BG Reads 9.12.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - September 12, 2024

September 12, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

Presented by:

www.binghamgp.com

September 12, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 The Austin Council meets today at 10AM (Agenda + Livestream link)

🟪 City of Austin, Police Association hit roadblock in contract negotiations (KVUE)

🟪 Former Interim Chief Robin Henderson to become chief of staff to help new police Chief Davis transition to role (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 ACC receives $200K from Samsung for semiconductor training (Community Impact)

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]

🟪 The Austin City Council meets today at 10AM

💡 The Austin Council has seven (7) regular meetings left in 2024.

  • District 4 - September 19th

    • City of Austin Permitting and Development Center, Room 1405, 6310 Wilhelmina Delco Drive, Austin 78752

  • District 2 - September 25th

    • Dove Springs Recreation Center, 5801 Ainez Drive, Austin 78744

  • District 10 - September 30th

    • Dell Jewish Community Campus, Epstein Family Community Hall, 7300 Hart Lane, Austin 78731

  • Mayor - October 3rd

    • Austin City Hall Council Chambers, 301 W. 2nd St. Austin 78701

  • District 6 - October 7th

    • Hope Presbyterian Church, 11512 Olson Drive, Austin 78750

✅ All candidate forums will are scheduled from 6:30pm to 8pm.

✅ All forums will be streamed live and archived on ATXN. 

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

City of Austin, Police Association hit roadblock in contract negotiations (KVUE)

 After nearly a year and a half without a long-term contract, the City of Austin and the Austin Police Association (APA) are getting closer to finalizing a new deal. 

However, there are still hurdles in the way.

In late August, a Travis County Judge ruled to do away with the G-file, which are confidential files about alleged misconduct from police officers.

Mayor Kirk Watson said he would not appeal the ruling, and the focus between the city and APA since has been on how to move forward.

The argument, according to APA President Michael Bullock, is over the language about the files.

The city and APA met on Tuesday to discuss those issues, but no decision was made. 

Bullock told KVUE through text message that they had hoped there was progress in reaching a tentative agreement, but negotiations are "on thin ice."

KVUE reached out to the City of Austin on where they stand with negotiations. A city spokesperson responded with the following statement:

“The City appreciates the continued good discussions that we are having with the Austin Police Association and believes we continue to make progress. However, until we have a tentative agreement, it would be premature for us to talk about the process, timing, or next steps."… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Henderson to become chief of staff to help new police Chief Davis transition to role (Austin American-Statesman)

Robin Henderson, who served as interim chief of the Austin Police Department for nearly a year, will move back to her old position as chief of staff until her retirement "later this year," according to a department-wide email sent on Tuesday afternoon.

Henderson elected to not apply for the permanent chief position and said she would help whoever was selected to transition into the role before retiring — although it was never clear how long Henderson would stay to aid in that process.

Lisa Davis, a former assistant chief of the Cincinnati Police Department, started her first day on Monday as the permanent chief of the Austin Police Department. Her first couple of weeks will be spent obtaining her state-required license through the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.

"Chief Henderson's leadership, experience, and deep knowledge of our department will be invaluable during this important time," Davis said in Tuesday's email.

Jeff Greenwalt, who served as chief of staff under Henderson, will be moving back into an assistant chief role, the email said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Update to city’s water plan through 2080 nears completion (Austin Chronicle)

Despite the nice spate of rain we’ve had recently, Austin remains in Stage 2 of its drought contingency plan, which it’s been in since August of last year.

The demands on our region’s water will only continue to grow as our population increases, which is why in 2018 Austin Water created its first-ever 100-year integrated water resource plan, Water Forward. This year sees the completion of the first update to that plan (updates will continue every five years), and recently Austin Water held an open house outlining everything the plan includes.

“We’re planning for 100 years, and over that period of time, there’s a lot of uncertainty about what could possibly happen,” explained AW’s Marisa Flores Gonzalez. Rather than selecting one likely future, they’re gaming out several possibilities, including worse droughts than the historical droughts Central Texas has experienced.

To update Water Forward, Austin Water evaluated six of these different scenarios, taking into account economic costs and equity, as well as how the strategies would affect the environment. The focus “is on being able to stretch our current Colorado River and Highland Lakes supplies as much as we can,” said Flores Gonzalez. Austin Water settled on a portfolio that includes not only water loss control and use management but also new supply strategies… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

ACC receives $200K from Samsung for semiconductor training (Community Impact)

Austin Community College has received additional funding to go to its semiconductor training program with $200,000 coming from Samsung Austin Semiconductor, the college announced in a news release.

The ACC board of trustees accepted the gift from Samsung during a regular meeting Sept. 9, and announced plans to invest the dollars into the Semiconductor Technician Advanced Rapid Start program, or STARS.The four-week, full-time program offers students a pathway into manufacturing technician roles by providing theoretical and hands-on training. While the school has previously offered the program at only its Highland campus, the latest funding will allow ACC to invest in the equipment needed to offer the program at its Round Rock campus… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Health diagnostics ‘unicorn’ to bring more than 1,000 jobs to bolster Austin’s life sciences sector (Austin Monitor)

The city is expected to see an influx of more than 1,000 life sciences jobs in the coming years, with a California-based molecular diagnostics company announcing a major move into Austin.

BillionToOne broke ground Wednesday on a 220,000-square-foot facility expected to occupy six buildings in the EastVillage ATX development on Parmer Lane near Samsung Austin Semiconductor. Political and business leaders on hand for the announcement touted the company’s move as another win in the push to make life sciences another major pillar of the area’s economy.

“BTO points to Austin’s energy and culture and attractiveness to young people as a key reason for choosing to expand here. BTO gets it. Austin is Austin in part because we’ve always had what I refer to as our fountain of youth,” Mayor Kirk Watson said, pointing to the importance of the University of Texas, Huston-Tillotson University, Concordia University, St. Edward’s University and Austin Community College in drawing and training highly educated professionals in the area.

“Every year, thousands of new young people come into town to attend those schools. They’re young, they’re vibrant, they’re vital, they’re looking to the future and they’ve got new thoughts, new ideas, new music, new culture, greater diversity.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas Agriculture Commissioner sounds the alarm, says Texas is running out of water (WFAA)

Texas is losing water.

And the problems facing our state now and into the future are real, and getting worse.

“We lose about a farm a week in Texas, but it’s 700 years before we run out of land.

The limiting factor is water. We’re out of water, especially in the Rio Grande Valley,” Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told us on Inside Texas Politics.

Miller, and at least two other state lawmakers who’ve appeared on Inside Texas Politics recently, tell us the water shortage issue is about to take center stage in Texas.

Miller recently wrote an op-ed describing the problem and offering possible solutions for what he calls “self-reliance.”

“Our tomato production in the Valley is just about gone. They usually grow five crops of vegetables in that Winter Garden area. They have enough water to grow one. So, our production’s down 80%. And it’s all about water,” Miller said as an example.

Miller thinks the state should prioritize capturing stormwater and reusing treated water.

Other options he includes to maximize our water resources involve improving the efficiency of irrigation and other delivery systems, increasing storage capacity and adding new reservoirs… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

Mexican lawmakers pass contentious judicial overhaul after fleeing protesters (Washington Post)

Mexico’s Senate voted early Wednesday to abolish the current judicial system and allow citizens to choose nearly all of the country’s judges, a drastic change that U.S. officials warn could pose “a major risk” to the democracy of its top trading partner.

The ruling leftist party, Morena, barely mustered the two-thirds of Senate votes required for the constitutional amendment amid furious protests by students and judicial workers. Eighty-six lawmakers voted in favor, while 41 voted against.

Raucous demonstrators burst into the chamber during the debate, chanting

“Traitors!” and shattering a glass door. Lawmakers escaped to a nearby colonial-era building that formerly housed the Senate, and resumed the session under heavy police guard.

“You are taking part in one of the biggest steps backward in the history of Mexico,” Sen. Verónica Rodríguez Hernández of the conservative opposition National Action Party said, addressing the ruling party and its allies from a lectern.

The amendment has already passed the lower house and is likely to be quickly ratified at the state level, after which it would take effect. Morena has a majority in 27 of the 32 state legislatures.

The new judicial framework marks a sharp break with the current system, in which most federal judges are named by a professional council that considers their experience and their scores on specialized exams. To fill Supreme Court vacancies, the president has traditionally nominated justices, with Senate approval.

Now all those decisions would be turned over to voters, who would select about 7,000 judges, at the federal and local levels, including on the Supreme Court. Opposition politicians and human rights activists and others say the judicial amendment marks the start of a new era in Mexico in which a dominant party assumes control, snuffing out the democratic gains of the past three decades. Mexico was effectively a one-party state until 2000.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador argues that he has the democratic legitimacy to overhaul a justice system permeated by corruption.

His Morena party won a landslide victory in June, capturing the presidency and big majorities in Congress. The new legislature opened on Sept. 1, but López Obrador doesn’t turn over power to his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, until next month. That has offered him a window to push through one of his most cherished projects. 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

_________________________

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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