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- BG Reads 11.19.2024
BG Reads 11.19.2024
BG Reads - November 19, 2024
Bingham Group Reads
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www.binghamgp.com
November 19, 2024
➡️ Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 Austin City Council Work Session Agenda, Today @9AM
🟪 Lottery-type selection determines new Austin police oversight group (KXAN)
🟪 Austin Energy looking forward to using geothermal energy (Austin Monitor)
🟪 Austin airport receives over $33M in federal funding for new terminal (Community Impact)
🟪 Trump taps Sean Duffy, Fox host and former congressman, for transportation secretary (NPR)
Read On!
From Sunday to Tuesday, Bingham Group will be in Orlando, FL, for the Austin Chamber’s 2024 InterCity Visit. Around 100 leaders from Austin and Travis County’s business, civic, and government sectors will engage in discussions with Orlando counterparts on economic and workforce development, transit, and more.
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
🟪 Today at 9AM: Austin City Council Work Session Agenda, 11.19.2024
Briefing items include:
B001 - Our Future 35: Cap and Stitch Funding Strategy.
B002 - City of Austin Website Redesign: Transforming Austin's Digital Experience.
🟪 MEMO: City of Austin Executive Leadership Team and Organizational Announced (Effective November 4, 2024)
In an October 30 memo, City Manager T.C. Broadnax announced several key additions to the city leadership team, effective November 4.
You can view the memo here: CITY OF AUSTIN MEMO: Executive Leadership Team and Organizational Announcements. An org chart is included on page 3.
We particularly wanted to flag the creation of a Grants Division within the Intergovernmental Relations Office to focus on creating a centralized grant funding strategy and governance for the City that advances City Council’s strategic priorities, leverages local resources, and targets investments for Austin.
The memo notes “the City lacks a centralized grants function causing us to potentially leave federal and state funding on the table. Staff from across the organization are currently being identified for potential reassignment to the Grants Division.”
🟪 The Austin Council has three (2) regular meetings left in 2024:
November 21
December 12
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
➡️ Lottery-type selection determines new Austin police oversight group (KXAN)
Inside Austin City Council chambers on Monday, the Office of Police Oversight (OPO) randomly selected 11 positions from a pool of 31 applicants to serve on the revamped Community Police Review Commission.
“They can oversee pretty much anything the Austin Police Department does, policies, practices, complaints against officers,” said Sara Peralta, the communications director for the OPO. “They can look at materials related to a critical incident and they can also see the office of police oversight itself.”
This is a new system for selecting these commissioners. Previously, Peralta said, it would be more like a job interview, and APD would play a bigger role in choosing the people who served on it… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Austin Energy looking forward to using geothermal energy (Austin Monitor)
While some environmentalists continue to argue against a new gas plant that would serve Austin Energy’s customers when the prices of electricity are at their peak, Mike Enger, the utility’s vice president for energy markets and resource planning, is looking forward to a new technology set to become part of Austin Energy’s carbon-free portfolio.
Enhanced geothermal technology will give the utility “baseload carbon-free generation much like a nuclear power plant does,” but perhaps at a lower cost, Enger said.
“Unlike some of the other renewables,” such as wind and solar cells, “this produces each and every hour,” and is “totally unaffected by the weather,” Enger told the Austin Monitor. Like every new technology, “this will present challenge, but we believe if we are able to overcome the challenges, we will be able to do this at scale (and) we’ll be able to do this at a lower price point than nuclear power,” he said…
➡️ Austin airport receives over $33M in federal funding for new terminal (Community Impact)
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport officials announced a $33.27 million funding grant from the Federal Aviation Administration in October to support the construction of the airport’s nearly $2 billion Concourse B project.
This summer, Austin City Council members approved $72 million for the design of ABIA's new Concourse B midfield, and a new tunnel linking it with the existing Barbara Jordan Terminal.With the project in the early stages of design, airport leaders aim to begin construction in 2027 and anticipate opening the new facility as early as 2030, according to a news release.To date, the Concourse B project has been awarded $47.62 million in federal funding. ABIA has indicated staff will continue to apply for additional federal grants as well as using other airport financing options which include airport revenue bonds, cash-on-hand and future airport revenues, according to the release… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
➡️ Texas lawmakers signal plans to expand DEI ban into college classrooms (KUT)
Texas lawmakers may be looking to expand the state’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public colleges and universities when they convene in Austin next year.
The Republican-controlled Legislature approved a bill last year that prohibited DEI offices and programs at these schools. Senate Bill 17, which took effect Jan. 1, prompted changes at higher education institutions across the state.
The University of Texas System eliminated hundreds of programs, contracts and trainings, as well as more than 300 jobs. Dozens of those employees worked at UT Austin.
Still, state Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Republican from Conroe who authored SB 17, said there is more work to be done to ensure universities are complying with his legislation.
“While DEI-related curriculum and course content does not explicitly violate the letter of the law, it indeed contradicts its spirit,” he said during a Texas Senate Higher Education Subcommittee hearing last week. “The curriculum does not reflect the expectations of Texas taxpayers and students who fund our public universities.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Gov. Greg Abbott issues executive order targeting Chinese government operatives in Texas (Texas Tribune)
Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order on Monday, directing the Texas Department of Public Safety to target and arrest people trying to execute influence operations on behalf of the Chinese government to return dissidents to China.
Abbott’s action is in response to “Operation Fox Hunt,” a Chinese government initiative that is intended to root out corruption in that country but in practice has also been used to intimidate Chinese citizens living abroad, harass Chinese pro-democracy activists and even forcibly repatriate dissidents and government officials in some cases. The U.S. justice department has successfully prosecuted individuals in connection to the Chinese initiative.
“The Chinese Communist Party has engaged in a worldwide harassment campaign against Chinese dissidents in attempts to forcibly return them to China,” Abbott said in a news release. “Texas will not tolerate the harassment or coercion of the more than 250,000 individuals of Chinese descent who legally call Texas home by the Chinese Communist Party or its heinous proxies.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US and World News]
➡️ Trump taps Sean Duffy, Fox host and former congressman, for transportation secretary (NPR)
President-elect Trump has chosen Sean Duffy, a Fox News contributor and former GOP congressman, to head the Department of Transportation.
In announcing the pick, Trump praised Duffy as a "respected voice and communicator" in a post on Truth Social.
Duffy represented his native Wisconsin in the U.S. House of Representatives for eight years. He's worked as a contributor at Fox News since 2020, and hosted The Bottom Line on the Fox Business Network since 2023.
This is the second time in as many weeks that President-elect Trump has chosen a Fox host to serve in his cabinet. He tapped Pete Hegseth of Fox & Friends to lead the Department of Defense… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ DNC chair race kicks off, as Martin O’Malley announces bid (Politico)
The race is on for the next chair of the Democratic National Committee, and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is the first official entrant.
O’Malley kicked off his bid on Monday with a pledge to refocus the party on kitchen-table issues as Democrats begin to recalibrate after Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat.
“We must connect our Party with the most important place in America — the kitchen table of every family’s home. Jobs, Opportunity, and Economic Security for all.
Getting things done. Hope. A 50 state strategy. Now,” O’Malley wrote in a social media post that linked to the New York Times story that first reported his candidacy.
O’Malley is resigning as head of the Social Security Administration, effective Nov. 29, to run for the role, he confirmed to POLITICO.
O’Malley has already been making calls to DNC members, including state party chairs, according to a person familiar with the conversations and granted anonymity to describe the private outreach… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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