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- BG Reads 9.4.2024
BG Reads 9.4.2024
🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - September 4, 2024
Bingham Group Reads
Presented by:
www.binghamgp.com
September 4, 2024
Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 Starting tomorrow - League of Women Voters Austin Council Candidate Forums
🟪 State court rules Austin must release files on police complaints. Here's what that means. (KUT)
🟪 Travis County officials authorize 5% increase in pay for employees (Community Impact)
🟪 ‘Ticking time bomb’: Plunging office values alarm Washington (Politico)
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 (7) regular meetings left in 2024.
District 7 - September 5th
Northwest Recreation Center, 2913 Northland Drive, Austin 78757
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]
State court rules Austin must release files on police complaints. Here's what that means. (KUT)
Austin police must release records of officer complaints previously kept in house to the police oversight office, a state district judge has ruled.
The personnel files – known colloquially as "g-files" – were a cornerstone of the Austin Police Oversight Act, which passed last year. Under the act, records of any complaint – even if no disciplinary action was taken – must be handed over to the civilian-led Office of Police Oversight. The police department has historically kept those files from public view.
In her ruling last week, Judge Maria Cantú Hexsel said the city and APD "unlawfully failed to perform their mandatory duty to end the City of Austin’s use of the g file.'"
By violating the city charter, she ruled, the city was violating state law.
Austin previously said it was unsure how to implement the referendum, which voters approved by a 4-to-1 margin, because police officers have a swath of protections under state law regarding employment information... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Bee Cave Police to test out autonomous drone cameras (Community Impact)
The Bee Cave Police Department plans to test out autonomous, pilot-free drone cameras this fall to bolster its emergency response capabilities.
The department soft-launched a pilot program with Austin-based startup Eve Vehicles in late August.Unlike the drones that Bee Cave PD already uses, the first responder AV8 drone system is not dependent on pilots.Instead, it can fly, land and recharge without an operator… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Travis County officials authorize 5% increase in pay for employees (Community Impact)
Travis County commissioners approved a 5% increase in pay for all county employees—including elected officials—Aug. 27. This is higher than the average expected increase nationally, which is estimated between 3.78% and 3.98%, according to county documents.This marks the third consecutive year of county employee pay increases.
The minimum wage for county employees will now start at $21.84 an hour, an annual salary of $45,427, which will be implemented in October with the start of fiscal year 2024-25.“I want to be really clear for all folks and all our employees. We won't have this kind of money to give this kind of a pay raise on any predictable timetable in the future, and that is why I feel like it's important to do it while we can,” Precinct 2 Commissioner Brigid Shea said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Here's what to know about Texas' new business courts (Austin Business Journal)
A new system for settling business disputes started as the state's business courts and the 15th Court of Appeals opened Sept. 1.
Lawmakers passed House Bill 19 last year, and Gov. Greg Abbott appointed 10 judges across the state to hear business disputes involving more than $5 million. Five districts went live Sept. 1: Austin, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Each of the districts will have two assigned judges with two-year appointments. In total, there will be 11 districts, according to the Texas Business Court website.
Part of the effort to establish a specialized business court is for business attraction to the state, said Robert Ahdieh, dean of Texas A&M's School of Law and CEO of Texas A&M Fort Worth. CEOs can establish their headquarters, factories and their locations where they choose.
Companies can also choose a place of incorporation, and most choose Delaware because the state has a historically high quality of judges and courts to decide corporate law and other business disputes, Ahdieh said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Another Republican is challenging Dade Phelan for Texas House speaker (Texas Tribune)
Mansfield Republican David Cook said Tuesday he intends to run for Texas House Speaker, becoming the third person to challenge the chamber’s current leader, Beaumont Republican Dade Phelan.
Cook, who has served two terms in the House since 2021, made his announcement in an email to Republican incumbents and nominees seeking election to the chamber next year. The news was first reported by The Texan, a state politics news website.
In his email, Cook committed to naming only Republicans as leaders of House committees, a crucial point to hard right GOP leaders who feel Phelan has ceded too much power to Democrats by continuing the chamber’s long-standing tradition of naming members of both parties to lead the legislative panels.
But Cook said Democrats will “have the opportunity work their bills and see them considered fairly, as preserving the rights of the minority party remains part of facilitating the orderly transactions of business in the Texas House.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US and World News]
‘Ticking time bomb’: Plunging office values alarm Washington (Politico)
Four and a half years after the pandemic sent workers home, the office property bill is finally coming due. The market for office buildings — already reeling from higher vacancy rates amid the rise in remote-work policies — has been crushed by high borrowing costs, and while the Federal Reserve is at last preparing to cut interest rates, it may be too little, too late. Investors, banks and property owners are now beginning to accept that some commercial buildings will never recover their pre-pandemic value, and that’s leading to a steady drumbeat of distressed sales.
The market’s troubles have caught the attention of Congress — with one New York lawmaker calling it a “ticking time bomb” for banks as nearly $1 trillion in commercial real estate loans are coming due this year. Faced with vacant office buildings and a shortage of millions of homes to meet demand, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to make it easier for developers to convert underused properties into housing.
“This would absolutely help lenders recoup some of their investment while allowing them to align with the current needs of the market,” said Rep. Mike Carey (R-Ohio) who introduced a bill this summer establishing a temporary 20 percent tax credit for qualified property conversion expenditures.
“The pandemic caused a seismic shift in work patterns,” said Carey, who offered the bill with Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.). “We see these vacant office buildings as a well of untapped potential.” Over the last four months, seven office properties were sold at a staggering loss of more than $100 million each, up from just one such sale in the first three months of the year. Banks and investors will have to take significant haircuts — one midtown Manhattan office building sold at a 97.5 percent discount in July — and operate on tighter margins as the market resets. That will potentially squeeze lending elsewhere just as the economy is slowing. 🟪… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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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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