Travis County Commssioners Court
May 4, 2004
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Item 6
6 is consider and take appropriate action on resolution addressing various issues related to the creation of a Travis County hospital district. Mr. Coil hreupbs did indicate he thought we ault to discuss a couple of legal issues with him during our consideration of this item that may be appropriate to go into executive session first. Under the consultation with attorney, then we will go into executive session and discuss item 6. We will then come back to open court and have an open court discussion. Any questions we will have those and comments also. So we'll be in executive session on item number 6 only.
[executive session]
>> we have returned from executive session where we discussed item number 6 and number 6 only. 6 is the matter involving the creation of the Travis County hospital district. What we have is a resolution. What the resolution proposes to do is in the event that voters authorize the creation of a hospital district, it sets forth basically principles that the county will join the city of Austin in recognizing regarding the creation of a board of managers and the treatment of employees that will become employees of the district. And those are employees basically that work in health care for city of Austin and Travis County now. Any comments? Again, we need -- tim, do we need additional things to lay it out?
>> necessary.
>> comments from the court or any residents?
>> I think it's important to say this was done in collaboration with the employees that are being impacted in terms of working through the language, and I appreciate their input. There is only so far you can go. This cannot be a legally binding, but I think this shows the intent of the city council and Commissioners court to do right by all of its employees.
>> comments?
>> well, I think this is just recognition that these things would follow if -- you know, but it's still dependent on what our sit dense do.
>> right. What it means basically is if voters authorize the creation of a hospital district, there is much work that the city council and Commissioners court must do beginning immediately after the canvassing of the election.
>> correct.
>> judge, with that I want to make sure that the county employees be really alert to the fact that this is a effort also to keep them whole as much as we possibly can do if the voters of Travis County decide to create a hospital district on may 15. So, again, as my colleagues have basically stated, this is not really a legal binding document, this resolution isn't, but we're want to go make sure that the folks are aware that we are concerned about your conditions at work. We are concerned about your retirement. We're concerned about a whole bunch of things that affect county and also city employees since we are jointly in collaboration with them. So the benefits and the whole nine yards, we are definitely concerned about those things. So it's just a contingency move at this point depending on whether or not the voters approve this particular creation of a district on may 15th. Thank you.
>> in my view it does set forth principles that we would plan to follow.
>> yeah, along with that.
>> and as a governmental entity, we ought to keep our word. Is the long and short of it. With that I move approval of the proposed resolution.
>> second.
>> any more discussion? Yes, sir.
>> judge, Commissioners, greg powell with local 1624. I’m rising to thank you for your support of this resolution. We did not want a repeat of things that had gone on when brackenridge converted over and the effect it had on a lot of nurses and staff at brackenridge. This is a step towards getting protection in place for those employees. I think they've earned it and I appreciate your support, you are really embracing the spirit of this resolution. I also wanted to thank your staff that has been involved in helping draft this resolution. And not only in developing it for here, but we have the similar resolution that's pending over at city council on Thursday, and working with the councilmembers and staff there, david and jay collins were very instrumental in helping us pull the language together and hopefully we'll be successful over there. But I really just rise to thank you for your support of this.
>> thank you.
>> and it's the right thing to do, basically. All in favor of the motion? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you all very much. Thank you. We have several prominent citizens here in the event we have questions. We didn't have any so hopefully they happily depart.
Last Modified: Wednesday, May 5, 2004 7:38 AM