BG Reads | News You Need to Know (October 26, 2022)
[AUSTIN METRO]
First day of early voting brings over 35,000 ballots in Travis County (Community Impact)
Over 35,000 Travis County voters cast ballots on the first day of early voting, Oct. 24
The first day of early voting for the Nov. 8 election brought in 35,393 ballots, just under 4% of the total number of registered voters in Travis County, according to the Travis County clerk's office.
Of those, 25,343 votes were cast in-person, 10,041 were mail-in, and nine were limited ballots—ballots for voters who are registered in a different Texas county.
There are 887,007 registered voters in Travis County, which is about 85.7% of the county’s population over the age of 18, according to U.S. Census data.
There are 38 locations for early voting in Travis County, including five megacenters that have extended hours on Oct. 29 and on the last day of early voting, Nov. 4… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Chief says city working hard to get more 911 employees (Austin Monitor)
Reporting to City Council Tuesday, Police Chief Joseph Chacon stressed the department’s commitment to returning the number of 911 call takers and police dispatcher staff to normal levels as soon as possible.
The city has attempted to address the vacancies, primarily through increasing wages. But headlines about callers being placed on hold during an emergency continue.
Chacon said currently callers average 2.5 minutes on hold after dialing 911. The industry best practice is to answer 90 percent of calls within 15 seconds, he said, adding that two of three calls answered by the city’s 911 operators are answered within 15 seconds.
As of Oct. 10, there were 49 vacancies among 911 call takers and 21 vacancies among police dispatchers, according to a statement from the city. The Austin Monitor reported in September that the city had 48 vacancies and 57 filled positions among 911 operators, plus 20 vacancies and 55 filled positions among dispatchers.
Chacon and City Manager Spencer Cronk stressed their commitment to increasing those numbers as rapidly as possible. But there is no fast and easy fix for this problem, which other cities, including Atlanta, Kansas City and Philadelphia are also experiencing…(LINK TO FULL STORY)
New leadership installed at SXSW (Austin Business Journal)
Austin's famous South by Southwest Conference and Festivals said Oct. 24 that co-founder Roland Swenson is shifting from CEO to a new role as executive chairman.
Meanwhile, the organization named Chief Brand Officer Jann Baskett and Chief Programming Officer Hugh Forrest as co-presidents in charge of day-to-day leadership. They will also maintain their roles leading brand and programming… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin airport sees biggest day ever: 43,000 outbound travelers after F1 (KUT)
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport had its busiest day ever Monday as crowds left town after the U.S. Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas.
The one-day total of 43,177 departing passengers broke the previous record — set just a week earlier after the Austin City Limits Music Festival — by almost 8,000 travelers.
The influx of passengers for Monday's 289 outbound flights put an unprecedented strain on an airport whose infrastructure hasn't grown quickly enough to catch up to a rapid surge in air travel since the pandemic.
ABIA was constructed to handle 15 million passengers a year — far fewer than the 21 million travelers officials expect this year. City officials have started a $4 billion expansion including a new concourse that would boost the airport's capacity significantly by 2027… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
$669M solar farm plan rejected for Chapter 313 incentives in Bastrop County after neighbors express environmental concern (Austin Business Journal)
Neighbors in the largely rural area east of Austin have spent months organizing and rallying against the project, forming the group Friends of the Land to express primarily ecological concerns about the project. They've spoken out at public meetings, met with elected officials and spread the word.
Those efforts came to fruition late on Oct. 24 when the Elgin ISD board voted unanimously to reject a Chapter 313 application from Solar Proponent that company representatives said were a key determination in whether or not it's get built.
"My jaw dropped," Rogers said. "It was just a feeling that you get when working on something with people that you just met because of this situation and everyone staying committed and keeping on and keeping on and something good happening."
It's rare for a Chapter 313 application to get rejected, joining only one other known recent instance in Round Rock. Still, the future of the project remains to be seen… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Staff unveils long-awaited Palm School District draft plan (Austin Monitor)
City staff members presented the draft version of the long-awaited Palm District Plan to the Environmental Commission last week.
City Council commissioned the plan in 2019 as it sparred with Travis County over the future of the county-owned Palm School site. The resolution instructed city staff to engage with the public and learn the community’s vision for the future of the historically Mexican American district, which also includes Waller Creek, Red River Cultural District, Rainey Street, the Austin Convention Center and the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center.
This is the first time the Environmental Commission has been updated on the plan’s progress since 2019, because the process was delayed due to the pandemic. Staffers are seeking input on the public review draft that was released Oct. 13… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin City Council calls for Central Health board of managers applications (City of Austin)
The Austin City Council seeks applications from qualified individuals to serve on the nine-member Board of Managers of Central Health. The opening is to fill a new term that will run from January 2023 through December 31, 2026… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Once ‘lifeless’ downtown district transformed into health care hub (Community Impact)
Five years ago, the now demolished University Medical Center Brackenridge sat empty; plans to close the Frank Erwin Center were well in the works; and Waterloo Greenway, then called Waller Creek Conservancy, had just broken ground on the Waterloo Park project.
Since then, northeast downtown has transformed into a health-focused innovation district—complete with a state-of-the-art teaching hospital known as Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas at Austin, and UT Health, Dell Medical’s clinical practice—and ushered in new office space, Waterloo Park and the Moody Center.
What used to be an area that Austin City Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison has publicly described as “largely lifeless” was transformed through partnerships with the Downtown Austin Alliance, Capital City Innovation, Central Health, Ascension Seton and UT.
“Harnessing the strong tech economy, the very innovative spirit of the business community of Austin, rallying around this new medical school and this vision to transform health care delivery is the big vision of the innovation district,” said Michele Van Hyfte, vice president of urban planning for DAA… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
San Antonio buys a $325,000 road map to an undefined economic development destination (San Antonio Express-News)
A new economic development plan produced for the city by outside consultants — including a firm headed by political heavyweights Leticia Van de Putte and Hope Andrade — has raised concerns among City Council members who say it lacks specifics and doesn’t get San Antonio closer to its goals. Its chief recommendations call for strengthening the city’s workforce, assisting local businesses and “place-making.” Some recommendations from the plan, which the city paid $325,000 to produce, mirror earlier reports prepared for the cities of Arlington and Fort Worth. “I saw a lot of generic stuff in there that I probably could’ve done on my own for a lot less money,” District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry said. “You should be hiring a consultant for their expertise in putting something together because you don’t have that expertise in-house. And I certainly think we have that expertise and could have done this level of document in-house.”
The city’s Economic Development Department last fiscal year had 35 full-time staffers and a budget of $10 million. And it’s increased to 40 staffers and a budget of more than $14 million this fiscal year — a fact Perry brought up during a council discussion last week. He questions why the department needed to hire additional help. The 77-page “strategic framework” plan was produced in part by Andrade-Van de Putte & Associates, which employs a former chief of staff to Mayor Ron Nirenberg. It appears light on specifics, largely repeating recommendations the consultants gave to other cities in similar reports or that were made in similar economic plans such as the Alamo Area Council of Governments’ strategy or the SA Tomorrow plan. Despite such reservations, council members unanimously approved the “strategic framework” plan Thursday. Overall, council members and city staffers defended the document, saying it will help guide the city as it crafts its economic development strategy in greater detail. “Sometimes we hire outside experts, and the consultants in this case went through a competitive process and are experts in their field,” City Manager Erik Walsh said. “We contracted for a road map, and I’ve got a road map.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas AG Ken Paxton leans into controversy, brushes off scandals as he vies for reelection (Dallas Morning News)
Ken Paxton settled in across from two Austin police officers and asked them not to turn on their recorder. The attorney general didn’t want the public to hear what he was about to say. Over the next hour, Paxton fretted that a campaign donor was threatening to kill him. That this person had tried to hack his car’s GPS system. That Google, which he had sued that day, may track him through his phone. Paxton insisted he wasn’t imagining the danger. “I don’t need them tracking me and knowing what I’m doing,” Paxton said about the tech giant in the interview, which he eventually agreed to be recorded, at the special investigations unit of the Austin Police Department. “It sounds paranoid, but I can’t let them — the less they know about me the better.” During a wide-ranging interview in October 2020, Paxton said he never before felt this at risk. For the first time in his 20-year political career, he said he had asked his detail for round-the-clock security.
Paxton’s recorded remarks, which The Dallas Morning News obtained from the Austin police through a public records request, provide rare insight into the attorney general’s mindset. For Paxton, everything happening seemed connected. “Could it all be a coincidence? Sure. But do I think it is? No,” Paxton said in the recording. His closest aides had just accused him of serious crimes, prompting some fellow Republicans to question his fitness for office and the FBI to get involved. Today, the cloud of legal troubles over Paxton hasn’t lifted. After nearly eight years of being buffeted by personal scandals and criminal charges, he says he is the target of powerful enemies who want to bring down one of the most prominent conservative attorneys general in the country. But instead of backing away from the limelight, he has doubled down on politically charged lawsuits that rally his core supporters and loudly punched back at his foes. Paxton, 59, is banking that this approach will propel him to a third term. He is delivering a series of attack ads and has built a hefty cash advantage over his opponent, Democrat Rochelle Garza, 37. The most recent polling shows Paxton with a double-digit lead over Garza, a civil rights attorney from South Texas. She has zeroed in on Paxton’s criminal charges, including a new ad that says he is “under a cloud of corruption.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[HEARINGS/MEETINGS]
Wednesday
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[BG PODCAST]
Episode 168: Market Talk - Lobbying in Philadelphia with Mustafa Rashed of Bellevue Strategies
Today's episode (168) features a discussion on entrepreneurship and lobbying with Mustafa Rashed, Founder and President, of Philadelphia-based Bellevue Strategies.
He and Bingham Group CEO A.J. also discuss current municipal issues in the Philadelphia market.
Enjoyed this episode? Please like, share, and comment!