On Sept. 19, District 1 City Council Member Ora Houston and her staff are inviting constituents for coffee at Huston-Tillotson University. If you would like a face-to-face meeting, there are 30 time slots available, from 10 a.m. until noon. They can be reserved by calling 512-978-2101.

In the wake of the removal of the Jefferson Davis statue from the University of Texas campus, the Austin Independent School District board of trustees heard nine residents speak for and against renaming AISD’s Robert E. Lee Elementary School. At Monday’s regular meeting, four residents asked board members to change the name, while five asked them to keep it. Nancy Mims, a parent of a third-grader at Lee, said a petition sent out by parents had garnered 350 signatures. Mims said that on the petition, an African-American woman commented, “I have an obligation to make sure (my two little girls) don’t feel the same sense of insult in their daily life” as she had growing up with reminders of the nation’s history of slavery and racism. But Trey Kerrigan, a commenter against the name change, said there seemed to be a modern desire to render America’s history, and the people in it, into black-and-white, right-and-wrong categories. “I worry about the lesson it gives our children, the lesson that everything is simple. … When a child comes to us and asks why our school is named after Robert E. Lee, shouldn’t we answer history is long and complicated, let’s talk about it?” A recommendation regarding Lee Elementary’s name change is not currently on AISD’s radar, but board President Gina Hinojosa said the district’s Oversight Committee on Excellence through Equity, Diversity and Inclusion – spearheaded by District 6 Trustee Paul Saldaña – is currently looking it over and putting together the issue’s next steps.

Former Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell has dipped his toes back into the region’s political scene by endorsing Lakeway Police Chief Todd Radford for Travis County sheriff. In a note circulated by the Radford campaign on Wednesday, Leffingwell cited the candidate’s Dove Springs provenance as well as his professional experience in Austin’s western suburb. “Under his leadership,” Leffingwell wrote, “Lakeway became one of the first police forces in the state to put body cameras on every patrol officer – so he has the first-hand experience to bring this vital reform to the Sheriff’s Office.” Radford is running for the Democratic nomination for sheriff against Travis County Chief Deputy Jim Sylvester, former Austin Police Department Lt. John Sisson and Travis County Sgt. Don Rios. A draft campaign is currently underway to encourage Precinct 3 Constable Sally Hernandez to join the race as well. As far as the weight of Leffingwell’s endorsement is concerned, he batted .500 on his most recent pair of political picks. Last year he backed Steve Adler’s successful attempt to replace him, while also campaigning assiduously for the doomed billion-dollar rail and roads bond package known as Prop 1.

Did you know that the American Bar Association has a Task Force on Law Enforcement Body Camera? It does, and the ABA recently appointed city of Austin Police Monitor Margo Frasier to it. Frasier, who has more than 35 years of criminal justice experience, will help identify best practices and policies for the use of body cameras. She will join members of law enforcement, government, state prosecutors’ offices, public and private criminal practice, academia, civil liberties groups and other legal arenas. According to a press release, “The task force is expected to present preliminary findings and recommendations to the American Bar Association’s policymaking body, the House of Delegates, in August 2016.” The city of Austin has discussed body cameras, and though there is no implementation schedule yet, purchase and usage of body cameras are part of the budget talks that are set to wrap up next week.

The Great Travis County Voter Registration Challenge shifts into full gear in September with voter registration activities taking place all throughout the month. Schools will kick off the activities during Week 1 (Education Week), followed in Week 2 by local businesses and government agencies (Civic Week), nonprofits and individuals in Week 3 (Community Week) and faith communities in Week 4 (Houses of Worship Week). The Travis County Tax Office is encouraging people to join in on hosting events during this time. To do so, email the tax office at Tax_Office@TravisCountyTX.gov. The tax office is also providing volunteer deputy registrar training for groups of 10 or more. The goal of the Voter Registration Challenge, which launched in August, is to register 90 percent of the county’s eligible voters in one year. If successful, the drive will add about 100,000 new voters to the county’s registration roll. Anyone wishing to register but hoping to skip the hoopla can also use the county’s Text2Register service: Text “Register” to 48683 (I Vote) to receive a postage-paid voter registration application. For more information, visit the Travis County Tax Office website.

Among the proposals on the City Council “budget concept menu” are two items concerning Austin’s chambers of commerce. Council Member Don Zimmerman has proposed removing the Economic Development Department’s funding for the chambers – which would save just over $1 million. Council Member Leslie Pool has a different proposition. Citing “general support for continuing funding for the chambers of commerce,” she has proposed “equalizing funding for the chambers of commerce at $225,000 per chamber.” Asked about the plans, Economic Development Director Kevin Johns said that he hoped Council would want to continue funding Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce programs that dealt with children, poverty and education. He also explained that the missions of the Greater Austin Black Chamber of Commerce, Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce, Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Austin Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce all held slightly different missions, constituencies and focuses, and were “all incredibly valuable.” Zimmerman maintained his stance, making the point that there are other groups in Austin doing work similar to the chambers but that “they aren’t demanding any subsidies.” Johns replied, “Chambers of commerce are universally part of the public-private partnerships in every major city in the country. It is universally accepted that there is a role of government funding chambers of commerce, everywhere.”

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has awarded the Equity in Child Welfare Award to Texas CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates). The award recognizes the work that CASA has done in reconciling disproportionality and disparities among children and families in Texas. According to a press release about the award, “Texas CASA was recognized for initiatives focusing on diversity, equity, cultural competence and ensuring better outcomes for children and youth in care. The organization is committed to inspiring and empowering the local CASA programs to not only provide a CASA volunteer for every child who needs one, but to recruit and train quality volunteers that understand and reflect the diversity of the children they serve.” Texas CASA consists of 72 local CASA programs that recruit and train volunteers that advocate for children in the child welfare system. According to the group, in 2014, 8,066 well-trained volunteers served 24,742 children in 207 of the 254 Texas counties.

Travis County Commissioner Ron Davis opined Tuesday on an issue causing some political dyspepsia at the city of Austin. What was otherwise the Commissioners Court’s official introduction to Patrick Howard, the new interim executive director of the Housing Authority of Travis County, became an opportunity for Davis to hold forth on the Rosewood Courts controversy. Built in 1939, the East Austin complex was the first public housing project in the nation built for African-American residents. Last week, the city’s Historic Landmark Commission failed to recommend historic zoning for the apartments, leaving the door open to planned redevelopment of the property. “What persons are afraid of – and I share their fear – is that whatever they end up doing, they will displace these persons out there and do what they want to do with the property,” Davis said. He urged Howard to work with the Housing Authority of the City of Austin, which supports the redevelopment plan at Rosewood Courts. Davis told him, “Folks are really going to be watching very close. This is going to be a pivotal point because there’s been so many people in this area that have been displaced. Gentrification has forced a lot of people out and a lot of other things. This is another piece of that gentrification.” Howard agreed that gentrification is a serious problem before adding, “I think that with such a great need for affordable housing, we have to continue to work on looking at creative ways to both look at expanding the supply of affordable housing while looking at trying to diversify neighborhoods and making them neighborhoods of choice as well.”

Electric Utility Commissioner Shudde Fath continued her effort to get City Council to raise the demand charge threshold for small, commercial Austin Energy customers as part of the Fiscal Year 2015-16 budget in a frank memo she sent to Council, City Manager Marc Ott and Austin Energy General Manager Larry Weis on Monday. “A budget amendment to change the small business demand charge threshold from 10 (kilowatts) back to 20kW WILL NOT ‘raise bills for some customers’ and WILL NOT result in a budget increase or budget reduction,” Fath wrote. She was directly refuting a statement that Austin Energy spokesperson Robert Cullick provided to the Austin Monitor on Wednesday, which stated that “changing (the policy) will raise bills for some customers without giving them a chance to participate in a fair and impartial process.” Council reduced the demand charge threshold for small, commercial customers from 20 to 10 kilowatts in 2012, meaning that customers in that class who exceed 10 kilowatts of peak demand between June and September of any given year are bumped into a higher class – for the following year – that is subject to demand charges. Small-business customers have complained that the policy creates a financial burden and risk for them. The Electric Utility Commission passed Fath’s resolution on Aug. 17 asking Council to raise the threshold back to 20 kilowatts and reduce the amount of time – from one year to three months – before customers are eligible to return to their previous class. Mark Dreyfus, vice president of regulatory affairs and corporate communications at Austin Energy, has maintained that Council should consider the policy change as part of a cost-of-service study that will take place over the next several months – for rates that will be effective in October 2016 – rather than consider it as part of the budget. Fath has argued that small businesses need relief sooner.

How much is City Council’s new committee system costing the city? According to the answer to a budget question posed by Council Member Pio Renteria, $223,089 so far. Of that, $42,549 is for staff and overtime, $36,000 is for equipment costs, $65,000 is for contractor support, $60,940 is for closed captioning and $18,600 is for video archival. Extra staff and overtime are in the city’s Public Information Office, the City Clerk’s Office and the Building Services Department. Of those, the equipment costs are one-time costs.

The Austin Animal Center is beginning its strategic planning process, and it is asking the people of Austin to weigh in on its strengths, weaknesses, “opportunities, and threats,” in order to better understand what’s working at the center and what isn’t. The survey is available online here until Sept. 4. Responses are anonymous.

Today, City Council members (and the Austin Monitor) have set aside their day to discuss the city’s budget and tackle the spending (and cuts) proposed on Council’s budget concept menu. The meeting is scheduled to take place from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.