Jo Clifton

The Austin City Council sat through hours of speeches from the public on Tuesday, mostly from citizens who oppose the proposed five-year contract with the city’s police union. A few spoke in support, but the vast majority of the 236…

Mayor Kirk Watson has expressed serious concerns about a proposed affordable housing project within the flight path of Austin’s airport and has suggested changes that will prevent such development in the future.

At the last meeting before the Nov. 5 election, City Council spent more than 11 hours in chambers, with most of their time being devoted to the contract with the Austin Police Association, which they approved. But with a barely noted vote at the end of the meeting, they also approved on first reading a zoning change to allow the 0.81-acre sliver of land just south of the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge to be the site of 480-foot building. The case must come back to Council for second and third reading before the zoning can be finalized.

Although the city of Austin offers help for low-income residents who wish to become homeowners, that assistance is limited to buyers who earn at or below 80 percent of the local Median Family Income, or MFI, which is currently $97,800 for a family of four.

As everyone is keenly aware, there’s an important election coming up next week. Not just the federal contest, but also City Council races. The candidates have now turned in their final campaign finance reports before the Nov. 5 election. These reports indicate not only how successful they have been in raising money but also who might be working to influence voters by promoting those candidates. This includes political action committees – also known as PACs.

Looking at fundraising in the final two City Council races not considered in previous reporting in the Austin Monitor, we see two reasonably popular incumbents with every reason to be optimistic about Tuesday’s election. Regardless of policies, an incumbent almost…

Although the race was extremely close, at the end of Tuesday night Marc Duchen could claim victory in the District 10 City Council contest over his only opponent, Ashika Ganguly. Duchen finished with 20,731 votes to Ganguly’s 20,227, with only 504 votes separating the two.

At Thursday’s City Council meeting, after hearing complaints from two attorneys that a proposed ordinance would violate state law and the city charter, Mayor Kirk Watson announced that the item would be withdrawn. The proposed ordinance would govern petitions for initiatives, referendums and recall of City Council members.

Consultants hired to investigate an ethics complaint against former interim City Manager Jesús Garza have concluded that he violated a city ethics regulation when engaging the services of former city employees Joe Canales and Laura Huffman without consulting City Council. Garza adamantly disputes that allegation, citing the multiple crises the city was facing and the need to act swiftly to try to alleviate them.

On a vote of 8-3, City Council last week approved on first reading a major change for a small sliver of property at 1209 W. Fifth St. The change would allow the developer to build up to 120 feet, a change that has neighbors up in arms. After hearing objections to the proposal from several neighbors in the Old West Austin Neighborhood Association, Mayor Kirk Watson joined Council members Alison Alter and Mackenzie Kelly in voting against the zoning proposal. The matter will likely come back to Council at next week’s meeting for second and third reading.