Yesterday, Chief Animal Services Officer Tawny Hammond announced that she has hired Kristen Auerbach as her new deputy chief. Auerbach, who is currently the interim director of the Fairfax County Animal Shelter in Virginia, will help manage the daily operations of the Animal Services Department beginning in August. Chris Noble, the previous deputy chief Animal Services officer, left in June to become the chief of police in Sealy, Texas.

The brain trust behind the information blitz promoting Travis County’s proposed Civil & Family Courts Complex shed some light on the proposal’s progress on Tuesday. The project’s lead task manager, Matias Segura, told the Commissioners Court that his team has already had 37 public meetings with stakeholders and has plans for at least 80 more before November. Of those, 12 will be open houses in each of the commissioners’ precincts. The rest will be meetings with organizations, including the Austin Group for the Elderly, Mexic-Arte Museum and the Lakeway Men’s Breakfast Club. Segura told the commissioners that most of the people his team has talked to approach the project with some skepticism but are often persuaded when they learn key details. That seems to square with results from a poll conducted in May that shows a 7-point swing in favor of the $291.6 million bond after respondents were presented with “balanced messaging.”

Due to overwhelming interest, the Austin Monitor has added standby tickets to our July 27 “Beers, Brains, and Betterment” discussion about the Economics of Imagine Austin. Standby tickets are available here.

Yesterday, the new Board of Adjustment held its first meeting, and though not all the seats are filled, members elected officers. Returning Board Member Vincent Harding will serve as chair, and Melissa Hawthorne will continue on as vice chair. Jeff Jack, the former board chair, no longer serves on the Board of Adjustment.

This Saturday, July 18, City Council Member Ora Houston and staff invite the public to join them at the second District 1 Town Hall Meeting. The gathering will feature representatives from the Austin Code Department, the Austin Fire Department Wildfire Division and community homeless organizations. It will take place at the the High Pointe Baptist Church at 12030 Dessau Road, from 10 a.m. until noon.

As part of the ongoing MoPac Improvement Project, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority has combined the Cesar Chavez, 5th Street and Lake Austin Boulevard exits from southbound MoPac and opened the modified ramp yesterday, July 13. The entrance to the ramp is now farther north, making for an earlier exit. The change is expected to be in place for five months. Those curious about the project or construction updates can visit the project website or, apparently, follow it on Twitter, here.

Results of a poll conducted by Tulchin Research show that a bond measure to build a new Civil & Family Courts Complex is “well-positioned to win voter approval in November, assuming that supporters have the necessary resources to run an effective campaign,” according to the group. The poll surveyed 400 likely voters with landlines. According to the research group, “Based on a basic description of the bond measure, 54 percent of voters say they would vote for the measure if the election were held today while 40 percent indicate they would vote against it. But in a simulated engaged campaign in which respondents hear arguments both in favor of and in opposition to the measure, support grows significantly. After messaging from both sides, voters favor the measure by a 28-point margin, with more than six in ten voters (61%) supporting it to just a third (33%) opposed.”

While interesting things most likely have happened and will continue to happen through July, the general lack of meetings and public business during Austin’s “summer vacation” has left the Austin Monitor team with a lack of tidbits to round up for the weekly Reporter’s Notebook. It will return in August, along with City Council.

Dying to tell someone what you think of the revamped City Council? A new survey gives you the opportunity to weigh in – and to see what other people think of Council’s performance thus far. Austin Monitor board member Julio Gonzalez Altamirano created the project. The survey is anonymous and has only three questions. Once participants complete the survey, aggregated response data is displayed. The survey closes this Friday, July 17.

Former Mayor Lee Leffingwell did not have a prepared proclamation to read at Thursday night’s party for former City Council gatekeeper and Proclamation Coordinator Gail Chavez, but he did not have any trouble making one up on the spot. He said, “Whereas Gail Chavez has served the city of Austin well and truly for – what is it now, 15 years?” Chavez said nearly 16 years. Leffingwell continued, “And whereas Gail has put the best possible face on the Austin City Council and the mayor’s office for those who come to visit, and whereas that is not an easy task (big laugh line), and whereas we know that she will enjoy her retirement, and we wish her the very best, now therefore, as former mayor of the city of Austin with the power vested in me, which is virtually nothing (more laughter), I hereby declare it Gail Chavez Day in the city of Austin, Texas.” Chavez said she was enjoying her retirement and that Leffingwell’s “was our finest administration.” Former Council Member Mike Martinez got some laughs, too, when he said, “I was honored to work with Gail for eight years of the 16. Gail wasn’t just the receptionist, Gail wasn’t just the person who clocked people in, she was the gatekeeper. And she was the fierce defender of the Council and staff. And no one knows that more than I do. When the folks would come in and say, ‘I’m just going to go to the bathroom,’ Gail knew (laugh line). And I saw her on multiple occasions say, ‘That bathroom’s not for you. You might want to try one downstairs,’ because she knew they were headed down the hall.” All true, folks. For many, it’s the end of an era.

The Transportation Department is currently in the process of “unsplitting” traffic lights at certain intersections as part of its ongoing Traffic Congestion Action Plan. “When we unsplit the signal, we allow the left turns on both sides of the street to run together and the throughs on both sides of the street to run together,” Assistant Director Jim Dale told the Austin Monitor on Thursday. “This allows us to operate the signal more efficiently, and now we can reallocate the green time at the signal and improve the operations of the intersections.” Dale said the improvements have decreased current average delay times between 5 and 10 percent for the completed intersections, though that number can come close to 20 percent during peak times at some crossroads. Currently, about 10 percent of the city’s intersections are “split,” meaning that through and left-turn signals on one side of an intersection are more likely to run together. The city is nearly finished unsplitting its ninth intersection – at Burnett Road and Kramer Lane – and is working through a list over the summer of intersections that require relatively few resources to unsplit. Many of these intersections, Dale explained, require only road restriping and adding or rearranging signal heads at a cost of around $2,000. Others require more costly enhancements, such as purchasing right-of-way, and it is not clear what the plan is for those. “We’re starting with the simple ones first and just working down that list as quickly as we can,” Dale said.

Mayor Steve Adler returned this week from his first mayoral trip overseas, where he made stops in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ireland. Although Austin taxpayers didn’t foot the bill (Adler paid for the trip out of pocket), they may benefit nonetheless. According to a press release from the city of Austin, the goal was, in part, “to build personal relationships with government and business leaders from cities that already have an existing relationship with Austin.” Adler also spent much of his time meeting with city officials to discuss shared challenges in areas such as affordability and transportation. “We have much to learn and gain from relationships with partner and sister cities across the globe,” said Adler. “Austin is now an international city, and there is worldwide interest in our culture and a strong desire in joining to create a network of socially innovative and entrepreneurial cities.” The trip appears to be part of an ongoing effort to nurture Austin’s international stature. According to the press release, “In his first six months as mayor, Adler has met in Austin with mayors and government and business leaders from Canada, Mexico, South Korea, China, Taiwan, and France, among others.” The European trip is likely to be reciprocated within the next year by mayors from Sweden, Ireland and France who plan to visit Austin.