Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, September 7, 2010,
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next.
this item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda.
for up to three minutes.
any matter not on the agenda for up to three minutes.
morris priest had signed in.
please come forward.
bill hudson signed in too.
mr. Hudson, please come forward also.
third speaker is gus -- nope, third speaker is richard crandel.
if you will take a seat.
>> judge, Commissioners, morris priest speaking on my own behalf.
I did want to remind everybody that November is coming and I hope the black box voting episode won't get us, our no vote rescue was here last week with lulac, great panthers, too numerous to mention.
but we have many issues being ignored in this community by this Commissioners court such as the abortion issue with the health care district, the sanctity of life.
so many issues when it comes to transportation, it's just too numerous issues to -- to address.
in a three-daytime period much less three minutes.
we have issues with not only our transportation but basic human services and basic human needs whether it's water, wastewater.
we have some of the most dangerous roads that haven't been addressed by this county.
even though they've been approved by voters.
s.h.
45 one example of a road that was voted in.
we bought the right-of-way, this court passed a resolution in opposition to it, as well as hamilton pool road improvements.
one of the most dangerous roads.
last night we saw three fatalities, and now with campo doing this managed lane project on the agenda last night at the campo meeting, we see that we just have failed leadership in this community.
time and time again we come up and ask for our regressive grievances.
it doesn't matter if it's our 10 commandments or our 10 amendments, we have one violation after another.
we have notice violations by this court as we saw on last week's agenda, item 12 and sludge.
we have all of these health and safety risks and things that are done to to environment whether it's some of the issues we've seen at txi.
it's a never endless stream of cap and trade, of health care, obama care.
the same administration that's been rejected at the federal level we see at our local level, and it's just time to -- if we can, to vote the incumbents out and to vote these transportation bonds.
but we don't know if eel be able to vote these transportation bonds down.
we don't know if we'll be able to vote our incumbents out because we have east lake software issues.
we have a nonresponsive government.
we have every issue in the world that comes up.
it falls on deaf ears.
and so perhaps we'll have to do a recall after the election.
and we probably should consider some recalls at our city level as well.
it's time to -- to have our elected officials listen to us.
it's time that we have clear communications on notices.
we have notice violations after notice violations, bastrop --
>> [buzzer sounding] -- has complaints with the acc file with the ethics commission.
the ethics commission violations will be reported, the lawsuits will be coming, the recalls will be coming.
there will not only be a voters revolt, there may be a tax revolt.
thank you.
>> mr. Hudson is next.
>> Commissioners, bill hudson, resident of Travis County.
I'm here today representing a large contingency of voters who regularly anchor at hippie hollow.
I myself have regularly anchored there for the last 15 years.
during the time the buoy line has been located in an area that gave boaters ample room.
the area was defined on the park website.
this year the buoy line was moved from its historic placement and the boating anchorage was cut in half.
no notice was given, no public input was allowed.
calls were then made to park management.
we then made a formal request asking the buoy line to be returned to its historic location.
the request was virtually signed on line by 60 people representing approximately 30 boats.
there's been many followup emails to different levels of park management.
there's never been one specific reason for the reduction of the boating area given to us.
during this time the website was changed from the old buoy line to the present location.
a group from the hippie hollow boating contingent went to speak to the public involvement meeting for the Travis County overall plan.
and we publicly involved ourself and voiced our concerns.
there is a statement in the public involvement master plan on page 6 that states: the swim area at the eastern end of the park has been shortened to accommodate the boats, when in fact to the contrary the swim area has been extended reducing the boating area by half.
what are we asking for?
at a minimum we're asking for return to the historic buoy line placement.
this in no way impacts the area for the swimmers use.
the shores are primarily what most patrons use.
the swim area is never crowded and obviously under utilized.
considering there's over 100,000 visitors every year.
the master plan talks about population growth.
there is ample room for this in the swim area, but none for the boaters.
the majority of the boaters use none of the park services but contribute by paying launch fees and, of course, taxes.
the master plan mentioned alternative funding.
boats can purchase yearly moring permits.
this could limit the large commercial barges and house boats that invade and take over the normal usage of the boating area.
this is just one of many alternate funding possibilities.
Commissioners, I know that this is just a forum for public input and no action will be taken here, but we feel this information needed to get to you.
we're looking for help in returning to us the park we use and love.
for us and the future boaters who want to exercise and experience a uniqueness of this park.
as mentioned in the master plan, this will keep Austin weird.
thank you for your time and consideration.
>> [applause]
>> thank you, mr. Hudson.
you are mr. Crandel, right?
gus pena, last call.
vicky carp, please come forward.
mr. Crandel.
>> yes, sir, my name is richard crandel.
I'm the city administrator for the city of Creedmoor.
city council has requested that I come before this Commissioners court to speak about road conditions on great Williamson, turnerville and old lockhart roads.
those roads were maintained by Travis County for decades.
recently the city of Creedmoor received requests for annexation of several tracts in the southern area of our city.
these annexations are exclusive of roadways.
the property owners do not own the county roadways as in subdivision streets.
these property lines run parallel to the roadways which were improved by the county in the '50s.
in addition, the city of Creedmoor is a class a general law city of a population less than 500.
the authority to annex roads is given in the local government code, section 43-103.
it expressly applies to municipalities over 500 in population.
since the city is not over 500, it does not have the authority to annex roadways.
the roadways -- the road conditions have greatly deteriorated since last winter when t.n.r.
elected to discontinue maintenance on these roadways.
I bring the situation to this court's attention so you may be aware of the potential liability that exists for the taxpayers of this county.
in a serious accident courts, the -- indicates the county will be the responsible party.
a few thousand dollars spent to maintain the roadways in question is considerably better than a potential multi-million dollar lawsuit.
if this court cannot come to the conclusion that the county has the duty and responsibility to maintain these roadways, we ask that an attorney general's opinion be requested by the county.
I thank you for your time.
>> thank you, mr. Crandel.
if you will give us a copy, we'll look into it.
it's news to me.
>> I sent correspondence back in may to the Commissioners.
>> back when?
>> in may.
>> send it to me September 14th and we'll look into it.
>> will do.
>> mr. Stout, please come forward.
mr. Stout.
mr. Aceveda, Commissioners, judge, I'm here today representing lulac hope.
hope stands for hispanics organized for political empowerment and this is a branch of the
>> [indiscernible] lulac so being a co-chair, it gives me great pleasure to be here with you.
the resolution that was passed by the league of united latin american citizens at the national level open and honest public elections with hand counted paper ballots is very much one of the things that is close and dear to all of us as democracy is on the line with the electronic machines.
last week we appeared before you citizens communication.
today I ask respect, respect of we the people, the voting people.
trust that we can once again have public confidence in our elections.
I attended a meeting about three weeks ago with the elections committee.
the legislators that were here passing some laws about centralized voting.
what a joke.
let me tell you, what I heard and the facts that were put before us from the state and those pilot programs that they ran, they ran four pilot programs with those -- with those type of centralized voting.
it left me to believe that we're definitely trying to confuse our voters even more.
it's bad enough as it is today.
but the way they have it set up, and I'll get all that information for you for the next time because you will see me here again in reference to it.
the consent of precinct by precinct voting will no longer exist if we continue down this path.
getting the community involved is going to be harder and harder to do as long as we continue to deviate from what the concept of voting has been for many, many years.
the start probably of paper ballots, and this is where I will suggest this.
my suggestion to the Commissioners for if and when we get on the agenda is to have a pilot program of paper ballots here in Travis County.
I leave it up to the Commissioners how many; however, we are ready.
lulac and our coalition of folks are ready to start a paper ballot in set precincts as long as you agree with us to have them that way, and we thank you for our time.
>> thank you.
ms. Carp is next, and would clint smith please come forward.
>> good morning, Commissioners and judge.
vicky carp, co-director of vote rescue.
partners are back today to continue to request a public hearing at the soonest possible date on the subject of our continued use of insecure electronic voting systems in Travis County and for the purpose of advising our county election office to prepare for a hybrid election for November 2nd by introducing paper ballots upon request to any voter who wants them for that election.
it's a familiar scenario in which we find ourselves, vote rescue requesting a hybrid for upcoming election and the court postponing giving us the agenda item until the election is at our very door step at which time we accept the potential response there is not enough time to prepare for a hybrid election.
this all occurred in 2008, as all of you may remember, except for Commissioner Huber.we were told the state election law does not allow for a hybrid election in Texas which is simply not true.
not only is our neighbor to the north Williamson county regularly conducting hybrid elections, but so are several other counties and so is harris county in November due to their recent fire and loss of voting machines.
harris county is moving with deliberate speed to provide a paper ballot to all voters.
Travis County can if motivated to do so prepare for something similar here that would allow voters who request it to vote on a paper ballot.
I brought with me today a memo from ann mcgian, head of the elections division of the secretary of state's office and I have delivered copies of this two-page document here.
this was delivered also in 2008.
in this memo dated April 26, 2006, with just 19 days left prior to an election, she was instructing election officials around the state to prepare to conduct hand counted paper ballot elections in case they didn't get the technical support they needed from the electronic voting machine vendors who were lagging behind in meeting their commitments to the counties.
this is a memo, as I mentioned, we had given it before.
what we are requesting can be done.
we do have the time to get this done.
and while we understand the time limitation in setting up the option for a hand count across the county, as fidel just mentioned, we're introducing the plan today for a pilot hand count program in select precincts of Travis County.
we are in the process of gathering the names of citizens who would be willing to count paper ballots on election day and we're finding people are very enthusiastic about volunteering for this action.
it is the will of the people to have hand counted paper ballot ins Travis County.
isn't it time you became personally responsive to the wishes of your constituents.
>> [applause]
>> thank you.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
bill stout with the Travis County green party.
in our representative society, what public origin does all issues distill down to.
our elections.
pick any topic.
decisions determining the outcome of an issue is the responsibility of officials.
in Travis County our vote disappears because it cannot be verified and there is no possibility for recount.
we are told to trust the system.
which is a laughable suggestion given that elections are regularly rigged such as when the supreme court stepped in to stop florida's vote count.
therefore we must be vigilant and question had when fraud will occur not if.
eight long years of bankrupting the constitution, our economy and the integrity of the american people caused by two fraudulent elections is crime enough.
the writ of habeas corpus has not been reinstated.
continues to rule against electronic voting machines in their decision in March of 2009.
there will be no future elections using electronic voting machines in germany.
our tract he licks system is left up to the will of a so-called -- and the voting rights act of 1965 which respects and protects the rights of human people, citizens of this country as sang row sang and sovereign.
paper ballots are transparent, fair and ano one news and can be counted by teams of citizens paid to serve in a jury duty like system and hand counted paper ballots can be recounted when necessary and if fraud is discovered the theft can be confirmed and isolated.
usually such fraud in hand counted system is limited to several hundred votes instead of the documented flip of thousands of votes counted invisibly electronically.
I am asking you the Travis County Commissioners to compare the county clerk's recommendation to continue the use of unverifiable electronic voting boxes against the alternate findings and recommendations report utilizing verifiable hand counted paper ballots.
it is clear which system is truly democratic and represents the will of we the people.
when you do your research, you will easily find compounding evidence of the ease of breaches of electronic voting machines can be perpetrated.
it has been demonstrated by computer experts that a computer system can only be set up to anticipate the security checks it has been programmed to check.
and that it is impossible to check for the infinite number of potential security breaches in a computerized system.
it is these unaccepted and therefore undefectable programs that cannot be detected by the computer's so-called security system.
whereas hiring citizens --
>> [buzzer sounding] -- to count the ballots -- I'll just summarize.
hiring citizens to count the ballots of an election where counting process is open to the public is an opportunity to go back to the future, to reinstate using a system with integrity.
electronic voting may be convenient, but if I want convenience, I'll go to a convenience store.
we should not stake the future of our community wondering whether my vote or my neighbor's vote will be counted as it was cast.
thank you.
>> [applause]
>> thank you, mr. Stout.
mr. Smith is next.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
>> good morning.
>> as I listen to the other speakers here, I thought about a couple things.
first off, gray panthers prefer to work with you, work with the system and to try to make things better.
and so I preface my comments with thanks to you for your help.
we're still implementing suggestions that came out of the equity study a few years ago and Commissioner Davis we worked with you on a number of things in areas of the neighborhood and so on.
I thought about paper ballots and I said, well, when I first began to get rallied involved in this and I thought back and said that's going backward.
we can all remember national figures who came to power largely on the basis of a landslide of 87 votes.
and now that we have machines, technology, why can't we make that work for us?
you Commissioners, you know how is voting rights act came into being.
it was denial of access to groups of people, women, minorities and so forth.
and we were dealing with a entrenched bureaucracy.
to a large extent was racism and so forth, sexism.
and I see us dealing with corporate rule at this point, and I think, quite frankly, that what we need to do and what we recommended to you as part of an electoral study and this is why I would like to you take a look at it, it's not a matter of the clerk giving anybody permission.
gray panthers would like for you to take a look at the study.
we spent 18 months now working on that electoral reform study.
and in January of last year, not only gray panthers but the Texas senior advocacy coalition, the silver haired legislature, voted basically against a major factor there that had been posed by the legislature or an element which was vote i.d.
to me that was very significant.
we had the head of the senior legislature say we don't need voter i.d.
so we were hoping by this time, 18 months later, that we would have something or a lot in the way of information that you would be looking at to make a determination basically on fairness.
is the system, does it work fairly.
we have a study, for example, that vote rescue has made of 88 Texas counties which shows that to a large extent not only are older people you might say afraid or skeptical about the machines, don't really want to work much with computers, but many of the operators, the officials have questions about the reliability of the machines, they break down, the cost.
what we're asking you to do is take a look at the work we provided.
we're here in citizens communication again this week when we would like to do is sit and talk with you, make sure you have -- you understand what our position is and we understand that the clerk has a different position, and obviously I understand that.
but we think that before this budget period ends, and certainly before this election, we would like you and we think you ought to as our elected officials be very much interested in what we have to say.
>> [buzzer sounding] for one thing it will help you because we think it reduces the amount of pressure elected officials get from other vested interests.
we want you to hear us and we would like to make this a fair kind of approach.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> [applause] mr. Neilsen is next.
>> my name is chris neilsen, I'm the president of capital cruisers llc.
we have an electrical transportation system here in Austin.
and you would think in the so-called green city that we would embrace electric transportation.
I can tell you that has been -- nothing can be farther from the truth.
I personally sat down and spoken with every single city councilmember and the mayor.
all of which say they look forward to permitting me.
that was two and a half years ago.
the problem is the transportation department is very much against electric transportation.
turns out they all used to work for yellow cap.
hmmm.
it's the duty of our elect public officials to get rid of these people, or it's the duty of the citizens to get rid of the elected public officials who will not do their job.
how can I know that my vote is counted whenever I put -- whenever I just do a little slide wheel on a machine and get a receipt that says jgx.
I don't even know what that means.
ballot stuffing is nothing new, but you can at least open the box and count the paper.
how do you audit a machine?
I can bet my little brother could probably hack into one of those machines.
he's hacked into once.
bottom line, this is a democracy.
we have public citizens that should be afraid of the public, not ignore us.
>> [applause]
>> ms. Ready.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
my name is Karen rennick, founder of vote rescue.
I am so proud to be here with out coalition partners, gray panthers and lulac for what they have done, stepped up to the plate.
I call them super heroes and I really mean that.
vote rescue has been speaking the truth to elected officials for more than five years.
we have been bringing information to our elected officials including you the Commissioners all the way up through our legislators and our secretary of state.
in fact, three of the past four secretary of states have all received our stacks of binders.
so when bill stout of the green party in his wonderful statement today said when you do your research, it just struck me that we've actually made it very easy for you to do your research because we have provided just mountains of information about this issue.
we just would like for you to take the time to look through it, read it and weigh what we are trying to say.
the reason I'm especially proud, when you are alone doing this and you are a single group coming to the Commissioners court, you can be easily brushed off because you are one group.
although we know we represent the sentiment of a lot of people in Travis County.
and so as an outcome of the election study group that was convened two years ago, on the one hand we have stated publicly we did not agree in the way it was conducted, there was such a wonderful out come in that we now do have a real solid coalition of groups here in Travis County that understand really what we have been trying to say.
and we are so much stronger because of this.
we represent with the gray panthers a huge coalition of senior groups.
with the green party, of course, with their wonderful understanding of the delicacy of our whole environment.
and then, of course, with lulac, they've just been a terrific group to get to know, and the incredible heroism I think of fidel acevedo to get this resolution for hand counted paper ballots passed not only at the state level but at the national level is quite an achievement that should be praised.
I wanted to finish up today by saying I have a new hat on.
my hat is as a member of the league of women voters, I just joined, and I wanted to make it apparent to the court --
>> [buzzer sounding] -- that the league of women voters has passed a similar resolution for transparency at the national level.
in fairness, I want to say they haven't said explicitly it's for hand counted paper ballottings, but they are asking for full transparency in our elections.
thank you so much.
>> thank you.
robbie white.
mr. White, please come forward.
would ronnie reeferseed please come forward.
he will be the last speaker for today.
>> good morning, Commissioners.
on the night of September 4th, I saw one of the biggest traffic operations and it was a typical
>> [indiscernible] that fills up the city coffers.
cops are readily available.
some travelers have been called with immigrants provide the bulk of the money.
mexicans call these cops.
>> [speaking in foreign language] for their ability to soak us up dry and they would rather write a ticket than go over thieves.
they lie and deceive and manipulate reports.
I can prove this.
every day we're in fear of being caught at one of these checkpoints because we know the policy that apd adopted strengthened its legal defenses.
all of this is part of the
>> [indiscernible] in the hands of outsiders with teachers making sure caucasians get the benefit in high school so we and our children go to waste together.
after 9-11, all of these police activity got worse with new laws getting enforced, the american-statesman writing againsten and so did the chronicle.
the mexican consul didn't even care for the mexicans and d.p.s.
came up strong with i.d.
fraud and insurance protection.
the county decided to counteract mexican influence in business.
you know, the taco trucks
>> [indiscernible].
extra predators like tow trucks enjoy full police protection.
but come here to tell you judge Biscoe said it doesn't mean we are going to act up on it and he's black and he's a judge.
where do blacks or chicanos or mexicans seek justice?
city manager mark ott has been avoiding controversy but not bringing
>> [indiscernible] because he himself is an outsider.
all of this can be dealt with by applying this thing called the penal code, judge.
I'm pretty sure Travis County will be better off without this 20 square miles of blacks, chicanos and mexicans drowning in poverty, alcoholism, violence, drugs and prostitution that you would rather not address.
thanks.
>> [applause]
>> thank you.
mr. Reeferseed.
>> thank you, sir.
I'm ronnie reeferseed.
screaming kids, hold on to your you're bliss.
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just put it off.
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it can yield 10 tons per acre in four months.
60% from wood, which takes longer.
it makes higher quality paper and it's easier to grow than trees.
that's crucial to help us -- and kills habitats.
hemp makes seeds with all hemp makes seeds with all amino acids, as well as iron, phosphorous, calcium, mag knees number.
hemp makes great fuel.
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>> [buzzer sounding] you will find links, articles, et cetera.
thanks so much for your time.
>> thank you, mr. Reeferseed.
>> [applause] ms. Bolin, item number 1 did we answer questions?
>> yes, sir, we did and they have withdrawn their objections.
>> okay.
thank you very much.
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.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, September 14, 2010, 2010 7:56 PM
