BG Reads 6.3.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - June 3, 2024

June 03, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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June 3, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Audit finds office-to-residential conversions a bad fit for most local real estate (Austin Monitor)

🟣 Austin Under 40 winners unveiled (Austin Business Journal)

🟣 Effort to legalize casinos looks like a long shot for Texas lawmakers in 2025

(Dallas Morning News)

🟣 Majority of incoming Texas House Republicans calls for end to Democratic committee chairs, narrowing path for Phelan (Texas Tribune)

Read On!

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Audit finds office-to-residential conversions a bad fit for most local real estate (Austin Monitor)

A recent audit by the Office of the City Auditor looking at the possibilities for converting vacant office spaces into housing stock has found the practice known as adaptive reuse is likely a poor fit for office buildings mostly constructed in the last 10 to 20 years.

The audit, which was released in April, queried eight city departments including the Development Services Department and the Housing Department. It was requested by Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool and Council Member Mackenzie Kelly, who had seen other large cities such as Dallas and Washington, D.C., convert older office buildings with low occupancy into residential units.

The city’s need for housing at all levels – affordable, workforce, market-rate and luxury – and a persistent office vacancy rate of around 20 percent has caused some stakeholders to look at adaptive reuse as an answer to both problems... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin Under 40 winners unveiled (Austin Business Journal)

Travis County Judge Denise Hernandez took the top honor June 1 at the annual Austin Under 40 Awards gala by walking away with the title of AU40 Austinite of the Year.

Winners of this annual contest span just about every industry and are valuable people to know — or at least know about. After picking up this award, they're often seen as high-value targets for recruiters of companies and nonprofits seeking their next heavy hitter.

Fifteen other professionals under the age of 40 across a variety of industries were honored, along with a mentor of the year who may be over 40. Hernandez won in the legal category and then went on to take the Austinite of the Year award… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

In new lawsuit, two UT Austin professors say they won't excuse absences for abortion patients (KUT)

Two UT Austin professors are suing the Biden administration over its revision to Title IX regulations that expand protections for LGBTQ+ and pregnant students in federally funded education programs.

The plaintiffs in the case are Daniel Bonevac, a professor of philosophy, and John Hatfield, a professor at the McCombs School of Business. The professors are challenging the new regulations set to go into effect Aug. 1, which include guidance that directs universities to accommodate students who need to miss class for abortion care.

The revised rules also prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics.

“I have no intention of complying with the Biden Administration's recently announced Title IX edict, which has nothing to do with ‘sex’ discrimination and represents nothing more than an attempt to force every educator in the United States to conform to a highly contentious interpretation of gender ideology and abortion rights,” Hatfield and Bonevac each said in declarations for the lawsuit.

The professors signed onto a lawsuit Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed in April against Biden administration officials. The suit argues the U.S. Department of Education does not have the authority to make these changes to Title IX and that the changes themselves are unlawful.

“I will not accommodate or become complicit in these crimes by excusing a student’s absence from class if that student skips class to obtain an illegal abortion in Texas, or to perform a self-managed abortion with illegally obtained abortion drugs,” Hatfield said in his filing... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

City begins treating Lady Bird Lake to reduce toxic algae (KXAN)

The City of Austin will begin treating Lady Bird Lake for the fourth year in a row to reduce the presence of toxic algae, and this year it is adding a new area of the lake to treat.

Crews will be spraying a grey slurry into the water around Red Bud Isle and the area around the Festival Beach boat ramp. The slurry is a lanthanum-modified clay and its main purpose is to take away one of the main food sources of the toxic algae.

The clay binds with phosphorous in the water and takes away the resource from the algae.

This is the fourth year of the city’s five-year pilot program to reduce the harmful algae. The algae made a resurgence in early spring this year but currently is not as present as we have seen in years past. Experts say the rainfall in the past two months reduced the presence of the algae in May… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Majority of incoming Texas House Republicans calls for end to Democratic committee chairs, narrowing path for Phelan (Texas Tribune)

A group of 46 Republican House members and nominees pledged Friday to only back a speaker next session who commits to ending the tradition of appointing Democratic committee chairs — a move that narrows the path to the gavel for House Speaker Dade Phelan, who has vowed to continue the longstanding practice.

To be elected speaker, a House member must secure 76 votes, a majority of the 150-seat chamber. Democrats control 64 seats, meaning a speaker hopeful could theoretically win with full Democratic support and around a dozen of the 86 Republicans. To prevent this scenario, Phelan’s rivals have called for speaker candidates to reach a majority by only soliciting GOP support.

That was already a remote possibility for Phelan, a Beaumont Republican who has been a lightning rod for the GOP’s ultraconservative wing since he backed the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton last spring. The House is set to include more than 20 GOP members next session who have explicitly vowed to oppose Phelan… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Effort to legalize casinos looks like a long shot for Texas lawmakers in 2025

(Dallas Morning News)

Efforts to legalize casino gambling in Texas appear to be an even greater long shot in the Legislature next session. In 2023, the Texas House fell eight votes short of advancing a state constitutional amendment to allow eight destination resort casinos to be built in the state. When the next legislative session begins in January, it will have to be the Senate — not the House — that initiates action on casinos, said state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen.

“Based on what happened last session, I believe it’s generally understood that unless and until there is real movement and momentum in the Senate next session — meaning the Senate actually taking up and considering the issue — there is likely not going to be any meaningful action on it in the Texas House,” Leach said in a text message to The Dallas Morning News.

That could be a major hurdle. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, has said there were not enough votes in the Senate to support casinos. “My experience and my knowledge is that we aren’t even close to having 15 or 16 votes for casinos,” Patrick said in a Dec. 1 interview with CBS News Texas. In addition, the party platform recently approved by delegates to the Texas Republican convention takes a dim view of gambling and calls for GOP lawmakers to refuse campaign donations from lobbyists and organizations tied to the gambling industry.

“We oppose any expansion of gambling, including legalized casino gambling,” the platform said. Casino and resort giant Las Vegas Sands has pushed to bring destination casinos to Texas, hiring scores of lobbyists in two previous legislative sessions and donating millions of dollars to lawmakers through its political action committees. The Texas Constitution bans gambling except on federally recognized tribal lands and for parimutuel horse and dog racing.

Amending the constitution requires support from two-thirds of the House and Senate, followed by approval of a majority of voters. Leach authored a bill and constitutional amendment in 2023 that would have legalized digital sports betting in Texas. Leach’s legislation passed the House 101-42, but did not receive a vote in the Senate.

A separate bill by GOP Rep. John Kuempel of Seguin would have allowed eight resort-style casinos in Texas, with two in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but he pulled it from the House agenda when it became clear it lacked the necessary support. Companion legislation by Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, proposed a pro-casino constitutional amendment but fell eight votes short… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Mexico elects Claudia Sheinbaum as its first woman president (Associated Press)

Mexico’s projected presidential winner Claudia Sheinbaum will become the first woman president in the country’s 200-year history.

“I will become the first woman president of Mexico,” Sheinbaum said with a smile, speaking at a downtown hotel shortly after electoral authorities announced a statistical sample showed she held an irreversible lead. “I don’t make it alone. We’ve all made it, with our heroines who gave us our homeland, with our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters.”

“We have demonstrated that Mexico is a democratic country with peaceful elections,” she said.

The National Electoral Institute’s president said Sheinbaum had between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to a statistical sample. Opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez had between 26.6% and 28.6% of the vote and Jorge Álvarez Máynez had between 9.9% and 10.8% of the vote. Sheinbaum’s Morena party was also projected to hold majorities in both chambers of Congress… (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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