Travis County Commissioners Court
October 19, 2004
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next, and we do have citizens who have signed in.
That's the stack from last week. Mr. Reynolds, paul reynolds.
>> judge, what we have are four folks who have signed in
to give sufficient time all with e.s.d. Number 4.
>> and the last person must be real important because --
ricky, I believe. Ricky somebody.
>> I appreciate you having a hard time with that last name,
judge.
>> just get everybody up here. That way we'll make sure we've
got --
>> within the rules.
>> judge, Commissioners, I want to thank you for allowing
us to come in today and introduce the new cadet class. My name is don smith.
I’m fire chief for Travis County fire patrol edz number 4. -- e.s.d. Number
4. You are looking at class number 5, kind of neat to see it happen, and it
does happen because of you people. Friday last week we graduated two of our
cadets from the Austin academy, became Austin firefighters, and the previous
week we graduated three from the houston academy into the houston fire department.
So our numbers continue to grow. We have our cadets spreading out in fire
departments all across Texas. It's really kind of neat, one of the family
members told me they were very, very proud down in houston and told me, they
said, you just didn't give them a job, you taught them to have a career. And
there's a big difference between a job and career. So it's kind of neat to
see it happen. This class will start, we're going to move through again as
we did before, we'll do our fire training, then we'll do our e.m.t. Training.
In that process the citizens of Travis County will immediately start to see
services provided by our cadets because we do a unique training program where
we require actual hands-on skills where they actually ride out on fire trucks
during their training periods. And so when we come back to see you in few
months, they will be very near certification time and we'll bring them back
down for you to see them. By then we'll probably have made lots of calls where
they've assisted the citizens. I've asked chief reynolds to give you a little
information about the training program.
>> good morning. We want to thank you for allowing us to
be here and thank you for supporting this program. We brought the cadets down
in raw form today. This is the way we got them, but the next time you see
them, they will be in uniform, they will be stepping lively and in union nissan.
Our program is 23 weeks long, and when I say "our program," I mean our program.
We're going to start off with 16 weeks firefighter training. Some basic, some
advanced training. And then we'll move to seven weeks of emergency medical
training. Class 4 graduated April, and as of this month they have a 100% employment
rate. Of all the graduates.
>> all you got to do is complete the program, right?
>> well, pretty much. They set the bar high for the future
classes with the high g.p.a. And the high employment rate. So this class 5
has a task ahead of them to raise the bar.
>> [inaudible].
>> once again, thank you and we'll keep you informed.
>> well, thanks to you. I’m real proud of you all.
>> just get the names right quick. We may want to remember
one or more.
>> it's already on, so just --
>> vicky vernay.
>> that was the name you were having difficulty with.
>> ricky will be [inaudible] after he finishes the program.
>> travis young.
>> ricardo sandoval.
>> jody ford.
>> alicia boone.
>> miguel walters.
>> lowan jackson.
>> trent main.
>> richard reyes.
>> greg mahaffey.
>> charles christopher.
>> tommy weeks.
>> keith edward.
>> thomas [inaudible].
>> [inaudible].
>> tom parks.
>> [inaudible].
>> loren langston.
>> mark morales.
>> I count 21. Commissioner Sonleitner counted 25. Which
one is correct? We expect great things from all of you.
>> thank you, Commissioners. If you have any questions, i'll
be glad to try to answer them real quick. I know you've got a lot of stuff
on the agenda and we don't want to take up a lot of your time.
>> I think this is one of the best things that we do because
not only are we providing careers and investing in our young people, you all
are providing an unbelievable service to the people of Travis County, and
one of the coolest things at the graduation is when chief asks how many folks
have done x, y or z during your time of training and it's amazing in terms
of when you finish, the experience that you will have to be able to take to
a another fire department is unbelievable in terms of responding to accidents,
putting out certain kinds of fires, delivering babies, yes, it happens. And
I just want to let you know you also have class number 1 to look up to. I
keep class number 1 on the dais with me every week so you've got a lot of
good folks who have come before you and I expect even better things out of
you all, but this is a great program and I’m extraordinarily proud of what
chief reynolds and smith have done.
>> make us proud.
>> we'll try to.
>> good luck.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> and under citizens communications, an announcement from
the combined charities committee. We do have our halloween carnival coming
up on October 29th. That will be on the plaza in front of the criminal justice
building. We have departments lining up tables and we'll have agencies out
there. There will be a good time had by all. It will be from 11:00 to 2:00
p.m. It's a combined charities effort, it's up and running and don't forget
to make these pledges. We've got non-profit agencies out there working with
our friends and neighbors in need, and this is our one time a year effort
at Travis County to make a contribution. Our goal this year is to achieve
the same level of contribution that we achieved two or three years ago when
we were in rare form and did real well. So we're reaching back to that grand
year and hopefully trying to match it this time. If you have not pledged already,
please do so real soon. Come by the festival on the 29th. We'll have those
letters to our big contributors coming out real soon. And this year, joe,
we're asking some of my favorite employees, co-workers, et cetera, to dig
a little deeper and help out. Combined charities at Travis County. Anything
else under citizens communication where you signed it or not? That's to address
the court on any matter not on the agenda.
>> judge, I would like to make a challenge to precinct 3
county Commissioner's office contributed $1,000 this past year and so I would
like to challenge each and every office on the fifth floor to do the same.
I don't know, am I part of your team, joe? [inaudible].
>> I think it's a great program.
>> a $1,000 challenge from precinct 3.
>> that's right.
>> all right.
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: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 3:31 PM