BG Reads: December 5, 2024
City of Austin
The Austin Council has one (1) regular meeting left in 2024:
December 12 - Austin Council Agenda Link
MEMO: City of Austin Executive Leadership Team and Organizational Announced (Effective November 4, 2024)
In an October 30 memo, City Manager T.C. Broadnax announced several key additions to the city leadership team, effective November 4.
You can view the memo here: CITY OF AUSTIN MEMO: Executive Leadership Team and Organizational Announcements. An org chart is included on page 3.
We particularly wanted to flag the creation of a Grants Division within the Intergovernmental Relations Office to focus on creating a centralized grant funding strategy and governance for the City that advances City Council’s strategic priorities, leverages local resources, and targets investments for Austin.
The memo notes “the City lacks a centralized grants function causing us to potentially leave federal and state funding on the table. Staff from across the organization are currently being identified for potential reassignment to the Grants Division.”
Austin Metro News
Council to see requests for Marshaling Yard extension, ECHO’s $350M homelessness plan (Austin Monitor)
The Public Health Committee has recommended adopting the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) long-term forecast for addressing homelessness, signaling a commitment to spend an estimated $350 million over the next decade to fill gaps in the city’s homelessness response system.
The recommendation asks City Council to direct the city manager to seek out additional funding for costs related to the ECHO forecast and to prioritize sustainable investments in the homelessness response system starting with next year’s budget. Immediate goals include ensuring the continuation of programs initially supported by federal ARPA funding, enhancing shelter placement rates and building permanent supportive housing.
ECHO’s forecast, which was presented to the committee last month, projects total homelessness system costs to reach around $24.4 million for 550 emergency shelter units, $104.5 million for 2,355 rapid rehousing units and $217.4 million for 4,175 permanent supportive units… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Pflugerville Community Development Corporation names new executive director (Community Impact)
The Pflugerville Community Development Corporation’s board of directors appointed Jerry W. Jones Jr. as its new executive director, according to a Dec. 4 press release.
The PCDC is a Texas Economic Development Corporation that collects a $0.05 sales tax with the goal of promoting economic development in the city.
Jones will lead efforts to improve Pflugerville’s economy through business attraction, expansion efforts, local retention programs, workforce education initiatives and marketing strategies.
“I am excited to welcome aboard a talent like Jerry to lead our organization. His commitment to community development through effective relationship building is well-aligned to support our strategic development goals for Pflugerville,” PCDC Board President Jeff Thompson said in the release.
“Jerry brings a wealth of experience and skill to the position that I am excited to see in action, and I am very pleased to welcome him and his family as new members of our growing Pflugerville Pfamily.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Bastrop council rejects request for investigation into city manager (Community Impact)
Bastrop City Council members denied a request from council member Cheryl Lee to either terminate City Manager Sylvia Carrillo-Trevino, or discipline her and have officials launch an investigation into $2.06 million of what Lee called “questionable spending” and “unhealthy” management tactics.
A resolution for the meeting was submitted by Lee and Bastrop Mayor Lyle Nelson, per the Nov. 21 agenda. This followed Carrillo-Trevino’s annual performance review held in executive session Nov. 12, when Lee presented a memo with more than a dozen arguments against Carrillo-Trevino.
In the memo, Lee said Carrillo-Trevino’s management style focuses on “disrespect and bullying, threats, intimidation, criticism without constructiveness, playing favorites, poor communication, shift blaming, unreasonable expectations and inconsistency.”
Lee said that style impacts employee morale, productivity and the overall effectiveness of city operations… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
District 7 runoff Is a battle between Austin’s new and old political generations (Austin Chronicle)
The race to decide the final makeup of Austin’s next City Council is underway, with Mike Siegel and Gary Bledsoe barreling toward the Dec. 14 election date in the District 7 runoff.
In the Nov. 5 election, Sigel finished well ahead of the field, taking in nearly 40% of the vote compared to Bledsoe’s 19%. The challenge facing Siegel in the runoff is not necessarily one of persuading voters, but in moving enough of the 13,000 people who voted for him in November to return to the polls and vote for him again in December.
That could be a challenge, given Siegel’s support likely skewed younger given his affiliation with more youthful, leftist organizing groups like Equity Action, Ground Game TX, and Democratic Socialists of America. But younger voters are less likely to turn out in runoff elections. Bledsoe is unlikely to face that problem. He is a member of Austin’s old political guard and has been embraced by some of the Democratic clubs that represent those voters – which also happen to be the kind of voters who are more likely to vote in runoff elections.
The election of either candidate is unlikely to change the balance of power on the dais as it relates to housing – the local issue that city government has the most control over – even though the candidates do have opposing views on the topic. Siegel has embraced the kind of changes Council has made to Austin’s housing rules over the past two years – changes that, broadly, have made it easier to build more housing throughout the city. Bledsoe has been skeptical of those changes, particularly with regard to the way Council enacted them, which he characterizes as having limited public participation.
But regardless of who wins, the next Council is likely to be even more pro-housing than in the previous two years, because D6’s Mackenzie Kelly was defeated by challenger Krista Laine. That means even if Bledsoe prevails over Siegel, he won’t be able to do much to slow the progress Council is making on reforming the city’s housing policies... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
New economic stats out for Austin; What will 2025 yield? (Austin Business Journal)
While the pace of business activity in the Austin metro has been red hot for years, economic uncertainty nationwide — caused partly by the presidential election and the changing administration — has lately cast a cloud over the region's outlook.
From 30,000 feet, the scene is relatively rosy, said Alan McKnight, chief investment officer for Regions Bank.
“It's still good, and particularly for a developed economy ... the U.S., Japan, the broader Eurozone ... it's a solid growth trajectory,” McKnight said during a Dec. 2 economic outlook event hosted by the Austin Chamber of Commerce. “We think that's going to continue through next year.”
Zooming in on these parts, and the picture only gets prettier, McKnight said.
According to the most recent federal data available, the Austin metro's real gross domestic product — meaning the value of all goods and services, adjusted for inflation — came in at $207.47 billion in 2023, a 4.5% increase from 2022. While solid, that's a big step down from a year-over-year growth rate of 9.6% in 2022, which is a big number undoubtedly inflated by the anomalous effects of a post-pandemic time.
McKnight called the 4.5% growth rate "very solid," pointing out it's well above the country's real GDP growth rate for 2023, which has been clocked around 2.5%… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Former PARD Director McNeeley resigns from top post at The Trail Conservancy (Austin Monitor)
In a surprising turn of events, Kimberly McNeeley has resigned from her position as CEO of The Trail Conservancy after less than six months on the job.
McNeeley had previously served as director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department until her resignation in May. She took the helm of The Trail Conservancy on June 10.
Responding to an inquiry by the Austin Monitor on Tuesday, the nonprofit organization provided the following statement: “Kimberly McNeeley has resigned and will be stepping down as CEO of The Trail Conservancy, effective December 31.
She is stepping down to focus on personal and family priorities and to allow the organization to benefit from leadership that is best aligned with its goals.”
The statement added that the board is “confident and excited” to start another search process for McNeeley’s successor.
The conservancy, a 501(c)(3), formed a partnership with the city in 2022, giving the nonprofit authority to operate and maintain the 10-mile Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail along Lady Bird Lake… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas News
Texas Senate to pursue ban on THC products next year, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says (Texas Tribune)
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced Wednesday that lawmakers in the state Senate would move to ban all forms of consumable tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, in Texas.
Patrick, who presides over the Senate and largely controls the flow of legislation in the chamber, said the THC ban would be designated as Senate Bill 3 — a low bill number that signals it is among his top priorities for the upcoming legislative session.
The Republican-controlled Legislature was widely expected to take aim at Texas’ booming hemp market, which has proliferated with thousands of cannabis dispensaries since lawmakers authorized the sale of consumable hemp in 2019.
That law, passed one year after hemp was legalized nationwide, was intended to boost Texas agriculture by permitting the commercialization of hemp containing trace amounts of non-intoxicating delta-9 THC. But Patrick contends the law has been abused by retailers using loopholes to market products with unsafe levels of THC, including to minors... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Inside the costly new reality of insuring a home in Texas (Houston Chronicle)
When Maryann McGregor retired in 2020, she and her husband considered downsizing and selling their four-bedroom home in Clear Lake to their adult son. The couple had lived there for nearly four decades, and the house was paid off.
Then their home insurance bills started to skyrocket. Two carriers stopped providing coverage, and Allstate, which had been charging them $3,300 in 2020, is no longer writing new policies in their zip code. Now they’re paying $8,000 for a policy from a little-known start-up.
Their wind and hail deductible has jumped to $28,400 — twice what they paid to replace the roof last year. McGregor worries about burdening her son with the new costs. “It would be a huge impact on him to have that big insurance bill on top of the tax bills,” she said. “The insurance is more than the taxes now.”
Homeowners like McGregor are struggling in every corner of Texas to keep their homes insured, paying more for less coverage as climate change wreaks havoc on providers. Home insurance in the state is now among the most expensive in the country, trailing only Florida and Louisiana, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of U.S. Census survey data. Insurance carriers from Allstate and State Farm to smaller start-ups have responded to the rising frequency and intensity of storms not by pulling out of local markets en masse, as has happened in more regulated states like California, but by jacking up premiums and dropping homeowners in risky areas.
The Texas Department of Insurance recorded a 21% jump in statewide rates last year, the biggest annual spike in at least a decade. In the last five years, rates in Texas have risen faster than anywhere else in the country, based on data tracked by S&P Global. The Houston metropolitan area has the highest average premiums in the state, according to the Chronicle’s analysis, with communities closest to the coast paying nearly three times the national average for home insurance… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
US and World News
Why Trump and the Federal Reserve could clash in the coming years (Associated Press)
President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on the promise that his policies would reduce high borrowing costs and lighten the financial burden on American households.
But what if, as many economists expect, interest rates remain elevated, well above their pre-pandemic lows?
Trump could point a finger at the Federal Reserve, and in particular at its chair, Jerome Powell, whom Trump himself nominated to lead the Fed. During his first term, Trump repeatedly and publicly ridiculed the Powell Fed, complaining that it kept interest rates too high. Trump’s attacks on the Fed raised widespread concern about political interference in the Fed’s policymaking.
On Wednesday, Powell emphasized the importance of the Fed’s independence: “That gives us the ability to make decisions for the benefit of all Americans at all times, not for any particular political party or political outcome.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
