The 48th annual Zilker Holiday Tree lighting will take place at 6 p.m. Sunday in Zilker Park. After that, the tree will be lit every night from 6 p.m. to midnight Dec. 1 until Dec. 31. Sunday’s ceremony will feature emcee Quita Culpepper, toy collection by Operation Blue Santa for its toy drive, music by the Austin Civic Wind Ensemble and the Barton Hills Choir, and on-site food vendors. The tree will be lit by the children who won the 2014 art contest, as is tradition. The Zilker Holiday Tree is produced by the Austin Parks and Recreation Department and Austin Energy, and will be presented by the Trail of Lights Foundation and GoogleFiber. More information is available on the event’s website.

Unlike the last go-round when ChangeAustin.org endorsed only Jason Meeker for City Council, the group has selected its preferred candidates in several runoff races. Based on the same questionnaire used for the November election, the group has endorsed Ora Houston (District 1), Susana Almanza (District 3), Greg Cesar AND Laura Pressley (District 4), Leslie Pool (District 7) and Ed Scruggs (District 8).

The Austin Monitor, KUT and KLRU invite you to join us in Studio 6A at the KLRU Studios for a live televised debate between runoff mayoral candidates Steve Adler and Mike Martinez. The debate will be moderated by Monitor publisher Mike Kanin and Jennifer Stayton, host of Morning Edition on KUT 90.5, Austin’s NPR station. The event will take place Dec. 7. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. The event is free, but an RSVP (available here) is required. If you are unable to attend in person, be sure to watch live on KLRU!

District 7 candidate Jeb Boyt’s campaign has complained that his opponent, Leslie Pool, “has been skirting the law to cut her tax payments.” The complaint stems from Pool claiming a homestead exemption on a home she owns on Shoal Creek Boulevard. Her domestic partner, Will Grover, owns a rental property on Fleetwood Drive in South Austin. According to Boyt, Grover is also claiming a homestead exemption, which is not allowed because the property is rental property. Mykle Tomlinson, campaign manager for Boyt, found the information on the financial statement she filed with the city. Grover is also paying Pool back on a loan she made to him to pay off the mortgage on the rental property, Pool reported. Tomlinson said, “Ms. Pool has been to multiple forums and sent mail touting her views on property taxes and tax reform. All the while, she has not been paying her fair share. Candidates should be judged by their actions, not by what they will say to get elected.” According to Tomlinson, the extra homestead exemption saved Grover and Pool about $500 last year. However, Pool said last night that she did not know that her partner was still claiming a homestead exemption on his property. She said Grover is paying back whatever he owes immediately. Pool added, “I just think it’s really unfortunate that my significant other had to be dragged into the campaign.”

At last week’s City Council meeting, activist Brian Rodgers complained about the Downtown Austin Alliance, which is supported by tax money through a special downtown property assessment. Rodgers said the DAA gave $440,000 to the political action committee supporting the recent failed bond election for urban rail. Rodgers said the job of the alliance is to promote downtown, not to spend public money for political purposes. He said such an expenditure “should be illegal, even if it is not.” Rodgers noted that he has requested information from the DAA about how it spends its money, and that request has been forwarded to the attorney general’s office for a ruling on whether the information should be public. Charlie Betts, executive director of the DAA, said he believes it is perfectly legal and appropriate for the alliance to spend money to help pass bonds. He noted that the DAA has helped fund campaigns to pass not only city bonds, but also school district bonds and the campaign to create the medical school. “We think it’s in the best interest of downtown,” Betts said. He noted that the group does not contribute to political candidates. “We thought for the past 15 years a good multimodal transportation system is what the community absolutely wants to have, and we thought that bond issue was a hugely important initial step and that the roadway improvements were as important as the beginnings of the first phase of urban rail,” Betts said. He added, “But now it’s time to look for the right Plan B.” It seems unlikely that Rodgers will be satisfied with that answer. City Attorney Karen Kennard opined that it was not the job of the city to make a decision about whether the DAA is spending its money appropriately. She said it is up to the State of Texas, specifically the Texas Ethics Commission, should anyone complain to that agency.

Austin Energy’s deal earlier this year to buy power from a solar farm for 20 years got the attention of The New York Times on Monday. In an article, the paper reported that the cost of generating energy with solar and wind power has fallen to the point that it is almost on par with the cost of generating power with natural gas and coal. Reporter Diane Cardwell noted that the cost of providing renewable energy, previously much more expensive than that from fossil fuels, has dropped precipitously over the past five years and is now competitive in many markets. Austin’s solar farm contract will deliver energy for less than 5 cents a kilowatt-hour, whereas gas and coal come in at an average of 6.1 to 6.6 cents per kwh. The Times quoted Austin Energy’s Khalil Shalabi, the utility’s vice president for energy market operations and resource planning, as saying that the lower cost eliminates one of the two major problems with renewable energy. The other dilemma, Shalabi said, is that solar and wind power can’t be dispatched on demand, a problem that still appears to have no solution. The article also notes that in recent months, Congress has been looking into making the tax treatment of all energy forms more consistent, putting renewables on par with fossil fuels. However, with Republican majorities in both the House and Senate beginning in January, there’s no guarantee that will happen.

Springdale Farms’ request to change its land use got a cautious first approval at City Council early Friday morning. The case, which has ignited debate over urban farms in East Austin once again, was approved on first reading in a vote of 5-1, with Council Member Laura Morrison voting in opposition and Council Member Bill Spelman absent. Morrison said that she was voting no with a “strong suggestion” that the two opposing sides get together and have a conversation — perhaps with city staff or a mediator — and work out the conflict. Because the change has a valid petition against it, at least six Council members will have to approve the change. And, as Council Member Mike Martinez pointed out, that (theoretical) approval is just the first step in the process. “They will still have to come back for a Conditional Use Permit, even should this happen to pass on all three readings at some point in the future,” said Martinez. “The conversation is not done and it’s still going to have to happen.”

On Thursday, City Council approved a rezoning and change of the Future Land Use Map that will allow construction of residential lofts in the currently industrial area of South Austin on St. Elmo’s Road. Developer GFD Holdings plans to build the St. Elmo Market and Lofts at Industrial Boulevard and South Congress. The proposed project consists of a 43,000 square foot shopping center, 400 apartments, a boutique hotel and a music venue — possibly a relocated Saxon Pub — on the land. City staff did not support the project because it will put residences in close proximity to some of the last close-in heavy industrial land uses in the city. Though the rezoning passed on consent, Council Members Kathie Tovo and Laura Morrison voted in opposition.

Last week, members of the Swede Hill Neighborhood Association asked Historic Landmark Commissioners to take a second look at the Stasswender compound in their neighborhood. Swede Hill neighborhood association member Louisa Brindsmade acknowledged that a portion of the estate had already been evaluated, but asked that the entire compound be evaluated “in the broader context of the family’s history and achievements while residing in Swede Hill.” The family is famous for its stone artwork, which is at the Governor’s Mansion, the Capitol grounds and the LBJ Library, among other places. Swede Hill is a historic district. The Stasswender compound is located at 1506 Waller and 807 East 16th St.

On Thursday, the city honored Charlie Betts with a Distinguished Service Award. Betts, who is retiring, had served as executive director of the Downtown Austin Alliance for the past 17 years. Mayor Lee Leffingwell presented the award, calling Betts a good friend and “positive force for the City of Austin.” Betts accepted the honor, saying, “Our job at the DAA is to advocate — to make downtown attractive to investors and developers. We’ve always had great support from this Council and a number of councils previously. I think the investment of infrastructure downtown has paid dividends to all of us.” Leffingwell made it clear that he would miss Betts and joked, “I feel so bad about it, I am going to join him in about a month and a half.”

City Council members voted 5-2 Thursday to, among other items, grant an extension to Austin Pets Alive!’s lease on the former City of Austin Town Lake Animal Shelter. The resolution ultimately allows the group to repair the facility and occupy it while the master plan for the Lamar Beach area comes together. The TLAC facility would still “come down,” in the words of item lead sponsor Council Member Mike Martinez. The opposing votes belonged to Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Council Member Bill Spelman. Leffingwell moved to limit the extension to September 2015 amid concerns from City of Austin Animal Services Director Abigail Smith, who worried that APA could not come up with funds for necessary repairs. Spelman sought a compromise to set the extension at a year. As the Monitor first reported last week, the TLAC facility failed a recent state inspection.

Austin City Council members OK’d a $5,000 homestead exemption for city homeowners Thursday. This is not to be confused with the much larger 20 percent exemption proposed on the campaign trail by multiple Council candidates. That latter exemption would bring the city in line with other local entities, including Travis County. Should the new Council choose to go with a 20 percent exemption, it would have to find millions of dollars’ worth of additional cuts or other savings to accommodate it.