Travis County Commssioners Court
March 2, 2004
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Item 36
Item no. 36. A. Consider and take appropriate action on petition for the creation of a countywide hospital district with taxing authority; and. B. Consider and take appropriate action on order calling election on the creation of a countywide hospital district for Travis County.
>> judge, I think that we have a couple of folks here if they want to come up to the table. This is it. The good news is that -- both of these two items are pretty much required by law if certain conditions are met, right?
>> that's correct.
>> and as to a, we have received from nelda wells spears the voting registrar of Travis County a certificate that says basically 266 persons had seened it and that -- that the petition contains 100 property tax paying voters in Travis County. As required by law. Therefore I move approval of 36 a.
>> second.
>> any discussion? All in favor. That passes by unanimous vote. On b, if the petition is valid, then we are required to -- to call an election.
>> that's correct.
>> and as set forth in the backup that we provided [indiscernible]
>> the dead line is March 9th. But the election order is ready in english and spanish, so you could call it today.
>> okay.
>> 301.003 c says the election shall be held [papers shuffling - audio interference] on the first election date prescribed by the election code that allows sufficient plan to comply with other requirements of law. My tearms of that says we should set this election on may 15th.
>> right.
>> is that your understanding of 2004? Any discussion of 36 b?
>> happy to second your motion, judge.
>> I do move approval. Seconded by Commissioner Sonleitner. Any more discussion? Questions from the court? Anything from --
>> I have a couple of questions.
>> now's the time.
>> I guess I'm going to direct this to the person that are sitting before us. It's -- it's been a lot of talk as far as the educational end of leading into the election of may 15th. So I'm going to support this. Don't think that I'm not. I just want to make sure that the person that's have been inquiring about the educational phase of this, how they get to know about how this really does work, so they can have an opportunity to vote accordingly, public hearings or whatever is going to be involved, how that be done? I just want you to -- to -- to express yourselves on that particular question. So they will -- so they will hear how it's going to be done.
>> thank you, Commissioner Davis, my name is clark [indiscernible], heading the steering committee that's been working on this now for a couple of years. With me is county probate judge guy herman and c.e.o. Of the Travis County medical society, marshal cothran. We plan a series of public forums, a number of which have -- a number of those forums have already been held beginning with the league of women voters forum last year at this time. But there are a number of groups that are planning forums on this. We have a website which is health threeTravis County.com. Www.healthytraviscounty.com . We will be posting on that website the dates and places in which forums are planned. There have already been several in which the pro and con viewpoints with respect to the hospital district have been expressed. Austin neighborhood council, chamber of commerce, committees and there will be more in the next couple of months. There will be posted on our website so that any member of the public can go there and attend one of the public forums. Thank you.
>> thank you for that. Those answers because -- because good --
>> what if people don't have access to computers and they don't use a computer? How will the rest of the public be reached?
>> we have a campaign office. I don't think that I have the telephone number of it with me, but I would be glad to provide it to the court. Anybody who would like to can call me. I would be glad to get information to them about it.
>> but is reaching that segment of the population part of the campaign? Or is it -- does it call for them to make a special call to get information about --
>> I think we've a -- we have a plan to communicate with the public in a number of different ways. Certainly. Community forums being among those. We would be glad to come and speak to anyone's group. We have a speaker's bureau of people who have been working on this who is familiar with it who would be glad to come and speak at any group. We recommend the opportunity to talk about it either by ourselves or in combination with those who might be against the district. We've had a couple of those, I thought the -- it was very healthy, constructive. I would be glad to the -- to communicate to the court a place for contact information so that each of your offices would have that, if you get questions about that. So that we could -- you could put in contact with us anybody in your precinct who is interested in this so that they could be sure and find out more about it. We plan to make ourselves available to various newspapers in various communities. We've had articles in the business journal of the american-statesman that were in the paper, but we put them on our website, any articles that come up, we'll put them on the website. We have met with Austin interfaith. We are meeting with a lot of different groups, if a group contacts us, we are willing to go there and speak to them. Many times we have even suggested the names of people who were aware of this so that both sides will be herd in those situations.
>> would you do this for me. When you get a -- a schedule ready for the public hearings and meetings in the community, especially, I'm speaking for precinct 1, would you let my office know when, where those particular meetings will be conducted so where I will be able to respond to the person that call in on that? Those particular meetings, in case there are paux that are interested, quite a few that I have heard that are interested and -- in acquiring additional information. So if you can do that for me, I would appreciate it. [indiscernible] do the same thing, I'm quite sure all of us are going to be getting calls.
>> yes, I think it goes without saying that my office is interested as we try to traps late these issues -- translate this issues c very much like the nuclear power plant of trying to explain the issue to folks in -- in the community so that they can understand what they are voting for and what it's going mean to their future. Especially financial information. Because as you for there are a lot of families that scrape all year long to get their tax money together, this needs to be another issue that they need to understand and extra exact it's going -- what impact it is going to have on their future.
>> I think this is a cull membership nation of a -- culmination of a long process. A lot of it hyped the scenes, it start -- behind the scenes. It started off with judge herman's interest in the shortcomings that he saw through his bench related primarily to mental health. It jumped off from there related to everything else. I want to say a public thank you to clark hydrick and lowell leberman, I can't believe we talked you into this, also judge bisco, former mayor garcia, will wynn, to get a steering committee together to really spend the last year vetting the issue from governance to finances to strugture, getting a bill passed by the legislature which was not the way it started going in. It came out different from the end than it was at the beginning. But I just want to acknowledge the hard work that has professionals, includig the health care community to put this before the voters and it is going to be decision that the voters will actually get to make. There is not predisposed conclusion here, but it is important to get the information out. Very, very small part of getting us to this point.
>> I understand that. I appreciate your time as well. The only thing is that after professionals finish with an issue, then we have to translate it to people in the communities. And so that's the part that I'm interested in doing properly. I guess that I just never heard any reports back to the court about what was discussed by the professionals and it shouldn't mean that I have to serve on committees in order to get the information that professionals are formulating. So -- but you do know that this is the next process after calling the election goes on the ballot. But that means that the real -- that a lot of hard work begins then to try to translate the issue that -- to the regular person who pays the tax bill every -- every year. And who I know screaped that money together -- scraped that money together the entire year. So we need to explain the benefit that they are going to get from this issue if it gets approved by voters.
>> we will have financial information in your office by the end of the day.
>> I appreciate it.
>> you will see that it's a mixed bag for each precinct.
>> certainly.
>> if you live in the city you are going to get a financial break initially.
>> certainly is. [multiple voices]
>> if you don't live in the city you are not going to have the financial break that the folks in the city will have.
>> exactly. We will that that to you.
>> if you think it would be helpful we would be delighted to come back and present to the court in a work session or open session our powerpoint presentation. Commissioner Sonleitner has now seen it two or three times I think. Be very pleased to answer your questions, work through it. We would be glad to do that, come by and individually visit with you.
>> one smart. Many ways that -- one small part of the many ways to get information out, not the financial part, but the medical community is keenly aware of the need of the medical benefits. I hope that when you or your constituents visit their doctor, that there will be information there. We are distributing information to physicians' offices, we certainly can't enforce that be done. Doctors know the need, even those who live outside the city of Austin.
>> Commissioner?
>> well, I have a -- I'm going to vote for this because I believe in the process that's what we are really here today for it's not your fault that people don't vote. What I fear is that we will have a county-wide tax and we will have the -- less than 15% turnout in may and I think that that is sad. I think that there will be people that will have this on their tax rolls or on their tax bills and they are not going to have any clue this has come back. When we talk about information, what we are really talking is we are talking about advertisement. When we talk about information, what we are really talking about is what do you do to communicate to people that they ought to vote for this? Now, that's not wrong because when you go out and you raise money like you all have gone out and raised money, that's how this stuff works. I don't think that the majority of the people in this community are anywhere near aware of what may happen to them after this may election. That's not your fault. I'm not blaming you for that. When the group came to me and asked me if I was going to be supportive of a bill that was passed I said absolutely. I think that I surprised people because I think that people thought that Gerald Daugherty was going to be against you all trying to go to legislature to get a bill passed. I think that it's pretty american. As you all know I have gone over there for 8 years asking for a vote on something that I think we need to vote for in this community, I have been turned away every time. We know that what is before us now is different from what you all thought that we were going to have and I appreciate that. Because there were a couple of safeguards that I think that we needed in this. We don't have them. Maybe we can go back if this thing passes, I will help wherever I can to go back over there and to see what we can do to make this thing right. Because I understand the health care needs in this community just like everyone else does, I would like to work towards a positive solution with this. But I'm fearful that if this passes, I think that it probably has a pretty good chance of passing because I'm -- because i've been involved in this long enough and if you have the right consultants and you have the right kind of message and you have the right kind of energy and the right kind of dollars behind you, there are things that pass in this community where people go what in the world, how did that pass. My response usually is because 91 percent of the people didn't go to the polls and vote. So -- so, you know, I'm -- I'm not -- I'm not going to -- I'm not going to try to beat you up over this. You've had many meetings about my appear helpings about this thing -- apprehensions about this thing. I hope that you all don't go away, that you stand up and really stay involved and engaged in this thing because this thing is not going to something that most people are going to understand that perhaps in 3, 5, 8 years whatever, that this sale or that this ad valorem tax gets to a point where we cannot reduce our tax from the county, nor is the city going to reduce that tax to the point where you can really say you know what your ad value loarm taxes are zzzz, because we passed the health care district. You all know what I fear is for a couple of years we will keep it down below, the county pays roughly a little over a cent, the city pays a little over five cents, maybe we are going to see a change in that thing in the first couple of years that this thing passes. But boy i'll tell you, it scares me to think that the sales or the ad valorem Texas will go back up and then we will have a -- we could have to be a very sizable increase in ad valorem tax or an -- for an issue that's not just a Travis County issue. It is a united states issue. But, you know, I -- I'm trying to stay grounded with this particular subject matter. Because -- because I mean I think that I just need to be grounded with it. But there are things about it that frighten the living heck out of me. So --
>> well, the additional question that I had, is there going to be a -- something in the hospital district that -- that I mean providing health care, but somehow also has a preventive mode in it? To -- to get people who use the service to understand how to improve their health? I know that in a lot of cases as well, if people would follow their doctor's instructions, and take their medications as they are supposed to, that -- that problems are prevented. And I guess what I'm concerned about is with the health care issue, the -- the hospital district, for instance, won't be able to address all of people's health issues without some partnership from them to -- to improve that whole health care issue. And I'm afraid that the american lifestyle, which is very sedentary, has -- also contributes to the health care issues that we are tying to address. But never get to the end of it because we don't have a partnership of the he-- of the patient cooperating with the doctors to address the outcome of their health. And so I guess is there a preventive mode? [multiple voices]
>> many hospital districts actually have educational programs working with them. It's much like you all have this wellness program that you actually had going for a long time, now you all have pushed it more. You have some participation and then you have other that's don't. But I'm aware of hospital district around the state that are doing educational programs about trying to get those partnerships developed. But it's not any different than local government trying to get the employees trying to be healthier.
>> that's what I --
>> make the efforts and that would be it. You know, but -- but we've got a major, major shortfall in our health care system in this county. Our -- our brackenridge hospital, trauma center is underfunded, it doesn't have as many beds as it ought to have for a county this size. Our clinic hours aren't as long as they ought to be. We are having people use the emergency room who ought not to be in the emergency room. There's a lot of things that a hospital district can do. What we have now is the city residents paying philosophy and a half times more than the non-city of Austin residents. There's some serious inequity in that matter. And it needs to be -- all the county residents have a duty to help make sure that we have emergency room, trauma center and our clinics that are available.
>> what I wanted to see, I guess, was some performance marks at some point to say, you know, did those things that we talked about now get done? Or did they not?
>> they are assumption to your budget --
>> if not, why --
>> they are subject to your budget --
>> if not, why not.
>> I think there's an accountability that occurs between the taxpayers and the entity, that would go for any entity, even the ones that I serve on, Commissioner. But we need to make sure that the things that we talk about today as needed do indeed get done. And so -- but what do taxpayers do if they don't get done? And so I mean those -- there are a lot of concerns obviously that I have.
>> motion on 36 b toys call the election -- is to call the election on Saturday, may 15th, 2004. Any more discussion of the motion? We strayed a little bit off this item. Perhaps we ought to post it one day for a discussion of the merits, I have no problem with pros and consequence. And -- pros and cons. Probably a work session would be better than a voting session. Another item would be appropriate. I think. The other thing is if there -- if there is a schedule of different events associated with this, we can easily post those on channel 17 and run periodically the sort -- to sort of increase the outreach.
>> great idea.
>> any more discussion of the motion on 36 b? All in favor of the motion? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you all very much.
>> thank you.
Last Modified: Wednesday, March 2, 2004 9:13 AM