Travis County Commssioners Court
January 28, 2003
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Item 28
28. Discuss and take appropriate action on an agreement with the city of Austin for the conduct of elections and a plan for county clerk reorganizaton.
>> thank you, judge. If -- if it pleases the court, what I would like to do is present to you the final draft of the agreement between Travis County and the city of Austin. Thank you, that is all of the details, all hammered out, everything all agreed to and final. Pending your approval. T this point, I think what I need to do I just -- reiterate to the court that we are looking at adding a few more resources to the county clerk's elections staff. So that we can take over the management of elections for other jurisdictions in our area, the city of Austin, a.c.c., Aisd, we presume it will be everybody. And that we are willing to take this on. We believe it would be in the best interests of the voters. That we believe that we have a process put in place that will take care of the concerns and the legal obligations of both the commissioners court and the city council. And the -- I have brought to you a proposal that I don't -- not only pays for itself, but also brings additional revenue into county government to help defray the costs of purchasing the election equipment over and above the reorganization costs. At this time, I think what I would like to do is defer to the county attorney to answer any questions that you might have. And to our purchasing and budget representative, deanna ramirez. I know that she was confirming some of the numbers that I provided to the court. I know that you are going to have more confidence in hearing her vouch for those numbers. We are available to respond to questions.
>> my first question is were there any significant changes?
>> no, sir.
>> made to the draft that we had last week?
>> no, sir. We made one minor small change to the mediation clause. We added one sentence to it, otherwise I'm not aware of any other changes made to it.
>> there's one in -- in section 7 or 8? We clarified some of the dates with the idea being that 15 days after any election the county will receive 75% of the costs of the election, 45 days after the election the county will get the remainder of that with a 30 day period for any dispute resolution that we need to work through if there is any and that all payments would be complete and final by the end of the fiscal year. So we clarified all of those. That's the only change.
>> so this item is posted for a contract with the city of Austin? You mentioned other entities that were conducted -- how are negotiations going with them.
>> we've had only preliminary conversations with a.c.c. And aisd, they will go next on my list to go into conversation with. They may not be involved, at least we don't think so at this time in the '03 election, so they have some time to consider their participation in the future.
>> okay. So if we need to spend a little bit more time with the plan, do you want to delay action on the interlocal or approve the interlocal? I will tell you my concern about the plan. There are two things is it a stand out. One is I can't recall what financial information we were given when we purchased the purchase of the equipment. We were told that we would generate additional revenue, part of which I'm sure would satisfy that debt. A couple of days, I was told that facilities has located another site for us to look at. For election equipment, election training, whatever, et cetera. That has a financial impact. So in my view we ought to look at all of this stuff together and know about what part of this financial commitment we can cover with this additional revenue, the net revenue and what part the county will have to generate. Do you see what I'm saying?
>> absolutely.
>> I don't know that we will be ready for action on the building next week, but at least if we can get some preliminary reading, in my view, we could move in on the plan --
>> that would be great [laughter]
>> but the interlocal, if it's the best deal we can cut, so be it. But it's the net revenue that I guess I'm looking at and on the election storage, training, et cetera, new staffing is necessary, et cetera, what part of that really needs to go to cover those costs. If we do move on the building, what do we have left that go toward satisfying that debt and what the difference is that the general fund is to pick up.
>> uh-huh. Well, let's answer all of those questions, those are all reasonable questions. It is perfectly fine with me if the court would like to take another week to fully consider all of the issues. If -- if we go much past next week I'm going to start getting worried about our time frame, but certainly one more week --
>> as far as the interlocal.
>> > I'm fine on the interlocal.
>> that gives certain days to go shopping at the city, get their process which can take a little bit longer than ours.
>> my only concern about the -- the interlocal is I believe we have an agreement worked out between Travis County and the city of Austin that establishes what those relationships will be. Please understand that there is no way I can take on this additional job without additional resources. While I want to do it, we believe that we have everything in place to do it, there's no way that I could take over something that huge without some additional resources. So I'm -- you know, please feel free to approve the interlocal so in a I can proceed with -- so that I can proceed with the city council. But it becomes problematic with me if I don't have the resources they need in order to meet the terms of the contract with the city.
>> in addition on the exhibit side, with the contract, there are some exhibits that i've been working with, the county clerk's office, they have been accepting me all of their spread sheets, data, sending me. But I was trying to verify some numbers against the county clerk's information. So I'm not quite there yet. But there's some areas where the exhibits -- the benefits calculations are off a little, we are using fy '02 rather than fy '03 numbers, some might increase revenues or costs or decrease, I think it's all in the ballpark, but the -- we could refine the numbers more if we had, you know, the next week. Since those exhibits are part of the contract, I don't know if making changes to it after you approved it, how that would play legally.
>> so are you saying that the resources generated by the interlocal would go to getting the elections going?
>> some of them, yes.
>> some of them. We don't know what fraction of them, what portion of them.
>> well, there are actually two categories of -- of moneys that we have discussed with the court over the last year. The first is the savings that you get by not -- by no longer running a paper ballot optical scan election. We have documented what those savings are. Then you have revenue that is generated by having partners who can participate in this election process with you. Then you have that increment of, well, okay, what would it cost for the county to gear up to take over this job. And so it's it sounds to me like what you are really wanting to do is to make sure with the savings and revenue and that gearing up effort exactly how much, you know, do you have in your packet to operate for the next year or two or so. And that's perfectly reasonable to want to make sure you are comfortable with those final numbers.
>> [inaudible]
>> yes.
>> what -- when is this item supposed to go before the city council?
>> Thursday. I will be discussing it before -- before city council and they want to do a formal presentation and then I assume that they will have question and answer. I have met with -- we have run through most of everything that we twheed to do with the -- we need to do with the stop you. I think they have most of their questions answered. They are relying on me to do a public presentation this Thursday.
>> okay. Are they scheduled to --
>> [inaudible]
>> I don't know, I think so.
>> I guess john, the question that's been posed here, especially with the other information that may impact the plan as such, especially locked in, may or may not be locked into some of these situations as far as interlocal is concerned. If something does happen as far as revenue or the plan, another building, a whole bunch of other stuff that we brought up. Would we have an opportunity to -- would the court have an opportunity to visit the interlocal to make those changes, especially with the resources that --
>> it depends on how a motion would be stated. If it's approving the document in concept, sending it over to have it be approved over by the city of Austin, with the understanding that some fine tuning needs to be made to the exhibits, or just approving the document as is, sending it over, must accept it as is, you have -- you have -- this court has made motions in the past that would approve a document in concept, [inaudible], with the expectation that it might come back next week.
>> but the city council is not actually posted as far as an action item this Thursday to actually enter into an interlocal with Travis County, as far as that is concerned?
>> no. Commissioner. The status of it at this point is it's had individual review by the councilmembers, that body will take action Thursday. Their action may be adopt it, may be adopt it in concept. May be to roll it to next week for any final questions, I'm not sure.
>> okay, I just wanted to --
>> I'm confident that we are all moving in the same direction. I don't see any big issues.
>> they've often had latitude where they will grant the city manager --
>> [multiple voices]
>> do some fine tuning on the agreement if it feed be.
>> okay. If it need be.
>> okay. So now, your statement was basically to say that we need more time to get the figures?
>> I think it would --
>> on the plan, not the interlocal.
>> they would be a little bit more accurate, I believe.
>> okay. So if I have questions about the money, should I just send an e-mail to you, dana?
>> absolutely. I would be happy to take it, although I really am going to be working very closely with p.b.o., I think that you would have more confidence if what I am saying is exactly correct.
>> so send my e-mail to both of the you.
>> or I will be happy to communicate for you, either way.
>> working together on this one.
>> I can do that.
>> okay.
>> might you be interested in a motion to approve the interlocal in concept.
>> I so move.
>> I will second that. With the understanding that it's in broad general concept that this is the direction that we are going, understanding that ppo and county clerk will be refining all numbers and there may be a change, but we are not expecting to be some big, large, substantive thing that would change the wisdom of entering into such an agreement.
>> are we executing this draft interlocal or simply indicating our agreement with it?
>> in concept.
>> in concept.
>> that's the motion.
>> council can add their own comments to it.
>> we need to post it again next week in that case.
>> please.
>> if -- in the event there's follow-up action necessary.
>> that motion that's been put on the table basically [inaudible] we are not locking ourselves down to --
>> my expectation is that you will see this again. Next week, have it on again next week?
>> uh-huh.
>> all right.
>> any more discussion of that motion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. With -- with commissioner daugherty absent this afternoon. Thank you very much.
>> thank you,.
>> thank you, john, thank you ppo we are thrilled.
>> before dana walks out of room, can we take note of the fact that today is her birthday.
>> this is a good gift, isn't it?
>> happy birthday, dana.
>> thank you.
>> thanks for working on your birthday. [laughter]
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM