Travis County Commssioners Court
November 18, 2003
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Item 25
25 is to consider and take appropriate action on submission to u.s. Justice department, including comments given during November 18 public hearing mr. [indiscernible] did indicate during his short comments that it may be necessary for us to indicate the race or national origin of the [indiscernible] we did not capture that. That comment was made after the persons had spoken. So if that's necessary, we need to put together a strategy that enables us to collect it. The other thing is more specific information about history is important for some of the speakers then it would make sense to me to come up with a short affidavit, that we get them to sign that contains that information. That we can attach to a written submission. Otherwise I would say that -- .
>> judge the -- each person that spoke here this morning, especially I guess when they look at this, they say well whomever, john doe, whatever spoke and john doe is an african american, blah blah blah, spoke on this particular day at this time in the form of an affidavit, I guess that would be the same thing for any of the mexican american, hispanic person that's spoke. Blah blah blah, who was a hispanic blah blah blah. Within the context of an affidavit being submitted along with the -- with the testimonies as far as the court reporter. That captured it --
>> the question is -- is the information required? We have the testimony on record. It seems that we produce that we do not have on record the race or national origin of the speaker. We do not have on record the political history of the two or three individuals that mr. Standis [ phonetic ] mentioned after one other the other spoke. I assume that would be -- is that legal advice.
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> that's why I'm bringing it up now, it would probably be a good idea to make a few phone calls so that we could put together a strategy that enables us to capture it within a couple of days. I have the names of the people who spoke and probably gist of what they said. And think I can guess their race or national origin, but it would be much better coming from them where they pretty much indicate that. A short affidavit we could put together fairly quickly. And while it's still hot contact the individuals and get it executed. If that's -- if what he said was important and will be important in the justice department, it may well justify our taking the time to go ahead and get it done.
>> yes.
>> I know tamara has several calls in. Into the department [inaudible - no mic]
>> okay.
>> do you have a record -- it was official testimony if they only look at the written transcript.
>> we did not reduce that to writing so that if they are only going to look at this transcript, it's -- so I understand your concern [inaudible - no mic]
>> judge, could I also suggest a phone call to bill emery who handled our redistricting case because -- because that actually was a question that came up after we were all out at the precinct 3 hearing in terms of, you know, how are we capturing, I guess, the flavor of some of these hearings and bill did say that that was part of it. I don't know how they captured that, but bill did include that in the record in terms of whether the speaker -- was -- was -- whether they were spanish speaking surname, whatever, but asking bill might be a suggestion of how did we do it when we did our own redistricting a year and a half ago. It was a part of --
>> it would have been better to go ahead and do it as the speakers came up here. We are kind of beyond that. One the question is is that important? Is it critical to the justice department? And if it is, we capture it. And we don't have the public hearing over. But we know the individuals, simply easy to contact them and find out. Yes, ma'am?
>> I was going to speak to that. Alfred is meticulous as he is, copied down everything, got their name, address and phone number, we could provide that very easily to the court, I can make sure that happens, my name is melissa gonzalez, since we are going back on record again. If you want to direct me to do that, I could get that and submit it to you very easily.
>> I do think we ought to find out how important that it is. If it's important enough to put a little additional effort into it, we may as well go ahead and do that [multiple voices]
>> okay.
>> [indiscernible]
>> okay.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> so -- so let's take the added items. 25 we will call up executive session.
Last Modified: Wednesday, November 19, 2003 7:32 AM