Mayor Steve Adler; Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo; Marya Crigler, chief appraiser for the Travis Central Appraisal District; Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt; and Dick Lavine, chair of the TCAD board; will appear together at a news conference at 9:30 a.m. today at City Hall to make an announcement about the city’s challenge to property appraisals in Travis County. The city of Austin has previously filed a challenge petition to try to force the appraisal district to reconsider appraisals for commercial property and vacant land. But the city presented no evidence to the appraisal review board so that TCAD could certify appraisals without further delay, which will presumably happen today. The challenge is now headed to District Court. Travis County Commissioners previously voted 3-2 against taking any action on the challenge. Eckhardt and Commissioner Brigid Shea wanted the county’s lawyers to assist the city with the challenge. According to a report released by the city on May 19, TCAD erroneously low-balled commercial properties by an average of 47 percent between 2012 to 2014.

This whisper has been corrected to fix a typo.

According to the City Council Message Board, Mayor Steve Adler is moving forward with plans to establish an Office of Equity. He wrote, “While Austin prides itself on being a wonderful place to live, due to a number of inequities it can be a difficult place for people of color. There would be considerable benefit in having someone focused and dedicated to improving Equity in our city and our government. Not only would (they) convey a city value, it would mean that equity would have an advocate whose job would be that focus on equity, and that people in the community would have a clearly identified person to contact with equity issues.” The office, which is still in the initial stages, quickly received online support from Council Members Ora Houston and Leslie Pool.

Later today, the Austin Monitor will post an online invitation for the latest in our “Beer, Brains and Betterment” series. As usual, the event will be held at the North Door on Oct. 6 and will be free and open to the public. This time, we will turn our discussion to Austin’s music industry, with panelists Brad Spies, Jennifer Houlihan, Bobby Garza, Terrany Johnson and City Council Member Greg Casar. See you there!

Austin youth and veterans are invited to apply for the opportunity fund scholarship program, which offers scholarships for both campus and online courses. Recently, AT&T announced that to help expand the program, it had contributed $250,000 as part of a Clinton Global Initiative American “Commitment to Action.” Interested applicants can find more information here.

This Saturday, Aug. 22, the Carver Genealogy Center invites Austinites to attend a public training on the process of indexing historic records. Specifically, the event will highlight an effort by FamilySearch International to index about 4 million Freedmen’s Bureau historical records released earlier this year. According to a press release about the event, “FamilySearch is working in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Afro‐American Historical and Genealogical Society, and the California African American Museum, to make these records available and accessible to the public. The Carver Genealogy Center is seeking volunteers to join this effort that will help African Americans gain access to their family history. After attending the training, all volunteer work is online and can be completed from home.” To RSVP for the training or for more information about the project, please call Cynthia Evans at 512-974-4380.

Austin Police Department Chief Art Acevedo is one of five selected finalists in the search for San Antonio’s new chief, he announced Thursday. More than 60 candidates across the country applied for the job, the San Antonio Express-News reported. The four other finalists are San Antonio interim Chief Anthony Treviño; Malik Aziz, a deputy chief in Dallas; Albert Salinas, a deputy chief in Las Vegas; and Roberto Villaseñor, Tuscon chief of police. San Antonio City Manager Sheryl Sculley told the Express-News that she will make her candidate choice in the coming weeks and expects a council vote to confirm in September. Acevedo, who has led the APD since 2007, said in a statement: “My selection as a finalist by the Alamo City is a testament to the great work being done in Austin and the spirit of collaboration between our two great cities. While my work in Austin continues to be a great personal passion, I would be remiss if I didn’t explore the opportunity presented by San Antonio. Whatever happens, I consider this opportunity a tribute to Austin.”

Effective Sept. 9, Watershed Protection Department Director Victoria Li will resign after 10 years of service. According to a memo sent by City Manager Marc Ott to Mayor Steve Adler and City Council, Ott will appoint Joe Pantalion as acting director until a replacement is found. Pantalion is currently deputy director of the department. In his memo, Ott wrote, “Ms. Li has guided the department – and the City – through some of the toughest challenges and biggest opportunities in recent history. Her leadership on projects like Onion Creek, the Waller Creek Tunnel, and the purchase of Water Quality Protection Lands will have an impact on this community for decades to come. Her spirit for innovation helped create new programs to incorporate green building techniques in to traditional flood management infrastructure and cleared the way for staff to create ATXFloods.com. She has challenged us to think differently about the management of our watershed and flood mitigation systems, and Austin is a better place for it.”

Currently, the city of Austin is accepting letters from potential recycling and reuse tenants who are interested in relocating to Austin Resource Recovery’s new [re]Manufacturing Hub. According to a press release, “This new industrial park is positioned to become a home for the local circular economy which will attract, retain and grow zero waste businesses. The project is expected to be an economic driver for new jobs and investments throughout the Central Texas region. … Currently, many of the recyclable items collected in the City are sent out of state or overseas for manufacturing. The [re]Manufacturing Hub will be a place where recyclables can be transformed into new products locally. The co-location of multiple firms within the recycling and reuse industry will create opportunities for synergistic buyer and supplier relationships. The project will also incorporate sustainable design principles, green infrastructure and upcycled signage.” Letters of interest are being accepted until Oct. 19. More information is available here.

The Central Health Board of Managers unanimously approved next year’s budget Wednesday. Though the budget is not yet approved by the Travis County Commissioners Court, the board voted in favor of a $295.8 million budget for Fiscal Year 2015-16, with a tax rate of 4.5 percent over the effective tax rate. In a statement about the proposed budget, Central Health President and CEO Patricia Young Brown said, “Because of Proposition 1, Central Health continues to leverage local funds to draw in hundreds of millions of dollars in federal performance incentives. This funding is allowing us to initiate new preventative care, women’s health, behavioral health and specialty care programs with measurable goals and outcomes. … We are delivering on the promises made to residents when they voted to support Proposition 1 in 2012.” On Aug. 25, the Commissioners Court will weigh in on the budget, with a final vote expected Sept. 29.

Although citizens who wish to speak at Thursday City Council meetings may do so starting on Mondays, they are currently not able to sign up at the kiosk in City Hall for other meetings, such as Council committees. But that is going to change in the near future, according to City Clerk Jannette Goodall, who addressed Council at Wednesday’s budget hearing. Goodall explained that staff is modifying the existing system and will be replacing the kiosks with new ones that will accommodate sign-ups for more than one meeting at a time. The new system will allow the City Clerk’s staff to upload multiple agendas to the kiosk at one time, allowing citizens to see what is on upcoming agendas and sign up to speak if they wish. “We would upload the agendas maybe twice a week, depending on when we got them. And so we’re starting with, of course, the Council meetings and the Council committees, and then we will have to look at whether we can handle all of the boards and commissions,” she said. Commissions would have to be a separate phase, she said. “I hope to have it up and running in the next couple months,” Goodall said after the meeting, adding that she had not heard from the city’s information technology staff “on our latest round of fixes for the system. We’re constantly working with them to get the bugs fixed, so hopefully soon.” As for signing up for a hearing from the comfort of your own home, Goodall said, she is working on that, too, but it depends on security questions that have yet to be answered. Council Member Greg Casar, for one, was very enthusiastic about the idea that the kiosks would be improved. He asked whether the clerk’s office needed additional funding to accomplish the kiosk changeover, but Goodall told him it did not.

Travis County and Austin Independent School District representatives concerned about losing their city drainage charge exemptions likely breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday when the City Council Public Utilities Committee dropped an unofficial proposal to remove the exemptions for counties, school districts and tax-exempt religious organizations with property in the city. After hearing from Watershed Protection Department Director Victoria Li that there would not be enough time to make the necessary changes before October, the beginning of the next fiscal year, Council Member Don Zimmerman elected to withdraw a motion to recommend that Council consider dropping the exemptions during this year’s budget deliberations. Zimmerman did maintain that Council should consider taking such action next year, though he did not pursue a motion to that effect. State law dictates that cities must provide exemptions to state agencies and higher education institutions. During public comment, Travis County Intergovernmental Relations Coordinator Deece Eckstein voiced the county’s opposition to the idea. “We’re again’ it,” he colloquialized. Both the Travis County Commissioners Court and the AISD board of trustees have written letters to Council opposing the removal of exemptions. Doing so this year would cost the county $230,000, school districts $1.8 million and tax-exempt religious organizations $800,000. According to Craig Bell, advertising and outreach coordinator for the Watershed Protection Department, $1.25 million of the school district cost would come straight from AISD. Zimmerman first proposed the idea at the June 25 Council meeting, prior to Council’s adoption of the city’s new drainage fee methodology. Council did not pursue the proposal at the time but expressed some interest in discussing it further. No official proposal, however, came after that discussion.

A push to end community water fluoridation in Austin ended Wednesday at a joint meeting of the City Council Public Utilities Committee and Health and Human Services Committee. After hearing arguments from fluoridation advocates and opponents, Council Member Don Zimmerman, a member of the Public Utilities Committee, questioned evidence that fluoridation provides dental benefits and referred to ceasing the practice as a potential cost-saving measure. He made a motion to forward a resolution to the full Council – without recommendation – that would direct city staff to cease fluoridation by December. That motion failed for lack of a second, and no countermotion was made, meaning that, without additional action, the item will not go before the full Council. Council Member Ann Kitchen, also a member of the Public Utilities Committee, asserted that “the great weight of evidence” supports community water fluoridation. “I trust our public health officials,” she said. Council Member Ora Houston, who chairs the Health and Human Services Committee, voiced concerns about how ending the practice would impact low-income residents and children. “(In some cases), that’s the only health care that they get,” she said. After it became clear that no action would be taken, committee members were subject to boos and shouts from attendees filing out of the room.