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City Hall
City issues first notices of intent to suspend in Repeat Offender Program
The city announced last week its first notices of intent to suspend in the Repeat Offender Program, which is designed to ensure that property owners or their agents keep their properties in compliance with Austin city code. The two properties…
The Code • By Nina Hernandez • Jul 6, 2020
City offered free DNA analysis of remains exhumed in Oakwood Cemetery chapel project
Years of analysis have revealed little information about the human remains of 36 bodies discovered buried beneath the Oakwood Cemetery Chapel in November 2016. Now a potential academic partnership between the Parks and Recreation Department and a biological anthropologist at the…
Austin • By Ryan Thornton • Jul 1, 2020
Council to review plan for St. Johns Home Depot project after July break
Six years ago, when City Council Member Greg Casar was knocking on thousands of District 4 doors campaigning for his current seat, one question came up time and time again. “People were asking, ‘What’s ever going to happen to the…
City Council • By Nina Hernandez • Jul 1, 2020
Bee Cave Council member sues over removal
A member of the Bee Cave City Council who was removed from office on June 17, five weeks after being sworn in for a two-year term, filed suit against the city as well as the mayor and Council members who…
City Hall • By Jo Clifton • Jun 30, 2020
What $100M from the APD budget looks like
In response to pressure from activists to defund the Austin Police Department, City Council unanimously approved a series of reforms to APD operations, including a resolution that asks for deep cuts to the public safety budget. The Austin Justice Coalition…
Budget • By Savana Dunning • Jun 29, 2020
Arts Commission shifts deepest funding cuts away from minority groups
Racial minority groups will be spared the deepest cuts in Cultural Arts contract funding in the next budget, if the recent recommendation of the Arts Commission is supported by City Council. On Friday the commission approved a funding matrix for…
Budget • By Chad Swiatecki • Jun 29, 2020
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With virus surging, Cronk revises return-to-work plan
City Manager Spencer Cronk announced Thursday that he was postponing reintegrating city employees back into the workplace for a month due to concerns about the increase in Covid-19 cases. Instead of starting on June 29, the first phase is now…
City Hall • By Jo Clifton • Jun 26, 2020
Housing, Planning & Zoning departments to merge
Under a plan proposed by Assistant City Manager Rodney Gonzales Thursday, the city’s Planning and Zoning Department would be merged with the Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Department in the 2020-21 fiscal year, which starts in October. The new department’s…
City Hall • By Jo Clifton • Jun 26, 2020
Arts Commission to decide on next year's funding, with deep cuts for all
Arts groups that have received contracts from the city’s Cultural Arts office in recent years will likely see significant decreases next year, with some groups in line to lose more than half of the funding they received in their most…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Jun 25, 2020
Capital Metro prepares a budget for recession, another for quick recovery
With the economy in recession and regional unemployment high, the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is preparing to keep spending flat next fiscal year, equal to this fiscal year’s $403.7 million budget, in the event that revenue sources don’t see a…
Budget • By Ryan Thornton • Jun 24, 2020
Former Council Member Berl Handcox, who broke the color barrier, dies at 88
Berl Handcox, Austin’s first elected African American City Council member since Reconstruction, has died at the age of 88. Handcox was elected as part of the seven-member Council on May 1, 1971, and reelected on April 7, 1973. He received…
City Council • By Jo Clifton • Jun 23, 2020
New working group eyes town centers to solve affordability pressures
A new working group from four of the city’s commissions hopes to identify ways that the town center planning concept spelled out in Imagine Austin could be used to combat affordability issues driving veterans, artists and other vulnerable populations out…
