Travis County Commissioners Court
April 5, 2005
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next. And we do have citizens who wish to address the court on issues not on the agenda. And number one is don smith, the fire chief. Also paul [indiscernible], is that separate or --
>> we are altogether, judge.
>> mr. Reynolds.
>> yes, sir.
>> okay.
>> combine the time -- greg mchaffey, all righty. Mr. Jackson? Arista [indiscernible] mcgill walters. And a host of others who must have come with you because they are wearing the same uniform.
>> absolutely. Well, I -- speaking of volunteers, I want to again thank you so much. This is class 5, they are volunteers going through the fire training program. They have completed that six-month program, a lot of hours have been put in. They have already been servicing the citizens of Travis County by -- by manning apparatus and responding to calls and we have graduation tomorrow night. We have communities from around the Austin area that are going to be coming in, trying to recruit some of these young people into full-time jobs with them. And it's real exciting to see it kind of happen. You guys are the ones that really make it happen for us because you've had that funding source. We get to do the fun part, we get to do the training and work with these young people every day. It's kind of neat to see it happen. We were looking the other day at the placement record of this program. And it's somewhere around 85% placement. Which is really pretty neat when we look at it as a whole program. So we look forward to these kids going out and we're not just asking them to find jobs in the fire service. What we are really looking for is that they find careers in emergency services. So it's kind of nice. I want to thank you again.
>> good morning, Commissioners and judge. I also would like to thank you for this opportunity and for the support in this fire academy. We've touched a lot of lives as chief smith alluded to. We are not in the business of -- of teaching you to get a job. We are teaching you more career-oriented. Our success rate is high. And that's attributed to you and the support that we get from you. We are going to catch these volunteers when they are younger and it good to see that we have a place to go when they get a little older. [laughter] what I would like to do is let these young men and women speak about how this program has affected their lives. And if you think in terms of one individual touching one life, how many lives do they eventually end up touching? We'll start with just here.
>> i'll go first.
>> hi, my name is arissa [indiscernible] I want to thank you all for allowing this program to happen. I am fortunately for me I thought had decided what I wanted to do as far as a career goes kind of late in life. I’m older than a lot of these people, I’m 36 years old, that limit the departments to which I can apply because a lot of them have age limits. Luckily I came across this from different people, afd told me about this program where there's not an age limit, realized that I would be able to get in with a small county department where there's not an age limit. That was very, very encouraging to know that even though I had decided to do this kind of late, there was still a possibility. Because at first I was very discouraged. The training has been excellent. Chief reynolds and chief smith are incredible, they care about their cadets. The range of knowledge that I have learned from building construction to how doors are made to hazardous material is incredible. And I just washington to say thank you -- I just want to say thank you, I really, really appreciate it.
>> thank you.
>> good morning, my name is miguel walters. When I started this program yipg it was going to be -- I didn't think it was going to be too difficult. I found it to be very challenging and without the help of chief reynolds and chief smith and my fellow cadets I don't think that I would have made it through. It was very challenging and I definitely learned a lot. And I really appreciate you guys helping us out. Without you guys, we wouldn't be here. Thank you very much.
>> good morning.
>> good morning. This academy has really changed my life. It's -- it's the best thing probably that's happened to me in -- I just want to thank chief smith, chief reynold, you guys for everything. When they first told us it was going to be this is like your family, this is exactly what it is. Just family. I mean, we are -- good times, bad times, we just kept each other going, a shift, b shift, c shift, [laughter], you know, so -- just went real good. I want to thank you guys for having this opportunity.
>> good morning, my name is greg mchaffey. I just want to say thank you on behalf of class 5. It's been pretty good. It's amazing to me how they can take such a diverse group of people like this and put us all together and make us have to come together because I think that some of the interests that we share outside of work are a lot different. But when it comes down to it, when it's game time, we get it done and I just wanted to say thank you on behalf of class 5 and it's been really good, the training was great. And I learned a lot. I feel comfortable going out into the field with the knowledge that I have now. Thank you.
>> thank you. Do we get the names of those standing, back on the end, pull right off, there -- that mic on the end, you can pass that from person to person.
>> the one next to me.
>> carlos sandoval.
>> [indiscernible]
>> charles christopher.
>> firefighter keith eberly [laughter]
>> ricky [indiscernible]
>> clint peterson.
>> felix williams.
>> trent maine.
>> mark morales.
>> travis yonder.
>> [indiscernible] parks.
>> jody ford.
>> one other thing, Commissioners and judge, two of these members already have full-time jobs. And at graduation ceremony tomorrow we hope to see you there. We are going to have recruiters from different areas across the state looking to recruit these young men and women. Once again, I thank you and they thank you.
>> well, good luck to all of you in your job hunting. I believe this is the best and brightest one ever, superintendent it.
>> absolutely!
>> you just keep getting better and better though.
>> yeah.
>> good, good, good. I don't think sometimes we realize how ground breaking of a program that this is. I remember when chief smith and reynold first brought this to us. There are now three out of four of us that share the boundaries, of course the judge already shares the boundary of esd number 4. It's all over the place. When you say they are being heavily recruited, this is a pipeline to the city of houston. The young people that can go to houston, especially, are getting into unbelievable careers down there in terms of pay scale and the benefits. I don't think that I have missed a graduation and I will be there tomorrow night. But I think one of the things that really impressed me is that when you are getting out of school and trying to apply, it's all about the resume and experience. And you all will have a leg up on everybody else that's out there. They always do a thing in terms of asking how many people have been on, you know, a life saving, delivered babies, fire events. It's amazing the kind of experience that these young people are getting as cadets and getting the training, getting all of their patches. I always keep here, class number 1. So you have something to live up to. But I know that you all will do very well in your careers, I wish you the best. I'll see you tomorrow night.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, you bet.
>> good luck to you.
>> thank you, judge.
>> are you guys going to do your cheer? I've heard it. So it's good.
>> would you like us to do it?
>> I would love to hear it.
>> each class has their own cheer.
>> I don't --
>> you are not going to need that. [laughter]
>> engine ladder fire h hose.
>> we know this song from our heads to our toes. We have the will to, the heart the drive. We are the best because we're class five. Thank you very much, guys.
>> thank you. [ applause ]
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, April 6, 2005 10:20 AM