#NEWS // BG Reads | March 27, 2023
[BG BLOG]
Interim Austin City Manager Jesús Garza Announces Significant Leadership Reorg
On Friday (3.24.2023), Jesús Garza, Interim Austin City Manager released a memo announcing a significant reorganization of the portfolios for his assistant city managers (ACM) and the Chief Financial Officer.
“I have assessed the inner workings of this organization and believe changes are needed to position us for the best possible service delivery now and into the future,” Mr. Garza stated. “My highest priority is to organize our people and our work so that we are operating cohesively and focused on problem-solving. I believe this structure will be conducive to reducing process redundancies and to operating at the highest efficiency.”?…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin City Council considers equity of historic tax exemptions (Austin Business Journal)
Austin City Council is moving forward with a plan to make the city's incentives process for historic properties more equitable.
Council approved March 23 a resolution directing Interim City Manager?Jesús Garza?to provide recommendations for aligning Austin's preservation-focused incentives for historic properties and its equity-based preservation plan. The item passed without resistance on the consent agenda.
Proposed by District 9 Council Member?Zohaib Qadri, the resolution builds on a working group observation that the city’s historic landmarks are concentrated in areas historically subject to racial restrictions on property ownership, and in neighborhoods with a higher proportion of white, non-Hispanic residents. In Austin, there's no cap on the assessed value exempted for income-producing historic properties…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin-San Antonio 'megaregion' positioned to cash in on Tesla's Mexico expansion (Austin Business Journal)
The decision by Tesla Inc. to expand its automotive manufacturing with a new Gigafactory near Monterrey, Mexico, could deliver an economic windfall for this part of Texas.
That’s according to a veteran national site selection expert who said South Central Texas, and especially the?budding Austin-San Antonio metroplex, will be a prime landing spot for additional auto industry investment tied to or lured by Tesla’s nearshore project.
"We're looking at new automotive plants, new battery plants, suppliers for the EV industry, automotive design — all of these type of things," said?John Boyd, principal for The Boyd Co. Inc.
The EV sector is already providing those fruits in abundance since Tesla decided to call Austin home. For instance, Tesla cinched up San Antonio's biggest industrial lease in the third quarter of 2022, closing on a?440,000-square-foot space on the far east side.
Boyd isn’t alone in his prognostication for the region.
"You will see new manufacturing and services develop in the region and the enhancement of logistics services," said?Jorge Canavati, president of J. Canavati & Co., a San Antonio-based logistics company. "Not unlike what happened with Toyota but on a grander scale."…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin ISD calls Saturday meeting for March 25 to take next step in superintendent search (Community Impact)
After the draft profile for a superintendent was released March 23, Austin ISD asked community members to weigh in within the next 42 hours before a specially called meeting to solidify the superintendent profile.
Board President Arati Singh said normally the board tries to have more time between having the draft of plans available to the public and the time when trustees vote on the document.
"However, we are bound to a timeline that will be beneficial for the superintendent search, so that's why we're speeding it up a little bit," Singh said.
The Austin ISD board met with?GR Recruiting—the consulting firm hired by AISD to find a superintendent—and came up with a?draft copy of the superintendent profile?that is available for the public to review before the March 25 meeting at noon at the district’s central office, 4000 S. I-35 frontage road, Austin…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin FC draws 1-1 with Colorado Rapids in front of sold-out crowd at Q2 Stadium (FOX 7)
Austin FC?drew 1-1 against the Colorado Rapids Saturday night with an early goal by senior defender Jon Gallagher and multiple saves by senior goalkeeper Brad Stuver.
The Verde & Black scored first with less than five minutes on the clock. Senior midfielder Sebastián Driussi spotted Gallagher making a run and played him in with a pass, giving Gallagher the opportunity for his third goal of the season, says the team…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
El Paso charter fight tests whether a Texas city will move away from fossil fuels (Texas Tribune)
In the westernmost outpost of a state still tightly embracing fossil fuels as climate change ravages the planet, El Paso citizens will soon decide if their city should take dramatic steps to wean itself from oil and gas.
El Pasoans will decide, in a special election this spring, the fate of an amendment to the city charter that would set aggressive renewable energy goals and overhaul city policy to make controlling carbon emissions a cornerstone of major city decisions.
Proposition K, known as the “climate charter,” has provoked fierce resistance and doomsday projections from business interests, spawning a bitter fight with local climate activists…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Trump Waco rally: Defiant Trump warns supporters, ‘When they go after me, they go after you.’ (Houston Chronicle)
Former President Donald Trump kicked off his 2024 presidential campaign Saturday in Texas with a grievance-filled tirade aimed first at the lawyers who have probed his tax returns and his role in making alleged hush-money payments to a porn star. “In my case, every piece of my life, financial life, business life and public life has been turned upside down and dissected like no one in the history of our country,” Trump said. “When they go after me, they go after you.” Before an estimated crowd of 15,000, Trump rattled off a number of issues likely to take center stage in his campaign, including reinstating border policies ended by the Biden administration, cracking down on “transgender insanity” and fighting for “parents’ rights, including universal school choice.”
Trump’s campaign published a list of 16 Texas Republican endorsements an hour before he took the stage at the Waco Regional Airport — a list that did not include Sen. Ted Cruz, who is seeking re-election to the U.S. Senate. Former President Donald Trump kicked off his 2024 presidential campaign Saturday in Texas with a grievance-filled tirade aimed first at the lawyers who have probed his tax returns and his role in making alleged hush-money payments to a porn star. “In my case, every piece of my life, financial life, business life and public life has been turned upside down and dissected like no one in the history of our country,” Trump said. “When they go after me, they go after you.” Before an estimated crowd of 15,000, Trump rattled off a number of issues likely to take center stage in his campaign, including reinstating border policies ended by the Biden administration, cracking down on “transgender insanity” and fighting for “parents’ rights, including universal school choice.” Trump’s campaign published a list of 16 Texas Republican endorsements an hour before he took the stage at the Waco Regional Airport — a list that did not include Sen. Ted Cruz, who is seeking re-election to the U.S. Senate…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas Observer, legendary crusading liberal magazine, is closing and laying off its stafF (Texas Tribune)
The Texas Observer, the storied progressive publication known for its feisty, combative and often humorous investigative journalism, is shutting down and will lay off its 17-person staff, including 13 journalists, several members of its board said Sunday.
领英推荐
The decision marks an end to 68 years of publication, starting with its founding in 1954 by Ronnie Dugger and including a six-year period under the helm of the legendary Molly Ivins from 1970 to 1976. The magazine, in its first few decades, represented the liberal wing of the once-conservative Democratic Party. It was a thorn in the side of Lyndon B. Johnson when he was Senate majority leader (before he became president), Govs. Allen Shivers and John B. Connally, and other conservative Democrats. And it chronicled the era in which Texas was remade into a Republican stronghold that sent a governor, George W. Bush, to the White House.
The closing of the Observer raises questions about whether small progressive publications can survive the digital and demographic transformation of journalism and the information ecosystem during a time of rapid social and technological change…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
As US fentanyl deaths jump, GOP casts blame at the border (The Hill)
The Republican takeover of the House shifted congressional oversight of the border, with GOP lawmakers using their new powers in efforts to link the fentanyl crisis to migration.
Fentanyl has increased the stakes in the decades-long drug war, inflaming the preexisting opiate crisis and bickering over border security, with a heightened lethality not shared by other recreational drugs.
The GOP has put a spotlight on fentanyl, portraying it as the connective tissue among immigration, crime, border chaos and the overdose epidemic.
In recent weeks the drug has been a fixture of GOP hearings, with House Homeland Security Chair?Mark Green?(R-Tenn.) claiming “backpacks full of fentanyl [are] pouring into our country” while border officers are stretched thin in responding to migrants…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Amid strained US ties, China finds unlikely friend in Utah (Associated Press)
China’s?global campaign?to win friends and?influence policy?has blossomed in a surprising place: Utah, a deeply religious and conservative state with few obvious ties to the world’s most powerful communist country.
An investigation by the Associated Press has found that China and its U.S.-based advocates spent years building relationships with the state’s officials and lawmakers. Those efforts have paid dividends at home and abroad, the AP found: Lawmakers delayed legislation Beijing didn’t like, nixed resolutions that conveyed displeasure with its actions and expressed support in ways that enhanced the Chinese government’s image.
Its work in Utah is emblematic of a broader effort by Beijing to secure allies at the local level as its relations with the U.S. and its western allies have turned?acrimonious. U.S. officials say local leaders are at risk of being manipulated by China and have deemed the influence campaign a threat to national security…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[BG PODCASTS]
Bingham Group Associate Hannah Garcia and CEO A.J. discuss Friday's announcement from Jesús Garza, Interim Austin City Manager regarding a second round of significant City Hall leadership.
This marks the most significant overhaul to City staff leadership since Mr. Garza was appointed on February 15th of this year. It comes on the relative heels another reorganization on March 1st of this year.
LINKS:
? Interim Austin City Manager Jesús Garza Announces Significant Leadership Reorg -> BG Blog:?bit.ly/3FT3uPN
EPISODE 194
ABOUT THE BINGHAM GROUP, LLC
Bingham Group works to advance the interests of businesses, nonprofits, and associations at the municipal and state level.
View our services here ->?bit.ly/3H7xyXC
Follow Bingham Group on LinkedIn at:?bit.ly/3WIN4yT
Connect with A.J. on LinkedIn at:?bit.ly/3DlFiUK
Connect with Hannah on LinkedIn at:?bit.ly/3RberR3
Contact us at:?[email protected]
We are a HUB/MBE-certified Austin lobbying firm.
Released by:BG Media Group (2023)
Also check out:
BG Podcast Weekly Recap (3.24.2023)?(EP. 193)
BG Podcast - A Conversation with José Roig, Interim Director, Austin's Development Services Dept.?(EP. 192)
Bingham Group works to advance the interests of businesses, nonprofits, and associations at the municipal and state level.