Travis County Commssioners Court
January 14, 2003
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
Citizens communication is next. [inaudible] is first, gus pena is second. This gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda for up to three minutes. We don't have a clock, do you have a watch?
>> I have a stop watch.
>> all right. Fair enough. Just raise your hand to let the speaker now. Good morning.
>> hello county court. I'm alex jones and I lead texans for freedom. And we are a pro property rights, pro liberty organization here in central Texas. I'm going to -- after i've given my short remarks, I'm going to give you members of the court copies of a resolution that we have drafted that has been passed, a similar resolution has been passed by hundreds of cities and hundreds of others in the process of passing, reaffirming the bill of rights and the constitution because the u.s.a. Patriot act, what homeland security is doing. They are erasing not only the bill of rights, but the basis of the magna carta drafted in 1914. I would challenge this court to go over my resolution, to go to the subsections listed in it, to go to the thomas.gov website and look at the patriot act for yourself. It allows american citizens to be seized, to -- to not be given any lawyers, to never have a trial, to be secretly be held for life in fema detention centers and to be executed after a secret trial by military tribunal. It also allows the government in section 213 to break into your house without a warrant, take whatever they want out of your house, not even tell you that they were there. You catch them there, they can tell you not to speak about it. Same thing with libraries. They can go into a library or private book store, demand their list without a warrant, tell the people at the business or the library not to inform the public that they were searched. The patriot act is a police state wish list, much of it is legislation that failed over the last 30 years, it was all combined in a giant pork barrel despotic passage and passed without congress being able to read it back on October 27th, 2001. People are just now reading the patriot act. I read it about a year ago. Was shocked and amazed and I was excited to see other cities and counties and now some states considering resolutions to -- to reaffirm the bill of rights and constitution. The 10th amendment clearly states that that is the duty of the state of the county, of the city. Especially the county. To reaffirm the citizens god given rights. It is very important it is important both parties reaffirm the rights that our veterans have fought and died to preserve. It's very exciting to see states like arizona considering passing this at the state level, which is a republican state, to see liberal cities like new haven, connecticut, oakland, california, passing these resolutions. To see just hundreds of others now to pass it, as people learn exactly in the patriot act. The adaptation simply adds homeland security and the north american military command designating the united states as a country under military rule. You can visit the you can check out the pawnings north com -- pentagon's website. It has nothing to do with terrorism. The borders are still wide open, north and south. Thousands less border patrol north and south. So this entire patriot act is nothing but a giant federal power grab. It is a military industrial complex dictatorship that's being set up. Congressman Ron paul was quoted in the washington times making similar statements. He also quoted as well as people on the democratic side on the democrat side as saying that it does this. So I would challenge the court to do what congress didn't do, to really scan over some of the more draconian sections of the patriot act tailored towards denouncing or reject being those particular subsections, I would challenge this court as public servants and as leaders in this community to reaffirm the bill of rights and constitution to reject this unconstitutional draconian power grab. I will be giving you copies of this resolution now. To members of court. I would appreciate it if you would at least read the four page summary, then go to the government's own website, look at h.r. 3162 known as the patriot act, look at the section for yourself so you know this is accurate. And then I would like one of the commissioners -- to put this on the agenda next week so that I can come in and present the subsections themselves, if you need any copies of the bill, you can find it.
>> thank you.
>> my office will be glad to bring you that documentation. Thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> number 2 is gus pena.
>> good evening, my name is gus pena president of east Austin concerned hispanics, yes I'm still here regardless of my current situation and health situation. I will be here god gives me the presentation to make -- the presence to make this presentation. School board last night. Judge and county commissioners, my gripe here today comes from our organization and two other community based organizations is regarding the east Austin rail corridor master plan or the rfp process. I attended a capital metro board meeting last week. And what -- what usually occurs is the norm for the city council or capital metro or the school district is that organizations are left out of the loop and not involved in the process that r.f.p. -- it's -- the r.f.p. Review committee. I'm sorry the proposal review team. And we have a couple of concerns with some of these people that were selected to be on the review proposal team. I understand, I'm a former investigator with the department of treasury, i.r.s. I spent 15 years with the department of the treasury, one of the concerns that I have is that -- is that -- I will read it to you because it's better if I do. Capital metro should not be spending public transportation funds to conduct a land use master plan for properties that transit authorities does not own. The scope of the contract should be limited to property owned by capital metro, preferably limited to the contiguous property they own along the rail corridor from i-35, interstate 35 to comal street, which is totally within the boundaries of our organization associations. We believe it is important for metro to focus the resources to develop a small but quality project that can be a model for envision central Texas, a process that metro already supports financially, region-wide processes and have volunteered their services to other organizations. Why hire a new consultant when an existing contract is willing to volunteer to do the project. Capital metro should follow normal procedure -- I'm sorry procurement procedures and allocate more funding for the r.f.p. To stop the perception that this is a sweetheart deal from insider consultants who have other contracts with metro along the rail corridor, including a 1993 study of the same corridor and other more recent contracts to build and manage plaza saltillo. Minimum building window of at least 90 days. The staff recommended a 60 day window, that's not acceptable to a lot of community, to ensure that the r.f.p. Is reaching a large pool of qualified applicants including nationwide announcements. They should scrutinize three main components of the r.f.p. And reorder the tasks so that the community involvement is the first task. Community involvement and inclusion. It should clearly state the requirement to follow the adopted neighborhood plans and a commitment from the applicants to collaborate with all organizations and associations. The board needs to direct staff to revise the nebulous language, define terms in the respect's components such as define terms, development and implementation process. I could go on, but the bottom line is this. The statement was made in the newspaper and capriati met board -- capital metro board member meeting, I quote, they don't want a visit from the f.b.i. Again. Well, there seems to be some hints of impropriety here, there seems to be some hints of non-inclusion. This is our federal tax dollars at work. And we have no qualms or quarrels about contacting the department of the treasury or the department of justice to look into this issue again. We want a fair and equitable process that everybody can work with, not just some tunists. And -- opportunists. I will say this in open forum, we have a lot of opportunists, they are trying to take advantage of the process, not including the individuals that live in that directed impacted area. I grew up on east fifth street. I remember the slaughter house that -- where capital metro now sits. I remember tank farms in front of our house. I will -- I will go ahead and -- and finish here, judge. But the issue is this: it needs to be in a perfect, inclusionary process to include everybody, all stake stakeholders, not just some who deem to -- I will leave it at this. I know commissioner Gomez is a capital metro board member. I'm hoping that east Austin concerned hispanics is included in the process, we don't want any improprieties or such improprieties to occur.
>> just as fact to the court, we said that a lot of sunshine was going to come in on the process and we instructed staff to talk to gus while he was there that night to include him in the -- in the review team that -- that is going to work on any project and it all is totally focused on the 11-acres that capital metro owns. And we will partner with the city of Austin so that the neighborhood associations or the planning plans, the neighborhood plans that the city of Austin has in place are the folks who will be very closely involved with what goes on in -- next to their -- next to their community. So wve made sure that we -- we heard mr. Pena's remarks and I think we acted in such a manner that shows that we heard.
>> I appreciate that, commissioner. The only thing is that mr. Gilliam, dr. Mendoza and mr. Sam archer have not even contacted me after three telephone calls. I'm just like commissioner daugherty, I respect them highly. It's all about accountability. We need all of the tax dollars --
>> that's right, we said that we would be very accountable.
>> yes, I understand that. If not, there are other avenues to look in. I thank you for allowing me this opportunity. You know me, judge, I usually don't go beyond the three minute limit. Again, I'm waiting for a phone call because we have not been included yet. Thank you all very much.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, gus.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM