Travis County Commssioners Court
May 11, 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
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captioned video.
We have come to citizens communication. And three citizens have signed in. First is cindy castro. After that will be -- [indiscernible] lillian edwards. [indiscernible] okay. Mr. Castro. Jimmy castro.
>> > good morning, my name is jimmy astro, here on speak on my own behalf, also served as a volunteer with the greater Austin chamber of commerce. I'm here to remind everyone to take the time to vote in the may 15th election. And early voting is from April 28th through today, may the 11th. First, the Travis County health care district proposition is endorsed by the following organizations. The Travis County medical society, over 400 physicians in Travis County, the Texas nurses association, the family elder care, the gray panthers, the league of women voters, the Austin council of p.t.a.s, the american cancer society, the Austin diagnostic clinic and the Austin regional clinic. Currently emergency room usage in Austin is increasing by 8% per year. This has tripled the last 10 years, we must consider all hospitals that have emergency rooms and clinics who have people who cannot pay for those services. In Austin, a family of four pays $7,000 per year for health insurance. This is not only the high nest the state, but also in the united states. All this stems from a lack of a hospital district. And Austin is the only major city in Texas without a health district. In dallas, where hospital district exists, a family of four only pays $4,300 for health insurance. In houston, also a hospital district city, payment for the same family is about $4,350 per year for health insurance. One final note ... The health care district will make the planning and funding of local health care projects more efficient and accountable. Next the city of Austin firefighter proposition. This will allow the firefighters to talk openly with the city of Austin on issues such as wages, benefits and fire safety conditions. Safety conditions include, but are not limited to equipment for fire stations and adequate staffing levels. Finally, we count on them, now they depend on us. Let's do the right thing bypassing both propositions for Austin's future. Thank you, judge, Commissioners.
>> > thank you, mr. Castro.
>> > can I ask you a question?
>> > yes, sir.
>> > in Austin, a family of four pays $7,000 per year for health insurance. In the event that the health care district passes this, what will that bring $7,000 to?
>> > okay. It should lower it because what happens is what i've been told by the people in the insurance industry, when they determine your health insurance, what they have to take into consideration is that community, has that has to pay for the uninsured. So this way if you look at houston, dallas, those are lower because they do have a hospital district. You look at theirs, theirs is $4,300. So when the valuation, after hospital district is created for the Austin area, should provide enough data that now with a hospital district that number, that cost, should come down for a family in Austin.
>> > do you have any idea? [buzzer sounding] what do you think that it would be, 7,000 to where?
>> > I think around the 4,000 area, comparable to houston and dallas.
>> > thank you.
>> > you bet.
>> > [indiscernible] is next, followed by james henderson.
>> > good morning, it's wonderful to be here today, I'm lillian getters, a county extinction agent, I work with the 4 h capital project, urban youth development. We have great news! Always a good thing in our world today when there's so much that's negative about children and youth development, we bring you good tidings of great joy. Good accountability for the dollars that Travis County does put into youth development. This year we were able to leverage the funds that Travis County provides to us and we were able to bring on some grant funded programs by leveraging those dollars and we were able to increase the number of after-school programs that we can offer from about 28 to over 60 programs every week. And that's certainly I think is good accountability for the dollars that you do provide to us and we appreciate that very much. All of this was cost neutral to the county. We have a variety of service learning projects that our children that work in our after school programs do provide. Which teaches them again to be accountable for their actions and for the things that they do. A couple of our projects that we are really proud of is a project that works with the family violence unit of Austin police department. We provide school supplies, we provide little tote bags, we provide blankets, we have a large variety of collaborators in the community that help us do that. We also have a literacy project that we got a small grant to be able to provide at several schools. In addition to that, we have -- we have just a large number of after-school programs that range from urban animal science to rocketry that are going on. This year we were able to start programming at school for the deaf, which again reaches out into our community. So I believe we've had a wonderful year and we really have some wonderful people to thank for that. I have my staff and I would like some of my staff for them to stand up, I have james henderson, mona pittell [indiscernible] noel rodriguez, of course they are playing a huge role in our ability to get out into the community and reach out to as many schools as we've been able to do. But also we have with us today one of our principals who will speak to you about the impact of the programming at blanton elementary school, this is leslie dusing who is the principal.
>> > how are you?
>> > I'm fine. I got to do this last year. I'm so tickled to be back. I've been sitting here watching my wonderful students it does my heart good. My own children were 4 hers, it was a very difficult world back then. One of my oldest is almost 40. But I realize sitting here looking at my other kids that kids don't change. They still need the same things. And this program really provides it. I've -- I was the assistant principal when it came to plan ton, it was a very small program. The kids were a little afraid of it. What do you mean we are going to sheer goats and take care of animals, that sounds like nasty work. And we had to -- we had to do a really good sales job of getting about 10 kids in it the first year. Now they are beating down the doors, this year when we turned out the applications we had 80 kids that wanted to be in 4-h. The program has expanded. Beyond the urban animal project. This year one of the really fun things is the literacy project. Our older kids are actually trained to come in and help our younger kids. So it's just a wonderful program and I really appreciate what you all have done to help it grow and serve our kids. Because they are what it's all about. Thank you for letting us be here.
>> > thank you.
>> > thank you very much.
>> > on behalf of all of the extension staff and particularly those of us that work with youth development, we do appreciate all that you do and we appreciate the commitment that you all have begun. I mean you all are doing an awfully lot to expand youth programming, whether it's 4-h or whether it's with the school system. We noticed that, we know it, we appreciate it. Thank you very much. At this time we are going to have one of our co-workers, james, bring the children to you.
>> > okay. These are kids in the after after-school program?
>> > yes.
>> > good morning.
>> > good morning, I'm james henderson, I work in the extension office. I run the urban animal science program. That the -- at the different skills. Just to give you a review in 1999 we started with our first school and today we are in six different schools, six more. And we have two more in line for next year if we can get the -- money [laughter]
>> > money.
>> > I didn't want to say that. [laughter]
>> > the truth will set you free. [laughter]
>> > but today we have five youth from blanton elementary. They are noel, margarito, kimberly, david and pamela. They are all in our after-school urban animal science program. Would you all like to --
>> > I would like to say thank you for supporting us. I would like to say that I learned a lot of stuff like -- about animals, what kind of animals they are, um ... That's all.
>> > I would just like to say thank you for sending the goats so that we can have an opportunity to -- to work with the goats and I made a lot of friends and the friends that I have helped me with the goats. Thank you.
>> > we would like to invite everyone on Thursday night, at 6:00, to book elementary for our annual capital 4-h appreciation little banquet. We would like for you all to be there and -- and help us show appreciation to these kids for all of their hard work. And at this time, they have a little presentation so if you all could -- could you all come around to the front so we can get a picture?
>> > okay.
>> > they could present to you with the little --
>> > cool, go up?
>> > yes.
>> > thank you very much.
>> > is this the best one? Thank you very much. [laughter]
>> > y'all come back and see us again, ya hear? I mean please. Thank you. [ applause ]
>> > bye y'all.
>> > cool!
>> > anybody else for citizens communication?
Last Modified:
Wednesday, May 12, 2004 7:23 AM
