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BG Reads 8.13.2024

BG Reads 8.13.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - August 13, 2024

August 13, 2024

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Bingham Group Reads

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www.binghamgp.com

August 13, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Violent crime dropped across the U.S., including in Austin, according to survey of major cities' police departments (KVUE)

🟣 Travis County quietly gave DA José Garza $115K for security, withheld details (Austin American-Statesman)

🟣 UT, ACC receive federal funds for high-tech efforts (Austin Business Journal)

🟣 Biggest shakeup in a century set to hit real estate agents this week: Here’s how they’re preparing (CNN)

Read On!

[BINGHAM GROUP]

🟣 [NEW] BG Blog: Austin Budget - Reviewing DSD, Austin Energy and Austin Water

🟣 [NEW] BG Podcast Ep. 264: Austin Politics Weekly Recap And What's Ahead

🟣 Updated City of Austin Org Chart (as of 7.2.2024)

LINK TO THIS WEEK’s CITY OF AUSTIN HEARINGS + AGENDA

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🟣 Council Member Harper-Madison Budget Amendments

🟣 Council Member Pool Budget Priorities

🟣 Council Member Qadri Budget Priorities

🟣 Council Member Fuentes Budget Amendments

🟣 Mayor Watson Budget Amendments

🟣 Council Member Ellis Budget Amendments

🟣 Council Member Kelly Budget Amendments

🟣 Joint budget priorities for Council Members Fuentes, Velásquez, Vela, Ryan Alter, and Qadri (Council Message Board)

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Violent crime dropped across the U.S., including in Austin, according to survey of major cities' police departments (KVUE)

Violent crime is on a downward trend in major cities across the country, including Austin, according to a new survey.

The Major Cities Chiefs Association collected crime data from 69 major cities from Jan. 1 to June 30 of this year and compared it to the same timeframe in 2023. The data showed that the total number of homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults dropped.

According to the data provided by the Austin Police Department, there were eight fewer homicides in the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023. There were also 67 fewer reported rapes, 110 fewer reported robberies and more than 500 fewer aggravated assaults… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Travis County quietly gave DA José Garza $115K for security, withheld details (Austin American-Statesman)

Travis County District Attorney José Garza met with county commissioners behind closed doors with an urgent request earlier this year.

Worried about his safety after someone posted his residential address online, Garza asked for help to make himself and his home more secure, Commissioner Margaret Gómez told the American-Statesman.

“He wanted something to be done to keep him safe,” Gómez recalled.

At their March 19 meeting, commissioners met again in closed session to discuss a nondescript and, according to government transparency experts, potentially legally insufficient agenda item about county security. The item said commissioners would "receive (a) briefing and take appropriate action regarding Travis County security."

"In my opinion, it does not comply with the Open Meetings Act," Houston attorney Joe Larsen, a board member for the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, said of the posting. "It is quite clear they are trying to obfuscate what is at issue here in any way they can."

Then, with no public discussion or explanation about how the money would be spent, the commissioners voted unanimously in open session to transfer $115,000 from the county’s budget reserves to its general fund. Records show officials routed that allocation to Garza’s office, but it is unclear whether the money was used and, if so, how it was used and who oversaw the spending… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

UT, ACC receive federal funds for high-tech efforts (Austin Business Journal)

With the Austin metro a hotbed of high-tech innovation, the federal government recently awarded Austin Community College and the University of Texas a combined $12.5 million to advance some key industries.

ACC has received $7.5 million from the U.S. Department of Defense to beef up its semiconductor manufacturing training program. UT is getting nearly $5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management to help develop commercial-scale storage and transportation systems for industrial carbon emissions.

Earlier this year, ACC announced the launch of the Semiconductor Training Center, a partnership between the community college, UT and the Texas Institute for Electronics that's focused on growing and training the semiconductor workforce in Central Texas. The training center offers specialized programs that combine ACC's teaching facilities with UT's research capabilities and resources… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas House Republicans petition State Fair to rescind gun ban (Texas Tribune)

Texas House Republicans are pressuring State Fair officials to rescind its recent decision to ban all firearms from the fairgrounds.

Fair officials and law enforcement announced the policy change last week, roughly a year after a gunman opened fire at the fair, injuring three people. The fair also announced it will have cameras at entrances for the security process and will not provide lockers or bag checks for larger bags.

The State Fair of Texas starts Sept. 27 in Dallas.

As of noon on Monday, 71 state lawmakers and Republican House nominees signed a petition saying the new policy makes the fair “less safe” because, “Gun free zones are magnets for crime because they present less of a threat to those who seek to do evil.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

Biggest shakeup in a century set to hit real estate agents this week: Here’s how they’re preparing (CNN)

Realtors across the US are bracing for a seismic shift in the way they do business. Starting August 17, new rules will roll out that overhaul the way Realtors get paid to help people buy and sell their homes. The changes, which are part of a $418 million settlement announced in March by the powerful trade group the National Association of Realtors, eliminate informal rules that propped up the industry’s traditional payment structure, where home sellers were typically on the hook to pay a 5% or 6% commission, usually split between their agent and the agent representing their home seller.

In the months since the settlement was announced, Realtors across the country have been preparing for the change, attending trainings and poring over the details of new contracts they must sign with prospective homebuyers. Some agents predict the rules will pave the way for new business models and potentially drive many full-service Realtors to leave the industry, while others are more sanguine about the impending changes.

“This is a grand social experiment in an industry at scale,” Leo Pareja, CEO of eXp Realty, one of the largest real estate brokerages in the US, said. “I’m bracing my agents for what I call the ‘messy middle.’ I fully expect a lot of confusion.” In a statement, NAR’s president, Kevin Sears, said he was confident NAR members would adapt to the changes, which industry analysts have called the biggest change in America’s real estate market in a century… (LINK TO FULL STORY)