Travis County Commssioners Court
November 26, 2002
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Item 25
25 is to consider county strategy for upcoming legislative session, including appointment of commissioners court liaison and take appropriate k. It seems to me that we should all try to chip inasmuch as we can this year rather than have one person trying to carry the brunt of the work. Maybe at some point in the future we can identify key issues of Travis County and maybe try to divide among the court or subcommittee of the court to at least so they will know who to contact. We do a pretty good job during the session of having a running legislative item on the agenda. So if an item service surfaces at the last minute that we need to discuss, we can discuss those. But let's wait until the session and see if that helps. Down at the end I know it gets kind of fast and we may need to change our strategy mid session, mid legislative session, we can always do that. I mentioned it to bob and he indicates it would be fine with him. At some point we need to meet with county staff anyway. We need to have them meet with us to give the consultants direction.
>> technical question, judge, because I don't disagree with what you sus just said there, but in terms of for sid purposes, somebody has to sign off for purposes of the payment of that bill. And that has always been one person to take responsibility for saying yes, bob and chris, accomplish that work. Somebody has to sign that off so this stuff can get paid.
>> they still sign off on services? We sent a monthly check.
>> [ inaudible ]
>> is there an invoice, sid, that needs to come that somebody has to say --
>> [ inaudible ].
>> not a problem. Because before there was literally either todd or Margaret being the one to sign off on the invoice if they were around. And if that comes to the judge, I'm cool with that. Not a problem there.
>> they haven't talked about not getting paid.
>> not a problem. The second then is who is going to take responsibility, because that was something that would hammed by I think two offices last time around in terms of our big old book of bringing that stuff here. That was not something that was asem bid by bob. It was something that they insiftd was a backup information, but in terms of pulling down the bills, putting the backup information, appropriately filling our books on a weekly basis so that when it came in here it was ready to go, that was not something that bob and chris did for us. That was handled by barbara always worth in todd's office with assistance from edith in Margaret's office. So there was a delegation.
>> we need to have her back.
>> barbara lives in Williamson county.
>> commissioner Sonleitner, your office has always been real good --
>> and I didn't want to insert myself where I wasn't invited to participate, but I would suggest that Margaret and my office work together to basically handle the backup information. I don't mind if ours is the primary, Margaret, but just in terms of we need to have many hands that need to know how to do that so that there's never a week when somebody's out and all of a sudden we're done.
>> and then also I'm chairperson of the policy committee with puc and we discussed the issues that the urban counties are interested in. We have a meeting -- and actually, I have a meeting on December fifth. I didn't look at my calendar when I let myself schedule a work session here, but it's to address all of the issues that the urban counties have and then prepare them for the legislature. And bob is always there. So we have several people looking at these issues at the same time. And so -- but we will want to schedule people to appear before committees and to meet with legislators to really hone in on the seven points for legislation. So that's fine as long as -- now I know that all of y'all are available for that.
>> do we need to reschedule that work session to the fourth or the sixth?
>> well, if we could -- to me it's --
>> that fifth is the Thursday. We're doing the agenda today and tomorrow. If we need to do it on Wednesday. Is the meeting all afternoon?
>> it's all morning, 10 till 2:00.
>> can you join us at five after 2:00?
>> I suppose I could drag myself over. [ laughter ] six the meeting at 1:30? Could we delay it so commissioner Gomez could get over.
>> if you miss 30 minutes you don't miss much. 2:00 o'clock is fine with me. Any objection to that? I would set aside two or three hours.
>> our concern is with this amount of notice we anticipated the third and the fifth would be set aside for the court's business, and if we switch things at this point right before thanksgiving would be near impossible to get people to try to reschedule.
>> let's do it at 2:30 to give me time to walk back.
>> 2:30?
>> are we all in favor of staying until 5:30 or 6:00 o'clock?
>> I won't be able to stay until then.
>> I can stay until 6:30.
>> okay.
>> so work session is 2:30? Next Thursday?
>> I need to make some phone calls apparently. One meeting starts 30 minutes later.
>> can we split the difference, 2:15?
>> I'm flexible.
>> if you get here at 2:15, you won't miss much. Even if the meeting starts at 2:00 o'clock. Now, we won't intentionally delay 15 minutes. (laughter.)
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM