BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 15, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
City Manager Spencer Cronk’s FY21 Proposed Budget Documents
Thursday, 10AM: Council will hold a Special Called meeting for a briefing on the proposed Tesla site. (AGENDA LINK)
BG Podcast Episode 100: Processing Austin with Virginia Cumberbatch, Co-Founder of Rosa Rebellion (SHOW LINK)
Note: Show also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
[AUSTIN METRO]
Delia Garza will be the next Travis County Attorney after Laurie Eiserloh’s concession (KUT)
Austin Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza will be the next Travis County Attorney after her runoff opponent, Laurie Eiserloh, conceded the race on election night.
With early voting totals in, Garza led Eiserloh by a margin of a little over 8,300 votes – 55% to 45% of early votes and mail-in ballots. By 1 a.m. Wednesday, unofficial county results put that lead at more than 16,000 votes. Eiserloh's concession came shortly after 11:30 p.m on Tuesday.
The race for the office, long-held by retiring County Attorney David Escamilla, has come to the fore as Austin reconsiders both its policing and criminal justice philosophies in the wake of a national uprising against police violence and racism. There is no Republican candidate, so Garza will take over the office Escamilla's held for the last 17 years.
The office prosecutes misdemeanor cases for the county, which account for the lion's share of jail bookings. Both candidates have pledged reform to the office in light of a national uprising against police violence and systemic racism. Over the past five years, the highest charge for two-thirds of people booked into the Travis County Jail was a misdemeanor, according to county records… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
See also, BG Podcast Episode 59: Land Development Code Draft 1 with Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza
District Attorney Margaret Moore concedes after José Garza's commanding early lead (KUT)
Incumbent District Attorney Margaret Moore has conceded after a commanding lead in early voting and mail-in votes in support of challenger José Garza.
The Democratic primary runoff for the office pitted the embattled incumbent against a self-described progressive who says he hopes to revamp criminal justice at the office.
With early voting numbers in, Garza was ahead of Moore by more than 30,000 votes. Unofficials results posted around 1 a.m. Wednesday put Garza in the lead with 68% of the vote – 81,584 to 37,874.
Shortly after the county released the early numbers, Moore released a statement thanking voters for allowing her to serve in the post for a single term and wishing Garza well.
"I'm very proud of the progress we have made thus far," the statement read. "Congratulations to my opponent for his victory tonight. I wish him well in the future."…(LINK TO STORY)
Sarah Eckhardt and Eddie Rodriguez poised for a runoff in special Texas Senate election to replace Kirk Watson (Texas Tribune)
Former Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt was leading the way Tuesday night in the special election to replace former state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, though it appeared she would still be heading to a runoff with state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez.
Eckhardt, who needed 50% of the vote to win the election outright, was hovering around that figure Tuesday night. Rodriguez, the other Democrat in the race, was running second with 34% of the vote, according to election returns.
There are still ballots left to count. Election day totals were still being counted, and mail-in ballots that were postmarked on election day will be part of the final tallies if county officials receive them by 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Eckhardt and Rodriguez were followed by Republican Don Zimmerman, a former Austin City Council member. Other candidates in the race were Waller Thomas Burns II, a Republican; former Lago Vista City Council member Pat Dixon, a Libertarian; and Austin physician Jeff Ridgeway, an independent… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin ISD will not hold in-person classes when school starts in August (KUT)
The Austin Independent School District will not offer in-person classes when school starts Aug. 18, the district announced Tuesday. All classes will be held virtually for the first three weeks of the school year.
“The health and safety of our students and staff are at the forefront of all of our decisions," Superintendent Paul Cruz said in a statement. "Even though the first day of school is August 18, we know that our teachers and staff need to report to school weeks before that date. Given our public health conditions in Travis County, Austin ISD will suspend in-person education and deliver virtual instruction for the first three weeks of the 2020-21 school year. We will continue to look to federal, state and local authorities for guidance and directives.”… (FULL STORY HERE)
Travis County approves 20-year incentives deal with Tesla for potential gigafactory (Community Impact)
Travis County approved an economic incentive agreement offering electric automaker Tesla millions in property tax rebates on a potential 4-5 million square-foot gigafactory in the Del Valle area along SH-130.
Travis County Commissioners Court voted at a July 14 meeting to enter a 20-year performance-based deal with Tesla, incentivizing the company to build its next factory in Texas over Oklahoma.
Based on the approved deal, Tesla would receive a 70% rebate for maintenance and operations property taxes on the first $1.1 billion it invests in Travis County. The company would receive a 75% rebate for taxes associated with the second “incremental billion,” and 80% once $2 billion of investment is exceeded, according to the deal.
The county vote came after several weeks of deliberation by the court in executive session, and after receiving diverse public comment on the decision. According to Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe, another wave of emailed community feedback came in following the county's release of update incentive structures for the Tesla deal last Friday, July 10.
“We did take those matters to heart, and as a result have made some changes,” Biscoe said ahead of the commissioners' vote… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Local officials to take over coronavirus testing from federal government in Dallas County, Jenkins says (Dallas Morning News)
Dallas County will end its agreement with the federal government this week and assume near-total control of publicly funded coronavirus testing in an effort to provide quicker results, County Judge Clay Jenkins announced Monday on Twitter. The shift comes after Commissioner John Wiley Price raised concerns Friday that results from the federally provided tests were taking too long — up to two weeks. Price also suggested the city and county had created an unequal system this month as a private company, Honu, was hired to perform testing at the University of Dallas.
The private lab is providing results in the northern half of the county in about two days, while the lab contracted by the federal government to run operations at the testing center at Ellis Davis Field House in the Red Bird area is taking nearly two weeks. Jenkins agreed with Price. “We have to do what’s right for the people of Dallas,” he said Monday. “I appreciate the career politicians in the federal government. But eight to 10 days is too long.” Jenkins said that federal testing at the Ellis Davis Field House would end Wednesday and that the city and county, working with Parkland Health & Hospital Systems, will work quickly to find another vendor to fulfill the testing. In the meantime, Parkland will administer up to 500 tests each day at Ellis Davis Field House. The new contract would be paid by local tax dollars, Jenkins said, though he hoped the federal government would reimburse some of the cost, as is typical during public disasters… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Three Texas House incumbents — Dan Flynn, Anna Eastman and J.D. Sheffield — lose in primary runoffs (Texas Tribune)
Two Texas House Republicans who have served in the lower chamber for years were ousted in Tuesday's primary runoff by their more hardline conservative challengers.
State Rep. Dan Flynn of Canton, who was running for a 10th term to the lower chamber, was defeated by businessman Bryan Slaton, who has run for the seat twice before. Slaton won by over 20 percentage points. State Rep. J.D. Sheffield of Gatesville, who has served in the House since 2013, lost to attorney Shelby Slawson by over 20 percentage points as well.
On the Democratic side, State Rep. Anna Eastman of Houston conceded to Penny Morales Shaw late Tuesday. Eastman was elected to the House in a special election in January. Another Democrat elected in a January special election, state Rep. Lorraine Birabil of Dallas, was trailing Jasmine Felicia Crockett by 92 votes, according to returns with the Secretary of State. Vote totals aren't final, as mail-in ballots that were postmarked on election day will be counted if county officials receive them by 5 p.m. Wednesday… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
ICE agrees to rescind policy barring foreign students from online study in the U.S. (NPR)
In a swift reversal, the Trump administration has agreed to rescind a directive that would have barred international college students from the U.S. if their colleges offered classes entirely online in the fall semester. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement rule change, released last week, would have prohibited foreign students from entering or remaining in the country to take fully online course loads. A number of colleges and universities had already announced plans to offer online-only classes because the coronavirus pandemic. The agency's July 6 announcement was met with immediate backlash.
Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sued the U.S. government in federal court two days later, calling the directive "arbitrary and capricious" and seeking to have it reversed and declared unlawful. Many colleges, universities, municipalities and tech companies expressed their support for the legal challenge in their own court filings. In Tuesday's session at the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the universities were expected to make arguments saying that this rule was onerous for schools and even dangerous for students. Instead, Judge Allison Burroughs announced that the schools had reached an agreement with ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security. She said the government will rescind this policy… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Reopen the Canada-U.S. border? Canadians say sorry, but no thanks (Politico)
U.S. lawmakers are applying pressure on Ottawa and Washington to ease restrictions on the Canada-U.S. border, but few Canadians want to welcome their American neighbors any time soon.
A growing chorus is agitating for Canada and the U.S. to loosen the rules around "essential" travelers, even as coronavirus cases skyrocket in the states and top government officials are poised to push the issue off for another month. The travel industry, border communities and members of Congress would like to see metrics that border officials could use to allow more travelers into each country while continuing to protect against the cross-border spread of Covid-19… (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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