Travis County Commssioners Court
December 10, 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.
Citizens Communication
Our citizen communication is next. And we have ken beneath schneider and steve jacob. In that order.
>> good morning, judge, commissioners, gus pena, president of east Austin concerned hispanics. These issues are very important, so I don't mind waiting from the testimony from your public hearing. I think you know that we have a crisis county wide, citywide, nationwide, worldwide, but specifically because I live here in Austin, Travis County, I'm speaking to the issue of the funding that y'all have been dialoguing about regarding assistance for rental assistance, utility assistance and for other service providers. I'm going to be quite honest and quite blunt with you and remain respectful because that is my way of doing things. I try to be. We have a crisis out there in the community. Our need has grown 10 fold since last year. We have a 50% increase of landlord tenant evictions, and that just came out in the news, but I also have seen the catastrophe, the situation that is occurring out there thr in the community, not only for people who are not able to pay their electric utility bills, their gas bills, much less pay their rent. Judge and commissioners, I guess -- I won't say I'm pleading, and I hardly ever do that, except when my nephew was dying, but I'm pleading with y'all to approve that funding. I have spoken to many of y'all or all of y'all actually at various times, and commissioner Gomez, you know the situation that my sister is in and my mother and my brother. But I'm going to tell you one thing, if this funding is not approved, we're not just going to have a crisis, we're going to have a big serious problem out there in community. I'm not just talking about presing 4, I'm talking about county wide and city wide. I was at city council various times regarding this issue and speaking to this issue, and I know that y'all know that the city has lost a lot of funding, as has the county. But y'all have a statutory and fiduciary year responsibility to the people to provide for them. It is not something that we're begging for. You have veterans out there, military veterans that were wound understand war, come back with various mall dis who need help with families, but you also have the poor and the have-notes and the disen franchised that need help out there, any baby can and all the great services they provide. My son, they have any baby can and they are trying to provide services for lucio. So I know about what greatness they do and the services they provide are needed out there. So the bottom line is this, that I'm asking those of y'all that really haven't voted in favor of this issue, this funding, dig deeply thrur your hearts, dig deeply in your hearts. I've been here all this time just to testify and again urge you to vote for this funding because if not we're going to see some deaths out there, we're going to see some hurt people, and i'll wrap up, judge. Aisd is going to cut funding next year. The city is also going to raise taxes. It is not worth losing anybody's life because of this. We need the help, the community needs your help and we're asking for help out there. And I will leave you with this. Society's work is measured by its treatment of the less fortunate and underprivileged. Please make the right decision and help the people out there and the service providers. Thank you very much.
>> and I wanted to say to you thank you for your comments. And I am for all that you have said. And that's why my position is that we fund all of that first and then with do other things that we would like to do.
>> sure. I know there are an adone dant of needs out there. We need to prioritize. We understand the funding constraint. But, but, we're all taxpayers, all of us. And the homeless also are taxpayers. It's not just because they're homeless. I understand that. I understand commissioner. I know it very well because i've been there and done that. So anyway, I'm asking y'all, please help the poor and the needy out there. Thank you very much.
>> thank you. Mr. Schneider.
>> I'm kenneth schneider. I got your letter and everything, but i've seen letters before like that from Williamson county and it never did get anywhere. It's been nine years. This time Williamson county -- I gave you a copy of this. It was in the Round Rock leader, front page news about how they violated my rights on not able to speak. They turned the cameras off. It's been nine years out there. This has been in the american-statesman. [ inaudible ] it's been going on for nine years. I can't stop this. I'll stay here all night to get out there and let people know what's going on. The chronicle came out with that, the mayor of Round Rock did not like it at all. He came out and he was going to try to stop me any way he can. Maybe it will end up in court. We will find out what happens because I do have a lawyer working on this here and I believe it's going to end up in court most likely. And that's something to change. But I ain't going to quit talking and everything because it's a disaster out there. It needs help out there. We need help out there. We've been fighting and fighting. We're in Williamson county and Travis County both. I can't get any help from Williamson county, so I have to go to Travis County and beg, but at least this county will listen. But we need help out there. And I think nine years is long enough. I think it's long enough. And -- [ inaudible ] and eddie brown is over at the capital right now talking to the deal over there at extra piece they got over there, and trying to get help. But this area is really something here. I would never think that the city of railroad would do something like this here. They are scared to death of my three minutes getting up there telling the problems to the citizens of Round Rock and i've sent out about 200 letters that I wrote, sent them out by fax to everybody in the united states, all the problems, every newspaper in the city, state, county, everywhere. The same story. And the chronicle is going to do another story about this here Thursday. It's going to be another long story in there, about four or five pages. We're going to find out why people don't want to help this neighborhood, right across the street from la frontera. A multi-million-dollar complex over there. It's uncalled for. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> mr. David?
>> is this the appropriate time to discuss planning for the road, item 3.
>> we've already done that.
>> we've already taken action on number #-, but we'll be happy to get your comments under citizens communication.
>> thank you. I'm a retired engineer from the university of Texas. I've tended numerous hearings on the 130 routing and the mopac hearing, etcetera. And my input is that I think that the 130 is a bad -- a balance dollar boondoggle. And i've talked to some of the engineers off the record and I said whatever happened to the straight line theory of road building? And they said we want to do it that way, but the local politicians keep making us tweak the routing of the road. So I think that the road is too narrow and too crooked. And the purpose of the road is to relieve congestion on i-35. And my prediction is that people hauling merchandise out of mexico will still take i-35 and people calling things from the states down to mexico will stay stil stay on i-35 because 130 is a winding road, too many get ons and get offs and you'll be paying a toll, so what is the point of paying money and get there later than if you toughed it out on i-35? And the thing keeps going ahead, the progress of that road, the test drilling. I have a friend that lives out by georgetown. But the routing needs to be straightened out. And I have a friend from england who said that the only good roads in all of england are the ones built by the romans two thousand years ago. They're the straight road and the refuse of them are crooked. So is there any chance or what is the -- I think it needs to be straightened out. It needs to be made more of an expressway. And what is the chance and the mechanism to make those intuts putts to another body? Inputs to another body?
>> well, they've held several meetings, txdot does, things of that nature.
>> excuse me, I can't hear you.
>> there are several meetings that have been conduct and been held. In fact, there was recently held as far as some of the route of 130 and lone star, inc., As well as the persons that have been selected got a lot of input from citizens and I can give you the telephone number of that particular body, who also has connections with the state. That is txdot.
>> well, I realize that. And I have more of a strategic issue rather than the landscaping and the bicycle --
>> I understand that. I heard your comments, but I'm directing you to someone who can answer you specifically on your specific questions.
>> okay.
>> so if you will check with my office, they'll be willing to give you some numbers of some folks that are maybe specifically involved with this process. And that's for your specific questions so you could get in touch with my office and they can give you some numbers.
>> okay. Thank you.
>> thank you.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM