BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 2, 2022)
“Have a vision. Be demanding.” — Colin Powell
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin City Council set to consider tenants' rights protections (KVUE)
The Austin City Council will vote on two resolutions aiming to strengthen tenants' rights beyond the COVID-19 pandemic at its upcoming meeting.
The resolutions direct the city manager to make plans that strengthen renters' rights with the goal of helping those at risk of being evicted from being forced from their homes.
One resolution, Item 39 on the Council's Feb. 3 agenda, directs the city manager to prepare a code amendment that establishes rights for renters for the Council to consider by late July, including tenants' rights to organize. The proposed ordinance would be investigated and enforced by the City's Civil Rights Office, according to the draft resolution.
Item 40, the second resolution to strengthen tenants' rights, calls for landlords to provide a notice of proposed eviction to tenants before providing them a notice to vacate, in an effort to allow the renter enough time to prevent being evicted. The proposed notice would be given seven days before a notice to vacate and tenants would be allowed to respond and remedy the cause for eviction, according to the draft resolution.
This item also calls for a provision that requires a longer period for tenants to respond in instances where the City is under certain kinds of disaster declarations.
The additional protections for Austin tenants come as the City enacted and extended an eviction moratorium in the city. It was first put in place in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic and prevented landlords from issuing notices to vacate except in some instances.
Councilmembers Greg Casar, Vanessa Fuentes, Ann Kitchen and Kathie Tovo announced the new proposed protections on Tuesday at a press conference where they were joined by renters and advocates for tenants' rights… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
2 high-tech factories — nearly $3B in investment — may land in little Hutto (Austin Business Journal)
A pair of high-tech manufacturing projects that could create more than 1,600 jobs and nearly $3 billion in capital investment may be on their way to Hutto.
While officials from the fast-growing suburb northeast of Austin did not reveal the names of any companies, they indicated during a Jan. 31 special called board meeting of the Hutto Economic Development Corp. that they are negotiating incentives agreement for the two projects. Because nothing is finalized, details including job and investment totals are subject to change.
But should the unnamed companies — labeled “Project Acropolis” and “Project D12” in city documents — select Hutto, they would occupy roughly 600 acres at the city’s “megasite,” located along U.S. Route 79, a short drive from where Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is building a $17 billion next-generation semiconductor plant… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin to spend $65 million this year to reduce displacement near future transit lines (Austin Monitor)
The city of Austin is preparing to spend $65 million this year on efforts to prevent people who live near future public transit lines from being priced out of their homes.
The single largest transit expansion in Austin’s history is expected to increase demand for property near frequent transit routes, potentially making affordability problems worse in a city where home prices have been growing by 20 percent a year or more.
“There’s a different way that we can do the transit investments that does not have to negatively impact communities in such a huge way that we have seen done historically,” said Nefertitti Jackmon, who was hired last year as the city’s first community displacement prevention officer.
The $65 million will be divided pretty evenly between three goals: buying property, developing property and funding community-initiated projects.
The money is coming from a $300 million anti-displacement fund approved by Austin voters in November 2020 as part of the $7.1 billion Project Connect transit expansion. Project Connect is paid for with federal grants and a local tax increase of 8.75 cents per $100 of property value.
The transit expansion includes the addition of two light-rail lines and four high-frequency MetroRapid bus routes. The new routes, particularly light rail, are expected to draw increased development clustered around stations.
The severity of gentrification and displacement around transit stops has been hotly debated among academic researchers in large part because the phenomenon is so difficult to measure… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council still has many questions about waterfront tax zone (Austin Monitor)
Anyone expecting definitive answers about how the city will pay for improvements for the South Central Waterfront zone after a lengthy discussion at Tuesday’s City Council work session was likely disappointed.
At the end of reports from the city’s financial and housing staff, Council still had numerous questions. Mayor Steve Adler, who has been a proponent of the tax increment reinvestment zone, said Council needs to know how the property within the zone would develop with the TIRZ and how it might develop without the city tax money.
Council approved the TIRZ in December, but left open the pivotal question of how much city tax money would be diverted from the General Fund and into financing streets, sidewalks, parks and trails for the area as well as new utility lines and green infrastructure.
By creating the TIRZ but leaving the tax increment at zero, Council left open the question of how much, if any, tax money there would be to pay for what planners hope will be a showpiece part of town along the waterfront.
Staff members have estimated the cost of streets, sidewalks, parks, plazas and utilities at $277 million. However, as Deputy Chief Financial Officer Kimberly Olivares told Council, the estimates do not include administrative expenses for the Austin Economic Development Corporation, affordable housing, or maintenance and operation of the amenities. She reported that one of the primary duties of the EDC would be to coordinate relevant city departments on needed improvements, including streets and utilities.
In order to win approval from the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the city still has to prove that development or redevelopment within the zone would not occur “in the reasonably foreseeable future but for public investment,” as Olivares noted. Supporters of the TIRZ, including Adler, have argued that the inadequate sidewalks and street layouts are significant deterrents to development. On Tuesday, Adler noted that this highly valued part of town would develop without city funds, though not in a way that the city envisions.
That has not been a sufficient argument to convince lawyers Bill Aleshire, Bill Bunch and Fred Lewis, among others, who have written to Council to let them know that they think the TIRZ plan is illegal.
Aleshire told the Austin Monitor he remains convinced that the city could not make a case for moving forward with a TIRZ because its lawyers would be unable to prove that the property would not develop but for the TIRZ. He and others who object to the TIRZ would have no problem with the use of a public improvement district, however, because that would not take money away from the General Fund.
Attorney Richard Suttle, who represents Endeavor Real Estate Group, said the attorney general had approved TIRZ financing for a variety of areas of town not considered blighted. Those include Waller Creek, Mueller and Seaholm, which would stand as good examples for the city in its argument for approval… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas leaders warn of “treacherous” driving conditions and possible local power outages as freezing weather approaches (Texas Tribune)
With freezing weather expected to hit a large portion of Texas this week, Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday tried to assure Texans that the state is better prepared this year than last, but said there could be local power outages throughout the state.
“Either ice on power lines ... could cause a power line to go down, or it could be ice on trees that causes a tree to fall on power lines,” Abbott said.
This week’s cold front could be the first significant test of the state’s main power grid since last February’s freeze left millions of Texans without power for days in subfreezing temperatures. Hundreds of people died because of that storm.
“No one can guarantee there won’t be [power outages],” Abbott said Tuesday, just over two months after he promised the lights would stay on this winter.
Abbott and other officials at the press conference warned that the winter storm could cause “treacherous” driving conditions due to snow and ice.
Two hours before Abbott’s Tuesday news conference, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state’s main power grid, held a conference call with dozens of entities in the Texas power system and told them that gas suppliers have already begun notifying electricity generation companies that some of their expected gas supply will not arrive this week during the freezing weather, according to people on the call who requested anonymity because they were not allowed to discuss the call publicly… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
'Mattress Mack' endorses GOP candidate hoping to challenge Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo (Houston Chronicle)
Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale may be the owner of Gallery Furniture, but he's selling more than furniture. The Houston businessman has officially endorsed Republican candidate and former Army Capt. Alexandra del Moral Mealer for Harris County Judge in 2022 in her campaign to unseat first-term incumbent Lina Hidalgo. McIngvale made the announcement Monday in an ad shot in his store in which he called Mealer a "friend." "She's going to be tough on crime," McIngvale said in the clip shared to Twitter. "Crime is exploding in Harris County," Mealer said in the video. "If you don't want to carry a gun in your car because of car jacking, vote for me," she said, vowing to put criminals in jail.
McIngvale said in a statement that Harris County needs someone who "will defend the American dream for the next generation." Hidalgo, who has served for three years, takes what she refers to as an "evidence-based" approach to criminal justice reform, focusing on investing county funds towards reducing recidivism and supporting successful reintegration. Mealer is one of nine Republican candidates seeking the GOP nomination for county judge. Other candidates in the March 1 Republican primary are attorney Vidal Martinez, Humble Independent School District board president Martina Lemond Dixon and Randy Kubosh, brother of Houston Councilman Michael Kubosh. The others are Oscar Gonzales, George Zoes, Robert Dorris, Warren Howell and HQ Bolanos. Within the Democratic primary Hidalgo is up against former Precinct 1 Constable’s Office Chief of Staff Erica Davis, real estate broker Ahmad R. "RobBeto" Hassan, photographer Georgia Provost, and attorneys Maria Garcia and Kevin Howard… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
East SA economic group taps developer as new CEO (San Antonio Business Journal)
San Antonio for Growth on the Eastside has named Robert Melvin as its new president and CEO.
That move accompanies other changes the nonprofit economic development group is making more than four months after its former leader, Tuesdae Knight, departed to spend time with an ailing family member.
Melvin, founder of construction management and real estate development firm Limitless Creations Inc., has stepped down as CEO of that organization to turn his full attention to SAGE.
Melvin had served as chairman of SAGE. After Knights exit, he said there was some nudging from family members to take the CEO job.
“I've been involved with the East Side of San Antonio and SAGE for longer than I realized,” Melvin said. “It played a much larger role in my life than I realized.”
VIA Metropolitan Transit President and CEO Jeffrey Arndt is now chairman of SAGE. He said Melvin’s strong ties to East San Antonio and his background in economic development made him the “perfect fit” for the SAGE CEO position… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Trump had role in weighing proposals to seize voting machines (New York Times)
Six weeks after Election Day, with his hold on power slipping, President Donald J. Trump directed his lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to make a remarkable call. Mr. Trump wanted him to ask the Department of Homeland Security if it could legally take control of voting machines in key swing states, three people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Giuliani did so, calling the department’s acting deputy secretary, who said he lacked the authority to audit or impound the machines. Mr. Trump pressed Mr. Giuliani to make that inquiry after rejecting a separate effort by his outside advisers to have the Pentagon take control of the machines. And the outreach to the Department of Homeland Security came not long after Mr. Trump, in an Oval Office meeting with Attorney General William P. Barr, raised the possibility of whether the Justice Department could seize the machines, a previously undisclosed suggestion that Mr. Barr immediately shot down.
The new accounts show that Mr. Trump was more directly involved than previously known in exploring proposals to use his national security agencies to seize voting machines as he grasped unsuccessfully for evidence of fraud that would help him reverse his defeat in the 2020 election, according to people familiar with the episodes. The existence of proposals to use at least three federal departments to assist Mr. Trump’s attempt to stay in power has been publicly known. The proposals involving the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security were codified by advisers in the form of draft executive orders. But the new accounts provide fresh insight into how the former president considered and to some degree pushed the plans, which would have taken the United States into uncharted territory by using federal authority to seize control of the voting systems run by states on baseless grounds of widespread voting fraud. The people familiar with the matter were briefed on the events by participants or had firsthand knowledge of them. The accounts about the voting machines emerged after a weekend when Mr. Trump declared at a rally in Texas that he might pardon people charged in connection with the storming of the Capitol last Jan. 6 if he were re-elected. In a statement issued after the rally, Mr. Trump also suggested that his vice president, Mike Pence, could have personally “overturned the election” by refusing to count delegates to the Electoral College who had vowed to cast their votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr… (LINK TO FULL STORY)