#NEWS // BG Reads | February 13, 2023
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin City Manager responds as City Council moves to oust him (KXAN)
Austin city manager Spencer Cronk released a statement Saturday in response to media requests for him to comment on reports that say the city council intends to ask him to resign or be fired. KXAN learned of this move from two members of city council, under the condition of anonymity, who say that the council’s decision in the matter was unanimous. It comes after massive electrical outages caused by last week’s ice storm.
In the statement, Cronk says that he wasn’t made aware of two agenda addendums for city council’s February 15 special called meeting, until after they were posted. One of those addendums is sponsored by Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis, councilmember Alison Alter and councilmember José ‘Chito’ Vela, and it would “authorize payment of severance benefits to city manager Spencer Cronk.” It also allows the council to begin the process of finding an interim city manager. The other addendum is a consultation between city council and legal counsel about “legal and personnel issues related to the employment, compensation and benefits for the city manager and potential appointment of an interim city manager.”…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Circuit of The Americas to build amusement park featuring more than two dozen rides (Community Impact)
Circuit of The Americas, located at 9201 Circuit of The Americas Blvd., Austin, will expand in 2023 to build an amusement park featuring more than two dozen rides on the property at turns 19 and 20.
"The amusement park at Circuit of The Americas is well on its way," said Director of Park Operations Matt Hughey. "There will be something for everyone. We are looking forward to inviting visitors from all over the world to enjoy the world’s most modern thrill rides and we are excited about this addition to our campus."
Cady Chow, director of public relations for COTA, said the amusement park will take up more than 20 acres and will feature kid's rides, family rides and rides for thrill-seekers.
The name of the amusement park will be COTALAND and will have a tilt coaster, which will be the first of its kind in America. Another coaster that will be offered is the Palindrome, which is a shuttle coaster that takes riders up 90 degrees and goes over COTA Boulevard…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Developers can now build with increased height, density in Domain area (Austin Business Journal)
Zoning regulations that allow for high-density, mixed-use development have grown near The Domain in North Austin, creating the opportunity for developers to expand the area known as the city's second downtown.
Austin City Council on Feb. 9 approved revised building regulations for the region known as the North Burnet/Gateway, allowing for taller and denser construction up to 491 feet — or about 45 stories — with a density bonus and floor-to-area ratios of 12 to 1. The changes apply to any site within the area's transit-oriented development district, which enables density to the highest degree in the city’s zoning regulations.
Approved in a unanimous vote, the new standard allows for developments in North Austin that could look more like what's found in the Central Business District. The decision builds on a?change approved in October, when the building height was increased for the region’s commercial mixed-use, or CMU, gateway zone…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Eanes ISD voters to decide on $131 million bond election in May (KXAN)
Eanes school district voters will decide on a $131 million bond program this upcoming May election. Proposed bond projects include safety and security upgrades, maintenance and refurbishment projects and new technology devices for students and staff. Eanes ISD said the bond program will not impact the debt service tax rate.
This is the district’s first bond election since 2019 as EISD follows a typical four-year bond cycle, a release said. Voters approved an $80 million bond package in 2019 that funded safety and security updates, student programs, energy efficiency, facilities improvements and new facilities. In 2015, Eanes ISD voters approved a $52.5 million bond that included technology projects and repurposing buildings. But voters struck down an $89.5 million bond the previous year. Election Day is May 6. Early voting will start April 24 and run through May 2…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council votes clear path for April rollout of Live Music Fund (Austin Monitor)
The city will begin taking applications for the Live Music Fund in April, after City Council approved two resolutions Thursday clearing the way for the awarding of grants to musicians and event promoters. The two items approved on consent were not considered controversial. They provide an additional $525,000 to the program’s nearly $4 million budget, much of which will be set aside to cover administrative fees paid to the Long Center for the Performing Arts, which was approved to oversee the program as well as related Cultural Arts programs.
Approval of the third-party administrator was a bureaucratic step that delayed the rollout of the Live Music Fund, which was first created by Council in 2019 when it allowed the use of a pool of Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue to provide an economic boost to the local music economy. In the intervening years, the Music Commission and the city’s Music and Entertainment Division worked out the goals for the grants that will range from $5,000 to $10,000. With the Economic Development Department currently experiencing a staffing shortage, the fund will require outside help to handle the application and evaluation process…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Black, Latino groups blast Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for targeting DEI practices (Dallas Morning News)
Two organizations representing Black and Latino lawmakers are striking back against Gov. Greg Abbott’s warning that state entities cannot consider “diversity, equity and inclusion” in employment practices. In separate statements this week, the Texas Legislative Black Caucus and Mexican American Legislative Caucus blasted Abbott for targeting policies the groups said recognize the state’s diversity as a strength that should be honored. Banning diversity, equity and inclusion policies “will only hurt our Texas economy and diminish diverse representation in hiring,” Rep. Victoria Neave Criado, a Dallas Democrat and the newly-minted chairwoman of MALC, said in a tweet Thursday. And in a statement Friday morning, the Black Caucus, which has 20 members, said, “DEI policies have long helped communities from marginalized backgrounds have an equal chance at competing in the job market at these agencies and higher education institutions. We will not allow this governor and his administration to continue with their anti-DEI agenda.”
The Black Caucus will hold a press conference on the issue with the Texas NAACP and Texas Association of African American Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday at the state Capitol. This week, Abbott’s office sent a memo to state agencies and public university systems warning that any deference to what he described as “forbidden DEI initiatives” would violate anti-discrimination laws by favoring “some demographic groups to the detriment of others.” The memo did not explain what demographic groups were believed to receive special treatment, detail the exact state or federal laws being broken, or outline what specific employment practices would be off the table. DEI policies are meant to create a welcoming culture for people who have been historically underrepresented or discriminated against in the workplace because of factors such as their race, gender or sexual orientation. Abbott’s chief of staff, however, wrote in the memo that DEI practices are being used to “proactively discriminate in the workplace.” An Abbott spokesperson later said the memo was a reminder that the law bans so-called equity quotas. She did not respond to questions about whether any state entities have implemented such quotas or how they relate to DEI…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas DPS scraps plan for $1.2 billion active-shooter training facility (Texas Tribune)
The Texas Department of Public Safety is scrapping its proposal for a?$1.2 billion state-of-the-art active-shooter training facility, aiming instead at a much lower target of $381.5 million to update its current campus with housing and renovated buildings, DPS Director Steve McCraw said this week.
First appearing in the department’s budget request as a $476 million “down payment” on a six-year commitment to the multiphase project, the proposal was jettisoned by the DPS and reduced to “a key need” for better facilities at the current training campus outside Waco, McCraw told The Texas Tribune…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Ripple effects of Texas, Oklahoma leaving for SEC are positive, but not perfecT (Dallas Morning News)
College football has always been defined by its love of tradition and a willingness to live in the past as long as possible. Change was bad; status quo swell. Life didn’t come at you fast, it came in super slo-mo. Hey, national signing day did more to keep the fax machine industry alive than anything else. When it did happen, even the most commonsense evolution was viewed as revolutionary. A four-team playoff! Players having the opportunity to capitalize on their name, image and likeness!! Now college football is faced with something totally alien to its system for 2024 — true and major change really not seen since the leather-helmet days. And the Lone Star State is going to be a major part of all the big doings. Texas and Oklahoma are headed to the SEC a year early, for the 2024-25 athletic season, and it only cost $100 million.
The Longhorns and Sooners were eventually going to wind up there, something we’ve known for a couple of years. It’s the timing now and the idea that it can be realistically measured in months. It’s beyond two major blue bloods realizing that Texas A&M may have been onto something a decade or so ago. It’s a major shift in conference power. In proof that irony can be pretty ironic, the tradition-shattering move will actually revive long-simmering rivalries. Everybody with a pulse knows about Texas and Texas A&M getting back together again (And you have to believe Commissioner Greg Sankey is way smart enough to find a way to have those two play every year). Arkansas-Texas is not far behind on the animosity scale, another reason why the SEC needs three permanent opponents on the schedule. OU-Missouri has old school Big Eight vibes. ESPN will have it all under its new contract. In a move that may be even more jarring geographically and culturally than Texas and OU to the SEC, USC and UCLA will begin play in the Big Ten with Fox as the dominant TV carrier. It makes no sense, which is why it was a genius move for the Big Ten and Fox…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Judson ISD trustee’s wife got $8,824 from funds donated mostly by potential Judson contractors (San Antonio Express News)
During the campaign for the Judson Independent School District’s bond proposal last fall, a decision by a political action committee to hire Rosie Merced to design a website drew only a bit of second-guessing. She was the wife of a school board member, Jose Macias, who would be in a position to reward the PAC’s donors. The arrangement didn’t appear to break any laws. Later, the PAC also paid Merced to pay others to knock on doors and work the polls. But weeks after the election, the payments to Merced got a much closer look, angry criticism and finally a police investigation. The PAC had been doing what PACs do, gathering donations and spending the money on sign-making, advertising, T-shirts, and other goods and services.
Such committees are routinely funded by businesses eager to vie for eventual board-approved contracts from school districts that use bonds to buy and build things they need — including big-ticket capital projects, such as new school buildings or stadiums, they can afford only by borrowing the money and paying it off with property tax revenues. Judson ISD’s PAC was no exception. Called the Judson Advancement for Children Committee, the PAC reported that it raised $49,422 and spent $47,619 over three months, which helped convince voters in the Nov. 8 election to pass the school district’s largest-ever bond. The $345 million package includes funding for campus security upgrades and two new schools. Except for the total of $8,824 in payments to Merced — most for “consulting” and one for “event expenses” — the spending that the PAC reported to the Texas Ethics Commission was routine. Then, two weeks after the election, came the unexpected resignation of the bond’s most outspoken champion, Superintendent Jeanette Ball, which drew an angry response from people who liked her. They counted Macias among the board majority that no longer supported Ball…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
The College Board slams Florida for what it calls 'slander' of AP Black history course (NPR)
The College Board is hitting back at top officials in Florida over the state's ban on?a new AP African American Studies course that's being piloted in several states.
In a lengthy?statement released Saturday, the national education nonprofit said it should have more quickly addressed claims by Florida's Department of Education that the course was indoctrinating students and lacked educational value, which the College Board called "slander."
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The organization also said that Florida's public and private objections had no bearing on changes the College Board made to the?final curriculum of the course, which it released earlier this month.
"Florida is attempting to claim a political victory by taking credit retroactively for changes we ourselves made but that they never suggested to us," the College Board said in a statement…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
US jets down 4 objects in 8 days, unprecedented in peacetime (Associated Press)
A U.S. fighter jet shot down an “unidentified object” over Lake Huron on Sunday on orders from President Joe Biden. It was the fourth such downing in eight days and the latest military strike in an extraordinary chain of events over U.S. airspace that Pentagon officials believe has no peacetime precedent.
Part of the reason for the repeated shootdowns is a “heightened alert” following a spy balloon from China that emerged over U.S. airspace in late January, Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, said in a briefing with reporters…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
GOP to ‘tighten’ rules for earmarks while embracing their revival (Politico)
House Republicans are trying to pull off a seemingly impossible feat: Making the vilified practice of congressional earmarking both popular with the public and tolerable among their own naysayers.
New rules that the GOP is hashing out are aimed at putting a new sheen on steering federal money to specific projects back home, a practice often derided within the party as wasteful government excess.
The chamber’s new majority plans to limit the types of projects that are eligible for guaranteed cash. For instance, they would prevent lawmakers from locking in funding for items like city parks and county museums — things that might brandish a member’s name…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[MEETINGS/HEARINGS]
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2023
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2023
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2023
[BG PODCAST]
Bingham Group Associate Hannah Garcia and CEO A.J. review the week in Austin politics.
Today's topic include:
?Breaking news regarding Austin City Manager Cronk's employment with the city (per KUT)
? A Council resolution making it easier for low-income Austinites to seek zoning variances from the Board of Adjustment;
??Council's vote on a tree trimming audit;
? The city's negotiations with the Austin Police Association;
? Council re-centering on policy priorities; and
? SXSW on the horizon.
The Austin City Council next meets on February 21st for Work Session and 23rd for its Regular meeting.
Helpful Links:
? Actions taken by the City Council during the February 9, 2023 meeting:?https://bit.ly/3JZDLYH
? Transcript of Council's February 9 meeting:?https://bit.ly/3YmdQPn
? Austin Council Agenda (2/9):?https://bit.ly/3jsTTae
Episode 185
The BG Podcast is also available on?Apple Podcasts,?Soundcloud, and?Spotify.
Bingham Group works to advance the interests of businesses, nonprofits, and associations at the municipal and state level.