Travis County Commssioners Court
June 10, 2003
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Item 5
Number 5 is to approve resolution proclaiming June 2003 safety month in Travis County, Texas.
>> morning, dan.
>> good morning.
>> good morning, dan: are you our reader today?
>> I'm going to be the reader. Actually, I want to take a moment to just mention safety in Travis County is an important aspect of everyone's job.
>> all right. That's the proclamation.
>> and the proclamation for --
>> if says whereas the Travis County's Commissioners court on behalf of Travis County is citizens join members of the american society of safety engineers and other organizations in the annual observance of annual safety month during June 2003, whereas the theme for this observance is safety never hurts, the theme draws attention to need of safety awareness in the workplace, home and community. Safety aware businessness can reduce accidents on and off the job, where according to statistics, when safety awareness is promoted, employee injuries are reduced. Nationwide safety awareness helps fight this widespread problem through an effective combination of public education, intervention, rehabilitation and law enforcement, whereas the Travis County human resources management department, risk management division, that's why dan man sewer is here today, is presenting a one-day safety fair Tuesday, June 10th, and safety classes throughout the month of June to promote safety among Travis County employees. Now therefore be it resolved that the Travis County Commissioners court in conjunction with the american society of safety engineers does here by proclaim the month of June national safety month in Travis County. We urge every individual to take extra precautions to become more safe. And more safety conscious. Everyday. And especially this month. Move approval.
>> second.
>> now, dan?
>> thank you. Safety is an important part of everybody's job here in Travis County. And today we have with us a couple of -- three of the safety dudes whose job it is to oversee safety. What i'd like to do is let them introduce themselves and briefly tell you some of their programs that have served to reduce our losses and to implement loss prevention programs. Starting with chuck watt.
>> my name is chuck watt. I'm a health and safety engineer. My primary task right now is dealing with indoor air quality in the county facilities. But I also deal with employee emergency action plan. And we're also trying to put together a program in conjunction with emergency services to install automatic external defibrillators in county buildings. We've got some of those ready to go and we're trying to get those installed in county buildings and we'll also include in training. That way we'll have a more safer work environment for our employees.
>> lee mccormick, I'm a safety and loss prevention. One of my main tasks right now is the ergonomics that I do in all the employees' areas. Defensive driving, a lot of defensive driving courses come through risk management, and we try to give employees more awareness of being safe while their on the road in county vehicles and away from county time. And our big project that's going to be coming up is making sure that we keep the vehicles safe, the county vehicles, and all the the employees safe and hopefully we can keep lowering that down every year. Because right now it's been down about 10 percent from last year, and that's what we want to see gradually decrease in accidents in county vehicles. And like dan said before, safety is a big issue for everybody, at work and away from work. And hopefully with this annual safety survey that we have, employees appreciate that the county is trying to make them more aware of being safe and show that we're trying to make the effort and giving everybody a little freedom and time away from their desk that they'll intervene in the safety fair.
>> if you participate in the program, does it affect your insurance?
>> in defense active driving? You do get a discount for participating, 10 percent.
>> in Travis County?
>> yeah. So we get a lot of participation on that end of it.
>> I'm dennis miller, I'm the safety officer for the (indiscernible). We concentrate a lot on our personal protective equipment, the right equipment for the job. Every job is different. Of course, in transportation and natural resources, we do a little bit of everything, everywhere. So it's pretty encompassing to evaluate all the different types of personal protective equipment. What works for one person doesn't work in the same job for another person. So that's a lot of safety is making sure that what is used works for the person that is using it. In addition to that, I do a lot of safety training with compliance, with the occupational safety and health administration topics, material safety data sheets, and has a communication to heat stress. Poison ivy prevention. Since we do so many different things, we do a lot of different training on a lot of different topics. So that's what we do.
>> in addition to these gentlemen, there are initiatives in different departments, health & human services has a safety committee which I just learned is working very diligently to develop emergency response programs. The sheriff's office has two safety officers out at del valle who do principally fire safety as well as loss prevention. So we appreciate the recognition and the proclamation and thank the court.
>> on behalf of -- in the hallway here in the stokes building, are there any safety exhibits today?
>> yes, sir.
>> they will be here throughout the day?
>> that will be here until, I believe, 12:30.
>> and we're asking employees to take five or 10 minutes to come by and observe.
>> come through. In addition to safety there's health prevention, cancer prevention bootdzs and there's a wealth of information that everyone who can should come down and visit the booths and take away may of the messages and handouts that we have. We have some freebies, speaking of freebies.
>> I was trying to remember. That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
Last Modified: Tuesday, July 10, 2003 7:52 PM