Travis County Commssioners Court
March 18, 2003
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Item 32
We may get a couple of other items in before we go to the legislative items at 11:00 o'clock. A real straightforward one ought to be 32, right, joe? That is to approve contract amendment to the agreement for the clean air force of central Texas to fund administrative positions and programs.
>> i've got a simple question on this one. If we approve this shortly, at what point can the clean air force expect their check? Is it already in process and it's simply waiting on this thing to happen and therefore that's the final step and it's a week away? Or is this going to start a process that it will be another 30 days before they get the check?
>> two weeks.
>> thank you.
>> joe, we normally have been doing this in the past to support this because with this amount of money from Travis County, but also within that there was basically an audit report that did come out, and I know i've had a chance to review it. And it has to go through the proper arena to bring it to us at this time. What was this $20,000 -- what will this $20,000 get us as it did in the past? Has there been any change?
>> no, sir. The $20,000 goes to the clean air force to be used as part of their general budget. It helps fund the executive director position somewhat as well as their -- this other fixed costs that they have to operate the office of the clean air force. One change that has been made, I guess, is that the executive director is no longer an employee of capco, the executive director is an independent position that answers simply to the board of directors of the clean air force, therefore her salary -- again, [ inaudible ] is the new executive director, is paid out of the clean care force budget, not capco budget. Our money goes to help defray those costs.
>> i'd like -- if there's no objection, I would like to go ahead and move approval of this particular item and that we go ahead and authorize the $20,000 for the Travis County participation. Let me ask this. Has any other counties stepped up to the plate as far as putting money in the pot as we move forward, since it is a regional?
>> yes, sir. Generally speaking, these are the same folks who contribute every year on an annual basis. Austin contributes $90,000, Cedar Park nearly $1,800. Round Rock $8,500. San marcos a little over six thousand dollars. Hays county six thousand dollars. Travis County 20,000 and Williamson county 20,000.
>> so virtually all the other interests have submitted their monies and we have not. We did budget this, so the money is there, it's just a matter of us authorizing payment. Commissioner Davis has moved that we pay this amount. That was seconded by commissioner Gomez. Any more discussion?
>> I do. I've got a couple of questions on it. I feel a little bit like I did the envision central Texas thing. I mean, there's some money to appropriate for something that I'm a little bit in question. Sha lean, have you ever seen a work plan? Is there some sort of a basic work plan that they have submitted as to, you know, what -- where are we getting bang for buck here? Is it just an expectation that, hey, this is a feel good thing, I mean, everybody throw your money into the deal and all of us are for clean air? I've never seen anything like that. Is there something that I could look at, a line item budget, for example?
>> there's a line item budget that I believe I passed on to your office yesterday, so you probably haven't seen that yet. And I can get that to all of you. As far as a work plan goes, there's been a little bit of a transition going on with the clean air force. Last year they dismissed the executive director and commissioner hilgenstein, who is the chairman of the clean air force board sort of reprogrammed the staff a little bit like I just alluded to and they have hired a new executive director, so they do not have a current work plan for the entire clean air force in place. The role that the clean air force is playing most vital to our interests right now is they have agreed to handle the public education efforts for the early action compact as well as a lot of the stakeholder input programs. And they do have a work plan that again I just got yesterday from the consultant that they hired, which is new stats. We did work with the clean air force board to ensure that a private consultant who has some experience in deion these things came on came on board as quickly as possible, seeing how the clean irrelevant force doesn't have an executive director at that time and we're moving on a fast track, they do have a work plan and a media plan for that that uses about $100,000 of clean air force fund, if not probably a little bit more. I can get those to you as well so you can see those. And again, the work plan is supposed to come now from the clean air force board, and that will be forthcoming, I'm sure, but they're trying to get their feet on the ground. But it's moving fwar and we do have some specific work plans so you can see exactly how they're planning on spending it. It was about $62,000 for that new contract for them to do all this public outreach and put together a media plan and there's about another $50,000 in clean air force funds that we'll use on the media eyes booiz, the actually radio buys, tv buys, newspaper ad buys, so they have a plan for that that I can also forward on to you.
>> and I am looking at this balance sheet. On contractual services, would that be where you would find the salary of this executive -- of the execute -- this new executive manager? What is the is the new executive manager making from the clean air force.
>> $60,000 in salary and an additional 17,000 -- a little over 17,000 in benefits. And it was sort of subtracted, if you see and approve fy 2003. I have copies of this for the rest of you if you would like. It was forwarded to his office yesterday in response to a question he was asking. But basically, capco, that used to come out of capco's budget, but it was clean air force money that has been given to capco. Now it's been directly taken over and put into the clean air force budget. Thaw bu that is basically a little over $77,000 is what the executive director makes in salary and benefits.
>> if you wouldn't mind coming by the office and let's have about 30 minutes so you can kind of go over this with me before I sign off on these kind of dollars. I mean, i'd like to know exactly what we're doing with them.
>> yes, sir. No problem. Do you want to hold the vote today?
>> no. I can abstain or I can do whatever.
>> okay.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? Show commissioners Gomez, Sonleitner, Davis and yours truly voting in favor. Voting against, commissioner daugherty.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM