#TXLEGE: Israel throws shade on #atxcouncil's "Sick Leave" entitlement; Evan Smith admits Joe Straus is a Liberal

"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice;
But when a wicked man rules, the people groan."
Proverbs 29:2

We attended this afternoon's Trib event with Paul Workman and Celia Israel:



Most of the event was fairly predictable.  Israel and Workman discussed school finance, immigration, and guns where each said what one would expect someone with their respective partisan affiliations to say.  A couple moments, however, did stand out.

During the discussion of the City of Austin's...contentious...relationship with the Legislature, Israel bemoaned the sloppiness of the city's approach to the "sick leave" entitlement.  Israel suggested that a slower, more deliberative, approach to the ordinance could have given it stronger legs when it hits the legislature.  Specifically, Israel said council "gave Paul Workman a softball."  She's right, you know.

During Q&A, we asked both about their thought's on the city's recent stunt over the CodeNext petition.  Unfortunately, neither one was familiar enough with the statute in question to comment.  We're kicking ourselves over that one because we considered printing it out and handing it to both of them before the event, but we didn't do so.

The best moment came from Evan Smith.  During the discussion of the speaker's race, Workman expressed confidence the next speaker would be more conservative than Joe Straus.  We didn't write down the exact quote, but Evan Smith's response can roughly be paraphrased as "Well, that's kinda a matter of physics.  The only house Republican to the left of Joe Straus is Sarah Davis."  Gee Evan, good to hear you finally admit that Joe Straus is a liberal!

Bottom Line: Nothing earth shattering happened, but some interesting tidbits and a good event to have attended.