city councilman

A city councilman in Gardner, Kan., has resigned after a meeting turned ugly. At a meeting to discuss whether videotaping the meetings would add civility, Dennis Pugh told a fellow council member to shut up then stormed out.

Pugh later drove to the councilman's house, tackled him and took his video camera. He's now charged with battery.

UT alumna and former Student Government president Randi Shade served on the Austin city council from 2008 to 2011 and worked under three different governors, in addition to serving on several committees and holding membership in numerous local and national organizations.

No longer serving on city council, Shade now serves as mother to two young children and lives in central Austin with her partner, Kayla Shell.

An Ohio city councilman is in trouble. He tapped a century old maple in front of his house and collected enough sap to make two gallons of syrup.

But he was outed by the Toledo Blade. It was a city tree and he did not have a permit.

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Whether for re-election to his current post or Mayor next year isn’t entirely clear, but Austin City Councilman Mike Martinez has endorsed his dais mate Lee Leffingwell in a new YouTube spot.

Joined by a wide range of community leaders — from Shudde Fath and Joenne Grissom to Dwayne Lofton and Ora Houston — Martinez vouches for Uncle Lee’s character, saying “he’s straightforward, he’s honest, he’s somebody that I know I can trust.”

“I know a lot of people are wondering if I’m going to be [a] candidate,” Jason Meeker says in this morning’s The Man.

“I might be.”

Meeker, a spokesman for the RG4N group still fighting a planned Wal-Mart Supercenter at Northcross Mall, has been weighing a race against Austin City Councilman Uncle Lee Leffingwell for months.

City Councilman Lee Leffingwell isn’t subtle about his hope to be elected Mayor over expected opponent Brewster McCracken in May 2009.

Some say they’ve even spotted him sneaking into the office late at night to sketch plans for arranging the furniture once he gets there.

Fung shui is fundamental, you know. Especially at Austin’s City Hall.