The city of Austin joined the “New Plastics Economy Global Commitment” yesterday. What’s that? According to a press release about Austin’s onboarding, it’s “an initiative led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment). The Global Commitment aims to create ‘a new normal’ for plastic packaging by fundamentally rethinking the way we make, use and reuse plastic materials.” Austin joins 290 other organizations (brands, companies and governments) in a quest to eliminate problem and unnecessary plastic and work to ensure all plastic can be reused, recycled or composted by 2025. “I was proud to sign onto the Global Commitment on behalf of the City of Austin,” said Mayor Adler. “Our great city has a long history of proving that environmental protection and a prosperous economy are not at odds. Austin is excited to join forces with other leaders around the world who are united by a common vision of keeping plastics in the economy and out of the environment.”

A push for answers about Austin’s recent water crisis is still on, though it will be delayed slightly. A resolution out of Council Member Ellen Troxclair’s office that aims to increase transparency around the crisis received some fast support on the City Council Message Board, but the idea of putting it on this week’s agenda did not. Council members Pio Renteria, Ann Kitchen and Jimmy Flannigan all expressed concern that prioritizing the resolution could draw staff time away from actually working on the ongoing water situation. (Flannigan added general concerns to the timing concerns, noting, “I appreciate the effort, and clearly hard questions will be asked and staff will be expected to answer them. However, I don’t see what this resolution accomplishes that the Manager’s office will not already be planning to do.”) In the end, co-sponsor Council Member Leslie Pool announced the new plan on the board: “I understand the resolution will now be posted on the November 15 agenda. I support the delay as it will give staff time to recuperate and more fully assess the water situation with a focus on future needs as we move toward implementing the Water Forward plan. I would also like us to address how we respond to dramatic weather events in the future, with a roadmap to resilience.”

Central Health’s board voted last week to approve negotiations that could lead to the opening of two new health clinics in areas of East Austin that have long been identified as lacking appropriate health care services. The unanimous approval will likely lead to ground leases for emergency service districts in Del Valle and Hornsby Bend. The two deals are for varying lengths and rental rates, with the Del Valle clinic planned to be built along with a new fire station while the Hornsby Bend area would at first be served by a temporary health center while Central Health works on finding a location for a permanent facility. The clinics would utilize a variety of Central Health partners including CommUnityCare and the University of Texas School of Nursing to provide health care services, which are estimated to account for 80 percent of the service calls to fire departments in those areas. The new clinics are expected to open in 2019.

Travis County voters continued to rack up impressive numbers in early vote totals this weekend, even though Sunday’s hours were abbreviated. On Saturday, 23,725 voters cast ballots and on Sunday another 12,530 voters expressed their preferences at early voting locations. In fact, the numbers are slightly higher than the number of ballots cast over the weekend during early voting for the 2016 presidential election. Together, about 4.6 percent of registered voters cast ballots during the two weekend days, bringing the total number of ballots cast so far to 218,411, which is nearly 28 percent of the county’s registered voters. Overall, in 2016 more than 51 percent of the county’s registered voters cast ballots early. The Randalls store at Research and Braker and the Randalls store at Brodie and Slaughter saw the most action this weekend. Early voting continues through Friday and election day is November 6. For more information, visit the Travis County clerk’s website.

The Planning Commission has been looking at ways to improve its meetings and keep the caseload at a reasonable amount. To that end, Commission Chair James Shieh has been working with city staff liaison Andrew Rivera to plan ahead and make adjustments the Thursday before meetings, and consider postponements. The commissioners have also been working to ask staff questions they have regarding cases prior to meetings in order to save time on the dais. At the Oct. 23 meeting, Commissioner Conor Kenny expressed his deep concern with the functional structure of the commission and joint subcommittees’ ability to send recommendations directly to Council, and Commissioner Patricia Seeger agreed, but noted that the purpose of their recent work was to revise the way they conduct meetings and not to make fundamental changes to the system. Rivera commented that bodies created by City Council could only be changed by Council.

Council Member Ellen Troxclair is moving forward with a resolution intended to launch an “open dialogue” with city staff about the recent water crisis, according to a post on the City Council Message Board. On Thursday, Troxclair wrote:

As our community finds itself in the midst of a declared disaster with respect to the state of our public water utility, I would first like to thank: the people of Austin for remaining calm and understanding throughout these past four days, and for making the necessary sacrifices to conserve water and helping to get us back on track to normalcy; our Austin Water staff who’ve been working around the clock on to get clean drinking water back to our residents and businesses; our City Manager for his handling of this unprecedented water service disruption, as well as all of our Emergency Operations Command partners.

While it is essential that we first get through this crisis, looking forward, I believe that the public deserves and would greatly benefit from an open dialogue with City and Water Management, examining what led to our present situation, what went right, what went wrong, and what we can do to be better prepared in the future. It’s important that we, as Austin’s elected officials, demonstrate leadership in working toward ensuring we never find ourselves in this situation again.

Troxclair aims to have the a resolution addressing the issue on next week’s Nov. 1 agenda, and Council Member Alison Alter has said she will co-sponsor the item.

The city of Austin has recently deployed technology that allows connected cars to communicate in real time with the traffic signal controller at five intersections in town, making it the first city in Texas to enter the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Signal Phasing and Timing (SPaT) Challenge through the National Operations Center of Excellence. Two more projects are planned to be completed in 2019. The tech, called dedicated short-range communication technology, is meant to increase pedestrian and vehicle safety. When installed on a traffic signal, the little devices “broadcast industry standard Basic Safety Messages in the immediate vicinity of the intersection to surrounding vehicles equipped with on-board units. The Basic Safety Messages indicate vehicle position, motion, brake system status and size, and provide vehicles with SPaT information as well as MAP data, which is used to illustrate intersection geometry using high-resolution formatting.” The federal goal for the challenge is “to achieve deployment of DSRC (dedicated short-range communications) infrastructure with SPaT broadcasts in at least one corridor or network (approximately 20 signalized intersections) in each of the 50 states by January 2020.” You can read more about the challenge at www.transportationops.org/spatchallenge. This map shows the locations of the intersections that have received or will be receiving the technology.

As of Thursday night, 18.92 percent of Travis County’s registered voters had cast ballots for the November election. Thursday’s voting continued the trend of strong voter turnout, with another 33,519 ballots cast, representing 4.27 percent of the county’s voters. The busiest location was the University of Texas’ Flawn Academic Center, where 1,611 people voted. Even the least popular site Thursday saw numbers in the triple digits, though – 225 people cast ballots at Del Valle Independent School District’s Administration Building. Early voting for the Nov. 6 election will continue through Nov. 2.

Traffic: It’s a growing problem in Austin, and much of it comes from people commuting to and from work. This is why the city created the Mayor’s Mobility Challenge to inspire business and community leaders to come up with creative ways to promote smarter mobility options for their employees. The program is now wrapping up its fourth year. This year’s class includes 20 participants:

• 3M
• Applied Materials
• Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce
• Flex LTD
• Four Seasons Hotel Austin
• General Motors
• Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce
• Greater Austin Black Chamber of Commerce
• Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• IBM
• Intercontinental Stephen F. Austin Hotel
• Kasasa
• PPD
• South by Southwest
• Texas Facilities Commission
• Texas Medical Association
• Texas State Preservation Board
• Tokyo Electron
• Whole Foods Market
• Winstead PC

The leaders will be honored at a Mobility Leadership Breakfast on Thursday, Nov. 8, 7:30-9 a.m., at CB’s at Stubb’s on Red River Street.

Austin Water spokesperson Emlea Chanslor said Wednesday that turbidity levels at the city’s three water treatment plants had dropped significantly. Turbidity refers to cloudiness and is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Just before the boil water notice was issued, the turbidity level at the city’s three plants was around 400. On Wednesday night, at the Handcox Plant, known as Water Treatment Plant 4, the number was below 100; at Ulrich, it was around 200; and at Davis, it was around 170. The normal turbidity level is just 5. Clearly the newer plant is doing a better job of clearing the silt in the Colorado River and making the water safe to drink. However, Austin Water wants its customers to know they should continue to conserve and to boil the water coming out of their taps until further notice.

Monday saw a groundswell of voting for the Nov. 6 election, with about 6 percent of Travis County’s registered voters casting early ballots. But former political consultant Peck Young, who serves as director of the Center for Public Policy and Political Studies at Austin Community College, said we should wait until we saw the vote on Tuesday and Wednesday before deciding that the election would actually be historic. On Tuesday 35,239 voters, or about 4.5 percent, voted, and on Wednesday the number was 31,961, or 4.08 percent, for a total by Wednesday night of 93,814 votes cast, or 14.58 percent of the county’s registered voters. It wasn’t that easy to vote on Wednesday either. With nearly continuous rain, voters holding umbrellas were observed standing in a long line outside the Randalls on Ben White Wednesday afternoon. At Austin Community College, more than 1,700 voters cast ballots on both Monday and Tuesday, but that number had dipped only slightly to 1,582 on Wednesday. More than 5,000 voters cast ballots at the University of Texas Flawn Academic Center, and 2,800 more voted at the Perry-Castañeda Library in the first three days.

While the water quality is getting better, the citywide boil water notice is still in effect, and is now mandatory: Water should be kept at a rolling boil for three minutes.

In addition, Austin Water has issued a reminder that the city is operating under emergency water conservation rules until further notice. Tips on how to conserve include:

• Avoid all outdoor water use and minimize indoor use immediately.

• Don’t use water for irrigation or testing of irrigation equipment.

• Don’t wash vehicles, including at commercial car wash facilities.

• Don’t wash pavement or other surfaces.

• Don’t add water to a pool or spa.

• Don’t conduct foundation watering.

• Don’t operate an ornamental fountain or pond, other than aeration necessary to support aquatic life.

Schools are providing water for student use. In addition, the city and county are providing free water for those with special needs, who need bottled water for work, or who are unable to boil water themselves. The water is available at five distribution sites, which are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.:

Walnut Creek Park (12138 N. Lamar Blvd.)
City of Austin Warehouse, formerly Home Depot (7211 N. Interstate 35)
Roy G. Guerrero Park (400 Grove Blvd.)
Onion Creek Soccer Complex (5600 E. William Cannon Dr.)
Dick Nichols Park (8011 Beckett Rd.)

Pickup is available in the driveway area of the locations. Supplies are limited to a gallon of water per person.

“We understand that this has had a significant impact on the community,” said City Manager Spencer Cronk in a press release. “As a result, we want to ensure that the basic needs of residents are being met. The most important thing for the community to do is to conserve water and to boil water for drinking and cooking.”