BG Reads | News You Need to Know (June 18, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* COVID-19 City of Austin’s Mask Order
Issued Wednesday, the order states commercial entities in the city that provide goods and services directly to the public must come up with a health and safety policy that — at the minimum — requires employees and visitors to wear face coverings. Businesses have to start implementing the policy, which must be posted somewhere employees and customers can see it, by Tuesday.
*NEW* BG PODCAST Episode 93: Processing with Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette, President/CEO at Huston-Tillotson University (SHOW LINK)
Today's podcast features returning guest Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette, Ed.D., President and CEO of Huston-Tillotson University (HT), a private historically black university located in Austin’s East Side.
She and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss the state of world in HT’s corner including the May, including the June 7th Black Lives Matter protest sparked by the murder of George Floyd, adapting to COVID-19, and ways organizations can support the university.
Note: Show also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
[AUSTIN METRO]
With Abbott's Green Light, Austin To Require Businesses To Enforce Mask Rules (KUT)
While the governor has said Texans can’t face penalties for not wearing face coverings, cities and counties can apparently mandate that businesses require their customers to wear masks.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler issued an order Wednesday that requires businesses to start doing so by next week.
“Wearing masks is important — to our health and to opening up the economy,” he said in a statement. “Austin businesses are great and many of them, if not most, have already done this.”... (LINK TO STORY)
Cronk to eliminate 100 Austin police positions, delay cadet class (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk plans to eliminate nearly 100 sworn positions from the city’s Police Department and delay a police cadet class that was scheduled to start in July as part of a list of changes aimed at addressing concerns about the department’s treatment of minorities.
Cronk made the announcement Wednesday in a three-page memo that outlined his response to calls from City Council members to reimagine the Police Department.
The memo says Cronk will propose a budget for next year that shifts several functions that have traditionally been handled by the Police Department to other departments. The services include the forensics lab, 911 dispatch, victims services and the training academy. This year, the Police Department received more than $440 million of the city’s $4.2 billion budget. Next year’s budget likely will be approved in August.
“This reimagining can only be achieved if we have candid input from our community, a commitment from our public safety employees, and the support of our City Council,” Cronk wrote.
The Greater Austin Crime Commission, a nonprofit group that supports local law enforcement agencies, issued a statement questioning the elimination of the sworn positions, citing studies that contend the department is already understaffed.
“Policing reforms are possible without jeopardizing the safety of our neighborhoods,” the group said. “These decisions should be made with community input and understanding the consequences. You can’t solve a public safety crisis by creating another.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin mayor, all 10 City Council members pledge to reject campaign (Community Impact)
As of the most recent campaign finance filing date May 28, the Austin Police Association PAC had $145,605 on hand. On June 17, Austin’s mayor and 10 sitting City Council members pledged to accept none of it.
The city’s 11 elected leaders each signed the “No Cash from Cops” pledge, a national effort from the Color of Change PAC that seeks commitments from those seeking elected office to reject campaign contributions from police unions. As of June 17, Austin’s mayor and City Council were the first full local dais in the country to make the commitment.
The move comes as community conversations heat up around reform of policing in Austin and across the country following the weeks of protests resulting from the death of George Floyd, who died May 25 at the hands of Minneapolis police. In Austin, those protests included calls for justice for Michael Ramos, an unarmed black man shot three times and killed by Austin police on April 24. The demonstrations in Austin grew violent at times, with police critically injuring some protesters and drawing heightened scrutiny of some of their aggressive tactics.
Only five Austin City Council members are actually up for re-election in 2020; however, the pledge does not indicate an expiration date on the commitment… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Eckhardt leads in poll but trails in fundraising (Austin Monitor)
According to a poll released by the Sarah Eckhardt campaign, the former Travis County judge has a wide lead in the race for Senate District 14 over both of her closest rivals, state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez and former City Council Member Don Zimmerman.
The poll, which was conducted by Myers Research on June 2-4, found that among all voters Eckhardt has 42 percent of the vote, compared to 23 percent for Zimmerman and 22 percent for Rodriguez. Thirteen percent said they were undecided. Among voters who were certain that they would cast ballots in the election, 45 percent said they would vote for Eckhardt. In that group, Rodriguez and Zimmerman were tied at 23 percent each, with 10 percent undecided.
Nick Meier, Rodriguez’s campaign manager, said the campaign has better numbers but was not willing to share them. He also pointed out that the poll was taken before Rodriguez started running his TV ads. He likened the announcement from the Eckhardt campaign to “taking the score at halftime” and criticized the Eckhardt campaign for not putting the other candidates in the mix.
While Eckhardt appears to be ahead in the polls, Rodriguez is way ahead of everyone else on the ballot in the money race. According to his June 15 filing with the Texas Ethics Commission, Rodriguez raised $410,000 and spent $282,000, and still has $222,000 cash on hand. Eckhardt raised less than half of that: She reported raising $142,000 and spending $71,000, leaving $92,000 cash on hand… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas cities took quick actions after George Floyd's death. Advocates doubt they'll have a big impact. (Texas Tribune)
Last Thursday, the Austin City Council banned chokehold maneuvers in response to nationwide protests against police brutality spurred by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis after a white officer used his knee to pin Floyd’s neck to the ground and cut off his breathing.
But just a day later, an Austin police officer was captured on video kneeling on a teenage protester’s neck — strikingly reminiscent of the restraint used on Floyd. Austin police said the video is being reviewed “to determine whether it was lawful and within policy.”
Seeing the use of force in action so soon after officers promised to abandon the hold reinforced police reform advocates’ worries that recent commitments from local officials will fall short in practice.
“We’ve seen departments adopt a lot of different use-of-force guidelines, limitations in the last five or six years,” said Chris Harris, the criminal justice project director for Texas Appleseed, mentioning the large-scale implementation of body cameras. “Yet it seems very difficult to say that those have resulted in the type of changes that people envisioned upon their adoption.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Racism is a public health crisis, Dallas County commissioners declare (Dallas Morning News)
Dallas County joined a growing number of local and state governments this week declaring racism a public health emergency. The five-member body unanimously approved a resolution sponsored by Commissioner John Wiley Price, a Democrat who has long represented southern Dallas County. Price, known for decades as a provocateur, said Tuesday the swift passage of the resolution -- which demands the county adopt policies that will measurably improve the lives of black and brown residents -- is a measurable shift. Dallas County, one of the nation’s 10 largest, is likely the largest local government to adopt such a resolution so far.
“I’m watching this county progress,” he said recounting how it once took him more than a year in the 1980s to pass a resolution that demanded the county divest from South Africa, a movement in response to the country’s apartheid system. “I’m glad we don’t wait around in the Civil Rights movement waiting for consensus from other individuals. Someone has to take the initiative to continue to forge what is right.” “It takes leadership and policy to make sure we change the paradigm,” he said. Price’s resolution highlights stubborn and stark disparities between the county’s white, black and brown communities. According to the U.S. Census, the resolution says, Dallas County’s black residents are more likely to be unemployed, live in poverty and live in neighborhoods with low performing schools… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Hidalgo mulls new mask order after Abbott gives blessing to mandate on businesses, not individuals (Houston Chronicle)
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is deciding whether to issue a new mandatory face covering order after Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday gave his blessing to a similar rule in Bexar County. Abbott effectively gutted Hidalgo’s original mask order issued in late April, which required residents to cover their faces in public to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, when his own executive orders for reopening Texas barred cities and counties from enforcing such rules with any penalties. The governor stunned many political observers Wednesday when he said in a television interview that a mask order punishable by fines up to $1,000, proposed by Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, was permissable. The difference, Abbott explained to KWTX in Waco, was that Wolff’s order only applies to businesses.
Government cannot require individuals to wear masks,” Abbott said. “However, pursuant to my plan, local governments can require stores and business to require masks.” Abbott said local leaders always had the power to issue such an order, and said Wolff had “finally figured that out.” Hidalgo on Wedn Abbott and local leaders face intense pressure to halt a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations since Memorial Day. The Houston region set a new hospitalization record for the sixth straight day on Thursday, with 1,458 admitted with the virus. The Texas Medical Center warned that if the rate of new COVID patients increase, the system could exceed ICU capacity in two weeks. Abbott said at a news conference Friday that he was concerned but not alarmed about the surge, noting the state still has ample hospital capacity. The mayors of the largest Texas cities, including Sylvester Turner in Houston, wrote a letter to Abbott on Tuesday urging the governor to order residents to wear masks, or allow local leaders to do it themselves… (LINK TO STORY)
Gov. Greg Abbott won’t fight Bexar County move to require masks in San Antonio area businesses (San Antonio Express-News)
Risking a confrontation with Gov. Greg Abbott, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff on Wednesday mandated that businesses must require customers and employees to wear masks after the governor once again refused to allow local officials to make masks mandatory for all residents. In a surprising twist, however, Abbott didn’t object to Wolff’s order, telling Waco news station KWTX that he has allowed counties to impose these restrictions on businesses all along. Wolff just “finally figured that out,” Abbott said.
The Bexar County leader’s actions and Abbott’s blessing opened the door for other Texas counties to do the same. County judges in Austin, Dallas and Houston are now weighing whether to follow Wolff’s lead. Wolff’s order came the day after Bexar County saw a record number of new cases of the novel coronavirus and of people admitted to San Antonio hospitals with the deadly virus. Abbott prohibited cities and counties weeks ago from requiring residents to wear face coverings and imposing jail time for those who don’t wear masks. And he has repeatedly brushed off pleas from local officials to allow them to do so. “The action that I’m taking today may be pushing the legal bounds a little bit,” Wolff said before Abbott made his comments. “But our attorneys believe we can defend this order in court.” In rejecting requests from cities and counties to re-impose a mask restriction, the governor never once mentioned the option implemented by Wolff on Wednesday… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Businesses turn to COVID-19 waivers in absence of liability shield (The Hill)
Businesses and schools are increasingly turning to coronavirus waivers to guard against potential lawsuits in the absence of a federal liability shield.
The use of waivers garnered national attention last week when the Trump campaign told attendees for an upcoming rally in Tulsa, Okla., that they must agree not to sue the campaign or venue if they contract coronavirus. Since then, the Ohio State University football program has asked players to sign an acknowledgment of risk waiver regarding COVID-19.
Proponents of a liability shield argue that the proliferation of waivers shows there’s demand for a federal standard, while opponents say employers and academic institutions shouldn’t be given the green light to be negligent when it comes to protecting workers and students.
The waivers, however, are seen as a poor substitute for blanket immunity.
“The immunity legislation is like a sledgehammer where the waivers are like a scalpel. The waivers only apply to people who sign them, not to family members who catch it from someone who signed it, for example,” said John Witt, a professor at Yale Law School…(LINK TO FULL STORY)
School systems struggle with the politics of reopening (POLITICO)
School superintendents and principals are staring at an impossible equation.
Governors are promising to put kids back in classrooms in a matter of weeks, but it’s mostly school officials stuck navigating the messy details of how to keep students and teachers safe and win over skeptical parents, while dealing with a budget crisis that is forcing layoffs and other cuts.
n California, six major school districts warned state lawmakers that proposed budget cuts could delay the fall semester. And in New Jersey, superintendents are trashing the state’s “inappropriate” guidance for in-person summer programs. The head of the Massachusetts Teachers Association said the governor’s plan to require children to bring their own masks will punish low-income students and communities of color… (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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