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.

Austin’s popular Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett has thrown himself into the City Council District 4 runoff in support of Greg Casar. Casar led in the Nov. 4 election over his runoff opponent, Laura Pressley. Casar garnered 38.6 percent of the vote as compared to Pressley’s 21.5 percent in a field of eight candidates. In a news release Wednesday, Casar reported that since part of District 4 overlaps with Doggett’s Congressional District 35, “we decided to knock on some doors side by side, throw a fundraising event to help support the campaign and then break bread with our supporters at a wonderful, family-owned restaurant” on Saturday. Casar has support from numerous Democratic organizations and local labor groups. Pressley announced Wednesday that she has been endorsed by the Austin Gray Panthers as well as two former opponents.

After toying with the idea of appointing Deputy City Auditor Corrie Stokes as the new city auditor outright, City Council pulled back Thursday and voted to name her interim auditor instead. Council voted 7-0 for a substitute motion, appointing Stokes as the acting city auditor. That will be effective Dec. 1. The substitute motion also states that “the Council expresses its full confidence that Corrie Stokes demonstrates the qualifications and has the requisite experience to be a high-performing city auditor in service to the city, and strongly urges the new Council to appoint her as city auditor.”

There may be some division among City Council members today about an ordinance that would limit concrete pouring hours to between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m. on certain downtown properties. Council Member Mike Martinez said at Tuesday’s work session that he heard a request from the Old Austin Neighborhood Association to hold stakeholder meetings on the item before moving forward. He said he’d like for the city and developers to continue sound mitigation strategies until construction companies, neighbors and other stakeholders can reach an agreement, because he’s concerned the ordinance will produce unintended consequences. Council Member Laura Morrison, who initiated the amendments, said she hopes the ordinance will provide some relief to downtown residents who are suffering due to noise and that it can serve as an interim step until the city can conduct a stakeholder process. Morrison said she understood Martinez’s concern that the ordinance could affect employees of companies currently working on projects and that she would ask staff about current projects. Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole said they would support Martinez’s proposal if brought forward.

City Council Member Bill Spelman, who is considered the swing vote on several hot items coming before Council today, acknowledged his positions on CodeNEXT, the St. Elmo zoning decision and Decker Lake Golf. On St. Elmo, he said, “I’ll be voting yes, but I think there could be some amendments that I’ll be voting yes or no on … I think the St. Elmo development is a good development and it ought to go forward.” As for the rewrite of the Land Development Code, he said with great understatement, “It will be a little complicated.” He described the differences between two scenarios presented by city contractor Opticos, one favored generally by nondevelopers and the other by real estate interests. He said the difference between the two options is largely symbolic, and he believes Council can arrive at a good solution for both sides. It’s a scope of work for a contract, Spelman said. He said he believes the city needs a complete makeover of the code: “It’s just a matter of how we proceed and who does what.” He said he favors letting city staff do more of the work because they will be in charge of enforcing, interpreting and amending it, and they will need to know more about it than they would if Opticos rewrites the whole thing alone. Another item set to attract a lot of attention is the decision about awarding a contract for turning 718 acres of the Walter E. Long Park at Decker Lake into a golf course. Spelman said, “It has been on the books to be a golf course for a long time. We didn’t have the money to develop it as a golf course for a long time; we had higher priorities. We didn’t have a need for another golf course for a long time.” That may have changed with the closing of the Lions’ municipal golf course. Said Spelman: “There will be some value in having another golf course. As the hospitality community has told us, there is tremendous value for them in having a relatively high end golf course.” He noted that Austin residents would be able to play at the course for a substantial discount, and that “it’s something we’ve wanted to do since 1968.” He added that he wasn’t sure it was the best financial deal the city could make, but Parks Director Sara Hensley believes it is good. Spelman added: “It will allow the city to use 700 acres of parkland that is currently not being used.” There will no doubt be considerable testimony about the contract, with Brian Rodgers of ChangeAustin.org leading the charge against it. Rodgers argues that the city should find another way to finance its parks and that another golf course is an unwise use of water, among other things.

Plans to demolish three houses in Cherrywood are moving forward, and after a talk with the developers — Greater Austin Builders — the neighborhood is a little more at peace with the plans. Historic Landmark Commissioner Terri Myers was less so and indicated distress at the prospect of losing the three houses, which were built in the 1930s. Speaking about the house at 1823 West 39th St., Myers said, “This house is utterly charming. Unfortunately, we don’t have an ordinance for charm.” The developer told Myers that he would try to build something that fit with the neighborhood and do his best to relocate the houses instead of demolishing them. The other two houses cleared for demolition are located at 1819 West 39th St. and 3900 Cherrywood Road.

On Wednesday, the Lower Colorado River Authority board of directors appointed 22 members to the LCRA Central Basin Regional Council. The council represents Blanco, Burnet, Hays, Travis and Williamson counties. The appointees, who will begin their terms Jan. 1, are: Carlene Cristiani, David Holmes, Fred Sanford, Gloria Leal, Jim Boon, Johnsie Bryan, Kenneth Smith, Leo Mueller Jr., Olga Wise, Pamela Yeamans, Penne Korth Peacock and Tom Harrison (Austin); Blanca E. Silva-Trevino (Buda); Alan Warren and Dana Delgado (Burnet); Britt Figueroa (Dripping Springs); Robert Dahlstrom (Highland Haven); Stan Smith (Horseshoe Bay); Henry Zuniga (Pflugerville); Bobby Seiferman and James Cotton (Round Rock); and Carol Gaultney (San Marcos). Current members of the council who will continue to serve are Gordon McNutt Jr., Jack Creveling and Rick Albers (Austin); Tommy Koch (Blanco); Manuel De La Rosa (Cedar Park); Dianne Hess (Leander); Brian Bondy (San Marcos) and Chris Betz (Uhland). Members of the four regional councils (Central, Mid, Upper and Lower) provide insight into local topics to the LCRA.

Panelists for the first CitySummit — a civic conversation produced by the Monitor, KUT News 90.5 and the LBJ School of Public Affairs — have been announced. The mobility panel, moderated by KUT’s Terrence Henry, will include AURA’s Niran Babalola, the Austin Chamber of Commerce’s Jeremy Martin and UT professor Dr. Randy Machemehl. The planning panel, moderated by the Monitor‘s Mike Kanin, will feature HousingWorks Austin’s Mandy DeMayo, OPA Design Studio’s Stephen Oliver (also a sitting City of Austin Planning Commissioner), UT professor Dr. Bob Paterson and My Brilliant City’s Michael Casias. And the revenues panel, moderated by LBJ Professor Sherri Greenberg, will include Civic Analytics’ Brian Kelsey, Deputy City of Austin Chief Financial Officer Greg Canally and Greyhill Advisor’s Bob Farley. The event is Dec. 5. Lunch, parking and a morning coffee are included. For more information and tickets, please visit our EventBrite page.

Council Members Bill Spelman and Mike Martinez had a discussion during Tuesday’s work session indicating that the Council may postpone action on an ordinance that would change the powers and duties of the city auditor and the Ethics Review Commission. Spelman, who sponsored the resolution that initiated the code amendments, said that there are “still some pieces to be worked out,” though he believes the final ordinance will be ready for Thursday’s Council meeting. Martinez said that the “local employee union” — likely the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — has asked that the item be postponed until the Dec. 11 meeting if the ordinance is not amended by Wednesday or Thursday morning, so that the group can review it. Spelman agreed that, in that case, the item should be postponed. This is in the wake of the city auditor conducting an investigation based on an anonymous complaint and issuing a report accusing Zero Waste Advisory Commissioner Daniela Ochoa Gonzalez of a conflict of interest violation. Gonzalez lost her job due to the investigation and report, which Council disavowed.

On Monday, a coalition of Austin environmentalists jumped into the fight over whether to build golf courses at Decker Lake. In a letter to the city, they point out that construction of the courses could “compromise water supply strategies recommended by the Water Resource Planning Task Force” in terms of using Decker Lake for water supply purposes. The letter goes on: “It will certainly send a contradictory message to our ratepayers and to LCRA [Lower Colorado River Authority] and co-users of the river. A typical 18-hole course in our climate can use a half-million gallons of water for irrigation in a single day.” Additionally, the letter notes that relationships that the city has built with LCRA, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality staff and downstream water customers could be strained by perceived city hypocrisy on the topic of water conservation. The letter, which asks City Council to vote against the golf courses, is signed by Bill Bunch, Christianne Castleberry, David Foster, Sharlene Leurig, Luke Metzger, Marisa Perales, Paul Robbins, Lauren Ross, Stefan Schuster, Roy Waley and Jennifer Walker.

Travis County Commissioners made the results of the Nov. 4 elections official Tuesday.  Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir, who oversees the Travis County Elections Office, read the results into the Commissioners Court record and reported that 41 percent of registered voters, about 270,000 people, cast ballots in Travis County. She also reminded the commissioners that with the Dec. 16 runoff for Austin City Council, the election is not over. She said the certified results would be delivered to the Texas Secretary of State’s office for official recording. A copy of the final report will be available on the elections website. Commissioners waived a precinct-by-precinct review of the votes and unanimously approved the election results.