Travis County Commssioners Court
November 18, 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.
Item 13
13 is to discuss and take appropriate action on the following issues regarding the 2201 post road building. A, requests from various entities and budget department to utilize space, b, procurement of real estate appraisal, and c, authorization for planning and budget department to make an intra department transfer of $15,500 -- that's one zero too many -- in facilities to make improvements and secure appraisals.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners. As you know, jp 4, they moved to the new location on November 10th. That vacate the about 3,400 square feet of space at post road. In your backup you have a breakdown spreadsheet about the tenant and the square footage they occupy in that building. Facility management's recommendation is to move the health and human services families support division to the first floor to the vacated constable and justice of the peace offices. And allow the family preservation unit to move into the second floor in the vacated family service support division. And the prosecution and social workers in the family service unit appeared the deaf service unit will remain in their present location. And what we are asking -- we're only asking for about $10,000 to come from our saving in the lease budget to take care of the minor items such as painting walls, change carpet and telephone and also the its issues. And I believe when we move -- if approved by Commissioners court, we will move those folks into the new location without any impact to the buildings, meaning without demolishing any walls or changing rooms. So we'll move in as is. We have with us today other interest in the space, capital yd, and also from the gardner-betts, they'll talk to you about their need for those spaces.
>> there's also a gentleman here from the rural legal services.
>> the legal aid?
>> yes, sir.
>> I did not get anything back from them, if they're going to come or not.
>> they're here.
>> thank you very much. My name is steven jacobs. I'm the executive director of capital idea. I've asked today to represent capital idea, our board chair, mr. Mark smith. I'll turn that over to him at this point.
>> good morning. My name is mark smith and as he mentioned, I'm the board chair for capital idea. The first thing i'd are really like to do today is to thank you for your support over the past years for capital idea, which is a nonprofit foundation designed for helping Travis County citizens get the education they need to find good paying career positions. I know this year balancing the budget was a difficult task, and we certainly appreciate your continued support. At capital idea we're very conscious about spending the money we get wisely and efficiently as much as we can. We continue to have excellent (indiscernible). We're now up to about 230 graduates, who on average increase salaries by a factor of three up to about $30,000 when they finish our programs. We continue to improve our graduation rates. We continue to improve our course grades that our members get and typically they end up with a degree out of a.c.c. When they finish. Their classes range everything from nursing and medical technician positions to also software support and increasingly electronic commerce that we have in this community. As part of our efforts to improve our efficiency, we obviously would like to spend as much money as we possibly can on our participant's education and the minimum amount we can on office overhead. Now, we had heard that potentially there might -- and I emphasize might be some spare space in your post road building. And what we would like to do is to consider that any money that we could save by vacating our present offices in Austin by going to the post road building, we would commit to spend that money completely on participant education to try to reduce the backlog that we presently have growing of Travis County citizens who would like to participate in our programs. We also obviously take responsibility for any minor refurbishment that's needed to make the space typical for our use. The building is actually very convenient for our participants and employees. It's close to bus routes, going down to the riverside campus for a.c.c. It has parking, which makes it easier for our participants to come and visit, and it's close to several county organizations that are important to us as well. So anyway, that's what we'd like to do. Whatever your decision is, we'd like to thank you again for your support over the years and especially this year because I know it hasn't been easy. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> if there are any questions, we're available to answer them. Again, this is an effort to shift funding from what is an overhead expense item into direct services to participants. I want to point out that our need for the space is temporary. It's not indefinite. Our long-term goal is to work with the a.c.c. Board of trustees and the a.c.c. Leadership as they renovate space at riverside to create space for capital idea so that we'll be much more immediately accessible to participants in the most critical stages of their training, which is the preparation for the college exam and the prerequisites. So even though most of our folks are in health care and will be over at eastview for their programs, they start out at a much more difficult place and we'd be immediately available to them out at riverside. So again, we appreciate your support in the past. We're back again to ask for your support in this instance. We do have a waiting list of 60 people. If you were able to provide us the space for this period of time at minimal cost, it would enable us to take at least up to 20 people from the waiting list, and as mr. Smith talked to you about, we turn them from people taking $12,000 a year and needing public assistance on top of that to meet needs to making $30,000 a year and paying a substantial amount of taxes back to the taxpayer. In fact, the taxpayer who makes their investment back from graduating capital idea in four years. The other 26 years of their working life represent new taxes to the public that would not have been there otherwise. Again, we thank you. We're available for questions if you have any.
>> what are we considering temporary? Have we decided on that? If we let other groups come in, are we considering what temporary is?
>> we haven't looked at it as a temporary measure, just our recommendation is to be a permanent measure at the post road. With this kind of recommendation brought today is the second floor would be all of it, 100% would be under the observation of the (indiscernible). On the first floor would be 100% under the observation of the human services.
>> right, but the space that's available, we're not considering it temporary, they're considering it temporary because you have other plans then. Okay. All right.
>> I don't know if this was your question or if it was john hilly. It seems like when we were considering the question regarding legal aid, we had to go through a process. We couldn't just give the space away. We put out an r.f.p., Q.s., Whatever it was, that was specifically tailored to somebody that would be providing those kind of needs in the community. My remembrance is it was not a -- you just do a quick scath and a contract. There was a process to go through. Is that correct?
>> this is the first I heard of it, but john and I were discussing it and I think that would be publicable in this case.
>>
>> [one moment, please, for change in captioners]
>>
>> the rest of the health care programs, such as x ray tech and --
>> right, right, right.
>> -- from riverside to the new building once they finish it next summer. And at that point they will then renovate the riverside campus.
>> we would consider this would be one way of leveraging the money that -- that is needed for this kind of -- of -- of training that may not be there. In terms of additional dollars.
>> it's always a tradeoff, but I know that we are going to hear from our own internal departments that there are some serious space needs, too often we've had to go out and lease a space to take care of their needs. This is moving on at gardner-betts --
>> we can listen to all of the proposals owe.
>> yeah.
>> legal service.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> judge Biscoe, Commissioners, thank you very much for allowing me the opportunity to talk to you a moment. I believe that I may make your decision at least easier. While we have -- while we have explored with facilities the possibility of needing the extra space in the post road office, I mean, we need extra space. However, we have come to the decision that we cannot afford it. We -- last year Texas [indiscernible] because of the new census count, I heard a lot of -- I listened to most of the conversation this morning about the -- about the redistricting issues and -- and, you know, when -- with the 2000 census undercount of the poor in Texas, Texas legal aid lost $500,000 this fiscal year, 2003. Unfortunately, we are going to have -- to see that impact for the next decade. So the actual loss to us is over $5 million, not including the costs of increasing costs of doing business. This year, just about a month ago, we were informed that -- that the Texas equal access to justice council foundation -- equal access to justice foundation, our second largest funding source, has simply not retained the returns on their investments that they have in the past. And as a result, we are going to lose $700,000 in funding in the year 2004. So we are already at a management meeting last week, we are looking at an operational budget deficit for -- for calendar year 2004 of some $400,000. We -- we have a -- a development coordinator, a development director that we have recently hired to help try and offset those funding losses and she's working diligently to be able to do that. But as a result of -- of those considerations and the fact that we don't see any further expansion in the Travis County area, last year we were -- even though we spent -- we lost $400,000 or $500,000, we actually spent more in Austin by creating our Texas access to justice hotline where we employed 30 to 35 law students from the university of Texas to handle the phones for us. It's our way of trying to meet the demand for services with diminishing resources. So we actually spent more here last year. We do not anticipate spending any more here this year unless we get some kind of additional funding. So, you know, I -- pat and I have spoken on a number of occasions regarding what we would like to do with the space. In light of these -- these developments and just the -- the fact that we don't believe we are going to be able to utilize that space, efficiently, I think that -- you know, that we certainly are withdrawing our requests for any additional space at this time. And we hope that during the next couple of weeks, because we -- we were temporarily -- we are on a temporary lease right now, it's a three-month lease that expires on December 31. We hope that we would be able to negotiate a -- a reduction in rent if we can get one for the current space we have. But that is -- of course -- a matter for discussions with facilities. The only other item that I notice that is on the agenda is the appraisal that is going to be sought and I'm not certain whether or not there is the intention of -- by the county to sell the building. Perhaps that will come up in further discussions later down the road. While interest rates are as low as they are right now, you know, it -- it is an opportunity for Texas rural legal aid to possibly get into the purchase of a building here in Austin. But we are -- we have just finished purchasing an office in san antonio where we consolidate all of our offices and found that we could save incredible amounts of money on what is obviously our largest personnel or non-personnel item, which is space. Especially in the large cities that we serve. We consolidated seven offices into one location and -- in san antonio and our purchasing -- and are purchasing the building. So with current interest rates and 100% financing offered to us by laredo national bank, we are in a good position to -- to do that there. And, you know, we would like to do it in Austin as well and post road is one of those locations that is close enough to downtown, good service to our -- to our good transportation service for our client community close to the courthouse. It is something that we would like to consider in the years ahead or as y'all -- as you and you will see that your appraisal and your strategic plan for that building. That's all that I have and I appreciate your time and consideration. Especially for all of your support that Travis County, that you currently and historically have given to legal aid in this -- in this county. The relationship that we have with you is not dissimilar from other relationships where we receive funding and support from nueces county, from san patricio county, from hildago county, we are constantly -- we plan on going to a lot more Commissioners court proceedings across the state, across our large service area to try and drum up more support during this time of -- of fiscal crisis, if you will.
>> quick question, given that you may have less money to deal with in everything that's going on within your budget, our memo says that you all currently occupy almost 12,000 square feet within this building. Is another option that you might look at is that if -- that you would look at reducing the amount of space that you need within our building given what's happening to your program?
>> well, right now we occupy every single square inch of that space. That was the consideration when we were trying to determine whether or not we could -- we needed additional space. The offices are very small. The -- everyone is cramped. We have -- we have so much in that office. I -- I do not -- I do not anticipate that we would want to give up any space. At all. In -- even in light because we -- we were -- I point these -- these fiscal items out to you so that you know where tlra is. But, you know, we have -- you know, over the past 30, 40 years, whether -- whether we were legal aid society of central Texas or Texas rural legal aid or coastal bend legal services or bexar county legal aid or el paso legal aid, those are the five organizations that joined into one, a large organization. We constantly see fluctuations in funding. We get some from here, we lose it from here. That is the nature of the legal services business. And we are going to deal with this situation in such a way that -- that we are not going to displace anyone in -- in Travis County at all costs. I mean, we are going to work very hard towards maintaining current personnel and deal with this deficit. So the space requirements are going to remain the same.
>> I'm coming to see you all next Monday as part of the road show in terms of visiting all of our social services agencies. But related to legal aid, because of this change that happened not at the local level, but on a federal level, how much of the work within the post road facility is related to Travis County clients?
>> we actually provided the court and judge Biscoe, I believe, and all of the Commissioners, with some figures in that regard. And I'm -- I have that with me. This was prepared by michelle clark, who is the branch manager of the office now. And she couldn't be here today because she is conducting a priority setting meeting with -- with local constituents and staff to determine what -- what our priorities are going to be for the year 2004. And I'm looking for those figures and I don't see them in the materials that she gave me. However, I do recall in other materials that she gave you -- here they are. Yes. In 2001, legal aid of central Texas provided service to -- services to 1,703 Travis County residents. In 2002, they provided 1,981 services to Travis County residents. In the first 8 months of 2003, Texas rural legal aid has provided services to 2056 Travis County residents. So there's actually been an increase of services to Travis County residents.
>> but what is the percentage of services that you offer to Travis County residents as opposed to from what I now understand is like a 20 or a 30-county area that is now based out of that office. What is the percentage that Travis County residents are getting in terms of use of that building? I think the use of this building slightly shifting from my understanding when we got into this lease is basically for Travis County clients. It still is, but there may be other counties who are not pitching in to be a part of the leasing solution as before.
>> right. And I agree with you. I don't have that percentage, but it's got to be greater than 50%. Okay? It's got to be greater than 50% because -- in the number that's michelle and I were talking about yesterday, she was compiling for this meeting today, she said there were some 4,000 closed cases through the end of November. If in the first 8 months there were 2056 Travis County residents, I'm going to estimate that it must have been -- it must be between 50 and 60%. But one thing, you know, I would like to point out, is that legal aid of central Texas not only served Travis County residents, its service area was actually in -- actually a 19 county service area. So for 35 years, legal aid of central Texas has always served a 20, 19 to 20 county area with primary offices here in Travis County. And an office in belton. But this -- the -- the residents -- I'm sorry, the staff of Travis County actually drove out on -- you know, on a regular basis, to -- to residents of -- of all of the surrounding contiguous counties of Travis County. So there -- there has always been an historical commitment, I believe, from Travis County recognizing that these services are not -- the poor in Travis County are not the only ones being served by the legal aid of central Texas. And that's the case today. Texas rural legal aid has a -- has a 60-county service area. Just to give you an example, nueces county, nueces county provides us with 130,000, almost $140,000 in funding as well as free space and -- and a thousand dollars worth of supplies from the county purchasing department. They have historically done that since 1948. And provided us with funding knowing that each year we serve more and more residents outside of nueces county. Our service area, the coastal bend legal services service area was a 20 county area. Nueces county knew all along that we were serving those folks. Again, 50 to 60% of all of our residents that we serve come from nueces county. But we can't ignore the fact that, you know, a lot of the funding that we receive from the legal services corporation, as well as the funding that we receive from the Texas equal access to justice foundation is based upon census. And we -- we get money to serve the 1,000 poor folk that reside in bastrop county or Williamson county. And we -- we try -- we make every effort to have our services equalized. Throughout the service area. That is one of the reasons why we spent so much more dollars here in Travis County to utilize the university of Texas law students to help access -- to help reach out to those individuals, so we don't travel out there as much as we used to. But we do handle their cases over the phone. At least take applications. So it's been -- it's historical that, you know, the support that Travis County gives us cannot -- I don't think, it can be -- overlooked. That yes, you are helping us to serve other individuals as well. And that's why I mentioned a while ago that, you know, what we need to do is make a more concerted effort to -- to reach out to other Commissioners courts, to other counties, to help in -- and provide us with funding. We did that in nueces county when I approached the Commissioners court in san patricio county about 10 years ago. And they came forward and provided us with funding to -- to open up an office there. We -- we are getting to the point now where we are consolidating offices. Last year we actually had to close 8 offices and those 8 offices were closed in small places like kerrville and kingsville. Uvalde. Pearsall, crystal city. We had to close all of those offices just because of the losses that I spoke of a moment ago. But we still have an obligation and Travis County has an obligation, our board of directors has an obligation, I think, to see to it that services are provided to the poor wherever they reside in Texas. And if we can help them, whether it be from here or whether it be from the san antonio office or whether it be from the el paso office or the corpus christi office. If we can help someone that lives in -- in alpine, we have got to provide that individual service. We have an obligation to do so, the Texas legal justice foundation that provides us with some same kind of census based demographic or funding but requires that we try and access or try and provide our services on an equal footing. To residents of rural counties are that underserved. That does emanate from Travis County. I don't deny it. But most of the residents that we serve are from Travis County.
>> I totally agree.
>> I am just saying in this incredibly tight times it is also time for people in other counties, other Commissioners courts to step up to the plate too often it is Travis County that is subsidizing what's going on in other counties, be it at brackenridge hospital and now this, it doesn't mean that we are not kind and loving folks, but we have got folks in Travis County that we need to stretch those dollars for their needs and those other counties need to step up to the plate and do the same. Because it's just becoming impossible for us to continue to subsidize 20, 30, 40 counties who in some cases simply have never been asked to be a part of the solution. That's all that I'm asking is if we can ask some of those counties to see if now is the time for them to step up to the plate.
>> our new director of -- of development, jennifer gallegos has placed that as one of her main priernts for this -- priorities for this fundraising effort that we are trying to undertake. What's really bad about the situation is that many counties are going through the same thing that you are, nueces county just went through it this past fiscal year. Unfortunately, they -- you know, I think we came out unscathed in that -- in the budget crisis down there where they had to eliminate 130 positions out of the county budget. So it's -- on the other hand, san patricio county we are approaching them for additional dollars. But that is on our agenda for -- for revenue enhancement.
>> as to today's agenda item, you are withdrawing the -- the request --
>> that's correct.
>> okay. Thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> we will come to the court now that this decision has been made by legal aid, we will come to the court very quickly from facilities with the lease because their lease does expire at the end of this month. I mean I'm sorry at the end of December.
>> can we now hear from health and human services.
>> good morning, stephen.
>> good morning.
>> of course, we support roger's recommendations to the court to move family support services division from the second floor to the first floor. I think we have discussed with the court a number of space issues. With our community centers over the last few years. We are in the process of bringing up a center in Pflugerville and eventually in oak hill. We are facing some of the same challenges in post road that we faced in -- in both Pflugerville and oak hill. But post road is a little unique is in -- in that is the only site where we provide services on the second floor that does provide for health and safety concerns. I was informed during one of our, an emergency situation, our staff had to actually take a client and -- in a wheelchair down a couple of flights of stairs in order to have them exit the buildings are building. We also have to -- to have services combined, for instance, we have clothes closet within post road and there is a utility assistance computer where we access consumption data from the city of Austin. They are actually located in the same room 7 at post road whereas at our other sisters they are completely different locations. I don't have to tell you about the increase in demand of services that we've had over the last couple of years. Our emergency assistance program, post road has of course, has had the same experience. For example a 270% increase in just the demand for utility assistance. I just want to -- I just want to underscore the accuracy of roger's recommendation. I think the appropriateness of roger's recommendation because I think it will help us solve a lot of operational issues. That -- that can be resolved by space. But also address a number of health and safety concerns that we have conducting business on the second floor of that building. Seems like facilities -- we have done comparison of our going into lease space versus space that we own in Travis County. Of course post road is a Travis County facility. And I think that it would be a lot more efficient for us to really expand in the county owned building instead of seeking additional space outside of a county-owned building.
>> so if we make this move, roger, let's say we approve your recommendations, then how much space is left over unused?
>> oh, I think -- I think the -- none would be left. Because the second floor, they can move the first, our recommendation also to give the second floor to -- to [indiscernible]
>> those are mainly mhmr employees?
>> yes.
>> would mhmr contribute anything? Since we are so strapped for money?
>> good morning, judge and Commissioners. Estella marina with juvenile probation. The current agreement that we have with mhmr does not include costs related to lease or space. I suppose that in our negotiations this next year, this next fiscal year, we could take that into consideration. If in fact the space were to be allowed. But the current agreement does not include those costs.
>> those are folks currently taking up space over at gardner-betts.
>> yes, ma'am. Currently the agreement with the mhmr includes mental health services for all of our kids coming through all of our courts and any of our services and programs. It includes a supervisor and 12 therapists who actually provide services to only our kids, they actually house out of our facility. Daily they may be in court, they may be meeting with families and kids on site. They are meeting with probation officers. Again, they may have to testify in court. They will visit with the kids in detension, they will visit with some of our kids in the isc. Then the remainder of the day for them is offsite. They are doing a lot of home visits for the families that they are working with. So allowing us to move the therapists off-site to the post road location would allow them to -- to continue to have office space and continue to do that work that they need on computers and phone calls and et cetera and a lot of their administrative work. But the other option would be -- the interruption would be minimal to services. They would still continue to come to gardner-betts to work with the family. They also conduct therapeutic groups onsite, testify in court if they are needed, staff cases, et cetera, then continue to do their home visits. By them relocating to post road as well, it also allows us to use the space that they are currently using for other programs and services that we have on site. We are looking at particularly our assessment program to be able to do some of that. We have currently some of our assessors are level spaced, in other words, we may have as many as two of three assessors working out of one office. This new office space would allow them to conduct the assessments and interviews that they have with family one on one and the way they are supposed to be conducted. There's some confidentiality issues, sometimes, so the assessors need that kind of space. So relocating the current therapists would certainly allow us the opportunity to kind of reconfigure some of our assessment program and services. And again in terms of interruption to services, it would be minimal. They -- we would have to relocate them, of course, make that move. But they would continue to come and provide the services, it would be just some travel for them. But -- but the particular agreement, the services go back as early as 1991-you the 2 and the -- '92 and the services they have provided have really been very beneficial. The fact that their therapists soirned to only juvenile court kids has also created some efficiencies, there's no waiting lines that these kids or families have to wait up for or waiting lists. In fact sometimes when we have to go through some of our other services, it will be by appointment. But because these therapists work with only our kids, we certainly have the efficiencies that -- that go with that.
>> those are two separate programs, though? One stephen talked about is -- [indiscernible]
>> yes, sir.
>> how much space do you have now?
>> we currently have 2400 -- 2439 square feet and we want to expand to 3340 square feet.
>> same number of people.
>> same number of people and include client load -- it's the same issue that's we are facing in other centers as the --
>> same number of staff but you expect more clients? Therefore need more space?
>> well, it's a matter of separating the functions. As we did with the other centers. For instance, I gave you an example of where we had to get -- to make double use of our clothes closet which is usually a stand alone function because of the lack of space.
>> they probably need a new building in precinct 4 pretty soon to deal with all of these space issues. I would like to see us look at something like that, roger. So -- to add aptly and adequately address some of these issues instead of trying to keep crunching in and crunching in. I would suspect, it's just my sense, that some of the families at gardner-betts -- that gardner-betts addresses are little some of the clients that some of our other agencies address, for instance legal aid. For instance, the job training. And so to me that's why there's a relationship between all of the different agencies that we work with because we are just delivering [indiscernible] has to deliver. So -- [papers shuffling - audio interference] instead of just keeping just keeping up with this crunching and crunching, I think that we need to adequately address the issue of space for these kinds of services. But this can be temporary as well. I think probably post road needs to be temporary. I think it's probably outlived its usefulness. In terms of space. And so -- so I think that it's time to start looking at something more adequate.
>> mhmr now has how much space? At the gardner-betts?
>> judge, I may not have the square footage, but I think all in all we've got about 10 different offices assigned to them, some of them are -- some of -- some of those instances we may have two therapists working out of the office. But again that includes all of the therapists and then there's supervise -- then their supervisor. It will be a total of 13 positions. I think that the space that roger has identified for us would meet the needs.
>> [indiscernible] same amount of space at post road?
>> the space we are providing at post road I believe is about 2,439 square feet. That's gross space. Unfortunately that's second floor. Where right now their family support services are.
>> does that help that unit?does that 24 -- is that 240 square feet adequate?
>> yes, ma'am. I'm [indiscernible] with juvenile court. The way the space will be configured at post road is better than the way they space they occupy in our facility right now is configured. They are in some offices now in our space that have no doors, so part of the confidentiality issue that we are trying to address for the mhmr record keeping function is that the offices at post road will have doors on them. Even though they are sharing it will only be mhmr therapist sharing and they will be able to secure those files better than what they can right now. 7.
>> when we say mhmr therapists, they are doing work on behalf of Travis County. They are not just hanging out in our building and officing out of there. They are specifically working on our behalf.
>> yes, ma'am, that's correct.
>> I don't think anybody hangs around. I just don't believe that.
>> no, no, no. I meant in terms of while they are mhmr paid for employees, they are doing work on our behalf and therefore --
>> I think everybody who has a contract with us works on our behalf.
>> state mhmr or Austin Travis County.
>> Austin Travis County.
>> okay.
>> what's b about?
>> b is a -- I would like to ask the court to give us the approval to go ahead and get an appraisal done to this post road. We would like to know what the value of that building is. Just like we did in palm square. And -- and the reason behind that is this way we would know that it's a property right there. We don't know what the value of it, so we can't probably have better understanding and we can probably have a better understanding of what this building is going to look like in the future. What is it. Back in -- by the way, also, back in August, in the budget process, we have been asked to go ahead and do an appraisal to the buildings and then we started the process, but we start after the court direct us not to do later on. So we have in the middle right now, on the appraisal process, so -- so at this time i'd like to ask the court to give us permission to move forward and finish the process of the appraisal with this building.
>> I think, judge, I think that comes from the space committee that has discussed some of those issues, but they haven't ever been resolved. It's an issue that probably needs to be addressed so that we can take it off the table or, you know, develop it further. And -- and I don't know if we are ready to -- to do that.
>> how much does the appraisal cost?
>> it's $5,550. I mean 5,500. This is -- it's a contract already with the purchasing office, appraisal, commercial for 5,500.
>> that's part of the 15-5.
>> yeah, absolutely.
>> what would you be -- why would you be doing the appraisal? We are not really anticipating doing anything to this building, are we, roger? For all of the space needs that we have, I mean, unless Commissioner you were talking about selling it to build something else.
>> to build something else that's more adequate.
>> is that -- is that the reason that you would appraise it?
>> it's one of the -- one of them Commissioner that we need to know what the value of this building down the road is. If there's any question about -- down the road so we know the value of it. Also really that's what --
>> well, I mean, I guess what I'm getting at is if you -- if you think that you are going to sell the building, then, yes, you do need to do an appraisal. If you are just doing an appraisal with the anticipation of this being a long time out, you are going to get -- number one, you are going to do an appraisal when you get ready to sell it, which may be 35 years or I don't know, unless somebody is telling me that they have got something planned for, you know, next March. That's one thing. But there's no use doing -- spending $5,500 if all that you are going to do is say, well, that's fine, we want to know what it's going to cost, stick it over here, in three years we will do another appraisal or consider selling it.
>> that's why we need to decide the issue and get it off the table one way or another.
>> I don't think it's time has come related to whether we would sell it. Gerald -- you talk about in terms of you do it when you have intent to do it like we were talking about the 1101 nueces building like where are we, I think we are ready to divest ourselves of that.
>> in order to give direction to roger, let's take that off the table.
>> okay. What improvements do you have in mind on c?
>> on c?
>> 13 c?
>> c is going to be used, we are asking for 15,500, we will take that 5,000 out, so it's $10,000, it's miscellaneous improvement, trying to move people out and moving people in, probably going to be some carpet cleaning of the -- restoring some walls, painting, just getting it ready for the folks. Also for the i.t.s. Equipment and telephone transfer and that sort of -- cabling and that's what we are anticipating is going to be minimum of our $10,000.
>> when would you start the work?
>> we can start the work as soon as possible. We can do it within two weeks we can start. Because really it does not involve getting a contractor on board. If we do something in house, i.t.s. Might have to contract with a contractor for cabling and telephone.
>> would the funds -- are the funds okay from the auditor? What -- how does the auditor feel about -- about these funds? I mean, I realize that it looks like we have -- areas where these dollars are, roger. I mean, is that something that the auditor's office is -- has signed off on?
>> well, we talked directly to p.b.o., In p.b.o. They have something to say about that, I believe.
>> p.b.o. I mean.
>> yes, p.b.o.
>> I see p.b.o. Jump up.
>> we identify some saving, you know, from our budget, [indiscernible] give you more information about that.
>> good morning, we are working actually currently with facilities management to verify that there is lease savings. It does appear from the information that roger has provided us that there would be savings in excess of the $10,000 requested here. We have already set aside the $5,500 issue, so in excess of the 10,000, but we are finalizing that work as we speak.
>> these savings are based on --
>> I believe it's based on construction schedule. I believe is this woodward.
>> yes, woodward is already finished. We move the cscd to the new office, we have some lease savings there.
>> we will know for sure next week.
>> I believe so.
>> why don't we just pull 13 b and have 13 a and c on next week.
>> okay.
>> for action.
>> verification.
>> deleting the appraisal portion of it, the $5,500.
>> yeah.
>> no need for it.
>> all right. 1125. And we will have c back on.
>> okay. Thank and you you all very much.
>> thank you.
>> thank you all very much for coming down.
Last Modified: Wednesday, November 19, 2003 7:32 AM