BG Reads | News You Need to Know (January 10, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW -> Episode 69: Judge Aurora Martinez Jones, Travis County Civil Courts (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Cedar fever relief coming in the form of severe storms Friday, forecasters say (Austin American-Statesman)
Sick of the hydrogen bomb that went off in your sinuses known in Central Texas as cedar fever? Mother Nature might be sending in some help, but it will come with a catch: the threat of severe thunderstorms during your Friday commute. The National Weather Service is eyeballing a storm system and a cold front that will move across Central Texas as a line of intense rain and thunderstorms Friday afternoon… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin Convention Center leader leaving for Florida (Austin Business Journal)
Mark Tester is stepping down as director of the Austin Convention Center to take the top job at the Orange County Convention Center in Florida.
He starts the new job Feb. 10, according to a Jan. 9 announcement from the government of Orange County, which is home to Orlando.
Tester has been director of the Austin Convention Center Department since January 2008. In that role he has overseen both the Austin Convention Center — a major downtown event space home to the likes of South by Southwest and many corporate gatherings — and the Palmer Events Center, a smaller venue south of Lady Bird Lake. During his tenure, the convention center set attendance and revenue records and became LEED Gold certified for its environmental standards.
Tester has also served on the executive committee of Visit Austin, the city's conventions and visitors bureau, and was president of Austin Convention Enterprises, the board that oversees the city-financed Hilton Austin hotel.
His final day as head of the Austin department is Feb. 8, said convention center spokesman Derick Hackett. An interim director will be named within the next one to two weeks, Assistant City Manager Rodney Gonzales wrote in an email to City Council and city leaders… (LINK TO STORY)
Abbott orders state troopers to patrol downtown Austin (Austin American-Statesman)
State troopers soon will be walking Austin police beats, but it’s unclear what kind of policing the state officers will do.
Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday directed Texas Department of Public Safety to patrol areas near the University of Texas and the Capitol beginning Monday in response to recent stabbings in the downtown area.
The directive comes as Abbott has placed blame on Austin’s homelessness policies for violent incidents that have involved people who are homeless. Among them was a knife attack last week at Freebirds World Burrito on South Congress Avenue that left two men, including the attacker, dead, and an incident Wednesday that left a man wounded near Fourth and Trinity streets.
“As you are aware, two stabbings have taken place in the downtown Austin area in less than a week,” Abbott wrote in a letter to DPS Director Steven McCraw. “One person has died from those attacks and others remain seriously injured. These crimes add to a growing list of reports of physical assaults and threats, even arson, in areas near the Capitol Complex and the University of Texas at Austin.”… (LINK TO STORY)
San Marcos City Council to consider building exemptions into motor-assisted scooter ban (Community Impact)
San Marcos City Council members changed course on banning motor-assisted scooters at its Jan. 6 meeting, agreeing to take no action until staff presents options that would allow residents the use of their own scooters even if the city moves forward with a prohibition on scooter-sharing services.
The council had been set to vote on a second reading of a total prohibition on motor-assisted scooters, an ordinance that passed by a vote of 5-1 on Dec. 17, but revisited the discussion in response to public testimony and some City Council members’ concerns.
Mayor Jane Hughson proposed postponing action on the ordinance; she also suggested amending the language to allow residents the use of motor-assisted scooters—if owned—without penalty, while still prohibiting privately owned companies from operating scooter fleets in the city… (LINK TO STORY)
Former County Judge Rails Against Delia Garza (Austin Chronicle)
Bill Aleshire is continuing to pursue his campaign against the Travis County attorney candidacy of Austin Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza, charging that the City Council member is unqualified for the post and subject to conflicts of interest because she is campaigning (and raising campaign funds) while continuing to serve on Council. In a series of emails, Aleshire has claimed Garza has inadequate legal experience to run the C.A. office, and has repeatedly said she should resign from Council because simultaneously campaigning creates potential conflicts of interest.
Garza told the Chronicle that she's abiding by all relevant regulations governing a county campaign, and that her experience as an attorney and public official certainly qualifies her to become county attorney. "I have legal, executive, and administrative experience," Garza said. "And on City Council, I have experience in policymaking – arguably most important for running the county attorney office."
In December, immediately after Garza officially filed for the C.A. position, Aleshire released a lengthy open letter attacking her credentials and charging that she would be ethically compromised because she would be raising campaign cash while simultaneously making decisions about city policy – an argument resting on the awkward fact that city campaign finance laws are much stricter than those governing Travis County campaigns. "Donald Trump has failed that ethics test over and over," Aleshire wrote pugnaciously. "Will you?"… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Lime Scooters Leaving San Antonio After Winning Contract to Operate Here (San Antonio Current)
Weeks after winning a pact to be one of just three deckles vehicle companies allowed to serve the Alamo City, Lime Scooters is scooting on out of the market.
San Antonio is one of 12 "underperforming" cities the startup is leaving in an bid to become profitable this year, officials told Axios. The company is also slashing 14% of its workforce, or about 100 employees.
Last month, city council approved contracts with Lime, Razor and Bird to operate dockless e-scooters as part of a competitive bid process. That move reined in a largely unregulated market in which as many as 16,100 individual scooters cluttered streets and sidewalks.
Following Lime's departure, Bird and Razor will keep their existing permits, which are capped at 1,000 per vendor, San Antonio officials said… (LINK TO STORY)See also:
E-scooter startup Lime shuts in 12 markets, lays off around 100 (AXIOS)
City’s Transportation Advisory Board Could Expand Beyond Vehicles for Hire (Rivard Report)
San Antonio City Council is slated to vote in March on a more diverse focus and membership for the City’s Transportation Advisory Board (TAB), which currently concentrates only on issues related to the private, for-hire transportation industry.
If approved as proposed, the new TAB would have a broad directive to consider transportation and mobility issues across the city – from micromobility such as scooters and bicycles to mass transportation.
City staff proposed these changes to that committee on Thursday and its members were receptive.
“I feel like [transportation] is one of our top priorities for our Council and would like to see [the citizen board have] a larger role,” said Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales (D5), who chairs the Transportation and Mobility Committee.
Since the board was created in 1984, the San Antonio Police Department has handled its discussions, which initially centered on the licensing and regulatory review of transportation services licensed by the City: taxicabs, limousines, tour buses, and horse carriages. The board’s scope has been expanded to include pedicabs, group cycles, and ride-hailing companies such as Lyft and Uber.
A new purview would come with new oversight of the TAB, said Art Reinhardt, interim deputy director of the City’s Transportation and Capital Improvements (TCI) department. The TAB would provide feedback to a variety of different department staff as they develop projects, policies, and initiatives.
It also should have the ability to make recommendations to Council’s Transportation and Mobility Committee as well as the Council as a whole, Gonzales said. Currently, the TAB is made up of 11 at-large voting members from the vehicle-for-hire industry and three “transportation consumers” as well as five nonvoting members representing City departments and the tourism industry.
The new TAB would also have 11 at-large voting members but represent a wider range of perspectives and expertise… (LINK TO STORY)
Farmers across RGV eye hemp production (McAllen Monitor)
Farmers in boots and cowboy hats rubbed shoulders with CBD enthusiasts clad in shirts emblazoned with marijuana-like leaves at Rio Farms in Monte Alto Saturday afternoon to discuss hemp, a crop that will likely be seen swaying in fields across Texas and the Rio Grande Valley in the very near future.
A relative of marijuana that does not produce a high, hemp was illegal until the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill paved the way for states to legalize its production. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller submitted an outline of requirements for hemp production to the USDA in early December; when it’s approved, Texas can begin issuing licenses for industrial hemp production, potentially as soon as February. “Once we get that, then everyone’s gonna grow,” said Rudy Montes, founder of the South Texas Hemp Cooperative and organizer of the hemp convention in Monte Alto. Traditionally, hemp has been grown for use in a variety of industrial goods like textiles, papers and fabrics, but hemp can also be used to make CBD oil, and the burgeoning market for that oil has made the plant a potentially lucrative cash crop… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
United States and Iran back away from imminent conflict as Trump says he is ready for peace ‘with all who seek it’ (Washington Post)
President Trump backed away Wednesday from potential war with Iran, indicating he would not respond militarily to the launch of more than a dozen ballistic missiles at bases housing American troops, as the United States and Iran blamed each other for provoking the most direct conflict between the two adversaries since Iran seized American diplomats in 1979.
The war footing that took hold last week after Trump approved the targeted killing of a senior Iranian military commander he accused of plotting to kill Americans appeared to ease by mutual agreement, following days of chest-thumping in both Washington and Tehran and what Iran called its rightful response. No one was killed in Iran’s attack on two military bases in Iraq, according to the administration, and Trump dismissed the damage to U.S. facilities as “minimal.” Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the attack a “slap in the face” of the United States and insufficient to end the U.S. presence in the region, but he did not threaten any specific further military action… (LINK TO STORY)
Appeals court rules Trump can use nearly $4 billion in military funds for border wall (Texas Tribune)
A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the Trump Administration can use nearly $4 billion in military funds for construction of the president’s long-promised border wall.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed an earlier decision by El Paso-based U.S. District Judge David Briones that blocked the spending. The latest decision allows the funds to be spent while the case plays out in its appeal.
The Trump administration had earmarked $3.6 billion for construction of 11 barriers on the southern border, CNN reported Wednesday. El Paso County and the Border Network for Human Rights, an El Paso-based advocacy group, filed the original lawsuit. The Trump administration asked the appeals court to consider the matter Dec. 16.
The administration has been stymied so far in most of its efforts to come through with one of the president’s signature campaign promises, but the latest ruling could change that as the 2020 elections approach. The president has been successful in curbing the number of unauthorized immigrants who have arrived to the U.S. border seeking asylum, thanks to policies that require migrants to wait in Mexico for their court hearings. But despite that success, the president continues to tout the wall as another effective way to stop illegal immigration… (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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