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December 5, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 Austin proposes changes to electric scooter program, reports an increase in ridership (KXAN)

🟪 Audit finds major gaps in Austin airport contract oversight (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 Greater Austin YMCA evaluating options for its real estate portfolio (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Supreme Court lets Texas keep new congressional map while legal battle continues (Texas Tribune)

🟪 State Department to deny visas to fact checkers and others, citing 'censorship' (NPR)

READ ON!

[FIRM NEWS]

(Sunday) // I had the honor of representing the Austin Trail of Lights Foundation Board as President at one of our city’s most beloved traditions, the Zilker Tree Lighting.

Now in its 59th year, the Tree Lighting continues to bring our community together, marking the start of a season defined by connection, celebration, and Austin spirit.

[New Blog] Austin 2026: The New Rules of Economic Development at City Hall

Learn more about Bingham Group’s new practice — and review all of our services here: binghamgp.com/services

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ City Manager Executives and Advisors Staff Visual Chart

🏛️ City of Austin Org Chart (as of July 2025)

ℹ️ 2025 Essential Resources for Navigating the City of Austin

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ Austin proposes changes to electric scooter program, reports an increase in ridership (KXAN)

The city of Austin’s Transportation and Public Works Department (TPWD) is proposing changes to its electric scooter program to allow potential new vendors to compete for contracts.

Currently, the city works with two shared mobility providers: Lime and Bird.

Michael Kimbro, TPWD’s program manager, told the Austin Mobility Committee Thursday the department suggests the city keep the cap of vendors at two, but look to transition from the current license/permit model to a contract model.

“We think additional vendors would like to enter the marketplace, so we think one of the benefits from this is it would allow them to come and compete for contracts,” Kimbro said.

In switching models, TPWD documents note the potential for longer contract terms, which would “reduce staff time analyzing applications and increase vendor confidence.” The documents further state this could potentially lead to further investment in Austin.

Lewis Leff, assistant director of TPWD, told KXAN his team sees the recommendation as a chance to make the micromobility program more sustainable… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Audit finds major gaps in Austin airport contract oversight (Austin American-Statesman)

Austin’s airport is embarking on its largest-ever expansion but a new city audit shows the Aviation Department is struggling with basic contract oversight, raising questions about how prepared the city is to manage the surge of vendors that will come with the massive buildout.

The report, released Thursday by the Austin City Auditor's Office, examined two teams at the department that collectively manage more than 700 contracts with vendors ranging from retail stores and restaurants to baggage handling, custodial services and ground transportation. Of the 49 active non-construction contracts reviewed, auditors found that more than 90% had major documentation issues, including missing insurance records, misplaced amendments, incomplete scopes of work and inconsistent filing. Contract records were scattered across multiple systems, often entered manually, and in many cases had no secondary review.

“We found that Austin Aviation’s contract management process does not ensure that documentation is accurate, leading to a significant amount of incorrect information and making it difficult for Austin Aviation to ensure contract documentation requirements are met,” Auditor-in-Charge Kristina Kern told a City Council committee Wednesday.

The audit, initiated by a 2024 risk assessment, comes as Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is in the early stages of a multibillion-dollar expansion that includes a new concourse and a massive arrivals and departures hall, a project intended to more than double the airport’s passenger capacity in the coming years.

The review did not include construction contracts tied to the airport’s major expansion projects, which are managed separately. Even so, auditors noted that the types of non-construction contracts they examined — leases, concessions, maintenance and other operating agreements — are expected to increase in number and complexity as the airport adds gates, terminal space and new amenities… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Greater Austin YMCA evaluating options for its real estate portfolio (Austin Business Journal)

The Greater Austin YMCA could be making more real estate decisions in the next few years as it considers the best way to serve the area.

Kathy Kuras, the president and CEO of the Greater Austin YMCA, said the organization will evaluate options for its eight locations across the Austin metro over the next year as part of the YMCA 2030 Vision plan it adopted in 2023. The nonprofit is open to making changes to its portfolio to improve services in child care, health and wellness, or mental health, she said.

“Part of (YMCA 2030 Vision) is really taking a look at our YMCA locations and our real estate and asking how might we continue to serve the community, and also look for new ways to serve the community,” Kuras said.

“That may mean — looking at (the Townlake facility) bringing more affordable housing — but we're taking a look at each of our YMCA centers and each of the communities that our YMCAs are in and asking questions … especially around Austin's greatest needs, and seeing our role in affordability.”

Aside from the redevelopment plans for the Townlake facility, Kuras said there aren’t any definite plans for any of the other YMCA locations. The nonprofit owns the land for most of its locations, meaning it has the flexibility to make decisions… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Supreme Court lets Texas keep new congressional map while legal battle continues (Texas Tribune)

Texas can use its new, GOP friendly congressional map while a legal challenge plays out, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, temporarily pausing a lower court ruling that had blocked the map from going into effect.

With the Dec. 8 candidate filing deadline fast approaching, the high court’s decision likely means Texas’ new map will be used for the 2026 midterm elections.

Justice Samuel Alito ruled that it was “indisputable” that Texas’ motivation for redistricting was “pure and simple” partisan advantage, which the court has previously ruled is permissible. Alito rejected the argument that Texas had engaged in racial gerrymandering.

The ruling is a major win for Republicans in Texas and nationally. President Donald Trump had pushed Texas to redraw its map over the summer, hoping to secure five additional GOP seats to shore up the party’s narrow majority in the U.S. House through the midterms.

On Nov. 18, two federal judges barred Texas from using the new map for 2026, saying there was evidence state lawmakers had racially gerrymandered in redrawing the lines. Galveston District Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, authored the opinion ordering Texas to return to its 2021 map, while 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jerry Smith vociferously dissented… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ If Texas measles outbreak is still spreading, U.S. could lose measles-free status, scientists say (Texas Tribune)

The United States is poised to lose its measles-free status next year. If that happens, the country will enter an era in which outbreaks are common again.

More children would be hospitalized because of this preventable disease. Some would lose their hearing. Some would die. Measles is also expensive. A new study — not yet published in a scientific journal — estimates that the public health response to outbreaks with only a couple of cases costs about $244,000. When a patient requires hospital care, costs average $58,600 per case. The study’s estimates suggest that an outbreak the size of the one in West Texas earlier this year, with 762 cases and 99 hospitalizations, costs about $12.6 million.

America’s status hinges on whether the country’s main outbreaks this year stemmed from the big one in West Texas that officially began Jan. 20. If these outbreaks are linked, and go on through Jan. 20 of next year, the U.S. will no longer be among nations that have banished the disease… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ State Department to deny visas to fact checkers and others, citing 'censorship' (NPR)

The State Department is instructing its staff to reject visa applications from people who worked on fact-checking, content moderation or other activities the Trump administration considers "censorship" of Americans' speech.

The directive, sent in an internal memo on Tuesday, is focused on applicants for H-1B visas for highly skilled workers, which are frequently used by tech companies, among other sectors. The memo was first reported by Reuters; NPR also obtained a copy.

"If you uncover evidence an applicant was responsible for, or complicit in, censorship or attempted censorship of protected expression in the United States, you should pursue a finding that the applicant is ineligible" for a visa, the memo says. It refers to a policy announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in May restricting visas from being issued to "foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans."

The Trump administration has been highly critical of tech companies' efforts to police what people are allowed to post on their platforms and of the broader field of trust and safety, the tech industry's term for teams that focus on preventing abuse, fraud, illegal content, and other harmful behavior online… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ More industries want Trump’s help hiring immigrant labor after farms get a break (Stateline)

As food prices remain high, the Trump administration has made it easier for farmers to hire foreign guest workers and to pay them less. Now, other industries with large immigrant workforces also are asking for relief as they combat labor shortages and raids. Visas for temporary foreign workers are a quick fix with bipartisan support in Congress. And Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ office told Stateline that “streamlining” visas for both agricultural and other jobs is a priority for the Trump administration. But some experts warn that such visas can be harmful if they postpone immigration overhauls that would give immigrant workers a path to green cards and citizenship.

“Lack of permanent status is costly to migrants, employers, and the broader economy,” wrote Pia Orrenius, a labor economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, in a report published in June. Workers are “vulnerable to policy changes triggered by a change in administration, most recently the threat of mass deportations.” In a Nov. 25 interview with Stateline, Orrenius said the crackdown on illegal immigration could be a good thing if it leads to permanent solutions. “If you can stop undocumented immigration, then great. This is a great time to work on comprehensive immigration reform,” Orrenius said.

“Where is there a scarcity of workers and how do we address those legally instead of illegally?” Restaurants, construction and landscaping businesses have lost a combined 315,000 immigrant workers through August this year, more than any other industries, according to a Stateline analysis of Current Population Survey data provided by the University of Minnesota at ipums.org. The construction industry needs more foreign worker visas like those already being provided for agriculture to prevent more delays in building everything from homes to highways, business owners say… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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