Travis County Commssioners Court
September 24, 2002
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Agenda Item Ten
We need to take up item no. 10, budget rules. 10 is to consider proposed changes to budget rules for fy 2003, and take appropriate action.>> to put this in context, the reason why number 10 needs to be handled first is because -- because the proposed changes to the budget rules were discussed last Tuesday. On the 17th. And certain changes were approved by the court. And there was one section of the budget rules dealing with travel. Which you wished to -- to delay a week and consider. What -- what we did then, because the budget rules are a part of the budget order, we submitted a final copy of the budget rules with the changes as proposed by the auditor and she will walk you through those changes in the travel section. What that means then is any changes that you need to do to those rules would be in the form of a motion to make a modification and then we will actually modify the budget order to include those changes because we are right at the wire.
>> also, it was discussed with the auditor a brochure of something sort of -- well, I guess as far as the timeliness of letting the departments know some of the changes that have been made, I think, in -- in some of the things that will affect travel and getting it out in the timely manner. I guess my points is how -- what is going to be the approach if.
>> it's going to be at least 30 days because we are right in the middle of closing. The people that would work on it.
>> I understand.
>> brochure first -- but my goal is that we would have something in 30 days, then I will bring that back for you to all look at.
>> normally what -- what we would do is I would write a letter to all elected and appointed officials and their financial staff saying here are the budget rules. In two pages a little two page cover letter I will summarize the major changes n. That letter I can summarize the basic programmatic adjustments to the travel section, then point folks to pages et cetera, et cetera, then the auditor's office can follow up with a more detailed brochure. But at least the basic essence of the changes to the travel rules we can get out to officials very quickly.
>> all right.
>> let me make sure that they are aware that travel starting October first, before susan gets her little brochure out, it affects all travel starting October first in terms of those rule changes. They just need to know that as they start encumbering things for the -- before the new year.
>> the one change from last week was in response to commissioner Sonleitner's comment on meal allowances, it is on page 18. Judge Biscoe had asked us to look at other organizations, I thank carol joseph because she looked at quite a few, the reality is there wasn't a whole lot of them that were the same. So we put one alternative in there, which is our regular reimbursement is $34 a day. What we put in there is if you go to these high cost cities, one government had this, it would be $50. The other thing that we could do is if you prefer something different than that is say, like we did under the old ones, that we would reimburse anyone up to $50, but they would have to have receipts. So if you prefer that to this, that would be fine as well. I don't know what your preference is. No matter where they went if they gave receipts.
>> what does the federal government do?
>> I think they have a -- a plane per diem, every government that we looked at was different.
>> does the state handle it centrally or is it agency by agency? Because as an arm of the state, the county could very well then follow the state's lead, unless it's diverse --
>> yeah, I don't think that that's a good change for us. I'm familiar with what the comptroller's office does because i'm on a board that they finance. I think ours are more realistic. Again what we wamentsed to do was balance the need for professional devopment, the controls that a government has to have and the ability of our employees to not have to be personally, financially disadvantaged when they get professional development. So looking at all of the ones out there, given what we doorks this is not an organization that has extensive travel. Because Austin has such a wealth of training, a lot of people stay in Austin. But there are good reasons to go outside. So, you know, what you might want to do is if this one looks all right to you or say reimbursement will be a mixed amount of $34 per day without receipts or a maximum of $50 a day with receipts, if you prefer that one.
>> i'm comfortable there, how do you decide what is or is not on the high cost city list. Again --
>> that changes --
>> it is still up to the manager to be overseeing these travel reimbursement forms and making sure that something inappropriately wasn't turned in. To manage this. There are very few times that people are going to exceed that, whether it's europe, d.c., New york, san francisco, again good training opportunities but you shouldn't be shackled by the fact that it's expensive to live in new york and they pass it on to everybody who comes their way.
>> second.
>> that would be my motion.
>> any more discussion?
>> the language needs --
>> obviously 34 bucks with receipts up to 50.
>> right.
>> the language needs to be clarified because the last sentence says this method includes congratulate tooth tees and receipts are not -- gratuitiss --
>> you know the wording that we had before, but it said $34 or $35, this needs to say 50. The old rule.
>> okay. I will take a look to see what I can find.
>> I just don't have it in front of me, it's exactly the old rule, just changing the number from 35 to 50. Is that okay?
>> uh-huh. I just wants to make sure when we final the order -- that it's correct. It needs to be correct the first time.
>> absolutely.
>> were there any other issues that you have with travel?
>> any more discussion of this change? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Any other travel related issues? Okay. Now, the recommendations that we heard last week have been incorporated into --
>> yes, sir.
>> -- the document that you gave us.
>> yes, sir.
>> any or issue that's we need to discuss? Issues that we need to discuss, on budget rules.
>> we don't see any.
>> do we need a motion then for the full list of the budget rules as just amended?
>> you have an order approving the county budget for '03, within that order is the budget rules.
>> okay. So there's a list of elements of the budget, which is the details and the --
>> what we just did was only change that one section related to travel. We have not taken a vote on the fact that that is the final version of the budget rules that will then automatically be folded into the previous --
>> if you look at your budget order, within the budget order it says the old [inaudible] is deleted and new chapter 22 which is attached to the budget order is approved as attached, except that it will be amended now on the motion.
>> so we have taken votes on every single one of our amendments?
>> no, you will take a vote of every single one of your amendments when you approve the budget.
>> i'm not trying to be pricklely.
>> you will do it at the same time.
>> but it won't hurt if we do it twice, is that right.
>> move approval of the budget rules.
>> second.
>> as amended.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. [ laughter ]
>> bill aleshire would be very proud of us.
>> okay. Now, let's go to 7. Which is to adopt orders setting the Travis County?r tax rate for fy 2003.
>> you h ave before you an order which I discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. [ laughter ]
>> bill aleshire would be very proud of us.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM