Travis County Commssioners Court
January 28, 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. This item is to give citizens an opportunity to address the commissioners court on any matter not on the agenda for up to 3 minutes. One citizen has signed in, leola [inaudible]
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> yes, good morning.
>> could you give us your name yourself, we would be happy to get your comments and we still are trying to work on a little clock problem. I will raise my hand after 3 minutes, okay?
>> oh, okay.
>> yes, my name is leola canada, I live in the saint john area off of i-35. And boy it's hard to come in after all of that. To come in with business after all of that. But -- but on -- on inauguration day, the same day that the governor was being inaugurated, there was something that kind of alarmed and outraged me in my neighborhood. There was a -- I was passing by going towards 35 on saint john and there were men? Swat team uniforms and they had rifles and scopes on them and they were at abandoned nursing home and they were carrying on something, that looked like -- so real, it was a man laying down on the ground, he appeared to be dead. I mean, it looked just like the military. It was in broad daylight across the street from a middle school. Webb middle school. I don't know if you all are familiar with that area or not.
>> uh-huh.
>> but anyway, it looked too real to me. Looked really scary. And I said, "this can't be going on in this neighborhood." What I did is I called channel 7 news, I let them be aware of it and they asked me if I wanted to do an interview, so I did. But I wanted to know why is this taking place in the city limits? It looked just like a military operation. Later on I found out that it was done through the Travis County sheriff's department. Also, I'm wondering why they picked that neighborhood, why didn't they go north or west or something like that. Or some other like designated place for some training operations. I know we have to have training operations like that. But it alarmed me, children in that area, they look very -- they didn't know at all what was taking place. I don't know if the parents knew that their children were being exposed to this type of-- during the day, during the school. I hadn't talked to anybody at aisd, but I'm here asking, you know, can that be done somewhere else? I also contacted your office --
>> right.
>> your precinct.
>> I followed up on that, ms. Canada. Spoke with -- with sheriff department roger wade and in fact I found out these exercises are conducted throughout the county. And also he came up with the recommendation and I would like to see if that will be -- will be embarked and employed upon and the recommendation is that -- that the sheriff's department will look for signage to inform the residents where these particular training exercises are going to take place, wherever they take place. But of course I want to make sure that they follow-up on that. So we have checked into that issue. And of course --
>> [inaudible]
>> -- correct the situation. Of course with something like that going on, the recommendation is to come up with large signs, alerting persons that these are secret training exercises and so they will be displaced [sic] but I did bring that to the attention of the sheriff's department. Of course they said that they would follow up on that. But the person that I did speak to, his name is roger wade.
>> but are you saying in the future they will be -- they will be taking place in a residential neighborhood where -- where schools and children are?
>> I don't really know exactly where they all take place in the county. But I do know that they have specific places where they do this at. Of course I asked the same question, where are these exercises practiced within the county. And of course by asking that question --
>> it seemed kind of bizarre, you know -- [multiple voices]
>> I understand.
>> in the daytime, it looks so real. If you would have seen this, I think all of you would have said what is going on here, somebody lying down dead. That's the way the man and, they were just in operation, there was unmarked cars, army fatigues, they didn't look like police, they looked like military. I was kind of alarmed by that.
>> right. But -- but they did -- the sheriff's department did -- did instruct me that -- that in the future, what they are going to recommend is that -- until they make sure that folks, wherever these particular exercises are taking place, will be forewarned with signage saying this is just a practice exercise, or however they want to depict what they are doing. If these recommendations will be followed up. If there's anything that we need to do, to ask the sheriff's department to provide to us, I would also like to expound and look at that. That's just part of the recommendations that they will come up with to let everyone know in the community before they even get into this, that there will be signage posted that say it will be an exercise taking place of this nature, and of course -- of course those signs will be displayed accordingly. That will be one of the recommendations that will apparently be done at all practice sites, wherever they are located in the county.
>> there wouldn't be a recommendation to move them out of the residential -- within the city, away from schools and the residents?
>> I don't know exactly what the criterion is of how they depict -- the sheriff's department how they depict what selected area they want to do these particular exercises, I really don't know that criteria. But that again I will bring that to the attention of the sheriff's department and see if there may be other avenues that they may venture into to make sure that whatever they do the persons are notified of -- of what they are doing. So I will look into that. But the person's name is roger wade.
>> roger wade.
>> yes, with the sheriff's department. It may be -- you can call my office, they can give you his number and -- and I'm on the fifth floor.
>> okay.
>> so if you go up to my office in suite 510, have them to give you the number of roger wade with the sheriff's department, I think some of these things that you mentioned he may also need to entertain.
>> okay.
>> can you do that for me.
>> okay. Thank you.
>> no, thank you.
>> judge Biscoe, I have some things that I want to leave off for you. Some papers.
>> my office is right next to commissioner Davis'. Very good.
>> unless you want to hand it to me right now.
>> no, I need to get some copies made. Do you think they will make me some copies up there.
>> they will now. [laughter]
>> huh?
>> they will now [laughter]
>> thank you for bringing it to our attention, we appreciate it. Thank you.
>> mary aleshire is next.
>> good morning.
>> good morning. My name is mary aleshire. And i've watched the county commissioners court meetings since 1987. Almost every week. And in 1997, in October, chief dan richards came before the county commissioners court with his pastor and asked for you all to attend a service over there honoring central christian church. I started going to central christian church a few Sundays later and chief dan richards was my Sunday school teacher every Sunday from 1997 until the Sunday before September 11th anniversary this last September the 11th, 2002. He was my Sunday school teacher, he taught bible study and i've been to bible study for 20 years. So I felt real safe going to bible study with chief dan richards. The Sunday before the first anniversary of 9/11, I was met by two police officers outside of central christian church and they asked me not to come back. And I had no warning about it or anything. No calls from central christian church, nothing. And I cannot begin to tell you how much grief I have suffered from this. I'm a -- a mind control survivor. And I wanted to bring attention to the issue of mind control. And the way that I was treated was two Austin police officers met me at the front steps of central christian church and asked me never to come back. So as in the past, one of the things that I do when I suffer some kind of emotional, physical, spiritual abuse, is that I bring it forward to the community. To let you know what happened. And for the people at central christian church, I forgive you. Chief richards, I forgive you. And happy retirement. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, ms. Aleshire. Anybody else for citizens communication? Whether you signed in or not?
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM