Travis County Commssioners Court
February 25, 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.
Executive Session
That does bring us to executive session. We did post the county attorney's Thursday afternoon reception just in case a majority of the court wants to go there. As an addendum on Friday afternoon.
>> making ken pick up the bill.
>> [laughter] 24. Receive briefing from county attorney regarding state comptroller's request for agreement to extend period of limitations pertaining to audit and take appropriate action. That's the consultation with attorney exception to the open meetings act. Appropriate action. 1. 25. Discuss, approve and take appropriate action regarding real estate issues for office space for various county departments. That's the real property exception to the open meetings act. Leasing ahead and announce consultation with attorney anyway just on that one just in case we need them. There's backup that you may want to carry to executive session with you. 26. Discuss and take appropriate action regarding real estate issues for the Travis County pleasant valley road office building. That's the consultation with attorney exception to the open meetings act and that's the real property exception to the open meetings act. 27. Receive briefing from county attorney and/or authorize county attorney to hire expert(s) in annell raymond cantrell, individually and as administratix of the estate of shannon dale sharp v. Evins personnel consultants, inc. Et al., And take appropriate action. That's the consultation with attorney exception to the open meetings act. Jo 28. Receive briefing from county attorney and/or give direction and/or take appropriate action regarding cip project 3-002, parcel no. 2d, james a. Hopkins and wife, jean c. Hopkins, and state of Texas. That's the consultation with attorney exception to the open meetings act and the real property exception to the open meetings act. 29. Discuss potential litigation for recovery of damages to the Travis County medical examiners facility, the subrogation rights of zurich american insurance, representation of zurich's rights against third parties by zelle hoffman voelbel mason & gette law firm of dallas and potentially representation of the county's noninsured losses/damages by zelle hoffman, and consideration of a pro-rata agreement with zurich agreement relative to claims to be made against third parties considered liable for damages to the facility, and take appropriate action. Those who are hearing us, if they understood the agenda item they are much smarter than I am. That's the consultation with attorney exception to the open meetings act. 30. Receive briefing from county attorney and give direction regarding Travis County subrogation claim in the matter of deke pierce and take appropriate action. That's the consultation with attorney exception to the open meetings act. 31. A. Discuss applicants for the position of executive manager for justice and public safety, and take appropriate action. Personnel matters exception. B. Consider recommendations for covering these functional areas without an executive manager, and take appropriate action. That's the personnel matters exception, also. We will --
>> a 1.
>> we have a 1 which is receive briefing from county attorney regarding the boundary of [inaudible] park and take appropriate action. That will be the consultation with attorney exception to the open meetings act. We will discuss these matters in executive session and return to open court before taking any action.
>> to extend the deadline as requested to August 31st, 2003.
>> second.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. 25 we will have back on next week. No action required today. We've been asked to pull number 26 until further notice. Number 27 involving the estate of shannon dale sharp. I move that we authorize the county attorney to hire appropriate experts.
>> second.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. 28, we did discuss. No action required today. Right?
>> right.
>> on 29, we will have that back on the court's agenda next week. Let's authorize the county attorney to get with anybody on the court who wants to get with the county attorney on that, see if we can come up with -- they can do additional fact finding. That is involving the matter of the county examiner's facility. We were given an offer. We think we can do a little better than that, but at the same time find out some facts. We need a member of the court to work with the county attorney's office and try to get with all of us individually. That's a lot of getting with between now and next week. Well let the county attorney chat with the county judge then and see if we can come back with a counter. Number 30 involves the subrogation claim of deke pierce. We indicated that we needed to find some facts as well on that too and for the county attorney to come back and chat with commissioner daugherty a little more about the background of this matter. We'll have it back on the court agenda next week for appropriate follow-up action.
>> judge, one of the things on there was that there was a clarification on a matter that was going to be presented to us that made sure that the county was not going to up front paid for any kind of expenditures related to anything. That was like one of those little non-negotiable clauses for us in terms if anybody wanted to bring something back.
>> let's factor all of that in between now and next week. On 31, we need a further discussion next week between now and then if members have ideas to share with the rest of the court, if we could get those ideas in writing, the court members by midday Monday, March third, so that if you consider any suggestions overnight. You should not respond to ideas that you get, otherwise that may well constitute an improper quorum. Our law is getting real snis ta indicated on that, john.
>> too sophisticated for the statute, but let's be careful.
>> judge, could we go back to 25 for a moment, please? Do we need to make it clear that our real estate estate is having certain conversations with the seller between now and next week so we can appropriately proceed next week, that she is authorized to talk to them on our behalf with certain terms and ideas? Does that get you where you need to be?
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> that is really what I meant to say is that the commissioners court authorize this and the appropriate brokers to have the appropriate conversations with each other with the direction given by the court.
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> is that okay?
>> and I think the planning budget would like to be able to build the financials off of those discussions as well.
>> yeah.
>> there needed to be something here that the commissioners court is aware that these discussions are going on and we authorize those discussions to occur.
>> is there a motion?
>> that would be my motion.
>> second.
>> seconded by commissioner Gomez. Any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. A-1 regarding the park. I move that we basically appoint commissioner daugherty and the appropriate county representatives, that we request a follow-up discussion with their attorney and representative regarding this matter with an eye toward trying to settle it out of court and there by avoid huge litigation expenses, including lawyers, that we request further -- that the commissioners court request that they hold up on constructing that fence which they have threatened to do until after we have had the discussions. That we will have this matter back on the court's agenda next Tuesday. And if we need to on March 11th. Next week we'll just postpone it another week. Our goal here is to try to have a serious discussion, try to resolve this delicate issue without litigation. But if we cannot do that, then we just have to go to the next step.
>> second.
>> any questions? I think that motion contains every diplomatic threat.
>> lawyers and the money. I think that covers them all.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM