BG Reads | News You Need to Know (November 19, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
***NEW*** BG Podcast Episode 114: Discussing Austin's Code Department with Director José Roig
On today’s episode we speak with José Roig, Director of Austin’s Code Department.
José and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss his background leading to the directorship; the mission and role of the Austin Code Department; COVID-19's impact operations; and his priorities going into 2021.
Joining the City of Austin in 2007, José was most recently Interim Director of the department. His position was made on permanent Friday, November, 13th (Read the City’s press release here).
Pre-filed bills for the 87th Texas Legislature:
[AUSTIN METRO]
City overlooks police overtime dollars (Austin Monitor)
When City Council cut $21.5 million from the Austin Police Department budget in August, it also provided $3.174 million that could be used for overtime as the department adjusted to its budgetary constraints. The dollars were intended to buy time as Council considered future steps to reimagine public safety, but the city has not taken advantage of the money while Police Chief Brian Manley has created an adaptation plan that does not account for the added overtime potential.
According to Assistant City Manager Rey Arellano, the reason is that there has been some confusion at the city manager’s office regarding Council’s intent for the earmarked funds. Meanwhile, Arellano said City Manager Spencer Cronk has been exploring “how best to formalize the accessibility” of the funds.
At Council’s Public Safety Committee meeting on Monday, Mayor Steve Adler said the police department could possibly have made better use of time and money if it had drawn down the available overtime funds. Without acknowledging the funds, Manley has proposed a plan to work within the department’s budget by bringing officers from other units into patrol positions.
“I have the work that you did in August where you laid out in pretty significant detail what it was that you needed to do based on the assumptions that we were making at the time,” Adler told Manley. “What I have not seen is that same analysis that would have been done in August if it had been pointed out to you that the Council specifically earmarked an additional ($3 million) … for overtime.”
Manley has proposed moving 95 officers into patrol positions from other roles like DWI enforcement or district representatives. The department plans to make the transfers by Jan. 17, but the proposal has not yet been approved by the city manager’s office. Adler agreed to take an opportunity at an upcoming work session to clarify the intent for the $3.2 million in case it may impact the department’s response to a reduced budget… (LINK TO STORY)
City faces challenge in managing software licenses (Austin Monitor)
The city does not have complete information on what software licenses it has or how much those licenses are costing, according to a report from the city auditor’s office. Auditors reported Wednesday that the city spent $7.4 million in Fiscal Year 2020 on three main types of office licenses, but as they told the City Council Audit & Finance Committee, it appears that the city spent about $500,000 on licenses for users who never used the software.
Kelsey Thompson, who was in charge of the audit, described difficulties the city has in analyzing license usage and expenditures. Much of the problem seems to relate back to the fact that there is no centralized inventory of software licenses or costs, she said.
Although Communications and Technology Management is the primary technology department, other departments manage their own software licenses and CTM is sometimes left in the dark about those software purchases.
The city is clearly not following leading practices for managing software licenses prescribed by the Government Accountability Office, the report noted.
“There does not appear to be a standard way to capture software license costs across the city,” the report states. “The city has budget line items related to software. However, these budget line items may pick up transactions or vendors that are not related to software licenses. CTM staff reported that it would be very difficult to estimate how much they spent on software licenses because there are several parts of the software license costs.”
In addition to paying for initial rights to use software, the city must also pay to maintain the software.
“Without information on what software licenses the city has and how much they cost, the city cannot effectively identify ways to save money and maintain software license compliance,” the audit notes. In addition, they found that the city does not have a way to evaluate which employees may be using non-licensed software. Such software may put the city’s data at risk… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin FC unveils debut jersey with Yeti as main sponsor (Austin Business Journal)
Austin FC on Nov. 18 reveled their primary kit design, which it will debut next year during their inaugural season in Major League Soccer. The jersey features the club’s black and green color scheme in wide vertical stripes.
Austin FC owner Anthony Precourt and President Andy Loughnane, along with key Adidas designers and Austin supporters, participated in the design and creative process. MLS Vice President Licensing Mike Walker spearheaded the league’s involvement. The club did not work with an outside marketing or creative agency on the kit.
Austin-based outdoor brand Yeti Coolers is the team’s primary kit sponsor, while Austin-based Netspend will have branding on the right sleeve. A secondary kit will also be introduced at a later date prior to the ’21 season.
Loughnane told Sports Business Daily, “As Austin’s major league team, we believe this jersey has the chance to become the uniform of Austin. We designed this with the intent of it being fashionable. We also designed this with the intent of this becoming part of Austin culture.”... (LINK TO STORY)
Austin Marathon rescheduled, 3M Half Marathon canceled (Austin American-Statesman)
Next year’s Austin Marathon event has been moved from February to April due to concerns about spreading COVID-19 and will not include the marathon among its three race distances. The popular 3M Half Marathon also has been canceled.
The scheduling changes were announced Wednesday by High Five Events, the producer for both races. The company said it made the decisions after consulting with the city of Austin and Austin Public Health officials.
The Austin Marathon was scheduled for Feb. 14. It now will be April 25 and will include three distances — half marathon, 5K and 1 mile. The 26.2 mile marathon has been scrapped, presumably over concerns that warm spring temperatures will be a health risk.
The canceled 3M Half Marathon had been scheduled for Jan. 17.
“While this is disappointing news, we feel very confident in the April 25 date (for the Austin Marathon) based on our coordination with Austin Public Health,” High Five Events said. “The health, safety and well-being of our team, participants and volunteers will always be our first priority.”
Anyone registered for the 3M Half Marathon can transfer their registration to the Austin Half Marathon or defer to a following year for the 3M Half Marathon in 2022, 2023 or 2024.
The announcements follow an uptick in positive infections, a trend that local public health officials are concerned could accelerate with large gatherings for Thanksgiving and Christmas. On Tuesday, Travis County reached the highest number of active COVID-19 cases in a day since early August and the highest seven-day average of new hospitalizations since mid-August.
The last major running event in Austin was the Austin Marathon on Feb. 16, about a month before the coronavirus settled into the area and put an end to large gatherings. Canceled races included the Cap10k in April, Zilker Relays in September, Run for the Water in November and the Turkey Trot, which was scheduled for Thanksgiving morning… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price tests positive for coronavirus (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy has tested positive for COVID-19. Price, 71, said Wednesday morning she would quarantine after her husband, Tom, was diagnosed earlier this week with the novel coronavirus. Shortly after 3 p.m. Price’s Twitter accounted issued a statement that she too had tested positive. The couple has mild symptoms, according to a statement.
“As we head into the holiday season, we continue to ask everyone to remain vigilant and prioritize the health and safety of our community by wearing a mask and social distancing,” she said. Both are in good spirits, according to the statement. Price did not attend Tuesday’s City Council meetings and instead appeared by video. A city spokeswoman said no city employees would have to quarantine.
Price’s diagnosis comes as Tarrant and Dallas counties have been reporting records for daily new cases and COVID hospitalizations have soared to a level unseen since late July. Tarrant County reported more than 2,100 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, breaking the previous single-day record by nearly 600. There have been 85,759 COVID cases and 811 deaths in Tarrant County since March.
A total of 63,223 people have recovered from the virus. As of Tuesday, COVID-19 hospitalizations in the 19-county North Texas Trauma Service Area are at 14.39% of capacity, according to Vinny Taneja, the county’s public health director. If the number tops 15% for seven consecutive days, businesses would have to go back to 50% capacity and bars would have to close… (LINK TO STORY)
Gov. Abbott is sending state police to help combat violent crime in Dallas. A similar effort last year proved controversial. (Texas Tribune)
Gov. Greg Abbott is again sending Texas state police into Dallas as the city experiences a spike in shootings. The governor’s deployment, announced Wednesday, carries echoes of a controversial Texas Department of Public Safety operation in the city last year that some community members said led to over-policing and racial profiling.
Last weekend was Dallas’ deadliest of the year, with seven fatal shootings, according to The Dallas Morning News, bringing the total homicide count for the year to 220. The Morning News reported that the total surpassed last year’s 210 homicides, but still fell far below the record high of 500 in 1991. According to the Morning News, Dallas police said the fatal shooting last week of a Dallas-area rapper appeared to be “loosely” related to the recent surge in violence.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said the swell of violent crime required an “all-hands-on-deck response.”
On Wednesday, Abbott stepped in. In a statement, he said that at the request of city police, he was sending DPS special agents, troopers, intelligence analysts and Texas Rangers to “reduce violent crime and protect the communities in the city of Dallas.” Johnson said he was grateful for the governor’s assistance.
“The rise in violent crime in the city of Dallas is unacceptable, and the Texas Department of Public Safety will assist the Dallas Police Department in their efforts to protect the community and reduce this surge in crime,” Abbott said.
The governor’s statement said agents and troopers would help gang and drug investigations, the Rangers would help investigate homicides, and the state police would also provide two helicopters and two patrol planes. A spokesperson for Abbott did not respond to further questions or specify how many DPS law enforcement officers would be deployed… (LINK TO STORY)
Trump didn’t win the Latino vote in Texas. He won the Tejano vote. (Politico)
Of all the results from the November 3 election, few drew as much attention from national political observers as what happened in a quiet county on the banks of the Rio Grande River. Donald Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to win Zapata County’s vote in a hundred years. But it wasn’t its turn from a deep-blue history that seemed to be the source of such fascination but rather that, according to the census, more than 94 percent of Zapata’s population is Hispanic or Latino. Zapata (population less than 15,000) was the only county in South Texas that flipped red, but it was by no means an anomaly: To the north, in more than 95-percent Hispanic Webb County, Republicans doubled their turnout. To the south, Starr County, which is more than 96-percent Hispanic, experienced the single biggest tilt right of any place in the country; Republicans gained by 55 percentage points compared with 2016. The results across a region that most politicos ignored in their preelection forecasts ended up helping to dash any hopes Democrats had of taking Texas.
To many outsiders, these results were confounding: How could Trump, one of the most virulently anti-immigrant leaders, make inroads with so many Latinos, and along the Mexican border no less? In Zapata, however, these questions have been met with mild chuckles to outright frustration. The shift, residents and scholars of the region say, shouldn’t be surprising if, instead of thinking in terms of ethnic identity, you consider the economic and cultural issues that are specific to the people who live there. Although the vast majority of people in these counties mark “Hispanic or Latino” on paper, very few long-term residents have ever used the word “Latino” to describe themselves. Ascribing Trump’s success in South Texas to his campaign winning more of “the Latino vote” makes the same mistake as the Democrats did in this election: Treating Latinos as a monolith.
Ross Barrera, a retired U.S. Army colonel and chair of the Starr County Republican Party, put it this way: “It’s the national media that uses ‘Latino.’ It bundles us up with Florida, Doral, Miami. But those places are different than South Texas, and South Texas is different than Los Angeles. Here, people don’t say we’re Mexican American. We say we’re Tejanos.” Though not everyone in the Rio Grande Valley self-identifies as Tejano, the descriptor captures a distinct Latino community—culturally and politically—cultivated over centuries of both Mexican and Texan influences and geographic isolation. Nearly everyone speaks Spanish, but many regard themselves as red-blooded Americans above anything else. And exceedingly few identify as people of color. (Even while 94 percent of Zapata residents count their ethnicity as Hispanic/Latino on the census, 98 percent of the population marks their race as white.) Their Hispanicness is almost beside the point to their daily lives… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Trump seeks to settle scores in final days (The Hill)
President Trump is settling scores and taking steps to cement his agenda in his final 60-plus days in the White House, even as he refuses to concede an electoral loss to Democrat Joe Biden and his legal team flails at the results in nearly a half-dozen states.
Trump fired the administration's top cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs on Tuesday evening, the latest example of Trump settling a score. He expressed displeasure that Krebs issued a statement that the 2020 election had been the most secure in history, a message that undercut Trump’s unsubstantiated claims about voting machine vulnerabilities and a “rigged” election.
The removal of Krebs followed the firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper and raises the prospect that Trump will remove more officials, such as CIA Director Gina Haspel and FBI Director Christopher Wray, while at the same time signaling that anything regarded as disloyalty to Trump will result in punishment… (LINK TO STORY)
Biden Day 1 challenges: Cities getting desperate (AXIOS)
Dire budget problems in cities from coast to coast mean that furloughs and layoffs of essential workers could ring in the new year. So President-elect Joe Biden will face instant, high-stakes calls for relief.
Why it matters: Suffering municipalities say there's no way they can tackle COVID-19 and all their other problems without direct and immediate aid.
"If we don't see this relief package, it's going to be hard for us to keep the lights on" and continue responding to 911 calls, says Joe Buscaino, president of the National League of Cities and president pro tempore of the Los Angeles City Council.
City leaders — mostly Democrats, but not all — are ecstatic because they see the Biden administration as a friendly one that will keep their concerns front and center.
Many are elated by Biden's choice of Julie Chávez Rodriguez, a Biden deputy campaign manager who previously advised Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.
Biden's first elected office, in 1970, was on the New Castle County Council in Delaware. "He gets us, he understands us," Buscaino said. "The Trump administration really did not have a direct commitment to local elected officials."
Where it stands: Both the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities have put out priority lists for the incoming administration, which include perennial wanna-haves like building infrastructure and affordable housing, workforce training, and reducing gun violence… (LINK TO STORY)