On Thursday, City Council Member Leslie Pool’s absence was noticed, and in her absence questions about how she financed her trip to Paris were in the air. Pool’s office reported that she did receive a travel advance from the city to help pay for the trip. The total amount covered by her office budget was $3,091.54, which included $1,751.41 for transportation costs, $1,287.00 for meals and $53.13 for mileage. Using a Council office budget for travel is not uncommon, although Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea both covered their own costs for their trips to the United Nations conference. A thorough (if somewhat dated) accounting of how Council members spend discretionary funds was reported by the Austin Bulldog in 2012. That article is available to read here. As for why Pool was the only member of Council who was attending, she was doing so in her capacity as the chair of the Open Space, Environment and Sustainability Committee, which was formed in March of this year and most recently met yesterday, with Pool absent.

The day after the story broke that the city had disqualified its sole bidder from being a consumer advocate in the upcoming Austin Energy cost-of-service study due to a violation of its anti-lobbying ordinance, City Council opted not to do – or say – anything specific about the issue on Thursday. “Because the protest process is still pending, we are not going to take action on this item today,” said Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo after Council returned from a closed session on the item. In a Wednesday memo to Mayor Steve Adler and Council, James Scarboro, the city’s purchasing officer, explained that the bidder, Oxford Advisors LLC, has until Dec. 7 to protest the disqualification. “If we get into discussions concerning the specifics of the anti-lobbying violation, at least from my professional opinion, I’m concerned we may get into a legal area where I would think it would be wise for us to consult with our colleagues at the Law Department,” he said before Council, which was acting as the Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee before it went into closed session. Oxford has been disqualified because Electric Utility Commission Chair Michael Osborne initiated an exchange with the company, which the company acknowledged. Scarboro noted in his memo that, if Oxford chooses to protest the disqualification, it could use anything said during Thursday’s Council meeting as material in that protest.

Today, the Austin Monitor, KUT News and the LBJ School of Public Affairs will hold our City Summit. More information about the summit is available here. Additionally, those in attendance and those at home can follow the conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag #atxsummit. As a preview, we direct you to Bryan Kelsey’s feed, where, yesterday, he got a head start on breaking down shifting demographics and incomes in the city, and what it all might mean.

The Travis County Commissioners Court is calling for qualified members of the community to apply to fill a vacancy on the board of directors for the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority. The Commissioners Court appoints three of the board’s seats, and one of those will become available for a new member on Feb. 2, 2016. (The Williamson County Commissioners Court makes three appointments as well, and the governor appoints the board’s chair.) According to an announcement from Travis County, the newly appointed member “will work with all jurisdictions within the two counties, reflecting local sensitivities and ideals in the decision-making process, but principally represent the interests of the Commissioners Court.” Commissioners are looking in particular for applicants “with exceptional vision, business and administrative skills and experience, and history of significant community involvement.” Applicants can call 512-854-9754 to get the application and information packet, or they may download the packet here. All applications are due Friday, Jan. 8, by 5 p.m.

Eight entreprenuers are currently competing for a $10,000 [Re]Verse Pitch innovation prize, and online voting that will help determine who wins is now open. According to a press release about the event, the final competition will take place on Dec. 9 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in the Bass Lecture Hall at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, 2300 Red River St. Although the event is free and open to the public, RSVPs are requested.

The eight finalists in contention for the prize are:

• Sue Sende Cole, Working With Wicker (repurposing wicker baskets)
• Santiago Diaz, Austin Building Materials Depository and Working Space (repurposing books, spent grain, vinyl banners, waterproof clogs, canvas and decorative glassware)
• Joe Diffie, The Table to Bacon Feed Company (repurposing spent grain)
• Aaron Pierron, Non-Container Glass Recycling (repurposing decorative glassware)
• Melissa Rothrock, Calling All Seamstresses (repurposing vinyl banners)
• Cory Skuldt, Brew Biscuits Expansion (repurposing spent grain)
• Renata Sturdival, Safe Innovative Heels (repurposing vinyl banners and waterproof clogs)
• Brandon Ward, Brewnola Bars (repurposing spent grain)

The City Council Mobility Committee voted unanimously on Wednesday to recommend that Council approve a request from West Campus business, institution and property owner group University Area Partners to expand a parking benefit district in the area. The expansion would add 315 paid parking spaces by increasing the district boundaries to include Rio Grande Street to Lamar Boulevard between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 29th Street. Steve Grassfield, the city’s parking enterprise manager, explained that Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo, who represents the district where the expansion would occur, responded positively to the idea and said that all areas where stakeholders opposed the expansion have been carved out of it. Austin Transportation Department Director Robert Spillar wrote in a letter to Mayor Steve Adler and Council that a parking benefit district “enables neighborhood associations to make requests to the City of Austin for paid parking in an effort to provide turnover and improve availability of on-street parking to business customers and visitors to the area.” Fifty-one percent of the revenue, after city costs, goes to transportation improvements in the district, and the remainder goes to the Austin Transportation Department. The district’s current boundaries are Guadalupe Street to Rio Grande Street between Martin Luther King and 29th. Council will consider the expansion on Dec. 10.

Starting this January, the Austin Water utility will be asking Austinites to weigh in on whether the city should move to a permanent one-day-per-week watering schedule. That schedule was adopted during the drought, and Austin Water has touted a permanent change as a “sound direction” for Austin. To determine whether the public feels the same way, open houses will be held throughout January, with schedule and locations to be announced soon. In the meantime, people can voice their opinions online, through a survey at SpeakUpAustin.org.

In an effort to find homes for Austin’s pets for the holidays, the Austin Animal Center is celebrating what it is calling the “12 Stops of Christmas.” The schedule for the event, which will bring adoptable pets to locations all around the city, is as follows:

• Dec. 3, 5 to 8 p.m., at Birds Barbershop, 1902 South Congress Ave.
• Dec. 5, noon to 4 p.m., at Trader Joe’s, 2805 Bee Cave Road
• Dec. 6, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Woof Gang Bakery, 1204 North Lamar Blvd.
• Dec. 6, noon to 4 p.m., at Half Price Books, 9900 S. I-35 (Southpark Meadows)
• Dec. 11, noon to 4 p.m., at The Corner Vet, 2400 East Cesar Chavez St., Suite 100
• Dec. 12 and 13, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., at Austin Animal Center, 7201 Levander Loop
• Dec. 18, 1 to 5 p.m., at Austin City Hall, 301 W. Second St.
• Dec. 19, noon to 4 p.m., at Trader Joe’s, 211 Walter Seaholm Drive (Downtown)
• Dec. 20, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at The Daily Grill, 11506 Century Oaks Terrace (Domain)
• Dec. 20, noon to 4 p.m., at West Elm, 1011 W. Fifth St., Suite 100 (Downtown)
• Dec. 21, 6 to 9 p.m., at Banger’s, 81 Rainey St.

From now until Jan. 3, adoptions will be $50 for dogs and $25 for cats, and on Dec. 12 and 13, fees will be waived for those who show up wearing their “ugliest holiday sweater.”

A program that helps low-income medical patients manage health-related legal issues has received a $15,000 grant from the Texas Bar Foundation, according to an announcement from People’s Community Clinic. The clinic joined with Texas Legal Services in 2012 to form the program, known as the Austin Medical-Legal Partnership, in order to “respond to the overwhelming number of low-income patients dealing with legal issues that negatively impact their health,” according to the announcement. “An attorney works on-site at the clinic twice a week, providing legal assistance and representation for the clinic’s patients on a variety of issues, including public benefits and insurance (Social Security disability, Medicare/Medicaid, TANF, SNAP, etc.); housing (Section 8, subsidized housing, habitability, etc.); advance directives (powers of attorney, wills and living wills); guardianship and kinship care; education; and immigration.” People’s Community Clinic CEO Regina Rogoff said that the grant will allow the partnership “to work with more patients who have legal issues compromising their health.”

After attending the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris this week, Mayor Steve Adler will fly back to the United States on Dec. 7 to attend Harvard University’s seminar on transition and leadership for newly elected mayors. Adler noted that he is no longer “newly elected” but said he could not attend last year’s seminar because he had not yet won the runoff election when the 2014 program was offered. Therefore, he will be the longest-serving member of his class and has been invited to speak to the other newly elected mayors. Adler was very excited about attending the seminar, which is funded not by cities but by Harvard, he said. According to the website on the seminar, attendees will experience “intensive seminars on major urban policy issues such as public safety, municipal finance, and crisis management, led by prominent scholars and practitioners representing viewpoints from across the political spectrum. It also offers an unmatched set of workshops to help new mayors take on the practical challenges of urban governance. These workshops focus on the ‘how’ of getting things done in the city, and are led by current and former mayors from across the country, as well as members of the media, the private sector,” and others. The mayor said he would return to Austin on Dec. 11 and return to work the following week. (People familiar with the mayor’s work schedule find it hard to believe that he will stay away that long.)

As part of the city’s annual charitable giving campaign, city employees raised about $500,000 for charities. The fundraising was announced yesterday, aka Giving Tuesday, and is the result of a month-long effort focused on the theme “City of Austin Employees Care.” Making that theme a reality were more than 1,200 employees who participated in that campaign as well as in two focused campaigns that raised $9,500 for efforts surrounding the 2015 Halloween floods and $16,600 for Bastrop fire relief. In a statement to the press, City Manager Marc Ott said, “Part of being best managed is showing that employees care about their community and making the world a better place. Our workforce year after year shows its generosity and giving spirit, and I’m proud to be a part of this organization.” Indeed, according to that same press release, city employees have raised more than $12 million for charity in more than two decades of charitable campaigns.

This week, the various City Council committees have been setting their schedules for next year, and at least two are interested in scaling back. Though the Public Safety Committee is officially adopting a schedule of 10 meetings, it did so with the understanding that it would aim toward meeting every other month rather than monthly. “I don’t know about your staff, but mine is kind of overloaded,” said Council Member Ora Houston, who suggested that the meeting days remain open in case a meeting is necessary. Council Member Greg Casar agreed with the proposal and said he was trying a similar tack in some of his other committees. “If we really need to meet, we can always call a meeting,” said Casar.