BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 19, 2023)
[BG PODCAST]
EPISODE 205 // Bingham Group Associate’s Hannah Garcia and Wendy Rodriguez with CEO A.J. review the week in Austin politics and more.
The discussion covers:
• Texas Legislature reaches deal for property tax cuts → www.kxan.com/news/18-billion-de…in-states-history/
• City of Austin ends APD-DPS partnership after community backlash and an alarming incident over the weekend → www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/20…id=4f22e5507c
• City Boards and Commissions recommend Telework policy for city employees → www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2023/0…ity-employees/
• Local organizations call for quicker turnaround on Land Development Code Amendments → www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/202…date=2023-07-12
• All 32 City of Austin pools are open after several years of staffing issues → www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2023/0…f-swim-season/
• Some AustinISD Teachers were paid $2000 in error and must pay that back to AISD → communityimpact.com/austin/southwes…ocessing-error/
>>> SHOW LINK <<<
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
The Request for Qualifications (RFQ ) for the City Manager Search Firm was released Monday by the City Procurement office. Responses are due on August 15th by 2PM. RFQ LINK HERE.
Per Mayor Kirk Watson’s office (posted on the Council Message Board), “The City Manager Search Committee will meet to discuss proposals and conduct interviews with respondents in late August and early September. The City Manager Search Committee’s goal is to provide a recommendation for a Search Firm to be considered by the full Council at our Council Meeting on October 5th.”
Along with Mayor Watson, the Search Committee is composed of Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis (District 8), and Council Members Leslie Pool (District 7), Chito Vela (District 4), and Vanessa Fuentes (District 2).
[AUSTIN METRO]
Council considers code amendments to relax single-family zoning rules (Austin Monitor)
City Council will consider an item at this week’s meeting that would begin the process of relaxing the city’s strict single-family zoning rules.
Item 126, sponsored by Council Member Leslie Pool, directs the city manager to propose code amendments that reduce the minimum lot size from 5,750 to 2,500 square feet or less, so that existing standard-size lots can be subdivided and developed with a variety of housing types, such as row houses, townhomes, tri- and fourplexes, garden homes and cottage courts. The resolution would also amend the code to permit the development of three units on single-family lots.
In a Monday post to the City Council Message Board, Pool defended her proposal and denied that it would result in the elimination of single-family zoning. “This proposal does not eliminate single-family zoning – in fact, my proposal would add options and entitlements to single-family use, and create more housing opportunity for middle-income homeowners,” she wrote… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council member asks for analysis of Austin Tourism Public Improvement District plan, including homelessness aid (Austin monitor)
The plan for an Austin Tourism Public Improvement District is set for a deep-dive analysis, after City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes requested a briefing on it during a work session Tuesday.
The draft plan would create an agreement with local hotels that could generate about $7 million a year for the next decade to fund services for people experiencing homelessness. The move for a briefing comes after the Tourism Commission met last week and shared concerns over how quickly the proposal was moving forward.
During Tuesday’s session, Fuentes stressed that the plan merits substantial time and attention, since it’s been long talked about in Austin, and similar plans have already been enacted in other major Texas cities. That includes Fort Worth, where Fuentes said she recently stayed in a participating hotel. The North Texas city established its own district in August 2017 for a decadelong term. The city’s Dallas neighbors also have a Tourism Public Improvement District, as does San Antonio, which has dedicated most of the funds to increased sales and marketing initiatives… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Aspen Heights out of downtown Austin deal (Real Deal)
Austin officials are taking matters into their own hands to redevelop an old hospital downtown after its deal with Aspen Heights Partners expired.
Austin City Council will discuss the future of the city-owned HealthSouth rehabilitation hospital site at 1215 Red River and 606 East 12th streets during a July 20 meeting, and council members could vote on a resolution to nail down a development plan, Austin Business Journal reported.
The proposed resolution would give city staffers roughly 60 days to create a “comprehensive report” regarding the feasibility of the downtown project. The city would need to lock down the next steps, possibly letting the Austin Economic Development Corp. or Austin Housing Finance Corp. lead the redevelopment… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Commission looks at speeding up Austin airport expansion (Austin Business Journal)
The Austin-Bergstrom International Airport's advisory board is seeking to expedite the multibillion-dollar expansion planned for the Central Texas aviation hub.
The Airport Advisory Commission, which acts as an intermediary between the Austin Department of Aviation and Austin City Council, earlier this month approved the formation of a working group to look at speeding up the expansion process, which could result in a new midfield concourse being built with up to 10 gates over the next decade-plus.
At its July 12 meeting, the commission approved the formation of the group, intended to help identify ways to expedite the expansion of ABIA and get more flights in and out of Austin faster. It is scheduled to provide an update to the Airport Advisory Commission in August.
The expansion, which will require the demolition of the budget-friendly South Terminal, also includes the addition of three gates on the west end of the main Barbara Jordan Terminal. More than 60 total projects are laid out in the airport's 2040 Master Plan… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Abbott's border security orders lead to kids pushed into the Rio Grande by cops, at least one pregnant woman caught in razor wire, according to DPS documents (Houston Chronicle)
Officers working for Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security initiative have been ordered to push small children and nursing babies back into the Rio Grande, and have been told not to give water to asylum seekers even in extreme heat, according to an email from a Department of Public Safety trooper who described the actions as “inhumane.” The July 3 account, reviewed by Hearst Newspapers, discloses several previously unreported incidents the trooper witnessed in Eagle Pass, where the state of Texas has strung miles of razor wire and deployed a wall of buoys in the Rio Grande. According to the email, a pregnant woman having a miscarriage was found late last month caught in the wire, doubled over in pain. A four-year-old girl passed out from heat exhaustion after she tried to go through it and was pushed back by Texas National Guard soldiers. A teenager broke his leg trying to navigate the water around the wire and had to be carried by his father… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Houston sues state in attempt to block new law that erodes cities’ power (Texas Tribune)
Houston officials sued the state of Texas on Monday to stop a sweeping law aimed at gutting all kinds of local ordinances and sapping the power of the state’s bluer urban areas.
The law — House Bill 2127, dubbed the “Death Star” bill by opponents — was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in June, marking Texas Republicans’ biggest attempt yet to kneecap local governments in a yearslong assault on Texas’ major metropolitan areas, often governed by Democrats.
The law prevents cities and counties from creating local ordinances that go further than what’s allowed under broad areas of state law, an attempt to overturn cities’ progressive policies. Among those policies are mandated water breaks for construction workers in Dallas and Austin, a component of the law that’s gained more criticism as Texas experiences a drastic summer heat wave… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas A&M interim dean resigns after university backtracks on hiring professor to revive journalism program (Texas Tribune)
The interim dean of Texas A&M’s College of Arts and Sciences announced on Monday he will step down from his role following the botched hiring of renowned journalism professor Kathleen O. McElroy amid conservative backlash.
“I feel in the light of controversy surrounding recent communications with Dr. Kathleen McElroy that this is the best thing that I can do to preserve the great things that we have achieved over the last year in creating the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas A&M,” José Luis Bermúdez said in the statement released Monday evening. “My continuation in this role would be a needless distraction as you all continue the work that we have begun.”
Bermúdez said he will leave his role at the end of the month. He did not know who his successor would be. Bermúdez told The Texas Tribune he had no further comment about his decision to step down, but said he would remain as a professor at the university's philosophy department… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Austin: US enemies likely ‘pretty happy’ about Tuberville’s stall tactic on top military promotions (Stars and Stripes)
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday told reporters that he expects America’s enemies were pleased with the procedural block on top military promotions orchestrated by Sen. Tommy Tuberville in protest of a Pentagon policy that covers travel costs for abortions.
Austin implored the Alabama Republican to drop his hold on a procedural vote to confirm more than 260 general and admiral promotions, telling reporters in a Pentagon news conference that it had become a combat “readiness issue.” The defense secretary also defended his policy, which allows the Pentagon to reimburse service members for out-of-state travel expenses for certain reproductive health care, including abortions, which have been banned in some parts of the United States.
“The fact that Sen. Tuberville maintains this hold on our senior officers — it cascades and it creates friction through the entire chain [of command.] It disadvantages families,” Austin told reporters during a briefing that followed a meeting on efforts to bolster Ukraine in its ongoing fight against invading Russian forces. “And, so I would ask Sen. Tuberville to lift this hold, and if you think about it, I would imagine our adversaries would look at something like this and be pretty happy that that we create this kind of turbulence [and] put that on our force."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Trump and allies forge plans to increase presidential power in 2025 (New York times)
Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.
Their plans to centralize more power in the Oval Office stretch far beyond the former president’s recent remarks that he would order a criminal investigation into his political rival, President Biden, signaling his intent to end the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence from White House political control.
Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.
Mr. Trump intends to bring independent agencies — like the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses — under direct presidential control… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[WORLD]
Why Latin America still won’t condemn Putin’s war in Ukraine (Politico)
Spain, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, has its eyes on Latin America and likes to emphasize the close cultural and linguistic ties between the two.
But those links hark back to Spain — and Europe’s — colonial past. The Spanish kingdom colonized much of Latin America starting in 1493 and, over the next 400 years, acquired vast wealth by exploiting its lands and people. The European slave trade also forcibly transported millions of Africans into slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean.
While European leaders hoped to ease geopolitical tensions, their Latin American counterparts came to the table with a clear message: Defining relations today means addressing and rectifying past injustices — especially as the EU looks once again to the resource-rich region, this time to power its green transition.
The prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines — a small island state that heads up the 33-nation group — called for talks on economic reparations for colonization and enslavement.
"Resources from the slave trade and from slavery helped to fuel the industrial revolution that has laid the basis for a lot of the wealth within Western Europe," Ralph Gonsalves told a small group of reporters on Tuesday.
This was part of his argument for a plan to “to repair the historical legacies of underdevelopment resulting from native genocide and the enslavement of African bodies,” as he said on Monday ahead of the summit… (LINK TO FULL STORY)