At the moment, the Austin Water utility is in the process of holding open-house meetings to gather input on proposed changes to the city’s water restrictions. The changes could make one-day-per-week watering permanent. Upcoming open houses (all scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m.) will be held at the Carver Branch Library, Jan. 21; the Austin Board of Realtors, Jan. 25 (at the Spicewood Springs Road building); and the Spicewood Springs branch library, Jan. 26. On Feb. 3, a public workshop and “wrap-up meeting” will be held at the Waller Creek Center, 625 E. 10th St., from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The utility is also offering the opportunity to provide feedback online through a survey on SpeakUpAustin.org.

After a month, the first round of results from the Austin Recycles Games are in. At the moment, District 8 is in first place with a per-household average of 72.94 pounds of recycling in the first month. District 10 is in second place, and District 4 is in third. Currently, Central Austin’s District 9 is in last place, having recycled only 43.91 pounds per household on average over the past month, down from its October average of 55.90. In a press release about the increase, Austin Resource Recovery Director Bob Gedert was enthusiastic, saying, “There has been a significant increase in residential recycling since the announcement of the Austin Recycles Games. … Nine of the 10 council districts saw an increase and four of the 10 are currently surpassing the goal of recycling a minimum of 60 pounds per household! We are enthusiastic about the continuing success of the Recycles Games!” Overall, recycling averages have increased citywide over the past month, from an October 2015 average of 47.79 to a current average of 59 pounds. When the contest concludes in April, the most improved district and the district with the most recycling overall will both be crowned winners and receive a beautification project for a library or public park on Earth Day.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day brings with it closures of various facilities around town, including all city of Austin administrative offices (including City Hall and City Council offices), public libraries, museums, cultural arts centers, recreation centers and senior centers. Other notable closures include the Business Solutions Center, the Entrepreneur Center of Austin and the Plan Room at the Small and Minority Business Resources office. The Recycle & Reuse Drop-Off Center will also be closed today, but pickup of trash, recyclables and yard trimmings will remain on schedule. Anyone with questions about city services or closures can call 311. Meanwhile, the annual MLK Community Celebration and march begins at 9 a.m. at the MLK statue on the University of Texas campus. The march will proceed from there to the Capitol for a program on the south steps, and then it will head to the Huston-Tillotson University campus, where festivities will last until 3 p.m. Participants are encouraged to bring canned or nonperishable goods for the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas food drive.

The Austin Independent School District will be closed this Monday, Jan. 18, in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. All district offices and schools will open again Tuesday. For information about all upcoming AISD closings and events, visit www.austinisd.org/calendar.

The Texas Public Utility Commission issued a ruling Thursday lowering water and wastewater rates for four municipal utility districts composed of more than 46,000 Austin Water customers. The order comes after the PUC denied, in December, a motion for rehearing that the city filed in response to an October PUC ruling. That original ruling partially granted the districts’ petition to contest water and wastewater rates that went into effect in 2013, ordering the city to lower rates for those customers and refund whatever revenue it collected over the PUC-mandated rates since the 2013 rates went into effect. The new ruling also partially grants a November motion for rehearing from the districts and excludes Water Treatment Plant No. 4 from the city’s revenue requirements. The petitioners are the North Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1, Northtown MUD, Travis County Water Control and Improvement District No. 10 and Wells Branch MUD.

Federal Judge Lee Yeakel has given the lawyers for the city of Austin and City Council Member Don Zimmerman extra time to file their legal briefs in Zimmerman’s lawsuit challenging Austin’s campaign finance scheme. Renea Hicks, outside counsel for the city, said Thursday that both sides now have until Feb. 2 to finish their written arguments. After that, he said, he would not be surprised if Yeakel asked the lawyers to make oral arguments before the court. Zimmerman is challenging the $350-per-person limit on donations for Council races as well as the six-month window for raising contributions and the $36,000 cap on contributions from people who live outside Austin and surrounding ZIP codes. Additionally, he is challenging a city regulation that prevents winning Council members from keeping any contributions they do not spend in a campaign war chest. Austin’s rules state that a Council member may keep $20,000 for his or her own officeholder account but must give back the rest to donors or an appropriate charity. Council members who drew two-year terms after the 2014 election, including Zimmerman, will be able to start raising money for the November 2016 election in May. When he filed suit last year, the District 6 Council member hoped to conclude the lawsuit soon enough to be able to raise money before May. That now seems highly unlikely because after the judge rules, the losing party is likely to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. The loser in that arena could then appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo took a few minutes to talk to the Capital Area Democratic Women on Thursday about a word that seems to be on the lips of every politician and activist in Austin: affordability. Tovo pointed out that one in five people in the Austin area is “food insecure” and that more than 2,000 Austin Independent School District students are homeless. These are important challenges facing the city, she noted. But as to the term “affordability,” she said, “We really need to look more carefully at how we’re using that term. We are all concerned about the rising cost of housing.” However, just in the last week alone, Tovo said she had heard the word used during a discussion about spending money on health and human services as well as related to the city’s demand for increased parkland dedication from developers. Tovo said she does not subscribe to the idea that those things have a negative impact on affordability. She also mentioned the city’s decision to increase fees for developers to cover the actual cost of services. Those may be an issue in affordability, but Tovo said affordability should not be about asking renters to pay fees to help build someone else’s new house.

A planned discussion on what to do with Travis County’s Palm School property in downtown Austin came as a surprise this week to the commissioner leading the charge to preserve the 19th-century building. “I didn’t know the item was going to be on the agenda today,” admitted Commissioner Margaret Gómez after County Judge Sarah Eckhardt asked her during Tuesday’s regular weekly meeting of the Commissioners Court to provide an update on her efforts to create a committee to explore options for the site. The last time the issue was brought up before the court, in December, Eckhardt postponed action and instructed the commissioners to pass along in writing to Gómez suggested charges for the proposed committee. On Tuesday, Gómez said she had not yet received anything from her colleagues. Eckhardt brushed off the inaction and said she still wants to hear from Austin City Manager Marc Ott before giving official consideration to the committee’s charges. However, the suggestion to invite participants from other jurisdictions to weigh in on what the county should do with its own property made Commissioner Gerald Daugherty bristle. “At the end of the day, I think the county needs to drive this because it is ours and the Travis County citizens who own this,” Daugherty argued. In the end, Eckhardt said the court would come back to the issue again at its February meeting.

Today, members of the Ridesharing Works PAC gathered with members of the city’s music and entertainment industry to reiterate support for a petition drive that could overturn recently approved regulations for transportation network companies. If successful, the petition drive would force City Council to either approve the new regulations, which most closely resemble the interim regulations previously in place and do not include fingerprinting, or put the regulations on the ballot. At Tuesday’s press conference, representatives from Austin Music People, the Mohawk, Bull McCabes and Stay Gold spoke in favor of the petition drive and explained how TNCs had made Austin safer for their customers and allowed people to come downtown despite parking problems. Council will continue to refine its own regulations at its first meeting of 2016, on Jan. 28.

Though there has been no official tribute by the city, people downtown Tuesday noticed that a portion of Austin’s Bowie Street had been transformed into “David Bowie Street” in honor of the recently deceased legend. The Austin Business Journal reports that the city issued a statement on the change, which was not sanctioned by the city but will remain undisturbed by it for the next week. That statement reads: “The Austin Transportation Department has been notified that someone got creative with the street sign at Bowie and 5th Streets, changing the sign to read ‘David Bowie’ in memory of the musician and pop-culture icon. We appreciate Austin’s reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World and recognize David Bowie for all he did for the music industry and more. To this end, we will leave the sign up until Tuesday, January 19, so our community can enjoy the makeshift memorial a few days longer. At that time we will have to replace it with the real street name sign.” The change, though temporary, quickly spread through social media Tuesday. A petition to make the change permanent soon followed.

Earlier this week, the Austin Monitor reported that a change to the city’s porch regulations would soon be headed to City Council. In fact, Council approved those changes during the last meeting of 2015, on Dec. 17. The approval was unanimous.

The University of Texas Concealed Carry Working Group sent a memo on Monday to Chancellor William H. McRaven and 14 UT system presidents outlining its recommendations for implementation of the recently passed Senate Bill 11, which allows concealed carry of handguns in public university buildings. The law won’t go into effect until Aug. 1, which gives university presidents time to, as the law states, “establish reasonable rules” regarding implementation. As a “starting point,” the memo lists several potential “exclusion zones,” such as patient care areas, ticketed sporting events and labs “with extremely dangerous chemicals, biologic agents, or explosive agents.” The memo also provides guidance on other points of concern, such as responsibilities regarding provision of handgun storage and means of notification about exclusion zones. Notably, the memo reports that the working group “did not reach consensus” on the law’s intent regarding whether college presidents may exclude guns from classrooms. The full memo is embedded below.

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