Travis County Commissioners Court
July 20, 2004
Item 2
Number 2 is to discuss and take appropriate action on request to revise the Travis County park fees for athletic fields.
>> good morning. The transportation and natural row sources department. What we're asking the court to do is to lower the minimum requirements for the use of the ball field lighting. The way the policy was adopted was a two-hour minimum. We have been asked by some of the little league groups to lower that to a fifteen minute minimum. We thought in all fairness we are really only trying to recapture the actual cost and if they use fifteen minutes, let them pay for fifteen minutes. So the unit rate is the same but we allow them to pay for what they use in fifteen minute increments. So we need a change in the policy to change it from a two hour minimum to a fifteen minute minimum.
>> these are games that go over a few minutes unexpectedly.
>> typically they go into the evenings and they don't know how long it might be, but could be just fifteen minutes.
>> okay.
>> judge.
>> yes, sir?
>> just a little background on this. Fifteen minutes is going to be -- exactly how are you going to do fifteen minutes? Is it just asking? If it is, then -- then we ought to -- I mean we ought to do an hour. But I mean fifteen minutes is -- you're going to get into... Nickel and dime. And the county is going to lose on that deal. I'm not trying to get in the pockets of the other folks, but you start getting into fifteen minutes of time, if you start an hour, then do it an hour. I can see where the two hour minimum, you know, is a little probably much, but fifteen minutes, you're just asking for -- you're not going to be able to regulate that very easily.
>> mr. Burke?
>> good morning. Stuck in traffic. Sorry for showing up here late. The idea behind the fifteen minutes is one of our parks is on an automated system where we can control the timing downtown and that's actually our plan to convert some of the heavily used facilities, especially the baseball facilities to an automated system. We can -- a user can come in, pay in advance and we can program the system to work on whatever increment we want. So the idea behind the fifteen minute was just make it more user friendly for those user groups. What we could do for the automated system is go with the fifteen minute and then with the manual system stay with an hour until we can automate them.
>> well, what we're trying to do is give the break to the users and I'm certainly willing to look at that. I think we saw what we wanted to, which we've seen usage down because of the fees that we have. I think we all have seen that. But I think there are easier things to regulate. I mean if we want to give some breaks, then lets give something that is not as variable. I don't know what the -- I don't know what you're talking about with being able to go the a conversion of being able to identify fifteen minutes or whatever, and you're really talking about pretty inconsequential dollars if you go from the two down to the one hour, but the fifteen minutes time, I mean in my opinion is going to be pretty hard to regulate.
>> the only thing is that the little league parents over in the southeast metro, it's the -- the fifteen minutes does make a lot of difference to them in the cost, and so they have I think enough time trying to gather the money through charging the children to participate and try to come up with additional money and so it is because of them that it's requested.
>> and I think based on what Margaret has experienced already with baseball, it seems like it's more of a baseball thing as opposed to a soccer thing because those are basically day time tournament, it's a Saturday kind of gig, not very much at night, but we're fixes to have baseball start up, and it's responding to what they were asking for. I think my analogy on this one is like minutes on your cell phone. Nobody wants to pay for minutes they're not using. We thought it would be even more of a nightmare to try and account for rollover minutes. I think a lot of these relationships at these parks really are cooperative ventures and of course do we need to go in there for the gut check of auditing to make sure this is all being done correctly? Of course. But these are cooperative relationships and if they say they need fifteen, I believe them. Sometimes it's just the coach taking a little bit extra time in terms of going through some principles before they actually go on the field. So I'm willing the same as we were last fall saying let's try this saying let us try this and see how it works out, because of the fluctuation that we're dealing with, daylight savings, not daylight savings, sometimes it's difficult to say and truly sometimes that's all they need is fifteen minutes and it adds up over a season in terms of making or breablging these teams. I would like to see if this is something that works and if it doesn't I'm willing to try something else.
>> we can always look at it again.
>> is there a conversion, whatever -- charles, what you were talking about, making a conversion to be able to identify fifteen minutes. This is not worth a whole lot of time. You're going to get to the point if you're going to go down to fifteen minutes and it's a cost deal, I mean, really, treat them the way everybody wants to treat them and don't charge them. I've said all along that lights are one of those things that cost you a lot of money, but if you're talking about five dollars for fifteen minutes, you've got to give somebody the incentive to get off of this diamond and not lolly gag around. I'm trying to make sure that the user understands that the county has a cost to that. I'm willing to give them a break. I think there are other places to give them breaks that would be easier and for us to be more definitive with regard to what we're trying to do for them. But I will tell you the county will lose if you get into fifteen minutes of time because we're going to get into arguments with people, but it's not that big of deal, if y'all want to vote for it, that's fine.
>> the understanding of your intent of your motion here, is there actually a way to charge for actual use? If we can meter actual use, and if we get in arguments about whether there's fifteen minutes or not, we're going to find a way to do this because our intent is to cover the full cost of actual use, so with that said we're willing to try fifteen minutes, if that doesn't work, we'll go to some meter system.
>> joe, I hear what y'all are saying, but how long are we looking to try this type of system out before you -- if it doesn't work, of course you're coming back here. If it doesn't work, then it's a moot point. There ought to be a trial period of looking at what you're doing here.
>> let's get through the season.
>> so look-see situation?
>> after this fall season we'll know.
>> why don't we work through this fall season, see if it works, if it continues to be a problem, we can bring it back to y'all for discussion.
>> the other way that we did it wasn't working, we need to try and be flexible and work with others.
>> all in favor of the motion.
>> I move...
>> thank you, judge.
>> passes by unanimous vote. Thank you very much.
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Last Modified:
Friday, October 28, 2005 12:39 PM