Travis County Commissioners Court
March 15, 2005
Item 33
33, consider and take appropriate action to request to issue call for recommendations to name the historic courthouse at 1000 guadalupe street and take appropriate action.
>> thank you, judge. We've been waiting patiently as we've gone through this other agenda item, which was quite important; however, I would like the public to know that there is a policy and a process that Travis County follows when it names buildings here in Travis County. And, of course, this is the first step of that particular process. And I know that there will probably be persons coming in from the public to receive support for naming of this particular facility. And, of course, with those type of interests that we've gotten, we want to make sure that the process goes according to the procedures that we have followed during the naming of other Travis County owned buildings. Of course, there is no secret that I知 supporting support mister -- (indiscernible), as far as the name of the Travis County historical courthouse at 1,000 guadalupe street. That's this no jet that I知 supporting that -- no secret that I知 supporting that name. However, there is a process that requires that we go forward and look at all the names of those persons that have been submitted in this process. That's the direction that we must go in. So if it's at all possible, I would like to maybe have staff to maybe come in and dictate to us how this process works, what are the requirements that we must follow, and the times and dates that we must at here to to ensure that we do a process whereby there's an opportunity for the residents of Travis County, whomever will have a say in this particular procedure. So at this time if staff can basically go through that, and I will have some closing comments after we get to that part. So staff, can you walk us through the particular requirements of naming a Travis County building after an individual?
>> yes, sir. This is the policy for naming the Travis County facilities and it was adopted 15 the 13th, 1996. Essentially what the policy says is that the court will put out a call for names and will set the item on the agenda for public discussion. So any group may submit a name. They're required to show the significant contribution in Travis County. It must be -- must have a written by graph kel speech and all recommendations will be submitted to the Travis County historical commission. They will have a review and send their recommendation or just a written perspective back to the court, at which time the court's decision on the naming is final. Along with that we post the item when we do the call for names at the Travis County courthouse, we do a press release, public announcement on tctv, employee notification, elected official notification. And then we compile responses for the Commissioners court for public hearing, prepare that and bring it to the court for a vote. That is the process.
>> okay. Can you tell me alicia what are the deadlines or the requirements of the dates and things of that nature whereby whoever is looking at this particular rendering of what we're doing today will have maybe in their mind that they have certain deadlines they have to meet as far as requirements and as far as dates are concerned?
>> yes, sir, what we did in your backup is a draft schedule. If you were to vote for a call for names for the historical courthouse today, we would require that submission of the recommendations by April the 25th. We would bring them to the court meeting on may the 3rd. We would forward them to the historical commission for their meeting may the fourth. And then bring the final recommendations and the write-up from the historical commission sometime in June.
>> okay. And judge, I think there are some folks -- thank you, alicia. We have some folks that have come down and may want to say a few words in regard on this particular item on the agenda, if there's no objection.
>> are we ready to take a motion to issue that call?
>> yes, I can do that.
>> and I will second that.
>> okay. Let me make the motion that we issue a call for recommendations on naming the historical courthouse building at 1000 guadalupe street. So that is the motion. Thank you for your second.
>> I知 against the motion because I don't think we ought to name the Travis County historical courthouse after anybody. How long has the courthouse been there?
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> courthouse has been there 67 years without a name. People have come to know it as the Travis County historical courthouse. If we name it after anybody, heman sweat is as good a person as any. I asked staff to check around the state of Texas. There are 236 courthouses in Texas, and only one has a name after a person, the others are basically courthouses. So I would not go down this track. If we do go down this track, the question is what contributions have you made to Travis County, and my guess is that there may well be multiple prominent citizens recommended. I don't think it's good -- a good time or a good idea. So I知 against it.
>> okay.
>> any more discussion of the motion?
>> judge? Since you've got -- since my name is on there with Commissioner Davis, I needed to get some clarification as to what the process was. I understand that it's just a process. It very clearly could stay the Travis County courthouse. I got a phone call over to the district judge's camp or that's usually who I go to and ask for -- they lay a few traps for them with regards to what the feelings are about that. I agree with you on that I think that mr. Sweat is as good a name as there could be, but as I told Commissioner Davis, I said, the last thing I want to do is get in the middle of a controversy over what to call the courthouse. But given that what we're after here is to put this thing out and find -- quite frankly I would think that we would know pretty quickly as to whether or not anybody has any interest in renaming it. And I don't have a problem if the word comes back that, you know, we're very cleesed with -- pleased with the Travis County historical courthouse. So I just -- I want people to know that the -- if you ask me, heck, kind of like me asking last week if we have somebody look at collecting our taxes. I don't mind asking. And generally I don't mind the answers I get. Occasionally I do, but in this case I think that we could look at whatever information we got back. So that's the reason that I知 going to vote for it.
>> and I知 supportive either way. I think both sides have good points to them. The only thing that I wanted to make sure that we had the right pronunciation of where it's located, guadalupe street, and not guadalupe.
>> any more discussion?
>> and I知 also going to be expert active of the motion. I think we go -- supportive of the motion. I think we go through the process and see what kind of suggestions people have. And it's also interesting that each when we do attach names to buildings, people call them what they want to. I think there are people that are going to continue to call it the historical courthouse no matter what name we put on it. We put the name of two very fine judges, judge thurman and judge blackwell on the blackwell building, and everyone calls it the cjc. They called gardner-betts after judge gardener and judge betts, but this one I still call it stokes and that's been renamed for ned granger. So I知 going to allow the process to work, let's put it out there, see what suggestions people have, and we'll deal with it when suggestions come back as to whether it's a good idea or not.
>> those in favor of the motion? Show Commissioners Gomez, Daugherty, Sonleitner, voting in favor. Voting against, yours truly.
>> and judge, I think there are some folks here who would like to make comments, if possible. If not, we can maybe hold those until the process -- if we could hold those. But let me say this to those folks that are in the listening audience. There's a lot of information out on mr. Sweat. My goodness gracious. He's a giant of a person I think as far as breaking down the old separate but equal laws that affected us in this nation. He actually fractured the plessy versus ferguson law. He was really the forefront before brown versus the board of education in 1954, which struck down plessy versus ferguson, which was separate but equal. Of course, separate was the law of the land; however, it was never equal. And him not being able to enter the university of Texas law school, was denied enrollment, he was a pioneer and a trail blazer in my opinion, and I think someone that has affected not only what happened here at the university of Texas law school, but affected the entire nation striking down and having the first blow to dismantling plessy versus ferguson, which at that time was the law of the land, separate my equal. I think it's a tremendous tribute to have it -- this building named after Heman Marion Sweat.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:38 PM