Travis County Commssioners Court
September 30, 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.
Citizens Communication
Citizen communication is next. One citizen has signed in. Citizen and county employee. County manager. Stephen broberg. Is good morning, judge, Commissioners, I have a group of folks today with me too. I have some happy news, this is regarding the county's I jury program. Travis County and the district clerk's office have won a second award for the county's I jury program, the first award was from the Texas association of counties and it was a best practices innovation award. Since that time we've also won another award and it is from the center for digital government. It named Travis County's I jury program the best application serving the public in their annual best of Texas awards and this is -- this is a fairly major award. It's offered through the government technology program so this is -- there's om bragging -- some bragging right here. I would like to introduce our district clerk and she's going to tell you a little bit more about it.
>> good morning, if you see the award it has lots of fingerprints on it right now...
>> I wonder why.
>> but this project has a lot of fingerprints on it and before I begin to give my remarks, I want to thank those folks that have been involved from the beginning with this project and I want to introduce michelle brinkman, my chief deputy at the district clerk's office. We just need something and we call her and she's usually pretty quick about responding and of course steve broberg for helping us with I jury. Yesterday when I accepted the award, I accepted it on behalf of Travis County, Travis County citizens and potential jurors, and I read some of the e-mails that we had received, and the perception of government, so this morning if you will just allow me to take a few minutes to read some of the e-mails that we have received, where people have taken time to respond because they really have found the program really helpful and i'll start by saying your system appears to be efficient and respectful of citizen's time. Things like this may give people more trust or respect for our government. Thank you for your timely response. This enhances my perception of our county government. Please pass on to management that I think the on line I jury service is a terrific time saver and a great service to offer to the citizens of Travis County. Thank you, fantastic new system. I salute your entire staff for making this type of scheduling possible. I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the whole on line process. It was so much less trouble than the times that i've been called in the past. Thank you for trying this. I hope you keep up the process. Congratulations to all of you for a most successful project I jury. I have personally used the system and it is the easiest website I have used to date. I really appreciate it because I often find time -- I often find both paper forms and websites confusing. I'm writing to say thanks and congratulations on the I jury system. I recently handled my last jury summons entirely through the I jury system and was extremely impressed with how simple and efficient the process was. This is a perfect example of the way that technology can be used to improve basic public services and I applaud your work in establishing it. And then the last one is this is a cool system. The assignment of dates is fine and to whomever is responsible, thank you so much. All in caps. For letting me know so quickly. I've had to report personally for jury summons several times in new york. I jury is by far a more efficient and less disruptive means of selection. I commend this service. Thanks, and those are just a few of the e-mails that which receive and people really take time because they find it convenient and helpful and we will continue to improve the system as we go. I appreciate the help from all of us involved in county government and thank you also for supporting this project.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> congratulations.
>> the I jury facilitate's citizen's participation by doing what?
>> by doing what?
>> for those that are unfamiliar with it.
>> well, they can go on line and respond to a jury summons. They don't -- they forego the imperson impaneling process which is held at the crocket center once a month. We've cut down the number of sessions we've had by half because we no longer have to have twice a month sessions in person because 85% of those that respond to a jury summons and get selected for a panel are going on line. That saves Travis County money because we don't pay them the $6 for showing up in person.
>> saves money and saves the citizens time.
>> and very convenient.
>> congratulations to all.
>> thank you. Thank y'all very much.
>> congratulations. Anybody else for citizen communication? I've got a note here. Most of the manager should received yesterday something that says draft e-mail from county judge. That's the real thing. Just a draft. I sent it out yesterday because we do need for departments to designate koortate fog the combined charities campaign which kicked off yesterday and training session this year, that training is Monday morning, October 6, and this doesn't say what time, but it will be early that morning, I'm sure, but departments designate your combined charities coordinators and we've got about 30 days to do some serious work. Last year we raised a little bit more than a -- well $113,000, the county judge in addition to his many other responsibilities tried to chair that. He learned a hard lesson. I'm convinced that we can generate a whole lot more than $113,000. This year we have several fine co-chairs who I'm sure will do an outstanding job but we need everybody's help. The final note is that our festival will be on October 17th. We have that during your lunch hour from 11 to 2, unless you bring a whole lot of money, please limit your participation to one hour. It says here that christian smith will be part of the dunking booth again. [ applause ]
>> yeah.
>> that's one of the highlights of the festival.
>> I think we got $100,000 just on putting christian up last year. [laughter].
>> [inaudible]
>> I do too.
>> goodness gracious.
Last Modified: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 7:52 PM