BG Reads 11.5.2024

🇺🇸 BG Reads - November 5, 2024

November 05, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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🇺🇸 November 5, 2024 🇺🇸

➡️ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Nearly 52% of registered voters in Travis County cast an early ballot (KUT)

🟪 9 million Texans voted early in 2024. Here’s how that compares to previous years. (Texas Tribune)

🟪 A wild election is coming to a close — and no one is sure how it will end (NPR)

🟪 City of Austin executive leadership team and organizational changes announced (City of Austin)

Read On!

Item 34

Approve a resolution to develop a pilot program for implementing a budget and framework for allocation of discretionary Council Member District Service Funds for use by Council offices to implement various projects within their districts to begin in the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Budget.

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

  • 💡Agenda Spotlight > Item 34 Approve a resolution to develop a pilot program for implementing a budget and framework for allocation of discretionary Council Member District Service Funds for use by Council offices to implement various projects within their districts to begin in the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Budget. (Resolution Link)

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 (3) regular meetings left in 2024:

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

➡️ Nearly 52% of registered voters in Travis County cast an early ballot (KUT)

Central Texas voters turned out for early voting at a rate just shy of the turnout seen in the 2020 election — the last time a presidential race was on the ballot.

That is a little skewed since the early voting period in 2020 was extended beyond the normal two-week period because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Travis County Clerk Dyana Limon-Mercado said the county turnout is about on par with the 2016 presidential election.

By the end of Friday, about 480,000 people, or nearly 52% of Travis County’s registered voters, had cast a ballot. Most of those votes were cast in person, while about 17,000 were mail-in ballots.

By comparison, in 2020 about 64% of registered voters, or about 550,000 people, cast a ballot early during that extended early voting period, according to data from the Texas Secretary of State's office. In 2016, about 51% of registered voters headed to the polls early.

Limon-Mercado expects the county to process between 100,000 and 200,000 voters on Election Day... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Auditor identifies safety, contract management among areas of risk for airport (Austin Monitor)

A special report from the Office of the City Auditor has identified three areas of risk at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport as the facility moved forward with a $4 billion expansion.

The three risk areas – contract and vendor management, asset management and maintenance, and emergency management and safety – will be examined beginning in 2025 and beyond as part of further audits, in an attempt to manage them as the airport construction moves forward.

With the airport currently serving 22 million passengers per year, or twice its designed capacity, the report found the new construction activity has added billions of dollars in new contracts with builders and other vendors. Improper management of those contracts is likely to lead to “cost overruns, timeline delays, poorly planned or constructed projects, lawsuits, and reduced customer satisfaction,” the report said.

The asset management risk is related mostly to equipment and infrastructure needed to operate the airport successfully.

In part, the report noted, “We did not see a clear strategy for the Aviation Department to maintain their assets. There also appeared to be limited review and oversight of these assets. Aviation staff reported their work order system is outdated with some issues being documented on paper.”…

➡️ Council slated to approve updates to Water Forward Plan and to Austin Water’s Conservation and Drought Contingency plans (Austin Monitor)

This month, City Council will vote on proposed updates to Austin’s Water Forward Plan and to the related Water Conservation and Drought Contingency plans. During a briefing on Oct. 22, Austin Water Director Shay Ralls Roalson presented an overview of the changes to the plans, which Council will consider on Nov. 21.

Water Forward, Austin’s 100-year integrated water resource plan, was first approved in 2018, and was designed to incorporate five-year updates.

“This plan needs to be adaptive to growth, drought and climate change for the future of our community,” Roalson explained during the recent work session.

Part of the impetus for the creation of Water Forward was the drought from 2008-2016 – the longest, deepest drought in regional history. Roalson emphasized the importance of planning for uncertainty: “We know that Austin is going to grow, but we don’t know exactly where or when that growth will happen. We know that climate change is affecting our water supply, but we don’t yet know the severity of climate change in our 100-year timestep that we will experience.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Home construction in more affordable San Antonio market blows past Austin (Austin Business Journal)

Construction in San Antonio's housing market has surged past Austin even though it's not growing as fast.

In the third quarter, metro San Antonio started 17,751 homes annually, according to housing data firm Zonda, which visually confirms new home starts. That's compared to 16,663 homes started in the Austin area over the same period and spells a 33% surge in construction for the Alamo City compared to 11% in the Texas capital.

“It’s easier to get things done (in San Antonio), and homes are more affordable as well,” said Keith Hughes, vice president of sales with Zonda. Austin officials are working with several new zoning categories they hope will spur supply in the city.

The two metros have roughly the same population, but U.S. Census numbers show the Austin area's population grew by 2.1% between 2022 and 2023, yielding about 50,000 newcomers. San Antonio, meanwhile, grew at a rate of about 1.7% during that time, adding roughly 37,000 people… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

➡️ 9 million Texans voted early in 2024. Here’s how that compares to previous years. (Texas Tribune)

Fewer Texans — especially in the state’s largest cities — voted early this year compared to 2020, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of state data.

More than 9 million Texans either voted in person during the two weeks of early voting or returned their absentee ballots by Nov. 1, state data shows. That’s 48.6% of all registered voters. In 2020, 9.7 million, or 57.2% of registered voters, went to the polls or turned in their ballot during early voting.

The lag is largely attributed to a dramatic decline in mail-in voting. About 8.7 million Texans voted early in both 2020 and 2024. However, 937,870 Texans voted by mail in 2020 while 347,652 voted by mail this year… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Southwest board gets new independent chairman (Dallas Business Journal)

Rakesh Gangwal will serve as the new chair of the Southwest Airlines Co. board of directors, the Dallas-based airline announced Nov. 4.

Gangwal replaces Gary Kelly, former Southwest CEO, who agreed to retire early from his role as chair as the airline reached an agreement to end a fight with activist investor Elliott Investment Management LP.

Gangwal is the billionaire co-founder of IndiGo, India’s largest airline. He is a former executive of US Airways Group, Air France and United Airlines. He joined Southwest’s board in July.

"We are embarking on the next era of change at Southwest as we build upon its many successes and storied past," Gangwal said in a statement. "Our critical priority as a newly constituted board is to come together to work closely with [CEO] Bob Jordan and the rest of the management team to return the carrier to superior financial performance."

Southwest (NYSE: LUV) reached a deal with Elliott in late October to avoid a proxy fight, agreeing to add five of the Florida-based investment firm's nominees to the board. A sixth independent director is also being added to the board, which has been reconfigured to 13 seats… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

➡️ A wild election is coming to a close — and no one is sure how it will end (NPR)

No one knows what exactly will happen. More than 70 million people have already voted early, and more than double that are likely left to be cast and counted. If the states are as close as expected, a winner might not be declared for days. In 2020, the Associated Press, whom NPR follows for calls, didn’t make its call until the Saturday after Election Day.

In that void before a race call, Trump will likely declare victory and cry fraud. He’s essentially done that for four years, and it’s what he’s been setting the stage for in the closing days of the campaign.

The uncertainty reflects a consequential election, not just for president, but also who controls Congress… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Remembering Quincy Jones: 10 career-spanning songs to celebrate his legacy (Associated Press)

Few artists have legacies so mammoth their very name could be considered synonymous with the music industry, but then again, most musicians are not the prodigious producer Quincy Jones.

The larger-than-life figure died Sunday night at his Los Angeles home, surrounded by his family. He was 91 and scheduled to receive an honorary Academy Award later this month.

Across his career, the 28-time Grammy Award winning Jones worked with everyone from Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson with hundreds in-between. The best way to celebrate his legacy, of course, is to listen to the music he made.

Read on, and then listen to all of the tracks on our Spotify playlist, here… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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