BG Reads | News You Need to Know (November 1, 2021)
Downtown Austin
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Audit finds fault with city’s tech purchase system (Austin Monitor)
City procedures for purchasing technology are not coordinated, timely or sufficiently clear and do not ensure that city resources are secure and protected, according to a report from the Office of the City Auditor issued this month.
Auditors also said that the city “does not have a good understanding of its needs which may result in purchases not aligned with citywide goals.” Although the city has a tool for tracking technology purchases, the audit team found that tool was not working as needed. In addition, auditors noted that staff in different departments can purchase technology outside of the established process.
Auditors analogized the situation this way: “(I)magine you are living in a house with four other roommates who do not communicate much. Each of you goes to the grocery store and buys food, but none of you has a list or knows what is in the pantry before you go. When everyone gets home, how much food did you buy that was already in the house? How many of you bought the same thing? This is like how the city buys technology except the city’s process is on a much larger scale.”
As a result of systemic problems, the city lacks a complete inventory of its technology. Auditors noted in the report that they had issued recommendations for establishing a city technology inventory in two previous audits. They learned that the expected completion date of that inventory has been delayed to “sometime in 2022.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin leaders 'refocus' on top city priorities laid out in 5-year strategic plan (Community Impact)
City Council members gathered with city management and staff Oct. 28 for a review of progress on dozens of targets set in a five-year city plan running through 2023. The document, Austin Strategic Direction 2023, or SD23, was put together as the first of several short-term policy and management guides for the city to meet its long-term goals set in the 30-year Imagine Austin comprehensive plan.
“We have 15,00 employees, we have a $4.5 billion budget, and it takes a lot to make sure that we are still moving in a direction that is with your priorities front and center. And this document, this Strategic Direction 2023 really displays that," City Manager Spencer Cronk told council.SD23 divides Austin's priorities into six main categories which inform council actions and annual budget planning. These areas, or strategic outcomes, include: culture and lifelong learning; economic opportunity and affordability; government that works for all; health and environment; mobility; and safety. Cronk said the Oct. 28 session offered officials an opportunity to "refocus" more than halfway through the five-year plan's timeline.
“In order for this to be successful, we need to make sure that we have the buy-in from our council and from our community that this is the direction that we need to be going in," he said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Government leaders delay key vote on roles around multibillion-dollar Project Connect transit expansion (KUT)
Three layers of government scheduled to approve a crucial document for the city's $7.1 billion expansion of public transit today have delayed the vote to another day, because the meeting went too long.
The Austin City Council along with the governing boards of Capital Metro and the Austin Transit Partnership — a local government corporation created to oversee the transit expansion known as Project Connect — met in a rare joint meeting Friday morning at the Austin Convention Center.
They were there to approve a joint powers agreement (JPA) that would have cemented their roles and responsibilities around Project Connect, established some protections for construction workers, clarified the role of community input and specified the degree to which equity would guide their decision-making.
But as the clock ticked closer to 1:30 p.m., which was agreed upon as a hard stop for the meeting due to the members' various other obligations, it became clear there would not be enough time to work through details of the JPA.
"I came prepared to vote today," Austin City Council Member Pio Renteria said. "I want to reassure the public that we are going to take action on this, but unfortunately we just ran out of time."
Officials did approve some measures related to Project Connect. For example, the City Council passed a resolution directing the city manager to smooth out regulations that could obstruct timely development of the transit plan. Permitting and regulations will be a major issue, as the project includes underground tunnels in Central Austin and a light-rail bridge over Lady Bird Lake.
But the larger and more contentious document was left unapproved, despite last-minute changes made by staff intended to address some concerns around protections for construction workers, the roles of a community advisory committee and other issues.
Among the changes was a clarification that construction workers' wages should be whichever is greater: the prevailing wage under the Davis Bacon Act (a U.S. Department of Labor metric of local wages for specific trades) or the "living wage" as established by the City of Austin, which is currently $15 per hour.
Another last-minute change, if approved, will require that supplemental agreements related to equity and anti-displacement around Project Connect be submitted to a community advisory committee for review prior to final adoption by the governing bodies.
For some residents who spoke during the public comment period of the meeting, the changes were not enough to satisfy their concerns… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Tax break talks lag between Samsung, Travis County; impact on future of $17B fab unclear (Austin American-Statesman)
Negotiations appear to be in a holding pattern between Travis County and Samsung over a possible tax incentive deal for a $17 billion semiconductor factory the tech giant has said it is considering building in Austin.
Travis County staff members haven't had dialogue with Samsung executives for about two weeks, county spokesman Hector Nieto said. Samsung and Travis County have been negotiating for several months on a potential deal.
“We have provided Samsung with everything they have requested, and we are waiting to hear back from them,” Nieto said Thursday.
The most recent materials provided to Samsung included the county’s parameters for a proposed deal, which would be crafted into a draft proposal and made public if Samsung agreed to them, Nieto said.
It's not clear what the circumstances might mean for Austin's hopes of landing the project, which is expected to be the most advanced facility to date for Samsung, one of the world's largest makers of memory chips and smartphones. Samsung's investment in the factory will total about $17 billion, the company has said, and the facility will employ about 1,800 people, with initial annual wages averaging about $66,000… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Matt Krause’s campaign for attorney general comes with a reading list (Texas Tribune)
Book bans don’t really work, except in politics.
They attract attention to the books in question. One good way to get a kid to pick up a book is to say there’s something illicit about it. And it’s a more powerful boost to sales than book blurbs or reviews can ever hope to be.
But as a political wedge, a ban on books — or the insinuation of one, such as an “inquiry” into what books are available to public school students in Texas — can be powerful. It’s not just a shot at the books, but at the people who work in close proximity to books and ideas, like teachers and librarians and other brainy, nerdy types. A nice, fresh controversy about which books they’re feeding into children’s undiscerning little minds amplifies current culture debates about critical race theory and transgender student athletes, masks and vaccines.
Matt Krause, a state representative from Fort Worth, is running for attorney general. He’s also the head of the House General Investigating Committee, and in that role, sent a letter to the Texas Education Agency, along with a list of about 850 books, saying he is “initiating an inquiry into Texas school district content.”
He’s got a funny way of fighting cancel culture.
The first order of business, he wrote, is to find out how many of those titles each school district owns, how much they spent on them and whether they have any other books that talk about human sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV or AIDS, sexually explicit images or illegal sexual behavior. He asked about books that “contain material that might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Two doors, few windows and 4,500 students: Architect quits over billionaire's mega dorm (Houston Chronicle)
Billionaire investor Charlie Munger doesn't mind some shade.
Munger, vice chairman at Berkshire Hathaway, has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to universities and high schools to build school facilities he designed himself. But the amateur architect's latest idea for a mostly windowless mega-dorm to be built on the University of California at Santa Barbara campus faced objection this week when a university architectural consultant quit, calling the plan "unsupportable from my perspective as an architect, a parent, and a human being."
Dennis McFadden, a Los Angeles architect and member of the university's design review committee of 15 years, wrote in his resignation letter that he was "disturbed" by the 11-story, 1.68 million-square-foot building with just two entrances. The massive dorm would house 4,500 students, 94% of whom would not have windows in their compact single-occupancy bedrooms. McFadden called the dorm the "wrong answer" to the need for more housing ― raising the question of how much authority wealthy donors have when it comes to planning the buildings their names are etched on.
"As the 'vision' of a single donor, the building is a social and psychological experiment with an unknown impact on the lives and personal development of the undergraduates the university serves," McFadden wrote in the letter, first reported by student-run newspaper the Daily Nexus and community outlet the Santa Barbara Independent.
Munger, who has no formal architecture training, says he's unfazed by McFadden's objections, telling The Washington Post that "this is not some crazy idea." He said his plan has been in the works for years and compared virtual windows that would simulate sunlight in the dorm rooms to those in Disney cruise staterooms.
The $1.5 billion project, of which Munger is contributing $200 million, will proceed despite McFadden's letter, a university spokeswoman said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
San Antonio's $1.2 billion bond could be largest ever. How will it shape the city's future? (San Antonio Express-News)
One of San Antonio's most critical economic development drivers is poised to undergo big changes.
In November, a special committee appointed by Mayor Ron Nirenberg will present to City Council a 20-year strategic development plan to transform San Antonio International Airport.
City leaders believe that plan will significantly improve San Antonio’s economic trajectory.
The cost to implement that plan could approach $2 billion at full build out. But it’s an investment Nirenberg and others insist is long overdue.
“Our future economic competitiveness depends on addressing the air service needs of this community,” he said.
City Manager Erik Walsh will be tasked with helping sell that landmark plan to council members. He said he believes the support is there as the evidence is clear San Antonio will need to invest to keep pace with increasing demand and with competition from other cities.
“This is a required plan,” he said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Speed of Texas abortion cases has few high court precedents (Associated Press)
In only a handful of cases has the Supreme Court, where decorative turtles symbolize the deliberate pace of justice, moved as quickly as it is in the fight over the Texas law that bans most abortions. They include some of the most famous disputes of the last 50 years. The cases being argued Monday could signal how the justices will rule in an even bigger abortion case that will be heard a month later and asks them to overrule the two landmark cases that guarantee a woman's right to an abortion, Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. But abortion is not directly at issue in the Texas cases. Rather, the court will decide whether abortion providers or the federal government can sue in federal court over the Texas law, which has an enforcement mechanism that Chief Justice John Roberts has described as “unusual, if not unprecedented.”
The Texas cases join Bush v. Gore, the Watergate tapes and Pentagon Papers cases, and just a few others that were heard and decided by the justices under a tight timeline that compressed months of briefings and arguments into weeks, and in some cases, days. In those situations, hard deadlines loomed or the fate of a presidency hung in the balance. It's not clear why the court is acting so quickly now. The justices, by a 5-4 vote, rejected an early plea to block the law before it took effect in September. The conservative majority’s one-paragraph opinion last month cited “novel and complex” procedural questions that the court usually leaves to lower courts to sort through before it steps in. Polls conducted after the court’s Texas abortion vote showed sharp drops in approval of the court. At around the same time, several justices made public pleas that they not be viewed as partisan politicians… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Barack Obama honors Jay-Z at his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction (NPR)
Rapper Jay-Z was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday, in a star-studded ceremony that featured tributes by former President Barack Obama and comedian Dave Chappelle.
The induction makes Jay-Z one of the few solo rappers to ever be included in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, alongside artists like the Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur and fellow 2021 inductee LL Cool J.
The legacy of the 23-time Grammy winner was celebrated in an introduction video that included remarks from Rihanna, DJ Khaled and Samuel L. Jackson, among others.
Obama's remarks came in a separate recording, in which he spoke about what Jay-Z's music has meant to him at pivotal points in his life and presidency.
"I've turned to Jay-Z's words at different points in my life, whether I was brushing dirt off my shoulder on the campaign trail, or sampling his lyrics on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the 50th anniversary of the Selma march to Montgomery," Obama said, according to footage of the speech posted to social media. "Today Jay-Z is one of the most renowned artists in history and an embodiment of the American dream, a dream he has helped make real for other young people like him."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
EV Startups Lucid and Rivian Deliver First Models to Customers (Wall Street Journal)
Rivian Automotive and Lucid Group Inc., two electric-car startups looking to emulate Tesla Inc.’s success, are making their marketplace debuts, shipping their first models to customers and planning to expand production.
Lucid, a California-based upstart that went public in July through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, began building its first all-electric Air sedans in Arizona in September and started delivering them to customers Saturday.
The company, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund, is looking to target the high-end market for luxury electric cars—a niche long dominated by Tesla—with the Air, a model that starts at $77,400. The first versions delivered over the weekend cost around $169,000.
Rivian, another up-and-comer backed by Ford Motor Co. and Amazon.com Inc., has started delivering its first model, the electric R1T pickup truck, to buyers and recently revealed plans for a second U.S. assembly plant to expand production beyond its factory in Normal, Ill.
The rollout of these first models is a milestone for the two upstarts and gives them an advantage in the race among electric-vehicle startups. The next challenge will be increasing factory output to boost sales, said Peter Rawlinson, Lucid’s chief executive. Lucid said it plans to make roughly 575 cars by the end of 2021 and increase that to 20,000 next year.
“What’s next is just getting the volume ramped up and pushing like crazy,” Mr. Rawlinson said.
Both Rivian and Lucid are scaling operations as Tesla’s valuation has continued to soar, crossing the $1 trillion mark last week… (LINK TO FULL STORY)