Travis County Commissioners Court
August 31, 2004
Item 17
17 is to consider and take appropriate action on recommendation from Austin-Travis
County health and human services department to amend Travis County policies,
procedures and regulations manual, chapter 61 to include the regulation of
permitting of public swimming pools, implement a fee table for permitting
and review of plans for construction. And we're coming back to the county
clerk's item real soon.
>> judge, Commissioners, here with me at the table is the
appropriate city of Austin staff on this item, david lourie.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners. This is dennis rudder
who is with our department and oversees the Travis County portion of our environmental
health program. This item, although we have been conducting pool inspections
on an ongoing basis, we now have authority from the state to develop a permitting
process for the pool inspections program. And so this request today is action
on your part to enable us to go forward with a fee schedule for the pool inspections
program. And the fees would be $95 for an annual permit and $50 for a plan
review, and the estimated revenue is $14,750. So this would enable us to recover
costs associated with the pool inspections program.
>> the point is you are already doing the inspections.
>> that's correct.
>> you are already looking at the fees. We've just never
had the monetary mean to get any kind of cost recovery. So we're not creating
business so we can make money off it.
>> that's correct, Commissioner. And we've not had the authority
to be able to charge for this and by recent state action we've been granted
that authority at the county level, that's correct.
>> will the city conduct a public hearing before formally
adopting the fee?
>> I don't know. Do you know, dennis?
>> [inaudible].
>> but is a public hearing required, do you know?
>> well, if it's a county fee, we almost always have a public
hearing. We want to let residents know we have intention of imposing the fee
and two is give them an opportunity to respond. You are saying you invest
so many labor, et cetera, to get this done and there is a new law to cover
the cost.
>> that's correct, judge Biscoe, and this is our estimated
cost based on the portion of staff time dedicated to this inspection activity,
and it would be a county fee.
>> do you know how many pools --
>> currently we estimate about 150.
>> 150 pools?
>> yes, Commissioner.
>> what would be the effective date of the fee?
>> do you know the effective date?
>> [inaudible].
>> I would feel a whole lot better if we would just give
notices of the public hearing. To be honest, we normally don't get a flood
of people, but I think we would feel a whole lot better if we at least have
a public hearing and give the opportunity for somebody to come down. As far
as I know, I have no objection to this. I haven't heard any. I would feel
a whole lot better if we would just notice a public hearing in this courtroom
two weeks from today. We'll also post it for action. Maybe in the agenda item
indicate the effective date will be October 1.
>> okay.
>> if passed. How is that?
>> very good, yes, sir, we can do that.
>> if it's a county fee. Normally we would do something like
that.
>> do you want that in the form of a --
>> yeah, ha way it will give us an opportunity to kind of
get out word and we'll put this on next week rs agenda toward the back just
as a you public hearing scheduled for September 14th. Try to get out word
to different people so the anybody is interested enough to come down, they
will at least have the opportunity. Can we do that?
>> yes, sir.
>> and we'll have effective date as October 1.
>> okay.
>> and do we need to make susan and blaine and the folks
in revenue aware of this because this certainly is an item that potentially
could be certified?
>> the fee actually goes to the city, right?
>> no, it comes to -- into the county accounts.
>> sounding better all the time. [laughter] are you sure
we need this public hearing?
>> and this ordinance just affects public and semi-public
pools, not r-rblg. - residential.
>> not residential.
>> any objection to that strategy? Let's do that.
>> thank you.
>> thanks, david. And walt dennis is here. Dennis rudder
is one of the most fantastic people, he's worked very close with our office
on all sorts of environmental issues and he's just been a problem solver and
I just want to say thank you to you.
>> thank you very much, Commissioner.
>> he's wonderful. He's a real joy.
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.
Last Modified: Thursday, October 27, 2005 11:04 AM