BG Reads 6.7.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - June 7, 2024

June 07, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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June 7, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Austin City Attorney Anne Morgan to retire this summer. Here's what she said (Austin American-Statesman)

🟣 Safety investigators want more technology to prevent close calls on runways (NPR)

🟣 Austin ISD budget shortfall could put school closures on the table (Austin Chronicle)

🟣 A Texas stock Exchange wants to take on New York. The odds aren’t good. (Wall Street Journal)

🟣 Texas Democrats begin state convention in familiar position: out of power but hopeful (Dallas Morning News)

Read On!

[BINGHAM GROUP]

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Austin City Attorney Anne Morgan to retire this summer. Here's what she said (Austin American-Statesman)

Austin City Attorney Anne Morgan will retire this summer after leading the city's law department for eight years.

Morgan, who has worked for the city of Austin in different capacities for nearly 20 years, will hand over the reins of the department at the end of the month, according to a memo from Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax to the mayor and Austin City Council members that was obtained by the American-Statesman.

"I wanted to make sure that I was leaving my department when it was in really good shape, which I think it is now," Morgan said in an interview with the Statesman.

As the city attorney, Morgan oversees the city's law department, which is responsible for defending the city in civil litigation that has the potential to cost Austin taxpayers millions of dollars. The city's law department has more than 100 employees, Broadnax said in his memo.

Deputy City Attorney Deborah Thomas will serve as acting city attorney beginning July 1, according to Broadnax's memo, which is dated June 4.

Officially, Morgan will work through the end of the month, then go on vacation and retire later this summer, but she will be available during the transition process.

"Deborah has served as Deputy City Attorney since 2015 but has worked in the City’s Law Department since 1994, with roles including Senior Attorney and Division Chief over land use and real estate," Broadnax's memo states… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Safety investigators want more technology to prevent close calls on runways (NPR)

An air traffic controller’s mistake led to a near collision between two jets on a foggy runway in Austin, Texas, last year, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.

Investigators also called for critical safety technology and additional training, which they say might have prevented the incident, as federal regulators grapple with a growing number of close calls on runways across the country including one last week at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

There was dense fog and poor visibility at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on the morning of Feb. 4, 2023, when an air traffic controller cleared two planes to use the runway at the same time. A FedEx cargo plane had permission to land, while a Southwest Airlines jet carrying 128 passengers and crew was also cleared for takeoff… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin ISD budget shortfall could put school closures on the table (Austin Chronicle)

Back on May 9, when she learned that Austin ISD’s budget deficit had ballooned from $60 million to $89 million, school board Trustee Candace Hunter broached a nearly forbidden topic. She asked Superintendent Matias Segura if the shortfall might necessitate closing some schools.

Segura was visibly uncomfortable. He assured Hunter he didn’t want to even consider the idea. But he also said, “I don’t want to sit here and tell you that three years from now we won’t be having that conversation.”

Indeed, in the weeks since Segura’s response, AISD has settled on a three-year response to the deficit that, in the worst-case scenario, may end with a look at school closures. A district spokesperson told us that before considering such a move, AISD wants to see if Austinites will support a voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, in November, that would raise property taxes and bring in an additional $40 million.

If a VATRE isn’t approved, the district wants to wait another year to see if Texas Republicans agree to increase school funding in the 2025 legislative session... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin architecture firm Michael Hsu Office of Architecture pushes city's design evolution (Austin Business Journal)

Architects are a major driver of Austin’s continued growth and evolution, and the Austin Business Journal's most recent list of architecture firms in the metro highlights nearly 50 companies that are designing the city's future.

The list ranks 48 firms by design revenue, from Washington, D.C.-based Page at No. 1, which arrived in Austin way back in 1898 and raked in $70 million here in 2023, to Los Angeles-based Arterberry Cooke Architecture, which established itself in Austin in 2014 and generated $300,000 locally last year.

The Austin Business Journal spoke with Maija Kreishman, principal at fourth-ranked Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, about Austin’s evolving architecture scene, new design trends, sustainable design and more. The firm is the top Austin-based company on the list, generating $19.6 million in design revenue last year.

It has designed high-profile projects such as Intracorp’s 44 East Ave and Leland South Congress, the renovation of the Headliners Club, Kimbal Musk’s downtown Austin restaurant in the Sixth and Guadalupe tower, a mixed-use business park in Northeast Austin and others... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas tells local election officials to stop releasing information that exposes how some people vote (Texas Tribune)

Texas’ top election official Thursday issued emergency guidance to counties aimed at protecting ballot privacy, after Votebeat and The Texas Tribune confirmed that the private choices some voters make can later be identified using public, legally available records.

“It is imperative that we make every effort possible to provide protections to voters while balancing the public’s interest in transparent elections,” Christina Adkins, the election division director for the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, wrote in the memo to county election officials.

Separately, state Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday released a legal opinion stressing that any disclosure of election records must be done in a way that preserves the privacy of a voter’s choices... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

A Texas stock Exchange wants to take on New York. The odds aren’t good. (Wall Street Journal)

The Texas Stock Exchange is looking to steal New York’s crown as the center of U.S. capital markets. It has a powerful force behind it: red-state frustration with the perceived liberal agenda of Wall Street.

But that might not be enough to win business from the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, which enjoy an effective duopoly on corporate listings and have withstood repeated attempts by others to break in.

Earlier this week, the venture announced that it had raised about $120 million to launch a Dallas-based stock exchange that would let companies save money on costs of complying with NYSE and Nasdaq listing rules. The TXSE, as it is known for short, plans to file an application to run a stock exchange with the Securities and Exchange Commission later this year, according to Chief Executive James Lee.

Lee said his exchange would be apolitical. But prospective investors who heard the TXSE’s pitch said it leaned heavily on criticism of Nasdaq’s listing rule that sets minimum targets for racial and gender diversity of their boards. The rule, approved by the SEC in 2021, prompted criticism from Republican politicians and a court challenge from conservative groups.

A spokesperson for TXSE denied that the venture’s pitch emphasized the board-diversity rule. Still, one of the TXSE’s most prominent supporters—Texas Gov. Greg Abbott—has stressed that the new exchange won’t promote a left-wing social agenda. He took a dig at Nasdaq’s board-diversity rule in a Thursday interview on CNBC... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Texas Democrats begin state convention in familiar position: out of power but hopeful (Dallas Morning News)

As Texas Democrats gather for their state convention in El Paso, the party finds itself in a familiar position: Out of power and rebuilding. Texas Democrats haven’t won a statewide election since 1994, putting them on the sidelines while Republicans have passed laws and implemented policies reflecting an increasingly conservative agenda. Yet for Democrats, hope springs eternal.

This year, they are pinning their hopes on U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, who is taking on Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in November. A victory would jolt Texas and the rest of the country. And as they put their faith in Allred, party leaders are bolstering their infrastructure in urban areas and honing messages to Texas voters. Democrats will discuss their predicament and potential paths to success at the convention, which began with a Thursday night reception and concludes Saturday.

“It’s no big secret. You’ve got to turn out the vote,” said state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas. “We can continue to whine, or we can get people out to vote to change what’s going on in the state of Texas.” Dallas County Democratic Party Chairman Kardal Coleman said rallying around Allred is the party’s immediate task.

“We’ve got to get behind our Senate nominee, Colin Allred, to work collectively to make sure we get a statewide win,” Coleman said. “It’s going to take all hands on deck. It’s going to take all of our allied organizations and everyone involved to turn out every vote.” Lisa Turner, state director of the Democratic research group Lone Star Project, said Democrats should contrast themselves with Republicans, who last month approved a party platform that classifies abortion as homicide, seeks to ban transgender teachers in public schools and supports refusing birth certificates for children born to undocumented parents.

“That is just otherworldly. It’s beyond MAGA crazy,” Turner said. “It’s really important that the party highlight our differences with Republicans, and they’ve never been clearer as to what it means for Texans. Our tagline as Democrats should be: ‘Join us. We’re the normal people party.’”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Former officers who defended the US Capitol on Jan. 6 visited the Pa. House. Some GOP members jeered (NPR)

 A visit to the Pennsylvania House floor by two former police officers who helped protect the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot of 2021 drew boos and walkouts by some Republican legislators this week.

Witnesses said the appearance Wednesday by former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and his ex-boss, former Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, triggered a distinctly negative response from some Republicans, with someone even shouting that they were cowards.

House Speaker Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, who welcomed Gonell and Dunn to the floor, called the GOP reaction to the former officers disrespectful. She said in a statement that many Republican members walked off the floor, turned their backs and booed.

“The GOP members’ shameful behavior was unbecoming of our institution for any guest, let alone two of the men responsible for defending our democracy during a dark day in our nation’s history,” McClinton said.

”The Republicans’ disrespect, lack of patriotism and even common decency, epitomizes the poor behavior that so many in the MAGA movement have adopted.”… (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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