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September 5, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 City of Austin brand initiative aims to enhance unity, cohesion of city services (City of Austin)

🟪 200 have drowned in Austin’s Lady Bird Lake since 2004. A serial killer isn't to blame, study says. (KUT)

🟪 Austin airport CEO highlights $10B economic impact amid expansion plans (Community Impact)

🟪 Austin ISD needs to implement turnaround plans for 24 campuses after recent TEA ratings (CBS Austin)

🟪 Skyline changing project to be considered by Austin City Council (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Proposal limiting Texas city, county property taxes dies in the Legislature (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Trump hosts tech titans — but not Musk — at White House (Associated Press)

READ ON!

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ City Manager Executives and Advisors Staff Visual Chart

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

💰 2026 City of Austin Bond - Public Input

ℹ️ 2025 Essential Resources for Navigating the City of Austin

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ City of Austin Brand Initiative Aims to Enhance Unity, Cohesion of City Services (City of Austin)

The City of Austin is launching its first-ever brand aimed at improving the City’s engagement with and service to the community. The new brand was shaped by feedback from a diverse cross-section of community members and City employees.

The Austin City Council voted in 2018 to make developing a cohesive brand for the City a strategic priority. Years in the making, the City’s brand will officially launch on Oct. 1, with a new look for digital assets such as the City’s website, department web pages, social media profiles and newsletters.

“We want our community members to be able to identify members of our team as City of Austin employees and trust the services we provide,” Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax said. “Whether they see the brand on a website, a utility bill, a street sign, or the side of a vehicle, they’ll know exactly who it’s from and what it stands for.”

The City’s branded assets will change gradually over the coming years to minimize impact on the City budget. While newly produced materials and digital properties such as social media, websites, and digital signs will display the new Austin brand beginning Oct.1, items such as uniforms, facility signage, and vehicles will transition based on department schedules to update or replace such items at the end of their service life… 🟪 (READ MORE)

Here’s the breakdown of how that money is being spent:

• Brand Vendors: $640,000

• Public Awareness Campaign: $115,000

• Consolidated city-wide design software for all departments: $75,582

• Support staff and legal counsel – salary and benefits for a Brand Project Manager (temporary City employee) and external legal review: $186,976

✅ ‘The ultimate design by committee’: How Pentagram crafted Austin’s new logo (Fast Company)

Austin just got its first official branding in nearly 200 years, and it’s an homage to natural springs, rolling hills, and a city that’s emerged as a liberal island in an overwhelmingly red state. 

The branding, revealed at a press conference on September 4, includes an official logo for the city, a wordmark, and a set of guidelines for how Austin’s government will show up online. It was designed through a partnership between the Austin-based agency TKO, which handled an extensive preliminary interview process, and the Austin branch of the design firm Pentagram, which led the actual brand design. 

According to Pentagram partner DJ Stout, the process was a balancing act of creating an identity that was both authoritative enough for the city government and representative of the average Austinite. Already the result is generating a firestorm of negative attention on social media—but Stout says that’s “completely expected” in today’s divisive branding reaction ecosystem… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ 200 have drowned in Austin’s Lady Bird Lake since 2004. A serial killer isn't to blame, study says. (KUT)

A new study released this week aims to put a stop to the rumors swirling about a potential serial killer in Austin. Researchers from Texas State University in collaboration with the Austin Police Department found no evidence of a serial murderer during a review of nearly 200 cases.

While the idea of a Rainey Street Ripper has been a popular conspiracy on social media, the study found that alcohol consumption and the proximity of bars to the shore of Lady Bird Lake are the bigger contributing factors in the reported deaths… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin airport CEO highlights $10B economic impact amid expansion plans (Community Impact)

Austin airport CEO Ghizlane Badawi spoke at a Round Rock Chamber luncheon Aug. 28, outlining the multibillion-dollar expansion currently underway and the hefty economic benefit for the region.

Badawi characterized the airport as the “economic engine for Central Texas,” noting that a 2018 Texas Department of Transportation study estimated Austin-Bergstrom International Airport’s economic impact at $7.6 billion—a figure now projected at approximately $10 billion, Badawi said.

The figure includes airport employee payroll and sales from on-site businesses, as well as visitor spending on hotels, restaurants, transportation, shopping and entertainment. The study found that airline passengers alone account for $4.5 billion in spending within the Austin community.

ABIA has also experienced significant passenger growth in recent years. Badawi noted that on a single day, the airport serves about 70,000 people—more than Disney’s Magic Kingdom Park, which sees roughly 50,000 visitors daily… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin ISD needs to implement turnaround plans for 24 campuses after recent TEA ratings (CBS Austin)

The Austin Independent School District will need to develop Turnaround Plans (TAP) for 24 campuses based on recent ratings from the Texas Education Agency.

In a letter sent to families, Superintendent Matias Segura says 12 campuses received a third unacceptable rating and need to develop plans to be implemented this school year.

Eleven campuses received a second unacceptable rating and must develop a plan for the 2026-2027 school year.

One campus needs to develop a plan based on federal accountability… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Skyline changing project to be considered by Austin City Council (Austin Business Journal)

A development that promises to change the city’s skyline could take a significant step forward this month.

The Austin City Council on Sept. 11 is set to consider Related Cos.' request for a planned unit development zoning designation to allow for a massive mixed-use project to rise on a roughly 6.5-acre site near the intersection of South Congress Avenue and East Riverside Drive. 

The PUD zoning would allow Related to build nearly 600,000 square feet of office space, 950 residential units, a 225-room hotel and 135,000 square feet of restaurant, grocery and retail space. Related is also seeking a maximum height of 650 feet in the center of the property and of 500 feet on the edges of the property. 

The Austin Planning Commission advanced the project in July, which was the first time Related officials shared more details since redevelopment options for the property were first discussed in 2024… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin police looking for 7 suspects in connection to car burglaries at parks (FOX 7)

In March, Austin Police Department Detective Shawn Green conducted a press conference announcing arrests made in what was deemed ‘a large criminal enterprise.’

Police had worked with other agencies to arrest multiple people who had been burglarizing vehicles at different parks around Austin for a couple of years.

Detective Green is now looking for many of the same people for committing the same crimes. All seven are facing felony charges.

"The reality is our responsibility is only within the scope of identifying, obtaining arrest warrants and making arrests. We have nothing to do with what happens after," Detective Green said.

Detective Green said it is a public safety issue having to re-arrest people… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Proposal limiting Texas city, county property taxes dies in the Legislature (Texas Tribune)

A push by Texas lawmakers to curb city and county property tax bills died quietly Thursday morning after legislators clocked out of a 30-day legislative sprint without reaching a deal.

Gov. Greg Abbott called on state lawmakers during a 30-day special legislative session to further cut property taxes by limiting spending by local governments, which tax-cut hawks have griped have bitten into their efforts on cutting school district taxes. Texas lawmakers have already this year greenlit a new round of breaks for homeowners and business owners on the property taxes they pay to school districts, typically the largest portion of a tax bill.

The central proposal would have tightened limits on how much more in property tax revenue cities and counties can collect each year without asking voters — with the goal of curbing homeowners’ tax bills. But House and Senate lawmakers deadlocked on how to move forward with the bill. House lawmakers on Tuesday shot down the latest version of the bill hashed out in negotiations between the two chambers, arguing it didn’t go far enough to rein in local spending.

“This is not the solution to our problems,” said state Rep. Mitch Little, a Lewisville Republican. “This is not the answer to our prayers.”… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ Sen. Brandon Creighton’s switch from lawmaking to Texas Tech leader signals a new era for higher ed (Texas Tribune)

As the clock wound down on the year’s second overtime legislative session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the powerful leader of the Texas Senate, took a few minutes to say goodbye to his right-hand man, Sen. Brandon Creighton: The architect of a recent bevy of laws reshaping higher education in Texas — from the ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs to limits on protests and faculty’s influence on campuses — was stepping down to take a new job overseeing those very changes.

Texas Tech regents voted Thursday to name the Conroe Republican their sole finalist for chancellor, the university system’s top job, betting that his political connections and influence at the Capitol will help secure funding, expand research opportunities and elevate the system’s profile.

Chancellors are at the helm of each university system’s fleet of campuses, and Texas universities have increasingly turned to politicians to lead them, a shift that Patrick celebrated Wednesday. He pointed to the Texas A&M and University of Texas systems’ new chancellors — Glenn Hegar, the state’s former state comptroller and a former state senator, and former state Rep. John Zerwas, respectively — as models of the kind of political leadership he believes universities need… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ Texas launches downloadable form to exempt kids from school-required vaccines (Texas Tribune)

Texas parents will no longer have to wait weeks for a vaccine exemption form to be mailed to them if they want their children opted out of state-required immunizations to attend school.

This week, the state health agency quietly unveiled the new downloadable vaccine exemption form, the result of state Rep. Lacey Hull’s House Bill 1586 which went into effect on Monday. Along with the form, the Texas Department of State Health Services also published a document listing the benefits and risks of immunization.

The new law does nothing to change the childhood vaccine schedule. Instead, it would allow parents to download at home a form that allows children to be exempted from being vaccinated in order to attend public schools. The parents can show the same filled out form for two years before having to fill out a new one.

Before the new law, parents had to contact the state health agency and request the exemption form be mailed to them… 🟪 (READ MORE) 

✅ Moore, Pritzker weigh redistricting amid 2028 speculation (The Hill)

Democratic leaders in Illinois and Maryland are under growing pressure to move forward with redistricting as they eye potential White House bids in 2028 and Republicans in other states move forward with rewriting their own congressional lines. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) has said all options are on the table for redistricting in his state, while Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) has said he is not inclined to engage in partisan redistricting but said Democrats would think about how to counter GOP efforts if they spread to other red states.

Their comments come as the redistricting battle spreads across the country, and as potential Democratic presidential contenders take note of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) popular response to similar gerrymandering efforts in Texas. “You have to imagine that Pritzker and Wes Moore are looking at the kind of attention that Gavin Newsom got,” said Dan Kanninen, a Democratic strategist and battleground states director for former Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.

“That’s the kind of thing a campaign tactician might look at and said, ‘Oh boy, we want to replicate some of that to build our own national profile,’” he added. On Wednesday, Missouri’s GOP-controlled General Assembly convened to consider mid-decade redistricting after Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) called a special session on the matter. The move comes after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) recently signed into law a new congressional map that could net the party as many as five additional seats next year. A Morning Consult survey released late last month found that Newsom’s support among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents increased by 8 points to 19 percent in late August. Pritzker garnered 3 percent support in the same poll while Moore came in at 1 percent support.

Moore and Pritzker have both signaled they are open to the possibility of redistricting if Republicans in other states move forward with their own efforts “What happened in Texas and is now spreading to other Republican-controlled states like Missouri is nothing more than a power grab by Donald Trump,” said David Turner, a spokesperson for Moore, in a statement to The Hill. Last week, Maryland state Sen. Clarence Lam (D) filed a proposal to redraw the state’s congressional map, calling the move “a warning shot” to Republicans… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump advisers have discussed a job for Adams if he quits mayor’s race (New York Times)

Advisers to President Trump have discussed the possibility of giving Mayor Eric Adams of New York City a position in the administration as a way to clear the field in November’s mayoral election and damage the chances of the Democratic front-runner, Zohran Mamdani, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. The talks have also involved finding a possible place in the administration for the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa.

The goal, the people said, would be to give former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo a better chance of defeating Mr. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, in November’s general election. The discussions within Mr. Trump’s orbit about making a potentially audacious intervention date back weeks — and it is unclear if they will ultimately amount to anything. But the topic has taken on added urgency in New York in recent days as an already chaotic race steams into the last stretch of the campaign season.

Overlapping conversations have been playing out among some of the city’s biggest real estate executives and among allies of Mr. Cuomo, 67, a moderate Democrat who has known Mr. Trump for more than 40 years. Mr. Cuomo is running as a third-party candidate after badly losing June’s Democratic primary to Mr. Mamdani.

Those New Yorkers have been frantically searching for any way to halt the rise of Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman and democratic socialist who they fear will sour the city’s business climate, and have discussed potentially offering the mayor public or private sector jobs to encourage him to drop out. John Catsimatidis, a billionaire grocery and oil magnate in New York, said in an interview that he had spoken with Mr. Trump about the race on Sunday and expected the shape of the contest could change in the coming days. “He’s very concerned,” Mr. Catsimatidis said of the president. “How do they say it, this is for all the tea in China. This is serious.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Trump hosts tech titans — but not Musk — at White House (Associated Press)

President Donald Trump hosted a high-powered group of tech executives at the White House on Thursday as he showcased research on artificial intelligence and boasted of investments that companies are making around the United States.

“This is taking our country to a new level,” he said at the center of a long table surrounded by what he described as “high IQ people.”

It was the latest example of a delicate two-way courtship between Trump and tech leaders, several of whom attended his inauguration. Trump has exulted in the attention from some of the world’s most successful businesspeople, while the companies are eager to remain on the good side of the mercurial president.

While the executives praised Trump and talked about their hopes for technological advancement, the Republican president was focused on dollar signs. He went around the table and asked executives how much they were investing in the country… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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