BG Reads | News You Need to Know (December 14, 2021)
Guero’s on South Congress
[BINGHAM GROUP]
The BG Podcast is back! EP. 148 features Jose "Chito" Vela III a candidate for Austin's Council District 4.
The immigration and defense attorney declared in early November, following Council Member Greg Casar announcing his candidacy for Congress (triggering an automatic resignation).
Bingham Group CEO A.J. and Associate Wendy Rodriguez discuss Chito's campaign and what he hopes to achieve if elected.
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Brandywine pushes ahead with $3B mixed-use redevelopment near Domain (Austin Business Journal)
One of the biggest redevelopment projects in Austin’s history will start rising soon.
Philadelphia-based Brandywine Realty Trust executives said their ambitious 66-acre, $3 billion master-planned and transit-oriented community just east of The Domain is officially under construction. When all is said and done, the Brandywine (NYSE: BDN) project at 11501 Burnet Road will bring online about 7 million square feet of office, residential, retail and hospitality spaces — plus a new MetroRail station — to an area of North Austin between The Domain and Q2 Stadium.
Brandywine's anticipated $3 billion investment is about three times as large as the price tag for the new local Tesla factory, and 7 million square feet is tantamount to building the equivalent of about 15 Frost Bank Towers on the 66 acres. The still-growing Domain development across the street now offers about 5 million square feet of offices and shops.
What has been known as the Broadmoor office campus is now called Uptown ATX, and it promises to extend the boundaries of Austin's so-called second downtown, which now is anchored by The Domain's tall buildings across the street from Brandywine's site. Like The Domain, which is broken up now into two parts with more on the way, Uptown ATX will be built in phases.
The first three projects to be developed on Broadmoor's site are called One Uptown, The Chase at Uptown and Skyrise… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
First likely cases of omicron COVID variant identified in Austin area, tests show (Austin American-Statesman)
The first three cases of the more contagious omicron coronavirus variant have been tentatively identified in Austin, according to preliminary lab results from the University of Texas Health Services.
University officials said the cases involve members of the UT community who had not recently traveled internationally, which strongly suggests that the variant is already spreading in Austin. The three people were not linked through contact tracing, according to UT health officials.
Austin Public Health leaders said Monday that the preliminary results will need to be confirmed through genetic sequencing, which is likely to take several days.
"Our community learned firsthand the dangers new variants can pose," Dr. Desmar Walkes, Austin-Travis County health authority, said Monday. "The delta variant arrived in the summer and is still in our community. Now we have the omicron variant."
Omicron, classified as a variant of concern by the World Health Organization in late November, was first detected in Texas last week. Harris County, which includes Houston, was the first to confirm the variant… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Erik Charles Maund, Austin auto magnate, hired hitmen to kill ex-girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend (Austin American-Statesman)
A prominent Austin businessman, described by investigators as a partner in his family's Maund Auto Group, has been indicted in the contract killings of his ex-girlfriend and her former boyfriend, federal prosecutors allege.
According to investigators, Erik Charles Maund hired an Austin security specialist and two other men — a purported member of the Israeli Defense Forces and a special operations U.S. Marine — to shoot the pair. The motive, investigators say: The former boyfriend called Maund, who is married, to extort him by threatening to expose the affair.
The price for silence: more than $750,000 for the March 2020 hits, the federal indictment unsealed Monday said.
The bodies of Holly A. Williams, 33, and William L. Lanway, 36, were discovered in March 2020 in a white 2005 Acura at a Nashville, Tenn., construction site, according to authorities and published reports. At the time, Nashville police said they were looking for three men who were seen outside Williams' apartment — and captured on camera — a few days before the homicides.
Representatives for the Maund Automotive Group did not immediately have a comment Monday. It was unclear whether Maund remained part of the company. His grandfather started the Central Texas automotive chain, which includes Volkswagen and Toyota dealerships… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council debates path forward on paid family leave for emergency services employees (Austin Monitor)
City Council weighed the implications of significantly expanding benefits for emergency services employees this past Thursday in a resolution that calls for a new family leave policy for the city’s EMS, police, and fire departments.
The resolution, sponsored by Council Member Ann Kitchen, directs city staff to develop plans for a program providing adequate paid leave for new parents in emergency services departments and to return with cost estimates within 30 days. The resolution passed unanimously, with Mayor Steve Adler off the dais and Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison abstaining.
“I think parental leave is a necessity for all of our employees, and I don’t think we should be negotiating it,” Kitchen said at Council’s work session last Tuesday. “Regardless of the fiscal implications, I think this benefit is fundamental.”
Currently, sworn employees across the three public safety departments receive the 12 weeks of unpaid leave mandated by the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, but receive no additional compensation from the city. Kitchen noted that this stands in contrast to the city’s policy toward civilian employees, who receive six weeks of paid family leave.
The proposal comes at a critical time for the city’s EMS department, which is seeing record staffing shortages and rates of employee dissatisfaction. Further complicating things is a hole in leadership, with former EMS Chief Ernesto Rodriguez retiring after 40 years of service. Under these precarious circumstances, the EMS union has begun negotiations with the city for higher wages, hazard pay and improved benefits upon renewal of its contract in 2022.
Despite a consensus on updating family leave benefits, Council disagreed over the best approach. Adler wondered whether the policy may be best left to labor negotiations, noting that “if it happens outside of labor negotiations, then we may be talking about a substantial increase to the police and public safety budget from the General Fund.”
Council Member Alison Alter echoed these concerns, suggesting that the language of the resolution implied benefits of an overly ambitious scale. Particularly contentious was the resolution’s direction to include foster parents, adoptive parents and fathers among those awarded leave.
“In a perfect world I would want everyone to have parental leave,” Alter said, “but we’ve received information suggesting the total cost of this could be up to $2 million, which is a whole lot more than providing pregnancy leave to a handful of our staff.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin ISD will make cuts at Central Office instead of reducing class periods at middle and high schools (KUT)
The Austin Independent School District said it will not reduce the number of class periods at the middle and high school levels next year — a proposal floated as a way to save money.
“I wanted to lower everyone’s anxiety and let everyone know before the winter break that we would be maintaining an eight-period, A/B block schedule for all of our secondary schools,” Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said Monday.
Two weeks ago, the district sent an email to staff, saying it was considering reducing the number of class periods for middle and high school students from eight to seven classes. The email said the change would save the district $21 million.
There was pushback almost immediately from teachers, students and parents. Many were worried the reduced class periods would mean teacher layoffs and less participation in elective classes.
“The very first thing I thought of when I read that [email] was, ‘OK, well, that’s it for fine arts’,” said Stephen Howard, the band director at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders. “We’re toast.”
With fewer classes in the day, he figured, students wouldn't take as many electives. That eventually would lead the district to lay off fine arts staff because they wouldn't have as many students in their classes.
Howard and many other community members voiced these concerns to the superintendent over the last two weeks.
At a press conference Monday, Elizalde said the feedback, as well as conversations with principals, helped her and staff decide not to pursue that option.
The original proposal came as one way for the district to balance its budget. AISD administrators must present a proposed budget for the school board to vote on in June.
Elizalde said there must be dramatic spending cuts. For the last few years, the district has been running a deficit and pulling from its reserves. It can no longer afford to do that.
Instead of changing the schedule, Elizalde said, the district will make cuts at Central Office. She said AISD will not fill every position when people quit… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
New TSA checkpoint opening at Austin airport as travel rebounds (KXAN)
Officials at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport tweeted a video of its new general security screening checkpoint area that opens Monday. it’s located at the center of the Barbara Jordan Terminal, in between Checkpoints 1 and 2.
Travelers have been returning to the airport in record numbers recently as big events in Austin are ramping back up. Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix brought a worldwide audience to town and also a record number of people through the airport. The Monday following race weekend, Oct. 25, smashed previous passengers records, airport officials said. An estimated 35,000-36,000 people went through the terminal at AUS that day, 4-5,000 more than the previous record set in 2019 after that year’s F1 event.
The new checkpoint makes it the fourth in the airport. It will start running at 3 p.m. Monday, officials said.
The exact airport traffic numbers for October won’t be out for another month or so, but the latest numbers available show that people are taking flights again. Data for the airport in August showed that 1.3 million people went through that month, 210% more than August 2020 and nearly back to pre-pandemic travel levels… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas’ 2022 races coming into focus as candidate filings close (Texas Tribune)
Candidate filing for the 2022 primary in Texas closed Monday evening, and there were more than a few late developments in what is set to be a busy election cycle.
All the major statewide offices — including governor — are on the ballot, and every seat in the Texas Legislature is up for a vote because of redistricting. That is on top of the usual 36 congressional seats that are on the ballot every two years — plus two new U.S. House seats that Texas received because of population growth in the past decade.
The primary elections determining the two major parties’ nominees will be March 1. The general election will be Nov. 8… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas abortion law author reacts to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pledge to do the same thing with guns: “Good luck” (Texas Tribune)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is going after gun manufacturers, and he’s using Texas’ playbook to do it.
On Saturday, Newsom, a Democrat and occasional critic of Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, said he was working on a bill with the California Legislature and attorney general to allow private citizens to sue those who manufacture, distribute, or sell assault weapons or ghost gun kits.
His motivation? The U.S. Supreme Court’s Friday ruling on Texas’ restrictive abortion law.
Texas’ new abortion law, which effectively blocks the procedure after about six weeks into a pregnancy, relies on private citizens rather than state officials to enforce it by suing other individuals and abortion providers. The law’s unique enforcement mechanism has come under intense scrutiny, raising concerns that it could be replicated to diminish other constitutional rights including gun ownership, religious freedom, same-sex marriage and freedom of speech.
“If states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way,” Newsom said in a statement.
The Supreme Court on Friday did not block Texas’ law, but ruled that legal challenges to the law could continue to move forward.
State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, who wrote the law, was dismissive of Newsom’s effort to restrict gun rights by using Hughes’ law as a roadmap. He said he didn’t think his enforcement mechanism would be “effective against firmly established constitutional rights.”
“I would tell Gov. Newsom good luck with that,” Hughes said Monday. “If California takes that route, they’ll find that California gun owners will violate the law knowing that they’ll be sued and knowing that the Supreme Court has their back because the right to keep and bear arms is clearly in the Constitution, and the courts have clearly and consistently upheld it.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)