BG Reads | News You Need to Know (August 24, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
BG Blog: State Leaders Threaten Property Tax Revenue Freeze Over Police Defunding (BLOG LINK)
BG Podcast Episode 103: FY 2021 Budget with Council Member Jimmy Flannigan (District 6) (SHOW LINK)
Note: Show also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin creates downtown storage program for homeless (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin city leaders on Friday launched a program to provide safe storage facilities to people who are homeless in the downtown area.
Homeless service providers say the new option will allow people who are homeless the opportunity to attend doctor’s appointments; meet with service providers; seek employment; and work or rest without having to leave their possessions unattended and at risk of being stolen.
The Violet KeepSafe Storage program operates out of the HealthSouth parking garage near 12th and Red River streets. The facility has been outfitted with 96-gallon bins, similar to curbside trash or recycling receptacles, that are available through a referral from the city’s Homeless Outreach Street Team or the Downtown Austin Community Court.
There are currently 85 bins at the site. The city’s staff is working to increase that to 200 bins, which would allow more care providers for homeless people throughout the community to refer clients.
“This is important for anyone going to a job or job interview but who may not want to show up with a shopping cart or a rucksack or backpack full of their personal effects,” Assistant City Manager Chris Shorter said. “This is a major step forward for our support system in response to our homeless population. And it’s just a first step. Our plan is to add additional sites and carts across the city. We are expanding citywide and will be able to serve hundreds more.”
Austin Resource Recovery Director Ken Snipes said the effort is an investment in the health and dignity of those who are homeless in Austin. Other cities across the country — including Seattle, San Diego and Los Angeles — have used such facilities as part of larger efforts to address homelessness in their communities.
“As I saw working with folks in Seattle and was confirmed here by the Austin Homelessness Advisory Council, offering a storage bin and a lock does more than alleviate physical burden or fear of theft,” Snipes said. “This service builds trust and lines of communication between our institutions and the people who rely on them to build a better life.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
How Michael Hsu sees coronavirus changing restaurant design (Austin Business Journal)
In the wake of Covid-19, expect restaurants to feature bigger, better, more lavish patios that provide the same quality experience as indoor dining, said Michael Hsu.
Hsu's firm has designed locations of well-known eateries such as P. Terry's Burger Stand, ATX Cocina and Loro, in addition to homes, stores, offices and hotels.
The Austin-based architect, whose Michael Hsu Office of Architecture has a Houston office and many noteworthy clients, said that new and existing restaurants are investing in their patios more than ever before. Unlike indoor dining, patios currently are not restricted by a Covid-related capacity cap, so restaurants are beginning to turn to their patios to seat more guests, even taking advantage of a new ordinance to extend into their parking lots.
“We have other (clients) that are very much changing how they do business. So much of it has to do with the comfort level of their patrons,” Hsu said. “There’s a diversity of risk tolerance for people. Also, the comfort range of their staff. The better operators, the ones that are experience-driven, really rely on their staff to be that connection to their clients. If their staff doesn’t feel good about being there, if they don’t feel safe, then they’re not going to perform well or want to be there.”
For their newer patios, restaurants are including weather protection, heating and cooling elements, and nicer furniture with nicer materials than standard patios of the past. It all comes down to creating a better experience for the customer, Hsu said.
The incorporation of green space and nature is more important than ever, Hsu added. What was once a popular trend in office and multifamily has now spread to hospitality, including rooftop gardens and other nature elements.
Hsu is seeing changes inside as well. More restaurants are closing off their spaces, creating separated rooms instead of one large space. As restaurants seek to minimize contact, they’re using radio-frequency identification, or RFID, buzzers when running food to tables… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
See also: BG Podcast Episode 89 - COVID-19's Impact on the Built Environment with Michael Hsu
Ethics commission discusses transparency in unbroadcast meeting (Austin Monitor)
As Covid-19 has pushed city meetings online, questions about public participation have taken center stage, with community members and commissioners alike struggling with cumbersome web platforms and long waiting times on phone lines.
The topic came before the Ethics Review Commission on Aug. 12 for discussion. But it was only on Aug. 21 that the conversation was accessible to the public when it was posted online by the city clerk’s office. When asked what hindered an earlier posting time – ATXN broadcasts are generally available the same week – the clerk’s office blamed the delays on staff working from home.
During the commission meeting, commissioners debated whether providing oversight on how city meetings are conducted falls under their purview. While commissioners agreed the rules governing the commissions’ proceedings do not explicitly pertain to enforcing transparency, Betsy Greenberg noted, “It is a hurdle for public participation and our participation. And our participation is definitely within our purview.”
Luis Soberon, the chair of the Ethics Review Commission, told the Austin Monitor that governmental ethics, access and transparency are inexorably intertwined. “There is an undeniable link between ethics in government and access and transparency in government,” he said. Despite his view that removing access to public meetings can cast an ethical shadow on government proceedings, he said, “One of the things that I made sure to remind commissioners of is that our jurisdiction as a commission doesn’t currently extend to policing how other city meetings are conducted.”
Soberon said the ethics commission will have an opportunity to better understand virtual meeting platforms and protocols at a September gathering. Commissioners will look into why the city requires pre-registration a day in advance and whether the timeline can be reduced; how meeting rules and instructions are publicized and in which languages; and how to allow speakers to reestablish connection if a call is dropped.
Ana Aguirre, who lives in District 2, told the commission that many of her neighbors are “in survival mode, so civil engagement is much harder for them.” She said many residents are prioritizing basic needs rather than paying for internet access, which makes virtual meetings a barrier. Furthermore, she said the city’s policy of requiring speakers to sign up at noon the day before a meeting can be exclusionary and result in citizens being unable to sign up to speak on items that are posted in late backup.
Megan Meisenbach also expressed her disappointment in the requirement to sign up in advance to speak. She added that the Cisco Webex platform presents another hurdle for those who may not have internet access or are not as technologically savvy. “As a technology hub, Austin can do a lot better than Webex to manage security issues,” she said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Shelley Luther, Dallas salon owner who pressured Texas to reopen salons, says she’s running for state Senate (Texas Tribune)
Shelley Luther, the Dallas salon owner who was jailed over reopening her business amid the coronavirus pandemic, said Saturday that she is running for Texas Senate.
Luther, who lives in Denton County, had been considering a run to replace state Sen. Pat Fallon, R-Prosper, in a yet-to-be-called special election now that he is poised to head to Congress.
"You better bet I'm putting my hat in the ring," Luther said during a "Back the Blue" rally supporting law enforcement in Denton County.
Luther became a hero to some on the right earlier this year after she was jailed for contempt of court for refusing to apologize for illegally reopening her salon. She was freed two days later after Gov. Greg Abbott removed the threat of jail time from an executive order and the Texas Supreme Court granted a motion for her release.
At the rally, Luther touted herself to a cheering crowd as someone who would "stand up and go to jail for you," saying she would "do it again and again because I'm gonna fight to keep our Texas values." She made the remarks in a video from the rally posted to her Twitter account.
Earlier this month, county and precinct chairs picked Fallon to replace former U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Heath, on the fall ballot now that Ratcliffe is the director of national intelligence. While there is a Democratic nominee, Russell Foster, Fallon is likely to win in November because the congressional district is overwhelmingly Republican.
The special election to finish Fallon's term in safely red Senate District 30 has not been set yet — and it cannot be scheduled until he vacates the seat. He could do that automatically by taking office in January as a congressman or by resigning early… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas Republicans say new slogan was inspired by poem, not QAnon (New York Times)
Facing questions about its use of the slogan “We Are the Storm,” a rallying cry for QAnon adherents, the Texas Republican Party is defending its adoption of the language, saying it was drawn from a poem and had nothing to do with the internet-driven conspiracy theory that claims President Trump was elected to save America from pedophile Satanists. The state party was responding to a report in The New York Times on Thursday about how a small but growing number of Republicans nationwide have signaled support for QAnon, a movement that the F.B.I. has warned could inspire domestic terrorism. The Texas Republican Party’s use of the slogan was cited by some prominent Republicans there as an example of how some in the G.O.P.’s leadership are opening the party to QAnon followers by adopting language used by the movement.
In a statement posted on its website Friday after the article’s publication, the state party said that the slogan came from a favorite poem of the party’s new chairman, Allen West, and that the line had biblical roots. It is “one of Chairman West’s favorite quotes to use in speeches,” the party said. “He and the entire Texas G.O.P. will not be bullied by partisan leftists in the media into ceding powerful phrases with biblical roots — taken from Psalm 29 — to internet conspiracy groups.” Psalm 29 includes a line about thunder but not the word “storm.” The poem includes the line “I Am the Storm.” Its origins are unclear; it appeared on an Instagram post in 2018 by Tom Brady, then the New England Patriots quarterback, and can be found on a website about scripture and culture. Neither party officials nor Mr. West responded to a question on Saturday about whether they believed that the use of the slogan could be taken by QAnon supporters as a signal of support from Texas Republicans. Instead, Mr. West said that questioning how the party came to use the slogan was “a pure example of the leftist embrace of racism.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
How Harris forged close ties with Big Tech (San Francisco Business Times)
When Kamala Harris, then San Francisco’s district attorney, was running to become California’s attorney general in 2010, she did not hide her excitement about speaking at Google’s Silicon Valley campus.
“I’ve been wanting to come to the Google campus for a year and a half,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to come because I want these relationships and I want to cultivate them.”
For Harris, a Bay Area politician, connections to tech have been essential and perhaps inescapable. In past campaigns — her two elections to be attorney general, her successful run for the Senate and her failed bid for the Democratic presidential nomination — she relied on Silicon Valley’s tech elite for donations. And her network of family, friends and former political aides has fanned throughout the tech world.
Those close industry ties have coincided with a largely hands-off approach to companies that have come under increasing scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers around the world. As California’s attorney general, critics say, Harris did little to curb the power of tech giants as they gobbled up rivals and muscled into new industries. As a senator, consumer advocacy groups said, she has often moved in lock step with tech interests.
Now that she is the running mate to Joe Biden, tech industry critics worry that a Biden administration with Harris would mean a return to the cozy relationship that Silicon Valley enjoyed with the White House under President Barack Obama.
Although vice presidents rarely set policy, as a former state attorney general, Harris is expected to have a say in Biden’s political appointments at the Justice Department, including officials who oversee antitrust enforcement. She could also have a significant influence on tech policy in a Biden administration, since Biden has largely focused on other issues.
“This is good news” for tech companies, said Hal Singer, an economist who specializes in antitrust and a managing director at Econ One, a consulting firm. “They probably feel like they have one of their own and that at the margin this is going to help push back against any reform.”
A spokeswoman for Harris declined to comment for this article.
Silicon Valley’s Democratic power brokers have been enthusiastic backers of Harris. In her first statewide campaign, she raised 36% more money than her Republican opponent with the help of large donations from prominent tech investors like billionaire John Doerr, who was an early investor in Google, and Ron Conway, a venture capitalist who is active in Democratic politics.
In her reelection bid, donations poured in from big players in tech, like Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer; Jony Ive, Apple’s former top design executive, and Marc Benioff, chief executive of Salesforce.
She also hobnobbed with Silicon Valley heavyweights. Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs and an influential philanthropist, hosted a fundraiser for Harris in the backyard of her Palo Alto home in 2013. That same year, Harris attended the lavish wedding of Sean Parker, an early Facebook executive.
In addition, her family, friends, and former staff members are part of the revolving door between government and the tech industry.
Lartease Tiffith left his position as a senior counsel in Harris’ Senate office in late 2018 and became an in-house lobbyist for Amazon, focusing on privacy and security issues. Rebecca Prozan, who ran Harris’ first campaign for district attorney in San Francisco, is a top government affairs official for Google in California. Tony West, Harris’ brother-in-law and a former Justice Department official, is the chief legal officer for Uber… (LINK TO FULL STORY HERE)
Kellyanne Conway to leave White House at end of month (The Hill)
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway will depart her position in the Trump administration at the end of the month to focus on family matters, she said in a statement late Sunday.
"This is completely my choice and my voice," Conway said. "In time, I will announce future plans. For now, and for my beloved children, it will be less drama, more mama."
Conway has been a close adviser to the president dating back to the 2016 campaign. She was the first woman to mange a victorious presidential campaign after she took the reins late in the 2016 cycle, and she has served in her White House role since the beginning of the administration… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Trump wants FDA to ‘feel the heat,’ chief of staff says (Politico)
The president’s claim that the FDA is delaying clinical trials for the coronavirus vaccine for political reasons is his way of making some at the agency “feel the heat” and push forward, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Sunday.
President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday morning that the “deep state” at the Food and Drug Administration “is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics.”
Meadows came to the president’s defense on ABC’s “This Week” with host George Stephanopoulos, claiming that the president’s remarks are part of a larger effort to put pressure on the agency, and other agencies working on the coronavirus response, to move quickly.
The president “had to make sure that they felt the heat,” Meadows said. “If they don't see the light, they need to feel the heat, because the American people are suffering. This president knows it, and he’s going to put it on wherever — the FDA or NIH or anybody else to make sure that we deliver on behalf of the American people.”
Meadows also said he believes some people at the agency “do not see the same sense of urgency as he sees.”
“They know that some kind of result today is good for the American people, and he just wants to make sure they feel the same urgency,” he said… (LINK TO FULL 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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