30 Oct District 2 City Council Candidates: Similarities, Differences, Big Ideas

With one of the smallest fields of candidates in this election cycle, the individuals running in District 2 include both environmental giants and dwarfs. Delia Garza is the only candidate to have answered each of the environmental questionnaires, with Sheppard and Owen each only offering up a handful of answers and Reyes not responding to any. A largely Hispanic district that encompasses much of southeast Austin, including a significant amount of land along Onion Creek, District 2 has its own set of issues unique to its geography and demographics.

The number one environmental issue raised by the candidates has been the high risk of flooding along Onion Creek, with last year’s tragic Halloween floods still fresh in everyone’s minds. In her questionnaire responses, Garza advocated for an aggressive buyout of the properties along Onion Creek, to be implemented as soon as possible. “We have a responsibility to ensure basic levels of health and safety conditions and to look at every option to get those families out of harm’s way,” Garza wrote. Sheppard also called attention to the Halloween floods, explaining that they are a perfect example of why there needs to be further scrutiny of Austin’s development process. The heavy development of neighborhoods upstream (like South Park Meadows, Circle C, and Shady Hollow), Sheppard said, have caused more runoff to head downstream and make southeast Austin more flood prone. More scrutiny should have been given to those development plans, he said, with an emphasis on retention ponds and other flood mitigation strategies.

Another issue that has been raised by several of the candidates is transportation. Both Garza and Owen have come out in opposition of Proposition 1, saying that it does not do enough to help the people of District 2. “There’s no doubt that our city needs expanded public transportation options,” Garza wrote, “but I have concerns that the proposed plan will further aggravate our affordability crisis while leaving some folks out of the process that are the most dependent on using public transportation.” She continued on to say that while she supports the idea of a longterm comprehensive plan like Project Connect, the way that the plan is written today does very little to improve the lives of those living in District 2. For this reason, Garza said that if she is elected, she would like to serve on the Capital Metro Board of Directors, so that she can ensure that dependent riders have quality public transportation options regardless of what part of the city they live in.

Zero waste initiatives have also emerged as a major environmental issue in District 2. “Waste diversion should be a priority for everyone on this planet,” wrote Sheppard. “Curbside composting should already be place.” Garza also advocated for strong recycling and composting programs in her questionnaire responses, with an added eye toward education so that all residents are aware of the options available to them. In order for the city to reach its goal of reducing 90 percent of its waste by 2040, she said, Austin will have to be innovative in its approach to trash, recycling, and composting practices. Garza said that she would advocate for that innovation.

Major Disagreements

SH45 SW and Climate Change

The construction and approval of SH 45SW has emerged as a topic of contention amongst the candidates in District 2, with Garza coming out in stark opposition to the project, writing that it sidesteps necessary environmental studies and could cause harm to Austin’s aquifer. On the other hand, Owen expressed his support of the project in his questionnaire responses, writing that, “voters approved it a long time ago.”

On other issues as well, Owen has strayed from the majority of environmentally-minded candidates. In response to Clean Water Action’s question, “Do you accept the scientific consensus that the rapid rate of climate change is primarily attributable to the burning of fossil fuels?,” Owen said that this was a “complicated issue” and that he wanted to discuss it further in person.

Renewable Energy

Garza was the only candidate in District 2 to say much of anything about renewable energy in her questionnaire responses. Sheppard only mentioned renewables once, and only offered his tentative support of them, writing that, “Austin Energy has a poor record of doing things that make sense. The biomass purchase is but one recent example. Austin Energy has adopted too much of a “California” mentality of doing things that make you feel good, but don’t really make sense.”

Garza on the other hand showed a strong command of a wide variety of issues related to Austin Energy. She expressed her support for Austin’s Climate Protection Plan and the recently adopted Clean Energy Resolution that increased the city’s renewable goal to 50 percent by 2020. She said that the city should be “aggressive” in investing in renewable energy sources and wrote that, “given the reduction of cost for renewable energy sources, there’s no reason that Austin can’t continue to lead the charge in this arena while still providing affordable and reliable services to ratepayers.” She even said that she would be willing to increase funding to Austin Energy in order to achieve these goals. Garza also expressed support for purchasing the Fayette coal-fired power plant in order to gain full ownership and retire the plant for good, so that no one else can bring it back on line. “The evidence clearly shows that we need to move beyond coal and start investing in more R&D to put more renewable sources on line,” she wrote.