Travis County Commssioners Court
June 29, 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.
Item 34
We did indicate our intention to call up item number 34 at 2:00 p.m. And that is receive status report on -- quite some time ago Commissioner Daugherty and I agreed to serve and work with the residents of northridge acres to try to bring a permanent solution to the water problem in northridge acres. And today's discussion item is for us to get that status report, and we do have several people with us today so we may as well let the table introduce itself. I know all the members, but maybe this is their time in the sun.
>> judge Biscoe, I’m patrick king.
>> well come dan.
>> dan smith, office of county judge.
>> kevin ward, executive administrator for the Texas water development board.
>> immaterial nettie brown, president of northridge acres homeowners association.
>> bob Moore, Commissioner Daugherty's office.
>> I did give to the court a little three-page sort of overview and I guess I should just make one caveat before we do the presentation and that is this is still in the sort of working stage. We have chatted with various representatives from various entities reference the city of Austin indicates that we've been working with staff members, and so any final decision by the city of Austin of course would have to go through the city manager's office and the city council. As well as when we see Travis County in here, we know what the Travis County Commissioners court has to give approval. We have chatted with judgeñi durschler and the precinct 2 --
>> precinct 1, lisa burkman.
>> she is on vacation todayen a Williamson county has court on Tuesday same as we. But they both indicated general support but also the caveat that their respective Commissioners court would also have to approve the matter. And mr. Ward, the executive administrator, not director, right?
>> that's correct.
>> and mr. King have been working on this matter with us. So --
>> I would like to say a few words first. Over the last 12 or 16 months, we've been working collectively with a lot of different folk to get up to this point.
>> turn that microphone toward you.
>> to get up to this point. Several steps that we had to take was to establish a positive dialogue with the neighborhood and the residents. We had to establish a positive dialogue within the neighborhood between neighborhoods as well. We had to establish a positive dialogue between the residents and the management of the water supply corporation, which we've done. We had to build some bridges of trust between the residents and the affected governmental agencies. We researched various programs that might fit the needs of northridge. And we had to determine if northridge qualified for any of these programs. We also had to establish a positive working relationship with the Texas water development board with the focus of totally resolving the water problem. We had to reach out again to the city of Austin. They have been cooperative in the past. We met a lot and we got to know each other very well. We met in the neighborhood, in this building and at state agencies. And in those meetings were neighborhood representatives and residents, representatives from Travis County, Williamson county, city of Austin, city of Round Rock, Texas water development board, office of rural community affairs, tceq, usda rural development and e.p.a. We even met on new year's eve at about 2:00 p.m. And we met over the memorial day weekend. On may 29th --
>> you are not going to ask for a pay increase, are you?
>> mr. Ward is going to do that. [laughter]
>> all right.
>> on may 29 we had a large turn turnout at a meeting in the subdivision and at that time the residents voted new hampshirely to support this -- unanimously to support this proposal. Hundreds of phone calls were made and received, e-mails sent and received, drafts were written, reviewed and changed. By the way, my colleague bob Moore has been part of this as well. Surveys were circulated, questionnaires responded to and data was collected from the residents that needed to be collected in order to determine eligibility for this program and possibly others. As a result of all of these activities, we're here today with this proposed plan and application. I give you ms. Nettie brown.
>> thank you. I’m very thankful to be here and I’m very thankful we have the Commissioners that we have and judge Biscoe who has come to our subdivision and talked to the residents and he's seen all the health hazards in this neighborhood. I’m also thankful to mr. Daugherty who has also come to the neighborhood and walked the neighborhood. Mr. Ward tpr-rbgs the water development board, and dan smith. They've all been great. I mean they've come and talked to us. They've talked to the neighborhood. They've seen the problems for themselves and I can't tell you how much this grant means to this neighborhood. We need clean water. We need the sewer to go along with the water, but there's not enough money for that. But we do have a plan for the water. And I’m -- mr. Ward will tell you about that and I just want you to know we're very, very thankful.
>> I just remind the court the neighborhood is still tied on to the Round Rock tpaoeu hydrant, right?
>> yes, sir.
>> and it's been there -- it's been about two years.
>> for four years, sir.
>> four years?
>> yes, sir.
>> and those conditions are less than ideal.
>> yes. Those conditions are health hazards there. I mean they threaten our lives every day. I could go to the bathroom and watch my face and take some of this makeup off and you could see red rashes on my face. That's how bad the water is. Other residents the same way. There's birth defects in our neighborhood. My whole family has suffered with this water. That's the reason it's so important for the county to be in charge of this project. And we're just very, very thankful to have the Commissioners court here.
>> drum roll then, mr. Ward.
>> all right. Thank you very much, judge Biscoe, Commissioners court. It's a great honor to be here today. It's actually my first appearance before this Commissioners court. And what better way to come here than to come in with a partnership or a proposed partnership between all of the various entities that are trying to assist this community. It is true I have been out to the area more than once and I was there on memorial day weekend as well. I must commend your staff, judge Biscoe. Dan has just been instrumental in forging those necessary relationships and the trust that needed to be brought through communication here. And in doing so, it's provided us with what we believe is a proposal that could work for this community. Not all of the details have been worked out yet, but yet a plan is definitely in place and a plan that is workable, is acceptable to the neighborhood association that is I believe doable under our programs. We as a water development board had put together a grant program recently known as the small community hardship program. It's a subchapter of our normal financial assistance programs, but due to the last couple of sessions there's been a lot of work. Ms. Brown had been talking to the legislature about the need for programs like this and unfortunately last session there was a huge amount of budget cuts so this program wasn't formally funded by the legislature, but our board believed it would be appropriate to pilot it and they dedicated 3 million plus dollars to this program last year. And then they set up rules and we implemented those just recently. We were all the time of course watching after this particular project trying to get requirements met. Dan of course worked to make sure that the surveys were done last year during the wintertime that would qualify it for not only this program but also to other programs from the state and federal government to demonstrate of course that it is a hardship community. It is a low-income area. And those things by being done have put us in a position to offer through this program up to $1 million in grant funds and then a corresponding loan amount through one of our other programs. That will not go to our board until July for its finance committee meeting, later in July, about the I middle -- mid July. In August we would probably take formal action depending on whether all of the pieces are in place. Our board is required there to be a loan, but we are working carefully with your group and others to try to provide and of course the corporation to make sure that there are funds to pay that loan off by the end of construction. This whole project is designed to meet all of the city of Austin requirements and dedication to the city of Austin. That would be the condition of us recommending it to our board. We believe that in the end there needs to be an entity that is responsible for this water system that can manage it and maintain it in a good way. And really just a small water supply corporation lost between all these major entities is not a good way to go for the amount of customers we have here. So it will be built to the code for the city of Austin. In the end it will have to be dedicated over. We have the various agreements we will have to work up between the parties to ensure that all of that is in place as we deliver these funds and move forward on this project. But in short, we believe it's doable. We are prepared to recommend it to our board over the next couple of months provided we can get these last things put in place. We are still refining and tweaking all the numbers on the dollars. We've got a preliminary estimate. It's going to have to be worked over carefully as we make sure we understand in detail all the city requirements and also the nature of the landscape out there for construction. But it looks to me like it's got all the elements it's going to need. And I would be happy to answer any questions if you have any.
>> i've got a number of questions.
>> maybe I should just walk through the -- [inaudible]. Then we'll just go to questions and answers. I think it's important to note on page 2 of the memo I try to indicate there in-kind contributions that Travis County and the -- Travis County and Williamson county would be expected to make and a lot of those are related to road repair, pavement, removing different stuff, traffic control, fence, revegetation, other stuff that our transportation department does routinely. And so the commitment would be for Williamson county, Travis County to get together and get that done, thereby saving about $207,000. If we are stuck full in getting getting ---successful in getting the grant, the next big obstacle would be that $286,000 loan. In order to get the grant, the loan is required by the state, right? But the city of Austin basically would like and will accept the system assuming the city council approves it if it's debt free we've got the best chance. The other thing we have though is that if the state approves the grant and loan in August, we expect construction to take how long?
>> it looks like six months is the answer.
>> about six months. So in my view during that period we will get with Williamson county and look at the possibilities under number 5 on page 3, the various other agencies to try to raise fund to go pay off the loan. The other thing we note in [indiscernible] number 7 is that hopefully these estimates are conservative and it could cost less than the total. The other thing is that we don't really address residents and other customers who may tie onto the system after completion of construction and so there is a possibility of charging a capital recovery fee to them. So there are other possibilities, but in order for the city of Austin to accept the system when it's completed six months after August or so, they would like to have the debt satisfied. The other thing too is that for the residents out there to worry about nothing but the monthly bill it would have to have that debt sort of behind them tee. And so what I’m looking forward to if the court blesses inth, and I would ask you that today, is for us to keep working basically to raise additional money to satisfy any loan by pursuing the options set forth in 5 and 7 and any other possibilities that those who do the real work creatively come up with between now and the next -- probably seven or eight months. But it looks like an overall real good plan to me. It's just there are some pieces that are not quite together yet, but there are a whole lot together now than they were 12, 18 months afplgt Commissioner.
>> just kind of help fill in some gaps here because this is a great day. Mr. King, can you help us understand what will happen if all of this happens like it should, what happens with the receivership that's out there and the northridge water supply corporation?
>> yes, ma'am. The -- where this is envisioned to play out is that the capital improvements are put in place to the city of Austin standards. The city of Austin would then take on the system, actually provide retail service to the individual customers out there in conjunction with that. The certificate of convenience and necessity would be either abandoned or transferred to the city, however that plays out, but it would no longer be in the name of northridge water supply corporation. And the water supply corporation would then be dissolved. All the assets would go to the city of Austin as I would envision this thing happening so there would not necessarily need to be a water supply corporation. The city would then take on that function. And it would follow that the receivership, there would be no need for that. So that way we would petition the courts to have that disinvolved as well.
>> great. This is really something that we've not had available to us before. The step grants that were out there were self-help programs that were miniscule compared to what is the magnitude of the problems that were not only here but in kennedy ridge that Commissioner Davis has certainly had a lot of experience with. Until we had something that got to the point of like a million dollars of the state stepping forward, this was beyond any of our reach of being able to help because there was help out there, but it wasn't help that was going to get us to where everybody needed. So I appreciate the state coming forward and this being a pilot, you know, if it can work here, I think it can work all around the state in terms of being able to bring all the appropriate parties to the table. Ignacio morera.
>> my staffer.
>> he brought this project so far along and encountered health issues, but this is near and dear who his heart and I wanted to make sure all of his time and effort is not forgotten because did he so much good work. I guess my other question is that fully understand have no issues with the city of Austin want to go make sure this is debt free at the time that happens, but what will be happening between now and then related to that loan? Is that going to be some kind of a billing of the neighborhood that they are pretty much responsible for it until whatever point it occurs that the city of Austin or whomever takes over the system?
>> we should have all those details worked out when we present it to our board. We don't have those details worked out, but the approach we're taking is to try to do just what judge Biscoe said which is look towards other sources and other resources to make those payments. Obviously when the paperwork is signed, you are still going to have a receivership and a corporation in place. So from a purely legal perspective, yes, the neighborhood is at that point responsible to pay the loan. And they are aware of that. But we are setting it's up as an interim and we will -- we will try at the time of closing of that loan to have every agreement in place that we need to pay that loan off. That's what our goal is.
>>
>> [one moment, please, for change in captioners]
>>
>> you need some formal representation from Travis County and Williamson county about the in kind contributions.
>> by August we would need those. By our August board meeting. I believe that's the 19th through the 20th.
>> in terms of our commitment to have the residents wait this long, what do you have on that other than payment in about eight months?
>> payment in about eight month.
>> this would be in the park -- are they here from the city of Austin? We did remind the whole court that the city council must act on this before it becomes final. That good enough? Okay. And where is mr. Schneider today?
>> behind there.
>> good to see you.
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> any other questions of the Commissioners court?
>> i'd just like to comment, judge, your office in particular and especially dan, I mean dan and bob have really worked hard on this. The neighborhoods should thank betty and kenneth in particular. I don't want to leave anybody out, but without these kind of efforts, thank goodness we've got a whole -- we've -- this has really been a godsend to us on this. We're moving in the right -- really in the right direction on this thing, but dan has really taken this thing on and I really appreciate, dan, the work that you've done on this thing.
>> thank you.
>> good job. Mr. King has been cooperative and patient.
>> yes, patrick, I didn't mean to leave you out, although you were behind the sign.
>> if this goes according to plans, he won't retire, he'll just retire from this project, right?
>> that was the intent going in, judge.
>> thanks, patrick.
>> anything further today? We do see some of your staff members here.
>> i'd like to acknowledge them. They've been doingio man's work on this project, in addition to ignacio when he ended up out of the agency for a while on medical leave, they just picked the ball up and ran with it just as fast as he had been going. We do miss him and he's very aware of where we're at on this, by the way. He's extremely pleased that we're carrying the torch and continuing on with this one.
>> when will he be back?
>> I anticipate he'll be back, but we have not received that formal release yet.
>> that's good news to hear.
>> we will be sure and inform you as soon as we know.
>> come back again, y'all.
>> thank you.
Last Modified: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 9:28 AM