Travis County Commssioners Court
December 3, 2002
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Item 19
Let's call up item number 19. Receive for filing with the county judge a petition for the incorporation of the village of volente and instruct staff to review the petition and all related attachments, consider issues and take any other appropriate action. Several residents are here. Let me place this in proper context t law does place on a county judge responsibility for considering a petition to incorporate after certain steps have been taken. The backup that has been provided in the case that those required steps have been taken, and we have received this petition. The county judge historically has shared this awesome authority with the commissioners court. That's why it's on the agenda today. What we have done in the past and what makes sense to do today is to ask appropriate county staff to look at this, make sure that the names on the petition that have been submitted are duly registered voters of Travis County and take the other steps necessary. Historically we have called a public hearing for those interested to come down and share views with us. Time is of the essence on this. We have kind of a narrow window. The public hearings that we schedule are normally at 9:00 on Tuesday. Those have worked well in the past. When we scheduled one at 6:00 one time, we didn't get many folk down, so 9:00 may be a little inconvenient, be but typically if we scheduled it at 9:00, we take it up shortly after 9:00, and so if you invest 30 minutes to an hour, typically you can get out. Good morning.
>> good morning, judge. My name is allen [inaudible] and I serve as legal adviseer to the save our volente committee, which is a non-profit in Texas designed to help preserve the community of volente. You all are probably fairly familiar with it. It's on Lake Travis, a 100-year-old, plus community that has grown to the point where its citizens want the chance to have municipal powers and authority to preserve the tkphupbt community. The process has been a long and cumbersome one. I've been working on this for several years now. First requesting that the city of Austin grant permission to incorporate or release them from the e.t.j., And that was denied. The next step the law provides is question Austin annex volente and provide services and regulations. That was denied by the city of Austin. And so now we're at the third step, which is filing a petition with Travis County to put the issue before the voters. And in October, the volente committee submitted a petition that meets all the statutory requirements for putting the issue before the voters and letting them have their say on whether or not they want to have a municipality out there. All that documentation and backup documents are before the county for your review. This has been a very long process and a very open one. All three phases that I just mentioned were out in the open, covered in the media, the subject of many newsletters, letters, community meetings held at the volunteer fire department, as well as public meetings held at the city of Austin, and there's been lots of opportunity for folks to learn about what's going on over these last several years. And in addition to what the county will be doing to advertise the election. Save our volente will also be getting out the word as necessary. At this point the petition is in your hands. We are available now and in the future to answer any questions. I would like to introduce ms. Mary adams, the chairperson of save our volente.
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> I'm here to answer any questions. I know your schedule is tight. We've worked well over two years on this project and we are so excited to finally see it to fruition so the people can have a vote. We are asking for an election to consider incorporation.
>> any comments?
>> [inaudible]. I can just reaffirm what she said. We are very excited to have the election. Because there has been some controversy as there usually is in these matters. So we need to have an election to find out what the people really want.
>> and by law, our calling the election is --
>> ministerial.
>> yeah, we leave that to the residents out there. We trust their wise and trusted judgment. The only issue that I guess -- I guess a half issue that's kind of surfaced, there is some discussion over what a plat is. Have we reached agreement on that? Or is that still outstanding?
>> no, I think we've resolved that. We were looking for -- what we were looking for was a precise definition of the proposed boundary line of the city, which I think is essential so that both the county officials who are running the election can make the necessary determinations of who lives in that area, who is authorized to sign the petition, who is authorized to vote and just to let the people who live out there know are you in the proposed city or outside. And the applicants did give us a boundary definition, and I believe t.n.r. Is reviewing that to make sure that it's correct.
>> yes, sir, I didn't mean to cut you off. Any words?
>> that we're just excited, volente, to have its own autonomy.
>> the purpose of the public hearing is to give residents an opportunity to come down and share with us any comments that they have. Realizing that in the end no matter how persuasive they may be in front of us, they kind of need to go to the polls and express any feelings they have. Anything further from staff?
>> the election will need to be ordered by you on -- by December 18th. Under the election code.
>> okay. But if we scheduled a public hearing for next Tuesday? At 9:00 a.m. Does that sound good, tamara?
>> that's fine, uh-huh.
>> now, county staff that's been working on this are county attorney's office, dan smith in my office, this is precinct --
>> 3.
>> -- 3. Anybody in your office?
>> myself.
>> himself. [laughter] t.n.r. Do we have the -- I guess the clerk's office, some representatives from that. And the tax assessor. On the registered voters. And other appropriate county staff. So my motion would be that we do receive the petition; that we authorize appropriate county staff, including those mentioned, to review the petition, do other necessary due diligence. There is a contact person here in the event that we have issues to discuss or questions. That we schedule a public hearing on this matter for Tuesday, December 17th, 2002, at 9:00 a.m., Which really means about 9:10 or 9 skhrepb 15.
>> are we going to do it on the 17th?
>> .
>> I think we're going to do the public hearing on the 10th. [multiple voices]
>> you said 17th.
>> I think next Tuesday is better.
>> does that work?
>> yes.
>> can I make a slight request we make it for 10:00 am rather than 9:00. It's a disservice to say 9:00 a.m. Because we have procedural things we've got to get going. And I have to get on an airplane and that r.m.a. Thing has to get done. Can we make it 10:00?
>> I don't think the r.m.a. Thing would take an hour.
>> as long as it gets taken care of before I have to leave at 10:00 to get on an airplane. I'm cool.
>> I say let's take it at 9:00 and take the other item first if we need to.
>> that would be -- I'm fine. And our office had a lot of interaction with volente, this used to be precinct 2, and they have been discussing this for a long time and they have a very vital electronic newspaper -- website. And a lot of information has gone out, so they really have worked a lot in terms of making sure everybody is well informed about the pros and cons of this.
>> second.
>> there is a second to that short, precise motion.
>> so next Tuesday, 9:00.
>> next Tuesday, December 10th.
>> thank you, judge.
>> 9:00 a&m, which means shortly after 9:00. Any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you all very much. We will see you next week.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM