Four members of the Austin City Council have joined a list of 90 Democratic public officials endorsing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president. Clinton’s campaign announced support from the Hillary for Texas Leadership Council on Monday, according to The Texas Tribune. The group includes City Council members Delia Garza, Ann Kitchen, Leslie Pool and Kathie Tovo as well as Austin ISD board of trustees President Gina Hinojosa. Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt had already announced her endorsement. All the Democratic members of the Travis County delegation to the Legislature are also on the Clinton bandwagon, including Sen. Kirk Watson and State Reps. Celia Israel, Eddie Rodriguez, Donna Howard and Elliott Naishtat. Houston Mayor Annise Parker and several Houston and San Antonio city council members have endorsed Clinton, but San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor released a statement saying she was elected as a nonpartisan officeholder and would not be endorsing.

Several weeks after passing her first budget as Travis County judge, Sarah Eckhardt held a press conference on Monday to tout the benefits taxpayers are getting out of their investment. She explained that the core services of county government are parks and conservation, roads, courts, public safety and emergency services, and “a social safety net that raises the floor so that everyone can reach their full potential.” Eckhardt highlighted several parks and roads projects as well as signature policy achievements, such as the restoration of in-person visits at county jail facilities. She also noted that the tax rate is the lowest it has been since 2008 and pledged to keep it low. Eckhardt laid out a strategy for doing that, which interestingly included a swipe at a highly controversial project. “We must enlist more of our Central Texas partners in protecting our fragile environment against threats from current projects like (State) Highway 45 Southwest,” Eckhardt said. She also called for the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority to set aside some of its toll revenues to be used for construction of park-and-ride facilities and the deployment of rapid buses on CTRMA toll roads.

Last week, the Board of Adjustment elected a new chair, again. Board members voted unanimously to elect William Burkhardt as their new chair. Melissa Hawthorne will stay on as vice chair of the board. Burkhardt formerly served on the Residential Design Compatibility Commission, which has been disbanded. Though Board Member Vincent Harding had been elected chair of the Board of Adjustment when the new regime took over, he opted to step down after his recent election as chairman of the Travis County Democratic Party. His last meeting was Oct. 12.

Discussion about construction contracts at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport took a turn for the procedural at last Thursday’s meeting of City Council. Council Member Sheri Gallo explained that she had pulled the item for process questions, not because she didn’t support expansion of the airport or the contract with Hensel Phelps Construction Company, which is worth almost $300 million. Specifically, Gallo thought that discussion about the contract should take place in committee, not during regular Council meetings. Council Member Don Zimmerman agreed and proposed the contract be vetted at the Audit and Finance Committee. Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo suggested that Council have “well-articulated policy questions” before sending things on to committee. And, she said, “I haven’t heard any today,” so she pushed to move forward with the contract and not place extra pressure on staff by cutting deadlines close. A motion to refer it to committee failed, and approval of the contract for a construction manager-at-risk ultimately passed unanimously. (A larger discussion — about the treatment of subcontracted employees on city contracts — has been promised in the future.)

Speculating that complaints about high water bills may be caused by “catch-up readings” that lump several months of usage into “one very large reading,” City Council Member Don Zimmerman has proposed a resolution. As posted on the City Council Message Board, Zimmerman’s resolution directs the city manager to “compare the calendar 2014 year’s monthly usage to the 2015 year’s (thus far) monthly usage for residential and multifamily accounts; for accounts that are showing usage at over 200% the previous year’s usage for a given month, then any usage above the 200% will be billed at the 0-2,000 Gallons tier and no Water Revenue Stability Reserve Fund Surcharge will be included over the 200% usage level.” The proposal is sure to be a topic of discussion at Wednesday’s Public Utilities Committee meeting, as Zimmerman is vice chair of that committee.

The city of Austin has a Battery Recycling Challenge winner – but residents will have to wait a few days to find out who has risen above the rest to win $1,000. This year, Austinites recycled more than 5,800 pounds of batteries, which is a cause for celebration in and of itself. On Wednesday, City Council Member Leslie Pool, Austin Resource Recovery Director Bob Gedert and Tim Warren of Call2Recycle will announce this year’s winner at the North Village Branch Library at 10 a.m.

In response to a project by the Downtown Commission’s Alley Working Group and Austin’s Public Works Department, 241 people have weighed in on what the Rainey Alley could look like. And now the city is inviting Austin to check out the four submitted design concepts as examples of their options. Those designs, and a bit more about the design charette that led to the designs, are available online here.

Just minutes before the clock struck midnight, City Council approved the last amendments to the short-term rental resolution. The amendments, though not yet codified, were fairly significant. Most significant was an amendment from Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo that will “phase out” commercial Type 2 short-term rentals in residential areas. Tovo also proposed amendments to make short-term rentals ADA-compliant and impose a 3 percent cap on Type 3 rentals, which are located in multifamily buildings. Both of those amendments failed. Council Member Leslie Pool proposed the last amendment of the evening, which asks staff to lower fees on Type 1 STRs and raise fees on Type 2 STRs in a way that is revenue neutral (the exact fees have yet to be worked out). That amendment also passed. Now that the resolution is complete, the ordinance process will move through the boards and commissions and Council committee process before heading back to City Council, again.

Texas Education Agency Commissioner Michael Williams, who has headed the agency since 2012, resigned from his position Thursday morning in a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott. His resignation will be effective Jan. 1. In his letter, Williams cited a long-distance relationship with his wife as one of the reasons for his resignation. “After more than 16 years of weekend commuting,” he wrote, “I feel it is finally time to simply head home.” Williams’ resignation comes in the middle of Texas’ back-and-forth with the federal government over compliance issues with the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. On Sept. 30, the U.S. Department of Education gave Texas and 42 other states flexibility in regard to the law’s requirements. But the education department also gave Texas a “high-risk status” because the TEA’s school grading system does not include a mandatory teacher evaluation that is tied to students’ standardized test scores. While the state did begin implementing a new teacher and principal evaluation system this year, it is not mandatory. The state has until Jan. 15, 2016, to tell the federal government how it plans to adopt the missing standard by the next school year. If it fails to do so, Texas could face losing substantial federal education funding. DeEtta Culbertson, TEA spokesperson, said the agency recently filed an appeal with the education department requesting that the state’s high-risk status be changed.

City Council Member Sheri Gallo is hosting a town hall meeting this weekend focusing on public safety and police presence in District 10. Austin Police Department staff, including Chief Art Acevedo, will be making presentations and answering questions about a variety of issues, including community policing, crime statistics, traffic control, lake safety and volunteer opportunities. The event takes place Sunday, Oct. 18, from 2 to 4 p.m., in the Jewish Community Center’s Community Hall, 7300 Hart Lane. For more details, send an email to Melanie.Smith@austintexas.gov.

The next event in the ongoing effort to create a “People’s Field Guide” to the South Central Waterfront will be a “photo safari” that promises coffee, prizes and the “thrill of the hunt,” according to an announcement from the city. The family-friendly event is part of the South Central Waterfront initiative, an effort to create a 20-year guiding framework for development of a 97-acre stretch of land downtown, on the south shore of Lady Bird Lake. Previous outings in the series, which is co-hosted by the city and Austin’s Atlas, have included a “walkshop” in search of “natural and man-made objects” and two “Walk and Draws.” This week’s mini-adventure will be a scavenger hunt along the waterfront, with participants taking pictures and creating “urban still lifes, spontaneous portraits, and cityscapes” that will all become part of the field guide. It will take place Sunday, Oct. 18 at 10 a.m., starting under the south side of the First Street Bridge. Bring cameras, sunscreen and comfortable shoes. More information is available here.

City Council Member Ellen Troxclair has brought forward a resolution about human trafficking awareness and training, which is on the agenda for today’s Council meeting. According to a press release about the resolution, “The Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative directs the City Manager to appoint a liaison to local groups dedicated to collaborating with the City and others to achieve the shared goal of ending human trafficking in Austin; to incorporate information about preventing, identifying, and responding to human trafficking into existing training for City employees as may be appropriate; and to develop plans and policies to prevent and reduce human trafficking related to all City tourism initiatives and City-sponsored events.”