#atxcouncil: City that already has soccer stadium considers building TWO more....

"Every prudent man acts with knowledge,
But a fool lays open his folly."
Proverbs 13:16

In Austin's quest to act as patsies for a San Francisco based crony capitalist looking to boost the value of his Ohio-based asset, it appears we're up to two soccer stadium proposals.

Downtown:

If Austin signs off on a privately financed stadium on city parkland near downtown, the owners of a Major League Soccer team see a facility that would have a small geographic footprint yet make a giant positive impact on the community.

Precourt Sports Ventures, which operates Columbus Crew SC and is exploring a move to Austin, told the American-Statesman on Tuesday that finding the right stadium site remains the critical piece of the puzzle and that Butler Shores Metropolitan Park is the spot to beat.

The group rolled out a preliminary rendering of a 20,000-seat stadium tightly tucked into the western half of well-worn Butler Shores, leaving some parkland to the east.

....

The Precourt group rattled off several ideas to ease the strain on the neighborhood, while presenting Austin with its first major league sports franchise in what they say would be a city-owned, club-run stadium costing upwards of $200 million.

East Side:

A small local group with a big vision and political backing has unveiled plans for a wide-ranging project called the East Austin District, highlighted by a large arena and a multipurpose stadium.

Austin Sports & Entertainment, co-founded by former University of Texas swimming star Sean Foley and New England sports entrepreneur Andrew Nestor, partnering with Rodeo Austin, intends to work with the city of Austin and Travis County governments to replace the Travis County Exposition Center with a 15,000-seat arena adjacent to a 40,000-seat open-air facility.

....

The complex, designed to include office space, a convention area, medical facilities, retail and eight courtyards, could house a wide variety of sports events, concerts, trade shows and festivals.

....

The arena would be the new home of an expanded Rodeo Austin, which owns 40 acres adjacent to the Expo Center and annually pulls approximately 260,000 people to the aging facility for its two-week March run. The project is slated to be built on that land, near Lake Walter E. Long.

....

[A] public-private partnership using city-owned land at the Expo Center, which is run by the county.

Thoughts off the top of our head:

• The idea that, just because the physical construction is 'privately financed' it doesn't still contain massive public subsidies, is laughable.  At a minimum, the project developers are getting public land for free.  These proposals would be a lot easier to swallow if we were talking about selling the land.

• Who will be responsible for the ongoing maintenance of a potential stadium: taxpayers or Anthony Precourt?!?

• Downtown: The lack of on-site parking is the only meritorious part of the proposal; if that could be used as leverage to nuke parking requirements more generally, it might be an acceptable trade off.

• Downtown: "a small geographic footprint yet make a giant positive impact on the community"... sounds like typical 'grandiose promises backed by vague buzzwords' that usually accompanies publicly subsidized construction projects.

• Downtown: "tightly tucked"...did you focus group that alliteration?!?

• Downtown: "city-owned, club-run" = Privatized profits with socialized losses...where have we seen that before?!?

• East Side: If you take the stadium out of the equation, this project has a certain appeal.  Even if we find the "economic development" forecasts exaggerated, it would certainly attract capital to a part of town that needs it.  It would also take development pressure off of downtown.

• East Side: That being said, the team seems pretty insistent on a downtown stadium, and building any sort of a stadium without a committed occupant is a fool's errand.

• East Side: If we build an arena, will UT basketball move out there as well?!?  If not, how many nights a week/year will both this proposed East Side arena and the new UT arena sit empty?!?  Is there enough business to prevent two arenas from cannibalizing each other?!?

• East Side: If we build significant convention space out there, then there's even less reason to expand the convention center downtown.
• Note: If this project were accompanied by having the city sell the downtown convention center, it could dramatically increase its appeal.

• What happens to Circuit of the Americas under either proposal?!?
• Note: For personal reasons, we loathe Circuit of the Americas, so if either of these proposals could drive those scumbags out of business, we would consider that a plus.

• Based on our experience working in the service industry, a venue needs to have 4 to 5 events per week to have any realistic chance of creating full time jobs.

• During the 2019 legislative session, we're going to "have a conversation" about public subsidies for stadiums and arenas; does either proposal take into account that state law on this subject is likely to change in the near future?!?

• As we pointed out less than a month ago, Austin already has a 20,000 seat soccer stadium.  Do we need a second?!?  Do we need a third?!?

• How does the legal action proposed by Ohio's Attorney General impact the ability of a team to guarantee they'll be ready by 2019?!?

Finally, following last month's council discussion, we put an open records request into Kathie Tovo's office [note: Tovo carried the original resolution] for all correspondence between her office and the Columbus Crew; Austin's famously transparent municipal government produced the following document:

552.137 Notice by Cahnman on Scribd

Bottom Line: While the east side proposal has a certain amount of merit, putting it very politely, both of these proposals need significantly more work before they're workable.

Is the UT Politburo (literally) stealing from the poor?!?

‘Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.’

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
Deuteronomy 27:19

We've got to imagine this is technically legal, but it's still reprehensible:

The University of Texas Dell Medical School and Travis County’s health care district appear to have misspent local tax dollars that are supposed to be used for indigent care, activists charged Monday in a report that calls on county commissioners to order an independent audit.

The report, written by lawyer and activist Fred Lewis, questions the disposition of $105 million in county property taxes collected by Central Health and transferred to the Dell school. Travis County voters in 2012 agreed to raise property taxes, with $35 million a year going to the medical school.

The report contends that state law restricts Central Health’s spending to health care for poor people but that the money appears to have been improperly commingled with other medical school funds and spent on governmental affairs, communications, general administration, and faculty and staff salaries unrelated to such health care.

Read the whole thing here.

2016 Austin/Travis County November Candidate Endorsements

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

[Author's Note: For races where we don't offer endorsements, our longstanding rule of thumb in local elections is to take the Austin Chronicle's endorsements and  vote AGAINST whoever they endorse.]

Austin City Council:

District 6: Don Zimmerman (Far Northwest Austin)

In two years in office, despite being in the distinct minority, Don Zimmerman has successfully stopped a hostile annexation, fought multiple municipal level attacks on the first amendment, and delivered traffic congestion solutions for a fraction of what the city bureaucracy proposed.

He's also one of only two council members to have voted against the ride-sharing and short-term rental regulations that have caused so much discord; if the council majority had listened to Don Zimmerman, most of the unpleasantness of the past year could have been avoided.

Finally, Don Zimmerman gives a voice at city hall to those who have been abused by the city bureaucracy (and, let's not kid ourselves, Don Zimmerman is the only reason Marc Ott left town).

District 7: Natalie Gauldin (North Central Austin; Burnet Rd./Parmer Ln. corridors)

In a city that needs to build 150,000 units of new housing over the next decade, Natalie Gauldin is a tenacious advocate for new housing supply.  She has the slings and arrows to prove it.  Just last week, her political opponents launched an over the top smear website against her (Author's Note: Austin Transit Blog has a through rebuke of the allegations here.)

Natalie is also a vote to repeal the ridesharing and STR regulations; obviously, the incumbent voted for both.

On taxation, we've had more productive discussions with Natalie than we've ever had with the incumbent; we don't expect to agree with her on every single issue, but she's light years better than the incumbent.

Distict 10: Rob Walker (West Austin)

This is a last minute addition, and a bit of a longshot, but we met Rob Walker over the weekend and liked what we heard.

Rob is the only viable candidate in this race to oppose the Mayor's "corridor" bond and he supports repealing the ride-sharing regulations.

Rob remains a work in progress on housing issues, but there are no perfect candidates in this race and Rob Walker offers, by far, the best issue mix of any of them.

AGAINST: Prop 1 "Mobility Bond" (aka. Adler's "Corridor" Bond)

This thing costs far too much to deliver far too little.  The city transportation department simply isn't capable of pulling off this complex of a project in anything remotely resembling a competent or timely manner.  And the process by which the bond package was developed was terminally shady.

And that's before you get into the degree to which this package is, in reality, a corrupt "redevelopment" scheme.

Read our archive about this package here.

Austin ISD Trustees:

No endorsements.  They all look terrible.  See the note about the Austin Chronicle above.

Austin Community College Trustees:

Place 9: Jeremy Story

An entrepreneur and philanthropist, Jeremy Story has built successful enterprises in both the for and non-profit sectors.

We heard Jeremy outline his pro-student, pro-taxpayer agenda for ACC a couple weeks ago.  Suffice to say, an organization that currently sees only 4% of its students move on to four year colleges has considerable room for improvement.  He also supports streamlining the process by which student may obtain certifications in skilled trades.

On the pro-taxpayer side, Jeremy Story is the only candidate running for the ACC board (IN ANY PLACE) who supports a moratorium on tax hikes.  This is important because if there's a single member of the board raising heck during the budget process, that will attract the attention of the media.  Case in point: Don Zimmerman.

Other places: No endorsements, but....

We haven't done our own homework, but we've heard reasonably positive things about Douglas Gibbons in place 6 and Michael Lewis in place 4 from ACC sources.

Travis County Races:

District Attorney: Maura Phelan

Maura Phelan has over 20 years of criminal law experience, her opponent last practiced criminal law in the 1980's; Maura Phelan is the only candidate for District Attorney who has the basic qualifications for the office.

Beyond qualifications, Maura Phelan wants to reduce the backlog of mental health cases that keep vulnerable citizens in jail by default.  Currently, the Travis County DA only has one attorney overseeing 10,000 mental health cases.  This is abhorrent.

Finally, Maura Phelan will end the disgraceful criminalization of political differences which the Travis County DA's office has become notorious over the past few decades.

Sheriff: Joe Martinez

Joe Martinez is the only thing standing between us and a nightmarish outbreak of politicized identity politics in the Travis County Sheriff's office.

Similar to Maura Phelan, Martinez also wants to focus on mental health to keep these vulnerable citizens away from violent criminals.

Then, of course, there's that whole second amendment thing.





Commissioner's Court, Precinct 3: Gerald Daugherty

We supported his opponent in the primary, and some of our misgivings remain, but we have no doubt that Gerald will be light years better than whatever hack the D's are running against him.

And it doesn't hurt that he's produced the best campaign commercial of this entire election cycle.

State House of Representatives:

District 46 (East Austin/Manor/Pflugerville):  Gabriel Nila

Gabriel has been doing the Lord's work against dramatic odds in this longest of longshot districts.

He has been aided in this quest by running against a multi-decade incumbent who can't seem to stop tripping over her own corruption.  This past weekend, we learned about another sweetheart contract she had obtained for herself and her family from Austin ISD.  Now she says she wants to retire early next year which will enable her to milk the state's retirement system one last time.

The only way to halt this shenanigan (Sidenote: Besides abolishing state pensions for legislators) is to deny the incumbent another term by voting for Gabriel Nila this November.

Bottom Line: A lot of people who vote for president aren't going to vote in anything else on the ballot.  It's what political science types call 'undervoting.'  But down ballot races are where real political power is held and they are often EXTREMELY close.

$620 MILLION for Travis County Expo Center?!?

"There is desirable treasure,
And oil in the dwelling of the wise,
But a foolish man squanders it."
Proverbs 21:20

GADZOOKS; from Austin Affordability:

Are You Ready for This?

There is a Britney Spears slot machine in Las Vegas where she struts across the screen offering a bonus prize and asks, “Are you ready for this?” Well, ready or not, here comes something that is not nearly as much fun. In fact, I’d say this is the straw that broke the camel’s back.

$620 million for a new Travis County Expo Center!

Yes, you read that right – a price tag that is over twice as high as the failed bond proposition for a new civil and family courthouse! You can see the high cost estimate that totals up to $620 million in this PDF from Page 33 of the County’s draft report. There may be some lower estimates out there in Consultant-ville, but why not factor in the highest estimate and assume that the routine cost overruns will hit that amount in the long run?

Read the whole thing here.

Jason Nassour: THE CLOSING ARGUMENT!!!

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

Jason Nassour's final message to the voters:

The Role of a County Commissioner
Jason Nassour talks about the role of a county commissioner, and why he is the best candidate for the job. Election Day is Tuesday and polls open at 7am!
Posted by Jason Nassour for Travis County Commissioner Precinct 3 on Monday, February 29, 2016

Highlights:

• Responsibility to oversee and manage the budget.

• "What qualifies me is the fact that I've spent 20 years, in the courtroom, battling just about every aspect of the county budget."

• "I've got 20 years in every facet of dealing with exactly what the law is mandating we deal with as Commissioners.

Gerald Daugherty...and KIRK WATSON?!?

"Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
Matthew 7:20

Yeah...these speak for themselves:

Bottom Line: Is is too much to ask that Republicans running in Travis County not have a history of donating to Kirk Watson?!?

REPUBLICAN Travis County Commissioners Court (Precinct 3) candidates Face Off....

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

This past Monday, the two Republican candidates for Travis County Commissioners Court Precinct 3 (Western Travis County), small businessman Jason Nassour and decade long incumbent Gerald Daugherty, squared off in their first debate; this video speaks for itself:



Highlights:

• Question #1: Affordability/Property Taxes.
• Daugherty: I'm not sure it's going to get better.
• Keep Spending under control (even though he supported the courthouse)
• Nassour: KNEW THE SIZE OF THE BUDGET
• Against Certificates of Obligation.
• Move civil cases to criminal courthouse that sits empty all afternoon.
• Sell county property within city limits and build big county facility FOR CASH in unincorporated area.

• Question #2: Eastside Courthouse.
• Daugherty: Downtown lawyers want the courthouse downtown
• Author's Note: YES, he actually SAID THAT!!!
• Author's Note II: Who cares what the downtown lawyers want?!?
• Certificates of Obligation "are necessary" if used "judiciously."
• Nassour: Great idea to build east.
• "I would not acquiesce" to downtown lawyers.
• "We have assets we can liquidate."

• Ronnie Earle Building: Daugherty tries to deny he made the motion to approve the funds.  Nassour calls BS.  Nassour points out he's posted the public record to his Facebook page:

Posted by Jason Nassour for Travis County Commissioner Precinct 3 on Thursday, January 28, 2016

• Courthouse: Daugherty tries to claim he's a hero for sending it to the voters in the first place.

• Question 3: County Jail and ICE.
• Nassour: ICE is fine there.
• "If they are unlawfully in this country" we need to detain them.
• Daugherty: Only supporter of Greg Hamilton on current court.

• T.J.: Why haven't we seen you at GOP events?!?
• Daugherty: Attacks TJ and gets defensive.
• Nassour: I was running my business up until a few months ago when I decided to run for office; pledges to attend as many local Republican events as possible in the event he's elected.
• Daughery uses the Bob Bennett excuse to prove his conservative bona fides.

• Our Question: SH 45.
• Daugherty: Ribbon cutting soon.
• Nassour: Gerald's done a good job with that one specific project, but we need a much bigger transportation expansion.
• Should have been an outside lawsuit sooner.

• Final question: Why you?!?
• Nassour: Energy, Drive, Passion
• Daugherty: Experience.

Two more AWFUL votes from Gerald Daugherty

"Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
Matthew 7:20

We just discussed the merits (or lack thereof) of the proposed Travis County windmill farm, but another detail in that article is worth noting:

The commissioners voted 3-0 to bring on Michael Osborne, who retired last year as a top official at Austin Energy and chairs the city’s Electric Utility Commission. (Commissioner Brigid Shea was absent because she is at the climate change talks in Paris, and Commissioner Margaret Gómez was briefly off the dais.)

That means Gerald Daugherty voted for it.

Later in the same meeting, the Commissioners took another vote:

Also Tuesday, the commissioners voted to lower the cost of pay phone services for inmates in Travis County jails and eliminate an $840,000 source of revenue for the county. The Federal Communications Commission is in the process of issuing rules that will likely require local jurisdictions to ensure the services are affordable, and Tuesday’s vote puts Travis County in line with a potential ruling.

The measure amended the county’s contract with Securus Technologies, which manages the phone system, to reduce the cost of a 20-minute phone call from $4.65 to $1.65 and eliminate a separate percentage-based commission that went to county coffers.

Commissioner Gerald Daugherty was the lone dissenter in the 3-1 vote.

“I’m not trying to be punitive to the inmates, but I do want to be careful about just assuming that this money is not something that our sheriff’s office needs,” Daugherty said. “If you don’t have some kind of revenue, then it just is all on the taxpayer, and I don’t think that that’s completely fair.”

Eckhardt, however, said she didn’t think the county should be profiting off the prison population.

“This is a fair taxation question for me,” she said. “We have instituted a de facto tax on people who are predominantly poor by generating such significant revenue off of that contract.”

It was the second measure that the commissioners have adopted this year that makes it easier for inmates to communicate with their loved ones. In September, they set aside money in the budget to bring back in-person visitation, which had been replaced by a Skype-like video-based system.

[Author's Note: Emphasis added.]

Bottom Line: It seems a tad hypocritical to vote in favor of boondoggles for courthouses and windmills, then turn into Mr. "Rah-Rah Taxpayer" when the subject changes to people getting nickeled and dimed by the criminal justice system.

Windmills: Travis County's LATEST Boondoggle

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

Oh good grief:

With a population of 1,600, a countywide prohibition on alcohol sales and a conservative Republican electorate, Throckmorton County has little in common with Travis County.

But the two have been linked since the 19th century, when the Republic of Texas allotted Travis County thousands of acres of revenue-generating land 140 miles west of Fort Worth to fund schools in the Austin area.

On Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court took a step toward bringing that relationship into the 21st century by hiring a consultant to explore the possibility of building a wind farm on the land, which currently makes money from grazing and oil-pumping leases.

“We have for a long time wanted to generate maximum revenue off of that property through a wind lease,” County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said.

The commissioners voted 3-0 to bring on Michael Osborne, who retired last year as a top official at Austin Energy and chairs the city’s Electric Utility Commission. (Commissioner Brigid Shea was absent because she is at the climate change talks in Paris, and Commissioner Margaret Gómez was briefly off the dais.)

....

Both new and old energy sources thrive in the area of West Texas that includes Throckmorton County. The four-hour drive from Austin to Throckmorton, which is about 60 miles northeast of Abilene, is lined for long stretches with huge sweeping wind turbines and small nodding oil derricks.

Texas in the 1800s gave so-called “school lands” to 238 counties, which used to be responsible for education. The money generated through Travis County’s 18,820 acres at the Spade Ranch is held in the Travis County Permanent School Fund, not the general fund, and aids local districts.

Read the whole thing here.

Bottom Line: Clearly, SOMEONE is getting paid.  Travis County has no business owning land in West Texas.  Travis County should stop trying to "generate maximum revenue" and sell the land.

Eckhardt to voters: Drop Dead!!!

"He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck,
Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."
Proverbs 29:1

[UPDATE: Austin Affordability has a fantastic write up here.]

In what has to be one of the all-time great acts of political chutzpah, last night Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardy (D) gave the following speech following the defeat of the Travis County Courthouse bond:



Highlights:

• "Back in saddle" in 48 hours.

• "Low voter turnout" wasn't "rejection of the project" or the location.
• Author's Note: YES, it was.

• "It was a lack of interest in our democracy."

• Yadda, yadda, "justice."

• BTW, we LOVE the fact that Michael King of the Austin Chronicle was standing immediately behind Eckhardt.

Bottom Line: The tax revolt that sprung up in Travis County a couple of years ago won't go away until our local elected officials address the underlying issues.

Travis County Taxpayers Union hosts Courthouse Bond Press Conference

"There is desirable treasure,
And oil in the dwelling of the wise,
But a foolish man squanders it."
Proverbs 21:20

Austin City Hall -- The Travis County Taxpayers Union held a press conference this morning to discuss a better alternative to the current proposed playground for 1200 rich downtown lawyers:



Highlights:

• Travis County never seriously considered other alternatives.

• The only way to produce an alternative is to defeat this bond.

• "Bonds equal taxes, bonds equal rent increases."

• Travis County lying about the size of the tax increase.
• County figures doesn't included NON-VOTER APPROVED debt county used to "purchase" current proposed site.

• Building on the East Side would cost 25-50% less.
• Surface parking vs underground parking alone.

• East side location more accessible to county's poorest residents than downtown.

• East Austin has been promised various public facilities for five decades, it's time to deliver.

TCTU press release:

2015-10-13 TCTU

Double Standards: "Interfering" in Another Governmental Entity

"Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."
Matthew 7:5

One of the more obnoxious criticism's we've heard concerning the current Travis County courthouse bond campaign is the notion that Austin City Council members Houston and Zimmerman should "butt out" of issues concerning another governmental entity.  This was a major argument during the City Council hearing last month.  We've also seen this point made on social media.

In that spirit, consider how Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt and Austin Mayor Steve Adler spent their morning:

Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt, wading into the volatile debate over immigration, blasted state Republican leaders for blocking President Obama’s executive order that would allow millions of undocumented immigrants to avoid deportation.

The state’s lawsuit, which stopped Obama’s controversial “deferred action” order earlier this year, has become a major flashpoint between Democrats and Republicans ahead of the 2016 elections.

Appearing on stage with undocumented immigrants at the offices of the Workers Defense Project, Adler called on Gov. Greg Abbott to “meet with the immigrant families in our community and in our state to understand the harm that this lawsuit is causing these families."

“I urge these state leaders to drop opposition to these federal programs because of the benefits they can provide to our local communities,” Adler said. Eckhardt said the lawsuit was being waged by “those who wish to play politics with peoples’ lives” and declared that Travis County’s “economic success was built on immigration.”

Abbott filed the lawsuit against the Obama administration while he was still serving as attorney general, and his successor, Ken Paxton, has continued the fight. Both men are Republicans. Adler and Eckhardt are Democrats.

In other words, it's ok for local officials to "butt in" on national issues where they will have absolutely NO impact, but woe unto the local elected official who interferes with a corrupt scheme to build a playground for 1200 rich downtown lawyers.

Bottom Line: Mayor Adler and Judge Eckhardt have every right to express their opinion, we just wish the political class would extend the same courtesy to council members Houston and Zimmerman.

Gerald Daugherty's ASTONISHINGLY large pro-Courthouse Donation

"For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,"
Hebrews 10:26

The pro-Courthouse bond committee's 30-day campaign finance report is very revealing.

Gerald Daugherty is the only Republican on the Travis County Commissioner's Court (Page 9):

By Comparison, Daugherty's fellow Commissioner's Court member, County Judge Sarah Eckhardt (Page 10):

It's worth noting that the other three members of the Travis County Commissioner's Court (Ron Davis, Margaret Gomez, and Brigid Shea), to their credit, haven't given the pro-Courthouse committee a dime.  Eckhardt's donation appears to be a token effort.  In other words, Daugherty has donated literally TWENTY TIMES what the other four commissioners have donated COMBINED.

Next, let's compare Daugherty's donation to other well known figures around Travis County.

Former Austin City Council District 10 candidate (and Planned Parenthood Board Member) Mandy Dealy (Page 9):
:

University of Texas Regent David Beck (yes, THAT David Beck) (Page 5):

Disgraced Former University of Texas President Bill Powers (Page 16):

The total for those other four donations is $475.

Bottom Line: For Gerald Daugherty to have given more money to the pro-Courthouse committee than Sarah Eckhardt, Mandy Dealy, David Beck, and Bill Powers COMBINED is incredibly disappointing...but it's also something we needed to know.

Travis County Courthouse proposal would create "dead zone" after 5pm

"There is desirable treasure,
And oil in the dwelling of the wise,
But a foolish man squanders it."
Proverbs 21:20

This courthouse campaign has been a fascinating process.  While the cost of this bond was what originally caught our attention, we completely agree with the concerns others have expressed regarding parking and access for residents of the east side.  We just learned about another objection to the current proposal we hadn't considered.

According to Austin towers, a local real estate blog, the current proposal would create a "dead zone" in the evening:

During a community forum hosted by AURA in July, Judge Shepperd talked about keeping the space “alive after five.” Keep Austin Wonky indicated that Judge Shepperd said it is a priority.

Hat tip to Judge Shepperd for this comment. Can we now get some specifics?

We need only look to the federal courthouse on any given night. The thing is a mausoleum after the last gavel of the day slams.

At the time, the federal courthouse made sense. It erased a community embarrassment. But a dead building in Austin is not acceptable. Downtown Austin distinguishes our collective piece of dirt from every other post-WW2 American piece of dirt.

I’m pleased by Judge Shepperd’s comments; however, the community deserves more than a Judge voicing his opinion at a community event. The proposal from the Commissioners Court needs to include specific promises, and details on how those promises will be upheld, regarding how it will keep the courthouse “alive after five.”

....

It would be a shame if the courthouse is approved, only to box in Republic Square Park on another side with another nine-to-five security apparatus and five-to-nine mausoleum.

Lets encourage Judge Eckhardt and Judge Shepperd to start detailing how they will keep this space alive after five, and woven into the community fabric. The vast majority of Central Texans will never step foot into this proposed public building, and for them the missing details – how this proposal really fits with its surroundings – are the most important details of the entire Courthouse proposal.

Bottom Line: It takes a truly AWFUL proposal to create this many reasonable objections...congratulations Travis County!!!

Travis County receives FIERCE pushback on Courthouse

Commissioner Gerald Daugherty (R - Western Travis County)

"There is desirable treasure,
And oil in the dwelling of the wise,
But a foolish man squanders it."
Proverbs 21:20

Travis County Commissioners Court -- Commissioner Gerald Daugherty, the only Republican on the Travis County Commissioners court, held a forum with the Travis County Taxpayers Union to discuss the proposed Courthouse bond this afternoon.  Daugherty, who supports the bond, repeated the company line about the current aging Courthouse that no one disputes.  The presentation was, to put it mildly, greeted with skepticism.

Belinda Powell, a county bureaucrat, handled the bulk of the presentation, she was assisted by Matias Segurra, an outside consultant with AECOM.

The most notable claim the county made was that the current proposal is a "design, build" project.  This means that everything we're hearing before the vote is a "concept" but we won't know the final plan until construction begins. Council member Don Zimmerman got the county to admit the ballot language was impossibly vague.  The county attributed that to a need for "flexibility."  Essentially, we have to pass the bond to find out what's in it.

The primary objections dealt with the issue of parking.  Former Austin City Council candidate Bill Worsham got the county admitted the new courthouse won't have sufficient parking to cover peak usage.  Several African-American residents of East Austin bemoaned the cost of parking downtown.  They were unpersuaded by the county's discussion of the bus routes available downtown.  One elderly gentleman explained that it was insulting to expect people who live in the outer reaches of the city to take the bus for two hours (each way) to reach downtown instead of building a facility with adequate parking.

Two of the (Democrat) candidates for the open seat in Precinct 1, Richard Franklin and Arthur Sampson, attended; both oppose the current proposal.

The bonds would have a duration of 20 years and the county currently has $695 million in debt outstanding.

Bottom Line: Today's presentation doesn't change the fact that current Courthouse proposal would produce a traffic nightmare, doesn't have NEARLY enough parking, and would make Austin's affordability issues worse.

#TBT: When the last Travis County Courthouse went over budget

"There is desirable treasure,
And oil in the dwelling of the wise,
But a foolish man squanders it."
Proverbs 21:20

From an Austin Chronicle article about the 2002 Travis County Commissioner's Court races:

You might think that running for re-election to the Travis County Commissioners Court is harder than it really is. During the last four years, on the PR front, the courthouse has been an ugly place -- at least by the conventional aesthetic and moral standards we apply to politics. Would you want to be an incumbent explaining to constituents why Travis Co. taxes, which just went up again, are among the highest in the state? Why the new Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center was $23 million over budget? Why the county now has to pay $2.3 million to the Blackwell-Thurman contractor? Why the Travis Co. Jail was out of compliance with state standards for a decade?

[Author's Note: Emphasis added.]

Read the whole thing here.

The case AGAINST the Travis County Courthouse

"There is desirable treasure,
And oil in the dwelling of the wise,
But a foolish man squanders it."
Proverbs 21:20

We spoke at last night's Texans for Accountable Government meeting about the current Travis County Courthouse bond proposal; it's a good summary of the absurdity of the current proposal and why it wouldn't be difficult to devise a better alternative:



Highlights:

• Election Day: Nov. 3.  Early voting begins: October 19th.  On the same ballot as the State of Texas constitutional amendments.

• At a BARE MINIMUM, they're telling us this proposal will cost $287 MILLION
• The Austonian, by contrast, only cost $250 million.
• For those keeping score at home, that means a 56 story luxury condo development cost less than this proposed 14 story building.

• Between interest and the inevitable cost overruns that ALWAYS accompany government construction projects such as this one, a final price tag between $400 and $600 million seems unfortunately plausible.
• The new Austin library, for example, has exceeded it's estimated cost by approximately 50%

• Being built on prime-real estate downtown, which would be a logistical nightmare that would put more cars on an already overburdened downtown road system.

• Making matters worse, because this is a government building, it means that people will be coming and going at 9AM and 5PM.
• Not only more cars, but more cars during the worst part of the rush hour bottleneck.

• Houston/Zimmerman alternative: Put the Courthouse on the East Side.
• Less expensive to build out than up.
• More parking, fewer cars downtown.
• Easier to reach for anyone in Travis County who isn't already downtown.
• Possible economic development value in the area.

• A lot of the solution to Austin's traffic problem could be to boot all the governmental facilities (state, county, city) over to the Eastern part of the county

Split Council gives Courthouse Alternative Bronx Cheer

Left to Right: Council members Pio Renteria, Ellen Troxclair, Kathy Tovo, Leslie Pool, Don Zimmerman, and Ora Houston

"There is desirable treasure,
And oil in the dwelling of the wise,
But a foolish man squanders it.
Proverbs 21:20

Austin City Hall -- In a disappointing development, Austin City Council member Ellen Troxclair (Southwest Austin) was unable to obtain a second in today's hearing in the Audit and Finance committee to forward an alternative County courthouse proposal to the full Council.



[Author's Note: Our testimony begins at the 7 minute mark.]

The proposal, by Council members Don Zimmerman (Far Northwest Austin) and Ora Houston (East Austin), would have directed the City Manager to find an alternative location from city owned property in East Austin.

Council member Houston discussed the potential for an alternative courthouse location to spur economic development in her district.  She advocated creating "alternative population centers" beyond downtown.  Going back to 2013, residents in Houston's district have asked why major governmental development needs to take place in a downtown area that is already severely congested.  Also, the cost of downtown parking is a serious hurdle her district's residents when they use the current courthouse.  Zimmerman explained common financial objections to the current proposal and mentioned that the city could collect $87 million in property tax revenue over the next 40 years from a mixed-use development on the current proposed courthouse location.

During public testimony, this author stuck to the logistical nightmare the current proposal entails.  As a governmental building where people come and go at 9AM and 5PM, a new courthouse 1.5 blocks from City Hall would deposit more cars on already gridlocked downtown streets during the worst of rush hour.  A mixed-use facility, by contrast, would have people coming and going throughout the day and wouldn't worsen the rush hour bottleneck.  We also pointed out that people who do business at the courthouse but don't have office space downtown hate the logistical nightmare of doing so.  Finally, we mentioned that if bus service to that part of town was insufficient, it was far easier to add bus service to East Austin than it would be to surmount the logistical nightmare the current proposal worsens.

A representative from the pro-Courthouse side spoke next.  She outlined the litany of complaints about the current courthouse that no one disputes.  Calling East Austin "the middle of nowhere," she said "the people's business belongs centrally [sic]."  She mentioned Gerald Daugherty, the Republican county commissioner whose support for this proposal has landed him in hot water.  Finally, the pro-courthouse representative appealed to bureaucratic solidarity with "a sister body," your "fellow governmental entity."

Council Member Houston took offense at the characterization of East Austin as "the middle of nowhere."  She chastised the pro-Courthouse representative: "thank you for telling us what's best for us."  She also said that Travis County had yet to respond to request she'd made for information on the current proposal.  Council member Houston got the pro-Courthouse representative to admit between one-third and 40% of the parking at the new facility would go to Courthouse staff.  Finally, Council member Houston cited this author's point about the ease of redesigning bus routes favorably.

At this point, Council member Zimmerman pointed out that by building "out" instead of "up," an East Austin courthouse would cost between one-third and half of the downtown proposal.

Local activist David King closed public testimony by calling the alternative proposal a "GREAT" idea: "if we're serious about equity, this is our opportunity."

In response to public testimony, Council Member Pio Renteria (Southeast Austin) said he couldn't support the alternative proposal unless the county were to move all the county offices along with the Courthouse.  Council members Kathy Tovo (Central Austin) and Leslie Pool (North Central Austin) echoed the pro-Courthouse representative's bureaucratic solidarity argument.  When Council member Troxclair attempted to forward the resolution to the full council, she couldn't find a second.

Bottom Line: While the resolution was unsuccessful, today's hearing highlighted public interest in a better alternative to the current proposal.  Rather than a playground for rich downtown lawyers on prime real estate, Travis County needs a courthouse for everyone.  Public demand exists.

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Highlighting the logistical nightmare of the current proposal, within two minutes and half-a-block of City Hall, we saw this:

Travis County Republicans promote Hispanic Educational Opportunity

"Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go;
Keep her, for she is your life."
Proverbs 4:13

East Austin College Prep Academy -- Last Saturday, the Travis County Republican Party co-sponsored an event promoting educational choice and opportunity in East Austin.  Hundreds of parents, the overwhelming majority of whom were Hispanic, learned about new options within the current system and during the current legislative session.  Highlights can be seen below:

TCRP Chairman James Dickey:



Highlights:

• "No one cares more about your child's education than you."

• You have a lot of choices right now.
• eg. Charters vs. government schools.

• "As you make these choices, we here at the Travis County Republican Party ... will work to make sure you have even more choices."

Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty (R -- Precinct 3):



Highlights:

• Too often we like to separate communities.

• The most important component of education is parents.

• It's the parents who really make the difference.