BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 15, 2021)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW // BG Podcast EP. 128: Talking Tech Flight and Austin with Kleiner Perkins Investor Haomiao Huang, PhD.
Today’s episode features Kleiner Perkins Investor Haomiao Huang, PhD. With all the recent and continued media hype around tech flight to Austin (and Miami), we wanted to get on the ground perspective from Sand Hill Road. As a bonus, Haomiao grew up in Austin (he and Bingham Group CEO A.J. attended the same high school - Go Jags!). Haomiao also discusses his path into the venture capital world, and thoughts on being a good investor.
You can listen to this episode and previous ones on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud.. Please like, link, comment and subscribe!
CITY OF AUSTIN
Work Session of the Austin City Council Agenda (2.16.2021)
Austin City Council Regular Meeting Agenda (2.18.2021)
THE 87TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE
LINK TO FILED HOUSE BILLS (2,161)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin Energy begins rolling power outages across city to ease strain on electric grid (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin Energy began rotating blackouts across the city early Monday to ease the strain on the power grid amid a record-setting freeze in Central Texas.
"Due to record electric demand, Texas electric grid operator is directing rotating outages to protect electric grid reliability," the utility said in a written statement, referring to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages most of the state's power output.
Austin Energy tweeted at 3:30 a.m. that outages were lasting longer than the expected 40 minutes "due to the severity of weather and the condition of the [ERCOT] grid" and asked residents to continue to conserve energy… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin Police Chief Brian Manley retiring months after council members called for his removal (Texas Tribune)
Austin Police Chief Brian Manley is retiring, the city manager told city leadership in a memo Friday. He will be leaving his post at the end of March after 30 years with the department and a growing call for his firing from City Council and community members.
Manley has been at the helm of the police department since 2016, first as an interim chief and then appointed permanently to the job by City Manager Spencer Cronk two years later. During that time, he was praised for his efforts to stop the serial Austin bombings in 2018.
But more recently, Manley has faced harsh criticism, largely spurred by the police killing of an unarmed man last year and how the department handled summer protests over racial inequities and police brutality. At a press conference Friday, Manley acknowledged the department's strained relationship with the community, but said that recent criticism was not the reason for his departure. He noted instead that hitting his 30-year mark was important to him.
"The policing profession is under scrutiny and is under reimagination and redesign, and I know a lot of that is taking place here in Austin," he said. "But I stand here with confidence knowing that APD will come out of this a strong agency.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Editorial: Manley's departure opens path for Austin Police reforms (Austin American-Statesman)
Reflecting on his 30 years with the Austin Police Department, Chief Brian Manley noted Friday “there are only three people that I’m aware of at this organization that have been here longer than me.” The longevity of Manley’s career and his earnest desire to serve the community have been commendable. Manley’s retirement next month will leave a sizable void in the law enforcement agency he has served for three decades, including nearly three years as chief.
It will also create much-needed space for change.
Austin officials and community advocates are knee-deep in efforts to “reimagine public safety,” a rosy phrase for addressing the thorny issues of racial bias, police training, officer discipline and public spending priorities. These are not challenges of Manley’s making. But as we noted last summer, he has not done enough to rectify them.
Several external reviews have found APD relies on racially biased training videos, continues to promote a “warrior” culture and fails to hold bad cops accountable. His officers inflicted horrific injuries last summer on Black Lives Matter protesters. A few months later, as the Austin City Council weighed APD budget cuts — including the cancellation of cadet academy classes that also gave us pause — Manley fought back with misleading crime statistics and hyperbole. His support at City Hall, and in some corners of the city, has eroded.
APD needs a fresh leader who can improve the culture and operations of a department that protects and polices Austin’s roughly 1 million residents. We are hopeful our city can find that leader through the national search that City Manager Spencer Cronk has promised. Such a search must start with public input on the qualities our community expects in the next chief, followed by opportunities for residents to engage with multiple finalists and provide feedback to City Hall. We recognize the pandemic makes public engagement more challenging: City Hall must rise to the occasion… (LINK TO STORY)
As WeWork pulls back in other cities, coworking company remains bullish on Austin (Austin Business Journal)
As coworking giant WeWork closes some locations in cities such as San Francisco, Phoenix, Denver and Washington, D.C., there are no signs that it will pull back in Austin, where it has seven outposts.
A spokesperson with WeWork Companies Inc. said the company could even expand its presence in the Texas capital but declined to provide any details yet.
“We are really committed to Austin. We have no plans to leave at this time,” said Keegan Calligar, based out of WeWork's New York headquarters. "WeWork has no plans to exit our Austin locations at this time, and we look forward to continuing to provide our members here with unmatched space, service and flexibility.”
That's a vote of confidence for the Austin office market, which like many cities was hit by an uptick in vacancies and a surge in sublease space in 2020 because of the pandemic. However, the numbers are starting to look better for office landlords in the Texas capital, with some experts predicting the market will stabilize in the second quarter of this year and start a slow rebound in Q3 or Q4.
WeWork is the largest coworking provider in Austin, with seven locations spread from downtown to The Domain that occupy more than 550,000 square feet.
New leaders took the reins at WeWork in 2019 after a failed initial public offering. They have been examining the company's portfolio to identify locations where they cannot operate profitably.
“Over the last twelve months, WeWork has continued to rationalize its global real estate portfolio as a part of the company’s plan to achieve profitability," the company said in a statement obtained by Denver Business Journal. "With an abundance of supply in the market, we have made the decision to rightsize our footprint across Denver where we will continue to provide our members with unmatched space, service, and flexibility.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Meet Austin's first civil rights officer, post inspired by racial reckoning of last summer (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin's first civil rights officer, who will be tasked with helping to promote racial equity and combat discrimination in the city, is set to start working this week.
Carol Johnson, whose appointment as the head of the city's Civil Rights Office was announced earlier this month, has 20 years of experience in fair housing and civil rights enforcement in Arkansas, Oregon and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The Civil Rights Office, with 13 members, will investigate compliance with local, state, and federal civil rights and non-discrimination laws. It will also host educational and outreach events for Austin businesses and residents. The city's Equal Employment and Fair Housing Office’s functions, staff and budget will now be under the Civil Rights Office.
“I’m honored to be appointed as the City of Austin’s first civil rights officer and I look forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead in leading the City’s Civil Rights Office toward providing racial and social equity and inclusion for Austin residents,” Johnson said in a written statement.
Johnson will report to Deputy City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin Airport traffic reports the highest number since the pandemic as air cargo soars (KXAN)
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport reported the highest passenger activity in December since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
In a report released Thursday, ABIA said 515,962 passengers flew– an increase due to the holiday season. ABIA flights “dropped dramatically” by 96.6% back in April 2020.
“That continued increase in passengers is due in part to the airport’s robust health and safety measures and a growth in passenger confidence that we’re optimistic will continue throughout 2021,” said Jacqueline Yaft, Chief Executive Officer of ABIA… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
For Abbott, condemning police defunding was the easy part (Houston Chronicle)
Gov. Greg Abbott has spent much of the past six months focused on police defunding and trying to make sure every other Texan is focused on it, too. On Twitter and in televised news conferences, the Republican has railed against the city of Austin’s efforts to scale back and restructure police spending and called on legislators to craft a law so onerous that no city or town would dare cut its local law enforcement budget again. “We’re not going to let cities in Texas follow the lead of cities like Portland and Seattle and Minneapolis by defunding the police,” he said in his annual statewide address this month. “That’s crazy.”
But while Abbott has provided plenty of rhetorical kindling, lawmakers have yet to rally around any of his policy prescriptions, and the path forward could be a slog. The governor’s proposals are mostly untested, have been only vaguely defined and are sure to face stiff opposition from city leaders and residents who fear they may be unintentionally harmed by a law whose only ostensible target is Austin. “This punishment for defunding the police is a far better political issue than it is in implementation,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. “Once you end up having to do it, it’s kind of messy.”
The saga began in August, when the Austin City Council cut 5 percent from its police budget in the wake of a local police killing and amid national unrest over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. They also pledged to shift tens of millions of dollars worth of traditional police functions to other city agencies. Abbott has pressed lawmakers to consider a raft of retaliatory measures for cities such as Austin, including stripping annexation powers from offending cities, withholding sales tax revenue and having state troopers take over entire police departments.
All of the sanctions would appear to be unprecedented, though the Legislature holds broad legal authority over local officials and can in theory impose most any condition it wants. But state laws cannot target individual municipalities; legislation has to apply either everywhere or to a broad group that can change over time, as laid out by the state’s highest court. “The question is whether an artful draftsperson could draft a bill that was specifically applied to Austin and fit within this Supreme Court definition,” said Randall Erben, a former legislative director for Abbott and an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law… (LINK TO STORY)
Who is running for the Dallas City Council? 57 people have filed to run for 14 seats (Dallas Morning News)
More than 50 names will appear on the May 1 ballot for the Dallas City Council, the most in a year without a mayoral race since residents approved expanding the council to 15 members in 1990.
The races are contested in all 14 council districts, including three in which the seat is open because the incumbents has hit the term limit.
Mayor Pro Tem Adam Medrano in District 2 and council members Lee Kleinman in District 11 and Jennifer Staubach Gates in District 13 are ineligible to run after serving four consecutive two-year terms.
The 11 other council incumbents are all seeking reelection. Mayor Eric Johnson will not appear on the ballot because he is in the midst of his first four-year term after being elected in June 2019. His term ends in 2023 and he has not announced whether he’ll seek reelection then.
Friday was the last day candidates could file for a spot on the May ballot. Candidates have until next Friday to withdraw.
Early voting will be April 19-27.
In district races in which no candidate gets 50% of the votes cast, the top two finishers will advance to a June 5 runoff. Election winners will be sworn in June 14.
Here are the council candidates by district, in alphabetical order. The list has only names reported by the city as qualifying for the ballot as of 9:30 a.m. Saturday…(LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Biden is winning Republican support for his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan. Just not in Washington. (Washington Post)
The pandemic has not been kind to Fresno, the poorest major city in California. The unemployment rate spiked above 10 percent and has stubbornly remained there. Violent crime has surged, as has homelessness. Tax revenue has plummeted as businesses have shuttered. Lines at food banks are filled with first-timers. But as bad as it’s been, things could soon get worse: Having frozen hundreds of jobs last year, the city is now being forced to consider laying off 250 people, including police and firefighters, to close a $31 million budget shortfall.
“That,” said Jerry Dyer, mayor of the half-million-strong city in the Central Valley, “is going to be devastating.” The looming cuts explain why Dyer’s eyes are fixed on Washington, where President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan dangles the tantalizing prospect of a reprieve. Though Dyer is a Republican, he’s rooting for the president to successfully push through federal aid that, after a nightmarish year for Fresno, will “help get us to the end.”
The first-term mayor’s stance reflects a broader split, one that gives Biden and his fellow Democrats a key tactical advantage as negotiations near an expected climax early next month. Republicans in Congress overwhelmingly oppose the relief bill, casting it as bloated and budget-busting, with some heaping particular scorn on a measure to send $350 billion in assistance to states and cities. Should Biden go ahead without their approval, GOP leaders say, it will prove that his mantra of bipartisanship rings hollow. But to many Republicans at city halls and statehouses across the country, the relief package looks very different. Instead of the “blue-state bailout” derided by GOP lawmakers, Republican mayors and governors say they see badly needed federal aid to keep police on the beat, to prevent battered Main Street businesses from going under and to help care for the growing ranks of the homeless and the hungry.
“It’s not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue,” said Dyer, who became mayor last month following a long career as the city’s police chief. “It’s a public health issue. It’s an economic issue. And it’s a public safety issue.”… (LINK TO STORY)
NYSE president: "The markets are not a casino" (AXIOS)
In an interview with "Axios on HBO," New York Stock Exchange president Stacey Cunningham rejected comparisons between stock market investing and gambling.
Between the lines: Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently said "investors big and small are treating the stock market like a casino," in response to last month's situation with GameStop, Reddit and Robinhood. Cunningham says Warren is wrong.
How Cunningham replied:
"The markets are not a casino. They are highly regulated and they're highly overseen ... We are running a market that provides opportunities for investors to come in, invest in the companies they believe in, they believe that are gonna grow, and then share in that wealth creation ... That's what made this country so great, is that a dreamer, an entrepreneur with an idea can start that business and grow it by getting others to invest and share in their success."
Cunningham also says that NYSE officials have not been asked to testify at upcoming House or Senate hearings on the last month's headline-making volatility, even though GameStop, AMC and several other "meme stocks" trade on the NYSE.
On the issues: Cunningham is strongly opposed to a financial transaction tax that's been floated as a way to better even the investor field, even threatening to pull NYSE out of New York were there to be such a tax passed at the state level.
She does, however, believe regulators should take a "fresh look" at requiring more transparency around short positions held by hedge funds… (LINK TO STORY)