Travis County Commissioners Court
October 13, 2009,
Item 22
Number 22 is to receive briefing and take appropriate action -- we need eckstein to head this way.
refusing briefing and take appropriate action regarding the composition of the capital metropolitan board of directors: a, recent legislation regarding such composition and authorization for Travis County to make an appointment; and b, steps Travis County should take to comply with new law, including adoption of a new process for filling county vacancy.
>> my understanding, judge, is that the legislation allows for a member of the court to be appointed or a citizen who is interested in serving, in representing Travis County on capital metro board.
i have enjoyed this service for 11 years.
just thoroughly.
and learned a lot.
but I would like to share this fun with somebody else.
>> how does this process work
>> [multiple voices]
>> I'm sorry.
>> the county process on how we want to -- I think that's the step that we need to discuss, how to fill this vacancy.
i'm assuming that we take applications like we do vacancies on ctrma and the hospital, the health care board and then have interviews.
>> right.
because this -- it's pretty significant.
>> it is.
>> it's a very significant thing.
>> it is.
>> and there's a lot of -- I know questions that I have -- probably need to entertain to whomever applies.
>> some interest has been expressed by several citizens.
so that's -- that's good.
>> so I will just -- you know, trying to understand the process and how do we deal with it.
that was basically where I was --
>> for a -- or a court member can serve as well.
>> so --
>> that's still a possibility.
>> ms.
eckstein if you would go ahead and give us your briefing on this.
i think it would help us to know specifically what's in the legislation.
you are prepared to do that, right.
>> I am prepared to do that.
you received a handout from me, the backup materials over the weekend, it shows a chart of how the new appointments work as compared to the previous composition of the campo board, excuse me the capital metro board.
the bottom line is that Travis County now has one appointment to the board as it did in the past, that appointment used to be required to be an elected official.
but the county has the discretion now, the Commissioners court has the discretion now to appoint anyone that the court wants to appoint.
in addition, there are --
>> the legislature allows for that?
>> yes, sir, yes, sir.
the previous law required that the Travis County appointee be a member of the Commissioners court.
>> right.
the new law --
>> so now it can be a member of the public as well or a member of the court either way.
>> okay.
>> the other provision that affects the county is that the campo board of -- transportation policy board also makes an appointment to the capital metro board, that appointee, according to the best analysis of the bill I can get, that appointee must be either a member of the Austin city council or of the Travis County Commissioners court.
so -- so there's a possibility that campo could appoint a member of this Commissioners court to the capital metro board.
that's the only other relevant fact that I wanted to make sure that the court knew.
>> let me make sure that I understand that.
so the campo member, well one of the campo members, should be a member of the Austin city council or Travis County Commissioners court?
>> uh-huh.
>> yes, sir.
if you look at -- it's number 7 on this chart that you have in front of you.
this formerly was a city of Austin appointment.
the city of Austin, if you look at number 8, still has a second appointment, to the -- to the -- to the capital metro board.
but that -- but that second city of Austin elected official has now been replaced by an elected official that would be chosen either from the Austin city council or the -- or the Travis County Commissioners court.
>> so consequently previously the city of Austin had two elected representatives to appoint to capital metro.
they now have one elected representative to appoint to capital metro and one non-elected to appoint and campo has one elected from the city of Austin whether it's city of Austin or Travis County.
>> yes.
and the city, the city could theoretically appoint another elected official.
but it's not required to be an elected official.
so the city has one elected official appointment and one -- what we can call an open appointment and the county now has -- and then the -- then the campo board now has an appointment that would either be an Austin city council or a Travis County Commissioners court member.
and then the county now has -- now has what we will call an open appointment.
>> as far as we know, campo's interpretation is the same as that, what we just heard?
>> how long does this -- is this process required?
is there a time line on when this must be done?
i'm envisioning, I think Commissioner Gomez, excuse me, brought up a good point.
maybe this process will be similar to those processes that we have used in selecting another board members of other situations such as the hospital district, such as the ctrm -- ctrma board, stuff like this.
would this basically follow the same dictates as far as process, receiving applications, interviewing those individuals, and then going from there?
or -- or is there a specific procedural process that we must follow according to statute?
>> the statute does not require any specific process, Commissioner Davis.
>> okay.
>> what -- according to the terms of the legislation, Commissioner Gomez's term, which-- ended in mid September --
>> it was extended to December 31st.
>> has been extended to December 31st.
the only requirement that the law have is that the county Commissioners court replace Commissioner Gomez by December 31st, 2009, with a person who would become a member of the board effective January 1st.
>> but I think there was a little bit of confusion there when they talked about when the terms expired.
because we make appointments here on the calendar year, January 1 through December 31st.
so when the legislation mentions September 30th, I did not believe that it affected me because I'm an appointee of the court for the calendar year.
but anyway, it's still -- everybody got extended to December 31st.
>> what has happened is if your term on the capital metro board would have elapsed any time in the year 2009, then it's been extended until the end of the year 2009.
if your term would have ended at some point in 2010 then it has been extended -- then it will still end at that point in 2010, but in your case, Commissioner Gomez, your term has been extended to December 31st.
>> okay.
do we know what members of the -- of the current capital metro board have -- the 2010 expiration?
>> yes.
we do.
let's see.
it might take me a while to get this out.
if you look there, I believe the Williamson county appointee has a term that extends until August 15th, 2010, that's number 5 on your list.
and then the two city of Austin appointees, number 6 and number 7, have terms that extend until July 24th, 2010.
>> okay.
now, do those -- are those dates automatically extended through December 31st of this year.
>> no, no, no, they are extended until those dates.
>> okay.
>> so July 24th will be the last day for the two city of Austin appointees of their terms and then -- then August 15th will be the last day for the Williamson county appointee who is now currently appointed by the -- jointly by the Williamson county Commissioners court, the mayors and the m.u.d.
directors.
>> okay.
is that mayor callman.
>> yes.
>> and martinez and riley for city council.
>> are the two city members, exactly.
>> okay.
so those three have 2010 expiration dates or is there another one?
>> yes -- just those three?
>> yes, sir.
>> so four -- four current members and then a new member because they end up with eight, right?
>> that's correct.
>> four current members whose terms expire, then there's a new member.
those five start January 1.
>> of the -- yes, of the four -- of the four expiring members and the new member, yes, sir.
>> I would move we pursue a non-Commissioners court member appointee to capital metro.
>> I think we ought to take a week before action.
i will need a week.
i thought we just laid this aside to discuss it, figure out what direction to take it in.
i think what we ought to do, too, is try to figure out from the other entities what they plan to do.
now, based on what you said a minute ago, campo has no choice but to select one elected official from either city council or Commissioners court.
>> that's correct.
>> so there will be one elected official on there.
>> correct, either from the city or from the county.
>> okay.
>> as a campo appointee.
>> okay.
are you nancy mcdonald.
>> yes, I am.
>> okay.
let's say ms.
mcdonald, give her the comments, then go to mr.
reeferseed.
>> okay.
i'm nancy mcdonald, representing take on traffic, which is a group of business organizations.
i wanted to first of all say thank you for considering doing a public process for this application process.
because as he stated the law doesn't specify.
i'm thinking our neighboring county to the north is also looking at setting up a process, we appreciate that, keeping the public in mind and making it open and transparent.
secondly, thank you Commissioner Gomez for your service, you have done a yoeman's job.
i'm glad that you want to spread the fun now.
that is what I'm here to suggest representing the business community in Austin is that we have been watching senate bill 1263, isn't it?
senator watson's bill for -- we were involved in it from the beginning.
watching it very closely, we are very excited about the idea of -- of making the capital metro board a stronger entity.
and we are just strongly suggesting that you consider looking at a community person.
for that role.
what -- the main reason for us, I think, is that it throws a wider net in terms of what kinds of experience you might be able to tap into.
there might just be an ideal retired person who has 24/7 to devote, maybe even experience at the federal level of government affairs, or dealing with somebody like the federal authorities that the new rail line will have to deal with.
so -- so for that, you know, we are just suggesting, a, that you consider strongly using that option to go for a community person, depending on your applicants of course.
if you have a terrible pool of applicants, then maybe not.
thank you for that and thank you for your hard work Commissioner Gomez, thank you for considering an open process for the capital metro application process.
>> let me say this to you, also.
thank you for your service, especially tracking and following the legislation during the time that these changes I guess -- occurred.
one concern that this court has demonstrated through the years is -- is the open process.
so I would like to give kudos to the Travis County Commissioners court because we've always -- that's why I great up an example of the process and Commissioner Gomez brought that up earlier, we have looked at the different process of receiving applications from persons and submitting it out to the public to see who is interested and we just go through -- just go through the process itself.
so the question at that time came to -- ecksteep and kstein d asked him basically was there any requirement in the law that would keep us from doing that and asked him -- of course that's a advantage to this Commissioners court to make sure that we have everybody who is interested in serving on the capital metro board would have an opportunity to apply.
so I think that it's very significant in doing that.
>> that's right, Commissioner Davis, because the wider net that you throw, the more rickets that -- the moreapplicants that you, the more opportunity for the -- it's also important to point out the spirit of the legislation.
clearly the author, senator watson, was concerned about getting certain kinds of expertise, specifically executive management and financial.
because the two campo appointees beyond the elected officials that are allowed is dictated by the law.
wanting to have at least 10 years with financial and the other with at least 10 years of executive management.
campo is in the process of looking at those applications.
their process is I think the applications are due by tomorrow and then they will have -- I'm not sure of the date, but a two to three week time for that nominations committee.
that nominations committee is the executive committee of campo plus some community folks, two or three, you know.
so you guys had the opportunity, I think, if lieu at a community person, of adding to that.
maybe get a second financial person, you know.
or a second executive person.
i just think that it's a real -- we all think that it's a great opportunity.
>> judge?
>> yes, sir.
>> I didn't mean to cut into the other person's time.
burr -- but the time line that we have given here and looking at partial process, of course you wanting to get a delay on taking any action today to see what everybody else is kind of doing, but within our review, when do you think maybe the process should start, seeing that we have to take -- to take this under strong consideration of -- of -- of implementing and completing the task by December 31st of this year.
>> well, thank god we meet every Tuesday.
next Tuesday is what I have in mind.
>> okay.
>> but I think two things.
one is in my view, what I have -- I have not heard a member of this court eager to take advantage of this opportunity.
so we may well default into the citizen representative.
but I think next Tuesday we ought to approve a one pager of bullets that sets forth basically how we plan to proceed, the entire process.
>> okay.
>> but when I stuck this on, I thought we ought to get that briefing, discuss it, mull over it, mull over it one more week with an eye to making specific decisions next Tuesday.
have those in writing so the court will know exactly what we are approving.
we typically would post a position like this, too, so the question is really what do you put in the posting.
>> exactly.
>> but -- but you know I do know there is some effort to try to get member who's complement one another on the board, which seems laudable to me and we ought to try to assist with that as much as possible.
>> judge Biscoe, in that regard, I laid out for the court's consideration a proposal about how a search process such as Commissioner Davis described could be done.
a selection process could be done.
obviously the court is not going to act on that today, but there is an outline in your backup materials of how that process could work.
>>
>> [multiple voices]
>> I think that's a very reasonable outline, too.
>> in addition to that, I really think that we need to think about the things that are needed on that board as well.
i think it was really helpful from my perspective to have an elected official on there who knew about open meetings act, executive sessions and postings of agendas.
it was really important to know that part of it.
i think it was especially important to know, also, why Travis County's financial condition is so good.
and to try to then take some of these policies over to -- over to to capital metro.
we do have a business approach here.
and I think that -- that those -- those skills are also needed at capital metro.
and so -- so I think that we can begin looking at some of the things that -- that we need to look for in a person.
i think there are a lot of really good people out there.
i would like, personally, I would like to see someone who is committed to alternate modes of transportation and capital metro is created to do that.
and I -- but I really would like to see someone committed to that.
so I don't know if we put these requirements on a job description that we would post, but -- but, you know, there's no doubt in my mind that Austin, Travis County and this region needs alternate modes of transportation.
we obviously are out of room to build more roads.
to add capacity to roads.
and, you know, I'm -- I'm patient enough to say I'll wait another 30 years before we have rail in this city.
or in this region.
given the fact that I heard about light rail 30 years ago.
and we're still not there.
and so I mean there's some things that are really, really going to be needed with this appointment.
there's some impact felt over at capital metro.
and its mission.
>> another interesting area that we might explore is an elected official not of this body, we do have 40 some odd elected officials in Travis County.
and we might actually look in the judge's pool, county attorney, various other elects who might be either a very good appointment from -- from our dais or as a suggested appointment from campo.
that's just something to stick out there.
>> but those are other things that are needed in order to carry forward the business of -- of getting alternate modes of transportation in this region and in Travis County and Austin.
>> one week delay would enable us to narrow the focus.
>> yeah.
>> mr.
reeferseed.
then mr.
pena.
>> thank you.
>> then mr.
eckstein again.
>> as a one-time financial officer of the great half price books, records and magazines, I nominate morris priest for campo board membership, acknowledging the tireless, knowledgeably, civic devotion of morris priest and of course ms.
Gomez kindly wants to help share the joy of action and involvement with concerned citizens and I suggest mr.
morris priest as the epitome of a knowledgeably, concerned citizen who regularly participates in campo board meetings and already in my opinion he deserves campo board membership for his voicing of his ideas --
>> this would be capital metro.
not campo.
>> okay, I'm sorry.
>> campo board -- appointee membership.
>> appointee to capital metro board.
>> would the campo board member.
>> no, they wouldn't have campo board membership.
just the appointee of campo to capital metro.
>> okay.
i'm sorry, I'm -- I'm so easily confused.
>> well, it's confusing.
there are so many acronyms in transportation it's hard to keep track and, morris, you are absolutely right, is the epitome of an informed citizen who has figured out what those acronyms mean.
>> he already goes to these meetings, he's a participant in his own way, I think it would be the benefit of all citizens if he had a more official role.
and -- and of course he's not the only concerned citizen who I think would -- would add a -- a valid point of view.
i will leave it at that for now.
>> thank you so much.
>> thank you, mr.
pena.
>> judge, Commissioners, gus pena, when I have given the collateral duty of eeo discrimination claims investigator, we execute united stated all confidential documents before compiling a report of investigation to be submitted to the director.
we had -- we were privy to all confidential matters, human resources department and otherwise, I would hope and I pray, I pray to the good lord, that we have transparency in this process upon selecting an appointee because -- rather when you receive the applications.
i would like to see -- we would like to see some people or somebody from the community scrutinize and review these applications.
i will be honest with you, back in 2001, you remember, 2002 excuse me, Commissioner Gomez, remember that fiasco about whoever is going to be appointed or awarded the contract to -- to plaza saltillo and I'm from that area, I grew up about two blocks away from plaza saltillo in east fifth street, and I was supposed to have been appointed to that group that scrutinized and reviewed the applications.
i was not.
i don't care about being appointed to anything.
i have lived my life, I have a good life.
i have been many things, federal, county, state, city governments, I just wants to see transparency on this process.
as the individual from -- from capital metro board agency stated transparency, I'm glad she mentioned that, there hasn't been too much transparency with that agency.
we would like somebody, for example, and you mentioned it Commissioner Eckhardt, somebody from the community, a citizen, jim skaggs, one example, many others out there that qualify.
but have somebody in the review process, look at these applications, individuals, submit their paper for consideration.
so that you will not have this statement from the community saying well, we were not allowed participation in the process.
make it an open process as much as possible.
and let -- let the -- let the community be -- be -- be allowed to participate unlike the comprehensive plan that they have at the city council, you're going to talk about later on, there wasn't a full, good, clean process when selecting people for that task force.
i would respectfully request, coming from a lot of people, not just in precinct 4, but to have somebody that is appointed to review, purview, scrutinize the applications to ensure that we get a good top quality person.
they are to bring transparency and accountability to a owe to an agency that is lacking right now as we speak.
thank you very much.
have a good day.
>> mr.
eckstein.
>> the only comment that I wanted to make, Commissioner Eckhardt made the point that we have these enormously qualified elected officials in Travis County other than the five enormously qualified elected officials on the dais who might also be -- be a good candidate for this kind of appointment.
and then I thought Commissioner Eckhardt you said something about either as the Travis County Commissioners court appointee or as maybe one of the suggestions we make to campo.
and I just wanted to clarify that the campo appointee that we have been discussing must be either a member of the Austin city council or the Travis County Commissioners court.
now, I didn't know if I misunderstood you when you made that comment about the campo thing.
but --
>> thanks for that clarification, no, that's a good point that I was overlooking.
>> the statute provide that's they must be a member of the governing body of the entity that is a member of capital metro.
>> all right.
>> I just wanted to add one thing about process.
another body that's looking at the -- at the process of -- of the application process is the small cities and that have an appointment.
so that small cities in capital metro service area, which are like Jonestown, Leander, manor, san leanna, volente, they are all getting together the mayors of those small cities to discuss this process and how they are going to discuss the --
>> I wanted to correct gus pena, I'm not with capital metro.
i'm with take on traffic, a business organization.
>> all right.
>> as a point of procedure, I withdraw my motion.
so that we can consider it next week.
>> > thank you.
anything else today?
well, I think we may as well give some thought to what kind of person we -- we would post for.
if our goal is to complete this process before the end of the year, then I think the details in the posting are important.
>> yes, sir.
>> as well as the -- the others doing the appointing that have taken action, if we could know what action they have taken, what they have in mind that would help.
i may as well take our best shot I guess at having the best eight members of this even numbered board.
to complement each other.
>> as mrs.
mcdonald mentioned, the campo board has a nominations committee which is already working on its nominees and I will try to keep the court apprised of the process of that process, of the progress of that process.
i know that the deadline for applications to the campo is tomorrow.
so -- so I think there are -- their hope is to take action at your next policy board meeting on November 9th.
>> do we know who the point person is at the city of Austin?
>> no, we don't, but we'll find out.
our intention is to take action next Tuesday.
>> in terms of -- I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to that question.
in terms of the application deadline at campo, that application deadline is tomorrow and that is for the non-elected appointees?
>> I believe that's the case, right there.
the two non-elected appointments and then they have the elected official appointment.
>> judge, how are you going to tap into what everybody else is doing.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 6:50 PM
