seat for the large screen TV to watch the Democratic Presidential debate that starts at 7pm!

Thursday,  February 21, 2008
5:00 - 7:00 PM
Scholz Garten at 1607 San Jacinto Street

Meet a candidate for City Council and then stick around and watch the debate.