BG Reads | News You Need to Know (September 2, 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]
New Austin Public Health plan addresses Covid-19 disparities in Hispanic/Latinx community (Austin Monitor)
Austin Public Health has revealed a new draft strategic plan to tackle disparities in Covid-19 cases in the city’s Hispanic/Latinx community.
The plan, developed by the Hispanic/Latinx strike team within APH’s new Social Services Branch, is divided into four strategic goals: Outreach, Prevention, and Communication; Testing and Contact Tracing; Access to Quality Clinical Resources; and Economic and Employment Support.
Director Stephanie Hayden outlined the plan in an Aug. 28 memo to City Council. Hayden had announced the department would start working on a draft plan at the June 2 City Council meeting, where she raised the issue of the growing disproportionate number of Hispanic and African American Austinites seeking hospitalization for Covid-19. According to APH’s data, members of the Hispanic/Latinx community are hospitalized at a rate 4.4 percentage points higher than their white neighbors.
The strike team sent out a survey in July asking for community feedback on each of the plan’s strategic goals, and included open-ended questions. Of the 255 surveys submitted, five were completed in Spanish. Seventy-seven percent of respondents indicated all four strategic areas were important, with 59 percent marking the strategies as “Very Important.”
The plan lists several accomplished objectives, including efforts to increase Spanish-language resources and testing site availability in specific communities. As a part of its outreach, the department is working on a media campaign with paid spots on Spanish language television and radio stations and providing more translated resources in languages other than Spanish, such as Vietnamese, Chinese and Arabic.
Austin Public Health is looking to increase the scope of community health workers by creating a community health worker network alongside several Central Texas counties and providing the health workers with permanent employment opportunities… (LINK TO STORY)
100 Congress tower hits market in biggest test yet for investor interest in Austin real estate during pandemic (Austin Business Journal)
One of Austin’s premier downtown office buildings — 100 Congress — is for sale.
The 22-story tower is the first major office building to hit the market in Austin since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. That makes it the first real test of the strength of the Texas capital’s office and capital markets.
“No one has tried to sell a (major office) building in seven months,” said Richard Paddock, an office project partner at HPI Real Estate Services & Investments. “Everyone is interested to see where the market shakes out for office transactions.”
MetLife Inc. and Invesco Ltd. are the owners of 100 Congress. The marquee 411,536-square-foot tower, which faces Lady Bird Lake, opened in 1987 and is 95% leased. Major tenants include Regions Bank, law firm Armbrust & Brown PLLC, developer Riverside Resources, Civitas Learning, Regus coworking and construction firm Ryan Companies.
Mike McDonald of Cushman & Wakefield is marketing the tower.
When the pandemic hit the Austin area in mid-March, major office buildings that were for sale — including 600 Congress and The Whitley — were taken off the market because of uncertainty in the economy and travel lockdowns.
On the hospitality side, at least one mammoth deals already in the work — the sale of the Renaissance Hotel — fell through.
CoStar Central Texas Economist Sam Tenenbaum said at the beginning of the pandemic that it was a tough time for a seller to get top dollar for a class A building. He said it was difficult to value a building when no tenants were occupying it.
100 Congress will be a test of the market amid the pandemic, he said in a new interview. It remains to be seen whether investors will expect or get a discount on the tower.
"We are going to see what post-Covid pricing could look like," Tenenbaum said… (LINK TO STORY)
Football activities lead to COVID-19 cases at Austin-area schools, health officials say (Austin American-Statesman)
Although in-person learning has not started for most Austin area schools, public health officials have identified at least 25 coronavirus cases at primary and secondary schools — with nearly half of them linked to football strength and conditioning activities.
Interim Austin-Travis County Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott told Austin City Council members Tuesday that, as a whole, the area is doing well fighting off COVID-19. The seven-day average of new cases and daily new hospitalizations are both at the lowest they’ve been in nearly three months. Now, Escott said, would be a good time for people to schedule elective surgeries they might have put off while hospitals were treating more COVID-19 patients.
But there are two reasons for caution, Escott said: socializing over the upcoming Labor Day holiday weekend and the reopening of schools.
Lake Travis elementary students and others who have opted for in-person learning can return as early as Sept. 8. Leander also will resume in-person learning in phases beginning Sept. 8. The Austin school district is scheduled to open for in-person learning Oct. 5.
Escott said clusters of coronavirus cases have been found at four local schools. A cluster is defined as at least three people at each site testing positive. Early indications are that 11 of the 25 known cases associated with the clusters are linked to football strength and conditioning activities, Escott said. It’s unclear what activities might have contributed to the other cases.
For privacy reasons, Austin Public Health is not naming schools where there are known infections. Escott said one school has put a stop to football workouts.
An Austin Independent School District spokeswoman said Tuesday that her office did not have access to coronavirus test results, but that the information would be available through an open records request. The American-Statesman made a request Tuesday and is awaiting a response… (LINK TO STORY)
Council won’t vote on Walter E. Long Park plan now (Austin Monitor)
Despite the fact that the vision plan for the nearly 3,700-acre Walter E. Long Park has been in the works for years and has won approval from both the Parks and Recreation Board and the Environmental Commission, a majority of City Council members expressed reluctance to move forward on the plan at Tuesday’s work session. The item will likely be withdrawn from Thursday’s Council agenda.
While Council members praised the work done by the parks department and its consultants, several expressed concern about what is projected eventually to be an $800 million price tag for the far Northeast Austin park.
Kimberly McNeeley, director of Parks and Recreation, explained several times that it would be years before the entire plan would be implemented. In fact, what she wanted most at this point was authorization to move forward with spending $3.5 million on upgrades to the park. She said her department has put that money aside to start the initial development, noting that the funds were approved in a 2018 bond election specifically for park improvements.
McNeeley also reminded Council that Walter E. Long is seven times the size of Zilker Park, “and it took us a number of decades to develop Zilker Park.”
Council Member Jimmy Flannigan called the plan “Six Flags over Decker,” adding, “There’s a fine line between a plan and a hallucination.” He concluded, “Under no circumstances can I vote for it this week.” Flannigan said he was not even sure this park was the best place to spend the $3.5 million PARD had already set aside.
The park sits in Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison’s District 1, but she was having technical difficulties with the internet during the Zoom meeting and encouraged Flannigan to ask his questions first. When he was done, she told him, “You asked literally all of my questions.” While she praised the effort that went into the planning, Harper-Madison said she was not ready to vote on the plans either… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Gov. Abbott hints at further reopening Texas, with ‘next steps’ next week (Houston Chronicle)
Gov. Greg Abbott signaled he may be preparing to roll back some emergency restrictions put in place this summer at the height of the state’s coronavirus surge. Responding to concerns from the battered restaurant industry, the governor tweeted Monday night that new infections and hospitalizations from COVID-19 are receding, and added, “I hope to provide updates next week about next steps.” “Since my last orders in July, COVID numbers have declined—most importantly hospitalizations,” said Abbott, a Republican.
The governor gave no indication about what steps he might take, and a spokesman did not respond to questions. Abbott has previously said he would consider allowing bars to reopen and restaurants to open further if positive trends continue. Statewide, new daily infections and hospitalizations are declining, though they remain well above where where they were when Abbott began reopening the state in May — hospitalizations are now double, and average new daily infections are four times as high. It’s also unclear whether the rate of people testing positive, a key metric, is anywhere near where public health experts recommend before opening more businesses and allowing children back into schools. The positivity rate was called into question earlier this month as state health officials struggled to work through a massive data backlog. Though the governor has said the issue is mostly solved, several counties claim they have lost faith in the accuracy of the rate, and even Abbott appears to be distancing himself from it, pointing to other benchmarks such as hospitalization — a more reliable, albeit lagging metric… (LINK TO STORY)
Texas mayors warn pandemic's effects on city budgets will linger for years (Texas Tribune)
The mayors of Texas' most populous cities described painful budget cuts with shortfalls of tens of millions of dollars stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. But they said they're worried that future budgets could be just as difficult to balance for years to come.
Mayors Betsy Price of Fort Worth, Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio, Dee Margo of El Paso, Sylvester Turner of Houston, Steve Adler of Austin and Eric Johnson of Dallas said the future strength of their local budgets will depend on multiple factors, including if or how conventions and festivals return to the state next year. But they also took a glass half-full approach when it came to layoffs, as several mayors said they were able to keep employee losses or furloughs to a minimum.
“It’s not so much the budget that we just finished, I am concerned about the next budget," Turner said. "We’re going to be in this tight situation for the next two or three years. There are some businesses that are not going to return, there is some revenue that we are not going to get, all of our conventions for example have been canceled or rescheduled.”
The discussion was part of a longer conversation the mayors had with Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith during the 2020 Texas Tribune Festival.
temporary closure of businesses and high levels of unemployment due to the pandemic have caused sales tax revenues — which make up a significant portion of cities' budgets — to plummet. Cities have found some relief in federal funding passed by Congress, but some municipalities still had to layoff or furlough employees. The largest unknown is the effect that the pandemic will have on property taxes, which tend to be the largest source of revenue for cities.
Turner said Houston took a hit of about $162 million but was able to avoid furloughing or permanently letting go of its employees. But the city will be walking the “tightrope for quite some time,” he said.
Price said local sales tax revenues for 2020 in Fort Worth are down about $20 million, but that figure is improving because spending has increased in some retail sectors. She agreed with Turner that working through budget woes will be a multi-year effort.
“This is a long-term stretch for cities,” she said. “The hardest hit, clearly, has been our public events fund which relies on hotel occupancy tax and sales tax.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Budget plan offers glimpse at state agency cuts (Austin American-Statesman)
In the first comprehensive glimpse of how the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic will affect key state services, an August state budget document obtained by the American-Statesman lays out how agencies proposed meeting 5% cuts demanded by the state’s Republican leadership in May.
Those cuts are the fallout of a plunge in tax revenues as businesses shuttered. Travel and entertainment spending plummeted, hitting hotel occupancy and alcoholic beverage taxes particularly hard. Oil and gas tax revenues took a nosedive in the wake of collapsing world demand and a Saudi Arabia-Russia production dispute.
Comptroller Glenn Hegar in July projected a budget shortfall of $4.58 billion for the fiscal year that ended Monday, with revenue falling further behind spending during the 2021 fiscal year. But the fate of the proposed cuts in the budget document remained a mystery, with no public pronouncement and top state officials not returning requests for comment. The state Legislative Budget Board, which put the compilation together, has declined to release the report, terming it a working document.
The 374-page document shows how widespread the cuts could be. The cost-cutting proposals include:
$1.6 million from Health and Humans Services Commission regulatory programs, chiefly through hiring freezes. The agency warned that such cuts could “potentially delay investigations of abuse, neglect, and exploitation” and also impact “responses to open records requests, federal reporting, reduced technical support of program applications, training, criminal history checks of child care providers, processing of enforcement actions and other activities.”
Fewer clients served by a state epilepsy program, children’s advocacy programs and the Court Appointed Special Advocates program. Cuts would also reduce the number of clients receiving family planning and health screenings.
$165,000 from a Health and Human Services Commission program for mental health support through a family violence program.
$200,000 from the Texas Education Agency in grants to organizations that provide athletic programs for students with intellectual disabilities.
$450,000 from a Texas attorney general’s office program that apprehends fugitives and investigates sexual predators, cybercrimes and crimes against children.
$150,000 from an attorney general’s office Medicaid investigations program — specifically into criminal fraud by Medicaid providers, physical abuse and criminal neglect of patients in health care facilities receiving Medicaid, and misappropriation of patients’ private funds in facilities… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
CDC issues sweeping temporary halt on evictions nationwide amid pandemic (NPR)
The Trump administration is ordering a halt on evictions nationwide through December for people who have lost work during the pandemic and don't have other good housing options.
The new eviction ban is being enacted through the Centers for Disease Control. The goal is to stem the spread of the COVID outbreak, which the agency says in it's order, "presents a historic threat to public health."
It's by far the most sweeping move yet by the administration to try to head off a looming wave of evictions of people who've lost their jobs or taken a major blow to their income due to the pandemic. Housing advocates and landlord groups both have been warning that millions of people could soon be put out of their homes through eviction if Congress does not do more to help renters and landlords and reinstate expanded unemployment benefits.
But this new ban, which doesn't offer any way for landlords to recoup unpaid rent, is being met with a mixed response. First, many housing advocates are very happy to see it.
"My reaction is a feeling of tremendous relief," says Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. "It's a pretty extraordinary and bold and unprecedented measure that the White House is taking that will save lives and prevent tens of millions of people from losing their homes in the middle of a pandemic."
That said, she adds that a move like this from Congress or the White house is "long overdue." And she says with no money behind it, it kicks the can down the road.
"While an eviction moratorium is an essential step, it is a half-measure that extends a financial cliff for renters to fall off of when the moratorium expires and back rent is owed."... (LINK TO STORY)
Business groups increasingly worried about death of filibuster (The Hill)
Business groups across industries are becoming increasingly nervous about a potential Democratic sweep in November leading to the elimination of the legislative filibuster.
Financial services and oil and gas groups are among those who are worried that progressive policies might be inevitable and bipartisanship on pro-business legislation will be a thing of the past.
Meanwhile, unions and left-leaning groups are growing enthusiastic about the potential for passing bills without the 60-vote procedural hurdle in the Senate.
The American Petroleum Institute, the main trade group for the oil and natural gas industry, warned against moving away from bipartisanship.
“The filibuster has been a part of the Senate for a long time and it has really protected the idea that consensus is needed to move large pieces of legislation,” said Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs. “As both parties have stated over time, what may seem like a good idea when one party is in power may quickly turn and be regretted when the other party is in power.”
Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, cautioned that ending the filibuster could lead to bad policies.
“The challenge that that presents is rather than policy getting forged with bipartisan consensus, you have kind of single-party enactment of legislation, which means there’s less consensus, less opportunity for input, and ultimately it results in much worse policy,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) recently said nothing is off the table in terms of eliminating the filibuster, adding that Democrats would “do what it takes” to enact their agenda under a potential Biden administration.
Industry lobbyists who asked to remain anonymous sounded the alarm on what may lay ahead… (LINK TO STORY)
California’s legislative session ends in chaos (Politico)
Technological mayhem, a virus-spreading gathering and a one-month old baby on the Assembly floor: The end of California’s 2020 legislative session was peak Covid-era politics.
The final night in Sacramento reached a boiling point Monday when frustrated Republican senators — barred from the Capitol after a colleague they’d met with in person tested positive for the coronavirus — accused Democratic leadership of taking advantage of their quarantine requirements.
Bullshit,” blurted out Republican Sen. Melissa Melendez after leaders in the Democratic majority said they would restrict debate on bills in the final hours of the session, which ended at midnight.
Some observers wondered if Melendez mistakenly let the critique slip by forgetting to mute her computer — a new political hazard in the pandemic. She was scolded by a Democratic colleague for using profanity.
But Melendez doubled down in a tweet soon after.
“Senate Democrats just voted to limit the number of speakers on a bill to only two speakers. This silences the voices of millions of people so democrats have enough time to pass their crappy bills before midnight. This is outrageous and is COMPLETE BULLSHIT,” Melendez wrote in the post.
After an hour-plus delay, Democrats rolled back the rule — and then bills started dying for lack of time as the clock ran down.
The delayed end of session distilled an unprecedented, unpredictable year in which outbreaks twice robbed lawmakers of voting time and remote voting became a flash point for the legislators. It left lobbyists unsure how to push for or against bills without handshake deals or hallways encounters. Dozens of major, long-pushed bills died in the final days and hours of the session.
Floor speeches sped up or vanished altogether as word came from leadership to make hard choices. Democrats accused Republicans of intentionally stalling. There was an actual, NFL-style instant replay review to see if the Assembly sent the Senate a bill before midnight.
And in the waning moments, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks appeared on the floor with her crying, 1-month-old daughter Elly after being denied the right to vote by proxy.
“Please, please, please pass this bill,” she said as she held her swaddled child. “And I'm going to go finish feeding my daughter.”
After a long debate and multiple votes, lawmakers did as Wicks exhorted them to and passed a fiercely contested housing bill — but it was too late. The Assembly acted with only minutes to spare, leaving no time to send the measure to the Senate for final approval. Senate President pro tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) was not pleased her bill had withered for lack of time.
“To send over S.B. 1120 at 11:57 — that was impossible, and those votes were there days ago,” a weary Atkins said some time after 2 a.m., decrying the “the absolutely needless delay of housing bills.”
The housing measure wasn’t the only one to fall for lack of time. Major criminal justice reform bills introduced in the wake of George Floyd’s death never got floor votes. Law enforcement opponents successfully ran out the clock on a bill to decertify police officers who break the rules — ignoring a late lobbying push by celebrities like Kim Kardashian West — and a measure to restrict the use of rubber bullets and tear gas.
Lawmakers did send Gov. Gavin Newsom a police shooting bill that would have the California Department of Justice investigate slayings, rather than local prosecutors — the type of independent investigations that advocates have sought for years. Similar California bills withered in recent years, but in a sign of national momentum this year’s version sailed through easily. And in a reminder of the final night’s chaos, it didn’t even get a debate before final passage.
California also acted to avert a looming eviction avalanche. A little more than 24 hours before a court-ordered evictions halt was set to expire, Newsom signed a bill that would prevent tenants from being evicted through the end of the year if they can come up with 25 percent of their rent. After that, landlords would be able to sue for what they are owed. The stopgap measure satisfied virtually no one, and California is now counting on federal help from a Biden administration.
All of that unfurled against a backdrop of hot mics and mounting frustration. Homebound Senate Republicans could repeatedly be heard commenting on the action — one shouted “aw, c’mon” when a colleague switched his vote. “Hear that, honey? She’s appalled,” another sarcastically commented to someone off-screen after another senator’s rebuttal. A third Republican could be clearly seen mouthing a four-letter word as he struggled with the mute button.
The final stretch exposed fractures in how legislative leaders tried to manage governing in a pandemic. The Senate long ago concluded remote voting was constitutionally sound and authorized it, allowing Republicans to participate. The Assembly thought otherwise, worrying about legal challenges invalidating votes — and then Speaker Anthony Rendon faced a backlash for not extending a limited proxy voting system to Wicks, concluding the new mother was not sufficiently at-risk… (LINK TO STORY)