Travis County Commissioners Court
April 12, 2005
Item 20
Item 20, consider and take appropriate action to adopt a strategy to fill emergency services coordinator position temporarily and make permanent hire, as job duties and responsibilities require.
>> one question we asked last week, if we advertise this position, what should we do, what will it cost, what's the source of funding and the like.
>> the -- the -- as requested by the court, alicia perez, executive manager for administrative operations. As requested by court last week, the job post was posted effective April the 11th. And it was part of the Travis County job listings open until filled. We also put it on the -- on the website. The question was due want -- do you want us to do broader recruiting and I think the estimate that -- with the department, h.r. Sent back, was five to six thousand dollars. It would -- it would -- take into account professional association, locations, government associations and newspapers outside the Austin metropolitan district. Or area.
>>
>> [one moment please for change in captioners]
>> ...the ads for the $3,500, that's an add for something like $875 per ad for the one Sunday.
>> I don't think the person that will be the kind of person we're looking for is going to be found in houston or dallas or the southwest or anywhere else in the united states of america. This is kind of a job that it really reinvolves around interpersonal relationships, kind of knowing the political waters here in Austin, and we are -- it's got an interesting group of folks that report to this particular person. Quite frankly, I think we ought to try our best effort to see if there is that special person locally. And if we fail, expand the net, but I just think that a homegrown candidate, and I mean that in the full sense of homegrown, of somebody from this area, is going to be the best person to have all those -- it's an interesting mix of preacher and snake charmer and dealing with our own internal people. And I mean that in all compliments to danny hobby, it's a special person to fill that job.
>> we've worked with danny, collaborated with him to receive information on his suggestions on where we might put the ad, so the information we have from him, in addition to the association that we had identified, he also identified industry magazines that we could also post in. So we're prepared to go local, state, national. Clearly the fact that we're online with the job ad now says that we're national, so some applications obviously would be coming in.
>> right now when we post a job, what's the advertising? What's the -- where is that posting?
>> for Travis County posting posting, anyone in the world has access to that as we speak. That's Travis County. In addition to that, under professional associations we have an option to go and purchase advertising time from them to go in to their particular membership markets, and we have some eight professional associations that we have identified appropriate for this ad. Just as a comparison --
>> if we just post it without incurring additional costs, where is it shown? Do you see what I’m saying?
>> without any cost at all.
>> additional cost.
>> when you say additional, in addition to what?
>> if this were like one of the Commissioners' raidz r. Aides.
>> we would be able to put it in some sites that we have already purchased time for, a general ad. We would be able to put it on america's job bank.com as well as the jobs.com. In addition to that, we would be able to go through the colleges and universities at no cost, no additional cost. Everything else -- there are a couple of professional associations where there's no cost associated with it, and those associations are the state e.m.s. Directors as well as the national flight paramedics association. There's no cost for online postings with them.
>> why don't we post it without additional cost and we have the legal description, the job description right here. And I do think we ought to try to fill this. I don't know that the speed would be required, but I do think that we ought to exercise due diligence to get this filled as soon as possible. Last time it took a long, long time.
>> if April 30th it's over, then we can kind of set out a schedule for interviews.
>> yes. When we get some applications. This is posted until filled, right?
>> yes, it is.
>> now, it would be a good idea to deal with the interim person for a couple of weeks before danny leaves. To do that we have to make that appointment today. I think we have pretty much narrowed it down to two. Dan will probably narrow it down to one. I don't think the second person is interested in doing it the way she left this last time.
>> we imposed on carol far beyond... [ inaudible ].
>> michael is willing to do it if we ask him, but I I think he will want to know that we're filling this in a couple of months or so.
>> judge, that is absolutely without question very, very important. I mean, with where we are with e.m.s. And starflight and just the two contracts, interlocal agreements that we had, this is a huge, huge job. And I can see why carol wouldn't want to touch it. I’m surprised that michael would, but he probably does have the skill sets to step in on this interim basis, but we should not dilly dally on this thing.
>> when I think the interlocal is complete and there are reporting mechanisms set as opposed to last time out carol was caught in the middle of we were still working out starflight issues and we did not have an interlocal that made that a very heavy strain in addition to council.
>> I don't think there's any question that we are better positioned now than we were in the past, but this thing can move backwards real fast. I mean, if you don't have the right person.
>> move that we ask, in capital letters ask, michael trimble, to assume this responsibility on an interim basis, apply our temporary policy to him, discuss that with him, I guess, between now and next Tuesday. If he accepts it, I think we he needs to start meeting with danny. That would give us about two weeks, I think, because danny's last day is April the 27th. And then part of this motion also would be to post the position everywhere possible where we can post it free of charge. And the other thing is that maybe we can do some things personally to locally get out -- ask people who may know folks who are qualified and may be interested, make sure they know about this availability, and if they're interested, let them apply. And maybe what we ought to do in about -- if we get this done in a week, maybe two weeks from that point we ought to pull the applications that are there and see how they're looking and then we decide whether to beef up the effort. How's that?
>> does this include advertisement in the statesman or not?
>> this would not if you're asking for free advertising.
>> i'd at least like to get it into the statesman.
>> if I were in this position, I would be wanting something more specific.
>> more targeted. The statesman is too big a net.
>> the targeted markets, in the average we do spend some amount of money, and maybe by getting with danny and some local -- we can identify some local areas where the average amount we spend on a posting, we can use that for this.
>> that will help too.
>> do we need to discuss at all -- I guess in the narrow language here -- adopt a strategy to fill the emergency services coordinator job, do we need to look at any sort of an additional appropriations for the interim? Is there going to be a need for that? [overlapping speakers].
>> we'll come back next week with that. The other question is as the applications come in, do you want us to review for minimum qualifications or just send them all?
>> I’m thinking that in two weeks from whoever they hit, the posting hits, we probably will get -- have a feel for whether we have 15 or 50. There's 50 and then I think we can probably go in and separate them. And during the next two or three weeks, if these free freebies don't pan out, we should have some low cost possibilities and maybe some that cost more. The other thing is there are people who work in the communication center who must have friends and colleagues in different places who could be qualified for this and may be interested. So maybe we can consider a little help from them. Is there a second to that motion?
>> second.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank y'all very much. In terms of communitying this to might -- of communicating this to michael, can we hear from the subcommittee?
>> sure.
>> we'd be more than happy to.
>> if you want us to give each of you a set --
>> if we can get like an overview in about two weeks, it may be that we need to see like the top.
>> to each of you?
>> yes. I’m thinking that after that -- [overlapping speakers].
>> okay.
>> looks like we're at executive session.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, April 13, 2005 10:09 AM