BG Reads | News You Need to Know (December 12, 2019)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW -> BG Podcast Episode 65: Commercial Real Estate Market from Banking Perspective with Allan Rayson, Regions Bank (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
With Initial Vote, Austin Is One Step Closer To Adopting A New Land Code (KUT)
The Austin City Council took an initial vote Wednesday to finalize a new version of the city’s land development code, the rules determining what can be built across the city and where.
The vote signals the beginning of the end of a nearly eight-year and $12-million journey to rewrite the code.
"Change is hard, changing systems is hard, but I'm really proud of our council," Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza said before the vote.
The council has two more votes to take before the code is adopted, which is expected to happen in March. (LINK TO STORY)
City of Austin will implement a $0.15 regulatory fee on shared mobility rides (Community Impact)
The city of Austin will begin charging a $0.15 per trip regulatory fee on shared mobility vehicles, which include electric bikes and scooters, Austin Transportation Director Robert Spillar wrote in a Dec. 10 memo to City Council.
The fee will help fund the additional staff needed to regulate and monitor the city’s shared mobility program.
Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 11, there have been 5,228,382 trips. If this regulatory fee had been in place, it would have garnered $784,257.30.
Council authorized ATD to implement a per trip fee of up to $0.40 during its most recent budget process. City staff then met with shared mobility operators to determine an “appropriate” amount, Spillar wrote.
The regulatory fee is part of a series of revisions that the ATD plans to make to the director’s rules, which govern shared mobility operators… (LINK TO STORY)
See also:
Episode 57: Micromobility Policy with the City of Austin’s Jason Redfern and Jacob Culberson
Ford adding to Austin self-driving car operation (Austin American-Statesman)
Ford Motor Company is adding to its self-driving car testing operation in Austin, saying Wednesday it has secured two pieces of real estate that will be central to the project.
The Michigan-based automaker said it purchased property near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to serve as a command center for its fleet of self-driving cars. Ford is also leasing space in east Austin that will function as a terminal for the fleet.
Ford announced in September that it would test self-driving auto technology in Austin, using a small fleet of fewer than 10 cars.
Ford has partnered with Pittsburgh-based Argo AI since 2017 through a $1 billion investment to support its foray into the autonomous vehicle market.
As part of the partnership, Ford provides vehicles, such as the Ford Fusion Hybrid, to be outfitted into self-driving cars through the use of Argo AI technology, which currently uses lidar, radar and cameras.
Ford declined to share the exact location of the new terminal, along with the new command center, citing security-related concerns.
The Austin command center is the first of its kind that Ford is opening in its three self-driving auto markets of Austin, Miami and Washington D.C., according to a company news release... (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Early voting ends in Houston runoffs with higher turnout than first round (Houston Chronicle)
Early voting in Houston’s runoff elections ended Tuesday with 115,204 ballots cast in Harris County, producing a higher turnout than the first round despite two fewer days to visit the polls. Nearly all county ballots were cast in Houston’s runoffs for mayor and City Council, along with contests for the Houston ISD and Houston Community College boards. The exception: two City Council races in Bellaire, where there are 12,481 registered voters, compared to 1,085,813 in Houston.
In the Nov. 5 election, about 109,000 Houston voters cast ballots early and by mail in Harris County, short of the total reported Tuesday evening by the Harris County Clerk’s Office. It was not immediately clear how many of those voters live in Bellaire, though just 955 voters turned out early for that city’s mayoral election in the first round. The Houston mayoral runoff has proven more lackluster than expected, particularly after second-place finisher Tony Buzbee and fellow challenger Bill King spent much of the nearly yearlong campaign attacking incumbent Sylvester Turner as corrupt. The runoff, nonetheless, produced a higher per-day early vote total than the first round, indicating Buzbee and Turner were using their political machines effectively to keep supporters engaged, University of Houston political science professor Jeronimo Cortina said… (LINK TO STORY)
‘Don’t read between the lines,’ Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson says of letter on crime uptick (Dallas Morning News)
In his first State of the City address on Monday, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said it was finally an appropriate time for him to call for a concrete plan from the Dallas Police Department about the city’s rise in violent crime. After submitting a strongly worded letter to City Manager T.C. Broadnax last week, Johnson said the public shouldn’t “read between the lines” and interpret anything from his actions beyond what he said. “I’m not a read-between-the-lines type of leader,” Johnson said, denying any tension between him and Broadnax or Police Chief U. Reneé Hall. “If I wanted to call for someone’s removal, I’d call for their removal."
In a question-and-answer session with Julie Fine of KXAS-TV (NBC5) — similar to the format used by former Mayor Mike Rawlings in his State of the City address last year — Johnson said he faced pressure earlier in his administration from media and his political opponents to “play into scare tactics" and call the uptick in crime a public safety “crisis.” It was unhelpful from a leader and too early to tell, he said Monday. Now, as the year comes to an end, Johnson noted that the city’s on pace to have more homicides than the city has had in over a decade. The number of African Americans alone that have been killed this year rivals the total number of homicides Dallas usually counts in a year, he said. "It's a concern. It's a significant concern," Johnson said… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Trump’s impeachment mood morphs from anger to mockery (Politico)
He’s started calling the case against him “impeachment lite.”
He’s increasingly coming around to arguments that he could swing the impeachment battle to help his party in 2020.
And he’s become so outwardly nonchalant about the Democratic impeachment push that he’s taken special joy in giving visitors a look at the private study off the Oval Office — playfully pointing out where one of President Bill Clinton‘s infamous dalliances with Monica Lewinsky occurred and ultimately triggered the 42nd president’s impeachment.
It’s become one of many ways Trump has found his footing during the most serious threat yet to his presidency… (LINK TO STORY)
The Bingham Group, LLC is an Austin-based full service lobbying firm representing and advising clients on municipal, legislative, and regulatory matters throughout Texas.
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