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BG Reads 1.17.2024

BG Reads 1.17.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - January 17, 2024

January 17, 2024

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January 17, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

✅ At least 649 people stayed overnight Monday at City’s cold weather shelters

✅ Austin ISD delayed two hours today amid freezing weather

✅ Arctic blast breaks energy, temperature records in Austin

✅ Dallas officials say it's time to rethink ‘50s single-family zoning and land use rules

Read on!

[CITY HALL WATCH]

🔎 City Manager Search

The application process for Austin’s next city manager is open.

Click Here to review the posting

Applications will be accepted until February 12th.

🔎 2024 Austin Council Meeting Schedule

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

City of Austin hopes record number staying at cold-weather shelter leads to long-term housing connections (KXAN)

“Nothing short of miraculous,” Greg McCormack, the program manager for Austin’s Homeless Strategy Office of said about the staff looking to connect people staying in cold weather shelters this week with long-term resources.

“Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center has been incredible, going into each shelter and making sure individuals there are connected with resources that could lead to housing,” McCormack added.

At least 649 people stayed overnight Monday into Tuesday at the City of Austin’s shelters, according to an update shared Tuesday morning by city leaders… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin ISD delayed two hours Jan. 17 amid freezing weather (Community Impact)

Austin ISD schools and offices will operate on a two-hour delay Jan. 17 due to freezing temperatures… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Arctic blast breaks energy, temperature records in Austin (Austin American-Statesman)

City of Austin officials plan to keep warming shelters open through Wednesday morning as dangerous, subfreezing temperatures will linger into midweek. As residents hunkered down indoors Monday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas — which manages the state power grid — pleaded with Texans to conserve energy Tuesday morning. Although Austin Energy broke usage records Monday morning, officials said they didn’t expect widespread outages related to the record-breaking cold weather.

Temperatures will drop to the mid-teens in Austin both Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, according to the National Weather Service, though it said chances of precipitation had disappeared Monday afternoon. A wind chill warning is in effect until 9 a.m. Tuesday and a wind chill advisory will be in effect Tuesday night until 10 a.m. Wednesday… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin Energy fine-tuning plans for reliable, carbon-free power by 2035 (Austin Monitor)

Austin Energy leaders have prioritized reliability of the utility’s power generation at all times as one of the most important components of its next resource generation plan, which is expected to come before City Council for approval in March.

During the December meeting of Council’s AE Utility Oversight Committee, members heard details of the many goals and scenarios involved in planning for providing power in a fast-growing city experiencing more extreme weather events. The presentation delivered by AE chief operating officer Lisa Martin first listed challenges such as retiring the financially troubled Fayette Power Project, dealing with extreme weather events, managing changes in the regulatory market for energy, handling volatile market and congestion costs, and meeting the growing local demand for power… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Click here for this week’s Austin public meeting meeting times and agendas.

[TEXAS NEWS]

Some Dallas city officials say it's time to rethink 1950s single-family zoning and land use rules (KERA)

Reducing minimum lot sizes and allowing three or four-unit developments in neighborhoods currently zoned for single-family residents is increasingly being discussed across the nation. Now that debate has come to Dallas. Proponents of the idea say now is the time to start the conversation of how the city can meet increasing housing demands — and failing to think critically about the issue means sticking with “the status quo.”

But there has been harsh criticism and pushback to the idea. Those opposed to amending Dallas’ decades-old residential zoning rules say allowing multi-unit developments in residential areas — no matter how contained they are — may “destabilize” neighborhoods. In late December, city staff presented a starting point to that conversation by laying out different potential options for addressing the housing need in the city.

Those options — not formal proposals as staff reiterated several times during the briefing — included reducing minimum lot sizes in single-family residential areas and creating new land uses for smaller dwellings. The presentation was met with vocal opposition from the several council members who attended the Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee meeting late last year. Some told staff the ideas in the presentation were “way off base” and “non-starters” for the constituents in their districts.

The special called meeting was scheduled a week before the Christmas holiday — a time the council is usually in recess, according to city officials. All but one of the five council members who asked for the briefing to be added to a committee agenda did not make the meeting. That timing, some suggested, made the process less transparent. District 9 Council Member Paula Blackmon was one of the five to request the briefing. She says the conversation is just the beginning to fixing a more complex issue… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

San Antonio plans to tackle violence with a public health approach. Here’s what that looks like. (Texas Tribune)

San Antonio will become the latest Texas city to leverage a public health framework in a bid to prevent violence. The approach uses evidence and research to better understand the causes and circumstances of violence — and develop ideas to better avert it.

Officials in the state’s second largest city are focusing on four areas: Crimes committed by youth, incidents involving guns, sexual assaults and domestic violence. Residents identified those four areas as priorities.

“A public health approach to any community issue starts with understanding the nature of the problem: Using data, talking to residents and using that to advise us on what to do,” said Erica Haller-Stevenson, the city’s public health administrator.

“Ultimately when you look at violence as a public health issue, you’re looking at it beyond public safety. You’re looking at the way violence impacts people deeply and over their lifetime.”

With the so-called beyond-policing approach, San Antonio joins Houston and Austin, whose similar programs are already underway and growing, as well as municipalities across the country… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Biden-Harris campaign says it has largest war chest of any Democratic candidate in history (The Hill)

The Biden-Harris reelection campaign announced on Monday it has $117 million on hand, in what aides claim is the largest sum for any Democratic candidate in history at this point in the race. The president and vice president’s team said it raised more than $97 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. The total includes fundraising efforts by the campaign, joint fundraising committees and the Democratic National Committee. In the third quarter of 2023, the Biden-Harris campaign announced it raised more than $71 million and had nearly $91 million cash on hand. The team raised more than $72 million in the second quarter of last year, with $77 million cash. The campaign early Monday stressed grassroots fundraising efforts in the fourth quarter and hailed the fundraising haul as a historic achievement.

“This historic haul — proudly powered by strong and growing grassroots enthusiasm—sends a clear message: the Team Biden-Harris coalition knows the stakes of this election and is ready to win this November,” Julie Chávez Rodríguez, Biden-Harris campaign manager, said in a statement announcing the numbers.

“Across our coalition, we are seeing early, sustained support that is helping us scale our growing operation across the country and take our message to the communities that will determine this election,” Chavez added. The announcement comes hours before the start of the Iowa caucuses and two weeks ahead of the filing deadline for candidates. Most GOP presidential candidates have not released their Q4 fundraising numbers yet. Republican candidate Nikki Haley announced her fourth quarter fundraising numbers this month, saying she raised $24 million, ending the quarter with $14.5 million on hand… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

A potentially huge Supreme Court case has a hidden conservative backer (New York Times)

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Wednesday that, on paper, are about a group of commercial fishermen who oppose a government fee that they consider unreasonable. But the lawyers who have helped to propel their case to the nation’s highest court have a far more powerful backer: the petrochemicals billionaire Charles Koch. The case is one of the most consequential to come before the justices in years.

A victory for the fishermen would do far more than push aside the monitoring fee, part of a system meant to prevent overfishing, that they objected to. It would very likely sharply limit the power of many federal agencies to regulate not only fisheries and the environment, but also health care, finance, telecommunications and other activities, legal experts say.

“It might all sound very innocuous,” said Jody Freeman, founder and director of the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program and a former Obama White House official. “But it’s connected to a much larger agenda, which is essentially to disable and dismantle federal regulation.”

The lawyers who represent the New Jersey-based fishermen, are working pro bono and belong to a public-interest law firm, Cause of Action, that discloses no donors and reports having no employees. However, court records show that the lawyers work for Americans for Prosperity, a group funded by Mr. Koch, the chairman of Koch Industries and a champion of anti-regulatory causes. The law firm’s board of directors includes a top lawyer at the firm that has represented Koch Industries in a range of cases, like the company’s past defense against lawsuits linked to its handling of petroleum coke, a byproduct of oil refining, and in its opposition to stronger regulations on the substance… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[2024 Austin City Council Race Watch]

Next fall will see elections for the following Council positions, District 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, and Mayor. Candidates can’t file for a place on the ballot until July 22, 2024.

Declared candidates so far are:

District 2