Tuesday, October 22, 2019

A Little Weather and Council Results

*****Weather*****

47° this morning at the 15th Live Oak Tee Box.  Rain maybe Thursday with another front.  

*****Council Meeting*****

Council started off with a bang - here's a link to the video.  It's finally come to the point of being ridiculous.  After the Pledge, council immediately went into executive session for items 3-8.  This lasted until 10:00 p.m. while resident attendees waited in council chambers.  The executive session covered a Board of Adjustment (unanimous) decision, real property issues relating to the MUD, Stratus and Oaks property, real property discussion on building and parks, MUD property, easement requests and discussion about the city's current lawsuits and more discussion about City Manager employment issues.

No Discussion on any items covered in executive session.

At 10 p.m. the meeting resumed in chambers.  Further delay was caused by issues with connections with Council Members Kumar and Smith who are out of the country.  Kudos for trying video conference but in my opinion it is a waste of time.  It causes further delay, and obviously neither council, citizens or video members can hear or be heard.  Another small nit, it would be nice if the city attorney would speak into a microphone so all could hear.

9)  Financial report was given by Interim City Manager Julie Oakley.  The city was under budget by about $1,666,182 that will be carried over into the general fund for 2020.  Makes you wonder why they had to raise taxes.

10)  Mayor Pro Tem  Higginbotham gave an update on the Hamilton Greenbelt Fire Mitigation Project - the Lake Travis ISD's Young Men Service League has promised 200 volunteers for at leat 2 hours each for a total of 400 hours of service to this project.  This is a real win for the city!

11)  ZAPCO kicked the can down the road on the Land Use Map  change and Council sent it back to them for a decision.  ZAPCO effectively put a moratorium on future development on the possibility that the Comprehensive Plan MIGHT change and ordinances MIGHT change sometime in the future.  Now they need to make a decision - either up or down at the next meeting.

12)  Item withdrawn by applicant.

13)  Lakeway Highlands requested annexation was approve unanimously.

14)  Lakeway Highlands zoning was approved unanimously.

15)  Special Use Permit for a Short Term Rental at 202 Top O' The Lake was approved unanimously.

17)  (Brought Forward because of time) Police Training Simulator Donation was approved unanimously

16)  Discussion on revision to Chapter 28 of the Lakeway Code - Subdivisions and Site Development - there was discussion on the possibility of hiring YAC (yet another consultant) to write our own rules instead of using the city of Austin's - there was also discussion that issues we have generally stem from issues that were present before ordinances were adopted - there was also a discussion about issues that are caused by lack of enforcement by our own officials.  Gonna get interesting.

18)  Two folks actually stayed to talk at "citizens participation", one was an attorney representing his parents on a drainage issue and the other was Mr Kilgore who talked about issues pertaining to the BOA denial of his appeal.

19)  The consent agenda was approved with the exception of one item that was pulled to correct the person making the motion to increase taxes - corrected to show Council Member Kumar as the Member making that motion.

The meeting adjourned at 12:03 a.m.  
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That's all for today - enough don't you think?  

Let me know if you would like to be added (or removed) from my email list.  I appreciate the support for the blog!

Good time for pictures!  The lake is still nearly full (10 feet down) and the foliage looks good!  Email me at joe@skypict.com and we'll talk about it.

More as it happens!

Joe Bain

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