BG Reads 10.15.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - October 15, 2024

October 15, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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October 15, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis gets sworn into new position (KVUE)

🟪 City presents proposal for combined HQ for Austin first responders (CBS Austin)

🟪 Judge dismisses Austin campaign finance lawsuit, declines to weigh in on constitutionality (Austin American-Statesman)

Read On!

  • Item Highlight, #47: Discussion and possible action to ratify a proposed five-year Meet and Confer Agreement with the Austin Police Association relating to wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment for police officers of the Austin Police Department.

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

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

📺 City Council Candidate Forum: District 2 - Video (9.26.2024)

📺 City Council Candidate Forum: District 4 - Video (9.19.2024)

📺 City Council Candidate Forum: Mayor - Video (10.3.2024)

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis gets sworn into new position (KVUE)

Lisa Davis is now officially the chief of police for the Austin Police Department (APD). 

The new chief was sworn in on Monday during an official ceremony, roughly five weeks after she started her first day on the job. 

Davis previously worked as assistant chief for the Cincinnati Police Department, serving with the organization for more than 30 years. 

She was chosen for her new role by Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax in August, along with a unanimous decision from the Austin City Council. 

Davis took on her job at the start of September, becoming the city's second-ever woman police chief. 

Ahead of Davis' swearing-in ceremony, former Police Chief Robin Henderson served in an interim role. 

Davis spent several weeks training to become certified by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) before taking on her position on Monday… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

City presents proposal for combined HQ for Austin first responders (CBS Austin)

New details were revealed Monday for a new facility the city of Austin is looking at as a new combined headquarters for Austin Police, Fire, and Austin-Travis County EMS.

Next week the city of Austin will be asking the city council to approve the $120.5 million purchase of a 390,000 square-foot facility just three miles from city hall.

The city says the property checks all the boxes at an incredibly affordable rate, but opponents say the deal feels rushed and other options need to be considered.

Mayor Kirk Watson says he was impressed by a presentation to the Public Safety Committee Monday, giving new details about the proposed purchase of a new home for Austin's first responders… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Judge dismisses Austin campaign finance lawsuit, declines to weigh in on constitutionality (Austin American-Statesman)

A federal judge is allowing a city of Austin campaign finance limit on out-of-town political donations to remain in place before the Nov. 5 general election despite a mayoral candidate seeking to do away with the contributions cap.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman on Friday dismissed a lawsuit brought against the city by Doug Greco that challenged the limit, saying a related matter needs to first finish making its way through the city's Ethics Review Commission — which enforces the city's campaign finance rules.

As Pitman declined to weigh in on the constitutionality of the matter, which was challenged in the lawsuit, the door is still open for future legal action against the city rule… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin leaders renew promises for reform after USA TODAY investigation of rape kit backlog (Austin American-Statesman)

City leaders say Austin police and prosecutors must do better at handling cases from the city’s backlog of thousands of rape kits after a USA TODAY investigation revealed just one conviction to date and highlighted how police bungled their investigation into a potential serial rapist.

“There is no room for mistakes to continue happening,” said Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis, who joined the department last month.

Four members of the City Council expressed concerns about issues highlighted in the newspaper’s investigation. Council Member Alison Alter said she has spoken with both Davis and the deputy city manager about the report, and that leaders are focused on reflection and reform.

“We can do better,” she said. “But we can only do better if we recognize we have a problem.”

Across the country, lawmakers, victims' rights advocates and law enforcement officials have called for increased accountability following USA TODAY’s investigation into the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, a grant program operated by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Since 2015, the program has doled out nearly $350 million to about 90 state and local agencies with the goal of testing old rape kits, investigating cases and bringing closure to survivors… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

UIL approves proposals aimed at addressing ‘complex’ eligibility challenges for high school athletes

The University Interscholastic League Legislative Council passed several staff proposals that are aimed at student-athlete eligibility during the general session of its annual fall meetings Monday morning in Round Rock. Those changes represent what UIL deputy director Jamey Harrison says are “just the first step” in helping the organization more effectively deal with some of the eligibility issues it's facing when it comes to the ever-changing landscape of high school athletics.

“We know that we have some keystone eligibility rules that we need to keep at our core,” Harrison said. “All of that is related to having community and educational basis to our activities and to having as level of a playing field as we can possibly provide to schools. There are some instances where that doesn’t feel like it’s happening anymore, and we need to find new ways to address it. We’ve talked about a number of those over the past several years. To be honest with you, I think we were guilty of trying to find simple solutions to remarkably complex challenges, and what we’ve learned is it’s going to take a more complex set of solutions.”

Perhaps the most significant change came with an amendment that specifically grants the UIL State Executive Committee authority to investigate schools with an inordinate number of Previous Athletic Participating Forms (PAPF). The PAPF is a two-page document required to be filled out by students changing schools who intend to participate in athletics.

The form asks 18 yes-or-no questions, focusing on things from the student’s residence and family situation to potential recruiting violations. Also passed was a proposal to update the requirements for filing the PAPFs, which the UIL says are not always completed in a timely manner. The change mandates that any new student at the high school level must complete the questionnaire prior to participation in athletics.

Another proposal passed by the council provides a penalty the SEC can impose on a District Executive Committee when it is determined the DEC is acting in a manner inconsistent with UIL rules. DECs are responsible for ruling on protests and reports of violations concerning eligibility and other matters that occur within each district around the state.

The SEC now has an avenue to appoint an independent individual to oversee the conduct of the meetings, making sure the rules are enforced consistently. Another change approved Monday prohibits athletes found to have changed schools for athletic purposes from participating in contests against varsity teams from other schools, barring an exemption from the UIL athletic director.

Athletes ruled ineligible for changing schools for athletic purposes are allowed to play in sub-varsity games, but now that participation is stipulated even further… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

'Totally illegal': Trump escalates rhetoric on outlawing political dissent and criticism (NBC News)

Donald Trump is ramping up his rhetoric depicting his political rivals and critics as criminals, while dropping a long trail of suggestions that he favors outlawing political speech that he deems misleading or challenges his claims to power.

In a speech Friday in Aurora, Colorado, the Republican presidential nominee blasted the immigration system and lobbed a rhetorical grenade at his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

“She’s a criminal. She’s a criminal,” said Trump, who was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in his New York hush money trial. “She really is, if you think about it.”

It’s a pattern of messaging that has long been part of Trump’s stump speeches but has escalated significantly in his 2024 candidacy. In the final stretch to the Nov. 5 election, the former president has developed a tendency to claim that speech he disapproves of is illegal, even if it is protected by the First Amendment.

A questionable cut of a “60 Minutes” Harris interview? “Totally illegal,” Trump wrote on X, saying it makes Harris look better and that CBS should have its broadcast license revoked… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

How Wall St. is subtly shaping the Harris economic agenda (New York Times)

When two of Vice President Kamala Harris’s closest advisers arrived in New York last month, they were seeking advice.

The Democratic nominee was preparing to give her most far-reaching economic speech, and Tony West, Ms. Harris’s brother-in-law, and Brian Nelson, a longtime confidant, wanted to know how the city’s powerful financiers thought she should approach it.

Over two days, the pair held meetings across Wall Street, including at the offices of Lazard, an investment bank, and the elite law firm Paul, Weiss. Among the ideas the attendees pitched was to provide more lucrative tax breaks for companies that allowed their workers to become part owners, according to two people at the meetings.

The campaign had already been discussing such an idea with an executive at KKR, the private equity firm. A few days later, Ms. Harris endorsed the idea during her speech in Pittsburgh. “We will reform our tax laws to make it easier for businesses to let workers share in their company’s success,” she said.

The line, while just a piece of a much broader speech, was emblematic of Ms. Harris’s approach to economic policy since she took the helm of the Democratic Party in July. As part of a bid to cut into former President Donald J. Trump’s polling lead on the economy, her campaign has carefully courted business leaders, organizing a steady stream of meetings and calls in which corporate executives and donors offer their thoughts on tax policy, financial regulation and other issues.

The private feedback has, in sometimes subtle ways, shaped Ms. Harris’s economic agenda over the course of her accelerated campaign. At several points, she has sprinkled language into broader speeches that business executives say reflects their views. And, in at least one instance, Ms. Harris made a specific policy commitment — to pare back a tax increase on capital gains — after extended talks with her corporate allies.

They describe a Democratic campaign that is far more open to corporate input than the one President Biden had led for much of the election cycle. Ms. Harris’s team does not take all of the advice it is given.

Some pleas for a more robust endorsement of big business have been ignored, for example, while some of the meetings have devolved into executives’ raising specific tax problems their companies face.

The friendlier corporate ties have nevertheless raised questions about whether Ms. Harris’s overtures are campaign-season coalition building — or a sign that she will take a more centrist tack if she wins the White House. On some issues, like a proposed tax on the ultrawealthy, her campaign has been studiously ambiguous, fueling uncertainty about what kind of an economic leader she would be.

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