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- BG Reads 5.2.2024
BG Reads 5.2.2024
🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - May 2, 2024
Bingham Group Reads
Presented by:
4.17.24 // Bingham Group celebrates 7 years in business!
May 2, 2024
Today's BG Reads include:
🟣 Austin City Council Regular Meeting Links for 5/2/2024
🟣 After city lost case on development rules, it’s been ordered to pay attorneys’ fees
🟣 Austin Energy’s climate protection plan timeline comes under fire
🟣 US House passes bill to expand definition of antisemitism amid
Read On!
[BINGHAM GROUP]
With the upcoming (May 6th) start of Austin's new City Manager T.C. Broadnax, we've put together three memos intended to provide background for organizations with City Hall interests.
The first and second memos are reviews of Mr. Broadnax's time as city manager of Dallas and Tacoma, respectively. The information was pulled from news articles from the time. We've provided links where appropriate.
The last is a review of the seven city of Dallas budget's Mr. Broadnax spearheaded. This was compiled through review of publicly available budget documents.
BG Memo Link - Contact me for general questions or comments. If there are specific business/policy concerns, we’re happy to schedule time to consult -> [email protected].
On this episode we welcome back Jack Craver, independent reporter and founder of The Austin Politics Newsletter. Jack and Bingham Group CEO A.J. Bingham discuss the candidate field for the 2024 Austin Mayoral elections, including incumbent Mayor Kirk Watson.
[AUSTIN CITY HALL]
The Austin City Council convenes today at 10AM for its Regular Meeting.
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
After city lost case on development rules, it’s been ordered to pay attorneys’ fees (Austin Monitor)
Travis County District Judge Jessica Mangrum has ruled that the city of Austin must pay $175,000 in attorneys’ fees in a case on the city’s failure to abide by a previous order requiring notice to property owners when the city is changing development rules.
Mangrum’s assistant sent notice on Tuesday to the city’s attorneys and to Doug Becker, who represents the plaintiffs, led by Frances Acuña.
In that notice, the assistant instructed Becker to draw up the order and share it with city attorneys. That order will include additional fees should the city decide to appeal. If the city’s appeal is unsuccessful, they will have to pay an additional amount for each step in the appeal process. The fees for a trip to the 3rd Court of Appeals will be $25,000, unless the city prevails. If the city loses at that court and decides to ask for a review by the Texas Supreme Court, it will have to pay an additional $15,000.
If the Supreme Court decides to take the case, which is not assured, the city will pay the plaintiffs’ attorneys an additional $15,000 for briefing the case. If the case includes oral argument at the Supreme Court, the city will owe Acuña’s attorneys another $5,000. The city will be required to pay these fees only if the plaintiffs prevail.
As the Austin Monitor reported in November, the plaintiffs in the case were able to convince the court to reject three ordinances that were designed to create more housing, particularly affordable housing. Those ordinances included the vertical mixed-use ordinance, residential uses in commercial areas and compatibility on corridors… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin ISD restarts bid process for Family Resource Centers (Austin Chronicle)
The Austin ISD Board of Trustees has canceled a controversial vote that threatened to displace a longtime partner of the district.
The board had planned last week to pick between a pair of groups seeking to lead five family support centers at local schools. The centers, known as family resource centers or FRCs, are located at Houston Elementary School and Burnet, Dobie, Martin, and Webb middle schools. They offer food assistance, rent assistance, and more to economically disadvantaged families, to help their kids stay in school.
Two nonprofits – Austin Voices for Education and Youth and Communities in Schools of Central Texas (CIS) – submitted bids last December to run the centers. The district graded the bids and recommended giving control of the centers to CIS, despite the fact that Austin Voices created them and has run them for 17 years. That recommendation has received significant pushback, with members of City Council and the Travis County Commissioners Court privately contacting the district to express concern… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin photojournalist facing two misdemeanor charges after UT protest (KXAN)
An Austin photojournalist who was arrested while covering a protest on the University of Texas Austin campus on April 24, is facing two misdemeanor charges– assault and interference with public duties, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Court documents previously showed he was facing a felony charge of assault on a peace officer. Additional documentation showed that warrant was canceled... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin Energy’s climate protection plan timeline comes under fire (Austin Monitor)
After an unpopular first draft, Austin Energy is taking a new approach to update its Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan.
Staff says the approach, led by a newly hired mediation specialist, will employ strategies that bring new voices to the table for more collaborative conversations ahead of the utility’s second shot at a policy plan. But critics are concerned that the tactic could further delay the urgently needed update, which is already behind schedule.
The drafted plan, which maps utility energy policy out to 2030, stirred controversy over its proposal for a new combined cycle power plant, which would run on natural gas before later transitioning to green hydrogen. The plan was met with backlash from critics, who argued that the measure would be a step back for a city aiming for carbon neutrality by 2040, particularly as the utility struggles to shutter the Fayette coal plant.
Now, Austin Energy says it is back to the drawing board, with plans in coming months to host three “charrettes” – intense periods of planning activity – with stakeholders across myriad interest groups. In a brainstorming session at last month’s Electric Utility Commission, groups like PODER, Foundation Communities, AISD, Go Austin/Vamos Austin, Samsung, NXP and the Austin Tenants Council made the list for potential invitees… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Two Houston Democrats face off in back-to-back elections for John Whitmire’s open state Senate seat (Texas Tribune)
The race to succeed Houston Mayor John Whitmire in the Texas Senate has narrowed to a runoff between state Rep. Jarvis Johnson and emergency room nurse Molly Cook — but first, the two Democrats are duking it out in a sleepy special election to decide who occupies the seat through the start of next year.
Saturday’s contest is largely symbolic: Cook or Johnson will be the first person other than Whitmire to represent Senate District 15 in more than 40 years, but with no legislative session scheduled this year, the winner is unlikely to cast a vote during the stopgap term.
Still, a win would bestow the authority of incumbency — and a potential fundraising bump from donors eager to support the favorite — heading into the all-important May 28 Democratic primary runoff. Saturday’s election could also signal what to expect in the runoff, which will effectively determine who represents the solidly blue district until 2029, and perhaps for decades to come. Incumbent senators can be tough to dislodge once in office, as Cook discovered when she lost to Whitmire by 17 points two years ago — his narrowest margin in 30 years… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas AG Ken Paxton shows up in NYC to support former President Donald Trump at his criminal trial (Houston Chronicle)
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is in New York with Donald Trump at the former president’s criminal trial, saying he will sit through the proceedings he called a “sham.” “This trial is a travesty of justice,” Paxton wrote on social media.
“I stand with Trump.” Paxton did not make clear whether he is in New York for official state business or simply to attend the trial with Trump, with whom he has a close political relationship. The Manhattan trial, now in its second week, is expected to last six weeks. Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star amid his 2016 election campaign. He has pleaded not guilty. Trump also is fighting three other criminal indictments, but this likely will be the only one heard before the November presidential election, in which he’s expected to face a rematch with Democrat Joe Biden.
Paxton could be seen entering the courthouse with Trump and his entourage on a live feed just before 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. Dressed in a blue suit and red tie, Paxton stood behind the former president as he spoke with reporters briefly before the trial resumed. Paxton did not make any public comments. Last month, Paxton settled a criminal securities fraud case he also disparaged as politically motivated and unfair.
Prosecutors agreed to drop the felony charges against Paxton in exchange for him doing 100 hours of community service and meeting other requirements. He was also acquitted of corruption allegations in a Senate impeachment trial last year, but a whistleblower lawsuit brought by a group of his former top aides that spurred the proceedings is still active. They accused Paxton of firing them for going to the FBI with allegations that he abused the office to help a campaign donor. Paxton has denied wrongdoing. Paxton is a close political ally of Trump. He went to the U.S. Supreme Court to fight the 2020 presidential election outcome, but the case was tossed. He’s now facing possible sanctions from the State Bar of Texas for what a disciplinary committee called a “dishonest” lawsuit… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION/WORLD NEWS]
House passes bill to expand definition of antisemitism amid growing campus protests over Gaza war (Associated Press)
The House passed legislation Wednesday that would establish a broader definition of antisemitism for the Department of Education to enforce anti-discrimination laws, the latest response from lawmakers to a nationwide student protest movement over the Israel-Hamas war.
The proposal, which passed 320-91 with some bipartisan support, would codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a federal anti-discrimination law that bars discrimination based on shared ancestry, ethnic characteristics or national origin. It now goes to the Senate where its fate is uncertain.
Action on the bill was just the latest reverberation in Congress from the protest movement that has swept university campuses. Republicans in Congress have denounced the protests and demanded action to stop them, thrusting university officials into the center of the charged political debate over Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza. More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war was launched in October, after Hamas staged a deadly terrorist attack against Israeli civilians... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[2024 Austin City Council Race Watch]
This fall will see elections for the following Council Districts 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, and Mayor.
Declared candidates so far are:
Mayor
District 2
District 4
Jade Lovera
d
District 6
District 7 (Open seat)
District 10 (Open seat)
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