BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 25, 2022)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Creating preapproved ADU plans could take 2-3 years, produce few units (Austin Monitor)
With City Council seeking to make it easier to build accessory dwelling units, city staffers provided an update on Feb. 16 about a key part of Council’s ADU strategy: creating a menu of preapproved, publicly available ADU plans.
In a memo, staffers said such a program would take between 20 and 30 months and nearly 2,000 person-hours to roll out. Before plans could be released to the public, staff members would go through a detailed process of gathering community input, soliciting plans from local architects and reviewing the plans.
The program is part of a recent effort to make ADUs easier and cheaper to build. Council is also exploring whether to allow attached ADUs – think granny flats or garage apartments – and whether to make all ADUs legal in Single Family Residence-Large Lot (SF-1) and Single Family Residence-Standard Lot (SF-2) zones as long as the existing home on the lot is preserved. These proposed rules are part of a broader push to address the city’s rising housing costs.
Council will now decide, based on the report, whether the program is worthwhile. Council Member Kathie Tovo, who has led the charge on ADU policies, worried that staffers’ plan would take too long and provide little in return. “If we were going to implement a program in the manner that staff have described in this memo, I’m not sure it would result in increasing our numbers to an extent that is worth the investment the city would make,” Tovo told the Austin Monitor… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin lays out initial plan to guide future development of eastern downtown (Community Impact)
The city of Austin released an initial draft Feb. 23 of a plan that could shape future development along the eastern side of downtown.
The preliminary "vision framework" for the city's Palm District, which roughly runs between I-35 and Trinity Street south of 15th Street, lays out several goals for guiding the district's growth. The Palm District is home to landmarks such as the Austin Convention Center, Palm School, Waterloo Park and Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center in addition to the Rainey Street, and Red River and Innovation districts.
The drafting of development and investment guidelines for the Palm District began last spring and follows earlier direction from City Council to craft a new small-area plan for the edge of downtown. Council and planners have focused on the Palm District given the many cultural and natural assets located there, its place in the city's history of segregation, and new transportation and development projects expected to further reshape the area in the near future.
“The fundamental goal of the Palm District Planning Initiative is to engage stakeholders and the public to develop a shared vision for an area of downtown that has a rich history and that we know is evolving quickly," said Stevie Greathouse, the initiative's manager with the housing and planning department, last June… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Audit finds city slow to move on workforce development recommendations (Austin Monitor)
An updated audit has found the city has yet to implement most of the recommendations made five years ago related to improving workforce development programs within the Economic Development Department and Austin Public Health.
The 2022 audit, which was discussed at Wednesday’s meeting of City Council’s Audit and Finance Committee, found that only two of the six recommendations that were supposed to be implemented by mid-2018 are in place.
The initial recommendations were to have the city manager name a lead department to oversee workforce development programs; have that department establish citywide goals and expectations; make sure renegotiated workforce development contracts are aligned with the needs of area employers; build performance measures into those contracts, with payment dependent on performance; have the public health director enhance the review of contractors so all data is accurate; and have the EDD director conduct the same enhanced review.
The audit found the city manager had named EDD as the lead department for workforce development issues, and that APH had taken steps to improve the review of its contractors.
The other four recommendations are underway and the audit notes EDD made progress on some of them, with a road map for completion presented to the Audit and Finance Committee in January 2020, two months before the department had to switch gears to create a number of new programs related to Covid-19 relief.
Last May that department renewed efforts around the workforce development issues, drafting a three-year strategy that includes extending current workforce development contracts for one year to prevent gaps in service, determining which occupations are in high demand locally, surveying service providers about to measure performance, and working with the Office of Performance Management to align performance metrics.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Sylnovia Holt-Rabb, the recently named head of EDD, said the department will have a finalized plan for workforce development by the fourth quarter of this year… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
As APD cuts back on traffic enforcement, Austin looks to county to stop surge in deaths (KUT)
Despite a surge in deadly crashes, Austin police have scaled back traffic enforcement because of a staffing shortage. Now, the city is considering paying Travis County law enforcement officers to help catch dangerous drivers overnight.
Austin City Council members are being briefed this week on a possible partnership that would pay sheriff's and constable's deputies to volunteer for 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. shifts going after drunk drivers and people speeding on highways and major roads.
The Travis County Sheriff's Office declined to comment for this story, saying it would be premature before receiving a proposal from the city.
But the TCSO is already facing staffing problems of its own. An internal study found the sheriff's office was short 16 law enforcement officers, according to the county's budget for this year. The TCSO had "high rates of turnover of experienced staff members who are replaced with entry level personnel," the budget document said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
UT System creates $300 million endowment to help seven universities expand free tuition programs (Texas Tribune)
The University of Texas System’s Board of Regents has established a $300 million endowment fund to help seven system universities expand their free tuition programs for lower-income students.
The Promise Plus program will allow the universities — the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Texas at El Paso, the University of Texas Permian Basin, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the University of Texas at San Antonio and University of Texas at Tyler — to increase the income threshold for program eligibility, potentially reaching more students.
“All the talk about student debt, we’re attacking it on the front end,” board Chair Kevin Eltife told regents at their meeting Thursday morning. “We’re going out of our way to commit every dollar we can to these programs to lower tuition and cover tuition for our students.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Dallas hires former Texas health inspector general to investigate city corruption claims (Dallas Morning News)
Dallas has hired a former state health inspector general to lead a new office in charge of investigating allegations of city waste, abuse and fraud. Bart Bevers, 58, was announced Tuesday as the city’s first inspector general — a position city officials created in December when they made several changes to ethics rules to strengthen transparency and accountability to residents. Several scandals involving Dallas city officials have resulted in convictions on corruption-related charges. Bevers, currently a criminal defense attorney, will start March 14, and his office will be under the city attorney. He will oversee hiring more staff for his office. It’s not yet clear how many people he plans to hire. Former Gov. Rick Perry in 2007 appointed Bevers inspector general of the state Health and Human Services Commission. Bevers resigned in 2011 after overseeing investigations into health care programs such as Medicaid and the children’s health insurance program.
He has previously served as a state deputy inspector general and was a Dallas County assistant district attorney. In an email to city leaders about his decision to hire Bevers, City Attorney Chris Caso cited the lawyer’s experience as a prosecutor, defense attorney and head of a state agency with several hundred employees. Mayor Eric Johnson, who led the move to create an inspector general division and spearheaded other ethics-related changes approved in December, congratulated Bevers on his hire. Johnson noted that setting up the new office would be among the biggest tasks facing Bevers. “We still have challenges ahead of us, but Dallas is stronger today than it was yesterday,” he said. City officials said the inspector general division would receive and investigate all internal fraud, waste, abuse and corruption complaints and anonymous tips. It also could review claims of retaliation against whistleblowers… (LINK TO STORY)
Ex-ERCOT chief says Abbott directed freeze blackouts to stop before decision to run up billions in bills (Houston Chronicle)
The former head of the Texas power grid testified in court Wednesday that he was following the direction of Governor Greg Abbott when the grid manager ordered wholesale power prices to stay at the maximum price cap for days on end during last year’s winter storm and blackout, running up billions of dollars in bills for power companies. Bill Magness, the former CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, said even as power plants were starting come back online, former Public Utility Commission Chair DeAnn Walker told him that Abbott wanted them to do whatever necessary to prevent further rotating blackouts that left millions of Texans without power. “She told me the governor had conveyed to her if we emerged from rotating outages it was imperative they not resume,” Magness testified. “We needed to do what we needed to do to make it happen.”
Last year the governor's spokesman, Mark Miner, said Abbott was not “involved in any way” in the decision to keep wholesale electricity prices at the maximum of $9,000 per megawatt hour – more than 150 times normal prices. He described a decision to send an aide to ERCOT's operations center in the middle of the crisis as based on the feeling the grid operator was spewing “disinformation." "As Texans would expect, Governor Abbott instructed everyone involved that they must do what was needed to keep the power on and to prevent the loss of life,” Miner said in an email Wednesday. “This is the same instruction Governor Abbott gave to the PUC and ERCOT (during a cold snap) earlier this year: Do what needs to be done to keep the power on.” The decision to keep power prices at the maximum cap is now at the center of a bankruptcy trial waged by the Waco-based electric co-op Brazos Electric. Brazos contends that decision was made recklessly, adding up to a $1.9 billion power bill from ERCOT that forced co-op into bankruptcy… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Las Vegas Sands launches $2 million PAC to continue its push to legalize casinos in Texas (Texas Tribune)
Las Vegas Sands is doubling down on its commitment to bringing casinos to Texas with a new political action committee that is starting out with over $2 million to spend.
The group, Texas Sands PAC, formed in January and has already spent over half a million dollars across roughly three dozen races March 1, mostly to help incumbents facing primary competition. The PAC filed its first report Tuesday with the Texas Ethics Commission, revealing the recipients — and initial funding of $2.3 million from Miriam Adelson, Las Vegas Sands' majority shareholder. She is the widow of Sheldon Adelson, a GOP megadonor and former CEO of the Sands.
The company made a high-profile push last year to legalize casino gambling in Texas, though its legislation to let voters decide on the issue did not get far at the Capitol, only receiving a committee hearing in the House. Still, the gaming empire has insisted it is not giving up and says the PAC is part of a "long-term commitment to Texas."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Biden sends 7,000 troops to Germany (The Hill)
President Biden on Thursday directed an additional 7,000 troops to deploy to Germany to help bolster NATO’s defenses as Russia forges ahead with its military incursion against Ukraine.Earlier on Thursday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that the alliance activated its defense plans at the request of Gen. Tod Wolters, who leads U.S. European Command.
Stoltenberg didn’t elaborate on specifics, but said they cover the eastern part of the alliance and give its military commanders more authorities within guidelines to deploy forces if needed.
“Now, I'm authorizing additional U.S. force capabilities to deploy to Germany as part of NATO's response, including some the U.S.-based forces that the Department of Defense placed on standby weeks ago,” Biden said in remarks at the White House.
A senior defense official later said the troops were comprised of an armored brigade combat team with associated capabilities and enablers. The troops are expected to depart in the coming days.
While Biden has said no U.S. forces would be deployed directly to Ukraine, his administration has been working to bolster NATO’s defense capabilities… (LINK TO FULL STORY)