BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 24, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW -> Episode 75 - Austin Real Estate Talk with Development Legend Perry Lorenz (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Council divide over land code could have collateral damage (Austin American-Statesman)
A marathon of meetings this month exposed a wide rift between two factions of the Austin City Council that some worry could spill onto other issues.
The contentious debate over the City Council’s ongoing effort to rewrite rules on what can be built and where in the city left several council members wondering if the city’s governing body was eroding its trust with the people it governs.
Some council members worry the divide over the land development code could infect unrelated issues, and that approval of a controversial zoning map and code would undermine their ability to sell a multibillion-dollar transit bond referendum to voters in November.
“We definitely need transit, but I don’t think these kind of efforts (the land development code overhaul) help,” Council Member Alison Alter said. “You know in any transit bond we would have to go to the voters and ask them to trust us. Anything we do to undermine that trust affects how they choose to respond.”
Capital Metro’s ambitious transit plan, Project Connect, had a powerful ally in state Sen. Kirk Watson, its No. 1 cheerleader who kicked off a support campaign for the initiative in September and has been very vocal about the need for transit in Austin. But with Watson’s impending retirement and departure from Austin, Mayor Steve Adler and 10 members of the City Council now will be the leading public faces of a transit bond.
The council generally is unified on the need for transit in Austin, but there are rifts on the size of the system and how it should be financed. Some projections place the price tag for building the entire system at more than $10 billion. Cap Metro estimates the Federal Transit Administration would pick up about 40% of the cost. But even if federal grants defray a substantial amount of the cost, voters realistically could see a $3 billion to $6 billion bond proposition in November.
“I’m a strong proponent of Project Connect, but I do worry about my constituents and the city as a whole,” Council Member Ann Kitchen said. “If some are upset enough, this may break trust with them, and they may not feel like actively or passively supporting (a transit bond). So I’m not concerned about support from anyone on council, I’m concerned about the public.”
Kitchen is one of four council members who have found themselves on the losing end of dozens of council votes related to the land development code rewrite.
Kitchen generally has been something of a swing vote on land development code issues, but she usually joins Council Members Leslie Pool, Kathie Tovo and Alter in opposing the seven other council members who are more receptive to relaxing building rules in Austin’s central neighborhoods to allow for larger, denser housing development. (LINK TO STORY)
City of Austin offers $10 million for Palm School (Austin American-Statesman)
The city of Austin offered $10 million Friday to buy the historic downtown Palm School from Travis County.
City Manager Spencer Cronk made the offer in a letter to Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt sent Friday afternoon. It is the first formal offer the city has made in an effort to acquire a property that in recent months has become entangled with the Austin Convention Center and the Travis County Exposition Center.
The Palm School property’s value previously was estimated at more than $50 million.
Eckhardt’s response to the offer Friday was less than enthusiastic.
“About a fifth of its market value even with restrictive covenants for Palm’s preservation and public operation in perpetuity,” Eckhardt told the American-Statesman. “But, it’s a response from the city, so that is some progress.”
If accepted, the school would be bought with hotel tax revenue dedicated to historic preservation, according to a copy of the letter provided by the city.
“The Palm School property represents an inspirational and essential piece of our shared community, and the public’s desire to find a future use of the property that both maintains public ownership and preserves its historic significance and cultural values has been made clear,” Cronk’s letter said.
The Palm School has become a bargaining chip in a conflict between the city and the county regarding hotel occupancy taxes. In November, Travis County voters approved a county hotel tax to fund renovations of the Travis County Expo Center, a county-operated facility on city-owned land… (LINK TO STORY)
Airport lounge contract ignites furor over city work to hire minority businesses (Austin Business Journal)
To passengers, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport's shared-use lounge will offer a place to relax with amenities typically offered by airline lounges.
But the contract to determine who runs it has sparked a furious debate over how the city contracts with small businesses, particularly those owned by women and minorities.
Austin City Council withdrew an item from its Feb. 20 agenda that would have negotiated and executed a concession agreement for the airport's shared-use lounge.
City staff posted an item that would have awarded the contract to MAG US Lounge Management LLC. But a losing bidder called Airport Lounge Development Corp. — as well as its partners, supporters and legal counsel — cried foul about the process.
Airport concessions are subject to the federal Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, which tries to create a level playing field for socially and economically disadvantaged firms that bid for airport contracts.
Airport Lounge Development said that 20% of its partnership is minority or women-owned, including local partner TES. With the MAG bid at 13% minority or women-owned, both cleared the roughly 11% hurdle that's been established by the city.
But ALD did not earn any extra points for minority-business participation when bids were scored by city staff — it's graded on a pass/fail basis. They argued it's unfair the 11% goal can be reached through direct ownership by minority businesses the same as using minority business as subcontractors.
"This is not about sour grapes, but valid concerns about the lack of transparency, a flawed methodology and inequity ... which led to an erroneous recommendation," said Ashton Cumberbatch, a McGinnis Lochridge attorney representing ALD and TES. "The process was built without a valid equity lens and scored without a valid equity lens."… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
A confident Bernie Sanders barnstorms Texas with burst of momentum (Austin Monitor)
A confident Bernie Sanders barnstormed Texas this weekend with just over a week until its delegate-rich Democratic presidential primary, reaping the momentum of an easy win Saturday in the Nevada caucuses and setting his sights on another major victory here.
"We have won the popular vote in Iowa, we won the New Hampshire primary, we won the Nevada caucus, and don’t tell anybody because these folks get very, very agitated and nervous — we’re gonna win here in Texas, and in November we’re gonna defeat Trump here in Texas," Sanders said Sunday afternoon in Houston.
The independent U.S. senator from Vermont made a similar declaration Saturday evening in San Antonio, where he took the stage shortly after networks projected him the Nevada winner. Announcing the victory, Sanders said his campaign has "just brought together a multigenerational, multiracial coalition, which is not only going to win in Nevada — it's going to sweep this country."… (LINK TO STORY)
Busking lawsuit strikes a chord with Houston city attorneys (Houston Chronicle)
Houston is fighting to keep an obscure, rarely enforced law to restrict where musicians can play for tips. Lawyers argued in a motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit Friday that the city is beholden to keeping its streets and sidewalks safe, and that striking down the decades-old ordinance limiting where buskers — musicians who play in public places — can set up shop is not in its best interest. The law became the target of a lawsuit in January when Houston musician Anthony Barilla contended it violates the First Amendment.
While busking — the performing of music in public places — is mostly unrestricted in cities, such as Seattle, New York City, lawyers argue Houston is not that kind of town. “Houstonians have a noted tendency to congregate in areas indoors, or even underground, to ‘avoid the heat of the summer, traffic, and inclement weather,’” the motion states. Another worry to Houston is that loosening the ordinance would condone “unregulated competitors, obstructions of access, or objectionable noise.” The ordinance, signed into law in 1991, requires tip-collecting musicians to obtain a permit that restricts them to the Theater District, an eight-block boundary that Barilla argued was far from lucrative because of the limited hours people walk the streets to go to shows. He panned the law as archaic and said sections of Main Street, along Westheimer Road in Montrose and the Heights were better suited for busking… (LINK TO STORY)
In a surprise to City Council members, Dallas city manager replaces economic development chief (Dallas Morning News)
Dallas will soon have another top city official with the name of Eric Johnson. City Manager T.C. Broadnax on Thursday told council members that Eric Anthony Johnson, community development director in Bloomington, Minn., will help direct the city’s housing strategies as the new chief of Economic Development and Neighborhood Services. He will start March 9. His last day of work in Bloomington will be Friday, he said.
“Dallas is a tremendous opportunity,” Johnson said. “I just think it’s a matter of connecting the dots and accelerating some of the work." The position oversees four city departments — Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization, the Office of Economic Development, Planning and Urban Design, and the Office of Historic Preservation. Michael Mendoza, who currently holds the position, will move to a newly created role as strategy and special initiatives officer under the city manager’s office, according to a council memo Broadnax sent Thursday. The memo didn’t include information about salaries or the hiring process. Broadnax and his chief of staff, Kim Tolbert, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Broadnax and Johnson were both political science majors at Washburn University in Kansas. They also worked together in Pompano Beach, Fla., Johnson said… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Trump's efforts to remove the disloyal heightens unease across his administration (New York Times)
In some of the most critical corners of the Trump administration, officials show up for work now never entirely sure who will be there by the end of the evening — themselves included. Even for an administration that has been a revolving door since Day 1, this has become a season of turmoil. At a moment when first-term presidents are typically seeking a stable team to focus on their reelection, President Donald Trump has embarked on a systematic attempt to sweep out officials perceived to be disloyal. The headquarters of the nation’s intelligence apparatus roiled with the ouster of acting director Joseph Maguire and his replacement by a sharp partisan amid a dispute over Russian election interference.
The Justice Department remained on edge with whispers of further resignations, including perhaps even that of Attorney General William Barr, after the president’s intervention in a case involving one of his friends. Witnesses from the impeachment inquiry into Trump have been summarily dismissed. Dozens of policy experts have been cleared out of the National Security Council staff as part of a restructuring that will mean fewer career professionals in range of the president. A deputy national security adviser dogged by innuendo about disloyalty was exiled to the Energy Department. A Trump appointee’s nomination for a top Treasury Department post was pulled. The No. 3 official at the Defense Department was shown the door. And Johnny McEntee, a 29-year-old loyalist just installed to take over the Office of Presidential Personnel, reporting directly to Trump, has ordered a freeze on all political appointments across the government. He also convened a meeting to instruct departments to search for people not devoted to the president so they can be removed, according to people briefed about the session, and informed colleagues that he planned to tell Cabinet secretaries that the White House would be choosing their deputies from now on… (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.
PLEASE RESHARE and FOLLOW:
Twitter #binghamgp
Instagram #binghamgp