BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 20, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW -> Episode 75 - Austin Real Estate Talk with Development Legend Perry Lorenz (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin ISD Superintendent Paul Cruz Announces Resignation (KUT)
Paul Cruz, superintendent of the Austin Independent School District, announced Wednesday he is resigning to take a position at UT Austin.
“Serving as superintendent of schools for six years alongside each and every one of you, in one of the best urban school districts in the nation, has been the most exciting, inspiring and rewarding experience for me,” he wrote in a letter posted Wednesday on the AISD website.
Starting this fall, Cruz will serve as co-director of the Cooperative Superintendency Program in the College of Education, according to a UT press release.
Cruz is under contract to serve as superintendent until December 2021. His letter does not indicate when he will leave the district. AISD’s Board of Trustees could force him to honor his contract, change it so he must finish out the school year or dismiss him immediately, among other options.
The board will decide whether to bring in an interim superintendent, if it decides to let Cruz leave before a permanent replacement is hired… (LINK TO STORY)
Activists push to protect Palm School, eyeing property’s role in proposed cultural district (Austin Monitor)
With Travis County moving ahead with action that could lead to development of the historic Palm School site downtown, local activists are hoping the city can find a way to preserve the property and make it a major part of a long-planned cultural and heritage district for the Mexican American community.
In December the city gave an update on the many steps involved in creating the district, which is seen as a way to strengthen and attract local businesses that could preserve the fast-disappearing Mexican American influence in the city’s core.
Direction on the proposed district was included as part of a larger Council action taken last spring. It would start at Fifth Street near Republic Square Park, continuing east to Interstate 35 or Plaza Saltillo, and extending south to Lady Bird Lake and the Rainey Street neighborhood… (LINK TO STORY)
As Contract Negotiations Drag, Cap Metro Bus Drivers Symbolically Protest (KUT)
Some Capital Metro bus drivers wore black makeup or a black sticker under their eyes Wednesday in a symbolic "Black Eye" protest of drawn-out labor negotiations between their union and a Cap Metro contractor.
Cap Metro awarded a $1.4 billion contract to MV Transportation in August to handle its bus operations and maintenance services. Before the contract, Cap Metro divided its operations between MV and another company, meaning drivers were paid different wages depending on which contractor they worked for.
MV and the union have been working since the fall on a new labor contract to cover all union members.
Brent Payne, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091, says the protracted negotiations are causing tension among employees who didn't previously work under MV. He says the union feels the transition wasn’t handled properly… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Joe Biden picks up endorsement from impeachment manager Sylvia Garcia of Houston (Dallas Morning News)
Houston Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a freshman lawmaker whose stint as an impeachment manager put her on the national stage for weeks, endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to include Garcia on the prosecution team was something of a surprise. She’s an attorney and former state senator but as a freshman she had a typically low profile before sharing the spotlight with the likes of Judiciary Chairman Adam Schiff and, on the defense side, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.
The Biden campaign’s announcement downplayed that role, referring to Garcia only as a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and she made no mention of the episode—and Biden’s uninvited central role in it. That makes six Texas Democrats in Congress who support Biden for president, out of 13. The list includes two other Hispanic caucus members, South Texans Reps. Filemon Vela and Vicente Gonzalez, and three members of the Congressional Black Caucus whose districts include Dallas: Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson, Colin Allred and Marc Veasey… (LINK TO STORY)
Houston backs controversial housing tax credits, despite protests over certain neighborhoods (Houston Chronicle)
City council passed resolutions Wednesday to support 20 affordable housing projects seeking tax credits from the state, but the City Hall stamp of approval did not come without sometimes spirited debate and disagreement. The city's endorsement of the projects is seen as vital for the projects to be considered at the state level, where they will compete for 9 percent tax credits that allow them to charge more affordable rents. Only about 10 of the projects ultimately will get the credits, housing department officials said.
The city used a new strategy this year to try to spread the developments in neighborhoods across the city, not just in the lower-income areas where such projects historically have been placed. As a result, there are two proposed buildings in the Heights, and one on Post Oak Boulevard inside the Loop — more affluent neighborhoods where such developments have been rarer and often contentious. Some council members took issue with the new strategy, saying the focus on equitably spreading the projects across different council districts failed to account for the needs of specific neighborhoods… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Kickstarter workers vote to form first union in tech industry (NBC News)
Employees at crowdfunding platform Kickstarter voted Tuesday to form a union, the first of its kind in the technology industry, after an 18-month battle with the company’s management.
Kickstarter United will now be formally recognized by the management after a vote held by the National Labor Relations Board, in which workers voted 36 to 47 in favor of unionizing. It is the first union comprised of white-collar, full-time employees in the technology industry.
“What Kickstarter employees are organizing a union for is the agency to challenge management when management is failing the community,” said Clarissa Redwine, one of two union organizers who say they were fired by the company in September. “Workers want to be able to participate in critical product decisions without retaliation, to change how the company handles sexual harassment, how it addresses gender discrimination, and they want to take on future challenges with a healthy power structure.”
The vote comes after a year and a half of internal organizing during which at least two lead union members, Redwine and Taylor Moore, were fired and at least two other workers who helped organize the union drive left after what they described as a tense and, at times, intimidating environment fostered by the management. One other union organizer was laid off and took severance pay, according to five current and former employees at Kickstarter. The company said it has never fired anyone for union activity… (LINK TO STORY)
How a court battle on felon voting rights in Florida could affect the 2020 election (Washington Post)
There’s a debate going on across the country about whether felons should be able to vote after they’ve served their time. The answer coming out of state capitals is increasingly: Yes. But what happens when states put up roadblocks to curb that, as Florida recently did? A federal appeals court in Florida said Wednesday that Florida’s law requiring felons to settle fines before they can get reinstated to vote is unconstitutional, and the judges agreed to temporarily pause the law until there’s a final ruling on it. A spokeswoman for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he will immediately ask courts to reconsider the ruling. While the court battle isn’t over, Wednesday’s decision could have ramifications for the national debate over felon voting rights, as well as the voting pool for the 2020 presidential election in a key swing state.
For much of modern American history, a felony conviction has meant you give up your right to vote for life. Only two states — Maine and Vermont — allow felons to vote without any restrictions. But that has changed drastically in recent years as various criminal justice reform efforts have gained traction across the political spectrum. Today, about 39 states offer some kind of restoration of voting rights to felons, according to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures. A number of those changes have come recently, especially in Republican and some purple states. Until recently, Florida had one of the harsher laws in the nation, banning felons from ever voting again. Florida’s big change came by ballot initiative. In 2018, almost 65 percent of voters approved restoring rights for felons after they finished their sentences, despite opposition from Republican leaders. The decision could bring an estimated 1.4 million voters back into the voting pool, a massive number that advocates celebrated as one of the largest expansions of voting rights in U.S. history… (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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