City Council has an official offer for incoming City Manager Spencer Cronk. According to a post by Mayor Steve Adler on the City Council Message Board, Council will vote Thursday on offering Cronk a base annual salary of $325,000 and annual executive allowance of $7,200. In addition, Cronk may be extended a housing allowance of $4,500 per month for six months, in order to defray costs of a temporary residence. On Thursday, Council will also vote to officially appoint Cronk as city manager, a position which Elaine Hart has filled on an interim basis for more than a year.

At the special called Jan. 30 Zoning and Platting Commission meeting, Chair Jolene Kiolbassa shared an email from staff liaison Andrew Rivera with her colleagues. The email said that the joint land use commission meetings that have been held since the end of 2016 to review the CodeNEXT drafts, which have to date been chaired alternatively by Kiolbassa and Planning Commission Chair Stephen Oliver, would now only be chaired by Oliver unless the commissions decide to elect a special joint chair. Rivera, who told the Austin Monitor he was relaying a higher-up decision from CodeNEXT staff, cited the city charter section that states that City Council only requires a recommendation from the Planning Commission, not ZAP, on a code rewrite. ZAP Commissioner Jim Duncan lamented the clarification, saying that it distracts from the review and instead entangles the land use commissions into a “jurisdictional pissing match.”

The headline of this whisper has been changed

The approval of the contract for a new CEO and president wasn’t the only leadership decision the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors faced at its first meeting of the year on Monday. As happens every January, the board appointed its officers, this time returning Chair Wade Cooper to his seat. Additionally, board Secretary Juli Word kept her gig, and Vice Chair Delia Garza secured her first full term in that position, which she took over after former board member Beverly Silas resigned last year. The board also returned member Terry Mitchell to his chairmanship of its Finance, Audit and Administration Committee and Manor Mayor Rita Jonse was elevated to the top of the Operations and Planning Committee, a role she has held on an interim basis following Silas’ departure. Finally, the board also filled two of three vacancies on the Customer Satisfaction Advisory Committee. Lin Rui Li, nominated by Garza, and Elizabeth Stiehl, nominated by Cooper, will put the nine-person body one person shy of a full roster and render Mitchell the only board member without an appointee on it.

The Champion tract at 6409 City Park Road is once again on Thursday’s City Council agenda, and it is still causing problems for staff. At its last meeting in December, Council directed staff to take the proposed amendment to the settlement agreement to the city’s Environmental Commission. It asked the commission to weigh in on the question of whether the new proposal was environmentally superior to the agreement the city reached with the Champion sisters in 1996. The commissioners said that they could not find it environmentally superior, even though staff has argued that it is better than the previous plan. Council Member Alison Alter seemed quite annoyed when she pointed out at Tuesday’s work session that staff had failed to add that recommendation to the backup for that agenda item, even though Council had specifically requested the commission’s opinion. Alter passed out the recommendation to her fellow Council members so they now have it. She also requested that the item not come up before 2 p.m. on Thursday, and Mayor Steve Adler assured her that it would not. However, the Austin Monitor has learned that the zoning case for another Champion tract, where the developer has proposed self-storage units, will be postponed.

According to a January 29 memo from Interim City Manager Elaine Hart to City Council, the Austin Police Association is ready to resume contract negotiations. To be precise, a January 26 letter from APA President Ken Casaday explains the union has selected its meet and confer team and “will be ready to return to the bargaining table whenever the City of Austin has selected its meet and confer team, and the City of Austin is in a position to make substantive proposals, both economic and non-economic.” In December, City Council unanimously voted against the police contract that was on the table and the city and Police Department are currently operating without a labor agreement, under the provisions of the Texas civil service statute. Casaday’s letter continues, “(APA) recognizes that the time needed to reach a new agreement is unknown at this time, however, we would hope that the Mayor and Council do not reduce the pay and benefits of its officers during the meet and confer process as has been the practice of the City when there was no agreement with fire fighters or EMS employees.”

Nuria Zaragoza, who has served on the Planning Commission as Council Member Laura Morrison’s appointee, and for the last three years as Council Member Leslie Pool’s appointee, is stepping down. Pool praised Zaragoza, saying, “It was important to me when I was first elected to get somebody really good for the Planning Commission.” She said it was especially important to her to have Zaragoza’s institutional knowledge of city planning. Pool said she would recommend that the Council appoint Todd Shaw to take the position on Thursday. Shaw lives in Allandale, and has been a CodeNEXT ambassador in District 7, Pool said. She explained that he recently retired from Austin Energy, “and he dove into the CodeNEXT mire and did an excellent job of explaining it to the neighbors – helping us with town hall organization because the city hasn’t done much as far as communications on CodeNEXT. So we’ve been doing it ourselves.” Pool said she really appreciated Zaragoza’s service but understands why she wants to take a break.

Michael McGill, who served as an aide to Sheryl Cole when she was mayor pro tem, has joined Mayor Steve Adler’s team. He joined the Office of the City Auditor in January 2015 and has worked there as a senior auditor for the past three years. On Monday, his first day in the mayor’s office, McGill said he did not yet have a list of all of his new duties. However, his new title is senior policy advisor, which was Amy Everhart’s title before she quit to take a job with the Austin Board of Realtors at the end of December. So presumably he will pick up many of her duties.

The preliminary results are in for a Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District dye study of Onion Creek in Dripping Springs, and they show a connection to the Trinity Aquifer. A press release from Protect Our Water explains that the pink dye used to trace the water’s path found its way to an area home, and “the connection of Onion Creek surface water flowing into local groundwater supplies is now clearly established. … The dye tracing test confirms that Onion Creek surface water recharges the Trinity Aquifer through its fractured rock-bottom creek bed.” The larger implication of the test, of course, is that a hotly contested permit that would allow Dripping Springs to discharge up to 995,000 gallons of treated wastewater per day into the Onion Creek watershed would also connect to the aquifer. Dripping Springs Mayor Todd Purcell also released a statement on the preliminary results. It reads, in part, “The City Council has always been and remains committed to protecting the water supply, including our drinking water. … The information we have is that three private wells have shown traces of dye from the study. If these results are accurate, this is of concern to me as these wells are being impacted TODAY by the water in Onion Creek. My family has property on Onion Creek. My parents drink from a well located on that property. I am familiar with the creek and would not drink that water, so I have great concern about the three wells and any others that may be being impacted by the creek today. Keep in mind, runoff water goes into the creek, and that runoff water contains pesticides, petroleum products, fertilizers and animal waste. If there is a direct connection, I am concerned that those wells are not safe as they are currently being used. I am interested, and the Council is too, in better understanding the Preliminary Dye Trace Results and figuring out what actions we may need to take in response.” In December, the Austin City Council rejected a proposed settlement over the permit, which continues to be contested at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Austin Public Health has been collecting input on how to better provide services at the downtown Austin Resource Center for the Homeless. The final interactive community forum is next Monday, Feb. 5, from 1 to 3 p.m., in the Council Chambers at City Hall. It will begin with a presentation by Acting Public Health Assistant Director Adrienne Sturrup about the support ARCH has provided over the years to adults experiencing homelessness in Austin and Travis County. Contact ARCHideas@austintexas.gov or call 512-972-5027 for more information.

The Austin Chamber of Commerce released a position statement on the paid sick leave ordinance on Friday, and it is asking for more time. The statement elaborates, “While mandated paid sick leave has been broadly discussed since Labor Day, a draft ordinance was not made public until less than a week ago. An Austin City Council vote has been called to occur just 19 business days later. The whole process is being unnecessarily rushed despite its potential impact on 30,000 Austin businesses. We respectfully request that Austin City Council contract with an unbiased, third-party local research institution to use local data and determine the cost to employers and government for implementing the proposed ordinance. The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors is opposed to this ordinance if the Council does not contract for an appropriate independent study and does not provide the public 90 days to give feedback before they take a vote. At such point, the Chamber Board will be in a position to make an informed decision on this important issue.” It continues, “The Chamber Board noted that the current draft ordinance doesn’t utilize Austin-specific data to determine the actual number of employed Austinites who lack access to paid sick leave. As currently drafted, the City of Austin would not be subject to its own ordinance. The draft ordinance doesn’t include an economic impact analysis. It doesn’t identify how the administrative cost and burden will impact young Austinites seeking internships, small and local employers, and charitable and not-for-profit organizations. It also doesn’t include an analysis of the cost to taxpayers for a City of Austin rollout, oversight and compliance. In summary, this current proposal has unintended and unknown impact.” At the moment, Council is scheduled to vote on the ordinance on Feb. 15. The draft ordinance is available online here.

Council Member Greg Casar, who sponsored the resolution to create the new ordinance, told the Monitor that he intends to bring the item to a vote on February 15. He pointed out that date was established at his Labor Day announcement about the ordinance and has been reiterated ever since: at the September 28 City Council meeting, every public stakeholder meeting, the December City Council meeting and in much of the media coverage about the proposal.

This Wednesday, the Austin Public Health Department’s Youth Career Fest, hosted by the Austin Youth Council, will provide over 2,000 Austin-area high school students with a unique chance to explore their career options. The conference features over 150 booths from a diverse cross-section of industries across the city, such as St. David’s HealthCare, the Austin Chamber of Commerce and KLRU, where representatives will provide information and firsthand knowledge about their careers to attendees. In addition to the workforce vendors, Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services is bringing an ambulance, motorcycle and life-saving equipment; the Circuit of the Americas is displaying a Formula One show car; and DroneSense will be showing off some drones. Keynote speakers include Tamara Atkinson, CEO of Workforce Solutions Capital Area; Morgan Craven from Texas Appleseed; and Morgan Hendrix from Alamo Drafthouse. The fifth annual Youth Career Fest is Jan. 31, 9 a.m. to noon, at the Palmer Events Center. Call Dr. Chiquita Eugene at 512-972-5004 for more information.

In November, City Council approved a resolution aimed at establishing a “Family Homestead Initiative.” That initiative, basically, is an attempt to make residential projects for Austin homeowners a little bit easier in terms of things like permitting and streamlining the process. At the time, Council hoped to have a preliminary proposal before them at this week’s work session. However, a memo from Development Services Director Rodney Gonzales explains that staff needs a little more time. At the moment, it looks like that presentation will take place sometime after March.