Open Meetings Archives - ChangeAustin.org

Council Fails the $55 mil Open Meeting Test

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Linda Curtis • 0 Comments

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

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Linda Curtis • 2 Comments

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.

Bill Aleshire on Open Meetings Act

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Linda Curtis • 2 Comments

Bill Aleshire will be our guest Thursday, February 3, at 7 pm (details below) to speak on the Texas Open Meetings Act and the Texas Public Information Act.

Bill Aleshire

Come to this important meeting. (We will also talk about appraisals & fair representation!)
Thursday, Feb. 3rd, 7 pm
Austin Energy Building (across from Palmer Auditorium)
721 Barton Springs Road, Assembly Room 130

Additional Agenda Items
City Hall’s Open Meetings Foibles Update
Property tax Protest Plan for 2011
ChangeAustin’s Fair Representation Position

Before you come, you might take a look at this video of the Attorney General’s on open meetings and ask yourself what part of this does the Council not understand. And check out the Friday Statesman editorial Bracing for the Storm.

Ordinary citizens, regardless of party, are disappointed with the lack of accountability and fiscal prudence we’re getting from leaders of all parties and all levels of government.

City Hall’s Rigged

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Linda Curtis • 0 Comments

You thought the political game at City Hall was rigged, right?

Respected investigative journalist, Ken Martin, at the Austin Bulldog, has exposed the Austin City Council’s behind-closed-door meetings that have taken place (and possible violations of the Open Meetings Act) since Kirk Watson took the helm in 1997. The Statesman has just confirmed that the County Attorney is now investigating. Read it and don’t just weep – read the rest of this message and take action!

Thanks to all the folks who packed it to the Alamo Drafthouse January 24th to see the film, Gerrymandering, including our somewhat “strange bedfellows” (Democrats, Republicans and those pesky independents) below who are on a shared quest for open government and fair representation.

(l to r) Rudy Williams, Gavino Fernandez, Debbie Russell, Sen. Jeff Wentworth, Chris Nielsen, Roger Borgelt & Marcelo Tafoya

Action Request!

1. Contact your state legislators (Texas House & Senate) now! Ask them to pass Sen. Wentworth’s bill, SB 380 that would simply require a November 2011 vote of Austinites on a fair representation plan. (see bill below). Go here to find your legislators.

2. Contact Mayor Lee Leffingwell to tell him you want to vote on a fair representation plan this year — no foot dragging for a 2012 ballot. (If he wants to put some other real reforms on the ballot he has ample time to do that for November 2011.)

3. Come to our next meeting – Thursday, Feb. 3 at 6:30 pm. The location is TBA. Please reply to this message and let us know you’re coming – we’ll make sure to have a room large enough.

Share this message with your Austin voting friends here. Stay tuned for more punches at and from City Hall!