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November 2, 2023

In today's BG Reads:

✅ City considering capital projects, private development as sites for underground power lines

✅ Texas Rangers win their first-ever World Series title

✅ Texas #1 in Site Selection’s annual ranking of state business climates

Read on!

[BINGHAM GROUP]

Council to consider city manager search firm this week 🎙️ BG Podcast Ep. 222:

• On this episode the Bingham Group CEO A.J. Bingham and Associate Hannah Garcia wrap up the week of October 9th in Austin politics.

• The BG Podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

🔎 Jobs List

• Austin Convention Enterprises, Inc.: Project Administrator

• Austin Economic Development Corporation: General Counsel

• Cruise: Senior Government Affairs Manager, Southern California ($135,700/yr - $199,500/yr)

• Lime: Regional General Manager ($122,000/yr - $163,000/yr)

• Opportunity Austin: Vice President of Policy & Advocacy ($110,000/yr - $125,000/yr)

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

City considering capital projects, private development as sites for underground power lines (Austin Monitor)

Austin Energy and various city departments are studying how to bury selected sections of overhead power lines underground to reduce the impact of extreme weather disasters. The burying of lines, which in many cases also serve equipment for private communications companies or other utilities, is one of the solutions suggested after the February winter storm that caused widespread power outages that lasted more than a week in some areas.

A pair of recent memos from Bob Kahn, general manager of Austin Energy, detail the steps the utility and a number of city department heads are taking related to a pair of City Council resolutions seeking information about the possibility of burying power lines to protect them from ice accumulation, high winds and downed trees.

The Capital Delivery Services Department appears ready to add a step to confer with all city departments on a “dig-once” concept that will lead to placing lines underground more often on large capital projects.

CDS has also started work to define the scope, cost and timelines for putting underground power lines on those projects as part of the initial design and budgeting phase. Projects currently well underway may not have that feature without causing delays or unexpected costs… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Council has its eyes set on preparing for 2024 total solar eclipse (Austin Monitor)

With Austin in the direct path of a rare solar eclipse that will take place April 8, 2024, city departments will soon begin preparing for many thousands of astronomy tourists who are expected to travel to Central Texas to get the best view possible. With the eclipse not expected to reoccur in the area for another 400 years, public officials are bracing for a truly once-in-a-lifetime tourist event.

On Thursday, City Council will consider a resolution focused on the eclipse, which will cause near total darkness for four minutes on a Monday afternoon and could potentially create traffic issues and unexpected emergencies throughout the area. The draft resolution directs the city manager to present a plan for all things related to the eclipse by Feb. 1, with the involvement of all relevant city departments as well as groups such as Austin Parks Foundation, Visit Austin and Austin Independent School District... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin councilmember presses H-E-B to increase food access in Del Valle (KVUE)

The rapidly growing area of Del Valle is considered a 'food desert' and getting a standard grocery store in the area has become a mission. 

Del Valle, which is filled with more than 70,000 people, has to rely on dollar stores, convenience stores, and small supermarkets such as JD's Supermarkets to get what they need.

In a letter, Austin City Council member Vanessa Fuentes (District 2) pressed the CEO of H-E-B about making Del Valle a priority for a new store. H-E-B bought land in 2016 along Highway 71 and FM 973 but hasn't broke ground on a store.

"We should be providing infrastructure on the front end for the families who live there now," said Fuentes. "There's just not enough options for an area of that size."…  (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas Rangers win their first-ever World Series title, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks in 5 games (KERA)

They went and took it.

The Texas Rangers are World Series champions, securing their first championship in franchise history by shutting out the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 in Game 5 Wednesday night.

The win caps off an unlikely season in which the team went neck-and-neck with the defending champion Houston Astros — a team they later eliminated in the American League Championship Series to punch their ticket to the Fall Classic — and ended up with 90 wins after finishing nearly 30 games under .500 last year… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Texas corrals enough points to leave trailing states in the dust (Site Selection Magazine)

Fresh from winning its 11th consecutive Governor’s Cup for total capital investment projects earlier this year, Texas is finishing 2023 with top billing in Site Selection’s annual ranking of state business climates. The ranking is based on 10 criteria, including a survey of corporate site selectors, qualified projects logged in the publication’s Conway Projects Database and independent measures of states’ attractiveness to capital investors.

Texas has always performed well in the business climate ranking, routinely finishing in the top five — it placed third in 2022. This year’s first-place finish is decisive with a total point score of 410, well ahead of second-place Georgia, which earned 361. Rounding out the top five are last year’s winner Virginia (344), North Carolina (343) and Ohio (330). The survey of corporate site selectors asked respondents to rank the states according to their experience of locating projects in them. Texas placed first in that criterion, followed by North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.

It also asked them to prioritize the location factors most important to them. Topping that list this year is ease of permitting, followed by availability of needed workforce skills, land, utilities and quality of life… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

With $9M in spending, Whitmire's war chest is drowning out Houston's mayoral field (Houston Chronicle)

State Sen. John Whitmire’s campaign war chest is now more than 30 times the size of any of his competitors’ in the Houston mayoral race, as he continues to flex his financial strength as the Nov. 7 election nears. This week, Whitmire reported dishing out another $3.3 million in the last month, dominating the airways with $2.7 million worth of advertising. He now has spent more than $9 million over the campaign, twice as much as any other candidate. His campaign said he has $4.3 million on hand as election day approaches next week. Those numbers dwarf his competitors.

His main rival, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, spent $1.1 million over the last month but has just $108,000 left over – equal to about 2.5% of Whitmire’s tranche. Former Metro Chair Gilbert Garcia spent $1.9 million over the last month and has $73,000 left in the bank. And attorney Lee Kaplan spent just under $1 million and has $124,000 on hand.

The overall financial picture shows no candidate has the resources to match Whitmire’s might in the home stretch of the campaign. While the city’s contribution caps reset for a runoff – making additional fundraising easier – any potential Whitmire opponent would face an uphill battle trying to compete with his stockpile. The senator’s competitors have teased a legal fight to question his spending. Jackson Lee and Garcia have asked the city attorney to review Whitmire’s campaign finances, arguing he has an unfair fundraising edge after decades in the Legislature. Whitmire has said he conferred with the city attorney before transferring over his legislative war chest, and the city has not responded to their requests.

The city adopted an ordinance in 2005 that sought to limit how much outside campaign money a legislator can use for city races – essentially treating a legislative account like any political committee that would donate to a city candidate, subject to a $10,000 cap. City attorneys, though, have interpreted it more loosely in the years since. Mayor Sylvester Turner used $900,000 from his Texas House account during his successful 2015 run, a move that was cleared by then-City Attorney David Feldman. He said he interpreted the 2005 ordinance to mean candidates can transfer over the max donation from each donor – $5,000 for an individual, $10,000 for a political group – rather than being limited to one $10,000 transfer. City Attorney Arturo Michel, who held the same role when the ordinance was passed in 2005, told the Chronicle earlier this year that he had the same interpretation… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Fed leaves rates unchanged as officials debate economy’s path (Washington Post)

A roaring economy continues to test the Federal Reserve’s fight to tame inflation, a year and a half into the central bank’s aggressive interest rate increases.

Central bankers left rates unchanged Wednesday, as was widely expected. But they have yet to fully decide whether rates — already pushed to their highest levels in 22 years — should go even higher to root out abnormally high prices, curb consumer spending and bring growth to more sustainable levels.

“That’s the question we’re asking is, ‘Should we hike more?’” Chair Jerome H. Powell said after the Fed’s two-day policy meeting.

The major stock indexes rallied on Powell’s remarks, breathing a sigh of relief that additional rate increases aren’t certain. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 221.71 points, or 0.67 percent. The Nasdaq climbed 1.64 percent, and the S&P 500 index closed up 1.05 percent.

Faced with soaring inflation as economic growth boomeranged back from the coronavirus pandemic, the central bank sprinted to raise interest rates starting in March 2022. The Fed’s benchmark interest rate now falls between 5.25 and 5.5 percent, and officials have not ruled out an additional increase at their next meeting in December or even into 2024. The growing message instead is that rather than pushing up rates, Fed leaders will hold them at elevated levels for longer than they previously expected… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

The mayors of five big cities seek a meeting with Biden about how to better manage arriving migrants (Associatd Press)

The mayors of Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles and New York are pressing to meet with President Joe Biden about getting federal help in managing the surge of migrants they say are arriving in their cities with little to no coordination, support or resources from his administration.

The Democratic leaders say in a letter obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday that while they appreciate Biden’s efforts so far, much more needs to be done to ease the burden on their cities.

Migrants are sleeping in police station foyers in Chicago. In New York, a cruise ship terminal was turned into a shelter. In Denver, the number of migrants arriving has increased tenfold and available space to shelter them has withered. With fewer available work authorizations, these migrants cannot find work that would allow them to get into proper housing… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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