BG Reads 6.19.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - June 19, 2024

June 19, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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June 19, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Meet the 32 people vying to be Austin's next Police Chief (Austin American-Statesman)

🟣 Austin Mayor Kirk Watson says police oversight "needs to be" in new police contract (CBS Austin)

🟣 Texas Ethics Commission will require influencers to disclose when they’re paid for advertisement (Texas Tribune)

🟣 The beginner’s guide to celebrating Juneteenth (Associated Press)

Read On!

[BINGHAM GROUP]

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

MEMO DROP:

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Who will become Austin's next police chief? Meet the 32 people vying for the position. (Austin American-Statesman)

After nearly a year without having a permanent police chief, Austin has received a slew of applicants vying for the city's top law enforcement role, from top-ranking police officials from across the country to police officers from nearby cities.

The American-Statesman received the applications of the candidates through a public information request... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Context: 

✅ City Manager T.C. Broadnax’s last police chief hire for the City of Dallas -> Dallas chooses former California police chief as new top cop (Associated Press, 12.23.2020)

✅ Dallas reaches deal to keep Police Chief Eddie Garcia as top cop (NBC DFW, 5.16.2024)

Per Mayor Kirk Watson (Austin Council Message Board):

Council,You will soon receive, if you haven’t already, a News Flash regarding the City Manager’s search for Austin’s next Chief of Police. Included in that is an estimated timeline for completing the process. The City Manager, working with Mosaic Public Partners, will be narrowing the list of applicants to top candidates who, in turn, will be interviewed by several stakeholder panels. Shortly thereafter, finalists will be given the opportunity to meet with all of us and participate in a public community meet and greet event.Feedback from the panels, from us, and from the general public will help inform the City Manager’s decision for his recommendation of a final candidate. As a reminder, it is within the City Manager’s purview to appoint the Chief of Police with confirmation by the City Council, as per Section 143.013 of our Local Government Code which states: (a) Unless elected, each department head is: (1) appointed by the municipality’s chief executive and confirmed by the municipality’s governing body.I hope you join me in looking forward to the opportunity to meet with the finalists next month and having a top candidate for our consideration of confirmation relatively soon.Thanks,KirkOn behalf of Mayor Watson

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson says police oversight "needs to be" in new police contract (CBS Austin)

 In an exclusive interview with CBS Austin, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said the implementation of the voter-approved Police Oversight Act "needs to be" in a new police contract currently being negotiated.

"It's a sticking point only to the extent that it needs to be a part of the contract," Watson said in a sit-down interview with CBS Austin. "The voters approved it. We know what the voters approved, and I've said from the very beginning that we have an ordinance in place, approved overwhelmingly by the voters, and that needs to be a part of that. It doesn't seem like it ought to be a sticking point to me. It is what it is. And it needs to be in the contract.”

The Austin Police Association and the City of Austin have been at the negotiating table since March, after several months without discussion. Though some progress has been made, the implementation of the Police Oversight Act, which would, among other things, require the Austin Police Department to make public its personnel records on officers, has been a hurdle in discussions… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Proposed hotel fee to boost Austin's hospitality sector gaining support, advocates say (Austin Business Journal)

Hospitality and tourism-related businesses in Austin face a stiff challenge beginning next year when the convention center is demolished and hundreds of thousands of square feet of conference space downtown disappears until the facility's $1.6 billion replacement opens in 2029.

But advocates for the industry are hoping to be armed with a new tool to help mitigate the issue — an entity called a Tourism Public Improvement District designed to generate millions of dollars annually that could be used to better market the city, coordinate the space in hotels and other venues that will remain available and incentivize visitor-attracting big events throughout Austin.

They also said the money generated by the district — through a 2% nightly room fee that would be charged by hotels citywide with at least 100 rooms — will be needed to drive traffic to the new convention center once it's operational five years from now. Proponents aim to help it compete nationally and with the likes of Dallas and San Antonio, both of which are among the Texas cities that already have such tourism districts.

"We'll do much larger advertising campaigns than we've ever had before, in more markets year-round versus having a summer advertising campaign and a winter advertising campaign," said Tom Noonan, CEO of Visit Austin. "We're going to go to all the meetings, all the trade magazines, saying if you've never been in Austin (and) you've always wanted to be in Austin, between '25 and '29 is a great time to come."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

‘Don’t Block the Box’ tickets are rare these days, with only three issued in Austin last year (KUT)

Anyone driving in downtown Austin has probably seen the "Don’t Block the Box" signs above intersections, threatening a fine up to $500 if you block the intersection from cross traffic. The Austin Police Department does hand out fines, but according to data from the Municipal Court the number has dropped from 109 citations in 2018 to just three in 2023.

APD Lt. William White, who is in charge of highway enforcement, said traffic patrol has not been high on the list of priorities, especially as the department is facing a staffing shortage.

“If we have people to work at problem areas with traffic then we try to assign people to look at those particular problems. But again, it can depend on call load, and oftentimes officers are just tied up responding to the 911 calls,” White said.

There are more than 200 "Don’t Block the Box" signs installed throughout the city, according to Jim Dale, deputy director of Austin Transportation and Public Works.

The total cost for building and installing all of those signs is approximately $29,000.

The Transportation and Public Works Department has faced difficulties in measuring the campaign's effectiveness and have not measured its success since… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas Ethics Commission will require influencers to disclose when they’re paid for advertisement (Texas Tribune)

Texas’ top campaign finance watchdog voted Tuesday to require social media figures to disclose when they are paid for political advertisement, nearly a year after The Texas Tribune reported that influencers were being quietly paid to defend impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton.

In a 7-0 vote, the Texas Ethics Commission gave final approval to the changes, which were first proposed in March.

Last summer, the Tribune reported on a new company, Influenceable, that was paying Gen Z influencers to create or share social media posts that attacked the impeachment process and the Texas Republicans leading it, including House Speaker Dade Phelan. Commissioners did not mention the company directly on Tuesday, but said at their previous meeting that the changes were in response to “at least one business” that was paying social media figures for undisclosed political messaging.

Influenceable has a partnership with Campaign Nucleus, a digital campaign service that was founded by Brad Parscale, a top official on former President Donald Trump’s last two campaigns. It also received $18,000 from Defend Texas Liberty in May 2023, after which influencers began to parrot claims that Paxton was the victim of a political witch hunt, accuse Phelan of being a drunk or urge their millions of collective followers to come to Paxton’s aid... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

The beginner’s guide to celebrating Juneteenth (Associated Press)

For more than one-and-a-half centuries, the Juneteenth holiday has been sacred to many Black communities.

It marks the day in 1865 enslaved people in Galveston, Texas found out they had been freed — after the end of the Civil War, and two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

Since it was designated a federal holiday in 2021, Juneteenth has become more universally recognized beyond Black America. Many people get the day off work or school, and there are a plethora of street festivals, fairs, concerts and other events.

People who never gave the June 19 holiday more than a passing thought may be asking themselves, is there a “right” way to celebrate Juneteenth?

For beginners and those brushing up on history, here are some answers… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Nvidia’s Ascent to most valuable company has echoes of dot-com boom (Wall Street Journal)

Nvidia has become the U.S.’s most valuable listed company because of the demand for its artificial-intelligence chips, leading a tech boom that brings back memories of one from earlier this century.

Nvidia’s chips have been the workhorses of the AI boom, essential tools in the creation of sophisticated AI systems that have captured the public’s imagination with their ability to produce cogent text, images and audio with minimal prompting.

The last time a big provider of computing infrastructure was the most valuable U.S. company was in March 2000, when networking-equipment company Cisco took that spot at the height of the dot-com boom.

Cisco was riding the wave of a different revolution—the internet—where its products powered that budding industry. Like Nvidia, Cisco also surpassed Microsoft to become the most valuable company.

John Chambers, who was chief executive of Cisco during the dot-com boom, said there are some parallels, but the dynamics of the AI revolution are different from previous ones such as the internet and cloud computing. Chambers, now a venture investor, has made big bets on AI in cybersecurity and other arenas.

“The implications in terms of the size of the market opportunity is that of the internet and cloud computing combined,” he said. “The speed of change is different, the size of the market is different, the stage when the most valuable company was reached is different.”

Nvidia, a 31-year-old company, became the world’s most valuable firm on Tuesday. The stock closed at $135.58, giving the chip maker a valuation of $3.335 trillion, just above Microsoft at $3.317 trillion… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

The anti-China pressure hits DC trade groups (Politico)

More than half a dozen lobbying firms dumped Chinese clients earlier this year after POLITICO reported that congressional offices were threatening to blacklist them for working for companies linked to the Chinese military. And as distrust of the Chinese government reaches a fever pitch in Washington on both sides of the aisle, companies with roots in the country — or suspected links to the Chinese Communist Party — are rapidly finding themselves without allies to make their case to lawmakers.

The pressure campaign is now turning to Washington’s trade associations, with several major industry groups buckling under demands to boot China-linked members when faced with congressional inquiries. In an industry where relationships and access to those in power are currency, threats alone can be enough to spook advocates, especially if being associated with one client could compromise a lobbying firm or trade group’s ability to advocate on behalf of the rest of its clients.

“Many people say, you know, ‘All we have is our reputation,’” said Tom Spulak, a partner at King & Spalding who advises clients on lobbying compliance. “If one’s reputation is marred on the Hill, that could be existential to your ability to stay in business.” The dynamics in Washington are a marked change from even a few years ago, when the Chinese telecom giant ZTE was able to hire major names like former Sens. Norm Coleman and Joe Lieberman to defend it in Washington as it fought against being barred from doing business with American companies.

The value of membership in a trade group isn’t only in the ability to mobilize the lobbying and financial muscle of the collective against threats to an industry. Trade groups also give their members a veneer of credibility and can serve as a crucial defender of individual members.

Take NetChoice, the center-right tech group that in May dropped TikTok from its membership rolls after pressure from House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s office. NetChoice stuck with the social media giant through lawmakers’ initial efforts to ban it from the U.S. and defended the app in court — including that same week. A trade group representing the biopharmaceutical industry, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, cut ties with one of its member companies, the Chinese biotech firm WuXi, in March after lawmakers questioned whether BIO should be required to register as a foreign agent for lobbying against legislation that would hurt WuXi… (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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