Travis County Commssioners Court
August 13, 2003
The FY ‘04 Budget
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Public Hearing on the FY ‘04 Budget
We have a public hearing posted. I move that the hearing be posted.
>> second.
>> favor? That passes by unanimous vote. The only hearing is a public hearing to address -- a public hearing to receive input regarding county services and the fy '04 preliminary county budget. Historically we give our budget director two to three minutes to lay out the preliminary budget and make a few additional comments that he deems appropriate. We'll be generous teend give you the full three. Starting now.
>> I won't take it. Because i've already made a presentation to the court that is available on the internet at the county's website, www.co.travis.tx.
>> the most -- the briefest of ways I just want to say that the county is in reasonably good financial shape. And that's due to the court's preparation for a downturn, careful spending and adherence to adopted guidelines. There's $6.4 million of reductions in the preliminary budget. There are 50 f.t.e. Reduced, 57 f.t.e. That are added. Those that are added are primarily related to opening new facilities or the certification of additional revenue. There is money included in there for the combined transportation and emergency communications center, indigent attorney's fees, health & human services, opening new buildings. There's nothing in the budget for additional compensation, but employee health benefits, which were going to cost about four and a half million dollars, is included in the preliminary budget. Tax rate is proposed to go from 46.60 to 49.58. That is slightly underneath the effective tax rate. That would result in a 52-dollar per year in the average homestead. There are a variety of public hearings. This is one of the public hearings. There will be another one on September 24th on the tax rate in the budget and then on September 30th a public hearing on the proposed budget plus every Tuesday during citizens' communication. You're in the milghtd of on -- muddle of budget hearings with departments. Those will en August 22nd. And when you make certain decisions on things to exclude or ininclude in the budget will include on September 10th, 11th and 12th you're and you're scheduled to adopt the budget on September 30th. Are my three minutes up?
>> thank you, christian. Next year speak a little louder, though. That was fine.
>> question. Is it my recollection there's almost a million dollars more in your preliminary budget, which as we like to say, is a budget, it is not the budget. But there's about a million dollars more for health in terms of hhs, and there was no reductions noted there related to our can social service contract?
>> that's correct.
>> I want to make sure that people understand that up front. Thank you.
>> just for the record, we started our budget hearings today and they go through August 22nd. That's when we meet with various county managers. Generally the hearings are either in the mornings or afternoons. And about a week after the 22nd I think is when we start budget markup. That's for a two or three-day period and we actually take a lot of specific votes and put the final budget in shape. The fiscal year starts October 1, runs through September 30th, and our goal is to have a budget pretty much final i'd say about the beginning of the last week of September. Any additional comments from court members before we get comments from citizens? Okay. We do have citizens who have signed in. Valerie garza is first. I will call three names. There are five mic's there. Give yourself a little elbow room. If you give us your full name for the record, we would weed be happy to get your comments. If you can, we'd appreciate you limiting your comments to three to five minutes. Ms. Garza is first. Felix sandoval is second and third is john hornsby. Is john a doctor? Sort of writes like one? That's all right. No problem. And michael (indiscernible) is here also.
>> john and michael are stuck in photographic right now.
>> -- traffic right now.
>> but is felix here?
>> okay. Janie kern.
>> yeah.
>> please come forward. If you would have one of those chairs. And after one finishes, I will call out another one and we sort of keep them flowing that way. Ms. Garza.
>> jenny has her son with her. Would it be all right if he came up with her?
>> that's perfect.
>> it sure is.
>> my name is valerie garza. I知 a parent. I have three bays boiz. My oldest boy is 17 and he has bipolar and is severely psychotic. He's been served by the children's partnership, a Travis County system of care. Through that involvement I eventually became to be on the board of the Travis County system of care effort. I now serve on the county system of care team and as a background facilitier for manor school district. I知 sure that other people are going to speak to certain things about this, and what i'd like to say to you is that this county has spent a lot of money on my child over the years through every child serving agency in town. Hundreds of thousands of dollars has been spent to place him in five different residential treatment centers over the course of his life. He's spent a total of almost five years of his life in residential facilities, and I would like to see those hundreds of thousands of dollars brought back to our community instead of sending our children away to use that money to keep them here, provide the services in the community which in addition will provide job for service providers in our community and will keep our funds at home. My son is almost an adult now. There's not a whole lot we're going do that will change things for his childhood. But our community is full of children in need who we have the option now of making decisions whether they will be kept in their homes and in their comments and reaching them or whether they will be sent away. Economically our whole country is in a mess. We can continue to spend money on placements that aren't going to make our kids successful or we can try to change the way we spend that money, keep our children at home, follow the best practices, the data shows us that this is successful. My son has the most successful two-year period of his life when he was involved with this system of care. He stayed out of jail, he was in school. Those may sound like little things in our family. Those were big successes. He made the honor roll for the first time. Those are powerful things for family members and that's what i'd like you to think about. Thank you.
>> what's the name of the program again?
>> the children's partnership.
>> okay. Thank you. And that's felix and bryan king? Come forward, felix.
>> my name is felix sandoval. I知 a care corder with the children's partnership. I firmly believe that wraparound initiatives and systems of care should be sustained in this community. Mental health issues are near and deer to my heart. Recently I lost my mother's soul to schizophrenia and her body to breast cancer. I've seen what can happen when a child is wrapped around with services and treated with dignity and respect and families are given a voice. I worked directly with children and families, so I know firsthand the successes. And just as valerie stated, the successes may seem minuscule to some, but they are invaluable to others. And I want everyone to think about sustaining this effort. Like valerie said, physically it's a great way to keep our children in the community and have them successful. I believe it's fiscally responsible and I believe it's ethically responsible to sustain this effort. And I just want you guys to hear my voice.
>> cat parsons, please come forward. And ms. Cain, right?
>> yes. My family has received services from the children's partnership for a year and a half. And those services have enabled my child to stay at home. When a child is in a crisis, the worst thing you can do is send them away from their family who loves them to have an institution raise them. The services we've received have been all encompassing, and everything that kids need is here in Travis County. There's enough agencies and social workers and mental health providers and mentors and everybody is here to give those things to kids. And my family has successfully maintained ourselves in our own home because of those services. And if my son had been sent away to some other place for this past year and a half, what relationship would we have? What relationship would he have in community to even be able to give back? It's degrading him and degrading me. The services have been most respectful of everything about our needs. They've always asked what we want and what's our strengths rather than coming in and telling us what to do. So they really -- I just encourage you in making decisions for your budget to fund programs like this that can help families to stay together.
>> thank you. Is that byan?
>> it's ryan.
>> I知 just here to speak for the children's partnership as well. It helps me and my mom go through some communication issues where we weren't getting along, our personalities were conflicting a little bit. And it helps us to community better with ourselves and it just brought us closer together, I think. That's really important for kids and their parent to have that connection, and if it's not working out, then sometimes they do need a little bit of a push in the right direction. I think that's what children's partnership helps with.
>> thank you very much.
>> cat parsons. Mary Margaret sauls. Stephanie bryan.
>> evening.
>> how are you? I知 mary Margaret sauls. I知 here with to hats. Let me start with hat number one as chair of the children's mental health partnership here in Travis County. It's a nonprofit that was set up with all the child serving agencies in town, and y'all have been a big part of that. I知 here to thank you for your leadership and your supported assistance of care. Travis County got a grant about five years ago, and we are going in to the sixth year of the grant to sustain it, and I want to thank you for the support and the amount of flexibility that you have given because of your leadership in the county as one of the lead agencies because it has enabled us to do some of the things that the parents that have just spoken have stalked about. Especially in this time of budget constraints. So we wanted your attention about that. The other thing is my hat as an educator. One of the things that we'll be doing this year and really because of the flexibility that you've allowed the county health & human services to restructure and now we have a children's division, it's really enabled them to model this process for some of the other agencies in town. We're very excited this year because we're going to be using some of the public schools. We're going to have six sites -- six to eight sites in Austin isd, one in manor, at manor middle school, and two in Pflugerville. And we're trying to expand what we're calling the best practices in education, developing a safe school, but merging that with this community systems of care for children and families that are at risk. This is also part of work that we're doing with the youth and family assessment center, so we're trying to expand from kids that are really -- really have severe needs to kids that are at risk and get more of in a prevention mode. So thank you. Y'all have really supported us in ways maybe that you didn't even know, and we're hopeful that we'll be able to provide david to you at the end of next school year -- data to you at the end of next school year so that you can see we can have a lot of these entities in the neighborhoods, at the schools providing the support for our kids and for their families too. So thank you.
>> no, thank you. Butch stofor.
>> good evening. My name is stephanie bryan and I come to you with two hats as well. My first hat is as as parent. I too have a child with severe emotional disturbance, and we have successfully navigated the systems in Travis County. I also come to you as the executive director of the local Austin-Travis County federation of families. And we are a partner in Travis County in implementing this system of care. I知 here on behalf of the family members who weren't able to be here tonight to express their voice and a plea for you folks to please consider all options that are available to enhance the current system of care for the children and families to help us help our community to become a safer place and a healthier place for our children to be raised. As those before me have indicated, it is best that our children remain in the community, to stay connected with the family. I give an analogy many times, as we all are living in a fish bowl full of dirty water, and our children when they are taken out of our homes and placed in a residential treatment go to a crystal clear bowl of water where they are fixed, where they are in an environment that is very healthy for them. But it is not the same environment that they will come home to. And the system of care affords us to clean this bowl of water, of which we are all swimming and living in, and providing the entire community with a healthy community. So my plea is on behalf of the children and families in the community to please consider budget. When it comes down to it, consider this because it is an opportunity not just for those children and families that are served, but for the entire community as well. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> may I ask a question while you have you two up here. We have our health & human services budget hearing tomorrow afternoon. Is there a question or a clarification that we need to ask of those folks tomorrow? Because it was my understanding that steven williams, the executive manager, was going to be recommending to hold the line related to social services, but I saw on children's partnership it was a bolstering to the systems of care. So I知 just making sure I知 hearing you on stay the course, no harm, no foul, but also if there's a a bolstering, that is a good thing to do. I want to make sure there's not any miscommunication that you think you're on the chopping block.
>> no. We want to make sure that this is steadfast. Keep on course.
>> thank you.
>> thank y'all.
>> that's ms. Defore. Susan mcdowell.
>> good evening, judge and Commissioners. Thank you positive the opportunity to talk to you a little bit. I want to talk to you about after school programs which you will have an opportunity to consider next week. In Texas we got -- I work with the dioces of Austin as a criminal justice director and we are involved with prisons, we are involved with parolees, we are involved with family. We are now involved with children to try to keep them out of trouble in the first place. We have this epidemic going on in the state of Texas. It takes about one in a thousand to make an epidemic. We've got one in eight men in the state of Texas that the law has got their hooks into, either in jail, prison, probation or rond bonded to reappear in court. That's an incredible amount. Every time somebody hears that it goes right over her their heads. We're developing the next generation of prison inmates in our own communities right now and we're really not doing a whole whale of a lot to to stop it. One of the problems in criminal justice is everybody wants to pay attention to the offender and doesn't want to pay as much attention to prevention. But a silver bullet in this whole process is after school programs. It's fairly simple. In the 3:00 o'clock to 6:00 o'clock, at 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon, the crime rate goes right up there. If a child is in supervised activity and after school programs, he or she is not in it. It's that simple. Our problem is that we've had some lag between the time you spend money for prevention and the time you really get the reaction to it later down the line. If we were spending money prevention five, six, seven years ago we would feel the effect in the Travis County jail today, but what we're suggesting to you is these after school programs have a great deal of merit as proven by a number of studies, one particular one, there were two housing projects. One of them was given a lot of attention. The cudz in there were given a lot of attention of services and so forth, and the other one they were just getting city services relatively minimal. And they conducted this on for about 32 months. And during that period we had -- the one that would have all the services, the juvenile referrals were reduced 75% and the other case where they did not get the additional services, the juvenile referrals increased 67%. So there's -- so there's a direct link between after school programs we believe and keeping these kid where they need to be. But the juvenile crime rate has been dropping somewhat because of the things that have been done in the juvenile area. You've been doing some pretty good work there and doing other things besides just putting kids away. And the juvenile referrals have been dropping down. So it can happen. Things can be done. But what we're trying to do is deal with lifestyles. These people in jail or prison and that sort of thing have a terrible life-style, and they don't start off at 18 to 25 doing something stupid. They start off early on. You know, this high or maybe children and babies in arms. They're in these families that are dysfunctional. They have -- poverty is sort of our worst risk factors. Risk factors are very indicative. If you have one risk factor, a child is likely -- more likely to be involved in serious crime than a child who has none. If it's two, it's 26 percent. If it's three, it's -- if it's four, it's 68 percent. So you've got these things that weigh in. What are the risk factors, povertity or a family that's dysfunctional, alcohol and drug abuse in a family, that these kind of problems that occur. We don't have good parenting in a lot of our families. Parent are one of the real problems with the whole process. And what these after school programs do, they cet get hold of these kid and work with them and regardless of the family situation, they do very well in trying to help that child improve. We've had success in after school programs which provide lower juvenile referral and lower juvenile delinquency. They provide better risk factors, risky behavior and things like that. And they provide the good things. They provide these kids more likely to go to school. They have better social development. They do their homework. They stay out of drugs and alcohol and all this risky behavior. And the main problem is we keep these kids in school and they're not going to get in the problem. The school dropouts are the ones that wind up in the prison system. If you keep these children in school and work with the after school program, they're not going to these places. That's why I知 just going to mention this to you and suggest that you give some thought to that if they come in next week and talk about these subjects. Questions?
>> one question. I think the after school program is a very legitimate program. I've seen some of the evidence of hard work and what the products of that activity actually is. But the question i'd like to ask, because we're talking about latch key type situations here. And where or when do you actually involve parents in the process? Is there any opportunity for parents to be involved with the children that are latch key in that particular setting?
>> well, in the lower school programs, a lot of the parents are part of the teachers. But what we're trying to do is get to these kids before the parents get home from work. The parents are working.
>> that's what I知 saying. Is there any opportunity for the parents to get involved. Is there anything within your curriculum of what you're suggesting or proposing that parents have an opportunity to get involved because what we find out also is when you do have parental involvement as a joint activity with the children, it makes a greater difference. So I was just wondering whether there were any opportunities --
>> I do not know if thea this got them involved or not. But I do know that aisd programs, like I say, a lot of the parents are the teachers because they use regular teachers, they use parents to teach and they work with these kid. But those are the lower school kid. What you will get next week is kids who are in middle school. Middle school kids, they vote with their feet. You've got to do something for them that may not be at the school district -- schoolhouse. You've got to get other things going on and get them involved in things. That's when they start -- the hormones start raging and everything else. You have to work on these contained work hard on things that they like to do. Boys clubs, girls clubs, things like that, big brothers, big centers, all these programs that reach out to these kids. Mentoring programs, they're anxious to get more mentoring going on with these kid. That sort of thing.
>> thank you.
>> susan mc doul is next, and we have amy submitted to come forward.
>> I知 the executive director of life works. I知 here tonight representing the Austin area human services association. The first thing I have to say is it's quied an extraordinary year when we come to you in support of the Travis County health & human services budget. That's usually not the position we're in. I want to first and foremost thank you for your commitment to the community and to your recognition of the fundamental importance of maintaining a good, strong safety net of health & human services during this really difficult time. As you're aware, our community is facing what we keep referring to as a perfect storm of a funding crisis on the federal level, on the state level, local fees, the challenges that have faced united way over the last year that has made it an unprecedented challenge to meet the needs of the community at a time when both the volume of potential clients and the severity of needs are increasing dramatically. I知 going to tell you a quick story that happened earlier this week, and at first I thought it was kind of silly, then as I thought about it it really disturbed me. Life works, as you all know, provides among other things shelter to runaway and homeless youth. A story that appeared repeatly in the state man referred to our shelter as a home for wards of the state. I thought to myself, like a dickens's novel. I had a thought in my head about like they feed the kids porridge everyday. But it made me think about a time when society did not care about children. Once a child aged out of an orphan acknowledge they hit the street, usually before they grew up, and they turned into career criminals. So what you had was a society with an unbreakable cycle between soacialg services that were so poorly funded that they could not do their jobs effectively, could not care for the children this their community. They would just go into the criminal justice system. With everything that has happened and in policy and funding this year that social sftss have dealt with, we're beginning to see that type of society. So the budget that is in front of you represents kind of a first beacon of hope for us. We see an increased investment in social services and an opportunity to work with one of our public institutions with the nonprofit providers to get in front of this cycle and break it because it is costly. It is costly in terms of dollars spent and costly in terms of human potential. So it will very much take us working together to get in front of that. Many of us have outlined to you all the financial benefits of making an up front investment in social service interventions before it reaches the stage where more costly systems of care come into place. So we urge you to consider that when looking at the budget. It does represent an increase. We are very grateful for your consideration of that. We urge you to recognize that this is truly the year to invest in people. Not to do so will be costly. Again, not just the dollars, but the public safety human potential that would otherwise be wasted. It is a good first step in a very, very challenging year, and we thank you and appreciate your support. Are there any questions?
>> thank you. [ applause ]
>> is amos smith edwards here? Manny cass tealio? Castillo.
>> thank you for your time tonight. I wanted to speak about the -- [ inaudible ]. It is invaluable for all deaf people to have communication access and interpreters are provided. At the Austin police department it is one of the issues. In order to arrest a deaf person, the miranda rights have to be read to them. When someone is in jail an interpreter is provided and they will understand the reason they're being arrested. Without an interpreter there, they would feel isolated, frustrated and confused. When it's time to appear in court, they would have no idea as to why they're in jail in the first place. However, standing in front of the judge they still would not understand the consequences of breaking the law. They can't answer a question accurately or even make an informed decision. [inaudible - no mic]. When a law is broken, probation is given. It's necessary to provide an interpreter at that time for both parties in order to have an effective communication. When an -- when ineffective communication occurs without a certified interpreter, it just adds a strained reaction to both parties. And that error could occur in -- could result in sending someone to prison due to a misunderstanding. The same thing applies to a deaf juvenile who does not understand the consequences when they break the law. It's also important to provide an interpreter to decrease the strained reaction for that to occur. And I feel that it's very important to emphasize how frustrated and isolated not having an interpreter when they're not provided. About 50 to 60,000 people relay on interpreting services that are provided from Travis County services for the deaf. I just want to thank you for providing the closed captioning. In order for me to participate as a citizen. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, very, very much.
>> ms. Mcclain? Mary lou stubs.
>> good evening, judge and Commissioners.
>> how you doing?
>> my name is mary lou mcclain. I serve as treasurer on the board of directors for family elder care, a nonprofit agency that provides services for the elderly. And I am here tonight on behalf of the board to thank you for your continued support of nonprofit human service provider agencies. Family elder care and other Austin area human services association partners provide very needed services to some of our most vulnerable citizens who are unable to advocate for themselves. And as a community, we may not and must not endanger their safety by decreasing funding to these programs. Last Friday I attended the community action network resource council meeting. Judge Biscoe, Commissioner Sonleitner eloquently spoke of the necessity of holding harmless health & human services from any county budget cuts. I applaud you both and I thank and urge the rest of the Commissioners for following your lead. On a further note, I am a registered nurse who has worked for a total of 10 years at brackenridge hospital in the emergency department. I have seen tragedies that could have been avoided if my patients had had access to many of the services provided by these programs. I have also firsthand seen the positive effect of many of these programs on many people's lives. Programs provided by member agencies include basic need support, abuse and neglect prevention, primary health care, substance abuse programs and support for the disabled, mentally retarded and frail elderly. All of these issues directly effect the quality of life in our community and I insearly appreciate your efforts to be proactive in providing assistance for prevention and intervention and by not being reactive and paving the way for further crisis. Thank you again.
>> thank you.
>> good evening.
>> good evening. I知 sister mary lou stubs. I知 a daughter of charity. And currently I serve in the diocese of Austin, the catholic diocese of Austin as the director for social concerns and as executive director of catholic charities. So it is on behalf of those two related organizations, the diocese of Austin and catholic charities of central Texas that I would like to bring delightful gratitude for the partnership that this county plays with churches. There are many churches -- I知 also a member of the Texas council of churches, but there are many churches of multiple denominations who are -- the place where folks come when they're really in trouble. What we like to see, and I think the only thing that is effective is when people are in a very difficult situation that those resources are there to help them through. There's no way of people becoming independent, becoming good citizens, becoming contributing members to our society, unless they have the ability to continue to grow. And the services that the county is providing through your financing that allows that to happen. I come from a family that needed assistance. I come from a family where one of my siblings is mentally ill and physically blind. And he's a productive member of society now and became volunteer of the year in his county. Because he was able to meet his potential. I think the most critical part of the investment is preventing people from going -- hitting the top of the slide and doing the downward spiral. The interventions you do can allow folks to get the assistance to get out of that spiral, to break that. And I truly believe that it pays back in many, many ways. One of the groups that's meeting in this city now is called the basic needs group. And they are combining both the immediate needs, the basic needs, with case management so that people can stabilize and move forward. There are probably 50 organizations that are working with that in one way or the other. Many of us don't receive funding directly, particularly the churches don't receive funding directly, but that's okay. We're still part of that partnership and partnership with y'all. A couple of minutes ago duke talked about mentoring programs. They have started a program called seeds of hope where 20 organizations at least are now working together, including many county and state organizations to do mentoring for children of incarcerated and paroled individuals. These kids have a -- eight times the chance of ending up in jail without this leadership. So people are pulling together, and I think it's your encouragement that is helping them to do that. And it's only by pulling together and working with everybody bringing their gifts that we're really going to be able to get it done on a long-term basis. So I do praise you and I do thank you and want to let you know that any way I can be of assistance in any of the roles that I play i'll be very glad to do so.
>> thank you very much.
>> can you tell me if any of the churches in the area are receiving any federal dollars, both the faith-based type initiatives that were talked about pretty heavily at one time -- I知 sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.
>> Commissioner Davis, I am not sure. I do not know about individual churches receiving faith-based initiatives money. I know that there have been applications, particularly in the area of families who are caught in trafficking issues, but that funding did not come here. We are attempting to get faith-based monies for this mentoring of incarcerated -- the children of incarcerated, and hopefully big brothers, big sisters is fiduciary on that and we hope to get a million dollars into the state for that. The faith-based money has not come fourth as -- it takes a long time I think for this to really develop and go. We will continue to follow after it.
>> okay.
>> and they are providing -- requesting a federal identification number for organizations that facilitate that process now.
>> okay. Thank you very much for those comments.
>> thank you.
>> we appreciate the fine work that y'all do. Regina (indiscernible) is the last one who has signed in. Let's go back to the top of the list and see if somebody has arrived late. John erispa. Come forward here. And is michael with you?
>> yes, he is.
>> why don't both of you come forward. Ms. Rudolph.
>> I知 executive director of people's community clinic arks new role for me, but I知 really here on behalf of Austin area human services association and really just to speak in support of susan mcdoul's earlier comments. We recognize your continued and sustained support of human services needs in this community. We greatly appreciate it and we just want to let you know that and commend it. So often people come to you to complain about things. We appreciate that you all have -- you and your staff have kept abreast of this and are really concerned and compassionate in your response. Thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> you can turn that other one towards him.
>> i've been with the children's partnership for about 10 months now. And children's partnership is helping me keep my feet on the program when I got out of the program, helping support me, helping me get the job. And I still have that job right now. I've been holding it for two months now at hollywood video. And that's all I have to say. I appreciate it if y'all would continue to support the children's partnership, and I appreciate them supporting me.
>> they do good work, keep up the good work.
>> I知 john erispa, related to this young man here. About 10 months ago michael transitioned from an acute care facility and had spent five and a half years of his 17 in that type of facility. Obviously great expense, great heart break and great disappointment, but there was a process that -- don't ask me how because for me I知 just a normal parent and citizen, but I ended up working with the children's partnership telling my story for probably about the 500th time. Not knowing if that would open a door or an avenue to help my son progress and transition home. But if it took a thousand, I would have kept on. Fortunately the system of care that they offer and the guidance that they offer gives me just so much hope, and you've seen for yourself and heard his comments just now. The thing that maybe is unique to some of the other mental health care that we've received in our county was -- this was more comprehensive. And the communication -- it was, if you will, a total package. It provided support for our family, but moreover it capitalized on the strength of the family and of michael himself to enable him to be, if you will, less agency dependent, but more community dependent. Part-time job, recreation, capitalizing on the strengths that he has athletically in getting him involved. So in the times that we all know financially that exist today, I think one of the things that is truly beneficial is to be able to set out on a strategic plan with specific at that time ticks and come to the table and discuss with our case manager where are we, what did we do, what do we need to do, did we follow-up, what needs to be done next? Measure our progress and stay informed on that. And I think that that is a great way to spend our money is directed specifically at the need, and lots of times that's hard to get when you work with different agencies because of the way funding is allocated. What we've been able to do with this program is target those needs, and hopefully develop the character in mine and not just my son, but a citizen here that can be productive and give back to this community. And I would ask your continued support and your prayers for continued success.
>> thank you.
>> thank you very much.
>> I kind of -- the story that you tell kind of reminds me that this is what county government is for. This is our role. And we're at the very front end. There's the feds, there's the state government, but we're really the government that has the most contact with citizens such as yourselves. And I know a lot of people complain about taxes and that sort of thing, but we do operate on taxes and we collect it, but we don't waste it. And we invest them in programs such as this because we want to touch the lives of everyone who has a need in a very positive way. So thank you so much.
>> thank you. Let's all hope we get a good return on our investment here.
>> I have something to add. One of the things that concern me -- because we did make a strategic shift in how we handled these monies. It was almost like we were telling people you have to go to this restaurant and pick from that menu as opposed to the luby's line where we have a whole menu of things here and we empower the family to take make the best decisions for you of all the options. And I知 very pleased to get this feedback that this is a better way of dealing with your family situation in a very personal way as opposed to there being a preconceived idea about where the dollars ought to be spent. That it's family-based, not agency-based, although the agencies are there as partners. I appreciate it.
>> thank you. This has been a success in the terms you speak of.
>> thank you.
>> michael, good luck.
>> cat parsons, is she here yet? Amy smith edwards? Would anybody else like to give comments this evening, whether you've signed in or not. Not? Gary collins, I have never seen you pass up an opportunity to address this court and give back. We certainly appreciate you coming out this evening and giving us your input.
>> thank you.
>> move that the public hearing are closed.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you.
Last Modified: wednesday, August 13, 2003 9:15 PM