BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 14, 2023)
[BG PODCAST]
EPISODE 205 // Bingham Group Associate’s Hannah Garcia and Wendy Rodriguez with CEO A.J. review the week in Austin politics and more.
The discussion covers:
• Texas Legislature reaches deal for property tax cuts → www.kxan.com/news/18-billion-de…in-states-history/
• City of Austin ends APD-DPS partnership after community backlash and an alarming incident over the weekend → www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/20…id=4f22e5507c
• City Boards and Commissions recommend Telework policy for city employees → www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2023/0…ity-employees/
• Local organizations call for quicker turnaround on Land Development Code Amendments → www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/202…date=2023-07-12
• All 32 City of Austin pools are open after several years of staffing issues → www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2023/0…f-swim-season/
• Some AustinISD Teachers were paid $2000 in error and must pay that back to AISD → communityimpact.com/austin/southwes…ocessing-error/
>>> SHOW LINK <<<
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
[AUSTIN METRO]
Watson: Trooper incident with 10-year-old not only reason for axing Austin, DPS partnership (Austin American-Statesman)
Mayor Kirk Watson said during a news briefing Thursday that a variety of events led officials to end the Austin Police Department's partnership with the Texas Department of Public Safety and that the action was "not done in haste."
The briefing came after Wednesday's decision by the city to suspend its partnership with the DPS, which Watson originally called for in March, saying was a way to help cope with a record number of police vacancies. A memo sent by the city Wednesday said the halt was made due to "recent events," but the memo did not describe specific events.
The move has been praised by some who expressed concerns of overpolicing of certain neighborhoods and racial profiling by DPS troopers. However, others worried the decision was made in haste and would lead to trouble policing the city… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Gov. Greg Abbott sends more state police to patrol Austin after city leaders call for end to partnershiP (Texas Tribune)
Gov. Greg Abbott is sending 30 additional Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to continue patrolling Austin, even though city leaders ended a widely criticized partnership in which state troopers helped local police hampered by staffing shortages.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and interim City Manager Jesús Garza said Wednesday that they had ended the collaboration between the law enforcement entities. But hours later, DPS officials said in a tweet that the agency would continue its services “as part of its responsibility to protect and serve Texas.” The state agency didn’t elaborate further, but the governor came to the troopers’ defense in a tweet late Wednesday night… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council to vote on allowing taller buildings along Sixth Street (Austin Monitor)
City Council is set to vote next week on allowing taller buildings along part of Sixth Street, in hopes of bringing more daytime uses to Austin’s most famous stretch of bars and clubs.
The plan is to allow buildings up to 140 feet high on properties along “Dirty Sixth”’ between Sabine and Neches streets, as long as historic facades are preserved.
Stream Realty Partners, which reportedly owns over 40 parcels on Sixth Street, plans to redevelop many of the properties if Council approves the height increase.
“Sixth Street has become a real problem, and it’s in what I would call a death spiral, because you’re not going to get anybody to go in there,” Richard Suttle, a land use attorney representing Stream, told the Historic Landmark Commission in June. “It has become a shooting gallery.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Commission convenes working group aimed at accelerating airport expansioN (AUstin monitor)
The Airport Advisory Commission has formed a working group to look into possible ways the city can support accelerating the expansion of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
The commission at its July 12 meeting voted unanimously to form the working group. Commissioner Jonathan Coon will chair the working group, which also will include commissioners Doyle Valdez and Patrick Rose, as well as interested members of the community.
“I’d love to see if we can find a way to support the airport to grow faster,” Coon said. “It feels like if we don’t expand the airport faster, fares are just going to continue to increase, and it’s going to become progressively more unaffordable for people in Austin to travel. We’d love to understand what we can do – whether it’s with our Council members or elsewhere in the city – to support accelerating the expansion of the airport.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin set to approve up to $30M for encampment cleanup services, shelter (Community Impact)
Austin is looking to spend up to $20 million for cleanup work at the numerous homeless encampments across the city over the next several years and open a temporary homeless shelter at a city warehouse in August for $9.14 million.
City officials July 20 will vote on a batch of several contracts for the cleanup and sheltering services before existing agreements expire in early September… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
ERCOT says it is prepared to meet record-breaking demand amid heat wave (Dallas Morning News)
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas said it is equipped to deal with soaring demand amid this week’s unrelenting heat. ERCOT, which provides electricity to more than 25 million customers, accounts for 90% of the state’s electrical load. The grid has come under scrutiny the past few years, especially after the deadly February 2021 winter storm that left millions without power. On June 27, demand peaked at a new high of 80,282 megawatts, and ERCOT’s six-day forecast shows demand breaking that record — at 84,249 megawatts Thursday, 84,062 megawatts Friday and 82,668 megawatts Saturday. “ERCOT expects sufficient generation to meet forecasted demand,” the agency said in an email. Its forecast shows several thousand megawatts of capacity beyond each day’s demand.
Wednesday’s electricity demand hit record-breaking levels, at 80,408 megawatts as of 3:30 p.m., according to ERCOT’s real-time supply and demand chart. Grid conditions were normal, with about 5,700 megawatts available in reserves throughout Wednesday afternoon. In an early May report, ERCOT projected peak demand for this summer to be 82,739 megawatts and said it doesn’t anticipate brownouts this season, barring any extreme weather conditions. Historically, summer peak demand has grown at an average of 2% from 2013 to 2022, according to a January report. “I think ERCOT can meet loads through most of the summer, even with these heat waves, but let’s be clear that it is only July,” said Alison Silverstein, an electric system reliability consultant and researcher. It’s possible that August could bring hotter weather to the region, which may strain the grid, Silverstein said. However, ERCOT predicted these hot conditions, including the heat dome, in June and July and anticipated these weather events to be among the worst this summer. “Peaks occur pretty routinely in August, but the weather that we are seeing this year is kind of unprecedented, uncharted territory,” she said, adding that this is an El Niño year, which is associated with warmer and humid weather… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Long-awaited $18 billion property tax-cut deal heads to Gov. Greg Abbott (Texas tribune)
A landmark $18 billion tax cut for property owners in the state is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk late Thursday, ending a monthslong stalemate among the state’s top Republicans with a deal that drew near-unanimous support from legislators.
Both chambers adjourned sine die Thursday evening, ending the second special session Abbott had called this summer to hammer out an agreement on property tax relief.
“We knew … the most contentious issue that we faced was how to return these dollars to the taxpayers,” House Speaker Dade Phelan told House members after they approved the bills Thursday evening. “Congratulations to you, but more importantly, congratulations to the taxpayers of Texas. They are the big winners.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Republican Attorneys General Warn Top U.S. Businesses Over ‘Discrimination' (Wall Street Journal)
A group of Republican attorneys general issued a letter on Thursday to the nation’s largest companies warning them against race-based preferences in hiring, promotions and contracting after the Supreme Court’s recent decision finding affirmative action unconstitutional.
The letter, sent Thursday to Fortune 100 companies, said discrimination is common at many companies and said the high court decision last month to strike down race-based policies in college admissions should send a signal to corporate C-suites and boardrooms. The Fortune 100 measures the largest U.S. companies by revenue, including Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson among many others… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Trump’s 2024 media play: Less cable, more Barstool (politico)
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign over the past several months has been quietly engaged in behind-the-scenes talks for a sit-down interview with an influential media figure.
It’s not a network personality or a “60 Minutes” anchor or even Elon Musk for a stab at Twitter Spaces.
It’s boxing legend “Iron” Mike Tyson.
Tyson — an old Trump pal who recently dined with the former president at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate — is, in his post-fighting days, the host of the “Hotboxin’” podcast. It’s a show that draws a range of celebs, like the rapper Tyga, retired skateboarder Tony Hawk and comedian Cedric the Entertainer. And it could soon feature a former president who is now the prohibitive favorite to be his party’s White House nominee.
The Trump campaign’s interest in Tyson’s podcast is part of a broader strategic outreach to non-traditional media outlets, specifically those affiliated with male audiences with an interest in contact and combat sports. This week, days after making an appearance at an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight in Las Vegas, the ex-president is expected to be featured on the popular podcast “UFC Unfiltered.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)