BG Reads | News You Need to Know (January 12, 2022)
Downtown Austin
[BINGHAM GROUP]
We are proud to announce Bingham Group CEO A.J. has joined the Austin Habitat for Humanity Board! Unanimously approved last month, A.J. will serve a three year term.
[MEETING/HEARINGS]
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Celia Israel announces run for Austin mayor (Austin Monitor)
State Rep. Celia Israel has made it official: On a chilly Tuesday morning at Parque Zaragoza in East Austin, Israel announced that she would be running for mayor of Austin.
She was joined by supporters Rubén Cantú, Ashley Cheng, Nelson Linder, Sofia Reyes and state Rep. Donna Howard.
In her speech, Israel pledged to “use our prosperity to build a city that leaves no one behind.” She told the crowd her campaign will focus on “three pillars”: housing and affordability; public health and public safety; and transportation and mobility.
“The building cranes and the help-wanted ads are an indicator of a strong economy, but we are becoming an elitist city where only the wealthy can afford to live. We can’t become a city that attracts billionaires, but sends the working class out to Buda and Bastrop.”
Israel said she will support policies that “allow for more housing options” and help retain families and diversity and allow seniors to age in place. In her speech, she also vowed to keep families safe, provide more safe mobility options to residents, and bring higher expectations to a police force helmed by a new chief.
Since 2014, Israel has represented House District 50, where she was a founding member of the House LGBTQ Caucus. In addition to her service at the state Legislature, the lifelong Texan has a long history of civic engagement that includes time on the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the city’s Environmental Board, Police Monitor Board, 2011 Bond Advisory Task Force, and Mueller redevelopment advisory commission, as well as an AISD school safety task force.
Israel is a licensed Realtor who lives with her wife, Celinda Garza, in District 7. The two were married by Howard after their wedding was delayed when the representative flew to Washington D.C. to break quorum in an effort to block passage of a bill that would restrict voting in Texas… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Ex-aide to Austin Mayor Steve Adler pleads guilty to federal charges after Statesman probe (Austin American-Statesman)
A former Austin city staffer has pleaded guilty to taking payments from a nonprofit that won a federal contract he promoted while working as Mayor Steve Adler’s aide.
Frank Rodriguez, 71, who left his job as a senior policy adviser to the mayor after the American-Statesman investigated his actions in 2017, pleaded guilty this month to conspiring to misapply federal funds and to falsifying records. He faces up to five years in prison and will be sentenced March 24 in federal court.
Rodriguez's attorney said Tuesday they would not be commenting on the case before the sentencing. Adler also declined comment.
Latino HealthCare Forum, a nonprofit that Rodriguez co-founded and once ran, reaped $1 million in public money for programs Rodriguez helped create, the Statesman uncovered in its investigation… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Colette Pierce Burnette named Austinite of the Year (Austin Business Journal)
The 2021 Austinite of the Year is Colette Pierce Burnette, president and CEO of Huston-Tillotson University.
The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce on Jan. 10 named her the recipient of the prestigious annual award.
Burnette took over the top post at Huston-Tillotson, Austin's only historically black university, in 2015 after leading institutions such as Pierce College in Washington and Central State University in Ohio. Before beginning a career in academia, Burnette sharpened her leadership skills at organizations such as Procter & Gamble, The Washington Post and the Washington State Department of Transportation, as she detailed in a March 2021 profile.
In addition to her academic duties, Burnette has taken on leadership roles in the community ranging from her work on the Mayor's Task Force on Institutional Racism and Systemic Inequities to chairing both the Leadership Austin Board and the Central Texas Collective for Racial Equity. Burnette is also a dedicated mentor who has worked with programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters.
“Colette has transformed Huston-Tillotson," said Nikki Graham, 2021 Chamber chairwoman and former Austin market president for Bank of America, in a statement. "In every room I've been with her, she has encouraged courageous leadership. She's collaborative and wants people to work together, but she's not afraid to push the status quo and make people see things differently. She has played a key role in this important time in our city's history and her background in business and a unique set of skills help her relate to elected officials, businesspeople, and academics alike. She's a unifier and the Austin community should be unified in its recognition that this honor is more than deserved.”
While Burnette described the award as a humbling honor that allows her "personal and professional passions to intersect," she noted that she has not achieved success alone.
“It may be an award with my name on it ... but I have an army of people around me that help me in this work," Burnette said in an interview.
Burnette has increased Huston-Tillotson's endowment more than 55% and forged partnerships with major corporations such as Tesla, Indeed and Apple… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin's District 4 residents get to pick a new City Council member. Here's when and where to vote. (KUT)
Austinites in District 4, which spans much of Central North Austin, have the chance to vote on a new City Council member during a special election this month. Council Member Greg Casar is stepping down to run for Congress, and seven candidates are vying to replace him.
Here’s what you need to know to vote… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
APD, crime commission lay out new model that could guide police staffing, responses in Austin (Community Impact)
As the Austin Police Department continues to be staffed well below its budgeted headcount, a new staffing model unveiled Jan. 11 could be used to help city leaders determine how many officers the department needs and what their goal response times would be with those numbers.
The new model stems from a project funded by the Greater Austin Crime Commission and overseen by researchers at the University of New Haven and Texas State University. Their work gathered millions of data points from five years' worth of APD officer responses and calls for service into a machine learning model, which produced several recommendations for the department's patrol operations.
In a virtual briefing on the program, Police Chief Joseph Chacon hailed the "groundbreaking" model as the first of its kind in the U.S. and a tool that could shape ongoing conversations about the APD's staffing needs and the department's lagging priority response times.
"We pride ourselves as a police department in using data and evidence to make decisions, especially policy decisions that are going to make sense for our community," Chacon said. "This falls right in line with that and is going to be, I think, a very useful tool for our department and something that has that evidence behind it when we talk about, ‘This is the right number of officers that we need to be able to accomplish our goals.’”
Jonathan Kringen, APD's chief data officer, said the machine learning model looked at multiple elements of the police response data to produce results that Chacon and the APD may now act on. Officials said both the model and community input were used to determine ideal staffing levels and response times that could get Austin police to a crime scene faster and more often result in outcomes such as an arrest… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Westlake school district faces lawsuit from parent over diversity and inclusion initiative (Austin American-Statesman)
The Eanes school district, its board of trustees and its superintendent are being sued over actions taken during and around two school board meetings in the summer of 2020. That summer, which was marked nationwide by weeks of protests after the murder of George Floyd, also marked the start of the district’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiative. Parent Christie Oates, who filed the lawsuit, alleges that the school board violated the state’s open meetings act by discussing the hiring of consultant Mark Gooden in private before voting on the matter publicly. Parents opposed to the initiative have made similar arguments for months, and members of the school board and district staff have said that no secret meetings or decisions took place. Oates, who has been outspoken in her opposition to the diversity initiative, is asking that the school board’s vote to hire Gooden be thrown out as invalid. She also is asking the district to cover the cost of her legal fees.
The Texas Open Meetings Act requires government entities to provide the public access to proceedings and decision-making processes. The lawsuit claims that during the early days of the diversity initiative, the district deprived residents in Eanes of their right to observe how and why decisions were reached. “Decisions were not made in the open and during board meetings. To the contrary, secret deliberations and walking quorums were conducted outside board meetings,” the lawsuit reads. “As a result, parents, students, and other residents of the Eanes ISD were deprived of their opportunity to learn about or participate in their government.” A district spokesperson and members of the school board said they could not comment on ongoing litigation. Oates did not respond to requests for comment. Her lawyer, Andy Taylor, said the purpose of the lawsuit is to hold the district accountable for the alleged violations of the law in Gooden's hiring, which he said has led the district away from it's "long history of academic excellence" and caused distraction and disruption. "The kids and teachers have been the real victims of this violation of the law," he said in a statement. "By holding the school board and Superintendent accountable for their illegal actions we hope to have the contract with Dr. Gooden voided and all curriculum and recommended trainings and content removed from the district."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas Sen. Cornyn leads GOP pushback as Democrats tout federal voting bills (Houston Chronicle)
Texas Sen. John Cornyn led the Republicans in resisting Democrats’ efforts to pass new voting rights legislation, going toe to toe with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor Tuesday as both sides gear up for a make-or-break attempt get the bills passed. The clash between the Texas Republican and New York Democrat highlighted the vast differences between the parties as the national debate over changes to voting laws enacted in Texas and other red states comes to a head in the Senate. Schumer has vowed to change Senate rules by Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to pass them. In a speech on the Senate floor, Cornyn defended the work of the Texas Legislature and said the elections bills that Republicans have consistently blocked are “simply about enhancing the political power of the Democratic party.” He accused Democrats of creating a narrative of widespread voter suppression that is “nothing more than a scare tactic to achieve a political outcome.”
“There is simply no concerted effort to attempt to prevent voters of color — or any eligible voters — from casting their ballot,” Cornyn said, “and the Voting Rights Act — one of the most important pieces of legislation in our nation’s history — is alive and well.” The federal voting bills are aimed at undoing new legislation enacted last year in GOP-led states including Texas and requiring them to get approval from the U.S. Justice Department for such election changes in the future — something states with a history of discrimination were required to do under the Voting Rights Act until the Supreme Court ended so-called preclearance in 2013. The push comes as the Biden administration sues Texas over the voting laws and redrawn political maps passed by the GOP-led Legislature in 2021, claiming they are calculated to discriminate against Black and Latino voters and individuals with disabilities. Cornyn spoke in front of a bright red sign with bold letters reading: “94% of voters said voting in 2020 was easy,” based on the results of a Pew survey. “This is a stark contrast to the claimed assault on voting rights we’ve heard so much about,” Cornyn said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Ted Cruz promotes conspiracy theory that blames FBI provocateurs for Jan. 6 riot at Capitol (Dallas Morning News)
Still mending fences with right-wing Republicans for calling the Jan. 6 Capitol riot a “terrorist attack,” Sen. Ted Cruz expanded his outreach Tuesday by promoting a conspiracy theory that pins blame for the assault on FBI provocateurs. “A lot of Americans are concerned that the federal government deliberately encouraged illegal and violent conduct on January 6,” Cruz told a top FBI official at a hearing on domestic extremism. “Did federal agents or those in service of federal agents actively encourage violent and criminal conduct on January 6? “Not to my knowledge, sir,” responded Jill Sanborn, executive assistant director of the FBI’s national security branch. But by then, Cruz had used his platform at the Judiciary Committee hearing to insinuate that a man named Ray Epps – an Arizona rancher and former president of the Arizona Oath Keepers, the largest chapter of a militia group whose members took part in the Capitol attack – had incited violence on orders from unnamed federal officials.
For what purpose, Cruz didn’t explain. At the time, Donald Trump was still president. The mob wanted to keep him in power, which meant somehow trying to prevent Congress from ratifying state-certified electoral tallies. Cruz led a group of 11 senators who tried unsuccessfully to do just that. Speculation about Epps emerged on the message board 4chan in June, based partly on the fact that he was dropped from the FBI’s list of most wanted suspects for Jan. 6 and has not yet faced charges. “No one’s exchange explained why a person videoed urging people to go to the Capitol, a person whose conduct was so suspect the crowd believed he was a fed, would magically disappear from the list of people the FBI was looking at,” Cruz said. No evidence has surfaced that links Epps to the federal government. He did not respond to a message left Tuesday at Rocking R Farms and the Knotty Barn, a wedding and event venue he owns in Queen Creek, Ariz. Cruz’s comments align him with some of the most conspiracy-minded elements of the GOP… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Fauci clashes with Paul, says attacks kindle 'the crazies' (The Hill)
White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci accused Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) of putting him in danger with personal attacks during the pair's latest clash on Tuesday.
During a Senate Health Committee hearing on the government's response to the omicron variant, Paul went after Fauci on several topics, including blaming Fauci for school closures and conflating emails purportedly about the origins of the virus, among other issues.
"This happens all the time. You personally attack me, with absolutely not a shred of evidence of anything you say. So I would like to make something clear to the committee: You're doing this for political reasons," Fauci told Paul.
Fauci pointed out that the police in Iowa recently arrested an armed man just before Christmas who claimed he was traveling from Sacramento to Washington, D.C., in order to "kill Dr. Fauci."
According to reports at the time, the man was arrested in possession of an assault rifle and ammunition, as well as a "kill list" of people he planned to attack in D.C., including Fauci, President Biden and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
"So I ask myself why would [the] senator want to do this? You go to Rand Paul website, and you see 'fire Dr. Fauci' with a little box that says 'contribute here!' You can do $5, $10, $20, $100. So you are making a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain," Fauci told Paul.
White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci accused Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) of putting him in danger with personal attacks during the pair's latest clash on Tuesday.During a Senate Health Committee hearing on the government's response to the omicron variant, Paul went after Fauci on several topics, including blaming Fauci for school closures and conflating emails purportedly about the origins of the virus, among other issues.
"This happens all the time. You personally attack me, with absolutely not a shred of evidence of anything you say. So I would like to make something clear to the committee: You're doing this for political reasons," Fauci told Paul.
Fauci pointed out that the police in Iowa recently arrested an armed man just before Christmas who claimed he was traveling from Sacramento to Washington, D.C., in order to "kill Dr. Fauci."
According to reports at the time, the man was arrested in possession of an assault rifle and ammunition, as well as a "kill list" of people he planned to attack in D.C., including Fauci, President Biden and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
"So I ask myself why would [the] senator want to do this? You go to Rand Paul website, and you see 'fire Dr. Fauci' with a little box that says 'contribute here!' You can do $5, $10, $20, $100. So you are making a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain," Fauci told Paul.
"What happens when he gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue, all of a sudden that kindles the crazies out there, and I have threats upon my life, harassment of my family, and my children will have seen phone calls because people are lying about me," Fauci told the Senate committee.
During one exchange, Paul pressed Fauci over an email and accused the expert of trying to "attack scientists who disagree with you."
"You just do the same thing every hearing," Fauci told him. "You're absolutely incorrect, as usual, senator."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)