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Jo Clifton is the Politics Editor for the Austin Monitor.
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Most Popular Stories
- Office slowdown sparks new downtown housing ambitions
- Parks Board recommends vendor for Zilker Café, while voicing concerns about lack of local presence
- City leaders evaluate surprising ideas for water conservation
- Audit: Economic official granted arts, music funding against city code
- Downtown Historic Resource Survey eyes seven new districts eligible for designation
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Stories by Jo Clifton
City watching bills that would cut its authority
As has been the case for several sessions, Austin is facing numerous challenges as the Texas Legislature begins to do its business. Due to Covid, this session will present new challenges, not just for city advocates, but for members and…
Texas State Legislature • By Jo Clifton • Jan 26, 2021
Small group funding push for strong mayor
Andrew Allison, founder and treasurer of the political action committee seeking to replace Austin’s Council-manager form of government with a strong-mayor system, has contributed $25,000 to the committee and loaned it $92,000, according to documents filed with the Austin city…
Local Politics • By Jo Clifton • Jan 21, 2021
Consumer advocate seeks audit of Austin Energy program
Consumer advocate Paul Robbins, who has argued for years that Austin Energy is wasting money and inadequately screening participants in its Customer Assistance Program, is asking City Auditor Corrie Stokes to audit the program for wasted expenditures. The program, which…
Energy • By Jo Clifton • Jan 20, 2021
Audit shows problems with city pagers
According to a report issued by the Office of the City Auditor, the city is not effectively managing many of the 1,600-plus pagers issued to city employees. The result, auditors say, is unnecessary spending and the possibility that the lack…
City Hall • By Jo Clifton • Jan 19, 2021
District attorney details civil rights cases
Travis County District Attorney José Garza released information Thursday related to every case against local police officers pending in the office’s Civil Rights Unit. The information involves cases such as the deaths of Javier Ambler in March 2019 and Michael…
Public Safety • By Jo Clifton • Jan 15, 2021
Austin firefighters donate to protect pensions
The political action committee for Austin firefighters was busy the last month of 2020, donating more than $50,000 to Texas lawmakers. Their donations included $10,000 to Rep. Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont), who was elected Tuesday to be speaker of the Texas…
Fire • By Jo Clifton • Jan 13, 2021
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Groups ready to battle over strong mayor
The group Austinites for Progressive Reform, which wants to replace Austin’s council-manager form of government with a strong mayor form of governance, submitted 24,000 signatures to City Clerk Jannette Goodall on Monday in an effort to place four charter amendments on…
City Charter • By Jo Clifton • Jan 12, 2021
Covid impacted Austin parks concessions
Like many other enterprises, concessions operating in Zilker Park and along Lady Bird Lake suffered various financial impacts last year due to Covid-19, according to a report from the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. Gross sales generated by Town Lake Park concessions fell…
Parks • By Jo Clifton • Jan 11, 2021
Mayor Steve Adler: Reflections on a challenging year
At the start of 2020, Mayor Steve Adler was thinking about how to convince his colleagues to pass a new Land Development Code and how to convince the public to vote for a $7 billion mass transit bond proposal in…
City Council • By Jo Clifton • Jan 8, 2021
Alison Alter: 'Excited to begin again in 2021'
While 2020 was a challenging year for every member of the Austin City Council, it was particularly challenging for District 10’s Alison Alter and District 6’s Jimmy Flannigan, who had to defend their seats in the purple areas of the…
City Council • By Jo Clifton • Jan 7, 2021
Leslie Pool: Governing not for the faint of heart
The year 2020 has been a stressful year for almost everyone. For those considering running for a seat on City Council at some point in time, District 7 Council Member Leslie Pool has some advice. As she told the Austin…
City Council • By Jo Clifton • Jan 6, 2021
Greg Casar: 2020 was the 'hardest year'
“I was wrong,” Council Member Greg Casar said. He was recalling his observations of 2017, the first year of the Trump presidency. At the time, he’d called it “a hellish year” – but that was before he knew what a…
