For the 4th year in a row, the Lakeway Court won the Traffic Safety Initiative Award for Low Volume Courts in Texas! Congratulations to Judge Madison and his Staff - they are doing a wonderful job!
Remember the Blume lawsuit against the LCC? He sued the City and the LCC over the sale of 2 parks on the ballot last year and was defeated by voters. He dropped the City off the lawsuit and continued against the LCC. Last week there was a hearing and neither he nor his lawyer showed up - a judge dismissed the case.
The Cokins' appeal is going before the courts - the hearing date is scheduled for Wednesday, March 6 at 9:00AM. Both parties will be allowed 20 minutes to present their case. I expect the decision will take some time to be rendered.
The Board of Ethics have submitted their Annual Report . I have attached a link for your use - no major issues were reported!
The TCEQ Approved the LCRA Emergency Drought plan for the Second Year in a Row. Here is that document - GOOD NEWS!
City Council will meet in regular session Tuesday evening. Here is that agenda.
From Steve Jones:
The Mayor and Julie Oakley are working to acquire some property for a permanent household hazardous waste facility. They are cautiously optimistic about working out a sale on a piece of property.
Two candidates were interviewed this week for he new communications coordinator position - we should have a decision soon.
Mayor DeOme and I met with representatives from TxDot, LTISD, and Travis County this week to discuss traffic congestion on RR 620, especially near the high school/middle school campus. We agreed to share the cost of performing a traffic analysis to ascertain the most cost efficient way to mitigate the congestion. When the study is complete, we will evaluate sources of funding for a solution.
In Fact Daily reported this week that:
The division of the state Public Utility Commission charged with representing residential customer interests in utility rate cases delivered more than 200 pages of scathing written testimony Friday in the pending Austin Energy rate case.
In it, three experts called on behalf of the Office of Public Utility Counsel offer detailed criticisms of a host of AE calculations and other actions associated with the utility’s 2012 rate increase. They range from an echo of the often-heard criticism of Austin Energy’s funding for the city’s Economic Growth and Development Services Office (EGRSO) to a rejection of the share of city costs placed on the utility.
All told, the consumer counsel’s office recommends the reduction of the rate requirement determined by Austin Energy’s test year by more than $91 million —which is $20 million greater than the rate increase approved by the City Council. That reduction would leave the utility in a deep hole.
It is encouraging to see that qualified lawyers and experts agree with our position that the City of Austin uses Austin Energy to generate revenue to pay for activities that have nothing to do with supplying electric power, and in our case, provide no direct benefit to the customer.
A schedule has been worked out, and Progressive Waste plans to begin distributing the new “single-stream” recycling carts in the middle of March.
Sales Tax Assurance reports that our sales tax receipts are 7.9% ahead of this month last year, and year-to-date we are 9.1% ahead of last year.
Dale DeLong reported that public works installed new “No U-Turn” signs on Aria Drive this week. We hope this will help our residents in the Ridge at Alta Vista with morning traffic congestion at the entrance/exit to their neighborhood.
While we did not perform a study, we did collect some data from our new radar speed limit signs that you may find interesting. The radar on Lohmans Crossing (during a period of three days and nineteen hours) recorded 29,357 vehicles with a median speed of 32 MPH, and 85% traveling at 37 MPH or less. The radar on Lakeway Blvd (during a four day period) recorded 26,598 vehicles with a median speed of 29 MPH, and 85% traveling at 33 MPH or less.
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In area news - it appears that Bee Cave voted on Saturday, Feb. 16 to accept a calculation that the City i fact has a population of over 5,000 residents that will enable it to go forward with an election for Home Rule at the May election.
It will be interesting to see how this progresses. Residents have been able to live with a 2% tax rate mainly because of the commercial activity in Bee Caves - if they annex and have to provide services to a growing area of residential properties, that rate may be history - we'll see how it comes out!
That's all I have for today - hope you enjoy this beautiful Sunday!
Joe Bain
lakeway@bain.us
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