A review of the City of Austin's $25
million contract with the Long
Center to Disperse Arts Grants
funding has exposed gaps in billing,
transparency, and oversight.
City auditors for years have raised
concerns about weaknesses in the
monitoring of city contracts.
We've got more about that.
And a new program wants to bring
Austin's home-based side hustles
out of the shadows, out of that
crowded garage and into the light
of day.
It's the latest effort from the city
to create ways for micro businesses
and owners to thrive, not just
survive more about that coming
up on today's show.
The Austin Signal is a production
of KUT News, hosted by
Jerry Quijano.
Plus, the Texas women's basketball
team is back in the final four.
A pair of wins this weekend would
give the Horns their second national
championship, 40 years
on from their first.
More about that coming up next
on Austin Signal.
Howdy out there, this is Austin
Signal. I'm your host, Jerry
Quijano.
It is Friday, April 3rd.
Thank you for making us part of
your day.
For over 20 years, the
Austin City Auditor's Office has
continuously flagged problems with
the monitoring of money paid to
contractors and consultants.
And the $25 million contract
with the Long Center to disperse
arts grant funding is just the
latest example, according to a
report out by Austin Current.
It says that the city continues to
have issues with how it monitors the
billions of dollars of taxpayer
dollars it pays to consultants,
nonprofits, and private companies.
For more, we are talking with Andrea
Ball, the growth development
reporter who wrote the story for
Austin Current.
Andrea, welcome back to the show.
Thanks for having me.
So remind us about this $25
million Long Center agreement and
why it's under so much scrutiny
right now.
Right, so in
2023, the city decided
that it was going to start using a
third party to administer these
arts grants.
To be clear, the $25 million
contract is not
all $25 million to the Long
Center. They're handling the
processing of about $23.5
million that's going out to the
artists.
$1.5 goes to them as profit
or as fees for service.
And When I
came to town, I started hearing
some things about the
process and some
financial questions about
the contract itself.
And so the Long
Center is used because it
has such a great ability
to basically get
grants out quickly, where the city
was really slow about it.
The way the contract was structured,
it was just kind of unusual for the
type that it was in that instead of
saying, okay, your fees are capped
at this percentage or this dollar
amount, it was a fee for service
thing, which means fee for services
per hour, which means you gotta
really be on top of that.
And that's where questions started
coming in.
You have been reporting on this for
a while now another story that you
did recently says that because of
all of this the city has started
to rethink the arts grant
system and maybe the contract with
the long center or what's going on
there.
So when we did our story,
these city's arts department,
just to keep it short, they
decided to do a review.
And when people do reviews, you
pretty much assume nothing's gonna
happen.
You know, okay, they're just gonna
be like, oh, we reviewed it, great,
look forward to a fruitful and long
relationship.
And, but actually it appears they
really did look at it and
they came back with an internal
review that said, hey, we're not
getting audits that are detailed
enough.
You can't account for certain
billing.
We don't have performance measures
for you. This is just, we
need to tighten up.
We're probably gonna do an RFP,
meaning we're gonna bid this out
when your contract's up in 2028.
And we are also thinking about
doing a third party independent
audit of you.
I do wanna say something pretty
clearly.
No one has accused them of doing
anything improper.
And the story that we did
yesterday really talks about
But whatever issues there are
with the Long Center and this
contract is
not all on them if there
are really issues.
The city has a long documented
history of having problems
with monitoring
contracts throughout the city.
They've been warned for two decades
about this issue and it
continues to happen.
This lack of monitoring, this
fragmentation of contracts all
over the city, the lack of
performance reviews and
goals.
This is not new.
And so you start to have to ask the
question, why, why
is, why, why are we not changing
this?
And it's not just limited to arts
grant funding, correct?
Right. Right.
It's everything.
Mayor Watson is on the city's Audit
and Finance Committee.
What did he have to say about this
pattern of weak oversight?
Yeah, he told me
this week that he's got some things
in the works, that he has been
addressing this within the
city staff, and I don't
know yet what those plans might be
in terms of oversight, but some
people are saying, yeah, it's long
overdue.
You mentioned this contract going up
for bid again.
Has the city considered taking
this work in-house?
Yes, they have talked about
that. It used to be in-house.
And the issue was that
the artists were like, it's taking
forever to get the money.
I got to do my work.
Like, this money is really important
to artists, because it helps them to
not spend their own money to
live in in Austin.
Because if you're spending all your
money on your art, you can't pay
your rent. And so that's why these
grants are super important.
So one
of the possibilities
is yes, that the city's
arts department would take it in
house.
The estimate is to take around 10
people, uh, that they would
need some more money for, you know,
the expenses of that, some IT work,
whatever. And it's, it's
up for, y'know, consideration.
So what are you hearing from members
of the community as this is playing
out?
I think that I will tell you this.
I have heard from
a lot of musicians that
this issue has been coming up
over the years and that they have
talked to people in
the city about it and nothing
happened.
I think sometimes when it comes
to grants and things like that,
people's concerns get dismissed as
you didn't get a grant so you're
better.
When we talk about processes and
they are mixed.
With a lot of emotions, things
get glossed over,
or it's too difficult to address,
or there's a new department, we've
had so many new leaders, new city
managers and stuff, so I think
there's lot of interest in seeing,
okay, you're listening to our
concerns now, where's this going?
Okay, we have been speaking with
Andrea Ball, she is the growth
development reporter at Austin
Current, KUT's and
Austin Signal's reporting partner in
covering the city of Austin.
Andrea, always a great time talking
with you.
Thank you for having me.
Running a business out of your home
is getting a little easier
for Austin entrepreneurs.
KUT's Luz Moreno Lozano tells
us how the city is now making it
simpler for secret side hustles
to be shared out in the open.
Jennifer Worth frames art, posters,
and photos out of her East Austin
home.
It's called Vintage Framing Studio,
a business she started in 2010.
She reuses and recycles frames she
finds at thrift stores and works
with each customer to find the right
frame for their piece.
It's the kind of work she and her
partner used to do at South Austin
Gallery before closing the brick and
mortar location 10 years ago.
Worth converted her garage into a
framing workshop and used her front
fence to advertise her small
business.
On my fence and like if you
across the street you'll see it's a
green belt so there's constantly
people like walking so
I would get a lot of people
basically would see
my signs.
Then early last year, she says a
city worker knocked on her door and
told her to take those signs down.
Someone in the neighborhood had
complained.
Now, Worth will be allowed to put
her signs back up.
The Austin City Council has approved
a pilot that lets home-based
businesses like Worth's advertise
and sell their products in their
front yards.
It's part of a recent effort by the
city to create more ways for micro
businesses to operate and thrive in
Austin.
Councilmember Natasha Harper-Madison
led the initiative to let small
businesses operate from their homes
in plain sight.
Sharon Mays, Harper- Madison's Chief
of Staff, says it's not a new
concept.
Austin has had home occupation
rules on the books for a really
long time and that lets
residents run a limited
number of businesses inside
of their home.
But the businesses were never
visible from the street.
During the last legislative session,
lawmakers made it easier for Texans
to start a home business.
May said that cleared the way for
Austin to let these businesses come
out in the open.
Our Strong Local Commerce initiative
is really trying to empower
those entrepreneurs and those
home-based businesses by saying
there is an option
to also bring that
business outside of the
house.
It means these home-based business
owners can display a small sign in
the yard and sell art, plants, and
other goods from their front porch.
Kelly Masters is president and
founder of nonprofit Homemade Taxes.
She says this is the kind of
flexibility she and her team have
been fighting for in the cottage
food industry.
Back in 2005, Masters was
looking for a way to earn a little
extra money by making and selling
cakes out of her home.
But she soon learned that it was
illegal.
For years, she lobbied lawmakers for
new cottage food laws.
In 2011, the state legalized
cottage food businesses with some
limitations.
But many cities still have rules
that prohibit home-based businesses
from being visible, making it
difficult to sell their goods from a
residence.
You can make the best product in
your kitchen, but...
It's hard to find a place to sell
it. And so for a lot of
these bakers and makers,
the most natural place to sale.
And the easiest place to sell is
right at your own home.
The new program isn't sitting well
with everyone.
At a city council meeting last week,
several people expressed concerns
about traffic, parking problems,
eyesores, noise, and odors.
South Austin resident Sarah Fow says
it could be a bigger problem for
neighborhoods without sidewalks.
When we don't have sidewalks,
we've got the kids, the bikes, the
dogs, the strollers.
We're all forced to walk out in
the street.
Survive adding more car trips to
our neighborhood streets from the
retail businesses.
Council staffer Mays says the city
is taking those concerns seriously
and plans to roll out the home-based
business program in areas designated
as pink zones.
Staff will monitor things like
traffic, parking and neighborhood
sentiment before a citywide rollout.
City rules about noise, trash and
pollutions to apply and these
businesses are not allowed to
violate HOA rules or deed
restrictions.
Jennifer Wirth says as a longtime
business owner, the city should be
doing more to support local
businesses.
It might be that.
That to keep the local and then like
keep Austin weird,
we need to have these home
businesses that people can find,
you know, cause we can't, a lot of
us can't afford brick and mortar and
it's too scary to do that.
She says businesses like hers and
others help make the city what it
is.
I'm Luz Moreno Lozano in Austin.
And we're gonna have a link to
Luce's reporting in today's
podcast, Show Notes.
And since it is a Friday, in case
you missed anything that we worked
on this week, you can always catch
up on all of our shows.
That is over at kut.org
slash Signal.
We are community powered public
radio and we will be back
after a break.
This is Austin Signal.
Thanks for making us part of your
Friday.
This is Austin Signal, welcome
back.
Families across Texas that choose to
celebrate Easter have varying
traditions.
For many, especially
Mexican-American families,
cascarones are a staple in
children's Easter baskets.
My grandma collects all her
eggshells from her church baking and
loves to paint hers in a variety
of really, really pretty styles.
These colorful and painstakingly
handmade confetti eggs have one
purpose only, to be smashed
on someone's head.
Austin signal managing producer,
Kristin Cabrera, takes us through
what makes these cascarones special.
Easter memories of mine consist of
90 degree weather in the Rio Grande
Valley, barbecuing fajitas
surrounded by lots and
lots of cousins.
But what I remember most about these
childhood Easter's are the
cascarones.
With these confetti eggs as
ammunition, what happened after
the egg hunt was tantamount
to a family battle royale.
And I know my family wasn't the only
one. We would crack the Easter
eggs.
On people's heads and it was
all in fun.
There were some mischievous kids
and adults who put stuff
in them like flour.
You never knew who was gonna get
that one. That's Norma Elia Cantu.
She is the Murchison Professor of
the Humanities at Trinity University
in San Antonio.
She says cascarones are a tradition
that many Mexican-American families
have going back generations.
Well, like most South Texans.
And northern Mexican Mexicans.
We have a tradition during Easter
of preparing the cascarones
during Holy Week,
dyeing them, stuffing them with
confetti, covering them up,
decorating them.
And I have very fond memories of my
childhood when my aunts
from Mexico would come visit Laredo.
Help us decorate the eggs.
I remember watching my mom and my
grandma delicately crack the tops of
each egg at breakfast,
setting the shell aside to dry out
and eventually be decorated and
filled weeks later.
And all these memories got me
thinking, I should just make some
right now.
Okay, so I
am in my kitchen
slash dining room right
now in my apartment and I've
got 18 eggs
that I'm gonna use to
make cascarones.
The process is fairly
straightforward.
Step one, crack the egg.
The key is just to tap the
top of the
egg and then just lift it up
like a little top.
Step two, rinse and dry your
eggs. So I've just rinsed the
eggs. Then I'm gonna place the eggs
in the oven at 275
for five minutes, just to
dry out the eggs with heat.
I have to wait for my eggshells to
cool, but if you've been drying
yours on the counter for weeks, then
it's time for step three,
decorating. But overall, I think the
best bet is markers.
I decorate the shells with stars and
flowers and try my best to be both
artistic and delicate.
Where this artistry originally comes
from is full of conjecture, says
Kantu.
There are many cultures that
have a rich tradition in decorative
eggs.
In fact, Ukraine has a very
rich tradition of hand-painted
eggshells, and
also into Germany and Austria,
but they would not stuff it with
confetti and hit it over people's
heads.
Heads because they're precious.
The hollowed out and filled eggs are
said to have originated in China.
Marco Polo reportedly brought the
tradition to Europe, but cascarones
really took root in Mexico.
Which brings us to
Step four, filling the eggs.
This is the family prankster's
favorite part.
Though confetti is customary, some
will sneak flour or even glitter
into the eggs instead.
This was strictly forbidden by
my mom.
Step five, covering the eggs,
all this takes is a little bit of
Elmer's glue and a square of tissue
paper. And now they're done.
Except to make these truly
cascarones, they need to be tested.
As a childless millennial with no
backyard, I've borrowed my
co-workers' kids.
Can you say it louder and into that?
My name's Henry and I'm seven
years old.
Yeah, can you say, my name is Scout?
My name is South.
Oh, and then how old are you?
I am 10 years old!
How old are ya?
Scout is in fact five years old,
and that voice asking her to say so
is her mom and my KUT co-worker,
Clara Ha.
Clara and her husband Alan have
graciously let me test the quality
of my cascarones in their backyard.
And now, the kids are about to run
and find the ones I've hidden.
Alright, ready, set,
go! Go find them!
One of the great things about
cultural traditions is getting to
share them with others.
In Texas.
These cascarones have found their
way into more than just Easter
celebrations, but birthday parties
and city festivals like Fiesta
in San Antonio.
Humanities professor Norma Cantu
explains that cultural expression in
Texas is already fused with
other influences and something
magical can happen over time.
It kind of transformed.
And becomes its own
third culture if you will.
What Gloria Anzaldua would call
nepantla, we exist in this
in-between space that
brings together different
sometimes opposing cultures
into a unified expression.
And in some way I would even claim
the cascarón is a site
of such fusion.
If you've never had a cascadona in
your basket, we invite you to
try it out.
But as Cantu says, be gentle.
You don't hit the cascaron on
someone's head.
You break it here.
Hand over their head.
I'm Kristin Cabrera in Austin.
Gentle touches!
The Texas women's basketball team
will take the court against fellow
one seed UCLA in tonight's
final four game in Phoenix.
As KUT's Kaylee Hunt reports,
it's the second straight year that
the Longhorns have advanced to the
NCAA tournament semifinals.
But the team and its fans
are hopeful that this season
will end a championship drought.
That last national title nearly
40 years ago, back when the team
was coached by the legendary Jody
Conrad.
And over the last two years, the
team has been so close to
finally winning again.
For the first time since 1987.
Texas is headed.
For now, Conrad remains the only
coach to lead a Texas women's
basketball team to a national
championship.
Her 1986 team went 34-0,
becoming the first women's team in
NCAA history to complete a perfect
season.
Current coach Vic Schaeffer is
looking to bring home the title in
his sixth year leading the program.
Schaefer has his own historic
coaching record.
He's the only Coach in NCAA women's
history to lead multiple teams
to multiple final force.
He took Mississippi State to Final
Four appearances in 2017 and
2018.
In a press conference after UT's
win over Michigan in the Elite
Eight, Schaeffer talked about his
team's success and that the
journey isn't over.
I told them they're good enough.
I've been on this trip before, but I
want them to really be focused.
Enjoy today, don't take these things
for granted. I do not take today for
granted, these moments,
but enjoy it.
But when we get on the plane and
we go to Phoenix, you keep
that edge that you've had.
Schaeffer says there's no question
that last year's Final Four run
influenced his team's performance
this year.
Here he is talking at a press
conference in Phoenix.
They know exactly what they're
getting into,
and I just think there's a
maturity about them and a level
of focus and concentration
and confidence.
Texas was knocked out of last year's
final four round by South Carolina.
The Longhorns got revenge though
last month, defeating the Gamecocks
78-61 to secure
the program's first ever SEC
Conference Championship.
I think we kind of increased that
focus and increased that mentality.
I think right before SC Tournament
started.
That's Texas' junior first-team
All-American Madison Booker.
I think we knew we had a business
and we had our goals to achieve and
we wanted to achieve it and we felt
like we were good enough to achieve.
So I think that's kind of when we
really locked in and kind of paid
attention more to film and scout
and practice.
But even with all that work,
all that focus, and all the pressure
of being in another Final 4,
Booker says the team is having fun.
I think it's so easy to kind of
take basketball as a job.
I just think we as a team,
we have done a great job kind of
just going back on that and kind of
taking it back as a kid's sport.
I mean, we all played when we were
younger and we all loved this sport
when we're young. We had a fun, we
played when were younger.
And I really, when we did
that, I think we seemed more like we
seemed like a higher level in our
team chemistry and our sisterhood
here.
The winner of tonight's game will
play South Carolina or UConn in
Sunday's national championship game.
Tip off tonight is at 8.30pm on
ESPN.
I'm Kaylee Hunt in Austin.
And if you've got your season
long superstitions that have been
working, keep on going tonight
and hopefully on Sunday for
the national championship game
too.
Well, that is it for today's
show. We're gonna have a link to all
of the reporting that we shared with
you today in the podcast
show notes. And you can find more
from us at kut.org
slash signal.
Rayna Sevilla is our technical
director. She's been handling the
majority of the technical duties
and keeping me in line this week
doing a great job.
Thank you Ray.
Kristen Cabrera is our managing
producer. She has been under the
weather this week so she's not been
with us in the studio but still
working hard as ever.
Thank you Kristen.
I am your host Jerry Quijano.
Austin Signal will be back Monday
afternoon at 1 o'clock and
always wherever you get your
podcasts.
Have a great weekend and
be safe out there.