Edited by Audrey Duff, with contributions this week by
Louisa C. Brinsmade, Robert Bryce, and Amy Smith
Off the Desk
Sure, we prefer to put things off until the last minute, but what could be
more convenient than voting at the grocery store? Or on campus? Or at the mall?
Avoid those long lines at your neighborhood polling location on March 12 .
Heck, blow out of town that weekend if you please. Just vote in the Democratic
and Republican primaries between now and Friday, March 8. Early voting
locations are open throughout Travis County from 7am to 7pm Monday through
Saturday and noon to 6pm on Sunday. Call the Travis County Clerk's Elections
Division at 473-9553 to find the store, campus, hospital, or Luby's offering
early voting near you. (The Chronicle's candidate endorsements start on
page 2)... City Councilmember Ronney Reynolds cut Mayor Bruce Todd
off at the pass with a proposal to trim down the city's utility to make it
more competitive. If Reynolds' resolution is passed by the council on Thursday,
then Todd's rush to issue a "request for proposals" on March 7 that could lead
to a possible sale will be dead in the water... Travis County Sheriff Terry
Keel is under the gun from the Young Conservatives of Texas, who say the
candidate for state representative in House District 47 "publicly slandered and
verbally and physically intimidated" its members at a Tuesday night candidates'
forum. In a press release, the group claims Keel began threatening to sue for
slander when he got a load of the papers the group was disseminating at the
event. Among the papers were reports casting doubt on Keel's alleged carjacking
story, and an affadavit from an ex-girlfriend of Keel who said the sheriff was
pretending he thought baby Brandon Baugh was alive in order to force the
killer's attorney to hand over a map to the body. "Garbage," says Mac McGuire,
the president of the Lake Travis Republican Men's Club who spoke on the
sheriff's behalf. McGuire says that Keel never physically intimidated anyone at
the event, though he did threaten to sue the YCT, but only after seeing his
views on everything from gambling to public nudity misrepresented by the group.
Keep in mind that the campaign manager for Keel's opponent Kirk Ingels is a
former president of the YCT. Don't you just love it when Republicans turn on
each other?... Beverly Griffith, president of the West Austin Neighborhood
Group and now a Place 4 city council candidate in the wake of Brigid Shea's
announcement that she wouldn't run, has become an AISD bonds package believer.
Just last week she told the Chronicle that the $369 million bond package
left her with too many questions to win her support, but after recent
assurances from bond boosters, Griffith is no longer saying nay. She says she
changed her mind after hearing that the specific amounts of money allocated to
schools for future renovations and improvements would be made public and posted
at each school. "There's been positive movement," Griffith says... See Jann
Phenix. See Dick Brown. Jann works at the Austin-American
Statesman as an editorial writer. Write, Jann, write. Dick has lobbied at
the Legislature on behalf of Barton Creek watershed developer
Freeport-McMoRan. Lobby, Dick, Lobby. See Dick and Jann marry. Marry,
marry, marry. (It's been hinted before that the Statesman's in bed with
developers, but this is ridiculous.)... Perhaps Steve Forbes' win in the
Arizona primary was due to the coveted endorsement of Phoenix Suns` power
forward Charles Barkley. The Forbes campaign spent good money to send out a
press release announcing that the "prominent conservative Republican" and
basketball star "likes" him... If you like hearing about unions, than you'll
want to listen to Talkin' Union, a half-hour radio program of music,
news, views, and history of the trade-union movement, debuting this month on
KOOP, 91.7 FM. The show, featuring Texas union members and reports from
national activists, airs live Tuesdays at 6:30pm... Among the people to speak
on the topic of Chiapas Human Rights and Centers of Resistance on Tuesday,
March 5, is Loren Riebe, a Chiapas pastor who was deported by the Mexican
government to the United States. The event, at the Ruta Maya Coffee House on
4th & Lavaca, lasts from 6:30pm to midnight and includes music and a silent
art auction to benefit the indigenous struggle. -- A.D.
On Feb. 23, during a speech to the Austin Environmental Forum, Kerry Tate, the
new chair of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, said "there is no evidence
that environmental protection has hurt the economy at all." Tate's statement
comes just four and a half years after the GACC paid heavyweight Waco economist
Ray Perryman $9,700 for a "study" in which he claimed that water quality
protection ordinances and other "no-growth policies" would cost the city $9
billion. -- R.B.
Speak No Freeport
UT Chancellor William Cunningham and President Robert Berdahl have both
said they will not discuss the Freeport issue any further.
But try as they might to squelch the talk, the questions and scrutiny
continue: The company's role in the human rights abuses in Irian Jaya has still
not been investigated; details about their environmental practices at the mine
are still coming out; more than 3,500 UT students have signed a petition
opposing the naming of the building for Moffett; and 49 faculty members from
life sciences have signed a letter to the Board of Regents asking that the name
on the microbiology building be changed.
And on February 19, the Faculty Council voted 28-15 to ask that the Board of
Regents go to Freeport CEO Jim Bob Moffett and ask that he volunteer to
take his name off the edifice. After the vote, Berdahl was asked if the vote
will make the issue go away. "It sounds done to me," he said. "I think they
disposed of it here today. They took an action and I think that's it."
Alas, it's probably not. A report delivered during the meeting by Council
Chair Rueben McDaniel, Jr. showed again the cozy relationship between
Cunningham and Moffett, which can only be described as a colossal conflict of
interest. In addition, Cunningham still has not disclosed the value of the
stock options he got from Freeport, which may be worth more than $1 million.
In a statement (he won't talk to the press about his Freeport entanglements),
Cunningham said he was "very disappointed" with the Faculty Council's action.
That's not surprising, given that according to McDaniel's report, it was
Cunningham who went to Freeport and requested that the company donate $1
million toward construction of the building, and it was Cunningham who
suggested the building be named for Moffett.
Bernard Rapoport, the chair of the regents, has said they won't change the
name on the building and that "a deal is a deal." The deal Cunningham made with
Moffett has netted UT a few million bucks. It has also netted a motherlode of
embarrassment for the university that shows no sign of abating. --
R.B.
Austin Loses Round One
The City of Austin is gearing up for an appeal after losing a court battle
this week. Williamson County District Court Judge Burt Carnes ruled Monday that
Senate Bill 421, the infamous Austin-bashing bill, is "valid and
constitutional," despite Austin's argument that it wasn't. Austin city
officials believe that lawmakers wrongly sought to punish the city for having
strict environmental regulations that often run counter to development
interests. The legislation in question removes about 6,600 acres from Austin's
extraterritorial jurisdiction and gives control of the land to the City of
Cedar Park, which wants to develop the tract for residential use.
On the bright side, Austin at least got a ruling on the merits of the case, as
opposed to the judge throwing it out altogether, which appeared likely at one
point during the proceedings. The ruling paves the way for Austin to make its
argument before a higher court. Attorney Renea Hicks, who represents the City
of Austin, said an appellate ruling on SB 421 is Austin's ultimate goal. As it
happens, the appeals process is built into a carefully crafted agreement
between Austin and Cedar Park, in which Austin agrees to transfer the land to
Cedar Park in several stages, one of them being a final ruling by the Court of
Appeals. -- A.S.
More Evil Weevil
The boll weevil eradicators have hit a patch of very sticky cotton. In
January, farmers in the Rio Grande Valley voted by a 3-1 margin to dump the
Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation just one year after the program was
launched. This week, cotton farmers in 29 counties in Mississippi will vote on
whether to continue the program in that state, and two petitions are underway
here in Texas to force recall elections on the program.
In mid-February, farmers in the San Angelo region mailed out petitions which
could force a recall election on the boll weevil eradication effort in that
area. Another group of farmers north of Lubbock are readying a petition. Tommy
Applewhite, a farmer in Cotton Center, said "We aren't against controlling the
boll weevil. It's the way they [the TBWEF] are going about it." In addition to
Applewhite's effort, another group of Hale County farmers have sued TBWEF,
claiming that the agency has levied an unconstitutional tax on their farms. The
judge in the case is expected to render a preliminary decision in the next few
days.
If the petitions in San Angelo and the High Plains do force votes on the
eradication program, it will fuel opposition to the program. On February 15, a
coalition of 19 environmental and taxpayer groups called Green Scissors
advocated that the boll weevil eradication program be completely eliminated.
The group said the eradication effort has "ignored integrated pest management
principles and disrupted the natural ecology." Green Scissors estimates that
eliminating the program would save federal taxpayers $80 million over the next
five years.
For 1996, meanwhile, the USDA has allocated $18 million for the national boll
weevil eradication program. -- R.B.
Couch Circuit Candidate
Local political hopeful Mike Workman had better beware of the mayor's new
no-camping ordinance, because it appears he's homeless. The former school board
candidate, who is now running for Precinct 422 chairman, listed as his address
1805 Alameda Dr., the same address he claimed the last time he ran for office
in 1993. And once again, the owner of the residence, Susan Temple, is assuring
the press that Workman doesn't live there. Workman has a reputation for
"sleeping over" at other people's residences and at offices where he has
worked, and has not had a permanent residence for years.
The situation actually benefits him as a candidate, says Travis County
attorney Ken Oden, who says that Workman, as a homeless person, "can
claim that district as his residence, even if he hasn't lived there," based on
laws that protect homeless persons from being excluded from running for office.
"If you are homeless, it is a question of intent [to live in the district of
your choice] -- it's not even a question of an actual house," he says. In
Workman's case, Oden says, "he may be a great example of `give someone an inch,
and they take a mile.'" Maybe that's old news, but what about this: Oden's
office fielded questions regarding the candidate's lack of a permanent
residence the last time Workman ran, and in the end, the county attorney's
office came up with what they call "The Mike Workman Rules." They go as
follows, says Oden: "You can run for office in any district where you have, 1)
recently trespassed; 2) previously napped; 3) or which contains the residence
of any prior stalking victim. Oden assures this reporter that he is only
kidding. -- L.C.B.