Austin Water has proposed that the city move permanently to a one-day-per-week watering schedule. According to an announcement from the utility, one-day-per-week watering has been “critical in keeping the Highland Lakes above emergency levels during the worst parts of the drought,” and the utility believes that permanent implementation of this rule is a “sound direction for our community.” The city is hosting four meetings in January to gather public input on the matter, beginning with a meeting on Thursday, Jan. 7, 6 to 8 p.m., at Hampton Branch Library, 5125 Convict Hill Road. The meeting will be an open house, which means participants can drop in anytime. The full schedule of meetings in available here.

The bountiful supply of comfort food, booze and elaborate ornamentation that helps make the holidays merry should also make revelers wary, says the city of Austin. “Don’t let holiday hazards ruin your celebration,” warns a recent announcement from the Health and Human Services Department. The announcement lists food, alcoholic beverages and decorations as three major sources of hidden danger at this time of year and provides tips on how to avoid such perils as food poisoning, drunken driving and choking hazards. Examples include tips on proper thawing of frozen foods and handling of raw meats, advice on securing sober rides and information about toxic or otherwise dangerous decorations – particularly for children and pets – such as poisonous holiday plants (e.g., poinsettias and mistletoe), antique ornaments (which may have lead paint), bubble lights (which can contain methylene chloride) and sharp, breakable objects (especially those that look like candy). The holiday season also brings with it more than 5,000 “decorating-related falls” each year, according to the announcement. To avoid unnecessary accidents, it is best “NEVER” to stand on anything that can become unstable and always to be mindful of ladder safety rules, such as this one: “Space the ladder at least one foot away from the wall for every four feet high it reaches.” For more on how to avoid the season’s hidden perils, visit the city’s website here.

In a vote of 10-0-1, City Council approved $309,310 in fees for the South by Southwest Music, Film, and Interactive Festival. Council Member Don Zimmerman abstained from the vote. Council Member Greg Casar said that he didn’t think the way the city has handled fee waivers for the festival accurately showed what the city was, in fact, doing. “It looks like a fee waiver for a parade downtown. This is very different than that,” said Casar. He asked for everyone to think about it as “something different” and to consider what responsibility falls on the city and what falls on event organizers. In that spirit, he thanked organizers for “stepping up and sharing the burden more.” Casar added a provision that, in the future, “such agreements should outline the roles and responsibilities of the parties, potentially for multiple years.”

Though it garnered plenty of controversy along the way, in the end, City Council Member Leslie Pool’s lobby registration resolution passed with very little fuss. Council members approved the resolution in a vote of 10-0-1 with Council Member Don Zimmerman abstaining. Zimmerman expressed concern that some members of city staff are more powerful than lobbyists, which is an issue that is not addressed in the resolution. In a post on the City Council Message Board, Pool explained that the new regulations will allow citizens to see online who is lobbying and will implement clearer definitions and standards for lobbying in the city. “On the other hand,” wrote Pool, “a number of provisions are designed to exclude minor lobbyists: 1) the compensation threshold for lobbying is $2,000 and 26-hr a quarter of allocated compensation; 2) there is an exception from discretionary decisions for building and technical code issues on specific projects (e.g., plumbing, electrical, pipelaying, etc); and 3) there are reasonable, standard exceptions, such as from compensation for lobbying for applicants providing information to the city, citizens’ service on city boards, and for achieving compliance with city law.” The resolution will return to Council as an ordinance in the future, and if that ordinance is approved, the new regulations will take effect.

In what was a (blessedly) brief conversation, City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to lift the “Test the Waters” provision in the Short-Term Rental Ordinance. The provision has allowed those who operate STRs to advertise their rentals without a license, which has made it difficult for the city to enforce the ordinance. Only Council Member Don Zimmerman questioned the wisdom of the provision, asking, “What’s to stop competitors from advertising on behalf of someone who’s not licensed, and then people who are not licensed get a fine or citation from code compliance because there is an advertisement on the Internet that they didn’t authorize?” He was told that there would be an investigation to determine whether the house was actually an unlicensed short-term rental. “That works for me,” said Zimmerman. Council also set a date for the bulk of the proposed changes to the ordinance, which it will take up on Jan. 28.

An ordinance that strengthened the city’s regulation of “credit access businesses” (more commonly known as payday lenders) passed unanimously in less than one minute on Thursday. The changes are outlined in the ordinance below. Perhaps most significantly, the new ordinance will give the city the power to revoke businesses’ registration certificates if they are found in violation of city rules. The ordinance also requires that repayment be completed in four installments – not just the principal, but the total amount (including principal, fees and interest). In addition, such lenders are now required to display a city-approved poster that offers information about “extensions of consumer credit.”

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One week after a dramatic delay, the Travis County Commissioners Court agreed unanimously to direct staff to start searching for private partners in an ambitious mixed-use development project in north central Austin. Last week, with Commissioner Brigid Shea absent from the meeting, County Judge Sarah Eckhardt postponed the decision, saying she wanted the full court on hand to support the measure. The proposal for the property at 5325 and 5335 Airport Blvd. – part of the county’s North Campus – is to build a mixed commercial and residential project that would feature an as-yet undetermined number of below-market-rate housing units. On Tuesday, Shea noted that during this year’s failed campaign for $287 million in bonds to build a new civil courthouse in downtown Austin, several constituents asked her why the Airport Boulevard property wasn’t the chosen site for that project. She asked county staff to elaborate on the planning decisions behind both proposals. After peppering her with a laundry list of explanations, Mark David Gilbert of the Planning and Budget Office said of the courthouse, “The simple answer … is it doesn’t fit. It doesn’t come close to fitting. And this project does.” The court voted unanimously to release a request for proposals from private developers interested in working on the project.

At the most recent meeting of the Parks and Recreation Board, discussion was postponed on an amendment that would prohibit fishing from the Boardwalk Trail at Lady Bird Lake. Board Member Mark Vane said he had been getting a lot of calls regarding this agenda item and requested it be sent back to the Land, Facilities and Programs Committee before bringing it back to the full board.

Austin is now an official member of the Creative Cities Network of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNESCO established the network in 2004 in order to “foster international cooperation with and between cities committed to investing in creativity as a driver for sustainable urban development, social inclusion and cultural vibrancy,” according to an announcement from the city. There are now 116 member cities all over the world, putting Austin in the company of such far-away locals as Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia; Budapest, Hungary; Kingston, Jamaica; and Sasayama, Japan. However, Austin is the only city this year to be awarded the specific designation of City of Media Arts, “a reflection of our reputation as an innovative city, and a representation of many artistic disciplines – including visual art, music, film, and digital gaming,” according to the announcement. The new designation, which brings with it membership in the Creative Cities Network, will facilitate international collaboration among creative industries in Austin and other member cities. “We look forward to leveraging our creative community, skill sets, and collective experience to strengthen international relationships and elevate all creative communities,” said Kevin Johns, director of the Economic Development Department, which helped lead the effort to apply for the honor.

At the dawning of the holiday season, law firm Armbrust & Brown has taken on a new member. According to a statement from the firm, “Tara Allen Esteves has joined the firm of Armbrust & Brown, PLLC as a member. Her practice primarily focuses on corporate and securities law, corporate formation and governance, and general commercial law.”

The City Council members present at a work session on Tuesday appeared to reach a consensus on the idea of splitting up the discussion on the short-term rental ordinance planned for this Thursday. Rather than consider all of the proposed changes to the ordinance, Council members discussed holding a public hearing and vote only on whether to remove the “testing the waters” provision of the current ordinance. They also discussed holding a vote on whether to set another public hearing for the remaining short-term rental proposals, to take place at the next Council meeting on Jan. 28. The “testing the waters” provision, which has proven controversial, allows potential short-term rental operators to advertise for a short-term rental before having obtained a license in order to gauge demand. “I would say that the ‘testing the waters’ provision would be a good one to take up on Thursday and delay the rest of it to January 28,” concluded Council Member Leslie Pool, eliciting no objection from her colleagues. Council members Don Zimmerman and Sheri Gallo were not present for the discussion.

A district judge’s recent decision to throw out a lawsuit against Travis County over its mass-gathering permitting guidelines might not be the final vindication the Commissioners Court was hoping for. That’s according to County Judge Sarah Eckhardt herself, who brought the suit up for brief discussion at the court’s regular meeting on Tuesday. The item had been flagged for possible discussion behind closed doors in executive discussion, a step the judge determined was unnecessary. “The case was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction,” said Eckhardt. “So there’s really nothing to take into executive session except to say that it may come back on the legal question of whether or not the Commissioners Court has the ability to limit the duration of amplified sound for a mass-gathering permit.” Sherine Thomas, director of the county’s Civil Litigation Division, confirmed that the letter in which Judge Tim Sulak revealed his decision was not a final ruling. An attorney for Euphoria Music and Camping Festival, the outfit that launched the suit, has confirmed to the Austin Monitor that the festival is considering whether to appeal.