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BG Reads 2.15.2024

BG Reads 2.15.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - February 15, 2024

February 15, 2024

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Bingham Group Reads

Presented by:

February 15, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 The Austin City Council Meets today at 10AM

🟣 Austin airport getting more than $39M from federal government

🟣 Global automotive parts supplier may pour $100M into Williamson County

🟣 Empty office buildings litter U.S. cities. What happens next is up for debate

Read on!

🟣 Click here for this week’s Austin public meeting times and agendas.

[BG BLOG]

✅ NEW - City of Austin org chart red line (as of 2/9/2024)

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

The Austin City Council Meets today at 10AM

Austin airport getting more than $39M from federal government for improvements, additional expansion (KVUE)

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) will receive more funding for expansion and improvements.

According to U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the airport is set to receive more than $39 million to advance expansion and create a more efficient travel process for passengers.

“Great news: Thanks to the Infrastructure Law, the Austin airport is receiving over $39 million toward designing the expansion of the Barbara Jordan Terminal and its new 20 gate midfield Concourse B. This is an important step forward to advance this much-needed airport expansion. In order for Austin to remain an international city—a true hub of education, culture, and technology—we must be properly equipped to support world-class endeavors and worldwide visitors. While essential expansion and development will eventually require substantially more, our airport has now already received over $100 million through the Infrastructure Law, approved with my support over the objection of every Texas Republican in both the House and Senate,” Doggett said in a statement released Wednesday… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin ISD has cleared its evaluation backlog for special ed students (Austin Chronicle)

Austin’s public school system has cleared a major hurdle in its goal to keep control of its special education services. At its meeting on Feb. 8, the board of trustees announced that the district has cleared the backlog in evaluations for students requesting the services, the problem that caused the state to threaten to take over the district’s special ed department last year.

Faithful readers will recall that Austin ISD fell behind in providing the federally mandated evaluations during the COVID pandemic. By January 2023, nearly 1,800 students were on a months-long waiting list. The Texas Education Agency announced shortly after that it would take over the SPED department. AISD leaders cut a deal with the agency in August, promising to erase the backlog, improve the district’s data systems, and accept monitors from TEA to collaborate on these and other efforts.

Those monitors, Sherry Marsh and Lesa Shocklee, spoke at Thursday’s board session, congratulating the district on clearing the backlog by the agency’s Jan. 31 deadline, an accomplishment some observers had doubted was possible. Marsh used a phrase you hear often at district meetings these days, describing the work as “a heavy, heavy lift.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

MileStone, Buda clash once again over 775-acre Persimmon project (Austin Business Journal)

Just days after the Buda City Council gave initial approval to a long-awaited development agreement for the 775-acre Persimmon project, its developer said tweaks to the document made at the dais could render the project unfeasible.

The comments mark yet another twist in long-stymied attempts to get the project off the ground south of Austin.

MileStone Community Builders LLC and the city of Buda have for years tried to reach a deal, disagreeing over parameters such as lot sizes and numbers of homes. MileStone even made use of a new state law that would allow it to remove the land from the city's reach and develop it with its own utilities… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Global automotive parts supplier may pour $100M into Williamson County (Austin Business Journal)

For the better part of a year, speculation has been rampant about an automotive parts supplier potentially bringing hundreds of jobs and at least $100 million of investment to a city north of Austin.

That company is Hanwha Advanced Materials LLC, a massive global automotive parts supplier that has worked with the largest vehicle manufacturers in the world. The company is planning to invest $100 million as it builds a 200,000-square-foot industrial building just outside the city limits of Georgetown — and that's only the start.

Williamson County commissioners on March 19 will consider entering into a tax abatement incentives agreement with Hanwha Advanced Materials for the project… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[BG Podcast]

On this episode (237) the Bingham Group CEO A.J. Bingham and Associate Hannah Garcia wrap up the week of February 5th, 2024 in Austin politics.

Topics include:

✅ Austin Interim City Manager search and current events with the office.

✅ Items on next week's Council meeting (2.15.2024)Austin's interim police chief talks priorities, goals for 2024 (CBS Austin) including potential Artificial Intelligence guidelines and a Climate Bond (Items 24 and 25).

LISTEN ON: SoundCloud, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify

[TEXAS NEWS]

Eric Johnson's relationship with city staffer at heart of his divorce (D Magazine)

Mayor Eric Johnson’s wife of 16 years alleged in court Tuesday that she “caught him in our house” being unfaithful with a woman employed by the city of Dallas, in February 2021. The revelation came during the final day of divorce proceedings involving the mayor and his wife, Nakita Johnson, in the 303rd District Court at the George L. Allen Sr. Courts Building. Nakita testified that she confronted her husband that day in February, and he admitted to the affair. “He basically said that it had happened a dozen times or so and didn’t give much more than that,” she said. In testimony earlier in the day, the mayor had denied that he had had an affair.

Ike Vanden Eykel, the mayor’s attorney, said Nakita had “no evidence whatsoever” of the affair. Beyond the anecdote, Nakita’s attorneys entered into evidence footage from the home’s Ring doorbell camera, which, she said, showed the woman arriving and leaving on February 5, 2021, “the last day she left our house and never came back.”

The image was not shown to the courtroom but was described for the record. When asked whether her husband had been “unfaithful,” Nakita answered “yes” and then spoke of catching the two. She did not detail what she saw. D Magazine is not naming the woman because she is not a public figure and did not appear in court to testify. Reached by phone, she said she “could not more strongly categorically deny” the allegations and said she was unaware that she was part of the couple’s divorce proceedings.

Campaign finance reports show that Mayor Johnson paid about $110,000 to the woman’s firm during the 2023 campaign; he ran unopposed. Nakita’s attorneys, Jennifer Hargrave and Hannah Rector, presented the payments as evidence of the mayor’s personal and professional relationships with the woman. Most of the daylong trial focused on disentangling a 16-year marriage, which included intimate family matters that do not rise to level of the public interest: splitting property, spending habits, income, parenting decisions, communication.

The case files are sealed to protect the Johnsons’ three children, but Judge LaDeitra Adkins denied a request from Vanden Eykel to close the courtroom to the public during the proceedings. Eric Johnson filed for divorce from his wife in March 2023. “He waited until he was unopposed to tell me he filed for divorce,” Nakita said. She testified that the mayor told her he had filed for divorce while she was cleaning dishes, following a family dinner, and had left the papers for her on a chair and said “it was done.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Texas senator's son arrested on charges related to 'revenge porn' (FOX 7)

The son of a Texas senator has been arrested in Travis County on charges related to revenge porn. Senator Charles Schwertner’s son is now facing the consequences of a law his father helped pass about eight years ago. About six months after 21-year-old Matthew Schwertner broke up with his girlfriend, she received threatening texts known as revenge porn.

"The person has to intentionally threaten someone to disclose intimate visual materials, nude photographs, things like that," Criminal defense attorney Matthew Sharp said. "There has to be some benefit that the person making the threat is seeking to obtain."

Court documents said last month, Schwertner texted the victim and said if she didn’t return various items that he bought for her during their relationship, he was going to send an intimate image of her to her mother and sisters. When the victim asked why Schwertner still had this image of her, he answered, "In case you acted like a 2-year-old."

The woman told police the messages continued after she asked him to stop contacting her. One text said, "It’s ok ur a poor Mexican what can one expect." Sharp, unaffiliated with the case, said revenge porn happens all the time, but many times women don’t report it.

"Most of the women just want it to go away, they don’t want to bother with the cops, so they don’t," Sharp said. Schwertner’s ex did go to law enforcement, and he was arrested for harassment and felony threat to publish intimate visual matter. His father, Texas Senator Charles Schwertner, voted to make this crime a serious offense in 2015, known as Senate Bill 1135. Senator Schwertner wasn’t an author on the bill, but did vote for it. It passed the Texas Senate unanimously. Senator Schwartner’s staff told FOX 7 he didn’t have a comment on his son’s arrest at this time. Matthew Schwertner’s attorney didn’t return FOX 7’s phone call… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Empty office buildings litter U.S. cities. What happens next is up for debate (NPR)

Across the United States, empty office buildings are leaving once-bustling downtown areas with less foot traffic and are forcing experts, residents and officials to figure out what exactly will happen with these vacant structures.

A recent study from the real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield found that about a fifth of U.S. office space was vacant as of the end of last year. The vacancy rate varies, with cities like Los Angeles, Houston and Cincinnati hovering around 25% and cities like Savannah, Ga., and Naples, Fla., coming in under 5%.

The high rate of vacancy is about more than just the shift to a work-from-home culture because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to David Smith, the head of Americas Insights at Cushman & Wakefield, who authored the study.

"It's really four factors over the last few years that have impacted office occupancy," he told NPR. "One is we've had a lot of economic uncertainty going back to 2020 and early 2021 and then, again, certainly over the last year as interest rates have risen."

Smith also factors in remote and hybrid work, the surplus of new constructions that are more appealing to office seekers and a pivot to subleased space to help offset the costs of owning office real estate… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Japan slips into a recession and loses its spot as the world’s third-largest economy (Associated Press)

Japan’s economy is now the world’s fourth-largest after it contracted in the last quarter of 2023 and fell behind Germany.

The government reported the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.4% in October to December, according to Cabinet Office data on real GDP released Thursday, though it grew 1.9% for all of 2023. It contracted 2.9% in July-September. Two straight quarters of contraction are considered an indicator an economy is in a technical recession.

Japan’s economy was the second largest until 2010, when it was overtaken by China’s. Japan’s nominal GDP totaled $4.2 trillion last year, while Germany’s was $4.4 trillion, or $4.5 trillion, depending on the currency conversion.

A weaker Japanese yen was a key factor in the drop to fourth place, since comparisons of nominal GDP are in dollar terms. But Japan’s relative weakness also reflects a decline in its population and lagging productivity and competitiveness, economists say… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Biden turns to TikTok as concerns over young voters mount (The Hill)

President Biden’s reelection bid is now on TikTok as the 81-year-old incumbent looks to reach younger voters amid rising anxiety about his age.

A 30-second video from “Biden-Harris HQ” showed Biden running through a series of questions about the Super Bowl, with the quippy caption “lol hey guys.”

The move to join the video-sharing app popular among young Americans comes as Biden’s campaign battles enduring concerns about its traction with young people and a surge of new critiques against the president’s age after a special counsel report labeled him an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

But the decision has also sparked controversy because of national security concerns about the app’s Beijing-based parent company ByteDance. Last year, Biden signed a bill that included barring TikTok from government devices.

“I’m a little worried about a mixed message,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said of the campaign’s decision, citing concerns about China… (LINK TO FULL STORY)