BG Reads | News You Need to Know (December 2, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW BG PODCAST - EP. 115: 2020 Fall Closeout with Associate Intern Wendy Rodriguez
City Hall Moves
Katherine Avalos Nicely, most recently Chief of Staff to Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza (District 2), is now a Senior Land Use & Development Planner with Austin’s Metcalfe Wolf Stuart & Williams, LLP. The Mayor Pro Tem was elected Travis County Attorney in July.
Jessica Coronado most recently with the City Manager’s office will be Chief of Staff to District 2 Councilwoman-elect Vanessa Fuentes. Ms. Coronado has nearly a decade of experience with the city.
Pre-filed bills for the 87th Texas Legislature:
[AUSTIN METRO]
New SAVES programs face uncertain funding (Austin Monitor)
The city has started nine programs in nine months to help local Austin businesses survive the pandemic. On Thursday, City Council will consider final program guidelines for three more programs providing relief for child care providers, local music venues and restaurants. The city has funding for the child care providers but has not identified funding for grants to local music venues and restaurants.
At Tuesday’s work session, Veronica Briseño, who now holds the title of chief economic recovery officer in addition to her regular role as director of economic development, described additional programs for Council’s approval.
So far, the city has awarded more than $27 million to help businesses and individuals impacted by Covid-19 and the measures taken to slow the spread of the virus. Of those funds, Briseño reported, impacted businesses and organizations received more than $22 million and individuals received $4.8 million. The city has awarded $861,000 in grants to 34 live music venues.
Council approved the initial guidelines for the Save Austin’s Vital Economic Sectors (SAVES) fund in October. On Tuesday, Briseño described the application process for the Austin Live Music Venue Preservation Fund and the Austin Legacy Business Relief Grant, which will be under the umbrella of Chapter 380 economic development programs.
Under the Recovery Lease Incentive Program, the city will offer commercial property owners reimbursements on their property taxes in exchange for the property owner renegotiating a lower rent with eligible businesses and negotiating overdue rent payments.
The Restaurant Relief Program would offer forgivable loans to Austin-based restaurants, excepting franchises. Under certain conditions the city would defer repayment, and according to Briseño, the loans would be forgiven for companies offering more employee and community benefits.
The price tag on the two programs is estimated to be $10 million… (LINK TO STORY)
Study: I-35 in Austin has the worst traffic in Texas (Austin American-Statesman)
Interstate 35 in central Austin is now the most congested stretch of highway in all of Texas, according to new research from Texas A&M University.
The university’s Transportation Institute said Tuesday that I-35′s stretch from U.S. 290 to Texas 71 moved became the busiest freeway in the state, knocking West Loop (I-610) in Houston from the top spot.
According to the study, for every mile of road in I-35′s stretch through Central Austin, drivers lose 1,647,353 hours to traffic delays. During peak traffic times, which is typically worst in afternoons, it takes nearly three times longer to travel on the highway than during free flowing traffic. And on the worst days, travel times increase fivefold, according to the study.
“There is a lot of variability day-to-day,” David Schrank, a senior research scientist with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, said of I-35. “Speeds are slow every day, but on some days, you are virtually stopped.”
All told, the gridlock costs the Texas economy roughly $288 million, according to the study.
Also in the top 20 most congested roads at No. 12 is I-35 again, this time its stretch from Texas 71 to Slaughter Lane in South Austin. There, drive times are roughly 77% longer during peak traffic times and take nearly three times as long during the highway’s worst days. Those delays cost the economy about $54.5 million, according to the study.
Rounding out the top 20 is the stretch of MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) from U.S. 183 to its southern intersection with Capital of Texas Highway (Loop 360).
Stretches of I-35 appear on the list’s top 100 most congested highways 12 times, including again at No. 34 for it’s stretch in Round Rock, at No. 45 for its stretch from Slaughter Lane to the Texas 45 toll road south and at No. 70 for its the length of highway from the Texas 45 toll road north to Parmer Lane.
The entire rankings can be seen on the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s website… (LINK TO STORY)
Cathy Harm introduced as H-E-B's top exec in Austin area (Austin Business Journal)
There's a new face leading the largest private-sector employer in the Austin area — sort of.
H-E-B LP announced Dec. 1 that Cathy Harm has taken over as regional vice president in Central Texas for the grocery chain. That puts her in charge of more than 20,000 employees, which H-E-B calls "partners." Its Central Texas region encompasses 55 stores — as far north as Lampasas, west to Marble Falls and Kingsland and down south to Wimberley and San Marcos — as well as plenty of stores in Austin and its suburbs.
In the five-county Austin metro, H-E-B at last count had more than 18,000 employees, a bigger workforce then Dell Technologies.
But Harm actually started the job in early 2020, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to H-E-B's announcement. She's had plenty to keep her busy, with a run on sanitary products and other items at H-E-B in the early days of the pandemic as well as overseeing workers suddenly thrust into newfound roles like ensuring customers wear masks.
“No one started this year anticipating being a frontline worker in a global pandemic,” Harm said in a statement. “But when a crisis hits, there is no organization better equipped than H-E-B to manage and lead through it. It has been my privilege to work alongside 20,000 talented H-E-B Partners in Central Texas as we creatively served our customers through these uncertain times. The people and the culture of the greater Austin community make this a special place to call home and I’m honored to represent H-E-B here. I’m equally honored to work beside our innovative, passionate and committed team of Partners as we wrap up 2020 and head into 2021.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Rezoning being considered to make way for tower at old Schlotzsky's on South Lamar (Austin Business Journal)
An Austin development firm could soon move closer to building an office tower at a site on South Lamar Boulevard home to a closed Schlotzsky's restaurant.
Generational Commercial Properties is seeking to rezone the 1.2-acre site at 218 S. Lamar Blvd. to a planned unit development so that it can exceed a 60-foot height limit and build a 96-foot office tower.
The project has been in the pipeline for several years now and has run into opposition from the Zilker Neighborhood Association. Reports first surfaced about Generational Commercial Properties' plans to redevelop the site in 2018.
Austin City Council is set to vote on the second and third readings for the rezoning request at its Dec. 3 meeting, which would be the final votes needed from Council. Council approved the first reading Sept. 17… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Key Texas House leader says Capitol occupancy may be limited in upcoming legislative session (Texas Tribune)
In the most detailed public glimpse yet at how the 2021 legislative session might play out during a pandemic, the chair of the committee that handles administrative operations in the Texas House told a group of lobbyists Tuesday that masks may be required in all public parts of the Texas Capitol and that a limit could be placed on the number of people allowed inside the building.
State Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, listed a number of details during a presentation to the Professional Advocacy Association of Texas, a lobbyist and government affairs group. He also said that the House was looking at remote voting options for the chamber’s 150 members, which would allow lawmakers to vote on bills from elsewhere inside the building if they decide to not be present on the floor.
Geren said people entering the Capitol during the session will likely be tested and that lawmakers might require visitors to schedule appointments before arriving. They can limit the risks, he said, but can’t expect to completely prevent COVID-19 cases.
“We’re going to plan for an outbreak in the Capitol,” he said. “I think we have to.”
The Senate, he said, is having its own chamber-specific conversations over what protocols should be in place. Spokespeople for Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Later Tuesday, Geren told The Texas Tribune that details he shared at the event are not set in stone — and emphasized that “there’s nothing in concrete yet, and there won’t be for a while.”
Geren is a member of a workgroup tapped by state Rep. Dade Phelan, the next likely House speaker, to make recommendations on legislative operations during the coronavirus pandemic. He said the ideas were being shared with a separate group Phelan recently created to solicit input on potential changes to the lower chamber’s rules.
“We won’t know until we adopt the rules,” Geren said, “and the rules are being talked about now.”… (LINK TO STORY)
White House report bolsters Houston leaders' calls for Abbott to act on COVID-19 (Houston Chronicle)
Daily reported new coronavirus cases in the Houston region topped 3,000 for the first time in the pandemic this week, narrowly topping some of the tallies reported during the mid-July spike, as local leaders again called for state action to slow the virus’ spread. And while Texas’ testing statistics sometimes have been unreliable, the rising trends are mirrored in the data reported by the hospital systems based in the Texas Medical Center and by the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council.
These trends come as a newly released report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force said Texas “must intensify” its mitigation efforts in the face of a “full resurgence” of the virus, such as reducing occupancy limits for indoor spaces and testing teachers, college students, hospital staff and others for COVID-19 weekly. Gov. Greg Abbott in May pre-empted mayors and county judges from implementing the stay-home orders that had been widely used in March and April, and repeatedly has said Texas will not return to lockdowns. Abbott’s office has said the governor instead is watching hospital metrics to inform the state’s response and has been working to “provide the resources needed to address these spikes and keep Texans safe, including beginning distribution of the Eli Lilly drug to treat cases of COVID-19 in the hardest hit communities and aid in reducing hospitalizations,” spokeswoman Renae Eze said this week… (LINK TO STORY)
Hewlett Packard Enterprise moving headquarters from Silicon Valley (SF Gate)
One of the Bay Area’s oldest tech companies is moving its headquarters out of Silicon Valley.
Houston will be home to the new headquarters of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. A company press release said Houston is an attractive market to recruit and retain future diverse talent and is where the company is currently constructing a state-of-the-art campus.
The company will keep the current campus in San Jose and will consolidate a number of sites in the Bay Area to this location.
“The global pandemic has forced businesses to rethink everything from remote work and collaboration to business continuity and data insight,” President and CEO Antonio Neri said in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings release.
No layoffs are associated with this move. There are almost 5,992 employees in the Bay Area, according to LinkedIn.
As more companies shift to permanent remote work, Bay Area companies are reconsidering large office footprints. In August, Pinterest paid $89.5 million to terminate a San Francisco office lease. Dropbox announced in October that it will switch to a permanent remote work option and will keep “Dropbox Studios” in the cities where it currently has offices, including San Francisco, Seattle, Dublin and Austin, Texas… (LINK TO STORY)
Coronavirus is ablaze in West Texas as tourists flock to Big Bend and Marfa. Hospitals are running out of overflow options. (Texas Tribune)
For Andrew Rubalcaba’s 39th birthday, he wanted to get out of town — but he also wanted to be safe.
So before Thanksgiving, he drove more than 500 miles west from his home in McKinney to visit Marfa and Big Bend National Park.
The popular Texas tourist destinations were appealing in the midst of a still-raging pandemic because they are seemingly in the middle of nowhere. They’re rural, sparsely populated, outdoorsy and now — overrun with visitors and saturated with COVID-19 cases.
“If only we knew the locals were saying don’t come, definitely we would not have gone. We would not have gone out of respect for the local population,” Rubalcaba said.
Presidio and Brewster counties, home to Marfa and Big Bend, along with nearby Culberson County, lead the state in cases per 1,000 residents in the last two weeks, according to a Texas Tribune analysis. In fact, all of West Texas, including Jeff Davis, Hudspeth and El Paso counties, is ablaze with increasing COVID-19 cases and low on hospital beds… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Barr breaks with Trump on claims of fraud (The HIll)
Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday said there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, undercutting President Trump's repeated baseless claims to the contrary.
"To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election," Barr told The Associated Press in an interview.
Barr's comments are his first about the integrity of the election since it took place one month ago, and they mark the latest rebuke of Trump's efforts to undermine the results. The attorney general is the highest-ranking administration official and Republican to date to contradict Trump's claims about the election.
Barr told the AP, a wire service whose stories run in newspapers across the country, that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been following up on specific complaints following the election but have yet to discover anything on a scale that would overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory.
Trump has for weeks made the false claim that the election was stolen from him, arguing almost daily that there are enough fraudulent votes in major cities in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia that would change the outcome. But his legal team has yet to provide any such evidence in court, with several lawsuits being dismissed for lack of standing.
Barr on Tuesday appeared to knock down one theory propagated by attorney Sidney Powell, who recently worked alongside Trump's legal team, that Dominion Voting Systems machines were used to change votes and were backed by communist money.
"There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results," Barr said. "And the DHS [Department of Homeland Security] and DOJ [Department of Justice] have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that."… (LINK TO STORY)
CDC to cut guidance on quarantine period for coronavirus exposure (AXIOS)
The CDC will soon shorten its guidance for quarantine periods following exposure to COVID-19, AP reported Tuesday and Axios can confirm.
Why it matters: Quarantine helps prevent the spread of the coronavirus, which can occur before a person knows they're sick or if they're infected without feeling any symptoms. The current recommended period to stay home if exposed to the virus is 14 days. The CDC plans to amend this to 10 days or seven with a negative test, an official told Axios.
The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment… (LINK TO STORY)