Dog owners beware: The city will soon begin issuing citations to park visitors at Vic Mathias Shores whose dogs are off-leash beyond the confines of the newly designated off-leash area. Because of the recent redevelopment of Vic Mathias, some areas that were formerly designated as off-leash are now designated as on-leash. That change began in September, but park users have enjoyed a four-month grace period to adjust to the new rules. That grace period ends Monday, Jan. 25. Violators whose dogs are caught roaming free outside the off-leash area (which is at the western end of the park) may be fined up to $500.

At a special meeting Tuesday night, the Austin Independent School District elected new board officers. At-Large Trustee Kendall Pace will now serve as board president, replacing At-Large Trustee Gina Hinojosa, who resigned from the officer position. In her resignation announcement on Dec. 15, Hinojosa said she was stepping down because she had decided to run for the District 49 seat in the Texas House of Representatives. Filling the remaining two officer seats, District 6 Trustee Paul Saldaña will now serve as vice president, replacing District 5 Trustee Amber Elenz. District 4 Trustee Julie Cowan will serve as secretary, replacing District 2 Trustee Jayme Mathias. All new officers have served on the board since 2014.

It’s been nearly a week since last Friday’s campaign finance filing deadline, and the reports are still slowly trickling onto the Travis County Elections Division’s website. As of Wednesday night, the forms submitted by all three Democrats running for district attorney were finally available. Despite a series of rocky headlines about a tumultuous divorce that happened decades ago and a failed legal attempt to remove him from the ballot, Gary Cobb’s campaign came out on top of the fundraising race with $37,935 in contributions since July. Former County Attorney Margaret Moore, who only joined the race in December, raked in $18,826. Defense attorney Rick Reed, who was behind the attempt to kick Cobb off the ballot, reported a haul of $1,025. Meanwhile, the reports are also in for three more candidates running for the Commissioners Court Precinct 1 seat. On Monday, the Austin Monitor reported that James Nortey had raised $45,974, while Jeff Travillion scored $39,248 in campaign donations. On Thursday night, we learned that Richard Franklin III netted a haul of $9,106, while Arthur Sampson’s campaign scared up $4,760 from his supporters. Late-comer Marc Hoskins, who filed his candidacy on the Dec. 14 deadline, reported only a single $100 donation plus a $1,250 loan he made to himself to cover the filing fee.

The National Weather Service is offering a free “weather spotter” training class in February, with various dates and locations available. The classes are part of the Skywarn program, which trains volunteers to “help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service,” according to the organization’s website. Currently, the Skywarn network has almost 290,000 volunteers. Upcoming class dates include Feb. 1 (Kyle Fire Department, 210 W. Moore St.), Feb. 3 (Wimberley Community Center, 14068 RR 12), Feb. 4 (Dripping Springs City Hall, 511 Mercer St.) and Feb. 10 (Fire Station #5, 100 Carleson Circle, San Marcos). All classes run from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

A candidate for the Democratic nomination for Travis County sheriff issued a policy paper late Wednesday afternoon that called for relaxed enforcement of marijuana possession laws. In the paper, Constable Sally Hernandez cites data provided by the American Civil Liberties Union that shows racial disparities in the arrest rates among African-Americans and whites. Adding to that, she writes: “Investigating and prosecuting possession of marijuana cases is costly and resources are better spent and more effective pursuing violent crimes and property offenses.” Hernandez noted that Texas law allows officers to defer arrests on people caught with small amounts of marijuana, but she said Travis County deputies cite and release only about 30 percent of the time. She is calling for a “uniformed (sic) policy on when a person is cite and release eligible.” She also pointed to Harris County’s First Chance Intervention Program, which helps keep first-time offenders’ records clean. According to the paper, Hernandez said she will work with the Commissioners Court, the county attorney and the district attorney to develop a similar program if she is elected sheriff.

Members of local Uber- and Lyft-funded group Ridesharing Works for Austin cheered after wheeling into the Office of the City Clerk six cardboard boxes containing 23,000 petition signatures. If at least 20,000 turn out to be valid, City Council will have to consider the group’s transportation network company ordinance or, if it doesn’t approve, put it to a public vote. Mayor Steve Adler said Tuesday that his focus is not on the petition. Instead, he remains intent on bringing a compromise to Council members on Jan. 28 that will satisfy both the city and the transportation network companies. On Monday, Adler announced that he has been working with local tech companies to create an emblem that Lyft and Uber drivers can display on their driver profiles. The emblem would indicate if a driver has undergone a fingerprint-based background check. For more on this story, see today’s report from Audrey McGlinchy.

Travis County Commissioners Court heard its first briefing of 2016 on the ongoing cleanup effort in the wake of severe weather in 2015. Transportation and Natural Resources staff members told the court that they’re still receiving requests from landowners to come remove debris scattered after the Oct. 30 floods. However, they said that the volume of calls has decreased steadily and that the department is “ramping down services” and expecting private residents to soon take over the remaining work. The court was also scheduled to take a vote on whether to adopt as formal policy the debris management procedures deployed after the floods. However, the absence of commissioners Gerald Daugherty and Margaret Gómez prompted County Judge Sarah Eckhardt to postpone that decision until next Tuesday.

Even though Travis County still has no policy framework for governing the creation and maintenance of public improvement districts, or PIDs, the Commissioners Court this week pushed forward the first project seeking that special designation. The court voted 3-0 on Tuesday to advance the petition on behalf of the Wildhorse Ranch development in northeast Austin. Commissioners Gerald Daugherty and Margaret Gómez were both off the dais. The action directed staff to work with the developers and the city of Austin on preliminary arrangements for the project. Next Tuesday, the court will consider the draft policy prepared by staff that will lay out guidelines to establish how the county designates PIDs, a tool by which the county can issue bonds to cover the cost of public infrastructure that benefits private developments. The bonds, which are paid back through special assessments on individual properties, could give the county leverage to encourage safer construction practices as well as more affordable housing units.

Often lost in the swirl of headlines spinning off of far more prominent elections and campaigns are the little-watched but wholly important races for the various precincts of Travis County’s constabulary. After Friday’s campaign-finance filing deadline, we now have a better idea of how those contests will shape up in the final weeks ahead of the March 1 primaries. Precinct 1 incumbent Danny Thomas reported raising $3,402 in his defense against two challengers seeking the Democratic nomination. Richard Schumacher drew in $5,485, while Janie Serna did not raise a dime. In Precinct 2, Constable Adan Ballesteros also reported zero contributions but has the luxury of not facing any opponents in the Democratic primary. Deke Pierce, who is running unopposed in the Republican primary, raised $9,265. With Precinct 3 Constable Sally Hernandez running for Travis County sheriff, there are two Democrats seeking to replace her. With $8,637 in campaign contributions since July, A.J. Johnson has the fundraising edge over Stacy Suits, who reported a haul of $2,184. In Precinct 4, George Morales lays claim to the largest chunk of donations with a reported $21,119. His opponent in the Democratic primary, Manuel Jimenez, took in only $7,963 but will keep things competitive thanks to a $26,000 loan. There are no Republicans in the Precinct 3 and Precinct 4 races.

On Friday, City Manager Marc Ott released a draft plan of the Vision Zero Action Plan. Produced by the Vision Zero Task Force, its goal is to reduce the number of traffic fatalities around the city. The plan includes recommendations to City Council to focus on accident “hotspots” in the city – locations where injuries and fatalities from traffic accidents are highest – and to increase education, enforcement and engineering solutions in those areas. The recommendations also advise Council to increase public education; collect and analyze data about serious crashes; and develop, staff and fund a program dedicated to improved traffic safety. According to Ott’s memo, the draft plan will be presented at the Feb. 3 meeting of the Mobility Committee. Then, over a period of eight weeks, the city’s boards and commissions will weigh in on the action plan, with an anticipated Council review and adoption in April. During that two-month review time, Ott writes that “staff will be finalizing a planning level cost estimate to accompany the final report submission to Council.” Ott also confirmed that, at this point, the Austin Transportation Department would be leading the project.

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Yesterday, the Austin Monitor reported on the finances of Hyde Park neighborhood association upstart Friends of Hyde Park. Today, we have news of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, which, as an official nonprofit, has a slightly different business model. Hyde Park Neighborhood Association steering committee Co-Secretary Co-President Reid Long spoke to the Monitor on Monday. He explained that the organization’s annual budget is about $35,000. Most of that, he said, goes toward producing the print version of the group’s newsletter, the ad sales for which are also the group’s greatest source of revenue. Unlike FOHP, the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association does collect dues – $5 for residents under 65 years of age, and $1 for residents above 65 years of age. Also, unlike Friends of Hyde Park, the neighborhood association hosts several community events, which include an annual Easter egg hunt, a home tour, a holiday party and a celebration of the local fire station.

Residents who recycle may have noticed a bit of an issue while looking over the new recycling collection calendars from Austin Resource Recovery. Significantly, the 2016 calendar fails to acknowledge that this year is a leap year, and the domino effect of that exclusion has rendered 80 percent of the calendar inaccurate. ARR is aware of the problem and will be sending out corrected calendars in the mail. Austin Resource Recovery also offers residents an optional notification about their collection schedules via weekly text or email. Interested recycling enthusiasts are invited to sign up for that service through the department’s website.