Historic-preservation foe squeaks onto landmarks panel

Yet again, a person nominated to a city board by Counc i l Member Don Zimmerman faced extra scrutiny from the Austin City Counc i l. But this time, the appointment squeaked through in an unusual 6-2-3 vote.

Arif Panju was appointed to the city’s Historic Landmark Commission on Thursday, but not before several counc i l members expressed reser vations about placing him on a commission that he has criticized.

Panju has devoted the last fifive months to battling a historic designation of his Blue Bonnet Hills neighborhood in Travis Heights. While he oppos- es his home being designated “historic,” which includes some design limitat ions on the home’s exterior, Panju’s ire has focused on what he says is staffff ’s inappropriately zealous lobbying to support the historic designation.

While Panju succeeded in persuading a majority of his neighbors to oppose the historic district — thus stalling the effffffffffffort for now — he has also used open- records requests to argue that city staffff did not obey notice requirements to homeowners. He’s also been critical of the Historic Landmark Commission’s decision to support the historic designation application.

City Council Member Kathie Tovo, whose District 9 includes Blue Bonnet Hills, grilled Panju on whether he would “pro- mote” historic designati ons if he sat on the commission. Panju said his focus will be on ensuring the commission is committed to open government and transparency.

“I’m going to make sure the rules are followed,” Panju said, adding that he wants to encourage more people to come to commission meetings to see how they “operate.”

Though no one spoke in opposition to Panju, several council members said they received emails from preservationists urging them to vote against his appointment .

In the end, Tovo and Leslie Pool voted against appointing Panju, while Council Members Delia Garza, Ora Houston and Ann Kitchen abstained.

Garza said she would abstain from voting on all of Zimmerman’s nominees, citing the comments made by another one.

That appointee, Rebecca Forest, resigned Catch up on the latest Austin City Council news at statesman.com/ cityhall. Wednesday from the Commission on Immigrant Affairs after coming under fifire for previous comments lamenting the number of Hispanic legislators in Texas, as well as a Facebook post last year referring to “our Muslim President” and conflflating immigrants with “bio-weapons.” While Zimmerman defended Forest, the other counc i l members indicated they planned to remove her Thursday.

As they consider scores of additional nominees in the coming weeks, Mayor Steve Adler suggested the council try to “ar- ticulate what the bar is so that we’re not trying to articulate the bar on every case.”

Counc i l Member Greg Casar, who sponsored the resolution to rescind Forest’s appointment, said, “If you are to make bigoted remarks, you still have the right to free speech but you won’t be appointed to a city board.” Houston said she tells her nominees they must abide by a set of “core values”: equity, unity, cooperation and inclusiveness.

Zimmerman said all council nominees may be open to more scrutiny, but “as long as we all play by the same rules, I think it’s fifine.”