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- BG Reads 8.29.2024
BG Reads 8.29.2024
🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - August 29, 2024
Bingham Group Reads
Presented by:
www.binghamgp.com
August 29, 2024
Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 'Affordability first,' Austin Mayor Kirk Watson kicks off re-election campaign (CBS Austin)
🟪 Council to see start of contracts for nearly $2.5B to fund airport expansion (Austin Monitor)
🟪 Critics still say hydrogen gas plant would be a dealbreaker in Austin Energy Resource Generation Plan (Austin Monitor)
🟪 Central Health asks Travis County for time to respond to new audit report (KUT))
Read On!
[BINGHAM GROUP]
We are proud to represent and have represented a wide range of clients in the Austin Metro and Texas Capitol at the intersection of government and business.
Learn more about Bingham Group’s experience here, and review client testimonials here.
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
🟪 (NEW) The Austin City Council meets today at 10AM / Watch live here / View agenda here
🟪 (NEW) Council Meeting Schedule 8/29/24
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
'Affordability first,' Austin Mayor Kirk Watson kicks off re-election campaign (CBS Austin)
Incumbent Austin Mayor Kirk Watson kicked off his re-election campaign with an event Wednesday night in downtown Austin.
"Isn't it a great night to be in Austin Texas?" said Watson during opening remarks.
Watson greeted constituents-- many of which remember his leadership from two decades ago.
His top priority for this run: affordability.
"[My time at] City Hall over the past year and a half has included historic zoning reforms and streaming our development review process so that we're helping increase our housing supply in every part of Austin," Watson added… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council to see start of contracts for nearly $2.5B to fund airport expansion (Austin Monitor)
City Council will consider a handful of funding items today that collectively would approve almost a half-billion dollars in contracts for the expansion of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
The five requests total $497.8 million and represent the next major decisions in a series of possible approvals that would total nearly $2.5 billion in the coming months.
A memo released Tuesday gives Council an accounting of the items on today’s agenda as well as others expected for the meetings on Sept. 12 and 26.
The largest single expenditure for the airport on the agenda is a pair of requests related to the design and construction support services for the improvement of the airfield at ABIA. Together, the two items total $346.7 million, which will include replacement of existing midfield taxiways to make room for the new concourse structure… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ See also… 🟪 City Memo: UPDATED Airport Expansion and Development Program Look-Ahead (Aug/Sept 2024) - 8.27.2024
Critics still say hydrogen gas plant would be a dealbreaker in Austin Energy Resource Generation Plan (Austin Monitor)
As Austin Energy continues to iron out the details of its Resource, Generation, and Climate Protection Plan, environmentalists are keeping the pressure on, demanding the utility abandon its proposal to build a new hydrogen-capable combined cycle power plant.
Austin Energy says the plant, which would run on natural gas before transitioning to a cleaner hydrogen fuel source, could help to address increasing demand for power as sectors like transportation go electric and the city continues to grow. But critics say the move would be a risky investment that could hamstring commitments to neutralize Austin’s carbon footprint by 2040.
“While the concept of hydrogen as a clean energy carrier is intriguing, the technology is in its infancy. The reality of its production, storage and distribution render it an impractical and costly stopgap measure,” Third Act Texas member Jorge Villero said while addressing the Electric Utility Commission earlier this month. “Austin Energy should double down on energy efficiency and renewable sources, strategies that have a proven track record of reducing emissions, lowering cost and enhancing grid reliability.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Central Health asks Travis County for time to respond to new audit report (KUT)
A long-anticipated performance review of local public hospital district Central Health ordered by Travis County found no significant deficiencies in the agency’s operations, but recommended reforms aimed at improving Central Health’s financial oversight practices.
Central Health requested to postpone a public hearing on the audit, saying it needed time to formulate a response to recommendations made in the report.
The performance review was completed by the international audit and tax firm Mazars. Travis County commissioners voted to order the independent review in September 2022 and approved the $845,200 contract with Mazars in April 2023. The decision followed calls from community groups asking for more transparency into Central Health’s operations.
This includes its oversight of a $35 million annual payment to Dell Medical School — which is also the subject of an ongoing lawsuit from taxpayers who believe the money has been spent improperly… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Dan Patrick starts Texas Senate leadership political action committee (Texas Tribune)
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced on Wednesday the creation of a new political action committee dedicated to advancing the goals of the conservative majority in the Texas Senate.
The new PAC will be called the Texas Senate Leadership Fund. No money has been received yet, said Allen Blakemore, a spokesperson for Patrick.
“There are other PACs where donors may support the work done by various House and Senate Caucuses and even to support the mission of House Leadership,” Patrick said in a news release. “But, until now, there hasn’t been a place to support the work on the Texas Senate Leadership in fulfilling its goals. In order to ensure the resources to support the mission of the conservative majority in the Texas Senate, I have launched this new political action committee.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
How did a California firm land a $6M Harris County contract? Unusual emails raise questions (Houston Chronicle)
When a consulting company collapsed in California amid a billing scandal, the scrutiny soon followed it to Harris County. DEMA Consulting & Management got its start operating homeless shelters for Sonoma County during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The company made its way to Texas shortly after that county’s top health official, Barbie Robinson, left to take a similar job in Harris County in May 2021.
Two months later, Robinson arranged for DEMA to run two COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites in Pasadena and Aldine, after issues emerged with a previous contractor. By December of that year, the company won a bigger, more competitive public health contract, cementing its expansion into Texas. It gave DEMA the authority to run a new program responding to certain nonviolent 911 calls with medical and social workers instead of sheriff’s deputies.
Its downfall in California this spring came after county auditors there determined the company may have billed as much as $11 million in work without sufficient documentation.
Harris County officials launched their own, narrower audit of DEMA, but the scandal in Sonoma County invited questions over how the for-profit California firm beat out local competitors to land the 911 contract in the first place. Emails and other records obtained by the Houston Chronicle show Robinson played a pivotal role in bringing the company here, and several exchanges during the county’s procurement process for the 911 contract suggested possible conflicts of interest. DEMA’s founder, Michelle Patino, sought Robinson’s advice when submitting materials for the initial COVID-19 contract.
A DEMA official later sent an email indicating the company knew in advance it would win the 911 contract. And, perhaps most explicitly, Patino offered Robinson a part-time consulting job while Robinson’s department was actively seeking proposals for that deal.
“Per our conversation we would love to have you as a consultant for some of the legal issues we may have in California,” Patino wrote in an email to Robinson in September 2021, less than a month before submitting DEMA’s 911 proposal. “Please let me know what your consultation fees would be and how we can proceed.”
It is not clear why Patino would have made such an offer; Robinson has a law degree and is licensed to practice in California, but she said she has never been a practicing attorney. Patino, who stepped aside as CEO of DEMA earlier this year, did not respond to written questions. Celeste Cramer, the company’s new executive, said DEMA followed the county’s guidelines when bidding for the contract, but she did not respond to later questions about the job offer. 🟪… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US and World News]
Cellphone bans spread in schools amid growing mental health worries (Washington Post)
Students returning to school in a growing number of states and districts are facing tight restrictions and outright bans on cellphone use as evidence mounts of the damaging impact persistent connection to the internet has on teenagers.
In Los Angeles, the second-largest district in the country, the school board voted in June to ban cellphone use. In Clark County, Nev., the district will require students in middle and high schools to store phones in pouches during the day, starting this fall.
Several states — including Indiana, Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida — have enacted legislation limiting cellphone access during the school year. And governors in at least three other states, including Virginia, have called on schools to restrict or ban the devices. Other states have provided funding to support restrictive policies. Of the nation’s 20 largest school districts, at least seven forbid use of cellphones during the school day or plan to do so, while at least another seven impose significant restrictions, such as barring use during class time but permitting phones during lunch or when students are between classes, according to a Washington Post review.
Pressure on school leaders has come from teachers and parents who see cellphones as a distraction, an impediment to learning and a constant toll on students’ mental health.
“Everybody has been saying, ‘Take the phones,’” New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks, whose district plans to announce a cellphone ban soon, told NY1 this summer. “It is a major problem. Parents, teachers, administrators and kids. So we’re going to try and get ready to do something that makes some sense.” The most recent federal survey, in 2021, found that 43 percent of high schools and 77 percent of middle schools prohibit nonacademic use of cellphones or smartphones during school hours. Experts and administrators say those numbers have risen significantly. Among schools with restrictions, policies and practices vary.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg district in North Carolina allows students to bring cellphones to school but requires they be kept in silent mode while on school property and forbids any noninstructional use including personal calls and texts. The Houston Independent School District requires that phones be turned off. The Duval County district in Florida mandates that students turn off and stow away their phones in pockets or personal bags during class time.
_________________________
We are proud to represent and have represented a wide range of clients in the Austin Metro and Texas Capitol at the intersection of government and business.
Learn more about Bingham Group’s experience here, and review client testimonials here.
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