Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, November 1, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 8B
8 b, consider and take appropriate action on the following items for human resources management.
b, nonroutine personnel actions, emergency services, consider and approve a new job classifications including job descriptions.
>> good morning, I'm danny hobby.
I'm the county executive for emergency services and I have with me some folks that I think would be here to answer any questions you might have along with todd from hrmd.
but I have roger with tcso and willie with starflight as well as our fire marshal her shell lee.
what you have before us is something I this will perhaps answer Commissioner Eckhardt's brand comments earlier as well as steve manila's comments in regards to public information.
we have been working even before the wildfires in trying to develop a partnership with tcso, and that's with roger wade, who is our person and contact, because we've been having to use roger even though he's not assigned to emergency services, he has been willing to assist us in all the different things going on over the last several years.
and that has to do with burn bans and fireworks and starflight and medical examiners and that's what this is all about is trying to put together a partnership that would complement tcso, have a backup for roger, but also compliment emergency services with all the needs that we now have in getting communication out both internally as well as externly.
what you have before you is two job descriptions.
one is taking roger's current classification and job description and making it a senior, a public information office senior.
and then we would want to take his current job description and I would utilize that and advertise that for an emergency services public information officer, which is called public safety and public information officer public safety.
now, what would happen is this particular -- my person would actually be trained and work under roger wade.
and this -- my person would also be the backup for roger when he's on vacation.
but also roner would work with me and assist me in all the affairs that I'm doing especially in major events.
a good example is during the while fires.
roger was -- even though he didn't have to, roger was at c-tec at the main hub but we had no one in the field and that was a real concern for us and we need to do have a person in the field.
roner would be at c-tec and our person would be in the field dealing with the various agencies.
we were able to utilize, and I'm thankful to the city of Austin for that, and that is that we were able to borrow and utilize their p.i.o.
contact folks and they are the ones who set those press conferences up, they are the ones who were dealing with the media and dealing with the agencies.
but I think it's now time for us to have our own public information officer for emergency services.
not only for major events, but for day to day.
what you actually will see here is that these folks will actually be working with all the agencies that are in emergency services including tcso, and that's our fire marshal's office, e.m.s., office of emergency management, the medical examiner's office and t.n.r.
parks because they also have park rangers and they also are first responders.
we are also going to be working with our emergency services districts, and as you saw during the wildfires, we've become quite active both from the starflight sight, will will tell you he never dreamed star light were utilized in the way they were utilized over the labor day weekend.
what we found is we had no state resources and so therefore we needed to do what needed to be done.
but what is missing is having a public information officer.
this is not someone that's countywide.
this is not someone that represents your offices.
this is one who represents the emergency services agencies.
and I'm just thankful for tcso and roner for all the help they have given us in the past, but now it's time to formalize this and move forward, and I think through this partnership you are going to see added measures.
we're going to be dealing with facebook and twitter and all the social media things I think are needed now in the emergency services arena.
because communication is so good now, but we need to be able to have someone and some folks that can actually deal with social media.
and I realize that's new for us, but we want to continue to, if we can, build that up and make it worthwhile for all of us.
and especially in the emergency services area.
as steve manila mentioned, I think this is going to be an experiment through emergency services to see what the county needs to do elsewhere.
and so I think that will be a benefit for that as well.
but I'm here today to ask your approval to approve these two job descriptions, these two classifications and job descriptions.
there are going to be some action steps that I'm going to be taking over the next few weeks and that would be coming back and bringing before you roger wade's adjustment that he needs now that he's going to be moved to a senior.
I also will be bringing back casey ping and starflight because there's another piece of this.
I'm using the fund I that I have existing.
this is not asking for funding, it exists in my starflight budget.
I've been waiting to see the best need-wise.
now it's more important for us to have the p.i.o.
but I want to take care of the m.s.p.
spot in case he's willing to assist in that and, of course, I'll advertise this position, and we have the funding for that as far as the emergency services.
>> that totally redefines what I heard last time, and I think partnership is what makes it sound a whole lot better for me.
and many, many thanks to roger for, you know, keeping everybody well informed about different things that happened.
and so I mean I think you are a prove even resource for me -- proven resource for me.
I mean it just is totally different from what I heard last time.
and -- and this is something that I think that I can certainly, you know, be more in favor of than -- because I see where it's going and see where the tie-in is.
and given the fact that public safety is probably the largest core responsibility that Travis County has, both budget-wise and also in terms of communication with folks.
the -- is there any way of making sure this person is also bilingual?
the communication with folks in Travis County is also spanish and so is something that you can do, roger?
>> this is something you could say in the job description that's preferred.
>> okay.
>> we added it to the job description as preferred.
>> great.
I think that kind of makes sure that we really open lines of communication with everybody in Travis County.
so this is totally different and I like this approach.
>> let me make sure of that.
todd, did we have it in the job description that's before them?
>> yes.
>> okay.
very good.
all right.
>> you know,
>> [inaudible] this would come up and I guess the way sometimes reveal themselves is when disaster actually hit and we're really not prepared to deal with it the way we need to deal with it and I think this is a good example of dealing with those wildfires, of course having to borrow persons and thank the sheriff's office for allowing us to borrow roger wade.
however, you know, during the inclimate times of the year when we even hear the saying turn around, don't drown, all of these type of prevent safety needs that need to be echoed to the public is very critical and we understand how t.n.r.
has been in on road closures or any other kind of inclement type weather that we experience in Travis County, and, of course, everyone knows that Travis County is flood prone.
so it just appears to me that we need to prepare ourselves for the unknown and be prepared to make sure that we save lives, and I think this is one way that any emergency-type setting, whatever it may be, we need to echo to the public what's going on and to keep them out of harm's way.
and I think this is probably a big step in that and we have learned I think a very vital lesson during this particular wild wire and he did a super duper job by combining the efforts of our emergency service with law enforcement to ensure that the safety of Travis County residents are adhered to.
but then again how do we look in the future to make sure that we even do a more solid, better job and make improvements by even doing what we're doing now.
and I applaud you for your thinking as far as making sure that we have persons in place to announce to the public, to the Travis County residents that, say, do not get in harm's way.
we want to protect you and this is how we're going to echo our sentiments to you is through this type of juncture as far as looking at these employees to do just that.
thank you.
>> let me just talk to you briefly about money.
so in your budget now for public information services is enough money to cover --
>> all three.
>> all throw.
>> yes, sir.
-- three.
>> yes, sir.
and in the name of transparency, what total amount of money are we talking about?
>> well, in the name of transparency, of course we'll advertise the position as far as the emergency services p.i.o.
and we're hoping to get within the 45 to 47 thousand dollar range.
again, depending upon how that process works.
but the -- the other elements of that are in regards to a salary adjustment for casey ping would be a little over 10,000, and then the ajustment for roger would be about 3400.
so we will actually have money, we think, left over because there's about 84,000 that's in the -- in the position itself.
>> the amount that you just mentioned will add up to about 70, 75 thousand?
>> the way we have it figured we would fall under the amount, judge.
>> we've chatted with the county sheriff and he's support I have?
>> yes, sir.
and I forgot to mention, sheriff hamilton has been vital in making all this work and not only this but in the past for lending roger so I thank him immensely.
>> any more questions or comments?
>> just a comment that I really appreciate your thinking long and hard on how to utilize this particular position and money a lot better.
and so I truly appreciate that.
>> thank you.
>> that is why I move approval of 8 b.
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
by the way, earlier I did not recommend 33 for inclusion on the consent motion.
I meant to bring it up separately.
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