It’s that time again! Come to Flipnotics on Barton Springs Road on Friday May 7th from 2:30 to 4:00 if you want to chat!

Austin Mayor Pro Tem Mike Martinez, City Council Member Bill Spelman and Mayor Lee Leffingwell announced today that they will introduce a resolution at the May 13th City Council meeting directing the City Manager to limit employee travel to Arizona and to present a plan to the Council for terminating business and investment relationships with the State of Arizona.

“The reasons for introducing this measure are two-fold,” said Mayor Pro Tem Martinez. “First and foremost, we want to ensure that we are not exposing city employees to risk by sending them into an uncertain and potentially hostile environment in Arizona. Second, we want to send a loud and clear message to the State of Arizona that our community stands in vehement opposition to racial discrimination in any form.”

“This resolution has precedent in past Council actions,” added Martinez. “For example, we’ve previously passed policies prohibiting the city from doing business with manufacturers who utilize sweatshop labor. It is squarely within the Council’s purview to determine with whom the city should or should not do business based on their practices.”

The resolution comes on the heels of passage of SB 1070 in Arizona that effectively mandates racial profiling throughout the state. Other cities across the country, including Los Angeles and Washington D.C., are contemplating similar legislation. San Francisco has recently passed a resolution that will terminate all contracts with Arizona-based companies and end city business with the state.

“Arizona’s new immigration law puts anyone traveling to the state in jeopardy of being detained, based on a law enforcement officer’s ‘reasonable suspicion’ that that person might be an undocumented immigrant,” said Council Member Bill Spelman. “That’s wrong, and I can’t responsibly allow our city employees to be placed at such a risk.”

“While I’m normally reluctant to support the Council formally weighing in on issues outside of our jurisdiction, Arizona’s legislation potentially has a direct impact on our employees, and is generally so offensive that I believe it demands our attention,” said Mayor Leffingwell. “I’m supporting this resolution because I believe that we have a responsibility not only to protect our own employees, but also to speak out loudly against racial discrimination wherever it exists.”

Check out the American-Statesman story here

I’m looking to nominate someone to the Austin Airport Advisory Commission. If you are interested in general aviation and/or advocating for ABIA’s customers (ie, a frequent nationwide/international flyer based in Austin) please consider serving your community. You can apply online.

Because next week is spring break, I am moving the next regularly scheduled community office hours to April 2, 2010. We’ll be meeting up with folks that day at the Thunderbird Cafe on Manor Road. I hope to see you there.

We’ve had a great response to our first rounds of community office hours.  I’ve met with folks from all over the city every other week for the last few months and I’ve enjoyed getting out of the office and into the neighborhoods.  I’m happy to say that we’ll be continuing this practice for foreseeable future.  Our next meeting will be Friday March 5, 2010 at Progress Cafe — 500 San Marcos Street.  Here is a link to a map. I’ll be there from 2:00pm to 4:00pm.

I look forward to seeing you there and thanks for helping making this a success!

This Friday November 20th, I’ll be at the Starbucks in the Southpark Meadows Shopping Center from 2:00-4:00pm.  The address is 9300 South I-35 just south of Slaughter Lane.  Looking forward to meeting you soon.

Starting in November, I’ll have open office hours twice a month in coffee shops across the city.  I’ll hold first-come, first-served 15-minute appointments with anyone who would like to meet with me and my staff.  No need to schedule an appointment, just come by and we can discuss whatver’s on your mind.  Office hours will rotate throughout the city to make sure I can meet with as many people as possible. 

The first community office hours will be held on Friday November 6, 2009 from 3:00pm to 5:00pm at Texpresso Cafe (click here for a link).  Texpresso is located at 2700 West Anderson Lane next to the Alamo Drafthouse.

Next meeting will be on Friday November 20th at a location in Southeast Austin.  Details will be announced soon.  I look forward to meeting with you sometime soon.

September 29, 2009

Dear Fellow Austin Resident:

Last Thursday, I had a difficult decision to make on the Grayco/South Shore Planned Unit Development (PUD) request. I had to weigh the public benefit of the proposed development against its potential infringement on our treasured Lady Bird Lake waterfront. I spent hours considering campaign declarations, environmental impacts, affordable housing, and tangible positive outcomes. After that deliberation, I feel I have made the best choice for Austin.

During my campaign, I wrote in one of the candidate questionnaires that I would vote against any request that would supersede the Waterfront Overlay because of my desire to uphold the spirit of the Waterfront Overlay. By offering my tentative support to a project that can protect and enhance the natural values offered by this portion of the waterfront, I believe I retained my commitment to the spirit of the Waterfront Overlay. While the project does pose an infringement on the Waterfront Overlay’s height limits, I felt it was necessary to consider more than that one metric to guide me to a decision which best protects the interests of Austin.

The PUD developers own the land and have entitlements to develop the property. Consequently, the decision before us was not a vote to allow development or not to allow development; it was a vote on whether to develop the land with community benefits, for which the developer was requesting additional height, or to develop the property without any community benefits and without the additional height. With that in mind, I examined the community benefits to determine whether they were a good deal for the City, compared to what we might be giving up.

In exchange for the additional height, the PUD developers have offered to provide the following considerable public benefits, plus others:

Affordable Housing. My strongest single concern was for affordable housing. I pushed hard for the developers to help mitigate the loss of affordable housing stock, and they proposed to provide a significant amount of money to the City to buy affordable housing or provide it onsite, as well as a program to help relocate the existing tenants to other appropriate units nearby.

Water Quality. The developers are providing a drainage pond that will not only be a great environmental benefit to clean currently untreated runoff from neighboring properties, but which will also be an attractive natural-looking area as well. The runoff from the developers’ site will also all be treated before it is returned into Lady Bird Lake.

Community Benefits. There will be onsite space for a daycare and a police substation, and the development will preserve many important trees. The trail and Lady Bird Lake will be preserved through a significant setback from the Lake and tree cover, which will make it nearly impossible to see the development when enjoying the trail or the Lake.

In sum, these community benefits are significant. I anticipate that the impact of this development on the Waterfront can be managed and minimized, and I believe that this version of development compares much more favorably to having a development with no community benefits. I am still committed to the Waterfront Overlay and to our crown jewel Lady Bird Lake, and I believe that this development will not impinge upon that treasure. I do appreciate your feedback, and look forward to our on-going conversation about these issues and others.

With best wishes,

Bill Spelman

We’ll be gathering to celebrate Bill’s successful campaign, watch some early election results and toast the launch of his term. Hope you can join our celebrations!

Spelman Election Night Party
Free Appetizers & Live Music Featuring Brent Adair
Saturday, May 9th
7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Joe’s Bar & Grill
506 West Avenue
Austin, TX 78703
(next door to Frank & Angie’s Pizza)
RSVP on Facebook