Rodgers on the Water Wars
Brian Rodgers wowed a crowd that gathered at McKinney Roughs Nature Trail on March 19th in Cedar Creek at the “Texas Water Wars: Is there a solution and who decides” conference sponsored by Independent Texans, Environmental Stewardship, Lost Pines Sierra Club and Neighbors for Neighbors. Here’s his 14 minute talk on water and the dangerous plans by the “growth machine” to continue moving precious groundwater to unsustainable (water poor) developments — and make current residents pay for it. You can watch the rest of the videos on the Independent Texans You Tube channel. Make growth pay for itself y’all!
Candidates Respond!
Thanks to all the Council candidates for responding.
This election is about 3 incumbents and the cost of growth as City leaders continue to fan the flames of out-of-control growth — with current residents shouldering the increasingly unbearable costs. The Austin American Statesman just reported Austin property taxes could rise next year.
Who will fight to keep your cost of living down? It’s up to you Austin – take charge before they charge you!
Go here to read, comment and share with your Austin voting friends.
City Hall: Bringing Us Together Whether We Like It or Not!
Newly elected State Representative Paul Workman, an Austin Republican, is helping Austin voters from across the geographic and political divide call the city’s bluff on their claim to support fair geographic representation, also known as single-member districts. HB 1175 would mandate the City to implement single member districts by May 2012, despite the Mayor’s determination to put off a vote until November 2012.
Wednesday night, the Urban Affairs Committee in the Texas House, heard testimony from one lone voice from the City, Austin City Councilwoman Sheryl Cole, the only African-American on the Council, urging a defeat of HB 1175. Cole stated that, “we have a very specific charter provision that prohibits us from changing the form of government absent a voter election,” arguing for “local control.”
Rep. Harold Dutton, a Houston Democrat who chairs the Urban Affairs Committee, caught Cole off guard by offering to amend the bill to have the state pick up any legal costs for the City.
Luis Figueroa attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF), which has brought single-member districts to cities across Texas said, “We strongly support this legislation…The number one call that we consistently get is a cry for single-member districts from the Latino residents of Austin.”
Gavino Fernandez, Director of LULAC 12 and El Concilio in Austin said, “There is precedence for this kind of legislative intervention established by former State Senator Gonzalo Barrientos when he led passage of a bill forcing AISD to go to single-member districts back in 1991.”
Marcelo Tafoya presented a petition from LULAC councils across the state, “The city has lied time and time again. They pledged in the last session to put it on the ballot and they did no such thing.”
Roger Borgelt, Vice-Chair of the Travis County Republican Party, pointed out that huge swaths of the City have no representation whatsoever and that, “the council has repeatedly said they are for this and want to do it. All the bill does is give them a deadline.”
Roscoe Overton, Sr., of the Blackland neighborhood in NE Austin, who is African-American, testified that, “In 2007 they [the City of Austin] had a committee, the demographer and maps and the demographics. They still didn’t put it on the ballot, yet 90% of people attending these meetings said they supported it. It’s not about color, it’s about whether you have a representative – for better or for worse.”
Linda Curtis of ChangeAustin.org offered written testimony that, “We see the passage of HB 1175 as encouragement to Austin voters to push for a more rigorous plan which we may ultimately have to do ourselves by citizen petition.”
Rep. Workman wrapped up the testimony stating, “There was an agreement two years ago with Senator Wentworth [who introduced a similar bill to force the city to implement geographic representation] that the City of Austin would put this up for a vote. They did not.” He ended with this question, “Now if you were one of 5 of the 6 members of the Austin City Council who would be out of a job if the voters passed single-member districts, would you vote to put it on the ballot?”
Peck Young, veteran Democratic political consultant now Director of Austin Community College’s Center for Public Policy in response to the Councilwoman Cole’s claim said, “Everyone knows that state law rules. But Council Member Cole did get this right – it is about local control, but maybe not her version. It’s about a local clique of downtown Democrats, and the fat cats from the Westside who are funding them, controlling local Austin voter’s opportunities.”
The hearing can be viewed on video, starting at 2:10 at: http://www.house.state.tx.us/video-audio/committee-broadcasts/committee-archives/player/?session=82&committee=480&ram=11041310480
6 Dynamite Candidate Questions
Thank you for your tremendous and thoughtful responses to our request for your questions to the Austin City Council candidates. We have sifted them down to 6 dynamite Questions for Austin Candidates 2011. Question #1 will tell you where all the money for schools and basic city services went and continues to go so far!
Candidate’s responses come next Tuesday. Then we’ll ask you to forward a message across the city.
We have posted a sampling of the remainder of your 2011 City Council Candidate Questions. Sorry we couldn’t include them all! The Austin Neighborhoods’ questionnaire answered many of these questions. Click here…and here.
Get out to the Candidate forums, y’all. Keep checking this site for upcoming forums: http://councilforums.wordpress.com/. (Thanks to Robert Singleton for doing this site.)
Reply Request: What Would YOU ask the Candidates?
We have a simple request. What questions would you like the candidates running for Austin City Council to answer? Send us your ideas (use the comment box below or send us email.)
Early voting begins on May 2. We want to get them our questionnaire next Monday. We will then publish the information shortly thereafter.
Linda Curtis & Brian Rodgers
ChangeAustin.org
PO Box 6718
Austin, TX 78762
512-535-0989 office
512-657-2089 cell (text us here too)
Contact@ChangeAustin.org
Bill Aleshire on Open Records
">Click here to watch Bill Aleshire on Open Records: former County Judge and local attorney Bill Aleshire gave this inspiring talk about Open Records and Open Meetings at the ChangeAustin.org meeting held on February 17th. Unfortunately, due to technical problems, this was only the first 12 minutes of Bill’s 40 minute talk with us. Thanks Bill!
Why Texas and Austin Should Not Subsidize the Formula 1 Race Track
CPA and economic development expert, Richard Viktorin of Audits in the Public Interest, testifies before the Texas Senate Finance Committee on why the plan to subsidize the Formula 1 Race Track in Austin by the state of Texas is a “liar’s loan.”
Formula 1 for a Real Tea Party
Richard Viktorin of Audits in the Public Interest, is a CPA with credentials in the area of economic development. Viktorin testified before the Texas Senate Finance Committee late yesterday, providing data and back up to the contention that the State Comptroller’s support for granting one-quarter of a billion taxpayer dollars for the Formula 1 racetrack in Austin is a “a liar’s loan in the form of an economic development incentive merely by inflating attendance and spending.” Viktorin further testified that, “The total expenditure per person in all categories is a pie in the sky $585.00 per day, $3000 per visitor total…this does not include air travel. The higher and higher Formula One puffs the numbers, the higher the award grows. It is a direct algebraic relationship.”
Texas Senate Finance Committee Vice-Chair, Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa of McAllen responded to Viktorin stating, “I don’t like Formula One either.” Finance Committee Chair, Steve Ogden of Bryan, after gaveling out said, “We are going to look at it.”
According to information published by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, the Formula One incentive offered from the Texas Major Events Trust Fund is estimated to be $290,000,000 over ten years.
Viktorin’s organization was retained by local Austin businessman, taxpayer watchdog, and co-founder of ChangeAustin.org, Brian Rodgers. Rodgers said, “Spending $290 million of taxpayer funds for a privately owned racetrack while closing our schools is madness. It is deeply disturbing to watch our government officials pass up innovative solutions for long term unemployment in favor of a 3-day gig selling hot-dogs at a racetrack at obscene costs.”
Viktorin’s full 5-minute testimony can be watched here.
Council Fails the $55 mil Open Meeting Test
Though the Council failed yesterday, hats off to the Statesman, and writer Marty Toohey, for this front page piece about yet another giveaway to the Austin real estate industry, on the Waller Creek (soak the taxpayer) project. Read it and don’t just weep, read Brian Rodgers’ letter to Council below, and get ready for some action, starting March 1st. Sign up for our emails and you’ll get the news first.
Dear Council Members:
The Waller Creek Tunnel Project was supposed lift downtown properties out of the flood plain and pay for itself with the new tax revenue. Fat chance. Projected new office buildings shrunk from 2.6 million square feet to 1 million square feet.
Now, the project is in a financial nosedive and once again, the taxpayer is the savior.
Austin citizens, are watching you, now that you are required to have open work sessions. The test tomorrow is whether you will clearly disclose the following:
- $55 million in new rate hikes hidden on your utility bill under “Drainage”
- Cooked book assumptions of 5% annual real estate appreciation until 2028
- Landowners along Waller Creek get massive public benefits for free
We at ChangeAustin.org are also watching you! We will not let you keep giving Austin residents the shaft. Be honest with us.
Yours truly,
Brian Rodgers, ChangeAustin.org
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DON’T FORGET! Bill Aleshire on the Texas Open Meetings Act
(Also brief agenda items — property tax protests, Formula 1 Foibles, Fair Representation for Austin, and the Del Valle School Board election)
Thursday, February 17 @ 6:30 pm!
Austin Energy Building (across from Palmer Auditorium)
721 Barton Springs Road, Assembly Room 130
Bill Aleshire will be our guest to speak on the Texas Open Meetings Act and the Texas Public Information Act.
Aleshire served as Travis County Judge from 1987-1998 and Travis County Tax Collector from 1980-1985. Now in private law practice, Bill is well known for his depth of understanding of local government, being a straight shooter, and his willingness to work with folks of all persuasions for the common good. (He even loves our pets!) In addition, he donates his time to the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas as a Legal Hotline Attorney.
Bring your questions for an informative Q&A. Have you ever been denied access to an open records request? What records can the government legally withhold? How can elected officials communicate with each other without violating the open meeting act? Do citizens have a right to read notes that city council members pass to each other during council meetings? You ask, he will answer!
Council Using Our Tax Dollars to Defend Themselves
TheAustinBulldog.org is the gift that keeps on giving. Read Ken Martin’s piece today on how the City Council is using our tax dollars to defend themselves against their possible violations of the Texas Open Meeting Act.
Ya gotta ask yourself why they don’t just make amends by truly opening up City Hall instead?
Read ChangeAustin.org’s statement on this issue below.
Ordinary Austinites must use this opportunity to push for the reforms we’ve been fighting for — open government, fair representation and fiscal reform.
DON’T FORGET! Our next meeting (with Bill Aleshire as our guest speaker) is a week from this Thursday — February 17 — be there at 6:30 pm! (need a ride? reply to this message)
Austin Energy Building (across from Palmer Auditorium)
721 Barton Springs Road, Assembly Room 130
ChangeAustin.org on Possible Violations of
Texas Open Meetings Act by the Austin City Council
The Travis County Attorney’s office is reviewing the possibility that our entire city council has been violating the Texas Open Meetings Act in the most serious way.
Texas law gives all citizens the right to watch their governing bodies deliberate; it is one of the most fundamental pillars of our democracy. But our city council has operated an institutionalized template of private, regular and deliberative meetings between fellow council members designed, according to Mayor Pro Tem Martinez, to “try to achieve that level of understanding so that on Thursday we can minimize the line of questioning, and the debate, and move forward through the agenda” according to TheAustinBulldog.org interview.
Martinez further reveals the charade, “I can’t say for sure, but I do not think I’ve ever switched a vote unbeknownst to my colleagues.”
Council’s votes on Thursday are planned and known in advance – a nice, orchestrated play that mocks the entire concept of public participation. A system designed to minimize on-the-record public discourse between members. No embarrassing explanations required. Great for reelection campaigns and private interests, but illegal for exactly that reason.
Maybe that is why Austin citizens have felt left out for years while developers and big money interests mysteriously win every fight prior to Thursday.
Shortly after Austin Chronicle pundit Michael King declared that there is nothing to see here, the Mayor cancelled the private meetings and announced that they will start deliberating in public work sessions like other Texas cities.
Journalists have a special obligation to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in the open and that government records are open to inspection. The Chronicle should assign one to this story.
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