Below is the questionnaire we used at our recent Mayoral and City Council candidate forum on March 14 and with virtually all the candidates running for Austin Mayor (Buttross, Ingalls, Leffingwell, McCracken, and Strayhorn) and City Council Candidates (Cavazos, Code, Martinez, Osemene, Quintero, Riley and Spelman).  Thanks to all the candidates who subjected themselves to our questions!  Be sure to watch the videos here, then come back and post a comment about any of the candidates.  Be nice and direct please.

ChangeAustin.org Candidate Questionnaire

1.  RECA, the Real Estate Council of Austin – who fought against Proposition 2 last fall with $56,000 in contributions to Keep Austin’s Word – is now at the State Capitol pushing a bill with Senator Wentworth to double the signature requirement from 5% to 10% of the registered voters to put a proposition on the ballot to amend the city charter.   If SB 690 passes, the new figure of raw signatures needed for Austin would be over 56,000.  Because petitioning is not allowed at grocery stores, malls, shopping centers, post offices, or anywhere else people gather – except dog parks – this RECA effort will effectively kill citizen sponsored initiatives in Austin and in ALL 346 Texas Home Rule cities – a right that has been in place for decades. Only big money and corporations will then be able to afford the greater hurdle. 

a. Will you go on record opposing Senate Bill 690?

b. Will you also commit to lowering the Ordinance petition requirements for initiatives from 10% to 5% by placing a council sponsored charter amendment on the next permissible municipal election? 

2.  Citizens feel that major financial decisions are finalized in the back rooms of city hall and trotted out to the public only as a formality with little transparency and no meaningful public input.  Particularly disturbing was Council’s hurried unanimous decision last August to pass a no bid, 20 year, $2.3 billion contract to purchase electricity from a bio mass generating plant in Nacogdoches.  City staff said we must hurry and sign because the equipment prices were good only through August. BUY NOW BEFORE PRICES GO UP!  (…of course, a week later prices plummeted as the economy began to collapse…)

a. Will you commit to STOP doing NO-Bid deals?

b. Will you commit to giving the public all of the information at least 60 days before making a decision, and give us two public hearings prior to a vote?

3.  Developers build their developments and new subdivisions, take their profits, and leave Austin taxpayers the bill to pay for new roads, schools, utilities, and municipal facilities. New growth and development in Austin should pay its own way instead of shifting that burden to Austin’s taxpayers. Texas law allows cities to collect road impact fees from developers.  Ft. Worth collects a $2,000 road impact fee per new home while Austin collects nothing, leaving those costs to the rest of us.

Will you support the adoption of a road impact fees that represent the “full and fair” cost?

4. Dollar for dollar, locally owned business provide far more jobs, far more tax revenue, far more income and wealth effects, far more entrepreneurship and charitable contributions, a better boost for tourism and smart growth – and a whole mess of benefits that outside companies cannot begin to give.

Will you support an ordinance to require all bidders for city goods and services to quantify the locally owned or locally sourced material and labor components of their bids so that city staff can compare each bid’s true economic value to the community? 

5.  Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo signed on to the Major Cities Legislative Agenda which allows forced blood withdrawal for DWI suspects who refuse a breathalyzer,  and for DNA collection from ALL suspects arrested for Class B misdemeanor or higher – including possession of one joint.  Do you agree with Chief Acevedo’s plans for Austin or will you put a stop to this invasion of our bodies by government?

Additional Question

What is your point of view towards single member districts?