BG Reads | News You Need to Know (August 31, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
BG Podcast Episode 104: Entrepreneurship and Austin Development with Nhat Ho of Civilitude Engineers & Planners (SHOW LINK)
Out tomorrow: BG Podcast Episode 105: Building A Communications Firm with Audrey Ponzio, CEO & Founder, APC Collective (AND a special announcement)
Note: Shows also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin stumbled in handling COVID-19 among Latinos. A new report highlights efforts to address that. (KUT)
A report from Austin Public Health out Friday examines the city and county response to COVID-19 among Latinos – a population that's been, by far, the hardest hit by the pandemic.
The latest numbers from Austin Public Health bear that out: Latinos represent 52% of hospitalizations linked to the coronavirus.
Latinos who've been tested for the virus at APH testing sites are four times more likely to test positive than white Austinites, but Latinos represent just over a third of the population overall.
Grassroots organizations in the Latino community criticized the city's initially staggered response to that disparity. In May, the Austin Latino Coalition argued the City of Austin and APH should have responded more proactively. APH's top doctor, Dr. Mark Escott, admitted the health authority had expected to see the disparity – even in the early days of the pandemic – as many Latinos live in multigenerational homes, work in high-risk industries or frontline jobs, and are more likely to be uninsured… (LINK TO STORY)
After a decade as Austin’s CIO, Stephen Elkins to retire (Government Technology)
Stephen Elkins, the chief information officer for the city of Austin's Communications and Technology Management (CTM) department, has announced his retirement. His final day with the city will be Sept. 4.
Elkins has accepted a “promotional opportunity” outside of Austin city government, wrote Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde, deputy city manager, in an Aug. 27 memo to city staff. He served as CIO since 2010, and has been an employee of Austin city hall since 2004.
“I’d like to take this time to thank Stephen for his outstanding efforts as CIO to maintain the city’s critical systems while deploying technology in the delivery of city services, and most recently for keeping teams connected and ensuring data security during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Rivera-Vandermyde wrote… (LINK TO STORY)
Former AISD finance chief to help investment bank Siebert Williams Shank launch in Austin (Austin Business Journal)
Nicole Conley, a longtime veteran of public school finance, has chosen for her next chapter helping an investment bank launch its first Austin office.
Conley is now a managing director for Siebert Williams Shank Co. LLC, the largest woman- and minority-owned investment bank in the United States, and its top executive in the Texas capital. She stepped down earlier this summer as chief financial officer and chief of business and operations at Austin Independent School District, where she managed a $3 billion budget and 1,600 or so employees.
Conley specifically will be managing director for infrastructure and public finance for SWS in Texas, focusing on helping school districts obtain the best rates when selling bonds for large capital projects. She has been on the opposite side of the equation many times, including overseeing a $1.1 billion bond program approved by AISD voters in 2017.
“I’m still committed to public education, I still want to serve communities in a profound way and I think this is certainly my next, best step to sort of maximize my support of our communities," she said.
Siebert Williams Shank will start small in Austin. Conley is the first and only employee here so far and is looking to add analysts, although she did not provide a hiring target. Siebert Williams Shank is also looking for office space.
Conley was part of the Texas Commission on Public School Finance that engineered the $11.6 billion public education bill approved in 2019 by state legislators. Austin Business Journal included her in the 2019 Profiles in Power for her public education service at the local and state levels, and named her one of the region's best chief financial officers in 2011… (LINK TO STORY)
Council eyes September for EDC creation, with S. Congress and music venues as priorities (Austin Monitor)
City Council is expected to vote next month to approve the legal documents that would create an economic development corporation, or EDC, that many members see as a remedy for threatened arts spaces, housing for the homeless and other real estate-related transactions.
At Tuesday’s work session city staffers said they expect to present the incorporation documents and bylaws to Council next month, with passage expected quickly to allow the EDC to get up and running and begin crafting deals that would take advantage of its structure as an entity that operates outside of city bureaucracy. Council members and the consultant hired to help guide the EDC’s creation pointed to the South Central Waterfront development project and a possible partnership involving Huston-Tillotson University as likely short-term priorities for the EDC, along with the possible purchase of existing music venues to prevent them from facing closure due to rental increases.
“I’m extremely concerned and have seen lots of concern out in social media and in other places about our venues’ survival. And as your report notes, projections are that as many as 90 percent of our venues might need to close during this period of time if they don’t receive some sort of assistance,” Council Member Kathie Tovo said. “I wonder … how quickly could they do that work and can we afford to wait with the economic development corporation to get up and running to really take action on that venue support.”
Council members questioned consultant Matt Kwatinetz on a number of finer points related to the EDC, including whether federal grant dollars would need to be matched, how much of city staff time and other resources could be used by the EDC, and how much autonomy it would have to enter into deals that would not have to be individually approved by Council.
Kwatinetz said the startup plan for the entity, which would have a board appointed by Council and a yearly contract to fulfill certain goals, would use existing money from the Economic Development Department for initial staffing. Within a handful of years it would begin to take in fees and other revenue from real estate deals, which could then be deployed into more projects based on Council’s direction.
“It’s not magic. It also is a city creature so there has to be some approvals that come from you to enable it. How broad those approvals are – they could be extremely broad once a year and the entity can run faster than you could believe,” he said. “Or you could keep a tighter leash and it would be much harder for the entity to do anything. But there’s no prohibition on the (local government corporation) from acquiring land. It can acquire it as fast as a private actor.”
Council Member Jimmy Flannigan said he wants to spend the coming weeks learning the specific ways the EDC would be allowed to enter into deals within the scope of Texas law, which is one reason the city itself has been unable to acquire potentially useful land quickly.
“I’m concerned that we’re building a structure that will still be hamstrung by the same challenges city staff faces in acquiring property, and we’ve seen that problem repeated over and over and over again,” he said. “I worry about a structure under Texas law won’t actually put us on equal footing with private market sectors, which means we won’t get the properties we want.”
One other potential use for the EDC is using the $12 million approved by voters for creative space preservation as front money for up to $100 million in land deals that could have a large impact on Council’s desire to save music venues from redevelopment… (LINK TO STORY)
Amid budget cuts, police chief proposes slashing units, reassigning officers to patrol (Austin American-Statesman)
A special unit patrolling city parks would be disbanded, another aimed at combating drunken driving would be halved, and Mayor Steve Adler would no longer have armed police security under a proposed list of Austin police staff reassignments.
Police Chief Brian Manley also is recommending that a unit that tracks gang members be dissolved and that many “district representatives” whose job is to build relationships with neighborhoods to combat crime return to patrol duties.
The list of reassignments, obtained Friday by the American-Statesman and KVUE-TV, comes as Manley seeks to reallocate 150 positions to ensure that enough patrol officers are on the streets amid recent City Council budget cuts, according to the Police Department.
Manley did not comment on the list because the draft has not been presented to city management for review. Adler said the list “is only one draft of what could happen next year.”
“The ultimate plan that gets implemented could look very different. In any event and under any circumstances, we won’t compromise public safety,” Adler said.
Assistant City Manager Rey Arellano said the Police Department wants to minimize the impact on “essential police functions.”
“Chief Manley and his team are in the process of discussing proposed changes internally with their officers as with any significant organizational change,” he said. “Community safety remains at the forefront of this process.”
The decision to reassign officers to patrol duties comes two weeks after City Council members approved a budget that called for canceling three cadet classes next fiscal year as part of a drastic restructuring of the Police Department’s finances. The absence of the classes — which typically have 50 to 90 cadets who graduate to patrol — will likely make it difficult for the department to fill vacancies… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
How Texas campuses may be missing the silent spread of the coronavirus (Dallas Morning News)
Many Texas universities are not doing widespread testing to catch students who may be silent spreaders of the coronavirus, a gamble that experts say increases the risk of massive outbreaks. The Dallas Morning News surveyed seven universities in North Texas, along with the University of Texas in Austin and Texas A&M. Only one — the University of Dallas — tested all students when they arrived on campus, and plans to continue broad testing throughout the fall. Outbreaks at several universities across the country have forced a switch to fully remote learning and dorm closures within weeks after classes started. In Texas, universities have just begun to welcome students back to campus. New cases are already popping up: Texas Christian University reported 330 new cases last week, up from 110 the week before; Southern Methodist University reported 35 last week.
Not testing students when they return nearly guarantees starting the academic year with an outbreak already underway, experts told The News. And calculations by disease experts suggest that testing mainly students with symptoms, as most schools told The News they would, is unlikely to contain an outbreak, putting the health of other students, faculty and staff at risk. Not everyone agrees with the need to test asymptomatic students, however, and there’s no proven way to safely open a college campus in this country. As schools start the fall semester, some have a limited capacity to test students. Others said the decision against mass testing follows advice from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, something experts told The News is faulty and a White House adviser recently contradicted. One university’s adviser said that because heavy testing would show most students are negative, they might have a false sense of security and become less careful. Much will depend on how cautiously students conduct themselves, disease experts said. “We should try to hold 18-to-20-year-olds accountable for their behavior, but we should also be realistic,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. “If your entire strategy is built on a perfect behavior of 18-to-20-year-olds, it’s not not a very good strategy.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Republicans ask Texas Supreme Court to boot Libertarians off ballot (Houston Chronicle)
About a week after Texas Democrats took several Green Party candidates to court and had them knocked off the ballot for failing to pay candidate filing fees, state and national Republicans are taking a similar case to the state's highest civil court. The Third Court of Appeals ruled against three Green Party candidates, but in the case of the Libertarians, the court dismissed the case as moot, saying it was no longer timely because the Aug. 21 deadline to declare a candidate ineligible had passed. The Republicans’ petition was filed Aug. 21. This latest lawsuit filed by the Republicans names 40 Libertarian candidates, including two candidates for Texas Supreme Court, three for Texas Senate, 10 for Texas House and 25 for Congress. The high court doesn’t have much time to take action: Friday was the deadline for the Secretary of State to certify candidates for the ballot.
“It’s a last-ditch effort on their part,” said Libertarian Party of Texas Chair Whitney Bilyeu. “They’re clearly desperate to do everything they can to remove voter choice at the polls to continue to have a one-party state here in Texas.” The Libertarians say their candidates chose not to pay the fee for various reasons: some were taking a personal stand against a law they believe to be unconstitutional, some filed with the Secretary of State during a window of time when a judge had temporarily blocked the law, and others simply did not have the funds. The filing fees in Texas are $3,125 for the U.S. House, $1,250 for Texas Senate and $750 for Texas House. Fifty-three of 70 Libertarian candidates paid theirs, state data shows. Lawyers for the Republicans wrote that “timing is of the utmost importance” because “each day closer to September 19 — the date ballots are mailed — makes relief less practical.” Attorney and state Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, said in a statement about the suit: “I hope the outcome is that voters are given the chance to vote for candidates who followed the law in order to be on the ballot.” The cases can be traced to a 2019 law, House Bill 2504, which requires minor-party candidates to submit the same number of petitions or filing fees as major-party candidates. Separate suits seeking to overturn that law are pending… (LINK TO STORY)
For second time, federal judge finds Texas is violating voter registration law (Texas Tribune)
A persistent Texas voter, twice thwarted when he tried registering to vote while renewing his driver's license online, has for the second time convinced a federal judge that the state is violating federal law.
In a 68-page ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia of San Antonio found that Texas continues to violate the federal National Voter Registration Act by not allowing residents to register to vote when they update their driver’s license information online.
Garcia found that DPS is “legally obligated” to allow voters to simultaneously register to vote with every license renewal or change-of-address application, and ordered the state to set up a “fully operable” online system by Sept. 23. The Texas attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the state is likely to appeal the ruling.
It's the second time Garcia has sided with the voter, former English professor Jarrod Stringer. Garcia's first ruling was overturned on appeal on a technicality… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Inside Trump’s pressure campaign on federal scientists over a COVID-19 treatment (Washington Post)
President Trump’s accusatory tweet barreled in at 7:49 a.m. a week ago Saturday: The “deep state” at the Food and Drug Administration was trying to sandbag his election prospects by slowing progress on coronavirus treatments and vaccines until after Nov. 3. Shocked and upset, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, who was tagged in the tweet, immediately began calling his contacts at the White House to find out why the president was angry. During his conversations, he mentioned the FDA was on the verge of granting emergency authorization to convalescent plasma as a treatment for covid-19. The agency planned to issue a news release. The White House would upend those plans, turning a preliminary finding of modest efficacy into something much bigger — a presidential announcement of a “major therapeutic breakthrough on the China Virus,” as White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany previewed in a tweet late that Saturday night.
At a news conference on the eve of the Republican National Convention, Trump lauded an emergency authorization for convalescent plasma as a “very historic breakthrough.” Hahn, who had rushed back to Washington from a family home in Colorado, was initially restrained but then doubled down on Trump’s talking points. He said that 35 of 100 people with covid-19 “would have been saved because of the administration of plasma”— a gross overstatement denounced by scientists and public health experts. The misrepresentations became a stunning debacle for the FDA, shaking its professional staff to the core and undermining its credibility as it approaches one of the most important and fraught decisions in its history amid a divisive presidential election — deciding when a covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective. Yet again, the president had harnessed the machinery of government to advance his political agenda — with potentially corrosive effects on public trust in government scientists’ handling of the pandemic. Hahn apologized the following day for misspeaking, saying on Twitter, “The criticism is entirely justified.” But demoralized employees felt he had allowed the agency to become a prop in the president’s reelection campaign — a bit player in a reality TV show scripted by political operatives, not scientists, according to several people familiar with their thinking who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect them from retaliation… (LINK TO STORY)
Democrats lag behind GOP in data race, despite making progress (Wall Street Journal)
With just over two months to the general election, Republicans are still leading in efforts to collect and harness voter data to spur turnout, even as Democrats narrow the gap after years of internal dissent. Sophisticated data on voter habits is part of the organizational arsenal driving modern election campaigns, with hundreds of millions of data points that can tell political parties anything from whether someone is registered to vote to whether it is best to contact them by text or email. Campaigns use this information to make sure they are encouraging turnout among people who are most likely to vote for them—or persuading those on the fence—and to avoid using resources on those who won’t.
Such data is viewed as even more important this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, which is expected to drive mail-in voting and force campaigns to rely more than usual on texting voters, targeting ads and other digital strategies rather than in-person outreach. With much of the populace already decided on how they will vote, according to opinion polls, spurring voter turnout will be key for both parties. The GOP had a jump on the data arms race. In 2016, President Trump’s campaign used Data Trust, a for-profit information warehouse with an exclusive data-exchange agreement with the Republican National Committee, to power its digital operation. Mr. Trump’s win, clinched in several battleground states by small margins, prompted Democrats to invest in their own data operation, while Silicon Valley also tried to separately innovate and bolster Democrats’ data-gathering systems. More than a dozen people involved with data work on the Democratic side say their operations aren’t collecting or sharing as much information as Republicans roughly two months before Election Day. Recent polls show Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden ahead of President Trump in a number of battleground states. With a tight race in some states, sophisticated voter data could be crucial, and people in some battleground states are already requesting mail-in ballots… (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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