News 8 Austin taped a series of candidate forums for the upcoming Austin City Council and mayoral election. Below is a transcription of the Place 2 forum with candidates Jose “Joe” Quintero and Mike Martinez. News 8 Austin’s Paul Brown and City Hall reporter Reagan Hackleman moderated the forum.

BROWN: Thanks very much for joining us here on News 8 Austin. I’m Paul Brown.

HACKLEMAN: I’m Reagan Hackleman, News 8 City Hall reporter. For the next hour, we are going to introduce you to the two candidates who want to represent you in Place 2 at City Hall.

BROWN: We start with the incumbent, Mike Martinez. He was elected in 2006, also a former Austin firefighter.

HACKLEMAN: Trying to limit Mike to one term is Joe Quintero. Joe is a lifelong East Austin resident and currently works at a wine storage company.

BROWN: We want to get started, first, by allowing both of you to talk about why you are running. So, Mr. Quintero, I’ll start with you. Tell us why you are running for this seat.

QUINTERO: Thank you. I am running for this seat because I’m a native, longtime resident of East Austin, and I’ve been in activism in our community and the fact of the matter that we don’t have a single member district and it has been pretty difficult for us to be represented by the city council and former city council members. The main concern that I am also running for is the Agenda 21 policy that city council adopted which a lot of people are not aware of and the fact of the matter is becoming where we have property rights are being violated.

BROWN: We’ll talk about those issues during this next hour. Mike, tell us why you’re running fore re-election and what you see for the future.

MARTINEZ: Thanks, Paul and thanks Reagan for doing this. It’s been a great three years. It’s been an honor to serve as a city council member. I think that in my first term, hopefully, I’ve demonstrated to the citizens that I’m willing to take on difficult issues, but at the same time make sure I listen to the constituents and take all sides of an issue before making a decision. I think that Austin is in a very unique situation, in that we are poised to come out of the economic downturn and be a much better city much sooner than some of the other cities and the difficulties they are facing. I think we’re going to need someone with experience and with leadership abilities to ensure that Austin comes out of this economic downturn and be more prosperous for it.

HACKLEMAN: Mike, you bring up the economic downturn and how we’re going to come out of it. How are we going to come out of it better than other cities?

MARTINEZ: Well, what we’re seeing right now in the Austin market is that we are not seeing…we are certainly seeing a downward trend as it relates to our sales tax. We projected a 2 percent growth. We are currently on trend to end the year at a 10 percent deficit. That’s a gap and we’re going to have to make decisions relating to our budget to continue to close that gap. We’ve already cut $20 million out of the budget and we might have to do more. What I mean by we’re in a unique position is that we aren’t seeing some of the devastating affects that other municipalities are going through. For example, the City of Phoenix went through their last round of budget cuts for this year and they had to cut $293 million out of their city’s general fund. Comparing that to Austin, we literally looked at $20 million. While it wasn’t any easier, I think that when you compare some of the things that other municipalities are going through, Austin is weathering the storm much better than many other places in the country.

HACKLEMAN: Joe, same question.

QUINTERO: Yes, I definitely think we are in a recession now and point being is that I’ve heard a lot of layoffs that have been done here in Austin and a lot of them are my friends. Concerning the issue as far as the budget cuts, it’s very important that we look into what we need to cut and itemize these issues. Concerning the cities, I just picked a newspaper in the city of San Antonio and they cut 2 percent of their taxes, which means we’re behind. In our process, we raised our taxes. The complaint is where are the taxes being implemented to? In what areas? So, there is over budgets in some of the programs that we have, and I think the issue here has to do with sustainable development. Sustainable creates a criteria where it is real strict for people to do what they would like to do as far as small businesses.

For example, I have a lady in East Austin that applied for a kitchen permit. It’s been two years and we talk about creating small businesses for people that want to start employing people. On the other hand, in our particular neighborhood, we spent a lot of money. I don’t know if we, even in the city, I would have to investigate or have a committee, whether they gave tax abetments to these condominiums that were built. Where we have vacant leasing properties under those condominiums, the city at least should let us know that we can, at least, take it over and find out that we can put our own business there. If they are waiting for other people form the outside to come in, those businesses or those things are not bringing tax revenue and therefore it creates a budget crisis, and I’m looking forward to working with this type of budget and looking to what needs to be itemized and what’s been holding back from becoming values for the city.

BROWN: Reagan is talking, initially, here about just the economy in general, which impacts all of us and certainly what the city does affects us too. Let’s be a little bit more micro in terms of the city budget. Mike, I’ll start with you. Going through the process now and the cuts that you mentioned, what has been the toughest part and maybe the hardest decision in terms of cuts? Do you feel now, in retrospect, good about them?

MARTINEZ: Well, no decision is easy to make. You know, if you’re that city employee and working in that department that we’ve asked you to tighten your belt, it’s difficult for you. As a council member, you have to make those decisions. We have to keep the city running and we have to keep our core services going. I think the approach that I’m taking is the most prudent approach and that is that we approach any decisions that we make with budget cuts precisely and not with a shotgun approach, not an across the board cut. When you are as lean as we are now, after the rounds of budget cuts that we’ve already made, you have to literally be surgical with your decisions as opposed to just looking a department and saying, okay, you need to come up with x amount of percentage of savings. What that does is it requires critical thinking. It requires you to really look into your specific department and the services you are providing and determine whether or not you can a) create efficiencies or b) find budget savings. I think those coupled together, and I really want to emphasize that it’s not just about cutting the budget to meet the budget cap. We can create efficiencies that will help us also meet that gap and I will continue to do that moving forward this year and in the year to come.

BROWN: Joe, I’ll ask you about this in a moment. This is just a follow up because, you know, for example, City Manager Mark Ott had put a proposal there for cutting within the libraries and then the public had an outcry and it’s kind of backed off of that. Is that a difficult situation because certainly you want to respond to the public, but does the public have all of the information that need to do these surgical stripes that you are talking about, so to speak?

MARTINEZ: Yeah. Anytime we make decisions that is going to limit or curtail a city service, some folks are going to get angry, whether it’s garbage service, police service, fire service, library service, park service -- it doesn’t matter. If the library is something that you are passionate about, which we have many residents that are passionate about our library system, they really felt like we should look in other areas and we listened to them. I think that’s the appropriate approach. We should lay proposals on the table that help us achieve closing the budget gap, but then as policy makers, we ultimately make that decision on what our priorities are within that menu item of budget savings and measures.

HACKLEMAN: So, where do you think those priorities should be in dealing with the budget?

QUINTERO: Well, I would start with City Hall and basically some of the boards that have been implemented over the years and this with restrictions and most of the city employees in the department are overpaid. Another thing I would look into, for example, not that I’m against the safety of what’s happening throughout the city, is the fire department. There are other retires in the fire department we can ask and say, you know, would you be willing to volunteer based on this issue of budget cuts?

I realize that it’s something that would generate a little anger in the department, but I’m pretty sure that within this department, there is enough people that would be willing to volunteer in different sectors of the town, in the fire departments, easily trained and even if we had to lay off maybe one or two or a few people in the fire department, you can also mention it is just for temporary reasons.

MARTINEZ: Paul, I think that clearly speaks to Mr. Quintero’s lack of knowledge about how this fire department in Austin, Texas runs its fire department. We are governed by state statute. We can’t run a volunteer organization. We can’t ask folks to volunteer at the fire department. This is a major metropolitan city. We can find budget cuts and I don’t believe there are any sacred cows, including the fire department. What I wanted the fire department to do in this first round of budget cuts was not immediately go to staffing cuts. I believe there are other areas. Again, it just simply is not even plausible to think that a city the size of Austin and as forward thinking as we are here in Austin, that we would even contemplate something like a volunteer fire service to protect our citizens. They deserve better.

QUINTERO: With this types of comments, the rebuttal is that I understand, Michael, he is a union president. He was a union president and he represents the fire department at one time. He knows the budgets that they go through, but for us to also need to recognize there is budget cuts and there is things that we need to apply as a city and as a community in a time of recession and those things, like I said, you have to break down in sectors. It’s just the same with the police department. Break it down into sectors and found out what is it as a community help because I was involved in that type of community help for years. At the time I was involved, I had little help from the police department, but they were getting paid. This is a thing that we, as citizens, have to address because for many years, we’ve been lacking that type of policy in our neighborhoods and those types of services that we need when we ask for them to come and it was neglected.

HACKLEMAN: Along the lines of APD, during this we are Twittering and getting e-mails and questions from our viewers from people out there. One of the questions they have comes from Keith Farley and he wants to know y’alls positions on the APD blood draws for DUIs and also Chief Acevedo’s plans to put camera’s downtown.

MARTINEZ: As it relates to blood draws, I was the first member of council to publicly stand against that. I just…I certainly understand Chief Acevedo’s intent and that is to improve public safety. That is his job and that’s why we hired him. He is simply doing his job. That doesn’t mean I agree with every specific policy proposal that any department might make. In this case, and let me just say, I support Chief Acevedo. I think he’s done a wonderful job in the time that he’s been here. I think he is going to continue to do a wonderful job. There are just too many questions surrounding the policy initiative of doing blood draws and DNA sampling and collection to our citizens for Class B suspects and above. I just think that…cost alone, just cost alone, how do we pay for the collection and storage of DNA evidence and then how do we pay for training for police offers to draw blood and what are the liabilities and risks that come with that and what do we do with the samples once we are done with them?

There are just so many opportunities for things to go wrong with this type of a policy initiative. So, I stand against that and I won’t be supportive of any policy initiative that moves towards us drawing the blood of citizens that we pull over for suspected DWI.

HACKLEMAN: What about the cameras downtown?

MARTINEZ: I think the cameras downtown could provide some added security. I think that when you have a downtown that is infiltrated every weekend in our entertainment district with a lot of pedestrian traffic and a lot of things going on, it’s very difficult to have enough officers all over the place watching what’s going on. So, we had a very, very serious incident on Sixth Street where a woman was potentially Ruhipnoled and driven off and set on fire and the whole premise behind it was to steal her identification. These are the things where maybe a camera would not have prevented that, but it would have provided us with some evidence and additional information, but it could have prevented it. If somebody were sitting there monitoring it and seeing someone being forced against their will into a vehicle, it’s something that may be able to be prevented if folks are monitored with those cameras.

QUINTERO: Going back to that, I think Chief Acevedo should realize that it’s unconstitutional, and that’s my first thing as far as I am concerned. We have hired him to do the law enforcement that city council and the charter allows him to do. That’s one of the things that we think would be a discrimination. These factors will bring results, but it’s very controversial as far as I’m concerned. So, I would not support it. I have had the opportunity to work with other chiefs in the department and the part about the cameras…I would limit the cameras.
You know, crime is going to happen, but I don’t think downtown is that high of a crime at this point. When I was in the neighborhood, we managed to pass a curfew and the city accepted for it and voted for it. On the other part of the cameras, I called him to give him my opinion and my opinion was to put censor lights instead of cameras. It’s something that works in San Antonio very, very well and it works in the school zones where you have a sensor light before you approach the light and therefore you have time to stop. This seems to be a violation simply because it’s not appropriate as I’m concerned.

BROWN: Joe, early on, you mentioned single member districts and I know that’s something both of you have opinions about or recently there was a Senate bill -- Senator Wentworth proposing that cities the size of Austin should have single member districts that city council said that we didn’t like the idea that the state was telling us that, but what about single member districts? You’re running right now at large. Everybody in the City of Austin can vote for you in this race. Should it be this way or do you prefer single member districts?

QUINTERO: I think I prefer single member districts, but I think this was done intentionally because we are a city of over 400,000 people. The majority of the population has exceeded close to a million. Therefore, all of the neighborhoods are not being represented. With this type of legislation that Jeff Wentworth went forward is because he represents a district from [northern San Antonio] all the way to Southwest Austin and those people are not being represented. They’ve been working on that toll road out there in Campo and it’s the same people that in our council that go to Campo, like Kirk Watson. They are all the same people that were here at City Council. Therefore, it has been difficult for them. You go to Northwest Austin and it’s the same problem. The same issues always rise up for some reason is sidewalks and lighting and those issues, every time we have a council, it’s the same thing that’s being asked. It’s amazing. In our situation, we’re not being represented. The gentleman agreement does not work. The gentleman’s agreement should be a person that lives in East Austin that was raised in east Austin, not people that come from out of town. They are voted in because the main core of elections happen in West Austin and that’s the environmentalist. They control the government.

BROWN: Just to mention, for a point of clarification, if people don’t know the gentleman’s agreement, there is one city council spot that has a gentleman’s agreement reserved for somebody who is Hispanic and another who is African-American. Just so people, if they don’t know that already …interrupting your thought, any other thought along those lines?

QUINTERO: The thought is that, and this is what happened to us, for this longest period we’ve had, we finally realized it was intended for that reason. In our neighborhood, we have this neighborhood plan created for sustainability so now we can’t do nothing with our homes and our homes need repairs and they need all kinds of programs that we need for our families and programs, but it’s not happening.

HACKLEMAN: Do you think the State should step in and tell the city you have to do single member districts?

QUINTERO: I think the State should step in. If it’s not the State, the United States Supreme Court should step in. I think it’s even open for lawsuit.

HACKLEMAN: Mike, you are on the Council. The Council recently last week voted to pass a resolution that says that they do not agree with this, but you are a big proponent of single member districts.

MARTINEZ: I am the single largest proponent of single member districts on the council right now. I asked my colleagues to help start the Charter Revision Commission so that we can move toward a potential November 2008 election to adopt single member districts. I support a hybrid system meaning some districts and some at large and of course, a mayor at large. I think it would improve a representative body that is reflective of our community. I think that we could maintain diversity on the council and I think it would reduce voter apathy and insight folks to be more active in the local election process. When you represent 750,000-plus constituents and 60,000 to 65,000 people are making the decision for the rest of the community, I think that level of apathy has to be addressed somehow. Part of it is addressed by us and the job that we do on the council, the example that we lead and the decisions that we make. In regards to Senator Wentworth’s bill, again I support the policy premise.

What I don’t support is that our charter is our city’s constitution and that arguably is our most sacred document as to how we were founded as a city and how we operate on a certain level. It can only be amended, according to State law, by the way, it can only be amended by a majority vote of the citizens. If we are to begin constitutional amendments to our charter through the legislature, what if it’s blood draws? There are legislatures that support things like blood draws. What if they were to start passing legislation affecting our charter in other areas? Simply because I agree with Senator Wentworth on the policy issue, does not mean I agree with him on the methods to achieve that policy. I believe that any amendments to our charter should only be enacted if the citizens support it…if a majority of citizens support it in a duly held election. That’s why I voted to oppose the legislation.

QUINTERO: So, am I understanding, Mike, that you said you oppose it and you voted in council on Monday’s session saying that y’all didn’t need the state to ask us to lead our destination as far as that is concerned. So, therefore, I am asking…it hasn’t happened and therefore, what you’re saying, you might have proposed it, but it doesn’t pass and it’s up to the voters and the voters, in the past, voted it out.

MARTINEZ: Again, this shows that you really don’t understand the process, Joe, because in order for it to get on the ballot, it takes the council to vote to put it on the ballot. I voted for it. Council Member Leffingwell voted for it. Council Member Morrison voted for it and the other four did not. It didn’t get on the ballot. It didn’t get to the citizens. I believe that the citizens should have the right to control their own destiny. Now, I stand in support of the policy. I think we would have a better city council or a better form of representative city council if we went to single member districts with at large, but it cannot get on the ballot unless the council does it or unless we get on the petition drive and force it to be on the ballot.

HACKLEMAN: So, if you get elected again, over the next three years, will you …?

MARTINEZ: Immediately. I will immediately ask the new council to once again bring forward a charter revision committee and work toward a November 2010 election. You can only amend your charter every two years. Because we had some amendments on the charter this last November 2008, with regard to the city auditor, we can’t amend our charter, now for two years. So, in 2010, we will put this back on.

QUINTERO: Well, Mike, who is representing us now as far as the gentleman’s agreement.

MARTINEZ: I am.

QUINTERO: What have you done for East Austin?

MARTINEZ: I’ve done plenty and I’m glad you asked that because the issues that you are passionate or that you say you are passionate about…if you had actually paid attention to what goes on at City Hall and what I’ve been doing, you would know that I have worked tirelessly to try to create affordability in East Austin; to try to stem the tide of gentrification through the Homestead Preservation District to ensure that affordable housing bond package of $55 million was adopted in November of 2006.

I live in East Austin. I’ve spent my entire career in East Austin as a firefighter. I have worked with American Youth Works to build over 90 homes in the Fort Ranch area. I opposed the move of the animal shelter to East Austin. I opposed the opening of a new landfill in East Austin. These are the things that I have been doing, Joe, for the last three years and even prior to getting on the council. So, you know, I respectfully don’t agree with you that I have not represented East Austin, but as a council member, elected at-large, you are also going to have to represent the entire community, and I believe I’ve done that as well. I believe I’ve done a well enough job to ask the citizens for their support again.

HACKLEMAN: Joe, what would you do?

QUINTERO: What would I do? I would appeal the SMART growth plan and that’s the reason that I decided to run for council because I’ve worked in the community. I was a member of creating the Greater East Austin Youth League. I was on the Mayor’s Gang Task Force. Helping in the community and sacrificing all of those years thinking that the gentleman’s agreement representative would be helping us out and the issue here is that the pluralistic we, and we have a former council member Raul Alvarez say the same thing. We are going to provide affordable housing. There has been no affordable housing other than tax raises and tax on our properties. So, my question to Mike would be, what does SMART growth mean? What is SMART growth to you?

MARTINEZ: SMART growth is a plan, Joe. It’s a policy plan to create urban infill housing that relates to affordability, to transportation, to sustainability. SMART is actually an acronym for all of those words that I just mentioned. In 10 years, the Neighborhood Housing Community Development Department, who I’m very proud of all of the work that they’ve done, they’ve built over 8,000 affordable units in Austin, Texas. For someone to say we haven’t done anything and there is no affordable housing, it’s simply not true.

QUINTERO: Where’s the proof?

MARTINEZ: Now, can we do more? The proof is in the people and the families that live in those 8,000 units, Joe, all over the city of Austin and in east Austin, on East Sixth Street, right now. The Villas on East Sixth Street, it’s an apartment complex. Those folks are paying rent at 50 percent and 60 percent MFI. That was done through tax credits and that was done through CDBG money and through our neighborhood housing community development department. Those are the things that we have been working on and those are the things that we will continue to work on.

BROWN: Speaking of affordable housing, because this has come up in other forums there, when it comes to home ownership, specifically, what in your mind, what’s a dollar amount…what’s an affordable home?

QUINTERO: Well, affordable for us is simply say under $60,000. Our income level in east Austin is $15,000 per year. Plus on top of that, the SMART growth plan created high taxes. How can the city say that their credit for using affordable housing when it just caused all of the taxes to go up in our so-called Mexican shacks, but now they are called bungalows. If you go to the neighborhood, the blocked every street Canterbury Hollingford Condominiums. So, therefore, the condominium is not worth $80,000. It’s worth a half a million dollars.
It’s the most disastrous type of neighborhood on the SMART growth plan, or even now, they are going city wide calling this a comprehensive plan. They want to stay away from SMART growth because they know they devastated our neighborhood and like I mentioned to the people in Northwest Austin, you all have beautiful neighbors out here in Allendale and Crestview and I said, you’re going to let the city come here with a comprehensive plan and mess it up? If you want to go and find out what happened, go to East Austin and this is what the plan was. So, therefore, you can see why we are not being represented by the gentleman’s agreement.

BROWN: I’ll let you respond, obviously to that, but also, give is a dollar figure for an affordable home.

MARTINEZ: Well, affordability, there is actually a definition for it. So, you base it on the median family income of the community that you are referring to. So, it depends on what levels of affordability you want to achieve. So when we say things like 50 percent MFI, it could mean that someone earning 50 percent of the median family income of all income earners in Austin, Texas would be able to afford this unit.
So, as an example, I believe MFI is around 100 percent MFI would be around $130,000 for a home. So, that’s 100 percent MFI. So, if you do 80 percent MFI, you just reduce the percentage. You reduce 20 percent off of the $135,000. So, what we’re trying to do, though, in our projects is reach the low levels of affordability that folks really need. In some of the projects that we are working on, we are literally talking about going to 50 percent and 30 percent MFI in areas all over the city, not just East Austin. We built affordability in North Austin, in South Austin. We have transitional housing for homeless folks that we’ve done through a community foundation.
There are projects going on all over the city right now. As it relates to the condominiums that keep being referred to, the city has never once subsidized a condominium project anywhere, much less East Austin. Those are private developments. Those are private investments. Those are individual developers who have come in and created those developments. It’s not something the City of Austin has contributed to in any way.

QUINTERO: Well, it’s my understanding that the city council voted that SMART growth plan For example, we have the Budweiser building and now we have the Pure Casting Building next to it. Right now, they are just talking about the environment and about the pollution in our kids next to Zavala Elementary School. While they should be focusing on the Budweiser building, which is several acres, there was promise or mention that there would be affordable housing on the property. It’s city owned. It’s supposed to be a maintenance company, a maintenance for the city, but at this point, there is not enough people in that particular acreage where they can use it. Most of the city’s maintenance is in Southeast Austin. So, therefore, that was one of the promises that was said that we’re going to provide affordable housing; look for affordable housing in the Budweiser building and then work on the Pure Casting building, but you’re doing the opposite of the things that the environmentalist do. First, let’s go after the environment in East Austin, which we have been living in for, good night, since 1927, since the master plan passed. So, we’ve been breathing that stuff for many, many years now. Now, why all of a sudden are you concerned about the Pure Casting? Instead of using the allocation property that is next to it for affordable housing, that would be helpful for the kids at Zavala Elementary School.

MARTINEZ: We’re actually working on both and we have been. One does not forsake the other. When you’re a council member, you have to juggle multiple issues at any given time. Exactly what he is talking about with specificity to the Brown building, the Brown Distributing Building and Pure Casting…I’m working on both of those issues right now and we are going to create affordability on that tract of land that we own and hopefully we will be able to create a more compatible use where the current Pure Casting facility is.

BROWN: Do you have a time line on that?

MARTINEZ: No, literally, it’s related to when bond dollars become available. We’ve only released $12 million in bonds of the $55 million bond package. Again, those are all on the time line and there is a set plan for how that is invested. Hopefully, in the next year, we will issue some more bond dollars as it relates to affordable housing and we’ll look at things like the Brown Distributing Building.

We also have a program in east Austin called the Holly Good Neighbor Program. It’s a $1 million a year program to rehab homes and to rebuild homes in and around the Holly area. Because we’ve done significant amounts of improvements, we are now expanding the parameters for folks to qualify in terms of their income levels. So, now more folks can qualify and apply.
Again, what we’re finding is that $1 million is not all being utilized on an annual basis because of the work we’ve done. What I plan to do is take some of that investment, put it into that facility that Mr. Quintero speaks of and create the true affordability that we’re trying to achieve.

QUINTERO: One thing that you talk, which is right, it was intended for the Holly Neighborhood Plan, regarding the Holly Park Plan, those funds have been mitigated by other people coming into having funding for other things that the city shouldn’t tap into, but they’ve allocated funding. For example, to the Caesar Chavez Neighborhood Plan. The people that run the newsletter under the name of Caesar Chavez it’s called Grapevine. It’s not called Caesar Chavez. As I remember, the last time I was in a meeting, they had a $6,000…

MARTINEZ: It was a $5,000 grant to the Caesar Chavez Neighborhood Contact Team to create a historic district so that we can preserve some of the historic structures in East Austin that Mr. Quintero is trying to stop from going away through redevelopment.

QUINTERO: Historic district means this to me, okay, you look at the plan and it’s going back to the original people that started the neighborhood. It’s Irish, British, Germans…so you’re coming back and they are taking our neighborhood through prehistoric…it doesn’t protect the integrity of our neighborhood. It puts the name under an Irish name, not a Latino name. Those houses are being targeted right now. I was out there when the people came out there, looking at these houses saying well this house should be in historical zoning. I got off the car and I said, who sent you down here? The people from the Caesar Chavez neighborhood plan. Well, who are they? If you are going to this historical zoning, go in here and knock at the door and say it’s going to be name under the Quintero name. So, therefore, you have people that come in there and they have to do it historically. We can’t afford that and so they give then tax abetment on top of that. Is that going to preserve the integrity of the neighborhood? There is so much pressure, you know, like I mentioned at city council and one of the things I’m running for is because my mother cannot get homeowner’s insurance. That’s ludicrous because the city built the house. Now she can’t get homeowner’s insurance. In other words, the city is saying to her, "We built the house at one time to help you and now we can’t insure it because it was built by the city." And now, we want to protect against doing historical preservations on it.

BROWN: Reagan we’ll let you…I know that we’ve got other topics that we’ll discuss here.

HACKLEMAN: Let’s talk about the city sound ordinance. It’s been an issue recently. There is a place in South Austin called Freddie’s that has canceled all of its live events because of the 70 decibel level that the city is now starting to enforce. It’s a problem. This is not the first place that has done this. What can the city do to make sure everybody is able to live together?

MARTINEZ: Sure. It’s something I’ve been working on, Reagan, for the last year. We are the Live Music Capital of the World, but that doesn’t mean that you can just plug in and play anywhere and everywhere. We’re also a city of homes and families and folks that live and work and students that go to school. We have to be responsible with our live music. We have to continue to encourage its growth. We have to continue to support live music. It’s a main industry in Austin.
What we’re trying to do, though, is create more compatibility with some of the venues that have live outdoor music that are adjacent to neighborhood homes and communities. So, we’ve gone through the Live Music Task Force. They’ve come back with recommendations. We did not amend or change any ordinance. We simply put the ordinance that relates to sound for restaurants in the noise ordinance that currently exists for live outdoor music. What that did was, though, it’s now clear, as it always has been on the books, but it’s now clear that if you’re a restaurant, if you are zoned and designated for restaurant use, you can have live music. You can have an outdoor music permit, but the requirement is 70 decibels. Now, do I believe that 70 is appropriate in every case? No. So, what we’re going to do now is work on provisions to allow for either flexibility or more compatibility in certain areas like Freddie’s. I’m really not sure why Freddie’s canceled music for the rest of the year.
I think that if he received a warning, which is typically how the process works, you receive a warning and if you get another complaint, then there is a citation issued. We’re going to sit down and work with Freddie’s and any other restaurant venue that has been impacted by this, but we have to do it in a responsible way. We have to understand that a community’s interest as a whole must be addressed. The order of the day at City Hall is really about balance. It’s really about trying to use your leadership ability to create policies that strike a balance between so many varying interests that are out there. In this case, we literally are talking about a main industry that must be supported. Our live music industry must be supported. At the same time, the values of our neighborhoods and communities have to be a part of that as well. So, we’re creating that balance through the recommendations of the Live Music Task Force.

HACKLEMAN: On what would be a case-by-case basis?

MARTINEZ: One of the things we’re talking about is and I’ll give you the example. Guero’s Restaurant on South Congress, it’s a very similar case. Seventy decibels is the maximum level. Standing in front of Guero’s with a decibel meter, you’re at 72 decibels. It’s because of the traffic. It’s because it’s on a poor transit corridor. So, one of the suggestions or one of the thoughts I have moving forward is if you’re on a poor transit corridor that is very heavily pedestrian and traffic, more than likely, you should be allowed at an 85 decibel limit so that you can still have live music. If you’re already at 72 decibels just standing in front of the restaurant without music playing, I think that clearly demonstrates that the ambient noise to the neighbors is already at a point to where they’re accustomed to that, or it’s in a high density area where you just can’t avoid it.

QUINTERO: My thoughts on that is just to let to you know that high density mix use is not going to work because you have different kinds of people now coming into Austin. What’s happening with South by Southwest, now they are going into East Austin. They are going into some of the residential houses out there, looking to rent for the weekend, but we have more residential in East Austin than any other place, I think, in my opinion. Here’s the thing. Regarding the music, during this fiasco with Highland Mall and the problems that was created, the police department blocked some of our streets and it was stated that these kids would be going around the block, and it’s not true. Well, this was a point…from the commander’s point of view was that we’re trying to find out how to control crowds because we are going to move 25,000 people in the area with these high-rises. He was talking about East Austin. How does a commander of the Austin Police Department know they are going to bring in 25,000 people? From where? Now, we have people that live next door to some of our bars, you know, a long time tradition of ours and our businesses are being pushed out because simply they don’t want to hear loud music. It’s Spanish music. It’s creating a problem. So, what do you do? We no longer are going to become the Music Capital of the World. The word is getting out and therefore, you know, regardless of decibels or not decibels, if you are the Music Capital of the World, music is going to be loud all of the time. These rules are regulations are going to just drive people out of here.

BROWN: You mentioned Highland Mall and that’s a topic that we want to bring up, the recent gathering there and the people protesting the issue of the Texas Relays and that brings up the bigger issue of we had the African-American plan that was looked at as far as livability here in the city and Hispanic…

MARTINEZ: Yes, the American Quality of Life Initiative.

BROWN: Yeah, the Quality of Life initiatives. Tell us, from your vantage point, are they a step in the right direction? Do we have a long way to go when it comes to racial diversity here in Austin?

MARTINEZ: No. Obviously we have a long way to go. When we’re still making decisions like shutting down facilities and shutting down roadways simply because an even that attracts a large African-American population, I think it clearly shows we have a lot of room for improvement. I think that it was embarrassing for Austin, the way that we handled ourselves. I think it could have been done better, but the silver lining to this cloud is that we are not completely and fully aware of some of the issues that go on, and we’re working on them now.
Council Member Cole had a major stakeholder meeting yesterday with key players at the University of Texas, bringing them all together so that we can start planning now for next year’s Texas Relays. What you are going to see is a city that welcomes their guests with open arms and that takes a proactive approach to ensuring that the public is safe; that the events are held and everyone has a good time and can enjoy Austin, Texas. As it relates to the road closures, though, I do have to say that it wasn’t an anomaly that we close the roads only on Texas Relays. We actually do it for other events. What was told to me by APD was, we do it for events that are high traffic, high vehicular traffic, because our exit ramps into the downtown area between MLK and the river are very short. So, when the frontage road backs up, literally cars back up into the freeway and it causes chain reactions of rear end collisions. That was the reasoning behind closing those on and off ramps. Again, we just need to be more proactive. We need to let folks know what we’re doing before we do it and let them know how to get around if they are going to be driving around when we’re closing the roads off for public safety reasons. I think you are going to see that next year and we’ll handle it better.

HACKLEMAN: The day that it was announced that the mall would be closing and a few clubs downtown would be closing, you did Twitter…you’re a big Twitterer, that you thought that was racist. Do you still stand by that?

MARTINEZ: I do. I think it sends a very racist message for an entity in a city to take actions that says you are closing down because of a certain event that brings certain ethnicity. In this case, African-American. We don’t do this for South by Southwest. We don’t do this for ACL Fest. We have major events in Austin, Texas all of the time and I just thought that there was a real lack of leadership and a lack of foresight in many folks’ decisions as it relates to Texas Relays.

HACKLEMAN: Proactively, was there anything the city could have done beforehand about this?

MARTINEZ: Absolutely. I think that if Highland Mall had come to us much sooner and told us about the issues, I mean, we offered them 30 police officers. They requested 80. We just can’t fund that. We don’t have the ability to do that in our budget. If they would have come to us, though, far enough in advance, we could have created a community dialogue about how we address some of there perceived issues and I think that’s what they are. Some of them are real, but a majority of them are perceived.

BROWN: Joe, you are a life long East Austin resident. Let me ask you and you can chime in also on this one. Is Austin, Texas a racist city?

QUINTERO: I don’t think it’s a racist city. We’ve had these events over and over and we have a good time when they come in. It’s just there was a fear factor for some reason and someone -- we need to find out who made the decision to bring this type of initiative to close the exit. It’s never been done before.

MARTINEZ: It has been done before.

QUINTERO: They told me it was done, but it has never been done.

MARTINEZ: It has.

QUINTERO: I live here…I’ve known the exit stop on Sixth Street. We were here last year for the Texas Relays. A friend of mine lives two, three blocks from 35 and even the people there in the businesses were complaining because they only blocked the intersection of the two blocks and then they were not directing any kind of traffic, so we had all kinds of kids making u-turns. We did not have that problem with South by Southwest and we had complaints from El Milagro that the city towed four of their employee’s cars and it cost them $200 to tow them away, but at the same time, they don’t have any parking lines on the concrete where people can park to make sure you are parked visibly where the police won’t have to tow your car.
Plus, there is intimidation all the time by 8 o’clock on Friday. They have those wreckers there parked at the Chevron. That’s a contract by the city, I think, we have with Southside Towing and they are there by 6- or 5 o’clcok ready to tow cars. That’s intimidation for our neighborhood. My buddy lives there two blocks, the police told them you need to park you car on top of the curb or we’re going to tow it. That’s their aggressiveness and we didn’t have that problem with South by Southwest.
They went to and fro and I tell them you did not block the street. They say yes we did. No, I passed by a venue, sir. Of course there was very traffic, so the traffic winded up going into our neighborhoods up to 3 o’clock in the morning up to Holly Street trying to get out of the place. It was very difficult. I had visited Office Depot at the Highland Mall and the Lincoln Village was blocked every exit in and out and I asked the officer which way should I go. He said which way you want to go? I don’t know, every time I go, somebody is pulling up and blocking the exit. So, it was intentionally done and I don’t know who made that decision. I talked to one of the commanders. He said, well, they said that these kids were going to be going around the blocks and I asked the secretary and he said, well, he’s not in charge of the traffic. Well, see, he makes a comment that was not liable for what happened that day.

MARTINEZ: I want to make one point, though. I want to make sure that I wasn’t misunderstood in that I don’t believe Austin is racist. Do I believe racism still exists in certain circumstances? Absolutely, but in large part, Austin is a great city, a diverse city that welcomes diversity and will continue to do so, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t have room for improvement and I think that the Texas Relay weekend that we can stand a lot of improvement.

HACKLEMAN: We have about 10 minutes left here, Mike, and I want to ask you a question. You’ve been on council for the last three years. Looking back on that, what’s kind of the one thing that didn’t pan out or you wish you would have done better?

MARTINEZ: It’s the Mobile Loaves and Fishes Project in East Austin. It is something I believe in. It is something that I believe that is necessary, but it’s also something I knew no one was going to want in their neighborhood or in their backyard. So, I proposed this .7 miles from my backyard, because I believe in the project. It’s transitional housing for homeless folks it what it is. As you saw, it became very difficult and the folks in my neighborhood were adamantly opposed to it. It was the single most difficult issue I’ve dealt with in the three years on the council in terms of having to face my neighbors and have them be so upset about the project. But, what it does show, is that I do listen and I did. I listened to their concerns and I committed to them. If we, the City of Austin, and the Mobile Loaves and Fishes Project could not alleviate all of your concerns 100 percent, then we would not do the project in this area. We just simply couldn’t. We’re moving forward with the project. I am determined to get it done in my next term. It won’t be located in or around the neighborhood, but it will be connected to mass transit and it will be a dignified way of life for some of these folks who, quite frankly, need our help. People want us to do something about the homeless population in this town. They want us to do something about panhandling. Well, we’re not going to be able to do it if we don’t get some of these projects done that provides the services that they need.
At the same time, we’re not going to be able fund these projects and fund our Health and Human Services social contracts without a vibrant economy. So, what you’re going to see is a council member that continues to work on economic development and creating the tax space and handling the growth that comes to Austin so that we can have the resources to provide to the communities that we propose.

HACKLEMAN: Joe, what’s the one thing, if you get elected, you are going to be working on?

QUINTERO: If I get elected, I would like to see a high riser for our community, for the elderly, the for Alzheimer’s people. We have a lot of elderly in our neighborhood, so the city took advantage. Now, the heirs to the properties will have high taxes as soon as they pass away. The other thing I would like to see is immediate affordable housing instead of saying it and continuing to say it. It’s never been done.
The other thing I would like to see is a clinic large enough to provide for the inner city families and the kids. We have a lot of kids that need care. We have a lot of kids that are single parent and therefore, they need Medicaid and Medicare. I would like to see the environmentalist agenda, who controls the council, to come out and speak about housing and affordable housing. Quit coming out and using this bait on us about the air and the quality of air, because we’ve already been through it. We know what it is. Because, what is happening … we’re eliminating those properties, but we’re not providing the incentives that we have suffered over the years, so quit coming out here and talking about a salamander. We don’t want that. I wouldn’t be surprised if they find a salamander under the Holly Power Plant. That’s the issue. The issue to come out to support housing, not the environment. We’ve had enough of that type of political rhetoric. It’s not going to help us and it’s not going to help you because it’s just going to continue to divide us.

BROWN: We’re winding down. We want to give both of you an opportunity at the end to state your case for getting elected, but I have to throw in, so I’ll ask you for maybe a 30 second response, my apologies, on transportation, which would take another hour to talk about. Joe, what’s the biggest thing that needs to be done about the transportation issues that Austin faces?

QUINTERO: Simple. Complete the interchanges on 35 and Ben White, South Lamar, 183 and Interstate 35 and MoPac.

BROWN: And pay for it how?

QUINTERO: Well, through TxDOT or, you know, through the city in conjunction with TxDOT.

BROWN: Transportation.

MARTINEZ: Done. The I-35 interchange is actually going to be completed. It has been identified by TxDOT this year as one of the projects that they are going to fund moving forward. So, it’s going to happen. The interchange is going to be complete. We need to move forward, though, with a multi-motile transit system. We need to improve CapMetro, in terms of our bus service, but at the same time, look at moving forward with the next segment of our rail once the red light is up and running safely.
We have a lot of issues as it relates to transportation. Funding is the biggest issue. How are we going to fund this? There are some potential tools coming through the legislature that would allow us to self impose some additional gas tax that would be dedicated to this local area for local road projects. Hopefully, those types of tools will be available to us at the end of this session, but if not, we’re still going to need the leadership on the council to move forward with funding transportation projects.
I am actually supporting a 2010 transportation-only bond package. I believe that we have fallen woefully behind on our road maintenance and we will never catch up if we don’t make a significant commitment to issues like a transportation-only bond initiative. I believe that as long as it does not hurt our credit rating and does not hurt our debt rating, we can pass about $100 million in bonds next year and begin making significant improvements on our road projects.

QUINTERO: My comment would be real quick as Los Angeles, Calif. has a $49 million deficit in SMART growth. I believe, in my opinion, with the light rail, with this type of rail that is projectedly going to help the transportation is…I believe it’s not going to work. The condominiums are not there to support it. They planned them in East Austin. They are planning them in Northwest Austin, but they are not completed, so there is very little people who are going to use the light rail.

BROWN: We can sneak in one more question if you guys can stay as brief and then wrap it up.

HACKLEMAN: Real quick, we have voter turn out that‘s always low. It’s below 10 percent. Is there a quick fix to that? Is there a way that y’all can get more people out to the polls?

MARTINEZ: I don’t think there is a quick fix, but things that I mentioned earlier, I think, would have an impact on it, a measurable impact. I think going to a hybrid system of districts and at large, lets folks feel and believe that they actually have a representative on the council to speak for them that’s from their area, that understands the issues they face. I believe that you would see a spike in voter turnout if we were to put a district system in place, but again, as I mentioned earlier, I think the single biggest thing I can do as a council member, to get folks to come out and vote, is to do a good job, to listen to the constituents, to be responsive to their issues so that when I run for re-election, they are supportive of our campaigns and come out and vote.

QUINTERO: I am going back to the days when I used to go and I used to…I remember knowing Lee Cook, the mayor, he had an open-door policy. It was happy to go into council, knock at the door and they would immediately pay attention to you. What do you need, Joe? We need this immediately. That’s a people type of person mayor and you got back to Emma Long when she was the mayor and I heard a lady said, “Emma Long worked for the people,” and that’s what we need, competence and value in government. Knowing that our neighborhood does not come out to vote because they knowingly know that they are not going to be represented. We have a lot of upset people in East Austin and surrounding areas. I am running, at large, and I am asking for your support. At the same time, I will support the other neighborhoods. That’s my obligation.

BROWN: Okay, well, we’re close to being at the end. Any final thoughts from either one of you here before we go?

MARTINEZ: Well, I think that all elections are important, but this one is quite significant. We have potentially four new council members. We have a mayor and three council seats that are open. Election is May 9. Early voting starts April 27. It’s actually folks like yourselves putting these forums on and televising them that’s going to engage the voter. It’s going to allow the voter to see the differences between the candidates that are on the ballot and to be able to make an informed choice. So, I hope that citizens will come out and participate in the election process.

BROWN: Any final thoughts?

QUINTERO: Thank you Channel 8 and for inviting us to come out here. Thank you for the public. I am asking you to come out and vote and the reason being is that we’re in a deep recession and we need to find out what needs to be done and who needs to represent who and let’s find a way where we can get single member district. Thank you.

BROWN: Joe Quintero, Mike Martinez, thanks very much for being here, the candidates for Place 2 for Austin City Council. Thanks for joining us.

HACKLEMAN: Like Mike said, voting starts on April 27. Election is Saturday, May 9.

BROWN: Thanks for joining us and we encourage you to vote.