BG Reads | News You Need to Know (September 1, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
*NEW* BG Blog: Bingham Group Announces Partnership With APC Collective (BLOG LINK)
*NEW* BG Podcast Episode 105: Building a Communications Firm with Audrey Ponzio, CEO & Founder, APC Collective (SHOW LINK)
Note: Shows also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Sound Cloud, and Stitcher
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin introduces 'Pay-By-Plate' system for street parking (KUT)
The way Austinites pay for street parking is changing Tuesday. The Austin Transportation Department is shifting to a "pay-by-plate" model that will manage parking sessions by price instead of time.
Drivers will no longer get stickers to put on their windshields through the parking kiosks. Rather, they'll type in their license plate numbers or use the PARK ATX app. Parking will still cost $2 an hour for the first two hours, but then rates will go up sharply.
“What we're trying to do is incentivize people to use the street system as minimally as possible," Jason Redfern, the city's parking enterprise manager, said. “Because on-street [parking is] really for that quick turnover parking session so people can come in, access a business ... and then return that parking space to the public just because the parking spaces are so scarce in Austin.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Capital Metro looks to start its own police department by 2022 (Community Impact)
Austin's population surpassed the 1 million mark this summer, according to estimations by the city demographer, and in the next 20 years projections from the Capital Area Council of Governments, a collection of local governments in the 10-county Central Texas region, show the population of Central Texas is expected to balloon from 2.4 million to 4.1 million residents.
Ever since Capital Metro's beginnings in the 1980s, the public transportation network has relied on off-duty Austin Police Department officers to handle security along the transit lines. That force started with four part-time officers in 1988. Now, approximately 160 off-duty officers work security for Capital Metro.
Population growth is not slowing down, and Capital Metro is eyeing a potential expansion of its network with light-rail lines and an underground rail station if voters approve Project Connect on Nov. 3. In that environment, continuing to bolster the ranks of part-time APD officers is not a permanent solution for public safety, according to Capital Metro Security Director Darryl Jamail.
Instead, Jamail said, the public transportation network needs its own police force. That force would include a chief who is able to hire a small number of sworn officers—those who are armed and able to make arrests—to handle the serious challenges that come with big city transportation. The force would also include a larger number of non-sworn, unarmed security officers who can respond to calls for issues that do not require armed police—fare evasion, for example, or a customer report of suspicious activity through Capital Metro's app. Off-duty APD officers respond to those calls now, but Capital Metro is looking at whether it can find a better option.
"Austin historically has doubled every 20 years. At this point, we need officers that are full-time employees, have institutional knowledge and can be here 40 hours a week," Jamail said… (LINK TO STORY)
Travis County considers adding more reviewers to improve development process, starting with Tesla project (Community Impact)
Travis County Development Services has proposed using third-party consultants to aid in development review, easing what staff called “bottlenecks” in the process. The county plans to work with a third-party reviewer during the development of Tesla’s future southeast Travis County "gigafactory,” using the experience to guide future projects.
Anna Bowlin, the Travis County division director of development services, told county commissioners at an Aug. 27 meeting that an influx of permit applications, especially for residential developments and traffic impact analyses, made third-party consultants a compelling option. Complicated regulations related to changing flood plains maps due to the Atlas 14 rainfall study of 2019 are also a factor in slowing down review, she said.
“We have a fixed amount of staff, and we don’t have control over the amount of applications that come in. Sometimes we do get backed up, so that’s one of the things that makes third-party review be something that we want to consider,” Bowlin said.
External reviewers could shorten the review process for developments in the county’s queue, Bowlin said, as well as bringing in new areas of expertise that would help streamline and innovate review.
Precinct 1 Commissioner Jeff Travillion, who sponsored the plan, said Travis County was dealing with “a capacity issue, plain and simple.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Fang Fang named next Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce chief (Austin Business Journal)
Fang Fang becomes president and CEO of the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 1, taking over at a critical time for an organization that represents a small but fast-growing segment of the population.
Fang (pronounced like it rhymes with "rung") has a diverse background in journalism and government. She was most recently a partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau, helping to ensure that the current census accurately counts the Austin-area Asian community.
Before that she was an entrepreneur, founding ZFF International LLC, a media company producing blogs and podcasts on culture, news, travel and more. She was also a co-founder of Austin e-commerce startup Big Plan Inc. and has worked at marketing and public relations consulting firm Edelman and government news service Voice of America, according to her LinkedIn page.
"I am honored to have the opportunity to lead GAACC in the best city to live and to start a business in the United States," Fang said in a statement. "I look forward to being a part of the effort to elevate GAACC, and serving our members, our diverse Asian community, and community at large."
Fang succeeds Marina Bhargava, who has been head of the Asian Chamber of Commerce since February 2013. Bhargava will remain with the organization until Dec. 31 to ensure a smooth transition… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas sues Harris County to stop it from sending all voters applications for mail-in ballots (Texas Tribune)
Acting at the request of the secretary of state, the Texas attorney general sued Harris County on Monday after it refused to drop plans to send applications for mail-in ballots for the November general election to more than 2 million registered voters.
Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking a state district court to bar Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins from proactively providing the applications to every registered voter in the county, alleging Hollins does not have the authority under state law to carry out the plan.
The lawsuit marks the latest development in a growing battle over voting by mail in Texas during the coronavirus pandemic. That fight had focused on which voters are eligible to cast an absentee ballot, but it has now expanded to include a disagreement between the state and its most populous county over who can even receive the application to request a mail-in ballot.
Until now, the local election officials, including county clerks, actually responsible for carrying out elections had mostly been spectators as Texas’ Republican leadership fought off efforts by state Democrats and civil rights groups to expand voting by mail during the pandemic. Monday’s action marks the most prominent intervention by the state in local election practices.
There is no state law that specifically prohibits election officials from sending out mail-in ballot applications to all voters. Instead, Paxton argues that county clerks are only “expressly empowered” by the Texas Election Code to send out applications to voters who request them, “but there is no statute empowering County Clerks to send applications to vote by mail to voters who have not requested such an application.”
“And Hollins’s plan to send vote-by-mail applications to every registered voter, regardless of whether the application was requested or whether the recipient is qualified to vote a mail ballot, is not an exercise of power that is necessarily implied to perform his duties,” Paxton wrote… (LINK TO STORY)
Surge in COVID-19 cases at Baylor University prompts ‘reside in place’ order (Houston Chronicle)
Students at Baylor University are required to “reside in place” after a spike in positive coronavirus cases in a campus dormitory. Baylor officials wrote in a letter to the community that the number of positive COVID-19 cases within Martin Hall increased from five to 21 cases within three days. All Martin Hall residents on the two affected floors — around 80 students of 250 students — were notified about the next steps and university officials asked students to not leave their respective floor for four days so that they could conduct daily rapid testing and assessment of symptoms and complete rapid testing, according to Baylor spokeswoman Lori Fogelman.
All positive cases have been isolated and are no longer in Martin Hall. Residents on other floors were asked to not visit any of the upper floors, especially those that were affected, and to contact Baylor Health Services to schedule COVID-19 testing. In the meantime, Baylor also hopes to “tailor its response” to the outbreak without requiring a full campus quarantine.
It launched its “weekly surveillance testing” Monday, which will conduct ongoing testing of 5 percent of the campus at random. Additionally, officials reminded its campus community to wear face coverings, maintain social distance, upkeep hygiene and hand sanitizing, and to monitor for any COVID-19 symptoms. The outbreak is just a fragment of the 645 positive cases at Baylor since the beginning of August, according to the university’s dashboard. The dashboard, updated daily at 3 p.m., showed that of those cases more than 450 are still active, and about 400 of those cases were produced in the last week… (LINK TO STORY)
‘An epic moment but not in a good way’: How COVID is causing pain at five of the nation’s largest nonprofits (Dallas Morning News)
Breast cancer nonprofit Susan G. Komen took extreme measures to survive the pandemic: laying off over 20% of its staff, cutting pay across the board, giving up its Dallas office and consolidating its nearly 60 entities into a single charity. “We’ve made more major decisions in the past 120 days than the previous 15 years,” said CEO Paula Schneider, whose agency brings in $90 million in annual revenue. “But we will be here at the other end.” Charities across North Texas and the U.S. say they are being squeezed by competing realities of COVID-19 — a dramatic drop in donations that’s forcing many to lay off or furlough large portions of their staff at a time when lifesaving services, such as free meals or support for immunocompromised populations like cancer patients, are most needed.
Billions in government aid have poured into keeping small businesses afloat, relegating nonprofits to an afterthought, said National Council of Nonprofits CEO Tim Delaney. The Dallas-based American Heart Association got left out of both CARES Act relief loan programs because of its size and because it receives a large amount of its revenue through donations. Others who secured a relief loan to keep their staff on payroll ended up laying off workers when the funds ran out.
The nonprofit sector is the third-largest workforce of any U.S. industry, employing 100,000 more workers than the nation’s manufacturers, according to the 2020 Nonprofit Employment Report from Johns Hopkins University. “Policymakers ignore us and don’t include us at the policy table,” Delaney said. “So we’re constantly grabbing our own chairs and pulling them up.” Texas is particularly vulnerable to strain on nonprofits, which account for 1 in 8 jobs in the state, according to a recent statewide survey from United Ways of Texas and OneStar Foundation. The state is home to some of the nation’s largest nonprofits, including Komen, the heart association and Irving-based Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Sixty-two percent of Texas nonprofits are in higher demand now, yet 70% of their budgets are being squeezed by the economic strain of the virus, according to the study. More than 80% have called off or plan to cancel revenue-generating events… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Zoom turns record profit thanks to Coronavirus shutdowns (NPR)
Zoom reported higher sales and profit in the three months from May through July than it did in all of 2019, as more people work and learn remotely during the coronavirus pandemic.
The videoconferencing company expects that trend to continue: It raised its sales forecast for the rest of the year by a third to $2.37 billion to $2.39 billion.
In the second quarter, sales more than quadrupled from a year ago to $663.5 million, well above the $500 million that Wall Street analysts were expecting. Profit ballooned to $185.7 million from just $5.5 million in the same quarter last year.
By comparison, in Zoom's last fiscal year, which ended in January, sales totaled $622.7 million and net profit was $21.7 million.
Zoom shares surged 25% in after-hours trading on Monday.
Zoom has emerged as one of the biggest corporate success stories of this year, as video meetings have become an essential part of work, school and entertainment for many people during the pandemic. The company has seen a big surge in use of its free service and has been pushing to convert many of those users to paying customers.
CEO Eric Yuan told analysts on Monday that corporate customers are shifting their focus to longer-term changes in how people communicate, describing "a future of working anywhere, learning anywhere and connecting anywhere."
The company said more customers are signing up for its paid video service, including oil company ExxonMobil and video game company Activision Blizzard.
Medium and large companies make up the bulk of Zoom's paying clients. The number of customers with more than 10 employees grew more than fivefold from a year ago to 370,200. The company has been growing in popularity with small businesses, however: 36% of revenue now comes from customers with 10 or fewer employees, up from 30% in the first quarter... (LINK TO STORY)
Covid-19 transforms lawmaking, lobbying in California’s Capital (Wall Street Journal)
Every August, lobbyists here typically zip between lawmakers’ offices or park themselves in the halls of the state Capitol, seeking to shape bills that pass in the closing days of the legislative session. But this year, the coronavirus pandemic has upended the California capital, with most staff and advocates working from home as access to the building has greatly diminished. The result is a striking shift in the way laws are made in the nation’s most populous state and world’s fifth-largest economy. With the legislature set to adjourn for the year on Monday, bill wish lists have been slashed by legislators and lobbyists to focus on the most urgent issues. Marathon negotiations on policy now happen by phone or video chat, and even fundraisers have gone virtual. Some lawmakers have participated in legislative sessions from home or district offices, including 10 of the state senate’s 11 Republicans after one of them tested positive for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, following a caucus meeting last week.
“I am twitchy about not being in that crowded, tense, hot hallway,” said Jennifer Fearing, a lobbyist who has steered clear of the statehouse since stay-at-home orders were issued in March. “I’m not convinced that being comfortably home in my PJs renders the same results.” Of more than 2,200 legislative proposals introduced at the beginning of the year, only about 600 remained by early August. That is about half the number the body typically considers during the final weeks of its session, according to veteran business lobbyist Chris Micheli. The work-from-home culture has netted Ms. Fearing, who represents nonprofits and environmental groups, a few cellphone numbers for legislators and staff. But she said those were no substitute for the intelligence she gleans from chance meetings with lawmakers, journalists and fellow lobbyists who provide tidbits about tensions between legislators, shifts in stakeholder positions or timing of a key vote.
“No one can overestimate just how important all of that information is to informing the choices that you make—to push here, pull back there, ask for this or stop asking for that,” Ms. Fearing said. In June, a bill she was pushing to change disclosure requirements for certain philanthropic giving came up a few votes short on the Assembly floor. Instead of hustling the hallways, she contacted legislators and their staff via phone or text message. Ultimately, the measure passed narrowly only to be held in committee weeks later because it wasn’t deemed urgent Covid-related business. “It’s possible that nothing we care about will get done,” Ms. Fearing said. “It’s not a recipe I feel good about for having long-term impact.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Colleges vs. parties (AXIOS)
College reopening plans are crumbling across the country — even as administrators take drastic steps to make the fall work. The big picture: The close to 2,000 campuses trying to reopen this fall are finding that it's nearly impossible to prevent outbreaks when you bring together thousands of undergraduates who've been starved of social contact all summer. Several reopening plans have already failed.
The University of Alabama — which had planned for face-to-face instruction in 80% of classes and was allowing indoor gatherings of up to 50 people — has had the worst case volume, with positive tests approaching 600 in just one week. UNC Chapel Hill sent students home after discovering outbreaks linked to parties at dorms and frats. Notre Dame moved students to remote learning after its own outbreaks. Other colleges are attempting to control partying by taking steep disciplinary measures against the students that do gather. Northeastern sent warnings to 115 freshmen who said in an Instagram poll that they plan to party. The university went as far as to threaten to rescind admissions. Purdue and Syracuse have both suspended students who have been caught partying, and UConn has evicted them… (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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