Travis County Commssioners Court
October 22, 2002
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Item 5
Number five is to consider invoicing criteria -- are we ready for this one or do we need more time?
>> I think we're ready. I sent y'all some backup yesterday. I put the wrong agenda item number on there.
>> what item number did you put?
>> I put 7.
>> . Five is to consider invoicing criteria for consultant services relating to the formation of a regional mobility authority and take appropriate action.
>> I brought some extra copies.
>> [ inaudible ]
>> let me just go through it briefly to put it in context. As you remember, we have now an agreement with count that says the two counties are going to cooperate on forming the rma. And once it formed, getting it up and running. And the interlocal has provisions for how the two counties are going to interact. The interlocal essentially calls for Williamson county to sort of assume the administrative role, and it envisions this work being done by third party consultants that Williamson county would contract with. But the interlocal sets out how the counties review the work product that those consultants produce. The interlocal has a provision that says Travis County approves who the subcontractors, who the consultants are. The symbol has a set term of the contract and a set provision to terminate the contract if things don't work out. I think what's been missing is sort of a work plan or a set of deliverables that the counties agree that the consultant is going to produce. And some sort of plan for how that's done. And I think exhibit a, which I distributed to y'all yesterday afternoon, what it is intended to do is fill in that gap. Tnr staff basically took the first cut at drafting up exhibit a. I made one or two changes. It's more of a work product, but it's a joint work product. And what I had envisioned it being is in essence an amendment to the interlocal, to flesh out the interlocal so that Williamson an Travis County agree sort of this is the work plan, this is the set of deliverables for the consultant.
>> now, what we're doing here today, of course, we're looking at deliverables. We're looking at basically some scope of work. And then we also -- this is basically going to allow them -- whatever we do today, allow these particular documents to be shared with Williamson county. I think the point that's raised is that I don't see in here -- and I don't know if there is another format or something else that we have to do to address this, and that is if the acceptance of these documents are approved by Williamson county as is, is there a separate arena to address the auditor's tracking? And if so, where would that -- [ inaudible ] as far as the audit itself is concerned, tracking the expenditures of money. Is that something that will come back to us later? Are we having to look at that now if we are going to allow expenditures to be expelled from Travis County?
>> my assumption is that we don't need to do anything dicht on that than we sort of already do. And I made need some help from tnr on it this. When we have an interlocal with another government entity an that entity spsming services for us -- is performing services for us and they send us an invoice or a bill or a statement that says we performed the services, now pay us, I assume tnr basically verifies that for the auditor and the auditor okays to pay it. How does it usually work?
>> it's magic.
>> generally we have a detailed invoice that identifies the portion of the scope of work that has been performed by the consultant. We recognize we're in the portion of the scope of work on the contract that is referenced, and we sign off on it and send it to the auditors. But it's very specific on what it is that they have performed, the services that we've received. And it ties directly to the contract.
>> so if you receive an invoice and it's not detailed enough, you will send it back to whoever sent it to you and say give us more details.
>> that's correct. It has to tie into the scope of the work.
>> well, we've had an interlocal with the city of Austin, for instance, dealing with professional services. We have both a contract with the engineer and the interlocal agreement, so we have both in play when it comes time for processing payments.
>> okay. So I guess that's why I said another format. And I guess there is another format, the contract itself. The interlocal, of course, this basically amends the interlocal that we have now as far as the resolution is concerned. So those are the other opportunities we will have to ensure that the auditor is satisfied in a particular regard? As far as the monies being spent by Travis County?
>> quite frankly, I think it's better for the auditor to speak for herself. I could tell you what our standard procedures are, but if you want guarantees --
>> yes, I do.
>> -- that payments will be made by the auditor, I think you need to ask the auditor.
>> okay. I'll pose that question to the auditor. If she's listening, I would like for her to give me an answer before the day is out. Within this is there -- I guess my point is there was a question -- and thank you for your work and staff's work in this. It's been hard. But within that constraint there are some things here that I saw a lot of blanks in them because we don't know what the blanks are going to be, but as far as we're concerned as far as what we do in-house here to reduce costs, are you still going to be playing a major role as far as the attorney and I guess whatever tnr can play to reduce costs to the county as far as possible? Are those roles still going to be here?
>> i'll play whatever role the commissioner's court requests me, directs me to play.
>> okay. Because there are some things that I see that may be related here, and I just want to make sure that we continue to do that on both sides. That's the only questions i've got at this time.
>> I have a few. How do we look at this document and determine what we think we can do in-house and what we think we ought to contract out for?
>> for the most part all of this work is to be done by your consultant. None of this work will be duplicated in-house. That's why you're paying a consultant. There will be a staff review of the products, but not a duplication.
>> okay. So we're saying that we want the consultant and the attorney to perform these services?
>> my preference --
>> let me get my question answered first.
>> sorry.
>> that's all right. I've got two or three more and i'll be done. Is that what we're shooting for?
>> yes. The only caveat I would put on that is the amount of time the attorney may be putting on these work products is eligible for an outside attorney to work on all of this, but we have not yet put in the number of hours that that attorney would work on these products.
>> exhibit a leaves is open as it was before, doesn't it?
>> I would say there's -- we still have to close the loop on exhibit a.
>> how do we do that?
>> put in the number of hours.
>> is that not what Williamson county did of putting in a knot to exceed figure so that they could keep a very close watch on the number of hours?
>> judge, the information we had was that -- well, I think -- I don't know that Williamson county's nailed down the numbers yet with their consultants on how much they're going to pay her hour and what the max is. I think that's still somewhat to be determined, but I think my suggestion of going to be we send this to Williamson county and we and Williamson county come to an agreement and that will set the parameters for what Williamson county says they're going to pay their consultants.
>> so I think it is at the consultant's and attorney, if they would perform all of these services for us and we would agree on compensation and incorporate that into a contract.
>> as I understand what tom is proposing, should attachment a be part of the interlocal agreement and that is what you're paying on.
>> but attachment a broadly describes services.
>> that's right.
>> it doesn't have unit costs or hourly rate or total amount or any sort of up to figure.
>> not yet. We intended to finish that before you adopt it.
>> commissioner Moore?
>> I just -- you were talking about, tom, your performing any role that we would ask. And my personal preference would be that you review the attorney work here along with or instead of the tnr staff so that we had the -- we had your oversight in that area.
>> sure.
>> so we have to do what today, look at this? How do we get the estimated time, hourly rate? Do y'all sit down and try to negotiate that with the consultants?
>> and Williamson county.
>> judge? Earlier I asked the question of how -- what role you would play as far as the tracking of paying.
>> we've not --
>> could you go into that for me? And I guess purchasing may say something. I don't know.
>> we've got seen anything. What I would like to do is before you finalize the agreement with Williamson county, look at -- our concern is it's narrow. And that is that there is a defined deliverable. What is the evidence that that deliver rabl is met. And that that is provided to us. So if you decide, for instance, that people are paid on an hourly rate, that's fine. I need to know what the hourly rate is and there needs to be documentation that they worked those hours. If you want a contract kind of thing, like when this is completed, then we pay, then I need to know what documentation will be provided that would document that that project is done. So it's just whatever -- however you'd define -- deliverables must be clearly defined in the contract, and the documentation that will be provided. That's kind of -- our role is play smaul in that regard, but tom, I think you know that. What I wouldn't like is get a contract over, have Williamson county sign it, everyone goes through this, we've not seen it, and at the tail end it comes in and I'm not comfortable paying it off. So if you wouldn't mind, I would like to take a look at it buff get down the road.
>> I wanted to make sure that whatever we're doing the payment must be something that we've got -- a lot of the things that you brought up. And I guess purchasing, I don't know how -- what role you would play in this, but, of course, I'm still pushing for getting this contract and efb else to get to moving, but there are some -- there's some due diligence I think we still need to do.
>> from what I understand and from what tom said this morning is in the interlocal, Williamson county is the contracting agent for this agreement. So. So according to that, I wouldn't have any role. I wouldn't be involved with who they select, what kind of procurement processes adhering to and not adhering to. And we would be out of the loop. It would -- you would take us out of the role and susan would just be auditing. And, of course, they would have to -- she would have to pay the invoices from her end. But I don't see that we have a role.
>> okay. I think susan, and, of course, looking at deliverables, the deliverables in the confines of a contract I think is something -- the scope of services and a whole bunch of other things, it's something we need to look at. Fnd so that's my point. I'm still holding on to the contractual asset along with the deliverables and we would have to look at hourly rate versus how we would want to do it and the dowlttation to support that those things are actually done. I think it is the recommendation for going in on that.
>> so what do we ask to do today?
>> just approve the direction that we're going in. There's several stops we have to make.
>> and the direction is to take this and get with the consultants in Williamson county and put a specifically estimated time, hourly rates.
>> right, review with the Williamson county auditor.
>> and then we need to to reconcile the invoices we received with this scope of work and ask if the consultant will do that. Issues and get it back as quick --
>> and get it back as quickly as possible.
>> yeah. [ laughter ]
>> if there's no objection, we'll direct that that be done.
>> thank you for the work you put in.
>> thank you.
>> so should we have this back on?
>> yes.
>> one week or two?
>> two.
>> two weeks? Joe? Okay.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM