Adler pulls nomination to charter review panel

voting ends Friday.

“This is a critical test for the school district and losing would have a negative impact on moving AISD into the future,” said David Butts, political consultant for the pro-bond campaign. “There is a heightened urgency.”

Former Trustee Lori Moya, who served on the school board during the 2013 bond campaign, said she sees greater advocacy for the bonds among sitting trustees, as well as parents on social media.

“What I’m seeing now from the outside looking in is the group working on the bond has a very strategic, well-thought-out plan for what they want to do and what they want to promote and advocate for the bond,” Moya said.

During the most recent reporting period, which covers Sept. 28 through Oct. 28, the Committee for Austin’s Children raised $173,000. The pro-bond contributions are 11 times more than two anti-bond groups have raised, records show.

One of the largest single donations to the Austin’s Children PAC came from AECOM, the consultants who helped assess the con- dition of the district’s facilities and shaped the master plan that helped the school board decide which projects to include in the bond. The $25,000 contribution tops the list of the most recent reporting period.

As was the case in the 2013 bond, other businesses and construction companies in the school-building indus- try have contributed to the pro-bond campaign, financ- ing that critics of the bond measure have questioned. About $109,000 so far has been given directly by engi- neering, architecture and construction companies.

“Taxpayers and voters should be disgusted at the crony capitalism AISD is sponsoring,” said former City Council Member Don Zimmerman, who leads the anti-bond group, the Travis County Taxpayers Union. The group contends that the district does not need more than $1 billion in improvements, and that school leaders are misleading voters about the bond’s tax impact.

“AECOM stands to profit tens of millions from wasteful projects, and $25,000 is a small tip for those profits,” Zimmerman said.

The two groups lobbying against the bond have raised a total of about $32,000, with almost all that money raised by the taxpayers’ union. This reporting period, the group raised $27,000.

One of the largest single donations, $10,000, given to the taxpayers’ union came from Hock LLC, a financial services technology consult- ing firm that is co-owned by Stacy Hock, who serves on the Texas Public Policy Foun- dation and on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s education council.

The grass-roots Save East Austin Schools, which has raised equity concerns on how the bond funds would be dispersed, has raised less than $500 and is not required to file campaign finance reports.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler is withdrawing his nomina- tion of departing aide Frank Rodriguez from the a commission tasked with review- ing the city’s charter.

“I’ve learned that members of the Charter Review Commission are required to live in Austin, and since Frank lives in Dripping Springs, I’ll need to nomi- nate someone else,” Adler said in a statement Wednesday. “It’s best Austin resi- dents recommend Charter changes.”

Rodriguez, who first joined Adler’s office as an aide in 2015, announced in September he was leaving the mayor’s office, citing health reasons.

“We did receive funding requests for far more than what we presented to Wash- ington leadership yesterday,” Abbott told reporters. “We made clear that this is not a closed book. This is a work in progress.”

Abbott said one objective is to “rebuild in a smart way that can reduce the flooding that occurs even if we are not able to reduce the amount of rainfall.”

Abbott has projected that the Texas rebuilding effort might ultimately require as much as $180 billion in federal money. He said he expects the funding to be delivered in multiple tranches over time.

In his own subsequent conference call with Texas reporters, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Repub- lican in the Senate, said that the additional disaster aid for Texas will likely get

A seven-month American-Statesman investigation published Sunday highlighted lax city oversight of potential conflicts of interest in no-bid contracts, including those involving Rodriguez and Latino HealthCare Forum, the charity he co-founded and employs his wife.

Rodriguez has denied any wrongdoing in a series of interviews with the Statesman.

Adler’s nomination of Rodriguez to the charter commission appeared on a list of proposed appointments that was distributed to council members and their staffs Monday. rolled into a year-end omnibus spending bill and, “I’m a little concerned that if you start adding so many things onto that bill it makes it very much harder for it to pass, including whether or not it will receive the support of the Texas delegation if it doesn’t adequately fund Hurricane Harvey losses.”

Abbott said that when he met with President Donald Trump at a GOP fundraiser in Dallas last week, the president “was very effusive in wanting to make sure Texas rebuilds in a very robust way.”

“I’m the builder president, remember that,” Trump said in Dallas on Oct. 25.

Abbott said he recognized that Congress is also having to provide federal disaster aid to help Florida and Puerto Rico recover from devastating hurricanes, and to help California after its terrible wildfires.