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ENDORSEMENT POLICY FOR THE EAST CESAR CHAVEZ NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING TEAM (revised 1-1-11) See The East Cesar Chavez Neighborhood Plan at http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/zoning/ecc.htm
Purpose: The purpose of the endorsement policy is to ensure that the ECC Leadership Team uses a fair and open public process to decide whether to support or reject items of interest to residents, businesses, and civic groups that live or operate within the ECC boundaries. This process is used only when a request for an endorsement is not recognized as an official action step in the adopted Neighborhood Plan, is a request to amend the Neighborhood Plan, or requires variances or waivers to our adopted land use plan or compatibility standards. The ECC Leadership Team does not make endorsements for individual candidates’ or partisan political campaigns. The ECC Leadership Team (L.T.) will consider endorsing political campaigns for bond elections, referendums, public policy issues, and constitutional-type amendments when the issue will directly affect our neighborhood planning process. Specific policies regarding common requests for endorsement follow a description of our endorsement process. Applicants should use the Endorsement Matrix Form following this policy, fill it out, and provide copies to Leadership Team members prior to requesting an action item to be placed on our agenda. Agenda item requests must be made before 5 pm on the Friday before our next monthly meeting.
Process: Any individual, group, or organization can request an endorsement by the ECC Leadership Team if the following process is used. It is highly recommended that any applicant requesting an endorsement contact the chairperson for the standing committee responsible for the applicants’ focus area. A list of chairpersons can be found in The Grapevine Newsletter on the Contact page. The process can take at least 60 days to complete. The ECC Leadership Team will not conduct special called meetings for emergency consideration of an Endorsement. At the recommendation of a standing committee chairperson or the ECC Chairperson’s discretion and with a vote of ¾ of the Leadership Team members present and voting at a regular meeting, the ECC L.T. can suspend the following endorsement process.
The L.T. Chairperson can also sunset a request for endorsement at any point in the process. Any endorsement can be recommended by a committee for sunsetting if conditions of the recommendation are not met in a timely manner or if the committee or L.T. reaches an impasse in its deliberations about the item. The L.T. can also rescind a prior endorsement. (see “Rescinding a Prior Endorsement” in the process listed below.)
15 days Step 1. The individual or entity requesting an endorsement must submit in writing 13 copies of the item to the chairperson for distribution to members of the Leadership Team at the next regular L.T. meeting. Suggested format:
* Cover letter describing how the item affects the neighborhood’s planning effort * List of principal stakeholders and their affiliation with the item * Draft resolution that references one or more parts of the official adopted Neighborhood Plan * Background information including prior planning and outreach efforts, maps, timelines, and budgets
15 days Step 2. The ECC Chairperson will post a discussion item on the agenda and distribute copies of the requested item at the first regular meeting after the information packets were received. The chairperson will recommend whether the Land Use and Design Committee, another standing committee of the L.T. or a special committee should be formed to review the item and the members of the L.T. will discuss and then vote on the chairperson’s recommendation. If a special committee is to be formed, the L.T. Chairperson designates a chairperson for that committee who sets a time/place/date for the 1st meeting of the committee. All meetings of the committee must be held in a public place and be open to all members of the L.T. and the public. The committee will report back to the L.T. at the next regular meeting with a timeframe for presenting a recommendation to the L.T. If the special committee has failed to meet or reach a decision on a |