Assistant City Attorney Lynn Carter reported to the City Council Audit and Finance Committee on Wednesday that the city had a total of 123 registered lobbyists, including business entities and individuals, as of Dec. 31, 2017. This is the highest number of registered lobbyists the city has recorded since Council started requiring the city attorney’s office to report on such registration, Carter said. (The Austin Monitor‘s predecessor, In Fact Daily, reported in 2013 that 58 lobbyists had registered with the city and that 60 lobbyists were registered in 2010.) Carter also told the committee that compliance had improved substantially since last year, with only four individual lobbyists failing to submit a quarterly activity report for the final quarter of 2017 by Jan. 10, 2018. All of those individuals did eventually file those reports, Carter said. Last year there was an argument going on between 19 lobbyists who are also attorneys about reporting the range of compensation they were receiving from their lobby clients. Another attorney, Fred Lewis, filed a complaint with the city’s Ethics Review Commission about that failure, but between the filing of the complaint in November 2017 and Feb. 7, 2018, each of the 19 respondents to the complaints had either filed corrected reports or otherwise resolved the allegations, according to Carter’s report. As a result, the complaints at the commission were dismissed.

City Council is scheduled to vote to honor Pat Crow, one of the most victorious campaign managers in Austin and Travis County history, at Thursday’s Council meeting. Crow passed away on May 1, 2017, after suffering two strokes. But before her illness, she was instrumental in winning 28 out of 32 political campaigns including the Save Our Springs Initiative in 1992, the creation of the Travis County Hospital District in 2004 and the smoking ban in 2005. Council will name the plaza at 10th and Congress next to the Old Bakery and Emporium building the “Pat Crow Memorial Plaza.” If all goes as planned, the Council vote will take place around 4:30 p.m. and a reception will follow at 5:30 p.m. In a note to friends and supporters, Barbara Rush, Crow’s sister, said, “It’s exactly what Pat would love, her very own plaza on Congress, next to the Old Bakery & Emporium – close to the Paramount and to the Capitol (so she can kick some behinds)!” In addition to helping elect numerous judges, Crow was instrumental in the election of Travis County’s first openly gay legislator as well as the first African-American woman to serve as a district judge in Travis County. The Old Bakery and Emporium Guild’s advisory board voted unanimously to support the naming on April 11. Those sponsoring the resolution to name the plaza after Crow include Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo and Council members Ann Kitchen, Leslie Pool, Ora Houston and Delia Garza.

Precourt Sports Ventures, the ownership group trying to relocate a Major League Soccer franchise to Austin, has selected a pair of community relations consultants to lead the feedback and engagement process with Austin residents as the group moves forward with an attempt to build a permanent soccer stadium here. Kelan Robinson, an Austin native with a professional career in law and politics, and Gissela SantaCruz, a longtime journalist and former member of the Austin American-Statesman‘s editorial board, will coordinate the company’s end of public engagement efforts. The city of Austin is expected to take the lead role in planning and directing the engagement process, with events expected to be announced in the coming weeks. Currently city staff are working on a study of the benefits, logistics and drawbacks of building the proposed 20,000-seat stadium at McKalla Place, a piece of city-owned property located near the Domain.

The Austin Independent School District is ready for the second round of Budget Community Conversations. These meetings provide the public with a window into the preliminary Fiscal Year 2018-19 budget development process, proposals and plans for future stabilization, as well as an opportunity to comment. The first of the four meetings is tonight from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Leadership Austin Office at 1609 Shoal Creek Blvd. It will be hosted by the Austin Young Chamber and will include a broader introduction to the history of the budget and its deficit than the other meetings. The schedule for the next three conversations is as follows:

• 6-7 p.m. Thursday, April 26, Reagan Early College High School cafeteria
• 6-7 p.m. Wednesday, May 2, Ann Richards SYWL Library
• Noon-1 p.m. Friday, May 4, Baker Center cafeteria

Interested persons can read about feedback collected from the first series of talks here.

As part of the push to rename city streets and landmarks that pay homage to the Confederacy, City Council will vote Thursday to do away with Jeff Davis Avenue, in North Central Austin. The resolution, authored by Council Member Leslie Pool, proposes renaming the street after Will Holland, a former slave who fought in the Union Army and was later elected to the Texas House of Representatives and the Travis County Commissioners Court. He later became an education advocate and successfully lobbied the state to fund the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute for Colored Youth, which he later oversaw as superintendent. If Council approves the name change, city staff will undertake a process to alert all the residents on the street of the new name as well as a variety of public agencies, including the Police and Fire departments and the post office, which will continue to deliver mail that references the old street name to the newly named street.

An April 20 memo to the mayor and City Council from Capital Contracting Officer Rolando Fernandez shows that city staff is hard at work implementing a Council resolution that took aim at the border wall along the United States/Mexico border. Council approved the resolution in February, asking the city manager to investigate the economic impact of the proposed wall and require companies that have economic ties to the wall’s construction to disclose those ties with an eye toward using that information to make decisions. It will probably come as no surprise that a task force has been formed to explore the issue, and an initial report will be back at Council by August 7.

Today was the first day of early voting for the Travis County Joint General and Special Election on May 5, and a smattering of residents showed up to mark the occasion. As of press time, the unofficial tally showed a total of 392 voters, 8 of whom voted at the Harbor at Lakeway mobile voting location. There were also 870 mail ballots received, for a grand total of 1,262 voters. The last day of early voting is Tuesday, May 1. The County Clerk’s Office has sample ballots here, which cover these local races in Cedar Park, Round Rock, Pflugerville, Lakeway, Bee Cave, Briarcliff, Lake Travis Independent School District, and several municipal utility districts.

Big Medium’s annual West Austin Studio Tour is happening May 12-13 and 19-20 this year. During WEST, studios within the boundaries west of I-35, east of MoPac Expressway, south of U.S. Highway 183, and North of William Cannon open their doors from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and members of the public are invited to visit with artists and learn about their works and creative process. Various “Pit Stops” – neighborhood businesses that have pledged a percentage of their profits to the the tour – provide chances for rest and refreshment along the way, and a party at the Lawn at Seaholm on May 10 from 7 to 10 p.m. will kick the whole thing off. View the participant list on Big Medium’s website here and volunteer openings here.

Missing the days of City Council committee overhauls? They may be upon us once again, according to this week’s Council agenda, but discussing the changes will most likely be put off until Thursday. That’s because Mayor Steve Adler will not be at today’s work session, and we assume his request to hold off will be honored. Adler also promises to post language that more clearly articulates Council’s intent in amending the city code concerning Council committees. Our understanding is that Council is looking for a little more flexibility in committee makeup after paring back the committee system that they expanded. Needless to say, we will tune in Thursday for all of the nitty-gritty details.

It’s crunch time for CodeNEXT, the proposed rewrite of the city’s Land Development Code. The city has mailed notification postcards inviting all residents to the public hearings that represent the last stage in the process before City Council votes on adoption of the proposed code rewrite. There will be two hearings that are run jointly by the Planning Commission and Zoning and Platting Commission followed by two Council hearings. Not sure what the dickens this is all about? The city’s CodeNEXT website and the Draft 3 Guide are great places to start. There are bike racks and free parking at all meeting locations, and all locations are served by public transit. An overview of the hearing schedule is as follows, but there is more detailed information on the postcard page:

• Joint Land Use Commissions Meeting #1: Saturday, April 28, 10 a.m., Dove Springs Recreation Center, 5801 Ainez Drive
• Joint Land Use Commissions Meeting #2: Tuesday, May 1, 4 p.m., Palmer Events Center, 900 Barton Springs Road
• City Council Meeting #1: Tuesday, May 29, 10 a.m., City Hall, 301 W. Second St.
• City Council Meeting #2: Saturday, June 2, 10 a.m., City Hall, 301 W. Second St.

Readers interested in increasing voter turnout (or potential voter turnout) in Travis County can train to be volunteer deputy registrars next week. Registrars can register people to vote and promote voter registration after a free one-hour training session at the Travis County Tax Office (5501 Airport Blvd.). No reservations are needed, and the next sessions take place on Tuesday, May 1, at 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. or Saturday, May 5, at 10:30 a.m. The deadline to register to vote for the Nov. 6 midterm election is Tuesday, Oct. 9.

St. David’s Foundation has announced a series of more than $1 million in grants to encourage access and health activities in Austin’s parks. In a partnership with the Austin Parks Foundation and the Trust for Public Land, the grants will pay for improvements at a variety of Austin parks locations, with individual projects coordinated through recipient nonprofits or community organizations. Among them:

• Austin Parks Foundation will make improvements at Butler Park, Edward Rendon Sr. Park at Festival Beach, Martin Neighborhood Pool and Parque Zaragoza
• Barton Springs Conservancy will renovate the bathhouse at Barton Springs Pool
• Downtown Austin Alliance and Austin Parks Foundation will begin programming events at Republic Square Park
• Pease District Conservancy will install equipment at Pease Park
• Shoal Creek Conservancy will implement a connectivity plan for Shoal Creek Trail
• Trail Foundation will install bilingual signage and maps on Butler Trail
• Waller Creek Conservancy will create physical activity training at Palm Park
• Keep Austin Beautiful will create recreation space at LBJ High School
• The Trust for Public Land will implement the Health Parks Plan for Travis, Bastrop and Caldwell counties