Council Member Randi Shade has filed an ethics complaint against her Place 3 challenger Kathie Tovo, alleging that Tovo violated the city’s Fair Campaign Ordinance. The city’s Ethics Review Commission has called a special meeting for Friday afternoon to consider…

On Friday, as he gives his State of the City address, Mayor Lee Leffingwell will formally endorse preparations for what he says “could be the most pivotal election in a generation” in November 2012.   If Leffingwell can convince a…

City Clerk Shirley Gentry said Thursday the city has 80 boxes of records from the offices of former Mayor Will Wynn and former Council Member Brewster McCracken. Somewhere within those 80 boxes there might be records County Attorney David Escamilla…

Over the course of the 30 years that this writer has been watching Austin city politics, there has been no Council that failed to meet together in groups of two or three at various times to discuss their opinions and…

As media outlets reported Monday that Mayor Lee Leffingwell plans to submit the question of single-member districts to voters once again, this time in 2012, at least two unaffiliated groups jumped on the bandwagon.   The story, initially reported in…

After hearing from numerous opponents of Water Treatment Plant 4, Council voted 4-3 late Thursday night to allow Austin Water Utility to use part of the Bull Creek Greenbelt for a permanent retrieval shaft, subterranean tunnel and staging area for…

Under pressure from City Manager Marc Ott over legal advice related to the release of a report on the shooting death of Nathaniel Sanders, City Attorney David Smith announced his decision to retire on Wednesday. Smith, who became City Attorney…

The criminals who caused a huge sewage spill over the Edwards Aquifer near Circle C this weekend may have had even bigger plans. In addition to prying off a manhole cover and stuffing enough debris into the 15-inch line to…