Travis County Commssioners Court
April 27, 2004
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.
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next. And this item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda. For up to three minutes and two residents have signed in. First is gavino fernandez, junior, and also frances martinez will be second. Gavino, how are you doing?
>> good morning, judge.
>> [indiscernible]
>> how are you doing, man.
>> good morning, Commissioner Davis, my name is -- Commissioner Gomez, my name is gavino fernandez, I'm with el concilio, which is a coalition of mexican american neighborhood associations. I want to share with you and educate you on that on April the 1st we held a public forum to entertain the issue of the creation of a hospital taxing district in our community and it was co-sponsored by el concilio and lulac chapter [indiscernible] held at the elementary school. We listened very tenant activing -- at tentatively to the issues, after weighing and analyzing all of the information, we then went out to our community, to our neighborhood associations, to our homeowners in the community and polled and got a -- a response from them as to who type of decision they wanted us to take in regards to this issue. So -- so before I mention our position, I would like to take this opportunity to always thank all of the parties, all of the individual involved in this process for volunteering, giving of their time to our civic government and this great county. And the city of Austin. We had added to the ingredient our most recent tax appraisal estimate for the year 2004. I, like -- for the year 2005. I like many homeowners in the community of Austin, basically realized a 100 to $200 increase on their appraised property tax, this has occurred for the last five years, many people in our community are losing their homes, many senior citizens have exhausted their exemptions and are now having to pay taxes. With that, owl concilio, would like to remind all citizens, all city of Austin and Travis County registered voters to vote early from April 28th through may 11th. Join us and to join us on Saturday, may 1st, 2004, at 2:00 p.m. For a get out the vote alley at the h.e.b. Located on -- rally at the h.e.b. Located on 7th street. Let us send a strong message to the elected officials through the ballot box that we will know longer support raising our taxes as the answer to all issues. Vote against the creation of a Travis County hospital district. Our senior citizens and our poor people in east Austin cannot afford an additional increase on their property taxes. Vote against the creation of a hospital taxing district. [speaking in spanish] no more taxes. Basically what we real initiatives is that we need to go back to the drawing board. We need to go back and bring up a more fiscal, responsible and equitable plan [buzzer sounding] that will address the issue of the express in health care for the indigent and poor in this community. Consider increasing our contributions from our existing bodies to that issue, as opposed to creating another bureaucracy that is going to cost us over millions of dollars. Thank you for your time and the opportunity to speak to you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, gavino,.
>> thank you.
>> ms. Martinez?
>> my name is frances martinez and I'm also a member of el concilio, mexican-american neighborhoods also chairperson of the barrio neighborhood association. After attending these meetings, also, and visiting with our -- with our neighbors, we have also come to the conclusion that we cannot afford to support the health district because of the increase of taxes. We -- we really have -- have exhausted all of our moneys now with our taxes and the taxes have been going up every year, up to $100. Even over $100 for some people. [speaking in spanish] perhaps the money can go to the city clinics so they can continue to be open longer hours. But for right now -- [speaking in spanish] --
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> do you want me to translate that?
>> no. I think -- I think that was fine.
>> anybody else for citizens communication whether you signed in or not? If so please come forward. This is to give comments on items not on the agenda?
>> yes, sir.
>> give us your name, we will be happy to get your comments.
>> my name is chris bremmer, judge Biscoe, Commissioners, it's been a privilege to be here this morning. It's been about two years since I last appeared before you regarding the situation in southeast Travis County, esd number 11. There's been a lot of changes since that time. Some of them good changes, some of them changes we thought were good that have turned out to be less than our expectations. I am privy to an e-mail that was sent to each of you from mike levy regarding the defense of chief herman's performance. To give you a little background, my son was one of a few number of people in the [indiscernible] at that time that fought very hard against the entrenched -- shall we saw illegalities that were going owe in that particular [indiscernible] and was one of the first of the three paid staff that was hired by the esd 11 and setco. He was a -- a paid staff member when chief herman was hired. So I have a little bit of perspective about his performance. I must say mr. Levy's scrakt characterization of the status quo out there is about as accurate as getting a message from president bush saying that things are wonderful in iraq, the weather is fine, wish you were here. It bears no resemblance to reality on the ground. Last night there was a meeting of the esd board, at which time it was is it stated by one of the board members regarding next week's Commissioners meeting that there will be an appointment made from the Commissioners court to replace mr. Foredor who was the president there. The statement was made by this Commissioner that the purpose of such appointment would be to overturn the decision that was made to accept chief hermans resignation. I'm here this morning to alert you to the fact that this will create an outrage not only in the fire department but in the community as a hole. In today's paper there was mention of a replacement for mr. Foredor. I don't know this gentleman, never heard of him, but I do know someone very similar to his name has had numerous run-ins with the fire department regarding illegal burning. I would encourage the Commissioners court to investigate that and make sure that this individual is not the same one [buzzer sounding] who has violated burning procedures. I think I would ask you to investigate further any appointments that are made and to allow the esd board to do their job without a violation of the chain of command that appears to be pending. Thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you. Anybody else for citizens communication?
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 9:46 AM