BG Reads 9.27.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - September 27, 2024

September 27, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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www.binghamgp.com

September 27, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Austin City Council adopts new rules around allowing residents to speak at meetings (KUT)

🟪 Austin OKs close to $2B for ABIA expansion (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Council tells staff to find funds for continued use of Marshalling Yard (Austin Monitor)

🟪 Dallas City Council passes updated 'Forward Dallas' plan after hours of contentious debate (WFAA)

🟪 Texas Supreme Court leaves State Fair’s gun ban in place (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Feds charge NYC mayor with selling his influence to foreign nationals. He says he won’t resign (Associated Press)

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 Council has seven (5) regular meetings left in 2024

  • 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

📺 City Council Candidate Forum: District 2 - Video (9.26.2024)

📺 City Council Candidate Forum: District 4 - Video (9.19.2024)

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

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

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Austin City Council adopts new rules around allowing residents to speak at meetings (KUT)

Austin City Council made several changes to its meeting rules that the city hopes will improve public engagement and transparency.

The changes adopted Thursday follow a Travis County judge ruling in May that found the city had violated the Texas Open Meeting Act by not allowing people enough time to speak during the public comment period at council meetings. The decision was upheld in July.

City Manager T.C. Broadnax and staff proposed the new rules to the council.

"It is a new way forward for conducting city business in an efficient and transparent manner while also allowing for meaningful and deliberate public participation," he said in a Sept. 20 memo... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin OKs close to $2B for ABIA expansion (Austin Business Journal)

Austin’s airport expansion — and the companies that will carry it out — just got a big financial boost from the Austin City Council. 

About $1.9 billion in contracts for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport's expansion were approved at a Sept. 26 meeting.  

The biggest contract is a $1.03 billion construction deal with Hensel Phelps Construction to build a new concourse and accompanying tunnel. 

The new concourse will add 20 gates to the airport, with the possibility of 10 more depending on demand. Hensel Phelps has about 3.7 years to complete construction once the contract becomes effective. 

The other deals include a $45 million design contract with Skidmore Owings and Merrill LLP for a new arrivals and departures hall, as well as an $820 million construction contract for the new hall with Austin Commercial LP, which has about 3.9 years to complete construction.

According to an ABIA spokesperson, once the City Council approves a contract it can take up to 60 days for further negotiations and to get the deal signed. The start date for construction contracts can be one to two years after architectural drawings are completed. The upshot is it’s unclear what the exact start date of construction will be for the new buildings, but ABIA leaders have said they hope to have them completed by 2030… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Council tells staff to find funds for continued use of Marshalling Yard (Austin Monitor)

On Thursday, City Council approved a resolution directing City Manager T.C. Broadnax to find funding to continue use of the Marshalling Yard emergency shelter for homeless people in Austin. The resolution specifically directs staff not to use money already allocated to the homeless response system. While 10 members voted for the resolution put forth by Mayor Kirk Watson, Council Member Alison Alter abstained.

Alter did not deny that the city needs emergency shelter beds, but said Council needed to have work sessions so staff could explain their options. She said she was particularly concerned about the need for millions of dollars in spending so soon after Council approved the city budget. That budget contained just $500,000 to keep the facility open until next March. Now, staff must find millions of dollars – but exactly how many millions is still an unknown.

Council first approved using the facility as a temporary shelter in July 2023. Supporters of continuing use of the shelter told Council it was important to keep the shelter open. Even though Council approved increases to the budget to support people who are unhoused, they did not find a replacement for the Marshalling Yard…

Delayed CapMetro Rapid routes to launch next year with slower service and diesel buses (KUT)

Capital Metro's newest high-frequency bus routes have been delayed, and now the transit agency says the Expo Center and Pleasant Valley routes will launch next year with reduced frequency and diesel-powered buses instead of the promised electric ones.

The delays are pushing back the timeline for other planned CapMetro Rapid (formerly MetroRapid) routes, including those serving Oak Hill, Tanglewood Shopping Center and Austin Community College's (ACC) Highland Campus.

The first two of the new Rapid routes — both serving areas east of I-35 — were originally set to launch last summer with buses arriving every 10 minutes. But now they won't begin running till spring 2025…  🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

In an unusual hearing, Ethics Commission advances complaints against Greco and Watson to next phase (Austin Monitor)

Ethics complaints filed against mayoral candidate Doug Greco and incumbent Mayor Kirk Watson will move to a final hearing next month, but an anticipated court ruling could circumvent the proceedings.

In a preliminary hearing Wednesday, the Ethics Review Commission determined there were reasonable grounds to believe that both Greco and Watson violated the city’s campaign finance ordinance based on separate complaints that accused both candidates of exceeding the $46,000 contribution threshold from donors who live outside of postal ZIP codes within Austin city limits.

The commission voted 8-0 in favor of the complainant, former Ethics Commission member Betsy Greenberg. Her complaint also alleged Watson violated the ZIP code contributions limits in his 2022 campaign. Greenberg has said she supports Carmen Llanes Pulido in the mayoral race.

Wednesday’s preliminary hearing was unusual for two reasons… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas Supreme Court leaves State Fair’s gun ban in place (Texas Tribune)

The Supreme Court of Texas on Thursday night denied Attorney General Ken Paxton's emergency filing seeking to overturn the State Fair of Texas’ policy banning all firearms from its fairgrounds. The fair is set to start Friday.

"It should go without saying—though perhaps it cannot be said often enough—that a judge’s role in this case is not to decide whether the State Fair made a wise decision. Our job, instead, is to decide whether Texas law allowed the State Fair to make the decision for itself. The State declines to take a position on that essential question but nevertheless asks this Court for an injunction overriding the State Fair’s decision," the court said in its ruling. "It should also go without saying that our answer, for now, must be no."

The ruling comes two days after a Dallas County District Court struck down a request from Paxton on the fair's gun policy. The District Court Judge agreed with State Fair officials that they could enforce a gun ban as a private nonprofit…

Dallas City Council passes updated 'Forward Dallas' plan after hours of contentious debate (WFAA)

After hours of contentious debate, the Dallas City Council voted to approve an amended version of the controversial Forward Dallas land use plan Wednesday evening. The vote was 11-4 — and came after nearly a hundred concerned comments from opponents and supporters alike. The document is an update of a 2006 guide which informs what sorts of buildings can go where in the city.

It includes provisions preventing polluters in neighborhoods and encouraging development near DART stations, but what it may mean for housing has dominated the debate. Controversially, the updated plan allows possible future zoning changes to permit increased density in single-family neighborhoods. However, the city says any future zoning changes will be pursued on an individual basis and are subject to the existing zoning process, which includes opportunities for public input.

In a statement lauding its passing, Councilmember Chad West said "The final version of Forward Dallas 2.0 is exactly what it should be -- a compromise where everyone feels a bit dissatisfied but can live with the results, knowing they move the city forward." Proponents argued the updates to the plan are critical as Dallas faces a housing affordability crisis that city leaders fear will cause people to move out of the city. "I think housing is you know our biggest issue as a city and so I think it’s the one that we need to focus on the most," said Adam Lamont, the co-founder of Dallas Neighbors for Housing. "I do think [single-family] neighborhoods can have more housing done respectfully and done in an appropriate way that fits the neighborhood and makes the neighborhoods better."

The city is also facing a tight budget and allowing for additional housing will mean more property tax revenue for the city, which is certainly a side benefit -- if not an intended outcome of the new Forward Dallas plan. Detractors, mainly from single-family areas, fear the plan will make it more difficult to fight zoning changes down the line -- which could mean duplexes and small apartment complexes on lots that used to have just one home. 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

Feds charge NYC mayor with selling his influence to foreign nationals. He says he won’t resign (Associated Press)

New York City Mayor Eric Adams vowed to stay in office Thursday after federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment accusing him of letting Turkish officials and businesspeople buy his influence with illegal campaign contributions and lavish overseas trips.

Adams, a Democrat, faces conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery charges in a five-count indictment outlining a decade-long trail of corruption that began when he served as an elected official in Brooklyn and continued through his mayoral administration.

Among other things, prosecutors say Adams received free and steeply discounted flight upgrades valued at more than $100,000, free stays in opulent hotel suites and expensive meals, as well as campaign contributions from straw donors, some of which helped him qualify for more than $10 million in matching public campaign funds… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins walks back racist comments about Haitians after backlash (NPR)

Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins on Thursday retracted comments he made about Haitian immigrants in a now-deleted social media post.

"You never want to intentionally hurt someone’s feelings, and that post was intended for Haitian gangs, you understand?” Higgins, a Republican, told reporters. "The unintended impact that was expressed very sincerely from one of my colleagues very graciously, that touched me as a gentleman.”

NPR contacted Higgins' office for comment but has not received a response… 🟪 (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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