Travis County Commissioners Court
January 4, 2005
Item 14
Number 14, consider and take appropriate action on presentation by envision central Texas. We are a few minutes before 9:30. I know you all thought we would be running a little late.
>> can you give us a couple of minutes --
>> all right. Mr. Lebberman is a bit under the weather.
>> we thought perhaps he was late out celebrating the victory in pasadena this weekend.
>> that certainly would be reason to celebrate.
>> that's the disclosure.
>> I wouldn't wait around if I was you.
>> good morning, thanks for having us today, we appreciate the time. I知 bill mcclellan. The new board for the envision central Texas. I have been doing this a couple of months, and you you know we've had the unfortunate loss of neal cokurec. I have been watching this as a citizens the last couple of years, not involved in the board until that time. I have been intrigued by the process and possibilities that it offers. I have seen the buy-in from other communities and excited about the possibilities. With me today is our new executive director sally campbell. She comes to us, we are fortunate to have her, she comes after spending 15 years with the north Texas commission, which is a similar organization, highly respected non-profit in the dallas/fort worth area. Previous to doing that she lived in Austin for 10 years, so she understands the process, understands some of the challenges that we're facing and understands Austin and the issues affecting the region. The third member was to be lowell lieberman. We will do our best without him. I want to thank you for your support of envision central Texas in the past. It was vital and very important to what we were doing. As we went about the process of engaging the community to create a regional vision for central Texas. Travis County of course is an essential part of that region and of our plan. Your support made this unprecedented effort possible. It was a key to making all of this happen. We greatly appreciate that. Secondly we would like to briefly update you on what's taking place with envision central Texas. Thirdly, we would like to respectfully request that you approve the $25,000 earmarked in the 2005 Travis County budget for envision central Texas to -- and stay engaged with our board and committee goes so we might continue the regional discussion about quality growth, encourage collaborative action, recognize and reward successful examples of quality growth throughout the region and lead the process to develop tools and resources necessary to implement quality growth practices. Now I would like to turn the presentation over to sally campbell.
>> hello, good morning. I know that most of you have been involved along the way so I know that you really do know some of what has happened. But in the interest of putting into context what we plan to do in the future, I would like just to review a little bit if you will indulge me a few mijts, where we came from, why we even exist, what has happened over the past two years. 7
>> it's on. There, okay. Okay. Sorry. They are each a little different. As bill mentioned, I have lived for the past 15 years in north Texas. But previous to that, I have lived all over the country in various times and including Austin he's mentioned. And I really honestly say this, that I have never live understand a region where people are more viscerally feel an emotional connection to their place they live. We all feel that the place we live is unique, I believe, but Austin, I think, has something that -- that truly is different and I think that we don't want to lose that. That is one of the reasons that two years ago, or almost three, that leaders from around the region created envision central Texas. We know that we have an -- an exceptional quality of life. We know that there are things here that are not everywhere else and we don't want to see them go away. But already we are seeing -- we are becoming victims of our own success, so to speak. The incredible growth that we've had over the past, say, decade, has made some changes in our way of life already. I mean, I think traffic congestion was the first to get our attention. That was pretty obvious. But there -- they are kind of cousins of air pollution and demands on infrastructure, costs of housing and various things also are threatening our way of life. So why was envision central Texas created? Well, we know from recent studies that at least one or two more million people are going to live in this region in the next two to -- two to three decades. So what are we going to do with double building our population -- doubling our population, what are we going to do to live, how are we going to accommodate them. That is the pressing question for anyone in government such as themselves or even average citizen. So envision central Texas wants to take today's lesson that's we are learning and apply them to how we are planning for the future. We know change is coming. That's a given. But how we deal with that change and how we plan for that change is what envision central Texas is all about. As you know we were created a couple of years ago, we are a 501 c 3 and a broad and diverse board of directors that has a diverse membership. Our purpose, in this little blurb here is to promote a common vision for the region which preserves and enhances our natural resources, economic vitality, social equity and overall quality of living. That's an easy thing to say, not so easy to do. For the past two years, we have been going through -- what we consider a visioning process. Where we have -- we have engaged many, many thousands of people around the region in a process that is not unique to our region, but is -- the first time it has happened like in -- in central Texas to gather ideas and present the public some choices of where they would like to see the region go. In a brief way, you can see the first -- some of the highlights where community input from people around all five counties, there were focus groups and telephone surveys, gathering ideas of what people thought were the important issues. One of the key things to -- that came out of those surveys was that 86% of the people polled agreed that planning for growth is necessary if we are going to keep our level of livability. There were also public workshops with -- with more than a thousand people around the region two in Travis County, we went on to test site workshops where we actually had pilot studies, different scenarios of what kind of planning is necessary in different kinds of challenging situations. There were also two of these in Travis County. Then as you saw, we released a regional survey that there were -- that there were more than 650,000 of these distributed in the newspaper, on the website, in -- and in person and more than 1250 -- I mean 12,500 excuse me of these surveys were returned to us. People weighing in on what they thought about the region's future. And the final step before we gathered all of the information together to release the vision was the leadership workshop last February where we gathered about 150 of the government and civic leaders from around the region to say, all right, we have this information, what do you think about it and where do you think we should go next. And these leaders weighed in a -- unanimously that they really believed that the vision was all well and good and they -- they loved it, but they felt like you needed to take the next step to do anything with it. There's a lot of visions and plans lying around shelves all over the country, gathering dust. If you don't do something with this idea, with the vision, you have wasted your time. So that is where we are now. We released the vision in may and I think most all of you have seen this -- this pretty document and it outlines a lot of the principles that we are -- that we have developed through the visioning process. There are seven key elements of the vision and I won't read these. I know that you have seen these. But everything from the transportation system to protecting the environment, housing choices, but one of the main ideas is that the regions fortunes are tied together. If there was one thing that I learned from my 15 years in north Texas, that was the main thing. It is we are a -- we are a country of regions now. Not individual cities. Our fortunes rise and fall together. You can't make a move in one part of the region without it affecting the other part of the region. So we need to do this together.
>> the other message that came out of the visioning process which is so important, our -- to many people they have been done in isolation in the past, that is something that we really think that combination flows into all of the other issues of the region. So what did we get from the visioning process besides the vision. We have a vast resource of -- of everything from gis data, maps, surveys, scenario data, several surveys that were done by different independent groups and economic ones, focus groups, surveys, some -- some -- the workshops, the community of site workshops have real plan that's went to each of the communities involved in those, they actually have a concrete thing they can follow if they so choose to actually make some changes in their planning in the fiewmp. E also had a transportation study done and a vision survey as well and the vision document. All of this has been shared with the public and our partners and all is available, much of it is available on our website. Bill mentioned we have only been -- bill and I have only been here three months, so -- so bill maybe a week more, so he's an old timer. But since that point we have been working very hard to figure out what is the next steps. We have got the vision done. It's very insightful. I think there's a lot of support for it. But as I mentioned before, it does nothing unless we try to implement it. That is the stage we're at. We're at what we call the implementation stage. And we -- we have done two things for over the past few months. We have put a program of work together, we have started a round of fund raising to support this new program of work. Dr. Three primary areas in the program -- there are three primary areas in the program of work. I won't belabor them too much. But I want to point out the way we are going. Public education, edge gaugement and outreach. We feel that one of the major things that we have accomplished is the dialogue in the region, things that matter to them and all of us in planning for the future of our region. Public education, engagement and outreach. Then the second thing is actually implementing the vision. The third is creating a regional -- creating regional resources to support this vision. Public forums, special events about regionalism, regional issues and supporting and promoting different collaborative actions around the region are some of the things that we could do in the public education area. Neal kocureck liked to use the term honest broker. We still would like to retain that role where we are above the fray and really try to be an entity where people can have a dialogue and open dialogue about all sides of an issue. We feel that's very important. I think the -- the -- the structure and the foundation for the -- for all of our work going forward are our seven committee that's we have formed. We formed a committee around each of the principles that I showed you a minute ago that were in the vision statement. Each of these committees have two co-chairs who you will notice as we go through these and each of these are respected leaders in the community. Often from different approaches to whatever the topic is. But we were very fortunate to have 14 people staff up and be ready to do that. Those are in place. We are now in the process of dwearting in committee members, many of them are already -- several of the committees are completely formed, several of them are still filling in the committee members. One of those, transportation and land use, is I think especially key right now with some of the new opportunities we have with capital metro and the rail line and some of the other transportation changes that have been going on. Dean fritz steiner from u.t. And john languagemore transportation consultant are the main people on that. This committee will try to utilize the latest information of how you go about leveraging the opportunities that are brought by different land use owe oat new land use ideas that develop along the nodes along a rail line and some of the other new transportation expansion that's we are going to be seeing. Expansions that we are going to be seeing. The second one is economic development coordination committee, that [indiscernible] most of you know at cap cog, jeff webb. This will be more of an overlay of looking at the region as a whole in economic development and trying to leverage all of the work that's already going on together into an action pla housing and jobs balance, pete dwyer with dwyer reality, trying to ... How that can be improved. Density and mixed uses committee, the co-chairs are jim walker, who I believe is here, and -- with the central Texas sustainability indicators project and don bosse with bosse and turner associates. We have seen a lot of mixed use in the paper lately. I would love to take credit for it because this is really the wave of the future. Mixing residential with retail, with office space in a way that makes a much more livable, walkable community is really something that we would like to encourage. This committee is -- is going to start out by compiling the kind of lay of the land of what already exists and look at some of the best and worst practices around the country as well as around our area. And try to formulate a plan of how to encourage these kinds of projects. The fifth committee is open space funding plan and that is co-chaired by robin rather of livable city and alice romberg, a rancher and community activist. This is to analyze what actually exists, what makes for a -- how much is actually really needed or desired and what are some opportunities and new ways of funding this kind of preservation that we could implement. This is -- this is going to be -- going to entail a lot of research, we are already well underway of collecting all of the data that already exists to one combined map, if you will, as a starting point. The 6th committee is a social equity committee co-chaired by charles urdy, retired and fred butler the community action network. This committee is looking to ensure that through all of the other committee's work and everything that we do that the social equity filter, if you will, is applied. That -- that mixed uses and some of the gentrification that we see going on is -- is great within the ramifications for affordable housing and pushing people out of neighborhoods, we are looking for ways to make sure that we are sensitive to that, look for our opportunities to solve some of those issues as well. Gentrification. The final committee is -- in implementing the vision is a recognition of best practices committee. This is a committee where we hope to have a major event at the end of this year before the end of the year to -- we still have to define the categories and criteria, but to look for opportunities to recognize people who are already developing projects and programs and using some of these practices that we are advocating and giving them some recognition. And also to let people, what it looks like on the ground, to do some of the things that we are advocating. The third leg of -- of the three legged school of our program of work this year is regional resources. What we -- this is an area that we hope that we can build on every year, more and more and more. This year because -- as I said, we are in the first three months of this implementation, we have not done this before, we have a lot of steps to build. The first thing that we want to do is develop a better communication system with the public and everyone else, develop an e newsletter this month. Get that going so that we can be communicating what we are doing and communicating to the public opportunities for them to become involved. Along the line, the different committees will also be doing different data studies, white papers, et cetera, that we will be making available on our website. And that -- that brings me to the website, which already exists and has a lot of data on it. But we have much, much more that we can put up there and keep it more -- more dynamic and that needs a lot of work and we intend to do that this year as well. Those are starting points, all of those committees and those points that I have already made are starting points of the implementation. They are building blocks that we need to put in place and get some things moving this year. The building block that's we can use to build bigger and more comprehensive programs. Some of the idea that we have for the future include something what we call a regional tool box for quality growth. A lot of the -- we have been in touch, we are communicating with other groups around the country who are doing similar projects as we have been doing. In fact there's a whole organization of these -- of these organizations that we went to a -- to a meeting in salt lake city to see how people are doing this in other parts of the country. We had a lot to learn. There are people before that are not even to the stage where we are at, people where we are, people way beyond us, there are lessons to be learned there. We are listening and learning. One of the key, important tangible things that these groups have been doing are developing what we would call these tool boxes which are basically gathering together resources, information, and guidance that can be distributed around the region of how to do these different projects. I mean, if someone says oh, I really, in a small town says oh, I really would like to do some of this mixed use development, but I just don't know where to start, we hope that we can be packaging together documents and brochures and materials that will make that easy for them to do. That's what the regional tool box is. Envision utah they have -- they have been in business quite a bit longer, they have four or five of these in different topic areas. Another thing that we were thinking in the future perhaps, a regional growth summit where we get everyone together that has to do with the region, how it's growing, and look at a lay of the land, everyone look at where we are, where we need to go. Another idea is adding some of these ideas to a curriculum in school. And again, the scenario of planning that we went through for the past two years is an iterative process, it's not something that you do once, okay, that's it, that's the way it's going to be for the rest of the world. Things are changing, already changing, we need to look at this in an ongoing fashion so that we continue to have the best information possible going forward. We are at the stable, as I said, beginning implementation. Getting our committees formed, getting -- getting projects going. Events planned. And we need to begin -- we have begun our fundraising for this year. Our budget this year is much more modest than we have been looking at in the past. 265,000. We -- we have a relatively small staff, we have two full-time people. So most of -- most of the fundraising is -- is primarily for supporting the committees and some of the events and projects and the -- the website publications that kind of thing. One thing that you will notice that is different in our fundraising this year than two years ago when we were looking before, we were really trying to expand into the private sector. That is a lesson we also learned from some of the organizations, it's time to get the private sector more involved. The public sector really really carried the bulk of the funding in envision. Now we feel like we need to pull in the private sector, we are already underway contacting some of those people. We have already started fundraising, but we just started fundraising. We approached capital metro last month and received $125,000 commitment from them. And we have appointments on the books to visit dell and some other private firms and we are just in the throes in the beginning of that. We do not have firm commitments from a lot of partners yet, although we have had informal discussion was these people behind the scenes, they all have been favorable. Now we need to go through the formal process as we are doing with you. Most of the money will be going to support the operations and outreach programs of the organization. This is a list of contributors from the past who tributed to the envision process. We will be going on to all of these organizations and asking for another round ever funding, but we also will be going to several hundred private companies around the region for funding as well. We really hope to be expanding this list greatly.
>> can we get a hard copy of that list?
>> I think it's in your -- yes. Should be. If not I can give you one.
>> I don't see it. Is it?
>> I don't see it.
>> oh, well --
>> act investors.
>> it's third from the back.
>> doesn't have the amounts, only --
>> no, I didn't have that there.
>> I think Commissioner Daugherty would like to see the amounts. [laughter]
>> i'll be glad to get that for him.
>> i'll share his copy.
>> okay. [laughter] what I have tried do in a very short amount of time is tell you that -- that the vision was a success, we delivered what we promised on that. I think we involved many thousands of people around the region. We are excited to try to put into action some of the ideas that emerged from that. We believe that we have an opportunity that we've never had before to move forward and to see our region grow in a way that I think more of us would like to see. I have been very appreciative of what Travis County has been doing. We hope that Travis County not only supports us financially, but the judge has been on our board and I know we would love to see that continue and if he needs to appoint an alternative representative that is absolutely fine. We also would like to see the Travis County staff become involved in the committees that -- that meet their interests, there are seven different ones, I would love to have Travis County input on all of those or as many as possible.
>> you are asked Travis County for $25,000.
>> yes, I am.
>> how much did we give last time.
>> 50 for the past two years.
>> how does one become a member of one of the committees?
>> ask me, basically. I mean, express interest.
>> who determines whether we have the right people on the committees?
>> the committee chairs are trying to craft those committees to get various representative ideas of the different factions, whatever the topic is, so they get a diverse group of people with ideas. We are not trying to limit them so much as just trying to be more inclusive in getting lots of different ideas. So basically if you want someone to be on your committee from the staff, that can happen.
>> jim walker, too, has done a pretty extensive analysis of the member. It was as many as 70 members, it's now about 56.
>> on the board.
>> they were trying to make sure that we have got all of the different groups, people with different interests, to make sure that they are all represented there. So the vision we bring forward and the ideas that we bring forward --
>> on the board or committees.
>> on the board and on the committee.
>> that's what I mean, you are saying we are coming to the point where the real work will be done at the committee level.
>> there's still real working done at the board level as well. The committees are a layer down. We are not trying to really restrict that, but we don't want a committee of, you know, 100.
>> seems to me that there's some value though in making sure that you have the right composition.
>> that's what I知 saying. Two co-chairs are trying to direct that, trying to make sure that they have the waterfront covered, different ideas around what thafer whatever that is.
>> how were the co-chairs selected.
>> the board. The board sat and deliberated.
>> the board did, that's fine.
>> okay, that's it, okay.
>> one or two more questions, i'll be done.
>>
>> [one moment please for change in captioners]
>>
>> I think they are the model probably for the country of putting this into action.
>> they have committees similar to the ones here?
>> they do. They have a few different ones because of their unique situation there, some issues that we have covered by others. For example, air quality is very well covered in our region by some other groups, so we did not include that, but there wasn't, so they added that committee, that other thing.
>> so to preclude the shelving of the outstanding visioning product, we really need committees in place to generate specific projects that we can work on from a regional perspective and basically implement.
>> yes.
>> and that's where we are now.
>> yes.
>> and the $265,000 for I guess the next 12 months.
>> right. For the calendar year.
>> will help us get that done.
>> I believe it will.
>> as well as inkind contributions from partners.
>> absolutely.
>> questions?
>> yes, I have a few.
>> questions?
>> i've been -- [overlapping speakers].
>> okay, judge, thank you. Good morning.
>> good morning.
>> i'd like to -- number one, i'd like to applaud you for the efforts. What you've done here I think is pretty tremendous, trying to bring everything in and put it all into focus and then also bringing it to the point of implementation, which I think is very significant; however, I need to maybe ask the big questions that I feel is necessary. Number one is that how in the implementation phase of what you're trying to -- of where we are -- of where you are at this point, how are you going to inject into that phase the existing programs that are successful here in Austin area and integrate that into the implementation? And let me give you an example of what I知 saying here, an example, what is mentioned here, but there are existing projects going on that are significant as far as in regard to campo and the regional situation. How do you bar that information from existing programs that are successful and integrate it, like the transportation and land use implementation. How is it done? Do you start from scratch or do you actually bar information from it?
>> we absolutely borrow. We don't want to use our time and effort recreating things that exist. There are a lot of things that exist out there in almost every one of these areas. Everything from affordable housing to various transportation entities. In our social equity committee we already have representation from many of these smaller groups that are looking at the issues, some of the social service agencies. So what we're looking to do, almost every one of the committees will sort of do a lay of the land and sigh what they're doing in their area already and that will of course relate to transportation.
>> so that includes all the other cap met tow?
>> oh, yes.
>> we are on the verge of implementing actions -- this year, for example, the process of how we actually clean our air here in Travis County.
>> right.
>> and I you brought that up. And I did not want to see the efforts of existing successful programs, programs that are about to get off the ground kind of left to the side, and you go on your implementation.
>> no, we're not going to duplicate anybody. We really aren't. I think the key to this whole thing when I say that we need to work on this as a region, that means the -- put our arms around all of it and use it altogether, not try to segregate it away.
>> I知 glad you brought that point up as far as regional is concerned. Because I do know that -- let me give you an example of what I知 trying to do as far as development, which is a part of this process. Economic development, of course, looking at a strategy while conducting and holding meetings in precinct 1, 2, not only attract businesses there, but also look at possibilities of hiring persons in a precinct that have a real significant high unemployment rate. Of course, I知 going to continue to do that with regard to what happens here today. I知 not going to divorce myself from the economic development in the job creation, job retention for that area. And even if we have to go into the arena of looking at a regional concept, which I really do feel is something significant. I know you mentioned this this person from san antonio, the person that -- in the process, yes, right. I don't want that process of what we're doing here in Travis County put to the side because we're definitely going to continue to do that, especially with the new information that has come out as far as not only looking at the possible new jobs here, but maybe coming in through the health situation, which we'll be looking at and also retail, but there are other aspects of jobs I think that we need to bring to the table to give folks employment here in Travis County. And of course, that is also looking at a regional situation. I知 just here to a make sure that what we're doing here -- we aren't duplicating services, but again, if it's in jurisdictional lines where elected officials are doing things currently, looking for an opportunity to do some things, we do not kind of run over and stuff like that.
>> and what I also hope is that this will encourage and improve the communication among the various groups that are working towards common goals maybe on our website where it's more clear that there are lots of partners out there. That's a goal as well.
>> finally, final question. In this particular implementation phase in the regional context, which you have presented I think adequately and real thorough and you've done a good job, how as an elected official -- give me an -- i'll give you an example. On the Commissioners court, the judge of course, the entire county he has to -- when he comes up and runs, everyone in the county votes for the judge. (indiscernible). But of course when I run and Commissioner Sonleitner run and Commissioner Daugherty, we're in a district, so that means that we have district representation, and of course we're trying to do things Travis County wide, but we're still accountable for those folks within our district. My question to you is that these particular implementations, are they depicted in the elected officials that are impacted as far as having knowledge of what's going on, how do you disseminate this information to those elected officials.
>> that's one of the things I was alluding to in the website and the newsletter. We hope to be creating a network of information that goes to all the stake holers, -- holders, including elected officials and others that are interested in these topics so that we can continue the flow. What we're doing and what other people are doing in these different areas, we feel that's key. In a lot of cases there's going to be one on one contact. I mean, things are actually going on in someone's area. But we understand that that's important.
>> I want to make sure that before the day is done, and we call it a day, I want to make sure that if there is economic development situations that definitely impact not only Travis County, but other regions, partners that you're looking at here, I want to make sure that I知 included, and I知 going to say that publicly, in that economic development process, because we have started a process here to look at some job situations over in precinct 1 and I definitely don't want that to go by the way side.
>> I would definitely express that to our economic development committee and those who are especially watching that particular part.
>> okey-doke, thank you.
>> Commissioner Sonleitner?
>> one of the reasons we had this as an earmarked item in the budget is because we had outstanding questions and they had to do with what's the impact of the organization, what's your budget, what is your plan of work, your program of work, and are there going to be any kind of deliverables? And I think with this presentation you have clearly answered every single one of those questions, so at least for my vote, I知 at that point of wanting to get from the earmark level to a funded level. We have been a partner in this from the very beginning and it seems like the wrong time to say, oh, stop, we don't want to be a part of this any longer. We want to continue.
>> the one point I do want to make clear for the record, though, and we've talked about this, sally and bill when you came to see me, and is we talk about designing performance measures, it's very important that not only do we have performance measures out there for the five counties as a whole, but a way to measure success in each of those individual counties. And probably the best example that I could come up with had to do with the idea of open space because quite clearly on here in Travis County between the national refuge, the balcones canyon land, prop 2 and all the wonderful parks between city of Austin and Travis County and all the other small cities, we've done a lot. And if you looked at the five counties as a whole, the good work that's happened in Travis County could carry the whole five counties. And I don't think that's a true measure of success. We need to figure out what measure success in bastrop, in caldwell, in hays and in Williamson as well as the five counties. And we've already talked about that.
>> good point, though.
>> and to have individual goals for the counties as well as success as a whole. So my questions have been answered.
>> thank you.
>> Commissioner Daugherty?
>> sally, welcome back to Austin.
>> thank you. Glad to be here.
>> I promised bill that I was going to be polite. [ laughter ] given that everybody in town knows that I have some real misgivings about envision central Texas. I知 not sure that we have gotten is it $50,000 or $100,000? Is it $25,000 for each of the past two years that we've given or is it 50,000?
>> 50 for two.
>> 50 for two years? 50 collective?
>> no, 100,000.
>> that's what I thought it was, 100,000. I think that you would be hard pressed if I came to you and said to you, show me what we've gotten for $100,000. I have already been a little dismayed over the fact, and sally, this is for you, but we basically have a region of about a million and a half people in the five county region that ect basically has taken on. I think that we probably sent out somewhere a little bit short of a million surveys that we're gotten out to people, and we have 12,500 responses. Now, I will assure you that there is not a business person in this community that would predicate anything that they have done business modelwise on less than a one percent return representationwise in this community. So I have never been impressed with the fact that we have 12,500 responses out of a million and a half people. So I think that this community clearly needs to understand that we do not have a mandate here. We have less than one percent of the people in the five-county region that -- and I know that all of those were different 12,500 people. I don't think that everybody knows that. So I want to get bang for the buck. I know you're a business guy. I know that when you see the names on your board of directors that you see folks that you know that are in business, but their attachments are more along the line of either the nonprofits or municipal people. I知 a little dismayed that we don't have a dell person, an amd person, a samsung person, I mean, people who really -- I mean, if you really want to know what a community feels, then you need to get the business community involved. If the business community is not willing to be involved, then I will tell you that the business community isn't involved. And that is disturbing to me because if we want to go down through the list and say -- and I would like to have a compilation if you would of the people that have participated and the organizations that have participated and at what amount they have given, then I think we are very fortunate in that I think that almost all of our money that we've given to date has been capital metro's money. I think there is been some program money that we have taken. Quite honestly, if you're looking at your financial amount here or your fund-raising goal and you show that you're trying to raise $160,000 and you say you've asked capital metro for 125, heck, why didn't you ask them for 160 and the rest of it can go away. It is very bother some to me that there are certain organizations, there are certain people that drive this program, and that is very unsettling to me. And I know you want to jump in in a second. Bang for the buck is what we're looking for, y'all. We're not going to take -- if we take this $25,000 this year, we're not going it take it out of the bga program because I think that we have all of the build greater Austin program or the build greater Texas or whatever it's called, that it's already spoken for. So this is really going to come out of general fund dollars that we would give. Now, hey, I知 the first to admit that if you've got me up to my waist in water so far and you're asking for an additional $25,000, I recognize that you kind of go, well, if you pull the plug now, what have you spent $100,000 on? If I really felt that this thing was going to prove or is going to show me that there really are going to be things that we are really going to be able to accomplish versus the organization has no regulatory powers and does not seek to physically impose a plan, that's kind of a double edged sword statement for me. If I知 going to give money, then I want to give money where I think that something has teeth, and if people are saying this is what we ought to do, then we ought to find a way to do those things. I was at the first ect meeting where we had -- at the Austin convention center, and we probably had four or five hundred folks. And I was one of the 10 or 12 tables of 10 out of 30 to 35 tables of 10. And I almost got in a fist fight over, you know, what we were trying to get accomplished. I walked out of there so disgusted because I thought that this deal is sort of the typical done deal in this community where the people -- most of the people that participate in these kind of programs are the people that have a lot of interest in the environmental movement. And do you know what? All of us are environmentally sensitive I think in this community. I haven't lived here for 36 years because I知 not interested in the environment. I知 not for rape, pill laj and impervious cover for every square inch of Travis County, but I have been a small business guy in this community and I understand the dynamics of some of the things that you need to have. It was very obvious that at my table, seven of the 10 had no interest whatsoever -- as a matter of fact, they were probably sorry that I was at the table, but I walked out of there and i've watched this program progress the same way where I feel that there are a number of things in this vision, not a plan, but a vision, but I have some philosophical questions and some differences over. And I certainly know a couple of people very well that have been on the executive board that I think show my same skepticism. So I have a real hard time, and it may not make any difference because I guess $25,000 from the county is -- to a lot of people is not much, but $25,000 might pay for something that we're probably going to be asked to do here in the next hour where I think we get probably bang for the buck. I would hope that you all would really reach out to the business community. I would hope that you would strive to really find what I consider real diversity on your board where you have people that are really willing to come and ask tough questions. This community is sort of known for, let's not get people on a committee that like to ask tough questions. Let's not have those folks because they're disruptive. Unfortunately, I think that -- I think that we need to have those kind of people, so I would hope that you would strive to do that. I can't in good conscience vote to give ect $25,000, especially when I know that ect to date, I think, has spent I think around two million dollars. And of the two million dollars, I think that over half of that was taken out of this community by a consultant that you really go, this is -- that's something to me. I mean, I don't know who that consultant is and I don't know if that consultant still has to consult with us. I would suppose if they still had to consult with us they would have to come up -- we'd have to come up and pay them more money. So a multitude of things are problems with me in envision central Texas. I do think that it is -- probably the biggest question I have of the whole thing, I was really surprised when you said that you asked capital metro for $125,000, and of your public funding you're only seeking to reach 160. If you got capital metro's 125, that leaves no question in my mind that capital metro would give you $125,000. So you've got $125,000, you get 25,000 of ours, you have $150,000. You've only got $10,000 to go and ask for the city of Austin and all of these other cities and municipalities in the area. So you can see that -- I知 trying not to get worked up here and I知 going to stop before I do, but I don't think that it's the thing that Travis County needs to do is to put $25,000 into this program, but I do appreciate your efforts.
>> you go first.
>> well, some of your points are really valid. I was concerned myself about the lack of presence of business community. When I look at it it looks like the business guys have delegate this had to attorneys and other people and consultants and told them to take care of it, but they need to be at the table, those guys need to be at the table. The workers are the guys that buy houses here and those are the people trying to create the jobs to make this happen, so they have a big stake in this and they also have to pay their fair share. It's up to us to convince them that this is a good venture and this is what I知 trying to do. It won't wouldn't be the first time i've asked these guys for money, so it's easy for me to do that. Your point is a good one because they need to be represented at this and they need to be asking questions that business guys need to ask about. The other part of it is when you talked about the first meeting you went to, the contention that took place, you're right about that. And frankly when I took this job, somebody said that's like herding cats. You have all these people with different agendas and they're all fighting with each other. The truth is I think that was the genius of neal co-sur ruk r. R., Rec -- kocurek because he knew how to get us together and make things happen. And people can be either for or against or we can discuss they will. So I think there's some hope there but I think it was a huge undertaking at the beginning, a massive undertaking. I don't think anybody but him could have gotten us that far because of the unique abilities we had. When we talk about the other surrounding counties, we've got a lot of work to do. But bastrop, they say they couldn't be the beneficiary of a plan like this if they had to do it by themselves. They couldn't spend the money. They spent seven thousand dollars last year to do this. Seven thousand dollars to them means building a bridge or fixing a road that will get them some votes and get them reelected. So for them to do this they have to see the benefits coming. We've got to work on those -- the other counties and make sure that they're part of this process and make sure this all happens. But I don't want to underestimate this is not a lot of work. The other point is a lot of the stuff we did with this consultant was very expensive, but a lot we haven't even utilized yet. A lot of the transportation stuff and other things. It's really valuable that we're in the process of deciphering now and making plans out of. We haven't fully utilized that money that we've spent. But frankly, I知 very positive about this. You think about two million more people living here in 2030, I probably won't be around to see that unless I get lucky, but that's a huge impact. When you think where we are today and you think of all the contention we've had over the last 15 years in trying to keep this community the way we love it, we can just eliminate a lot of that stuff. We can make it a lot better for a lot of people and make it better for economic development and all the things we want to do to make this a better community.
>> if you're -- if your staff came to you as the chairman and polled your customer base and came back to you and said that one percent of the people said that you have to do this, what would you tell that person?
>> that's not a valid -- that's not a valid number, but I think in --
>> it's not valid?
>> another example of that is in new york city when the twin towers came down and they asked the people of new york city to respond to what they wanted to see happen there, 4400 of them voted. I think it's like if you're -- you don't worry about a leash law until your kid gets bitten, then it suddenly becomes a big issue for you. All this stuff -- the future is the future and people don't get too concerned about it. I may be being simplistic. But I think the 12,000 people that voted were the front runners and the people who really cared about it. That's the way it appears to me. But a bigger number would have been better, that's for sure.
>> do you still have comments?
>> yes, just a couple. Mr. Daugherty, I really appreciate you taking the time to express those ideas. I agree with a lot of what you said. I think that the business community needs to be at the table and the dells and the other large employers need to weigh in on their ideas. And I for one -- and a lot of our board, are going in that direction trying to rectify that. It won't happen overnight, but by going out to them and trying to get funding if them, that's going to happen. I really believe it is. You get them more involved in every facet of it, I think it's going to happen. We need to go into the business community to make this viable and I absolutely agree with you. I hope that in a year if I come back here and ask this again, I hope that I will have some things to show you that will make you feel better about an investment in ect. I think now that we start an implementation we can have some real tangible things to show that we can make a difference in the community. A vision is a vision, but I think now we can actually maybe see our community move towards that vision, which is what I know you'd like to see, but thank you.
>> so now you are trying to gather partners and funding. And you have others to chat with.
>> right.
>> okay. I will have this back on next week for action by the court, but I would like to see the considerations of the partners during the previous two years and a breakdown of the requested contributions this year. And when we say this year, Travis County's on the fiscal year, so we run from October 1 through September 30th. Your budget year is from when to when?
>> calendar, January to December.
>> so if your budget this year is $265,000 and you receive 400,000, what happens to the 135,000 surplus?
>> that's a good question. And realizing that this is the first year that the implementation. We had no idea of where to start except we're trying to back out what we thought things would cost. It may be accelerate some of the projects that we'd like to do that we can't afford quite yet and also might set up some sort of contingency so that we don't want to have zero dollars in the bank account at the end of the year. I think any good nonprofit has to have a little balance there just to be able to survive the timing issues of funding. We are really starting this implementation phase, it's almost like starting the organization over. So I think that that would be well documented and well used, but that's the two things that I think would be happening to those funds.
>> what's the likelihood of voting the surplus over into next year's budget?
>> that's what it would really do.
>> and you would have to come back to us for a contribution next year, then we would look at it basically. Now, I have not seen performance measures for this year. Are those available or is that part of what the committees do?
>> the vision basically was what was promised and all the deliverables associated with that. And those have been delivered previously.
>> during our budget process, we talked with different departments will the performance measures for this year. When they come and ask for a budget, we ask basically what's the return on the investment if we make it? Do you see what I知 saying?
>> I知 sorry, I知 not sure what you're asking me. This year or last year?
>> I知 talking about for '05?
>> for this year, okay.
>> you want our performance measures for '05?
>> if you have them.
>> the deliverables are the sheet I just handed out. Each of the committees as they go about their process of having their major project or event will be designing the performance measures, so they are not yet available given that those are still forming, and that we will have the -- their plans by the middle of February. Each of the committees are designing their own performance measures. They're designing their project or event.
>> so the committees are expected to work on the performance measure/ deliverables, basically? And for Travis County to have input on those, we would need to do it soon?
>> well, it's going to be an ongoing process, but I think you can continue to be involved in this.
>> okay. We'll have it back on for action next week. Thank you very much.
>> sally, if you will, get with my office, because I need to get that information to make sure that we aren't duplicating the economic development in the precinct 1 now. And I definitely don't want to duplicate services.
>> definitely mr. Davis.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, January 5, 2005 8:16 AM