by Daryl Slusher | Nov 18, 2024 | Austin Elections, City Council 2024
If you like the current make-up of the Austin City Council then you should be really happy with the recent Council election results. In fact it looks like the Council “progressive” supermajority — the one that merged progressive politics with the best interests of...
by Daryl Slusher | Nov 18, 2024 | Austin Elections, City Council 2024
Given how long it’s been since the election I’m guessing that most readers already know how the District 6 race (far northwest Austin) turned out. Incumbent Mackenzie Kelly lost to challenger Krista Laine by less than 1,000 votes, 51% to 49%. I’m just going to...
by Daryl Slusher | Oct 29, 2024 | City Council 2024, Police and Public Safety
Well, love him, hate him, or indifferent, you have to give Kirk Watson credit for getting the police contract over the finish line. It passed on a vote of 10 to 1 (Zo Qadri voting no) after an even more raucous than usual public hearing. It wasn’t just Watson. This...
by Daryl Slusher | Oct 23, 2024 | City Council 2024, Police and Public Safety
Back around the time that I went on summer vacation I watched a forum put on by CBS Austin about public safety in Austin. It basically featured Council Member Chito Vela and Austin Justice Coalition leader/police abolitionist Chas Moore debating Council Member...
by Daryl Slusher | Oct 10, 2024 | Austin Elections, City Council 2024
This is the third and final installment in our series about the Kirk Watson Vision Test. For more on what I mean by the vision test see Part 1 and Part 2. Part 1 focuses on how in 2023 Watson sided with far left activists to kill a proposed four-year contract between...
by Daryl Slusher | Oct 9, 2024 | Austin Elections, City Council 2024
All right, in our first installment of this series we discussed what I call the Kirk Watson Vision Test which is akin to an optometry test in which a patient is asked to look into a machine and tell the doctor when two alike objects line up with each other. The two...
by Daryl Slusher | Oct 8, 2024 | Austin Elections, City Council 2024
Say what you want about Mayor Kirk Watson, but the guy is a skilled political pro. By that I don’t mean the derisive “professional politician” label which is generally used to charge that someone has never done anything else but be a politician and earns their living...
by Daryl Slusher | Sep 24, 2024 | City Council 2024
Well, let’s pick up right where we left off on the proposed City Charter amendments that would increase the powers of the Mayor and Council Members — at the expense of the City Manager and the citizenry. As noted in previous installments, the Austin Independent is...
by Daryl Slusher | Sep 12, 2024 | City Council 2024
In our last installment I reported that the 13 City Charter amendments proposed by the Austin City Council won’t be on the November because the Council was found to have violated the Texas Open Meetings Act, again, when they set the ballot. The Mayor and Council...
by Daryl Slusher | Sep 9, 2024 | City Council 2024
The news is out,All over town. . . What can I do? You win again. Hank Williams, You Win Again; or maybe Mayor Kirk Watson to Bill Bunch and Bill Aleshire after the City’s latest loss in court Yes, the Bills — Bunch and Aleshire — have once again teamed up to defeat...
