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BG Reads 4.4.2024

BG Reads 4.4.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - April 4, 2024

April 04, 2024

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Bingham Group Reads

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April 4, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Dallas City Manager Broadnax poised to become Austin’s top official with Thursday’s vote

🟣 Summit panel looks at possibilities and challenges of I-35 cap-and-stitch program

🟣 Austin makes progress on 9-1-1 emergency response times, officials say

🟣 Powell still sees room for the Fed to cut rates this year

Read On!

CLICK HERE TO REVIEW CITY OF AUSTIN PUBLIC MEETINGS / AGENDAS FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 1, 2024

[BINGHAM GROUP]

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

[AUSTIN CITY HALL]

✅ Austin City Council Regular Meeting Agenda - April 4, 2024

✅ Council Meeting Schedule 4/4/24 (Council Message Board)

✅ Watch the Austin Council at 10AM here (ATXN Live)

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Dallas City Manager Broadnax poised to become Austin’s top official with Thursday’s vote (Dallas Morning News)

Austin officials are expected to announce outgoing Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax as their new city manager on Thursday.

The Austin City Council will vote on “appointing a City Manager and authorizing the Mayor to execute an employment agreement with the new City Manager,” according to its Thursday meeting agenda.

Passage of the ordinance, which is expected after council members wrote in support of Broadnax’s appointment on the city council message board, will kickstart contract negotiations, including Broadnax’s salary and starting date, which could be earlier than his scheduled June 3 departure from Dallas.

Dallas City Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Administrative Affairs met Tuesday in a closed session to “deliberate employment of City Manager T.C. Broadnax and effective date of appointment of Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert.”

Council member Tennell Atkins, who chairs the committee, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Council member Cara Mendelsohn, who is also part of the committee, declined to comment citing the ethics governing a closed meeting.

The deliberation comes over a month after council members voted 12-2 to approve Tolbert, Broadnax’s former chief of staff and current deputy city manager, as the interim city manager.

Tolbert was set to become interim in June, once Broadnax left.

Whether Austin will ask Broadnax to start sooner will become clear after the Austin City Council’s vote on Thursday.

In the meantime, Dallas council member Paula Blackmon said Tolbert was “capable to carry out duties.”

As the negotiations continue in Austin, Dallas officials have remained tight-lipped about the details of Broadnax’s departure. They have not confirmed whether Broadnax will receive a severance pay of $423,246 or more.

His contract states that the outgoing city manager could receive his annual salary as severance if he was asked to resign directly or indirectly at the suggestion of a majority of city council members.

In a February interview, council member Jaynie Schultz said she supported the severance clause in Broadnax’s contract. “We should know what’s in the contracts so that when we take an action toward any of them, we know the implication,” she said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Summit panel looks at possibilities and challenges of I-35 cap-and-stitch program (Austin Monitor)

While intense construction on the lowering and widening of Interstate 35 isn’t scheduled to begin until mid- or late 2026, local business and political leaders want the public to know that decisions and talks taking place now will have a dramatic effect on how the project reshapes Austin’s future.

Transportation and commerce experts discussed the I-35 project and the city’s accompanying cap-and-stitch program during a panel at the Austin Chamber’s recent infrastructure summit, which looked at issues such as transportation, energy and major capital projects, and how the Austin area should prepare for the next decade.

Related to I-35, talk turned to the upcoming open houses planned to let the community set an early vision for what the four caps the city will place over I-35 should look like and what public amenities they should include. The caps are large plazas that would be built over portions of the sunken freeway.

The first open house organized by Our Future 35 is scheduled for May 18 at the Austin Community College Highland Campus. There was also discussion on the progress the city and the Texas Department of Transportation are making on their Construction Partnership Program that will seek to keep residents and businesses updated on the ever-changing state of roadwork through the core of downtown… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin makes progress on 9-1-1 emergency response times, officials say (KVUE)

After a year of struggles with staffing and response times, Austin officials say emergency response times are improving, albeit still falling short of its goals.

In a presentation to the city's Public Safety Commission, Austin Police Chief of Staff Jeff Greenwalt said the city's response times to calls have improved since January, to an average of eleven-and-a-half seconds, a nearly 10% improvement. Still, that does fall short of the target of 10.75 seconds.

"A lot of progress was made in emergency communications," Greenwalt said. "They hired a lot of people in a short amount of time which is extremely helpful, but it was pretty labor intensive on their training staff to be able to onboard those persons and do the on-the-job training and get them transitioned out. But we are already hearing a lot of really amazing turnaround stories on the stress level, that it is causing them not having to work as much overtime and be as short-staffed as they are."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Apple plans multimillion-dollar renovation at longtime North Austin campus (Austin Business Journal)

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) is planning a multimillion-dollar renovation at its longtime campus on Austin's north side.

The tech giant, which is also tied to a new office lease in Southwest Austin, is still working on its new campus at 6900 W. Parmer Lane that it began construction on in 2019 and pegged as a $1 billion investment. Apple employees are already beginning to move into the new campus. But it now appears to be making big changes to its older campus just down the road at 5501 W. Parmer Lane, as well.

Apple has filed two renovation plans with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for a remodel — totaling $4.5 million — that includes lab work at two separate buildings at the site. The move implies that Apple intends to continue using the older campus, which is a little less than two miles southeast of its new campus… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS]

Tensions flare at Houston City Council over historic rule change (Houston Chronicle)

Tensions flared at Houston City Council on Wednesday, as Mayor John Whitmire and council members clashed over the application of a new charter amendment that allows members to add items to council meeting agendas.

Last November, Houston voters passed Proposition A, an amendment that allows any three council members to come together and add an item to a council agenda, marking a sharp shift from the “strong mayor” system that dominated Houston politics for years. Under the strong mayor system, the nonpartisan mayor oversees all city matters and serves as the head of City Council, maintaining near-complete control over the council’s agenda. Now, those agenda powers can be partially shared.

The historic change to the city charter has raised questions about how it would impact Whitmire’s administration and how he would respond when council members began using their newly acquired powers. Since Whitmire has taken office, his administration has created a Proposition A Committee that serves as a platform to review proposals that members want to bring forward.

The city charter does not require a council member to go through the committee in order to add an item to the agenda, but a lack of council feedback on a Wednesday agenda item sparked a heated debate at City Hall about Proposition A and Whitmire’s committee structure. Council Member Edward Pollard presented an ordinance change that would make it easier for council members to add speed bumps in their neighborhoods. The agenda item was cosigned by Council Members Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, Fred Flickinger, Tarsha Jackson and Tiffany D. Thomas… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Mayor Eric Johnson still pushing dream of a Dallas-based NFL team (Dallas Morning News)

Could the Kansas City Chiefs be moving to Dallas? There’s no evidence that it’ll happen, but Mayor Eric Johnson hopes so. Voters in Jackson County, Mo., on Tuesday rejected a 40-year sales tax that would have helped pay for renovations at Arrowhead Stadium, where the NFL team (and Super Bowl champ) plays, and a new stadium for the Kansas City Royals. The rejection has drawn concerns about the future of the teams in Kansas City. Johnson pitched on social media in 2022 for an NFL expansion team in Dallas to go alongside the Arlington-based Dallas Cowboys. On Tuesday night, he posted a link to a story about the Missouri vote on his X account with “Welcome home, Dallas Texans!” He added a smiley face emoji and a hashtag suggesting the team could move to the Cotton Bowl in South Dallas’ Fair Park.

“Dallas was named the top sports city in the United States because we play to win,” Johnson said in a statement Wednesday to The Dallas Morning News, referencing last year’s Sports Business Journal best sports cities ranking. “As I have said previously, our market is big enough, growing enough, and loves football more than enough to support a second NFL team — especially a franchise (and an owner) with deep roots here.” Johnson declined to answer directly if he or the city planned to engage in any relocation discussions with Highland Park billionaire Clark Hunt and his family, who own the Kansas City NFL team, the winner of four Super Bowls, as well as MLS’ FC Dallas.

The Kansas City team was once called the Dallas Texans and played in the Cotton Bowl from 1960 through 1962. The Texans won the American Football League championship in 1962 — and then the team moved to Kansas City a year later and were rebranded as the Chiefs. A key reason was because they weren’t getting as much fan support as the Cowboys, according to some news reports. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones shot down the idea that there would be another North Texas-based NFL franchise when the mayor pushed the idea two years ago… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Utility pole inspection company declines to testify at Texas Panhandle wildfire investigation hearing (Texas Tribune)

A company hired to inspect utility poles in the Panhandle declined to testify before Texas lawmakers Wednesday, as part of the state’s inquiry into the Smokehouse Creek fire — the largest wildfire in state history that burned more than 1 million acres and killed two.

Audience members scoffed when the committee announced Osmose Utilities Services, a Georgia-based company contracted by Xcel Energy to perform safety inspections, skipped its chance to address lawmakers during the three days of public hearings in Pampa.

State Rep. Ken King, a Canadian Republican, read a statement from the company at the start of the second day of hearings.

“Although Osmose cannot attend the Committee meeting this week, we welcome the opportunity to discuss fire mitigation-related service offerings and recommended best practices in the State of Texas with your staff should the Committee have additional questions,” the company's statement said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[NATION/WORLD NEWS]

Powell still sees room for the Fed to cut rates this year (Wall Street Journal)

Stronger-than-anticipated economic activity this year hasn’t changed the Federal Reserve’s broad expectation that declining inflation will allow for interest-rate cuts this year, Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday.

Powell pointed to signs that labor-market conditions are less tight than they have been in recent years, a view that has eased concerns that paychecks and prices might rise in tandem.

Meanwhile, signs of firmer-than-expected inflation in January and February haven’t shaken the Fed’s stance that price growth will continue to slow down despite some bumps, Powell said at a conference in Stanford, Calif.

“The recent data do not…materially change the overall picture, which continues to be one of solid growth, a strong but rebalancing labor market, and inflation moving down to 2% on a sometimes bumpy path,” he said.

Fed officials raised rates rapidly over the past two years to address a surge in inflation, which hit a 40-year high. They have held their benchmark short-term rate in a range between 5.25% and 5.5% since July.

Measures of underlying inflation have cooled notably since the middle of 2023. That has allowed the Fed to shift its attention away from whether to keep raising rates and toward when to lower rates from a level that some officials thought was necessary to defend against inflation becoming stubbornly elevated… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Israeli opposition leader Gantz calls for early elections amid domestic turmoil (The Hill)

Israeli opposition leader and wartime Cabinet member Benny Gantz on Wednesday called for new elections this fall as domestic tensions roil Israel amid the war against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

In a video address, Gantz said Israel is facing “tremendous challenges” but that it must strive for unity, including with allies in the U.S., while criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not prioritizing the families of the roughly 100 hostages still held alive in Gaza by Hamas… (LINK TO FULL STORY)