Highland Neighborhood Association
Quarterly Meeting Minutes
Tuesday 6 September 2011
@ Gateway Baptist Church
(by HNA Secretary Matt Moon)
**************
**************

HNA President Damon Howze called meeting to order. Council Member Bill Spelman (Place 5) spoke first.

Spellman painted the scene of City Politics in 1951: five council seats, all elected "at large", all white males. The mayorship passed back and forth between representatives of the lumber companies and banks. There were segregated schools back then, areas of town having their interests advanced by city council and other areas of town being ignored. There were certain areas of town, where no city council member has ever lived.

Today, elections for City Council take place in May. The less affluent are less likely to vote in May than they are in November. Most people who vote in May come from the square mile area around downtown, where the more affluent live. Thus, certain neighborhoods, under our current "at large" election system, have a disporportiant amount of power in City Council.

The City Council has voted to hire a commission, who'll develop -- with community input -- a possible plan for a "single-member districts" election system to replace the current "at large system". Spellman said that all of the people on the commission are fair-minded and want to hear your point of view. Spellman wants all northern neighborhoods to get a fair shake in city hall. He doesn't want anyone to show up to city council and feel like no one represents them. He then opened up the floor to questions.

[all questions/answers are paraphrased and are by no means verbatim]

Neighbor #1: Won't single-member districts encourage backroom deals between district representatives, a.k.a. vote trading?
Spellman: Currently, due to Open Meetings Act violations last year, City Council cannot meet about issues except at Board meetings. Stringent rules like that can put a damper on the ability to make backroom deals, although there are their setbacks such as extremely long Council meetings (due to inability to talk beforehand).

Neighbor #2: Currently, all City Council Members are upper middle class. Obviously the ability to be financially capable to run a campaign is important for getting elected.
Spellman: If you have to run a city-wide campaign (as one currently does under the "at large" system), you call rich people rather than your friends. If we only ran in our neighborhood (under a "single-member district" system), I could knock on everybody's door and talk to people one-on-one. Currently, you have to waste cash on TV ads and have friends with money.

Neighbor #3: Former Council Member Randi Shade seemed to think it would cost the same amount of money to run a campaign.
Spellman: TV ads are what drive up the cost of a campaign. Takes $200,000 to get elected currently. Under a single-member district system, I estimate I could run on $50,000. Hopefully TV ads would stop and elections would be more about people power and less about money. Hopefully, it would empower environmentalists and neighborhood associations.

Neighbor #4: I hear there was possibly a "hybrid" option to this debate?
Spellman: Currently, the default idea is we'd increase the City Council by two seats (going from 7 to 9) and it'd be six district representatives, two "at large" representatives, and one "at large" mayor. I like this idea because, a voter isn't stopped by a district representative who may be against your interest. There are least three other council members you can see. If the mayor is the only "at large" council member, he can claim he "speaks for the whole city" and that can make him too strong. Thus, hybrid solution is ideal to me. In Los Angeles, they have fifteen districts, which has sometimes caused a culture of every grant moneys given to the city being split up fifteen-different ways. Too many single-member district representatives and not enough "at large" representatives could be a bad balance.

Neighbor #5: The two "at large" members and the "at large" mayor could live in [Spellman's] district.
Spellman: The two "at large" members could be split into a "north of the river" representative and "south of the river" representative. Or another possible way, which has never been done, is we could divide Austin into a donut --- with the inner circle being one representative and and outer edges of Austin being the other representative.

Neighbor #6/7/8: Even under a single-member district system, can you not have ads and be elected? Is there a social-network bypass? A candidate could get my vote if they sent me a mailer saying that they were coming to my neighborhood on [such-and-such date] to talk.
Spellman: In a single-member district system, it makes more sense for a candidate to come to meetings such as the quarterly meeting of the Highland Neighborhood Association. In a city-wide "at large" system, it is less desirable for a candidate.

Neighbor #9: To win an election, one must utilize all the best tools, which are expensive and time intensive. I don't think it matters what system it is, it'll still require wealth.

Neighbor #10: One of the four proposals has Highland Neighborhood in a same district that runs all the way down to Stasney (south of the river).
Spellman: I am not sure how one could pound pavement in that whole district.
#10: Travis Heights would control that district.
Spellman: How many people are in Highland Neighborhood?
#10: 1,900 homes, so about 6,000 in Highland. Under the single-member district plan, there'd be 150,000 people in a district (Highland is 4% of that number).

Neighbor #11: Looking at the four proposals of how the districts could be split up, I'm having trouble seeing the rhyme and reason.
Spellman: Ryan Regon, the city demographer, has not drawn any of this, he merely supplied the data. The guy who drew the maps is Sid Faulk ,a hired consultant who has done this in other parts of Texas. The primary thing he was initially concerned about, when drawing the districts, was making sure it could get through the US Department of Justice. So he first drew a "Hispanic Majority" district and a "Black Opportunistic" district (the black population is dispersed throughout Austin; no district with over 50% of the black population). These are Districts #1 and Districts #2 which are anchored in the same place on all four maps. Sid Faulk wasn't drawing these maps with any concept of "political possibility" other than being approved by the US DoJ.

Neighbor #12: So, how does this whole process roll out in the future?
Spellman: The Commission represents many points of view. They'll get citizen feedback about what is acceptable; try to come up with something that works. And then they'll shop that idea around to groups, publicize it in the newspapers, get surveys mailed, and other ways. Then they'll determine a final proposal, which they will submit to city council, who'll vote on it. If it passes the council vote, it'll go on the ballot in November 2012.

Neighbor #13: Historically, this idea has gone to ballot before (and been voted down every time). Why would it be different this time?
Spellman: In the past, these votes have taken place in May. May elections are dominated by those West of Mo-Pac because a small number of citizens vote in May. Bigger voter turnout in November from those folks who aren't West of Mo-Pac. Currently, if Tarrytown (a neighborhood west of Mo-Pac) feels strongly about something, Tarrytown gets it, because very localized interests get heard in the currently "at large" system and some people have more access politically and those people are on the west end of town. Hopefully under the single-member district system, we can bring more of the power to the other parts of Austin.

**************
**************

HNA President Damon Howze announced that D.R. Horton Homes is on contract to purchase 32 acres of property west of Crestview Station . Currently they are having a study for safety (area used to house a chemical plant in the 1950s). Assuming that it's safe, construction will begin in January on 105 single-family homes and 210 town homes. The specific area to be developed will be north of the current Crestview Station apartments, east of the the water retention pond, south of Morrow ST, and west of Lamar.

Since Crestview Neighborhood Association doesn't want this new development to have direct driving access to Morrow ST, President Damon Howze held a vote to have the HNA support putting in a second spotlight on Lamar @ Crestland, so residents in the new development would have two roads to exit their neighborhood (the other one is the St. John's // Lamar stoplight). The attendees voted in favor of supporting the installation of a new stoplight on Lamar @ Crestland.

It was reiterated that Morrow ST @ the Lamar intersection in the coming years will open up to west-bound traffic. A sidewalk will be built on the north side of Morrow ST from Lamar BLVD to the railroad tracks, and the money for the sidewalk is expected to be paid for by an upcoming bond in 2012.

**************
**************

The next speaker was APD District Representative Steve Gordon, who has (since January) been in charge of the Region I Ida Sector 3 (which includes the Highland, Skyview, and Northfield neighborhoods, but not the Highland Mall itself). The purpose of the district representative is to be the "eyes and ears to the community" for any situations such as trend crimes or burglaries. It is the District Representative Officer's job to contact citizens to help police do their job better. They educate on crime trends and crime prevention and basically help citizens be better witnesses and avoid victimhood. They are liaisons for the neighborhood.

President Damon Howze asked Steve Gordon about problems regarding 2 Amigos Auto Sales (5906 Airport BLVD). Gordon said that as soon as complaints were called about illegal parking, they were given a week to comply. After a week, they were issued parking tickets and code enforcement saw that they didn't have a site plan and didn't have expanded parking. They were parking on railroad property and other property that was not theirs. They received a hefty warning by code enforcement and the owners made assurances that they'll get a site plan and extend the parking lot in a legal fashion.

A neighbor brought up a neighborhood autobody shop (which she didn't want to name publicly), which parks their cars on the side of the curb during the day. Is that legal? Officer Gordon didn't think it was and he asked for the neighbor to give him the address in private so he could forward it to code enforcement.

Another neighbor asked about break-ins in the neighborhood. Officer Gordon answered that there has been a slowdown in burglaries, but no progress in catching anyone in the most recent robberies. Gordon is working with the southern portion of Highland neighborhood in developing a neighborhood watch there. He encouraged neighbors to use the HNA listserv to alert one another about dangers or suspicious activity in the neighborhood; he encouraged everyone to talk with their neighbors and know their immediate neighbors. You can e-mail him if you want more crime prevention information (Steven.Gordon@ci.austin.tx.us).

A neighbor asked if DPS had permission to run a forklift on sidewalks on Denson across the street from Reily Elementary. Gordon didn't immediately know off hand if they did, but noted that they are allowed to ferry equipment across the street between the two properties. Gordon noted that Austin Regional [over 3 counties] Intelligence Center opened there, which tripled the number of people at the site.

Same neighbor asked if he noticed speeding problems on Denson by Reilly Elementary. Gordon said the APD has watched Denson a lot and it's better than at other schools where they have roads running along both the front and back of the schools (Reilly has only Denson to the north and Guadalupe to the west).

President Damon Howze gave concerns about young females from Webb Middle School having to walk past day laborers congregated along I-35 @ St. John's. Officer Gordon said APD is working with day laborer site counselors, who are meeting with the day laborers, trying to redirect them to those locations. APD does drive through and tell people to leave properties, but they are allowed to be on public sidewalks, as long as they're not congesting. The situation is better than it was back in January, said Gordon.

Gordon noted that the old Home Depot site (northeast of the I-35 // St. John's intersection) will become a Municipal Court once the city has the funds allocated. He noted that the city of Austin was growing and thus the police budget shouldn't be cut. [This seemed to be a reference to recent discussion about Police Budgeting on the City Council.] He said that if cuts were made, the District Representative program would be dropped and he would have to return to street-work on the force.

A neighbor asked if there was a way to find out details about an arrest he personally witnessed. Gordon said he didn't think that you could get much on the specifics, but he directed everyone to the APD website, which has a link on the right side of the page titled "Crime Information" where you can get all the crime statistics/information about what's happening in your neighborhood. He noted that it actually archives the past ten years.

A neighbor mentioned that they live near an apartment complex where people hang out and have loud, possibly abusive conversations at night and asked for advice.
Officer Gordon said if you hear violent-esque yelling, you can call 911. If it's a suspicious noise, you can call 311 (if it already happened and no one is hurt) or 911 (happening now). If you think "should I call 911?", you should probably call 911. On both 311 and 911, you can be anonymous. If they ask for your name, you can simply say "I'd rather not tell you; I'd rather be anonymous" and they won't divulge your information.

A neighbor asked what they should do if they see a suspected drug sale at a bus stop. Gordon said to call 911 and explained what the cops would do to investigate. And you can always e-mail Officer Gordon about any concerns such as that.

**************
**************

HNA President Damon Howze reminded everyone about the annual elections at the next quarterly meeting (in December). There are two vice presidential positions that need to be filled (in South sector and the Crestview Station sector). Howze, himself, will not be present at the meeting because he has been accepted into the Austin City Works Academy, where the city will lead him and 39 other applicants on Tuesday nights to different departments of the city to learn about the departments and learn how to best interact with the departments (as an advocate for Highland Neighborhood). Although he won't be there in-person, President Howze will be running for reelection at the upcoming quarterly meeting in December.

The meeting closed with Chris Linder, a resident on Hammock, inviting attendees (with flyers) to attend an upcoming social soiree on September 13 regarding the oncoming renovation of Airport BLVD (from I-35 to where it dead ends into Lamar). His stepfather, Larry Sunder is a board member on the Airport Development Board. The project is supported by all relevant neighborhood associations (Highland, Ridgetop, and Northfield).

###