There’s only about a week left for Austinites to offer feedback to the Bond Election Advisory Task Force from the comfort of their own homes. The task force is currently seeking input on what residents would like to see on the 2018 bond package in order to make a recommendation to City Council. There are a couple of public meetings left on that topic. But there are also a couple of online tools that remain open until Dec. 8. So visit the online bond simulator and bond survey while you can, people.

In a long-studied response to Austin City Council’s Gender Equity Resolution, on Nov. 27 Commissioner Ashley Normand presented a comprehensive recommendation to improve long-term gender equity in Austin to the Human Rights Commission. “I went to the census survey and found some real disparities (between men and women),” said Normand. “I think that’s important that the data be broken down further.” She pointed to the Equity Office as a sign of improvement but said that when it comes to policy decisions, gender should be given priority in addition to race. “There are a lot of programs that are really great, but there is no one office that is looking at this systemically,” she noted. In an effort to make the original resolution passed by Council more robust, she suggested that Council appoint the Law Department to investigate and determine if some of the resolutions can be turned into ordinances “because there is not otherwise an affirmative equity action in place,” she said. The original resolution explores paid family leave, protection of employees’ right to express breast milk in the workplace, prohibition of salary history requests in connection with hiring, protection of family caregivers from employment discrimination, and protection of victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse, and stalking from discrimination in housing or employment. Normand also recommended that Council prioritize the current rape kit backlog at Austin Police Department. As of March 2017, there were still 1,700 kits left to be processed. She explained that a continued backlog will allow criminals to continue to commit crimes without repercussions. “What kills me is that rapists tend to be serial criminals,” she said. Commissioner Gary Brown noted that the Public Safety Commission is currently working on this backlog. Nevertheless, Normand insisted that more transparency was needed to effectively clear the outstanding kits through the lab. Chair Sareta Davis agreed with her observation, saying, “It’s a major crisis of public confidence, and it needs transparency.” The Human Rights Commission will reconvene in January, at which point it will vote on whether to pass Normand’s proposed recommendation.

Yesterday, the city announced that the downtown location of the Austin Municipal Court would be closing “effective immediately” and reopen on Friday. A press release from the city explained, “The Jaime Padron North Substation and the South Substation of the Municipal Court will both remain open. Additionally, the Downtown Austin Community Court will be open. All appearances and dockets at the Downtown Municipal Court for the remainder of today and for tomorrow will be rescheduled. Additionally, any fines, fees, or penalties due today or tomorrow will be extended until Friday. This closure is happening to facilitate emergency building maintenance. During this building closure, the ability to pay fines by phone will be unavailable. However, fines can still be paid online. Find information about a ticket or case and ways to pay fines at the Municipal Court’s website.” A city spokesperson told the Monitor that the city was being “cautious around some ongoing maintenance” and would know more tomorrow, after testing. As a reminder, “normal business hours” on Friday will be new operating hours.

The third open house for the Seaholm Waterfront Programming and Implementation Study is this Saturday, Dec. 2, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. This is the last in the series of open houses put on for the community by the Trail Foundation, Parks Foundation and Parks and Recreation Department. Information gained from the study will form the backbone for the planned renovation of the Seafront Waterfront area. This area includes three miles of shoreline along Lady Bird Lake, as well as the historic Seaholm Intake Structure, which is going to be completely overhauled to become a civic and public facility. The open house will include presentations of programming and design ideas for this space as well as ideas for trail, riverbank and water quality improvements. The event will take place at the Seaholm Intake Structure, 801 W. Cesar Chavez St. View the community engagement web page here to see materials from the previous two open houses.

Yesterday, the city announced that its fleet of Ford Explorers had begun its return to service, with 44 SUVs back on the road and 18 other vehicles currently being tested for a return. Following suspected carbon monoxide exposure, 439 city Explorers were taken off the roads. According to a press release from the city, the process of transitioning the remaining vehicles back into rotation “is expected to take a number of months” with each vehicle undergoing at least 20 hours of police testing, following repairs, before being returned to the roads. Ford has covered the cost of repairs and, according to yesterday’s press release, “The City of Austin’s Fleet Services department is reviewing its purchasing policies, in consultation with Austin Police Department, and has determined that the City will be moving forward with more diversity in the fleet.”

World AIDS Day has been on Dec. 1 every year since 1988 and provides an opportunity for our community to raise awareness, give support to those who are currently living with HIV or struggling with AIDS-related illness, and mourn those who lost the fight. There are currently 4,000 people living with HIV in Travis County. A vigilant commitment to protection and prevention is an important part of the fight against HIV infection. This Friday, Austin Public Health will be providing free testing for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases at two locations: Walgreens at 1144 Airport Blvd. from 5-9 p.m. and Midtown Live Sports Cafe at 7408 Cameron Road from 4-7 p.m. No appointment is needed.

Travis County is issuing a call for applications for two of its seats on the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority Board of Directors. The terms of both David Armbrust and Charles Heimsath will expire on Feb. 1, 2018. Per the county’s rules on incumbency, Armbrust faced a mandatory open call. Heimsath went through that process last year and was thus eligible for direct reappointment through a vote by the Commissioners Court. However, in July, the Texas Ethics Commission fined Heimsath $300 for not properly reporting properties and businesses he owned. Though he didn’t mention that fine at the Commissioners Court meeting on Tuesday, Commissioner Jeff Travillion moved to put Heimsath’s seat on the market along with Armbrust’s, an idea that was seconded by Commissioner Margaret Gómez. The motion passed on a 3-1 vote with Commissioner Gerald Daugherty voting against it and Commissioner Brigid Shea absent from the meeting. Both Heimsath and Armbrust are allowed to reapply for their seats and both have indicated their intent to do so. The deadline for applications for the powerful transportation body known primarily for building toll roads but also for occasionally studying gondolas is Jan. 5.

This whisper has been corrected: the deadline for applications is Jan. 5, not Jan. 25.

Kevin Johns, who has served as director of an extremely busy Economic Development Department for the past eight years, has announced that he will be retiring on Dec. 22. Interim City Manager Elaine Hart notified employees of Johns’ decision to retire in a memo praising his work to grow small business as well as large and leveraging Austin’s cultural diversity. “The recent partnerships with the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce and Alibaba, the greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Monterrey, Mexico and the International Partner Award with the Greater Austin Black Chamber of Commerce highlight his track record,” she wrote. In addition, under his leadership the department “has also successfully launched many new initiatives, including more recently, Soul-Y Austin Business Incubator and the Fashion Incubator partnership with Austin Community College,” Hart said. Former City Manager Marc Ott hired Johns from Palm Beach County, Florida, where he was also director of economic development. He has a master’s degree in city planning from Georgia Tech University and was also director of planning for Parsons Corporation in Atlanta. Hart said she would announce the appointment of an interim director of the department prior to Johns’ departure.

At the Nov. 27 meeting of the Human Rights Commission, Commissioner Ashley Normand announced that Dec. 16 at the Wesley United Methodist Church in East Austin, the NAACP will install the first plaque in the state of Texas to remember those in Travis County who were victims of the rash of lynchings that took place between the period of Reconstruction and the Civil Rights era. Although a first in the state, this is not the only plaque to be erected in the South. The December ceremony is part of a larger initiative to reconcile our country’s history of lynching through remembrance, and it was begun by Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative out of Montgomery, Alabama. According to his report on the need for memorialization of this period, “Creating a formal space to memorialize mass violence can help to establish trust between communities and build faith in government institutions.” Nelson Linder of the Austin chapter of the NAACP told the Austin Monitor that this plaque is important to reconcile our county’s record with lynching and ensure that the victims stay in our collective memory. The installation ceremony will take place at the church 1-3 p.m.

Today, Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Georgetown Mayor Dale Ross will sit down with Steve Clemons, editor of The Atlantic,  to talk about climate change, and cities’ roles in dealing with that issue. Georgetown is now powered entirely by renewable energy, and Adler has signed the 23rd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and voted with a majority of City Council to set the city’s renewable energy goal at 65 percent by 2027. The panel will take place at 3 p.m. at 3TEN ACL Live.

The Austin Independent School District is taking the next steps to sell several of its buildings, including its headquarters at the Carruth Administration Building on Sixth Street. “This is a positive step forward. AISD is among the largest land owners in the city. Along with that comes the responsibility to make determinations regarding properties and facilities so that we’re effectively and efficiently planning for the future,” said Superintendent Paul Cruz about the sale in a press release. The district stands to garner over $60 million from the property sale. Along with the sale of these properties, the board is also set to approve the purchase of the Southfield Building at 4000 I-35. The location of this building as a new headquarters is attractive because of its proximity to Interstate 35 and Ben White Boulevard, creating easy access, as opposed to the heavy downtown traffic situation that surrounds the Carruth building. The new larger building also allows for several departments that have previously been housed in different locations to come together. In addition, AISD’s Chief Financial Officer Nicole Conley Johnson said in the release that “The contracts we are looking to execute require the developer to provide 25% affordable housing units.”

This Friday, Dec. 1, the Austin Municipal Court will begin operating under its new hours. The court will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and Fridays. On Thursdays, the court will be open from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. The operating hours apply to the main courthouse, which is located at 700 E. Seventh St. For more information about the court, and why you might need to visit it during these hours, check out the city website.