Travis County Commssioners Court
January 6, 2004
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Item 10
10 is to second of two public notices, consider order waiving section 32.004-c of Travis County code, chapter 32, subchapter a, ethics policy in relation to contract with bank one na for dmecial card services. And b is contract with bank one na for commercial card services for the sheriff's office use. A one-minute overview may help.
>> judge, Commissioners, my name is frank holder, purchasing department. This contract is for the sheriff's department. It will provide commercial card services provided by bank one. The sheriff's department needs this card for their extradition and escort officers who go out and accompany people back to Travis County or from Travis County. And this commercial card will facilitate their travel so that they don't have to use their personal funds and will also alleviate any emergency needs while they're in the field.
>> what's a about?
>> the ethics policy says in any contract that we have, the court, I believe is familiar with the key person list. Any person on that list, the contractor is saying when they submit their proposal or submit their bid that no one -- they have not dealt with any person on that list. The second part of the policy says that during the course of the contract, should they do any business with any people listed on the key person list, they have to report that to us. That is a waiver that we are seeking because bank one has something like 1800 banks across the united states, and it is just virtually impossible for them to be able to do that.
>> a is a notice of waiver. The waiver itself is in the contract of b?
>> there is an order waiving the policy to the extent that it is to be waived, which is in relation to continual monitoring during the contract. And what is in the contract is the language that says that if they fail to do the review to make sure that they're not doing business with key persons at the time that they sign the contract, then they forfeit all of the consideration and have to continue to give us the services that were provided under the contract. What's being waived is the second part of that, which usually says, and if you don't report to us anybody that you do business with that isn't the same as you would offer to anybody else on a regular retail basis during the term of the contract, then you would also forfeit. So it'sonly the promise to forfeit the consideration for doing business that is like sweetheart deals, giving special consideration or special rates to a key person. And the bank in the conversations that we had with them indicated that they did not feel that they ever gave anybody sweetheart deals. The problem is that with their commercial customers, and we have a couple of key persons that aren't individualthat are businesses, they consider the whole deal. And it may not be the same whole deal that some other commercial customer gets because if I walk in there and I have no assets and I want to borrow $10,000the risk is greater for them than if I walk in there and want a cash flow loan for $10,000 and have all kinds of assets that they can put security on. So it's going to -- I'm going to get different -- those two people are going to get different rates for their interest rates because of the level -- the risk that the bank is going to take. And that's hard to explain to somebody if you're trying torgue that this guy didn't get a better deal than that guy.
>> based on requests and the reasons given for it, we believe that the waiver is appropriate in this case?
>> yes, sir, we do.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> any more discussion?
>> yes, judge, just quick records of recognition here. This process has been underway for quite some time. We have overcome a number of obstacles along the way, and I want to give thanks to bill campbell and his people, sergeant walker who hung in with us. The bank one people, and two of them are in the audience today. We have tom done lap and lee leito, who are very instrumental in putting this thing together, and terry harper in chicago with bank one. And a special thanks to barbara wilson, who put in a lot of time on this effort and we thank you.
>> all in favor? Show Commissioner Daugherty and yours truly voting in favor.
>> show me abstaining.
>> it's not that I don't support this, but I do business with bank one and I don't feel comfortable voteogthis. Thank you. -- voting on this. Thank you.
>> thank y'all very much. Okay.
Last Modified: TUesday, January 6, 2004 6:25 PM