Travis County Commissioners Court
November 23, 2004
Item 6
[One moment please for change in captioners]
>>
>> ...the discussion may be in how the court gives direction
to any of these efforts. Because frequently they're all off on different speeds
and someone needs to be informed about what's going on, and others do not.
And if there is an anticipated action until some time down the line. The court
needs to give instruction to the staff. And that's really how this was brought
out because I think that we were under the impression that the court was aware
of all of these planning efforts, and at some time or another had endorsed
our involvement in that. But we don't have the same level of anticipated court
action. So some of these efforts would definitely affect the court. Others
may not ever.
>> but I thought it was the intention of making specific
recommendation and having the recommendations brought to us for action. I
think the sooner we got involved, the more serious we are about that involvement.
I would hate to see a large committee out there doing a whole lot of work
and then coming to us with recommendations. So if we know the intent up front,
that tells me okay, we know -- we see the direction in which they seem to
be headed, so we ought to get out there and assist and be kept up to speed
on what's happening. I still think that we will get a lot more periodic reports
of the serious ones we get right now. Why don't we take a little more time
to look at these, and some of them we can pull out. The others I have serious
questions about, and I guess I知 wondering what they're doing, what they expect
us to do in response to their finished product, exactly how much involvement
we ought to have now, how we stay caught up, how some of these affect the
other precincts, whether we appreciate that. Do you see what I知 saying? And
my guess is that those questions would not apply to every one of these, but
they would apply to some of them. And I still think that the ones that we
think may be made on recommendations to present to us at some point, especially
for options, then we really ought not wait and be handed that document at
the 11th hour in a ninth step of a 10 step process. We need to know all along
what they're considering, and if we have a physician, what our position is.
You, tom and john and who else?
>> they've had their fingers on where these are. And I would
say there's probably a half dozen of those who have significant actions with
the court coming on down the road. And the title is important. You do have
some knowledge of what those decisions might be before they come.
>> I agree.
>> and be able to give some boundaries.
>> I think it's a good idea to every 60 days give us like
a written report and maybe a five-minute oral presentation. Normally if there's
a short little presentation with an opportunity to ask questions, it may be
that we would get just as much out of it. I知 not trying to kill any of it,
I知 just trying to make sure that we get engaged, we know what's at stake,
and we also know what may be expected of us later on so we can remain caught
up and aware of the various issues, so when they come to us, not that we have
to make some sort of snap decision, but at least we know what the issues are
and the different reasons why they may differ recommendations. And I have
learned from some of the other groups that we need to get out there and do
a lot of hard work and come up with some real good recommendations in order
to have somebody at some point file all of it away. And there's nothing more
frustrating than that.
>> I知 confused, I found it in the backup, but on the front
page summary it talked about the Austin-san antonio corridor councils, and
it is imbedded in there is where I found the commuter rail district, which
is my question of where is the commuter rail district involved. And I was
wondering if those things ought to be separated out because the corridor council
is quite different from the commuter rail district. One is a separate entity
by law in terms of the commuter rail district. So it seems like we ought to
be -- I was a little confused at first on where it is. And where is the budget
for the rail district? Is that in your budget or is it in general administration?
>> it's one of those line items...
>> the question is is it inside of these budgets? Did it
get reprogrammed over as a rollover item or was it one time, in which case
we're boeing to have a -- we're going to have a 49,000-dollar issue brought
to us.
>> no, it was in the budget.
>> it may be in the general administration.
>> that's exactly where it is. It's in there.
>> because I know in terms of ctrma, that was one -- that's
it, we're done, and they are never coming back to us for money for the ctrma,
but I知 making sure that this was one that got imbedded someplace. It's the
commuter rail district...
>> Austin-san antonio municipal rail district.
>> and $49,500 --
>> 49,500 is what we paid, that price.
>> [overlapping speakers].
>> I had made comment to the board that I was going to have
a hard time if we were going to continue to be asked for 39,500.
>> so we need to try to figure out a strategy for us on the
ones that we believe the court may be asked to do something substantial in
the end and come back with an outline of the steps we would take. Try to get
up to speed on what's happening. If we could meet 15 or 20 minutes before
five tomorrow, joe, my prethanksgiving gift to you. [ laughter ]
>> hey, at least he didn't say 2:30 on Friday.
>> i'll be there.
>> let's do that. Anything else on number 6?
>> no.
>> we'll have it back on.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 3:02 PM