BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 15, 2023)
[AUSTIN METRO]
A review of Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk's tenure ahead of Wednesday's meeting (KVUE)
As Austin City Council prepares to consider whether they’ll part ways with city manager Spencer Cronk, CBS Austin is looking back at some of his most notable moments on the job.
During a special called city council meeting on Wednesday, the future of his employment will be discussed. Before Spencer Cronk replaced Marc Ott as city manager, he worked in Minneapolis assisting the mayor and council. In 2017 after a long search, he was selected as the City of Austin’s Chief Operating Officer.
Just months after accepting the position a string of deadly bombings shook the community in March 2018. Several months later in October, Cronk ordered a review of the city’s response to its drinking water problems after a week-long boil water notice, stemming from historic flooding of the Llano river… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Equity Action announces long list of supporterS (Austin MOnitor)
Equity Action, the group that gathered signatures to put the original Austin Police Oversight Act on the May ballot, unveiled a list Tuesday of more than 100 community organizations and local leaders who endorse the APOA. The list includes Mayor Kirk Watson, former Mayor Steve Adler, and seven current City Council members including Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis and Council members Natasha Harper-Madison, Vanessa Fuentes, José Velásquez, Chito Vela, Ryan Alter and Zo Qadri. Former Council Member Ann Kitchen and former state Rep. Celia Israel also support the original oversight act.
U.S. Rep. Greg Casar and state Reps. Sheryl Cole, Vikki Goodwin, Donna Howard, James Talarico and Lulu Flores, as well as Austin ISD trustees Kevin Foster and Andrew Gonzales and former trustee Ann Teich are also on the list of supporters, along with Del Valle ISD trustee Susanna Ledesma-Woody and former Travis County sheriff and city of Austin police monitor Margo Frasier.
Equity Action also unveiled its website, Yes on A, No on B, which provides the names of more than 30 organizations supporting the proposition, which will appear as Proposition A on the May 6 ballot. Those organizations include the Travis County Democratic Party, NAACP Austin, Public Citizen, the Austin Justice Coalition, Texas Fair Defense Project, PODER, and a lengthy list of other groups… (LINK TO FULL STORY HERE)
Notley/Monitor Poll: Austinites can’t agree on greatest park challenges or solutions (Austin Monitor)
Austin residents regularly use city parks but are divided over how they should be maintained, according to a January/February poll of 429 voters commissioned by Notley and conducted by national pollster Change Research for the Austin Monitor.The poll comes as Austin leaders continue to focus on parks and open space and projects like the Texas Capitol Complex and the Waterloo Greenway, and as the city considers its role in the Interstate 35 Capital Express project. The city is working with the Texas Department of Transportation to incorporate open and park space into the designs for the section that will run through Austin… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin could tap into federal dollars to help with tree trimming efforts (KXAN)
A federal law designed to lower inflation and increase jobs provide an additional resource to Austin’s tree trimming efforts following the winter storm that knocked out power for thousands.
During the winter snap in early February, trees became frozen and branches snapped under the weight of the ice. Those branches fell on cars, homes, and power lines.
Austin Energy is the sole city department responsible for trimming the tree branches around the city’s power infrastructure… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
As Texas booms, local governments — especially in small towns — struggle to find workers (Texas Tribune)
Earl Norrod thought he was finished working when he retired from the city of Lufkin water department 10 years ago.
But amid a nationwide labor shortage — and a particular dearth of qualified government workers in small towns — the 76-year-old has been in and out of employment.
Since 2018, Norrod has been tapped three times to help the nearby small town of Zavalla with its water system. The working-class community of fewer than 700 people struggles with aging water infrastructure and lacks the budget and skilled workforce to fix it. Last year, the problems intensified after water line breaks and system failures left residents without potable drinking water for nearly 10 days — and a boil-water notice during the Thanksgiving holiday. Adding to the disaster: Two well workers and the city’s public works director resigned during the debacle… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
In audio, high-ranking TEA official admits public school funds could drop with voucher-like programs (Texas tribune)
A high-ranking Texas Education Agency official was caught on audio advocating for voucher-like programs on behalf of Gov. Greg Abbott and admitting that funding to public school districts could decrease if such a policy passes this Legislative session.
On the audio, which was secretly recorded and posted on YouTube by Lynn Davenport, a conservative commentator and public school parent, TEA Deputy Commissioner Steve Lecholop is heard on the phone with an unidentified mother who was displeased with the Joshua Independent School District and transferred her child to a parochial school.
Lecholop asked the woman if she wanted to share her story with a speechwriter working for the governor, who wants to allow parents to take the money that would have funded their students’ learning at a public school and spend it instead on alternative schooling options, such as tuition for private school. Abbott has touted such an idea as one of his priorities this session… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Biden’s Pick for IRS Chief to Face Questions About Agency’s $80 Billion Expansion (Wall Street Journal)
Danny Werfel, President Biden’s choice to run the Internal Revenue Service, will tell senators Wednesday that he is committed to focusing tax enforcement on high-income Americans, as lawmakers press him for details on how the agency plans to use the $80 billion Congress gave it last year.
Mr. Werfel’s confirmation hearing is expected to focus less on his qualifications for the role—which include a stint as the acting IRS leader in 2013 and years as a consultant—and more on the new IRS funds from the Inflation Reduction Act.
Much of that money is earmarked for boosting enforcement and improving the agency’s aging technology over the next decade.
“Following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, Americans rightfully expect a more modern and high-performing IRS,” Mr. Werfel will say, according to his prepared remarks for the late-morning hearing… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
When politicians have no shame, the old rules don't apply (NPR)
There was a time when shame was a powerful force in American politics. That time is not now.
Congressman George Santos is the embodiment of how times have changed. At the State of the Union address, the freshman Republican from New York famous for fabricating major elements of his life story made sure he had a coveted on-camera position near the center aisle.
That's where he ran into Sen. Mitt Romney, a decidedly old-school Republican from Utah. Romney gave him an earful, and afterward told reporters "he shouldn't be there and if he had any shame at all, he wouldn't be there."
Santos, who faces multiple investigations for his questionable ethics, was defiant. He has resisted calls to resign from local Republicans like New York state senator Jack Martins, who expressed frustration at a recent press conference.
But the United States is now in an era of post-shame politics. For a politician willing to put up with embarrassment, condemnation, a raft of jokes from late night comedians and a swarm of reporters chasing them day after day, surviving scandals is easier than it used to be… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Feinstein to retire; Haley launches 2024 bid (The hill)
Across the partisan divide in politics on Tuesday, one pathbreaking female senator from the largest blue state announced she will retire while another ambitious woman, who once challenged racism as a conservative governor in the South, launched a campaign for the White House.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who will be 90 in June and who encouraged many Democratic women in elective politics, announced that her term, which ends in January 2025, will be her last.
In South Carolina, Republican Nikki Haley, 51, launched a bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024 in competition with former President Trump, who was her boss when she shifted in 2017 from serving as her state’s governor to U.S. ambassador to the United Nations… (LINK TO FULL STORY)