BG Reads | News You Need to Know (March 18, 2021)

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[BINGHAM GROUP]

[MEETING/HEARINGS]

  • Austin Council Work Session (3.23.2021 @9AM)

  • Austin Council Voting Session (3.25.2021 @10AM)

  • 2021 Council Calendar

[THE 87TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE]

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Pandemic's impact still felt in labor market but Austin ranks No. 3 in US for jobs picture (Austin Business Journal)

The number of jobs in the Austin metro was down 2.7% in January compared with the same month a year prior — ranking it the third-strongest labor market among the 50 largest U.S. metro areas.

The Austin area had 31,100 fewer nonfarm payroll jobs at the beginning of this year than it did in January 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic caused the unemployment rate to climb. The region only trailed Jacksonville, Florida, and Salt Lake City among the top-performing cities in a March 16 analysis by the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. Jacksonville had 19,700 fewer jobs in January than a year earlier, which was also a decline of 2.7%, and Salt Lake City recorded a decline 5,000 jobs, or 0.7%.

Austin's No. 3 rank was the same as December, though the metro ranked as the best-performing jobs market for several months in the second half of 2020, according to previous monthly reports.

Other signs also point to progress in the economic recovery. During March and April 2020, 137,000 jobs were slashed at the pandemic's onset — nearly half of which were in the leisure and hospitality industry. According to the chamber report, roughly 97,400 positions, or 71%, have been regained.

Chamber Vice President of Research Beverly Kerr used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the most recent figures from the Texas Workforce Commission to compile the report. Austin's seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate for January was 5.4%, according to TWC data released March 12. That compares to a seasonally adjusted rate of 2.6% in January 2020 and a rate of 12.7% in April 2020, the peak of the pandemic's impact on jobs… (LINK TO STORY)

Austin Transit Partnership OKs anti-displacement funding (Austin Monitor)

The Austin Transit Partnership Board of Directors unanimously approved a grant agreement Wednesday to finance anti-displacement efforts using money from Project Connect’s tax revenue.

The funds, totaling $300 million, will be dispersed over Project Connect’s 13-year timeline, according to ATP’s resolution. The express purpose of the money is to buy property for affordable housing along transit corridors and to identify other anti-displacement strategies.

“This is a huge, huge win for the community. This is unprecedented,” Board Member Eric Stratton said.

The first three years will see $100 million of those funds as Project Connect ramps up, with the remaining $200 million let out over the next decade.

According to the Transit Speed & Reliability Interlocal Agreement, which delineates collaboration between the city of Austin and the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the city will designate the Housing and Planning Department to be in charge of the funds on the city’s behalf. ATP Chief Financial Officer Greg Canally will represent that organization in the process.

After initially wincing at the enormous sum and its potential pitfalls, board members said use of the funds will become more clear as Project Connect moves forward.

“Once we are at 30 percent design, we are going to know a lot more of the known unknowns,” said Randy Clarke, Capital Metro and ATP president and CEO.

Various government agencies, such as the Housing and Planning Department, Equity Office and Sustainability Office are charged with crafting proposals based on community input to mitigate displacement.

Earlier this month, the Housing and Planning Committee heard discussion about displacement funds on the housing side of the issue. The anti-displacement attempt is divided into two parts: the acquisition of land to construct more affordable housing, and the preservation of existing housing.

The inclusion of anti-displacement funds was part of the Project Connect ballot language… (LINK TO STORY)

Austin Public Health to launch pilot drive-thru vaccine site (Austin Monitor)

Austin Public Health is planning to launch a drive-thru vaccination site at Toney Burger Activity Center in South Austin on Saturday. Plans for the pilot program aren’t finalized, but the health department expects to administer 1,200 doses of the Moderna vaccine. APH spokesperson Jen Samp said the site will help improve accessibility.

“This way those who don’t want to walk in or don’t have the ability to use a walk-in site can stay in their vehicles,” Samp said.

It also provides access for people in different parts of the city.

“We have almost all of our sites on the east side of Travis County,” Samp said. “(This site is) located so that people can have an easy transportation and access point.”

As with APH’s other sites, vaccines will be available by appointment only, though those appointments can’t be scheduled until APH has the pilot operation fully set up.

Those who do get an appointment will be expected to arrive within an hour of their scheduled time, wear a face mask and show proof of their appointment in the form of a text or email – unless APH has been in contact with them by phone. Drivers will stay in their vehicles the entire time.

APH warns that other people in the vehicle will not get a dose unless they also have an appointment.

Initial plans are for the site to run on Saturdays. APH may also scale up the number of available doses based on the success of the pilot. That will reduce vaccine availability at other sites unless APH is allotted more vaccines from the state. A designated vaccine hub, APH typically receives 12,000 first doses each week, plus an adequate number of second doses.

APH said there are more than 200,000 people in the 1A and 1B priority groups registered to receive a vaccine through the agency… (LINK TO STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas Grocer H-E-B Is Caught in the Middle of Mask Divide (Wall Street Journal)

When Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he would lift the statewide Covid-19 mask mandate, he left businesses in charge of setting and enforcing their own policies. H-E-B, a beloved Texas grocer and a stalwart during past crises in the state, waffled.

The company, which had experienced a string of altercations in its aisles over mask policy, initially said it would urge customers to wear masks, but require them of employees. A few days later, after some shoppers and workers criticized the grocer, the chain clarified its stance. It would leave up signs and keep making announcements stating that masks are required, and offer them to maskless shoppers. H-E-B also said it would continue its policy of not escalating situations in which a customer refuses to wear a mask.

The shift in H-E-B’s message reflects the balancing act that many businesses in Texas now face after the state put them in charge of setting and enforcing mask policy. Since the mandate was lifted on March 10, some H-E-B employees and customers say they have noticed more maskless customers shopping the aisles.

After the chain’s initial statement that it would urge customers to wear masks, H-E-B President Scott McClelland told the Houston Chronicle that the governor’s move stripped stores of the “backstop” that the threat of a fine provided, which he said could lead to more people entering stores without masks. Mr. McClelland said he had to weigh the physical well-being of customers and employees, given the frequent disputes over masks in stores even when state mask rules were in effect.

“Of all the issues we have dealt with over the course of the last year, masks are the most polarizing,” Mr. McClelland told the Chronicle. “In part, because they were used as a political weapon and in part because, frankly, people don’t like wearing masks.”

H-E-B said it expects shoppers to continue wearing masks in its stores and that it has increased security at many of its locations. “The ending of mask ordinances puts real pressure on retailers to enforce an emotional policy for many and we will not ask our Partners to put themselves in harm’s way,” the company said in a written statement… (LINK TO STORY)

This simple paperwork blunder left Texans cold during the deadly freeze (Houston Chronicle)

​When Texas lawmakers met last month to begin sifting through the wreckage of the state’s energy grid, many expected to hear tales of poorly insulated power plants rendered inoperable by the latest winter storm. Instead, energy executives raised an even more confounding problem: dozens of natural gas facilities had not filled out a three-page application for outage exemptions before the storm, meaning their facilities lost power at a moment when their fuel was needed most to feed struggling power plants. “We had basically people calling saying hey, turn a power plant back on, or turn a gas processor back on, and it’s like, it’s too late,” said Curtis Morgan, CEO of Vistra Corp., whose subsidiary, Luminant, is the state’s largest power generator.

“You can’t do it when you’re in the middle of it.” Oncor scrambled to flip power on to more than 150 gas facilities in the Permian Basin after receiving urgent calls from the Public Utility Commission that gas providers needed their power restored, said Allen Nye, chief executive of Texas’s largest electricity delivery company.

The problem, Morgan and Nye said, was that unlike hospitals, 911 call centers and fire stations, many gas production plants had never been identified as “critical” facilities, a designation that could have shielded them from outages during emergencies. Yet the process of getting a facility designated as critical infrastructure couldn’t be easier. The owner simply needs to fill out the three-page form each year and turn it in to the local utility company. A full assessment of how big a role electric power cut to gas facilities played in the grid outages is likely months away. Yet how some of Texas’s largest and most sophisticated energy companies, depended upon by nearly every resident and business, failed to complete a two-minute paperwork chore remains one of the most baffling mysteries of last month’s deadly outages. Deepening the puzzle is that the same problem was identified during the state’s last major freeze, in 2011. A federal after-incident report concluded that just under a third of production losses in the Permian and Fort Worth areas were caused by outages, mostly power cut to electric pumps on gathering lines at the wellheads. It advised gas and electric companies to close the communication gap so the same thing didn’t happen during the next emergency… (LINK TO STORY)

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo is emotional, combative in farewell as he heads to Miami (Houston Chronicle)

Art Acevedo wasn’t looking for another gig, he said Tuesday. Then, a few weeks ago, Miami called. It was the city where, in 1968, he and his parents arrived, new immigrants to the United States. “We went all the way to California, to Austin, came here,” Acevedo said, choking up as he reminisced. During an emotional and at times combative press briefing — a textbook example of the chief’s bombastic, gregarious and heart-felt style — Acevedo explained his decision to leave the city where he has worked since 2016, and which has served as a launch pad onto the national stage.

Acevedo has had a national profile after he took on the NRA in the wake of mass shootings and accompanied marchers after the George Floyd killing. He sparred frequently on social media with politicians, criticized judges who he felt were too lenient on people accused of violent crimes and spoke at the Democratic National Convention. He said he contemplated pursuing a job in the Biden administration; going back to Los Angeles, running for sheriff or working in the private sector. Instead he’s headed to Miami. There, he will oversee a department of some 1,400 officers, about a quarter of the size of the Houston department. He’ll receive a pay bump — to $315,000 — along with a $50,000 relocation fee, a take-home car, and other perks, according to reports from Florida outlets. Acevedo said his personal ties, the conversations with Miami leadership, and a desire to continue working in law enforcement motivated his decision. “We really connected,” he said, of conversations with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and City Manager Art Noriega. Acevedo said Mayor Sylvester Turner’s dwindling time in office (his term ends January 2024) also helped sway the decision… (LINK TO STORY)

Texas freeze triggers global plastics shortage (Wall Street Journal)

The February freeze that triggered mass blackouts in Texas led to chemical plant shutdowns that are disrupting global supply chains, causing a shortage of the raw materials needed for everything from medical face shields to smartphones.

The power outages brought the world’s largest petrochemical complex to a standstill, forcing more plants in the Gulf of Mexico region to shut down than during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. A month later, many remain offline, and analysts said it could be months more before all are fully back.

Prices for polyethylene, polypropylene and other chemical compounds used to make auto parts, computers and a vast array of plastic products have reached their highest levels in years in the U.S. as supplies tighten. For example, prices for polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, have more than doubled since last summer, according to S&P Global Platts… (LINK TO STORY)

Texas man arrested with guns, ammo outside of Vice Presidential residence (NPR)

A man was arrested Wednesday afternoon near the Naval Observatory and charged with several counts related to weapons and ammunition, according the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department. The Naval Observatory is the vice presidential residence, though Vice President Harris and her family do not live at the estate yet.

Paul Murray, 31, of San Antonio was first detained by the U.S. Secret Service based on an intelligence bulletin originating from Texas. He was later formally arrested by Washington police. A rifle and ammunition were recovered from his vehicle.

The arrest comes as the district is in a state of heightened security following the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol.

Violent pro-Trump extremists, fueled by the idea that President Biden and Harris had stolen the election from Donald Trump, stormed the Capitol, threatening lawmakers and law enforcement.

Since then, security and intelligence officials have redoubled their warnings of the dangers of homegrown extremism and the way it manifests.

Harris has not moved into the residence at the Naval Observatory due to a need for repairs at the building, media outlets have reported… (LINK TO STORY)

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