Travis County Commissioners Court
February 8, 2005
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is first. And begin with the announcement that there is a -- -- there is a moment of prayer that hopefully will be city-wide scheduled for Monday, February 14th, 2005, that's next Monday, at 10:00 a.m. On the front steps of the capitol and this will be a city-wide moment of prayer for the victims of the tsunami tragedy. So everybody is invited and it's possessed to be multi-denominational, non-denominational, and if you would like to join in, you are welcome. The first citizen is a -- hill rylander.
>> [indiscernible] [inaudible - no mic]
>> okay.
>> we have an item on this, judge, this is on the agenda.
>> this is on the agenda?
>> yes, sir.
>> okay, citizens communication is intended to give residents an opportunity to address matters not on the agenda. You all here on an agenda item? Is it posted?
>> it's under executive session, the management contract. Is this -- is this about the operations out at the market?
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> okay. That's not on the agenda.
>> rylander is first, is that mr. Wright, danny wright? Okay. Is it also garland earls? Okay.
>> thank you, judge, Commissioners. I appreciate the opportunity to come before the citizens communication this morning. Introduce you both to danny wright, who is to my immediate right and garland earls, they are the two that hopefully you'll approve their contract this morning. We headed down last week and I had -- I had a typo in that thing, in that contract, so it got rejected so I resubmitted it the following day. Hopefully that can be taking place, I apologize to -- they went ahead and began operations, began cleaning up before the Commissioners court voted them in. That was a management call that since they had put up their interests, their money for the contract and they had signed the contract and put in money for the equipment, they certainly had shown good faith and I felt like it was proper and humane thing just compassion to let them get in there and get ready because, you know, if a business is shot down for a long -- shut down for a long period of time, the longer it's shut down the harder it is to work. I felt like it was -- the Commissioners court traditionally has approved the contracts, so I apologize for that and I did contact the county attorney's office and tell them that they were in fact open and was hoping that -- they could continue to operate until such time as y'all take up the contract again. I didn't hear back from that. But they have been operating. I also wanted to discuss the fact that I submitted a list of an inventory that a previous owner from over a year ago submitted claiming about his equipment. I also would like to point out that we have another new tenant who you should be getting their contract today to review. And they have listed for me already a list of their inventory from the previous owner and the current owner, so that we would have something going in as to what they have. The inventory that we got from mr. Bishoff I have nothing whatsoever to compare it to. We have no way of knowing how much of that equipment was in there, what wasn't. I notice that he mentioned a window unit as part of his inventory. And at the time that he moved in the building had central heat and central air. At the time that broke down, that central heat and air was never repaired. It's not really a window unit. It's actually in the wall. It's part of the fixtures now. So -- so I wanted mr. -- I wanted garland and danny to also kind of discuss what they could in brief terms about this inventory. They only got a copy this morning, but it's a little bit vague on their part. So --
>> okay.
>> yes, sir.
>> that's about a week ago [indiscernible] and just got a -- a five page inventory from the previous owner. This is no way the amount of inventory on their sheet extra ird to what we have on our inventory sheet. I invite the commission court to come out and look at the inventory that we have presently at the location. We haven't taken anything out of the location at all other than what's already there that we have purchased basically. What we have done is kind of renovate the place, fix it up, to operate a successful business. When we got to the place it was just really disgusting. We just -- real dirty, everything else, we did a a lot of work to get the place cleaned up just to operate, took us about a week to get the place operational enough to see what was in there, take everything out, try to clean the place up to be presentable for the public to come in, you know. During that time of operation we had catering trucks, a truck that was set up serving to the public while in operation people come by looking for customers to eat, we told them we weren't in operation yet, but once we got the place fixed up we would serve until we got open. In no way, I have two pages of equipment that was in there, and I had a conversation back with the -- with the gentleman about the question back in November, he made us an offer then and the offer at the time against somebody else's coming in, put a down payment on the equipment. We didn't get it at the time. Then mr. Rylander called us about a month ago, said the offer was back up again, that the building was available. We came back and talked to them again, the person basically had been shut out, locked out. We signed the contract. By no means this -- this sheet here, the inventory, there's no way -- we have a steam table that was in there basically one of the operations from the steam table in there is -- is inoperable. We will have a service technician come out and repair plus the electrician before we can get it operating. A refrigerator not working, one refrigeration unit under the counter that's operational. Then we have to bring other stuff in there just to operate and keep refrigeration stuff in this. You have one convection oven in there, that's the one piece of equipment of any value. Barbecue pit on the outside. But as far as all of the other equipment in there on this list, this is postly a small list, stuff like that. Still nowhere to what's on this list here to what we have, you know. I invite you all to come out and look at what we have in place, see what the contents are right now, compare this list to what we have here.
>> so mr. Rylander, typically, when a new tenant moves in, you and the new tenant get together and figure outment the inventory of what's in there?
>> judge, well, actually the contents generally is of no concern. The outgoing tenant usually takes everything with him, or else they have an agreement. In this case, I -- I think that -- that mr. Bishoff did have an agreement with the tenant when he moved in. Since these gentleman began the cleanup process there have been two more tenants in the building using that equipment. The fact that the inventory doesn't match what mr. Bishoff doesn't mean that he didn't have that equipment, but it's not there now and I have not have access to that building. It's been under padlock when -- when the first person -- 7 had it then the second, mr. Miller had it under padlock and then when I got in, I just immediately we sold the equipment to -- to danny and garland and so that's what -- that's what was there, that's what we have.
>> basically, mr. Wright and -- and y'all open for business?
>> yes, sir, we are open for business for barbecue, yes.
>> how long have you been open for business.
>> we opened last Monday.
>> last Monday.
>> yes.
>> okay.
>> do you think that you have a lease with -- with the farmer's market?
>> yes, ma'am. We assumed we had a lease once we signed the lease, yes, ma'am.
>> well, you don't have a lease with it. It got rejected last week, mr. Rylander did not resubmit it on time. It is not on today's agenda, so you don't have a valid lease with Travis County. I think there's some legal questions that get raised about what happens on that property when there's no valid lease. There is no valid lease.
>> well, we was under the assumption that the lease was approved, you know --
>> no.
>> we wouldn't operate if we didn't think the lease was valid.
>> it is not valid. It has not been signed by the Commissioners court, it is not on today's agenda. Next week is the earliest that this Commissioners court can look at that lease. You don't have a valid lease. You were misinformed by mr. Rylander. And I apologize that that has happened to you.
>> so the purpose of today's communication is to put us on notice as to what equipment was there at the time that mr. Wright and mr. Earls arrived.
>> mr. Earls, any additional comments?
>> well, as my partner said, what was in there and I -- I asked the client when he came over there, I said, man, how could you -- because at first he had offered to sell us this thing about two months ago. He wanted to sell it for 20,000. I told him no way would we pay 20,000. Then when we bought the equipment, I wanted to know -- it weren't even worth what we paid, after we got in there and go through the inventory and see what's in there, the things that was broken. So we had already made the deal, so we just -- we had to go ahead on, you know. But personally, as far as the inventory that we received today, I don't see [indiscernible] in there.
>> okay.
>> mr. Rylander while you are here, you once again have graffiti on the red barn. If you can take care of that, city ordinance says it had to be down within 48 hours, that's been more than two weeks. It can be down immediately, but otherwise we will have no choice but to report it to the appropriate authorities.
>> mr. Eals, if I?m understanding what mr. Wright said earlier, that there has been money spent on 7 repairs because the equipment wasn't -- wasn't in operation, there has -- there has, I guess has to be some -- with the technician that was involved and with the electrician that was involved according to if you stated here this morning, there has to be a paper trail of those proper invoices on those repairs; is that correct?
>> we have --
>> yes. Okay. That's -- just making sure on that. Okay, thank you.
>> mr. Rylander, are you working with john hilly to get items on the agenda?
>> yes, sir.
>> we need to get this back on, I would think.
>> next week is the earliest.
>> this contract.
>> I have sent that contract to mr. Hilly, so --
>> after last week?
>> yes, sir. With the change on it. Again, if there's some way hopefully that the Commissioners court can work with us when we have prospective new attempts that have put up a deposit and signed the contract, though it hasn't been approved. I did inform them that I was responsible for not getting approval because of one word and that it was my fault. But it just -- it just seems like the compassionate thing to do when you have a small business, trying to get sorted if we can help them. Their intent clearly, your intent obviously and mine is to have a good responsible tenant in there that's providing income to the county. So ...
>> that one word was 12 months, though, isn't it?
>> it was -- no, it was 24 months actually. It was a two year. Supposed to be two years, four years on one page.
>> one where there legally it was a big deal.
>> oh, yes. Yes, sir.
>> see it would not be legal for us to act on this today because we are not legally posted to take action on this item.
>> okay, I?m sorry.
>> that's the problem now. John will be able to explain to you the various nuances of this. But if you submitted the item already, I?m sure john will have it back on next Tuesday and we will be able to act lawfully.
>> thank you, sir.
>> but leases need to be presented in a timely manner, it is set out in the management contract how long Travis County has to act on that lease.
>> yes, ma'am.
>> you basically got folks who are under the impression that they have a valid lease and you have been misled. You don't have a valid lease. I apologize that you have been caught in the middle of a huge issue that was not of your making.
>> speaking of leases and equipment, mr. Bishoff also signed in. Good luck to you all.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> let me say -- ask before they leave, if they leave, I mean, I?m as confused as maybe they are. Are they not supposed to go and operate the business this week.
>> they have no lease.
>> I think mr. Rylander ought to check with john hilly on that.
>> there's huge liability issues here.
>> you all certainly need to get that worked out, I mean, --
>> thank you all.
>> yes, sir?
>> thank you, judge. I just have a couple of quick comments on what was just said. On the air conditioning unit that was mentioned, when we moved into the market we were told explicitly that anything that had to be repaired in the market or in the building would be repaired by the tenant. When I moved in the building, I had to put a water heater in the kitchen, the tenant prior to me took the water heater out, bill told me reit. The sewer -- replace it. The sewer line was cut, I assume maybe a grease trap was pulled out. There wasn't even a sewer line going into the building. He said replace it. We did that. We worked several years trying to keep the air conditioner unit working, four different units. After spending many, many dollars on it, I couldn't afford the central air anymore for one building. I put a window unit in which was acceptable to everybody, we left it. It is in inventory. The inventory is a long drawn out affair, so I don't know that I need to discuss that right now, I would be happy to meet with anybody and discussion the inventory. Discuss the inventory. And last Monday, which was mentioned as a start date for danny's barbecue, I believe, is not the start date. They were operating in January out of the building and out of the truck. They were selling food out of the truck in the parking lot and working in the building itself. The reason they were doing that is because they said the steam table wasn't working. The steam table it's a 220 line, when it's moved around the building to paint, john miller painted, danny came in and painted behind him. When that steam table is moved it had to be disconnected from a 220 line. Hardwired. And that's what was going on with that. And that's all that I have. Thank you for your time.
>> thank you very much. Anybody else for citizens communication whether you sign in or not? That is to address the Commissioners court on any matter not on the agenda. The consent items are next.
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, February 9, 2005 9:04 AM