BG Reads 6.12.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - June 12, 2024

June 12, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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June 12, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 New climate report shows last summer’s record-high temps might not be a fluke (Austin Monitor)

🟣 Dallas promised to make Eddie García the highest-paid police chief in a major Texas city (Dallas Morning News)

🟣 Fed is in no rush to cut rates as economy holds up (New York Times)

🟣 ‘Anti-woke’ shareholders are going after corporate boards (Wall Street Journal)

Read On!

[BINGHAM GROUP]

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

New climate report shows last summer’s record-high temps might not be a fluke (Austin Monitor)

The results are in from researchers at the University of Texas’ Climate CoLab, and those who hoped last summer’s record-breaking temperatures to be a deviation from the norm might want to adjust their expectations.

The new Climate Projections report, which hit city desks last week, runs climate models with both static and increasing emissions scenarios to predict Austin weather trends through the end of the century. The report confirms that previously uncommon temperatures of over 110 degrees will become increasingly frequent, with heat wave events – defined as three or more consecutive days with lows above 78 degrees and highs above 102.5 – expected to double over the next 80 years.

Summer 2023 was Austin’s hottest on record, with more than 80 days hitting 100 degrees and 40 breaking 105. Still, emergency response teams say that 2024 is already shaping up to be a formidable challenger to that record, with rising temperatures getting an unusually early start... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Design details emerge for UT-Austin's Mulva Hall business building (Austin American-Statesman)

After more than 10 years of planning, new design details have emerged for the University of Texas’ undergraduate business building, Miriam and James J. Mulva Hall, which is set for groundbreaking this fall and opening in the summer of 2028.

The UT System Board of Regents moved the project forward last November, approving the $425 million total cost, its share of funding and the first phase of design development. The board will vote on the next round of approvals this November.

Taking the place of the Dobie parking garage, which is set to be demolished this summer, the businss building will be the first academic building on University Avenue. It is also the most significant philanthropic-driven project for a university building — including a $40 million gift from the building's namesakes, Miriam and James Mulva, and $1 million or more apiece from 50 other donors… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin Pets Alive workers vote to unionize, creating the largest animal shelter union in the U.S. (KUT)

Workers at local animal shelter Austin Pets Alive voted to unionize on Friday after almost a year of organizing. The union will support nearly 200 employees, making it the largest animal shelter union in the country, according to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the union representing APA staff.

APA employees say they are fighting to secure a contract with better pay and benefits, more work-life balance and newer equipment for the animals.

Morty Gillum, who works with cat placement at APA, said unionizing will ultimately improve the lives of the animals at the shelter.

“Our voice isn’t listened to when we are the ones who are giving the care to animals every day,” Gillum said. “Winning this election really gives us a chance to give the animals the voice and the advocation they need for the care they need.”

APA workers started organizing in summer 2023 with the creation of Austin Pets Allied Workers, or APAW. Last week was the first successful attempt to unionize after years of trying, said Ryan Martinez, a dog behavior trainer for APA… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Dallas promised to make Eddie GarcĂ­a the highest-paid police chief in a major Texas city (Dallas Morning News)

In order to keep Eddie García as Dallas’ police chief, the city committed to keeping him among the highest-paid police chiefs in the state. According to last month’s amendment to García’s offer letter that the city said would keep him in Dallas at least through mid-2027, the city agreed to give García a raise if any Texas police chief in a city with at least 1 million residents makes more than him.

Besides Dallas, that list for now includes just Houston, which has more than 2.3 million people, and San Antonio, which has a population of almost 1.5 million. But that group could soon include other growing cities like Austin, which has around 980,000 residents, and Fort Worth, which has around 978,000 people. Dallas has around 1.3 million residents.

“The city is committed to paying you a base salary of $306,440.40 or the highest salary for a police chief of a Texas city with a population of over one million,” interim city manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert wrote in García’s offer letter amendment, which was signed May 16. “If a police chief of a Texas city with a population of over one million receives a higher salary than your base salary, your salary will be increased to a higher salary that will take effect on the first uniformed pay period 30 days after the effective date of that police chief’s salary.”

The city announced on the day the amendment was signed that García would remain as the leader of Dallas’ police department and was “making a commitment to stay in Dallas until at least May 2027.? The agreement was reached at a time that city officials in Houston and Austin were interested in hiring García, who has received national acclaim for his violence reduction plan in Dallas.

Houston and Austin each has an interim police chief. “I’m honored that the city has valued the work we’ve done together,” García told The Dallas Morning News on Monday. “I’m tremendously grateful that City Manager Tolbert placed that provision in the agreement.” Tolbert didn’t immediately respond Monday to a text request for comment. She told The News in May she believes García deserves to be Texas’ highest-paid police department leader… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Abbott appoints first judges to new appeals court for cases involving state government, businesses (Texas Tribune)

Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday appointed three conservative justices to the new 15th Court of Appeals, which lawmakers created last year to oversee appeals involving the state, challenges to the constitutionality of state laws and cases from business courts.

Proponents say the new appeals court will improve judicial efficiency, place people with business expertise on the bench and allow issues with implications statewide be heard by judges elected statewide. Critics say Republicans created the new courts so businesses and the state could avoid having their cases heard by judges in urban counties where Democrats dominate local judicial races.

Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Scott Brister will serve as chief justice alongside Justices Scott Field and April Farris. They will each serve two-year terms from Sept. 1 through 2026.

“These highly experienced individuals will serve a vital role in our state’s effort to ensure that the Texas Constitution and state statutes are applied uniformly throughout Texas and that businesses have a sophisticated and efficient process to resolve their disputes,” Abbott said in a news release… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Fed is in no rush to cut rates as economy holds up (New York Times)

Federal Reserve officials are entering an uncertain summer. They are not sure how quickly inflation will cool, how much the economy is likely to slow or just how long interest rates need to stay high in order to make sure that quick price increases are fully vanquished. What they do know is that, for now, the job market and broader economy are holding up even in the face of higher borrowing costs. And given that, the Fed has a safe play: Do nothing. That is the message central bankers are likely to send at their two-day meeting this week, which concludes on Wednesday. Officials are expected to leave interest rates unchanged while avoiding any firm commitment about when they will cut them.

Policymakers will release a fresh set of economic projections, and those could show that central bankers now expect to make just two interest rate cuts in 2024, down from three when they last released forecasts in March. Economists think that there is a small chance that officials could even predict just one cut this year. But whatever they forecast, officials are likely to avoid giving a clear signal of when rate reductions will begin. Investors do not expect a rate cut at the Fed’s next meeting in July, after which policymakers will not meet again until September. That gives officials several months of data and plenty of time to think about their next move.

And because the economy is holding up, central bankers have the wiggle room to keep rates unchanged as they wait to see if inflation will decelerate without worrying that they are on the brink of plunging the economy into a sharp downturn. “They’ll continue to suggest that rate cuts are coming later this year,” said Gennadiy Goldberg, head of U.S. rates strategy at TD Securities. He said that he expected a reduction in September, and that he did not think the Fed would give any hint at timing this week... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

‘Anti-woke’ shareholders are going after corporate boards (Wall Street Journal)

A new kind of shareholder activism is rattling companies: “anti-woke” agitators. Shareholders at dozens of big companies, from GE Aerospace to UPS, are voting on proposals opposing environmental and social initiatives this year. Investors backed by conservative groups are suing Target and other companies for their progressive stances. And companies are muting their focus on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as DEI programs come under legal and political threat. The activists frame the push as getting politics out of business—and suggest getting used to it.

“We who would prefer corporate behavior without partisan influence have really started to get into the game after years of quiescence,” said Scott Shepard, general counsel at the National Center for Public Policy Research, or NCPPR, a conservative think tank that has proposed dozens of shareholder measures questioning corporate initiatives on climate, diversity and other subjects. Advocates for more progressive environmental, social and corporate-governance shareholder proposals call the newcomers politically motivated and cite research suggesting more established ESG measures improve long-term financial outcomes at companies. Supporting ESG work is the right thing to do and “absolutely imperative for your business and the future of your business,” Sarah Kate Ellis, chief executive of Glaad, a nonprofit focused on LGBTQ advocacy, said in an April interview.

Shareholders have voted on 70 measures opposing traditional ESG initiatives at S&P 500 companies through the end of May this year, up from 30 two years ago and seven in 2020, according to data from ISS-Corporate, a unit of proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services. Several ask for more corporate oversight of diversity and inclusion efforts and donations to LGBTQ groups… (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

District 6

District 7 (Open seat)

District 10 (Open seat)

_________________________

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