BG Reads 10.30.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - October 30, 2024

October 30, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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www.binghamgp.com

October 30, 2024

➡️ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Report finds slashed site plan review times, with further improvements on tap (Austin Monitor)

🟪 Joe Rogan to interview Republican VP nominee JD Vance in Austin on Wednesday (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Auditor examines city’s shifting funding, expectations for Cultural Arts grants (Austin Monitor)

🟪 How local rules fuel high housing costs in Texas (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Two closing arguments show the stark choice between Trump and Harris (Associated Press)

Read On!

🗳️ Early voting ends this Friday, November 1st. Find voting locations and sample ballots here:

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🟪 The Austin Council has three (3) 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]

➡️ Report finds slashed site plan review times, with further improvements on tap (Austin Monitor)

An analysis of the city’s ongoing work to improve its widely criticized permitting process for building within the city shows substantial improvements in turnaround times for the main types of reviews, with further gains expected as the city moves forward with later phases of its plan.

The site plan review process applies to any type of substantial improvement to properties in Austin.

Those findings were included in a recent memo to Mayor Kirk Watson and City Council from Development Services Department Director José G. Roig that detailed the work with outside consultants McKinsey & Company to identify and remedy the problems that lengthened the site plan review process to more than three months in some cases.

The resulting report offered a comprehensive three-phased plan, with the phase one steps already showing significant improvements.

The first phase, which ran from October 2023 to May 2024, saw initial site plan review times drop by 56 percent to an average of 32 days from the more routine 87- to 99-day wait prior to plan implementation.

For follow-up review cycles, average turnaround times decreased from 50 days to just under 15 days, nearing the city’s 14-day target.. 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Auditor examines city’s shifting funding, expectations for Cultural Arts grants (Austin Monitor)

A recent report from the City Auditor highlights a recurring state of flux for Cultural Arts funding in recent years, which has fed into the ongoing debate over how the city manages those grant programs.

The audit, which was requested by a group of five City Council members, also found conflicting messaging and intent with regard to a prior Council’s decision to remove arts and culture programs and funds from the larger Economic Development Department.

The report looked at six questions concerning arts funding such as where the funds come from, how they can be spent, how the city structures an allocates awards and how comparable cities organize their culture and arts functions within city government.

While grants from the Cultural Arts Division are typically funded by the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT), those programs received unprecedented federal support during the pandemic. In 2021, Austin allocated $11.3 million in CARES Act funding, primarily benefiting nonprofits and creative sector workers. The following year, American Rescue Plan Act funds added $12 million, administered by third-party vendors like the Long Center for the Performing Arts and Better Business Bureau… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ A community college could transform the Lockhart area. Will voters approve it? (Texas Tribune)

This November, Austin Community College is coming to voters in the Lockhart Independent School District with a proposition to begin paying into the Austin Community College taxing district. In exchange, residents would qualify for in-district tuition and trigger a long-term plan to build out college facilities in this rural stretch of Texas, which is positioning itself to tap into the economic boom flowing into the smaller communities nestled between Austin and San Antonio.

Community colleges have long played a crucial role in recovering economies. But in Lockhart, ACC’s potential expansion could serve as a case study of the role colleges can play in emerging economies as local leaders and community members eye the economic growth on the horizon.

That is, if they can convince enough of their neighbors to help pay for it.

At the edge of two massive metropolitan areas — Austin to the north and San Antonio to the south — Caldwell County is dotted by quaint communities offering small-town living. While the streets in other small rural communities are lined by shuttered storefronts or sit in the shadow of industry long gone, local leaders pitch this as a place “where undeniable opportunity meets authentic Texas community.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Joe Rogan to interview Republican VP nominee JD Vance in Austin on Wednesday (Austin American-Statesman)

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, will travel to Austin to record an episode of the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast Wednesday morning, a Vance spokesperson confirmed Tuesday to the American-Statesman.

The appearance is part of a larger push by the Trump-Vance ticket to bring young, male voters to their side and to drive turnout.

Coming several days after former President Trump recorded a three-hour interview with Rogan in Austin on Friday, the scheduled visit makes this election cycle yet more exceptional, as Texas' status as a safely red state has long led presidential candidates to spend time elsewhere in the weeks leading up the election.

Trump's Austin visit and a mini-rally he held coincided with a rally that his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, held Friday in Houston on reproductive rights.

Harris is still in talks with the podcast host about a potential appearance, Rogan said in a social media post Monday night… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Big expansion on tap for Tesla gigafactory near Austin, according to filings (Austin Business Journal)

Tesla Inc. appears to be on the verge of a major expansion of its huge factory in eastern Travis County, with recent filings indicating the Elon Musk-led company intends to add 5 million square feet to it — a 50% increase from its current size of 10 million square feet.

The electric vehicle manufacturer has submitted 10 filings to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for ground-up construction and interior finish-out at the electric vehicle plant. The work is expected to encompass 5.2 million square feet, according to the filings.

The planned growth of the Tesla factory comes as Musk has been further entrenching his companies — including SpaceX and X, formerly Twitter — in Central Texas.

It also comes about six months after Tesla announced nearly 2,700 job cuts at the Travis County factory as part of companywide reductions, marking the biggest round of layoffs in the Austin metro in at least four decades. At the time, Musk said the layoffs, which corresponded to softening electric vehicle sales, were needed to eliminate duplication of job functions in certain areas and to "prepare the company for our next phase of growth."

A Tesla representative couldn't be reached Oct. 25 to discuss plans for the factory expansion or the potential impact on local employment. In the wake of the April layoffs, Tesla had about 20,000 workers in the Austin metro… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

➡️ How local rules fuel high housing costs in Texas (Texas Tribune)

Housing costs in Texas are at some of their highest levels in decades. One reason why: The state doesn’t have enough homes.

The state needs to build more homes — about 306,000 more, by one estimate — if it wants to put a dent in that shortage and put housing costs in check, housing advocates, real estate experts and homebuilders say.

But rules in its major cities make that exceedingly difficult, according to a Texas Tribune analysis.

Developers can build standalone single-family homes — long the American ideal of homeownership — nearly anywhere in Texas cities where housing is allowed. But cities largely forbid other kinds of housing, like townhomes, duplexes and small apartment buildings, from being built in those same areas, the Tribune’s analysis found. They don’t leave nearly as much room elsewhere for those kinds of homes or larger apartment buildings, either.

Those restraints limit how many homes can ultimately be built, leaving Texans to compete for a limited supply of options and resulting in higher home prices and rents… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Texas hospitals will soon have to ask patients their citizenship status (KVUE)

Hospitals across Texas will soon have to ask patients seeking care for their citizenship status as part of an executive order signed off by the governor. 

The new order, which will take effect on Nov. 1, will require doctors and nurses to ask people who need inpatient or emergency care if they are a U.S. citizen or not. However, it doesn't state whether patients are legally bound to answer. 

David Donatti, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas, said the order has created fear and "is just another intrusion by the state of Texas."

"Regardless of your immigration status, federal law is crystal clear that you are entitled to receive health care," said Donatti. "And I would hope and encourage everyone to seek out care when they need it."

According to the Texas Human Health and Services (HHSC) – the department put in charge of reporting the information to the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House – the response of of the patient won't affect their care. 

Donatti stated it is safe for someone to say they prefer not to answer or they don't know their status. 

"It's actually a very complicated and complex series of questions. Doctors and nurses that we have talked to are not immigration attorneys and they do not want to be," said Donatti.

Hospitals will start gathering information on Friday and reporting it back to the HHSC by March 1, 2025… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

What to know about the HISD staff at the center of a statewide teaching certification cheating scandal (Houston Chronicle)

Three Houston ISD employees face criminal charges for allegedly running a teacher certification cheating ring, certifying more than 210 teachers with more than 430 bogus certification tests. All three HISD employees are on paid leave effective Monday, the district's Chief of Communications Alexandra Elizondo said this week.

"HISD was made aware of the investigation into an alleged cheating conspiracy shortly before arrests were made," the district commented Monday. "Any educator who engages in conduct of this nature abdicates their responsibility to our students and to our staff and represents a complete betrayal of the public trust. HISD will cooperate fully with the Texas Education Agency and state and local law enforcement as the investigation progresses. All three of these employees have been arrested and will be receiving notifications relieving them of their duties effective immediately."

Vincent Grayson, 57, was head boys basketball coach at Booker T. Washington High School. Under his leadership, the team reached the Class 4A state championship game after the 2022-23 season and the regional final in 2023-24. District records list Grayson as a campus athletic coordinator in 2023 and high school graduation coach in 2022. He had worked at least 20 years with HISD as of September and earned a salary of around $90,000. LaShonda Roberts, 39, was an assistant principal at Jack Yates High School in Third Ward.

The Yates administrator was listed as a dean of students in 2023 and a physical education teacher in 2022, according to district records. She had 14 years of HISD experience as of September and a salary of $92,000. Roberts is accused of recruiting or referring 90 teachers to the cheating ring, forwarding roughly $267,000 to Grayson, according to a court document.

Roberts' bail was set at $200,000 early Tuesday and later lowered to $50,000. Nicholas Newton, 35, was an assistant principal at Booker T. Washington High School. He is listed as a magnet coordinator for the high school's engineering program on the school's website. District records list Newton as an instructional specialist in 2022 and assistant principal in 2023. He had 12 years with HISD as of September and a salary of $129,000… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

➡️ Two closing arguments show the stark choice between Trump and Harris (Associated Press)

 In the shadow of the White House, seven days before the final votes of the 2024 election are cast, Kamala Harris vowed to put country over party and warned that Donald Trump is obsessed with revenge and his own personal interests.

Less than 48 hours earlier inside Madison Square Garden, Trump called his Democratic opponent “a trainwreck who has destroyed everything in her path.” His allies on stage labeled Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and said Harris, who would be the first woman to be president, had begun her career as a prostitute.

Two nights and 200 miles apart, the dueling closing arguments outlined in stark terms the choice U.S. voters face on Nov. 5 when they will weigh two very different visions of leadership and America’s future… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

_________________________

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