Travis County Commssioners Court
November 26, 2002
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.
Item 9
9. Review applications for central Texas regional mobility authority board members, and take appropriate action. And the review there is loosely -- the word review there is loosely used. What I had in mind really was simply to acknowledge the fact that we received 19 applications. And in my view we need to do two things if we plan to conduct interviews next Tuesday as we said we would. One is that we need to put in place a process that enables us to shortly [inaudible] 19, I'm assuming that we don't plan to interview all of these. Because the applicants need to be notified. The other issue is that since there's -- since Thursday and Friday are county holidays, in my view we need to need to get as much this done by tomorrow at 5:00 as possible. If you were asking me for an appropriate committee, I guess I would choose -- is joe on vacation or is he here.
>> he's here. [inaudible] not here yet.
>> the three people that directly come to my mind would be joe gieselman, alicia perez because human resources are under her and I guess christian smith. Because I'm thinking if this process would have financial issues at some point. Those three come to mind for me.
>> you are suggesting that they are a committee to review the applicant?
>> that's what I'm suggesting now. As well as any other members that might add it. What I'm suggesting further, is that they would take the -- the job description, any other information, [inaudible] by us, try to look at these 19 and pick out the best nine or 10.
>> I think we had talked about a totally different process and I would articulate going with what we had originally talked about. But I will let youly out whatever you want to lay out.
>> that's just one --
>> we talked about one or vote on one?
>> I thought there was a pretty --
>> I had sent this out, what you all had said back then.
>> yeah.
>> was that on the 27th you would short list, each of you would give us two names.
>> not two.
>> no.
>> it says two from each court member is what I got. 10 individuals would be selected and then -- then we are going to tally it up, the top five was what you all were going to interview.
>> okay. [one moment please for change in captioners]
>> based on the job description, the posting and other research that we did and reduced to writing to try to indicate to those who were interested in applying, the kind of person we were looking for.
>> I was just wondering, we also said -- set basically, I guess, a time line as far as what we looked at at that time and we looked at the scheduling because of the schedule that was set up all through this process. And I don't have the schedule right in front of me right now. So according to my memory, the schedule was looking into the possibility of I think December for us to make a final selection. However, I think we also sent Williamson county persons based on what we had to make sure we were on the same page to make sure that if we do the schedule, maybe we could end upcoming up with the same people to be appointed to the rma. The only difference that i've heard from Williamson county commissioners is that they may want to extend theirs a week as far as their selection of the appointing members to the rma board. So I think that's the only difference that i've heard thus far. I think what I'm wondering, trying to get this in place under the time line that we're under to make sure that we all were in the timeliness to ensure that the legislators -- the state legislature, who is going to also look at amending the section of the rma, regional mobility authority, to look at how long the condemnation aspect, but look at the bonding authority to make sure we have the board authority in place and running before they go forward. So I'm just wondering whether or not if that would cause any delay in what we are trying to do to ensure that we get the persons and place and working with the Williamson county commissioners and also trying to work with the state legislature, would there be any mix-up as far as basically in the time frame of here we are and the timeliness of it? And I don't know if it will or not.
>> it is next Tuesday as we anticipate. When I look at this list here, I can pick two people. I know about five. I know nothing about the other 14. And what bothers me is trying to choose the best three possible. And so having a small group of staff people -- and we would impose this responsibility to them and get the short list down to eight or nine for us to notify tomorrow evening that we would like to interview them on Tuesday afternoon would be better. That way I think we got the best shot. I kind of glanced at the applications. The few that I know have a distinct advantage over the ones that I don't know, no matter how impressive their resumes and applications are. And if -- so I don't know that for me the decision ought to be based on whether I know them, the decision ought to be based on whether I have concluded whether you are one of the best three and we ought to try to get you to commit to this volunteer service for Travis County. That's why when I -- I have no idea whether we received five or 50, but we have 19 resumes and a whole lot of them are pretty impressive, but at the same time a resume shows only so much about a person. A 30, 40-minute interview can show a whole lot more. If we choose eight or nine, in order for us to get them done next Tuesday, we would have to limit the interviews to 30 minutes or so. So I can go either way, but what's clear to me is that at this point, based on the number of the submitted applications and the fact that I don't know a whole lot of them, my thinking was if we got a small group or committee -- of a committee to cut this in half or look at less than half, and we interviewed the short listed group, we would probably end up making better choices.
>> judge, I'm going to articulate for a different process, because quite frankly, this is the most important set of appointments that this commissioners court may ever make. And I think it is one that each of us needs to take personal responsibility for the kinds of names that are brought forward. And with all due respect to our executive managers, with the exception of joe gieselman, it is about a transportation authority that two of them have limited, if no knowledge about. And I think the five of us need to take responsibility for coming up with either two names or three names that we would each like to have brought forward as part of the cut list. I think this is much too important. This ought not be in the hands -- especially in the hands of folks that are not intimately familiar with what a regional mobility authority is, does, what it's going to do, and I think it is quite -- in the same way that you went through the long list of people who wanted to be county commissioner. It's something that didn't get delegated. That was your responsibility. And you were able to move through a very long --
>> but human resources did short list for me. And I interviewed 10 or 11 of the 31.
>> it was your choice to do it that way, but I would not feel comfortable delegate thg to two executive managers or three executive managers who are not intimately aware of what an rma does, the kind of people that we're looking for. And I personally think that each of us ought to do like we talked about before, and that is that we would go take this stack and we would go through these resumes and bring forward the two or three names each of us would want to bring forward and then tnr was going to compile that list and get it down to the top five or six names that kept coming up in terms of who we wanted to bring forward. And I'm flexible about which names are brought forward, but I do not want to delegate this.
>> is it a compromise for two members of the court to work with three executive managers and the five of you short-list down to eight or nine by tomorrow at 5:00 o'clock? I say tomorrow at 5:00 o'clock because in fairness to those selected we really need to give them notice of the interview on Tuesday afternoon.
>> oh, I agree.
>> and I have no problem with you and commissioner Gomez doing it if you have time to do it.
>> i'd be glad to work on it.
>> I would too.
>> and --
>> okay.
>> I feel a whole lot better doing that than two apiece from each of us.
>> I just want -- I think there needs to be an involvement by this commissioners court because of us putting together the rma, knowing these projects intimately well to be able to -- I mean, I think it is possible to short-list this down to six, if not eight people with some effort working through this in terms of these applications and the kinds of skills that they would bring forward. But I think the commissioners court needs to be involved in this and not delegate it at the short-list point to people who don't know things about it.
>> okay. So commissioner Sonleitner and I can do that, I would be happy to do it.
>> and if there is input from any of the other three of us, we would simply get it to -- let's say the other two members of the court. And if we could get that input before 9:00 tomorrow morning, it would help.
>> okay.
>> I was going to offer one other suggestion to make sure that everybody feels comfortable in terms of this short-listing down. If commissioner Gomez and I and the executive managers, let's say we get it down to five or six and then we show that list to you all. And if anybody feels that there was somebody in this stack of 19 that you felt ought to have been part of that five or six, they ought to be added in case there was somebody that you felt was worthy and did not make the final cut list. That way it might expand it up to seven or eight at the max, but that certainly would give the flexibility for this court to be able to say, no, we need a a little broader base of people. But I am willing to bet that we would all come up with a reasonable -- reasonably safe list of six or seven people of persons that we want to talk to.
>> and my preference would be to have closer to seven or eight unless it is clear -- unless it is clear that six are the ones most qualified. Then I think if we think it would be an unnecessary interview to do seven or eight because clearly six are most qualified and will end up being the pool from which we select three, then I'm willing to defer to the committee. And if we leave open the possibility that the three who are not on the subcommittee on the court can at least raise the issue of whether another should be added, that will cover that concern.
>> so kind of a no more than eight, and that way there's that flexibility there that if we say there's --
>> that sounds fine with me.
>> I'm happy to devote whatever time is necessary to do this.
>> I do as well.
>> and I'm speaking for the executive manager, whom I know quite well, in committing them to be able to get this done tomorrow also.
>> okay.
>> and if my staff is listening, we will need three more copies of the packet of applications and resumes. The other thing is -- did you have comments on this part?
>> I guess what i'd like to say, I just want to make sure -- I think that -- I agree with basically everything that's been said here today. The point is there's no doubt in my mind that we have to be very, very careful in making these appointments, meaning that they have to be the best of the best as far as what we have on the table. His is a brand new venture that we're getting into, and I know that no one up here, including myself, don't want it to fail. But there are certain pitfalls that we can actually run into that will cause failure. And I think that if we do not scrutinize and allow ourselves to set traps to ensure that we do not fall in these pitfalls, because I'm uncomfortable with that, I basically looked at the schedule of when we had this before the commissioners court on the -- as far as setting up a schedule, and I tried to follow that accordingly, and I have had a chance to go through all the applications, and the things that I was looking for as far as I'm concerned, these are I think the best two that I can put forward based on the things that I just said, the criterion and a lot of other knowledgeable things that I think are very important in forming this rma board. It's very necessary. So again, I don't hesitate in going forward with what has been put on the table here this morning, however, looking at the way we've been going and looking at the things I'm looking for to make sure that the pitfalls that I know are out there, I want to make sure that they are avoided. And I think that this is the first step in the process to ensure that we don't run into any problem up the road. Now, of course, we do have the ability to appoint three members on this rma board, so does Williamson county, and also an appointment by the governor of the state of Texas, which is a total of seven, but the end result in this rma process is that we need to present something I think for the Travis County taxpayers to rest assure that the people we select on this board have the best interest, not only for the central Texas regional mobility authority, but also have an interest with Travis County. So I want to make sure that's echoed very clear and that we do make the proper selection accordingly. And I want to feel comfortable if the shortfalls that we've come up as far as selection aren't at that tier because it must be the best of the best. And this is at the first phase. They've still got to get an executive director to run this stuff. It just one of many, many steps that we have to take in this.
>> yes, sir?
>> I guess the biggest question I have is this time line is so fast, can you really get in and look up -- verify some of the statistics about the folks that are in here? That's going to be a pretty difficult thing to do before tomorrow at five. Hopefully it can be done. That would be one concern that I would have. The other concern that I would have is not really interfacing with Williamson county on this thing because the last thing I want to see is this turf war between you've got three people that come from Williamson county, that let's face it, sometimes the people in Williamson county aren't exactly on the same page with the people in Travis County. And I don't know if there's a way to do that to get in contact with them and say hey, here's the process we're going through. Are y'all kind of using some of the same criteria, because we don't need to have three political people and they have three technical people or vice versa. Before you know it then we're in a situation where we've seen -- we've seen happen so often with campo. I think everyone wants this thing to be a real positive movement because I agree with you, commissioner Sonleitner, I don't think there's a more important, you know, organization that's going to be put together for central Texas than this. So those would be my concerns. Now, if you all would kind of weigh in there and see who is doing what there and how they're getting this thing accomplished, given that they're not evening having their applications due until December the second, they're on a little slower time line than apparently we are. So that would be my biggest concern.
>> mr. Daugherty.
>> I think it's worth checking out the recommendations, doing due diligence. If we do that on the short-listed group, then I think we're covered. You wouldn't do it on the full 19, but if you shorten it down to eight, I think it's appropriate to do some -- take a further look. The other thing is that I do think we ought to touch base with Williamson county, if not tomorrow, then Monday, to see how their looking, what kind of folks they're looking for. I don't know that there's a way to guarantee that your selections really are fully consistent with the kinds of people you're looking for. You may not know that until six to nine months later after you see your committee in action. But I think we ought to try to pick people who understand the importance with collaborating with other members of the committee. So I think that on the short listed group that we ought to make sure we set aside some time to do that. What we said before it if we did not finish the interviews on Tuesday, then we would finish them on Thursday. If we want to delay the final action after Tuesday, I guess depending on how we feel, the top three, there is a way to take additional time on that. And if Williamson county would do their interview the following week, we may want to give ourselves an additional week to do further work on the three that we have kind of targeted.
>> and I'm not sure, commissioner daugherty, that those discussions have been going on in Williamson county and including representative krusee, who is going to be taking any kind of legislative changes along with senator barrientos to the state legislature. From what I understand, they're still going through an application process, but rather than putting out the gigantic net, they're really focusing on trying to recruit applicants from geographic areas. So they're trying to recruit folks from Cedar Park, they're trying to recruit, and I think they've focused on a particular person in Round Rock, and then they are going to focus on the georgetown area. So there's is a little bit different, so I don't see them going through 19 applications, get it it down to a short list of eight. Quite frankly, from the conversations we've had with commissioner boatright and hilgenstein and representative cruise se, they are almost short listing as they go through an application process in terms of the kind of people. And I wouldn't at all be surprised if their short list is three from the very beginning. Which works for them. We're different. We actually are on the same page in bringing forward, I think, six excellent people. And then the governor is waiting to see when we're going to act because they would like to name their person from the feet back we've gotten from the governor's office, they would like to be making the decision about the same time, so this board is seated about the same time.
>> commissioner Davis?
>> yes. In talking with commissioner hilgenstein and boatright during this process, I want to make sure that our staff, tnr staff, and also legal to satisfy some of the concerns, commissioner daugherty, were done in a timely had matter. And I believe, carol, the information that we had, the packet, all that information was sent to me but can you check on that to rest assure that --
>> at the same time we brought forward the process time line I e-mailed the same information, including the affidavit, the application and all that was in the packet to commissioner boatright and his staff so that they could have the same information. They were going to taylor it to fit what we were doing and tweak I guess the application. I have not seen their final application or affidavit, but I think that it's basically the same because our legal said that as far as I know they're using the same forms.
>> so I guess what I'm trying to say, there's some comfort level that the staff has contacted them by request to ensure that they're included in this.
>> they may change their mind two or three times.
>> during a meeting. [ laughter ]
>> now, tnr -- welcome. You have a list of questions for us. I believe it would be appropriate for us to review that list and the questions. And if there are additional ones that we believe should be added, we meaning individual members of the court, if y'all would get those to me, I would be happy to compile a list, a cumulative list. And then at the beginning of the session on Tuesday, we can go through there and pick out whether we want to ask all of them or not. I do think it's important to ask all the applicants the same question. The other thing is that the list that -- whoever is short listed by tomorrow afternoon, hopefully by 5:00 o'clock, i'd be happy to take responsibility for contacting and trying to schedule interviews unless somebody else wanted to do it. I do think that we ought to know that when the short list has been achieve, somebody could contact all of the short listed persons and try to start scheduling interviews Tuesday afternoon. And my preference would be to try to get them all in Tuesday afternoon. And if something unexpected happen and we don't get that done, we get all the incident viewlg done and get an opportunity to discuss them, then we can take additional days. There are posting requirements that we have to meet, the county attorney will tell us. By law we can only continue the session -- recess for one day. Can we do that consecutive days? Can we recess it to Tuesday and on Tuesday recess to Wednesday and on Wednesday recess to Thursday?
>> i'll look into it.
>> we need to give ourselves time to keep work.
>> judge, it was just a scheduling issue. If we keep with the scheduling we are going to be acting on Tuesday, December 10th. I would simply request that that decision happen at the first part of our meeting. Impart of the new york trip, and my polite flooit is at 11:30 on Tuesday. So I set it at a time to I could be here for the first hour, if indeed we were going to be acting on that. But if we're not -- anyway, if we're going to act, I would just request that we do that within the first hour of the meeting or delay it until the next week.
>> I'm with you, but I would just request that we do it first up that morning.
>> any other discussion of this item?
>> do you know who is going to --
>> not yet.
>> I can defer to the judge on that point.
>> I would ask that we have our three executive managers specifically to work with commissioners Sonleitner and Gomez to review the list of 19 applicants for the regional mobility authority board and that you meet tomorrow and try to short list this down to eight or less by 5:00 o'clock. And at that time that you notify the county judge of the short list of the pool and that the county judge's office will take responsibility for notifying those individuals of a time for interview on Tuesday afternoon and we indicate our intention to start conducting interviews at 1:30 on Tuesday, December 3rd.
>> was that also part of your motion if individual commissioners looked at that short list and see that there may need to be an additional person added to that --
>> yes. As well as if you have -- I think if you have folks that you feel strongly about, you would notify the committee say by nine tomorrow morning.
>> or sooner.
>> and the reasons why or sooner.
>> there's no problem with sooner.
>> I'm assuming we'll be in court -- well, we may get out. Now or sooner. So today or tomorrow morning.
>> and I'm happy to second your motion, judge. I would also like to say if we could also have the flexibility because you said about us meeting tomorrow. If there is any way that we might each get together for a little meeting this afternoon to kind of talk about what we would be doing the next day, if we could have that flexibility to get going on this as soon as our schedules would allow.
>> as the court will do, we ask our executive managers to work on this, we would not have posted this responsibility and I think this is one of the most important actions to be taken immediately. Any more discussion of the motion? The motion is not intended to cover everything. I think there's been agreement today. It should be fine. Our goal is to try to put in place a process that will enable us to make a good decision, but at the same time allow for maximum individual input. Any more discussion of the motion? Melissa, I'm sure you have each and every word in the official minutes. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Anything further on number 9? What I can do, just informally, is may touch base with Williamson county tomorrow, communicate to judge doerfler actions taken today. Maybe I should do it with representative krusee's office and senator barrientos, just to let them know what we're doing, what timetable we're on, as well as the city of Austin has always indicated an interest in this and maybe let them know also. Anything further on this item? Okay.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM