Keeping with tradition, today’s City Council Mobility Committee meeting will feature a discussion about Transportation Network Companies (e.g., Uber and Lyft). This week, the committee is likely to be met with a petition as well. An Austin Monitor reporter found a petition in her own inbox Tuesday, calling out Council Member Ann Kitchen (who chairs the Mobility Committee) by name. The call to action from Uber urged riders to #KEEPAUSTINUBER and read, in part, “For more than a year, you’ve relied on Uber to connect you to a safe ride at the touch of a button. You’re not alone. More than half a million people have opened the Uber app in Austin to catch or provide a ride. But today, the Uber you know and love is being threatened by a new plan pushed by Councilmember Ann Kitchen. Over the last year, ridesharing has driven Austin forward by increasing transportation choices, reducing drunk driving, and creating many economic opportunities for working families. Councilmember Kitchen’s plan would reverse this progress and destroy ridesharing as we know it. … Act now before it’s too late!”

City Council is seeking qualified applicants for a position on the board of managers for Central Health, formerly known as the Travis County Healthcare District. Central Health works to create access to health care for uninsured, underinsured and low-income residents of Travis County, and the Council is looking for applicants who demonstrate a commitment to that mission in addition to meeting a list of other qualifications as well. The chosen applicant will serve a four-year term on the nine-member board beginning Jan. 1, 2016. Applicants must complete a Boards and Commissions application (either online or in person at the City Clerk’s Office), submit a resume describing their qualifications and write a statement of intent explaining why they want to serve on the board. The application deadline is Friday, Oct. 23 at 5 p.m.

Since we announced it so long ago, a reminder may be in order that we will hold our latest discussion in our “Beer, Brains and Betterment” series tonight. Austin Monitor Publisher Mike Kanin will take a look at “The State of Austin Music” with City Council Member Greg Casar, Austin Music People’s Jennifer Houlihan, local artist Tee-Double, Transmission Events General Manager Bobby Garza and South by Southwest Brand Development honch/former city of Austin Music Commission Chair Brad Spies. The event will take place at the North Door at 6:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public, but RSVPs and more information are available here.

Over the past several months, the Austin Independent School District board of trustees has heard many residents’ opinions on Hyde Park-based Robert E. Lee Elementary’s namesake. Monday’s regular meeting was no exception. A total of 26 residents spoke in favor of changing the school’s name, citing reasons ranging from the Confederate general’s stance on race relations to concerns that the name could cause families to avoid attending schools within the district. Supporters said that a petition to change the name had garnered 500 supporting signatures. Other schools were also briefly mentioned in Monday’s discussion regarding the appropriateness of AISD schools bearing the names of Confederate leaders. They include Sidney Lanier High School, located off Payton Gin Road, and John H. Reagan High School, located off Berkman Drive. In addition, District 1 Trustee Edmund Gordon added Travis High School and former Johnston High School to the list of schools with questionable namesakes when he asked AISD staff to provide more information about the circumstances surrounding each school’s naming and the cost of renaming schools. At-Large Board Member Kendall Pace mentioned that Dallas Independent School District had already confronted similar issues and recommended reaching out to learn about its name-changing policies and process. Board President Gina Hinojosa said the board will begin discussing school name changes at its 6 p.m. board dialogue meeting on Nov. 2. The board will work on developing a public participation process to seek nominations for alternate names. Possible action will be taken on the issue Nov. 23.

If you were unable to attend last week’s CodeUPDATE event, which provided information about CodeNEXT‘s efforts to rewrite the city’s land development code, members of the CodeNEXT team want you to know: It’s not too late. Video from the “Sound Check” presentation is now available online. And, to make it easier to follow along from home, here is a copy of the presentation.

Former Travis County Democratic Party Secretary Vincent Harding has been sworn in as the organization’s new chair. According to a statement about his election, Harding was overwhelmingly selected on Sept. 30 by the party’s Executive Committee of Precinct Chairs. On the topic of his election, he said, “I am truly honored to be the youngest person ever elected to serve as chair and only the second African-American. I know that I stand on the shoulders of giants, and I am committed to opening doors for those who will follow me. I look forward to working with all of our elected officials, precinct chairs, activists and anyone else who wants to come into the broad tent of the Democratic Party as we pursue liberty and justice for all.” Harding replaces outgoing Chair Jan Soifer. He has already moved to plan TCDP’s next forum, on the topic of immigration.

The Austin Independent School District wrapped up leveling in September, a process in which teachers from underenrolled schools are moved to overenrolled schools to help relieve overcrowding. According to district data on Sept. 21, AISD has experienced an estimated 1,090-student drop in enrollment compared to the same time last year. The district has lost the majority of its students, about 820, at the elementary school level, and the total enrollment to date is about 83,690. The district budgeted for 84,021 students, which is a key number because total enrollment affects the amount of state funding it receives. AISD moved a total of 20 teachers this year, sometimes despite protests from schools. Dusty Harshman, a parent from Maplewood Elementary School, thanked trustees at Monday’s board meeting for handling the leveling issues. However, he noted that communicating with the district about leveling using normal channels had no effect. It was not until “torches and pitchforks” came out in protest that Maplewood’s problem was solved, he said. AISD was going to move a sixth-grade teacher from Maplewood to Blackshear Elementary School. If it had gone through with the move, it would have left Maplewood with a single sixth-grade teacher instructing 29 students in all four academic areas.

This week, the City Council Mobility Committee is meeting … and that’s it! Those interested can find the committee meeting agenda here. Looking over the agenda, it looks like the committee will be tackling the recently announced agreement with the Rocky Mountain Institute, projects on South MoPac and 183, transportation network companies and the city’s five most dangerous intersections. We’ll be there!

All city building inspectors completed the training required by the state to renew their licenses and certifications last week, causing a bit of a backlog in inspections. But building inspection division manager Jose Roig assures the Austin Monitor that his inspectors “should be all caught up” by the middle of this week. Roig said via email, “Although we had several carryovers of inspections from the previous days,” inspectors are “making every effort to complete the inspections, and some are even working overtime.” As of Sept. 20, Roig reported, “We had performed 237,039 inspections for the fiscal year of 2014/15. Inspections are scheduled for the next business day, and we perform an average of 93 percent of inspections on-time.” Roig provided a chart showing the number of inspections performed in residential and commercial categories as well as the average number of inspections performed by each inspector, buildings receiving completed inspections within 24 and 48 hours and inspections completed after 48 hours. The chart shows that 93 percent of inspections are performed within 24 hours, with another 4 percent performed within 48 hours and a final 3 percent performed after 48 hours. According to the chart, inspectors performed 153,849 residential inspections within the past year and 83,190 commercial inspections during the same time period. Building inspectors performed an average of 178 inspections per week, or about 37 inspections per inspector per day between Aug. 10 and Sept. 20, according to Roig, with an average of 13 inspectors working each week. An average of 28 percent of inspections resulted in a failing grade during that same time period.

From Oct. 8 until Oct. 11, Jackson Avenue will be closed between West 39th and West 40th streets. According to a city press release, the closure will allow crews to work on the MoPac 42-inch Water Transmission Main Project. “During the street closure, northbound Jackson Avenue traffic will be detoured east on West 39th Street, north on Oakmont Boulevard, west on West 40th Street, and back to northbound Jackson Avenue. Southbound Jackson Avenue traffic will be detoured east on West 40th Street, south on Oakmont Boulevard, west on West 39th Street, and back to southbound Jackson Avenue. … The City’s subcontractor will maintain driveway access at all times to the affected property owners. Please follow all work zone traffic signs, cones and flaggers to help direct you. Drivers are encouraged to use caution while traveling around the work zone.”

It probably comes as no surprise that City Council voted unanimously to accept $2.4 million from White Lodging on Thursday for fee waivers previously granted to incentivize construction of the downtown JW Marriott hotel. Those waivers were granted on a condition that workers would be paid a prevailing wage. When it was determined that workers had not been paid a prevailing wage, the city asked for its money back. Years later, the matter is finally settled. Council Member Greg Casar, who was instrumental in getting the money back through his work with the Workers Defense Project, took a moment to celebrate from the dais. “I think today proves that no matter how big or powerful someone is, if they break their promises to the people of the city of Austin and to Council, we should hold our ground,” said Casar. “Even though a watered-down version of the agreement was offered, the Council decided to stick to their guns, and today we reap the benefits of that.”

Yesterday, the Austin Water utility put residents on notice that a “naturally occurring algae bloom” in Lake Austin could cause an unusual taste and odor in the city’s tap water. It might be a little icky, but the utility assures Austinites that it does not affect the safety of the water – everything is fine. From the press release on the subject: “Austin Water’s routine sampling and testing of our raw water supply has detected elevated blue green algae levels that may lead to concerns of a ‘musty’ taste and odor. The taste and odor is a result of a record setting blue green algae bloom. The water is safe to drink but as the algae complete the bloom it releases compounds that impart a grassy, earthy, musty taste to the water. … To minimize the impact, Austin Water has been adding activated carbon into the treatment process, and increased the carbon addition today. The activated carbon adsorbs the compounds released by the algae that create the taste and odor in the water. By introducing activated carbon in advance Austin Water expects to minimize the impact of any potential taste and odor issues. However, there is still a chance the taste and odor issue may not entirely be eliminated.”