Travis County Commissioners Court
December 1, 2009,
Item 25
>> number 25, consider and take appropriate action on Travis County activities surrounding the 2010 census including: a, update on activities of the Austin-Travis County complete count committee, b, Travis County 2010 census and c, request to file partnership support program proposal with the u.s.
census bureau.
>> just a brief report on efforts of our complete county committee.
we had the formal kickoff press conference for the committee yesterday.
judge Biscoe attended representing the county.
he and mayor leffingwell spoke and got a nice article in the Austin american-statesman and another one in the in fact daily news and also had pieces on some of the t.v.
station as well.
we'll get copies of those around to you.
i do have copies of the american-statesman story.
what you should have in front of you is the backup material that was given to you last week and also an update that was given yesterday.
as I mentioned in the material given out last week, there are two things that the census bureau has asked us to do, and in fact are asking all of the community organizations, individuals, businesses and so forth participating in the complete committee process to do, and that is to sign what is called a partnership agreement with the census bureau, which simply says, oh, we have as an institution will do the following.
we'll put up signs in our work places.
we'll encourage our employees to participate in the census.
and in fact we have a draft partnership agreement that we've already filled out and I would like to pass those out to the members of the court.
i also have -- we also have that was passed out to your office yesterday afternoon a proposal for a grant application that we would ask.
what the census bureau is willing to do in order to support our local efforts by any business, governmental agency and so forth, is to give a very limited amount in grants that would be -- that would be used for somehow promoting the census.
what we have got -- what we gave to you yesterday afternoon is a proposal for a modest granted that would allow us to printed up 24,000 tri-fold full color brochures that we could use in order to explain to people who interact with Travis County through our tax office, through our health and human services agency offices, through our health clinics, and through our community centers that they would be able to get information about the census and would encourage them to participate in the census.
the limit of what the census bureau is willing to give out in the grant is $2,999.
so the -- so we have requested a grant so these are really just modest grants that we have requested.
we have requested a grant.
we asked for or we were asking for the court to take action on it today because today was the original deadline for filing it.
we understand now that deadline has been extended, but we would still ask for the court to approve the partnership agreement that you have just been presented and had a chance to look at, which you can see is a very simple document.
we just check off a number of activities that the county says it will do and identify contact person for the county for the census people to work with.
and then secondly to approve the -- what they call partnership program support agreement that we have -- or request proposal that we have submitted.
>> for the pickup that's listening, give us an example of what the county is asked to do as far as their participation.
>> well, for their participation in the census?
>> in the census, right.
>> Commissioner, of course the census is so important, as you know, and it -- you know, the census information is used in order to allocate somewhere between 3 and 4 hundred billion dollars a year nationally and includes things like the cdbg money that the court was talking about earlier this morning.
those moneys are based on formulas generated by census data.
it's very important to our whole community that we participate and get as accurate and thorough count of our citizens.
Travis County wants to support that by making sure that through its interaction with our -- with our citizens through our tax office, people coming in to renew their license plates or their driver's licenses, driver's licenses are d.p.s., but renewing voter registration or license plates that we would have materials available to them.
we also are partners with the city of Austin in a complete count committee bringing together leaders all over the county, Commissioner, in order to identify targeted areas -- or targeted communities that we can reach out to and strategies for doing that.
and that committee actually has had its training sessions, will meet again next Monday night, and they are putting together a whole work plan that will kick off in January and go through the month of April.
so Travis County is going to be very involved in making sure we get the word out about the census and we want to get that word out to everybody in the county.
both you are urban -- people who live in urban areas and rural areas.
all the populations of the county, all the different groups in the county, we want to work closely with neighborhood associations, churches, all the institutions that hold our community together in making sure we get the word out about it.
>> thank you.
for the public.
>> yes, sir.
i'm glad you asked me that question.
and I think we can never say too often, you know, how easy it is to participate in the census either, Commissioner.
the census form this year is only going to have 10 questions.
it's going to take 10 minutes to fill out and it will have an impact for people for the next 10 years.
so it's 10-10-10.
it's very simple to do.
it's going to be easy to do, it's going to be safe in the sense that the census bureau operates as a separate burrow of the government.
it will never individually identify it to anybody else.
it's going to be confidential.
as you know, there are some people that are concerned about government being intrusive in their lives.
the census document is such a simple document, it's only 10 questions, if you receive the document in the mail in the second half of March, April 1st is census day, it will say as of April 1st, how many people are in your house hoad, that sort of information.
if you complete that document and send it out, you are done with it.
it's a simple questionnaire and they are done.
people who do not complete the document, then the census bureau will hire census takers to come and follow up, see if they can ask questions of the household, see if they can help the people in that household to fill out the forms.
but the easiest thing for everybody to do is when they receive that form in the last half of March is just to fill it out, stick it back in the mail and get it back to census as quickly as possible.
>> so in order to get there, we need to approve the --
>> I'm sorry?
>> in order to get there we need to approve b and c?
>> this would be a small portion of the total effort Travis County is putting in, but first of all, formalizing our relationship with the census bureau by approving the partnership agreement would be a first step.
and secondly to request this modest grant in order to help provide some of these educational materials to the census -- from the census biew bureau to our --
>> I move approval.
>> second.
>> mr.
reeferseed?
>> thank you, judge.
i just have a question on -- you had mentioned how easy it would be and if we -- if the citizens for whatever reason didn't answer every single question, does that mean in a tt the information is not used or it guarantees a followup visit by --
>> I'm not sure the impact procedure if they don't answer every question.
i do know that if the questionnaire is not returned, then the census bureau tries to follow up with that household and just see if they can get that information from them.
usually by a visit from a census taker or a phone call saying can you give me that information.
>> so if the household has gotten the form but they just haven't returned it at all?
>> that's correct.
there are 136 million census forms going to be sent out to every household they've identified t census will also have a a separate program for communities like, for instance, our homeless community where the physical location of the people is very hard to establish and very hard to get a postman to deliver it there.
so there will be separate strategies for that.
but for the most citizens, there will be a letter that comes to your house, to your home, to your apartment, to wherever you live asking you to complete this simple form.
>> and when should we be on the lookout no the mailboxes for that form?
>> the last half March.
it is the intent to send them out 16, 17, 18th of March.
i guess it will take a day or two to get out.
>> we'll keep our eyes peeled at the end of March to complete the forms.
>> we expect you to complete all 10 questions, if you can.
>> correct.
>> I mean I haven't seen the questions, but I've been assured they are very simple.
>> they are very simple questions.
as I understand it, seems like your name, your date of birth, your sex, where you live, those sorts of things.
>> and I learned yesterday the census will hire 3,000 to 5,000 persons.
>> to do the followup.
>> to assist.
>> in Travis County and Williamson county.
>> in the central Texas area, that's correct, judge.
>> there's a location in south Austin and the other one is in Williamson county.
>> that's correct.
>> so those two for this area.
the other thing is that in my view, we need relatives, friends and acquaintances to help those who are distrust full of government.
>> yes.
>> there are some individuals with, you know, criminal issues, criminal law issues, immigration issues, some just don't like government and are distrust full.
this information is supposed to be confidential and protected.
>> it is protected.
>> even the other governmental entities are not supposed to have access to it, not the federal, not the state, not local entities, only the census bureau is supposed to have access to this information.
>> and in fact, judge, it's not they are supposed to, it is that they don't.
>> that's what we've been assured.
>> that's right.
>> and it will be in more languages than you can imagine.
>> 56, 55.
>> I believe that the questionnaire will be in six different languages and there will be an instruction guide for completing it that will be printed in 59 different languages.
>> and help available.
>> and help available.
and part of Travis County's commitment that we'll talk more about as we get closer to that period will be to open what we call questionnaire assistance centers or to make some of our offices available as questionnaire assistance centers where anybody who has a question can come in and visit with somebody and get their simple questions answered about the census form.
>> I can hardly wait to get my form, mr.
reeferseed.
>> can I make a comment on that?
>> quickly.
>> that I'm entirely in favor of information being shared.
personally I just might -- I go out of my way to do this whenever I'm asked what race I am, I say human race.
that's because I believe this juggling resources or for whatever reason, splitting us up into little tribes is counterproductive to future of life on our planet.
that's just something I do.
>> that's a different perspective.
this time can you put in paren these a little more?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
you'll become our project between now and then, mr.
reeferseed.
>> hey, boy, that's exciting.
>> [laughter]
>> thank you.
>> thank you, judge and Commissioners
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, December 1, 2009 1:50 PM
