Travis County Commissioners Court
January 27, 2009
Item A3
>> A3 is to consider and take appropriate action on process for selecting travis trs county's appointments to city of Austin-Travis County sustainable food policy board.
>> as y'all will recall, we've put together a resolution regarding the sustainable -- it's a mouthful. The sustainable food policy board. We've received a number of applications. Really tremendous popularity in making application for this board. I only wish we had such popularity in making application for our health care district board. And in looking at those, we have a good number of applicants from every single precinct in Travis County, and we have six appointments to that body, and I would suggest that we have an appointment from each Commissioner and two from the judge. If that is the will of the court. And although we don't speak to it in the resolution, there's no term stated in the resolution, which I fall on my sword for not including, but I would suggest a two-year term of appointment.
>> you know, we received some e-mails on several that qualify and are willing to serve on this board, Commissioner. I did not know if that person that submitted -- the persons that submitted their names to be considered for board selection were from our precinct. I don't know where they actually reside. So if you are suggesting that the court maybe take some time to look at these, and if they're in our precincts. But let me ask this question. Let's say there are no persons in the precinct of the names of persons that they do not reside in your presing, then what?
>> there are 18 from precinct 1.
>> okay.
>> so we've already broken it down.
>> I know, but point is I don't know about the other three. I'm talking for everyone. I don't know if everyone is from everybody's precinct. So everybody has been identified as far as that's concerned?
>> yes. The applications requested their addresses and we've broken it down by precinct?
>> good. I wasn't aware of that. When I got these particular names, of course, I just forward them to your office. I had my staff to forward them to your office and I didn't know that you had already broken them down. This is news to me from the dais at this point.
>> it's really quite remarkable. At the minimum -- the minimum number in any one precinct was 10 applications. So really the interest is robust. And there is at least 10 applicants in every single precinct.
>> but we're only allowed to select one, though.
>> well, we haven't decided that yet.
>> if that's the will of the court, to select one from each precinct. And the suggestion is that we have a total number of how many?
>> we have six based on the resolution. And the suggestion was one from each Commissioner and then two from the judge for balancing purposes. To make sure that the composition of the board is as balanced as possible.
>> okay.
>> the city councilmembers have made all but one of their selections so far, I believe. And the city -- the office of boards and commissions, the coordinator for the office of boards and commissions was very, very helpful and also in identifying some of the categories that the city applicants fall into in suggesting categories that haven't yet been covered for balance purposes. And one is agricultural industry. Another is health care and wellness, food, nutrition, education, emergency food programs.
>> you saw those.
>> we have a real opportunity to balance this board and make it maximally effective and give it maximal credibility, I think.
>> since did Commissioner goes mez -- I don't know what the court is going to do this morning, but I know that Commissioner Gomez is not here today. She may want to be a part of that if the court decides to do that today.
>> I just think we ought to decide on the method today. The only other idea that I would come up with is for the court to appoint -- for the full court to appoint six. That would require probably a lot more work than your recommendation. What did we say about how the county --
>> I don't believe out of county representatives are available based on the language of the resolution. I would have to review it, but I believe we required in the resolution -- I believe we were asking that all of them be resident of the county.
>> because we got, it looks like, five out of county residents indicated an interest in board membership.
>> Commissioner, what I've tried to do was since you have taken the lead on this, again, everything that came to my office we forwarded to your office.
>> I believe that we covered them all, but I will go back and double-check.
>> okay. We just sent two yesterday evening. I think we towarded those to you. We received a couple more. I believe we forwarded them to you, e-mail.
>> okay. I'll double-check on that.
>> all right.
>> I second Commissioner eckhardt's recommendation that we just turn into a motion. For each member of the court to appoint one person and the judge to appoint two. It is not the power grab that it seems, that it sounds like.
>> [ laughter ] any more discussion? What timetable are we on in terms of making the appointments?
>> again, the city council has one more appointment to make, I believe. Of course there is no specific time frame, but I'm sure these folks would like to get started sooner than later.
>> within two weeks?
>> that would be --
>> if not next Tuesday, then the following Tuesday?
>> would that work with everyone?
>> it would be fine with me.
>> we would like the court to approve the selections, though, like we typically do.
>> correct.
>> we just carry the item next week and take action then on ones that are ready. And the following week on the rest of them.
>> and I would suggest not -- I would suggest for balance purposes, since these are our individual decisions, if we all could provide each other the backup for our selections so that we can make a well rounded county panel.
>> I think that's a good idea. Do we know which categories the city of Austin believes its six appointees now represent?
>> I believe -- I could go through them and give you sort of a thumbnail --
>> can you just get an e-mail with that information later?
>> certainly. We can provide you with the resumes and the applications of each one of the appointees they have made to date.
>> that way we'll know what categories have been represented.
>> I just talked with staff. We only had those two that we submitted yesterday and your staff just gave them the additional ones this morning. So that's the reason I didn't -- that's why I asked -- you said 18. I said my goodness gracious. How in the world.
>> it really exciting. It's really exciting how popular --
>> we just got those additional 16 from precinct 1 after I was on the dais.
>> we have hard copies of all the applications by precinct as well as electronic copies to send those to each office. And also we'll add on the applications and resumes of those appointed by the city to date.
>> sounds good.
>> does the application process -- is the application process closed?
>> I don't believe it has closed. I don't believe we set a hard close date, but we probably ought to set a hard close date so that we don't inconvenience folks that go through the trouble of applying after we've already started our process or concluded our process. Would another week be appropriate in order to make sure that we've got everybody who expressed interest?
>> I'd say 5:00 Friday.
>> 5:00 Friday?
>> for us to be able to act next week on some of them, I think we need probably a few days.
>> okay.
>> thank you.
>> that's in the motion too.
>> all right.
>> what date is Friday? The 30th?
>> 30th.
>> January 30th at fivep.m. Let's try to make the appointments within the next two weeks and we'll have it posted on the court's agenda next Tuesday, February 3rd and the following Tuesday, which will be the 10th of February. And hopefully get them all appointed by them. Any more discussion of the motion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Are we ready? Okay.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 2:03 PM