BG Reads 10.11.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - October 11, 2024

October 11, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

Presented by:

www.binghamgp.com

October 11, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Austin Development Services Department will use AI to evaluate residential construction plans (KUT)

🟪 Kirk Watson continues to outfundraise opponents in the Austin mayoral race (KUT)

🟪 $5.5M approved for Austin Planning Department 'consultant bench' (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 In Texas’ biggest purple county, this far-right Republican is creating a playbook for local governing (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Child care advocates call on Texas lawmakers to make investments (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

🟪 States probed TikTok for years. Here are the documents the app tried to keep secret (NPR)

Read On!

[BINGHAM GROUP]

🟪  Last week’s three-day trip to Williamson County, Tennessee—specifically the city of Franklin—for the Round Rock Chamber’s Inaugural InterCity Visit was a fantastic experience. Bingham Group was proud to participate as a sponsor and attendee.

Shout out to Chamber President & CEO Jordan Robinson and the entire team for their efforts.

In 2024, Bingham Group embraced a regional focus and is dedicated to fostering proactive relationships and strategic investments within the Austin Metro for 2025 and beyond.

🟪 Bingham Group represents and has represented a wide range of clients in the Austin Metro and Texas Capitol at the intersection of government and business.

🟪 Learn more about Bingham Group’s experience here, and review client testimonials here.

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🟪 The Austin Council has four (4) regular meetings left in 2024

đź“ş City Council Candidate Forum: District 2 - Video (9.26.2024)

đź“ş City Council Candidate Forum: District 4 - Video (9.19.2024)

đź“ş City Council Candidate Forum: District 6 - Video (9.5.2024)

đź“ş City Council Candidate Forum: District 7 - Video (9.5.2024)

đź“ş City Council Candidate Forum: District 10 - Video (9.30.2024)

đź“ş City Council Candidate Forum: Mayor - Video (10.3.2024)

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Austin will use AI to evaluate residential construction plans (KUT)

The department that oversees approval of new construction in Austin will begin using artificial intelligence to evaluate building plans as early as next summer.

In August, Austin City Council members approved a three-year contract, costing $3.5 million, with Archistar, an Australia-based company. The city has the option to renew the contract for two more years at a total cost of $6 million. The city’s Development Services Department will use the company’s software to partially automate review of residential building plans.

Builders in Austin have long lamented the amount of time it takes for the city to review and approve plans for new construction. In 2022, it took an average of 345 days for developers to get a permit to build, according to a recent audit.

José Roig, who heads Austin’s Development Services Departments, said using AI could help speed up this process.

“If it can take at least 80% of the guesswork and the review process out of the way, that’s going to be a significant amount of time,” he said.

The plan, Roig said, is to have AI take a first pass at documents submitted for new residential construction. The city would start with applications to build single-family homes. He stressed that humans would still be involved in the review process, given the complexity of the city’s building regulations. Roig also said this would not replace any jobs.

The city first piloted an AI program for building plans earlier this year. Roig said staff fed plans into the program, which then flagged any inconsistencies between construction applications and the city’s building rules… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Kirk Watson continues to outfundraise opponents in the Austin mayoral race (KUT)

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson has once again outraised his opponents in the race to be the city’s next mayor, adding another $216,000 to his campaign coffers. In total, Watson has raised nearly $1 million since January, which is almost nine times the second highest-earning candidate, according to campaign finance reports filed Monday.

This includes cash and non-cash contributions, such as food provided for a campaign event. The current mayor, who is seeking reelection against four challengers, heads into the last month of campaigning with $266,891 on hand. Doug Greco, former director of Central Texas Interfaith, has $45,218 still to spend, while former City Council member Kathie Tovo has $31,713.

Carmen Llanes Pulido, who runs the nonprofit Go Austin/Vamos Austin, has spent nearly all of the $104,679 she has raised thus far. She has just $4,661 on hand. Jeffery Bowen, a construction company owner who entered the race later than the others, has spent less than $2,000 and has nearly $10,000 left. Candidates in Texas running for office are required to file campaign finance reports in the months leading up to an election. The reports detail how much money a candidate has raised, who has contributed and what that money is being spent on, including advertising, labor and office supplies.

Campaign finance reports are just one measure of voters’ support of a candidate. More money means more resources – the ability to buy items such as campaign signs, flyers and T-shirts. “Without money you're not competitive and it's very hard to run an effective campaign,” said Kirby Goidel, a professor of political science at Texas A&M who spoke with KUT in July about campaign finance… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

$5.5M approved for Austin Planning Department 'consultant bench' (Austin Business Journal)

The Austin Planning Department now has a “consultant bench” — at a price tag of up to $5.5 million — to help it with key projects. 

Funding for the initiative was approved by the City Council at its Oct. 10 meeting, enabling the Planning Department to tap six companies to work as consultants over a five-year period.

In a memo to the City Council, Planning Department Director Lauren Middleton-Pratt said the companies will comprise a “consultant bench” to ensure the department has “adequate resources to fill any gaps in service, and reduce the need to go through a lengthy solicitation process each time service needs are identified.”

The companies that will make up the bench and can be tapped by the Planning Department include: AECOM, HR&A Advisors Inc., Lionheart LLC, Perkins & Will Inc., Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP and the Goodman Corp. They were chosen partly because they have expertise in market and financial analysis, Middleton-Pratt said in the memo… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

APD touts early successes of license plate reader program (Austin Monitor)

The Public Safety Commission was briefed Monday on some early results of the license plate reader program that rolled out in March with cameras at undisclosed sites across the city.

The Austin Police Department credits the cameras for the 40 arrests patrol officers made for stolen vehicles and the 20 stolen vehicles recovered with no arrests.

Additionally, police investigators identified and arrested two murder suspects and one aggravated robbery suspect, APD said. The use of the cameras also generated nine leads in other felony cases.

The LPR program’s 40 cameras, geographically distributed across Austin, went live in March. APD retains the captured data for seven days, which the department says is the shortest retention period of any law enforcement agency in the country. City Council added the seven-day rule in response to local controversy regarding the program.

All sworn personnel are expected to be trained on the cameras’ software by the end of this month… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

City-owned land will be repurposed to add 5 (KUT)

Five new parks are joining Austin’s parks system, adding much needed green spaces to areas considered to be "park deficient."

Austin’s Watershed Protection Department has over the years acquired land for things like protecting the environment and managing floodwater. These properties are open green spaces, but because they’re not designated as parkland the city can’t use parkland money to develop them as such.

The City Council on Thursday approved an ordinance naming these five properties as parkland. City Council Member Alison Alter, who led the effort, said the move opens up funding options to make improvements.

“We know these properties can serve the functions they were originally purchased for, but they can also be improved and opened to the public for recreation,” she said... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

In Texas’ biggest purple county, this far-right Republican is creating a playbook for local governing (Texas Tribune)

Over the past two decades, Tim O’Hare methodically amassed power in North Texas as he pushed incendiary policies such as banning undocumented immigrants from renting homes and vilifying school curriculum that encouraged students to embrace diversity.

He rode a wave of conservative resentment, leaping from City Council member of Farmers Branch, a suburb north of Dallas, in 2005 to its mayor to the leader of the Tarrant County Republican Party.

Three years ago, O’Hare sought his highest political office yet, running for the top elected position in the nation’s 15th-largest county, which is home to Fort Worth. Backed by influential evangelical churches and money from powerful oil industry billionaires, O’Hare promised voters he would weed out “diversity inclusion nonsense” and accused some Democrats of hating America.

His win in November 2022 gave the GOP’s far right new sway over the Tarrant County Commissioners Court, turning a government that once prided itself on bipartisanship into a new front of the culture war… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Lawmakers press Deloitte on 'fraud' in application to $5B Texas fund for gas-fired power plants (Houston Chronicle)

Texas lawmakers grilled executives from Deloitte, the consulting firm contracted to manage a $5 billion taxpayer-funded program mainly intended to kickstart construction of natural gas power plants, after the organization advanced a potentially fraudulent loan application. Allegations first arose last month that a little-known company, Aegle Power, sought loans for its proposed natural gas power plant by listing another big-name company as a sponsor without permission.

Additional scrutiny revealed Aegle Power CEO Kathleen Smith had previously been convicted in an “embezzlement scheme” related to the development of a different power plant. In addition to seeking to slash the consulting firm's up to $107 million contract, lawmakers heard accusations Tuesday that Aegle Power falsified yet another aspect of its application to the state.

The Aegle Power application, which has since been denied, proposed adding nearly 1.3 gigawatts of gas-fired generation to the Texas grid. It was the second-largest offering among the 17 developers selected as finalists for low-interest loans from the Texas Energy Fund, the $5 billion program approved by voters last November. The Public Utility Commission of Texas, the state agency overseeing the fund, has emphasized no loans have yet been given to any organization. The remaining 16 projects are still in the monthslong “due diligence” stage, when Deloitte is supposed to verify the information submitted by the applicants.

The commission can only execute loans with developers that pass that review. Still, the saga has embarrassed state leaders working vigorously to encourage more natural gas power plants to connect to the at-times shaky Texas power grid, which they say are needed given the potential for Texans’ electricity needs to roughly double by 2030. “The people of Texas have entrusted people like you to make sure that the money is spent appropriately, efficiently and fairly. It doesn't appear that that's happening,” state Sen. Joan Huffman said to Deloitte executives at the Tuesday hearing… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

CenterPoint 'reassessing' use of The Pond, its Houston-area lobbying retreat, CEO says (Houston Chronicle)

CenterPoint Energy is “reassessing the use” of its private Chambers County retreat, colloquially known as “The Pond,” as a space to wine and dine Texas lawmakers, the company’s chief executive said Saturday.

The country lodge off of Trinity Bay has been key to CenterPoint’s lobbying efforts for decades. More than 70 current or former state and local elected officials said they have visited, reported spending campaign funds on trips there or were shown on the grounds in public images posted on social media, a Houston Chronicle investigation found in August.

“I've never hosted an elected official or a member of any of our regulators. I've never been out at The Pond with anybody other than members of our team,” Jason Wells, CenterPoint's CEO, said in an interview following a Public Utility Commission of Texas meeting in Houston over the weekend.

“In light of the criticism, we are reassessing the use of that facility for things like hosting elected officials,” Wells said. CenterPoint Chief Communications Officer Keith Stephens called the Pond “a rustic fishing lodge” that’s “pretty pedestrian” where guests can go fishing and alligator hunting.

Those who’ve visited The Pond say it boasts extraordinary fishing, a kitchen serving three meals a day, an open bar, pool and poker tables and on-site staff to help reel in the fish, clean them and filet them for guests to take home, according to the Chronicle’s investigation. Several lawmakers, including some who've backed laws or initiatives supported by CenterPoint in recent years, told the Chronicle visiting the Pond hasn’t influenced their votes or their policymaking.

CenterPoint also hosts employee and community-oriented events at the Pond, Wells said. Some industry observers, however, said invitations to the Pond can build closeness between lawmakers and the company that may later come in handy…

Child care advocates call on Texas lawmakers to make investments (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

The spotlight on the call for Texas child care reform intensified on Oct. 9 after more than 120 organizations across the state released a statement to the Legislature, urging lawmakers to make change through four policy recommendations. Advocacy group Texans Care for Children sent the statement alongside various chambers of commerce, faith-based organizations, child care providers and other children’s advocacy groups, some of which are based in Fort Worth.

The organizations underscored the challenges of the child care crisis that are impacting children’s success in school, creating roadblocks for programs with financial struggles, and hindering parents’ ability to go to work and pay for the cost of high-quality care. The legislative session begins in January, and committees in both the House and Senate have been assigned to study interim charges related to child care ahead of lawmakers convening in Austin.

“The Legislature has an opportunity to give more parents a chance to go to work and more kids a chance to get the early learning experiences they need,” said David Feigen, director of early learning policy at Texans Care for Children.

The four policy recommendations include: Investing in the state’s subsidy system by addressing the waitlist of about 80,000 children and tailoring reimbursement rates to providers who accept subsidies; Increasing the supply of programs by offering competitive grants to expand affordable care in high-need areas.

This includes focuses on child care deserts, serving children with disabilities and infant and toddler care; Ensuring programs recruit and retain qualified staff by way of helping low-income educators access child care themselves; Expanding pre-K partnerships in public schools by providing options for families in community-based child care programs that can provide education and care for a full working day.

Among the Fort Worth-based organizations who signed onto the statement include the Early Learning Alliance, Child Care Associates, Green Space Learning and the Goddard School Fort Worth. Kym Shaw Day, executive director of the Early Learning Alliance, said the organization is proud to stand by the several other entities that signed on to the statement, as the alliance believes that “accessible, high-quality child care to be essential for the development and well-being of our youngest Texans.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

US Republicans condemn hurricane misinformation spread by their own party (Reuters)

As U.S. officials struggle to push back against misinformation about natural disasters, opens new tab hitting the country, at least three congressional Republicans condemned conspiracy theories repeated by fellow members of their party.

Representative Chuck Edwards, who represents a North Carolina district hit hard by flooding caused by Hurricane Helene in late September, called out the "outrageous rumors" spread by "untrustworthy sources trying to spark chaos."

The flooding decimated much of North Carolina's inland west, an unexpected outcome in a state which is used to dealing with hurricanes along its Atlantic coast. Florida is now bracing for a direct hit from the powerful Hurricane Milton, headed for its western coast.

One of the sources of misinformation is fellow Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has used both her official congressional social media account and her personal account to spread such misinformation.

"Ask your government if the weather is manipulated or controlled. Did you ever give permission to them to do it? Are you paying for it? Of course you are," Greene wrote in one such post on her official account on Monday.

Edwards directly called out this falsehood in his statement, without naming Greene.

"Nobody can control the weather," he said. "Please make sure you are fact checking what you read online with a reputable source."

Greene's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

States probed TikTok for years. Here are the documents the app tried to keep secret (NPR)

For the first time, internal TikTok communications have been made public that show a company unconcerned with the harms the app poses for American teenagers. This is despite its own research validating many child safety concerns.

The confidential material was part of a more than two-year investigation into TikTok by 14 attorneys general that led to state officials suing the company on Tuesday. The lawsuit alleges that TikTok was designed with the express intention of addicting young people to the app. The states argue the multi-billion-dollar company deceived the public about the risks.

In each of the separate lawsuits state regulators filed, dozens of internal communications, documents and research data were redacted — blacked-out from public view — since authorities entered into confidentiality agreements with TikTok… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

_________________________

We are proud to represent and have represented a wide range of clients in the Austin Metro and Texas Capitol at the intersection of government and business.

Learn more about Bingham Group’s experience here, and review client testimonials here.

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