Travis County Commissioners Court
July 19, 2005
Item 26
Number 26 is consider and take appropriate action on the appointment of a Travis County committee on security issues including appointment of members and an appropriate charge. Now, we did get a list of suggested members from our county sheriff, and I think I got a couple of e-mails that, taken together, indicated that all of the recommended members had agreed to serve. And we've got chuck white here from risk management, lloyd evans facilities, roger corey, facilities, roger legrown from i.t.s., sergeant bennie k urton. Pete baldwin, emergency services. Simon brussard, the fire marshal. I did get a special request for chief don bailey to be involved in this evident. And so we -- effort. So we ought to ask the chief to assist in any way he can, as much as he can. The reason for that, I think, is that they thought somebody higher up in the sheriff's office should have a presence and it kind of made sense to me. The sheriff does not know of this special request, but I indicated I would pass it on. So if it simply comes as a request from the Commissioners court with chief bailey providing as much assistance as possible, I think it will be well received.
>> judge, I don't know if I am jumping ahead on dana related to a comment on this, but what I知 noticing about all these folks, these are all the technical side of dealing with security. And I don't see anybody here as to who would be a user department that is going to be absolutely impacted by any kind of security in one or more of these buildings. And I知 thinking either a j.p. Or a county clerk or -- I don't see any user in the security user committee. I just see security. I知 just wondering if a perspective of the recipient of all this love isn't also necessary here in terms of somebody having a consumer's point of view from being a person in that building of is this enough, are we leaving anything out.
>> this committee is supposed to work with county-wide security issues, and I see this committee as receiving requests from users and really making evaluation. The other thing is I know their first charge is to take the recommendations, requests that have already been made, and what they are looking to after this membership has been constituted and the charge has been given having a big meeting in executive session in this courtroom for three or four hours and looking at all those requests and trying to determine the merit, determine what the resolution should be, prioritize those and make recommendations to the Commissioners court so we can look at the recommendations during this budget process and start biting off of it. So the question is is I mean do we need a user on there? I知 not saying we don't.
>> dana debouvier, Travis County clerk. Thank you, because I have also wrestled with the same issue. We greatly appreciate the work that's been done to move forward on creating a security committee so that we can look at the variety of the issues that apply. And I do -- I would avidly encourage the use of an expert -- I mean doreen bailey has the benefit of not only a security and law enforcement background, but he knows county government backwards and forwards. I think he makes an ideal starting point for us. As long as there is some methodology, some way to get two-way communication with users so it isn't just about us telling the group what we think is wrong and presuming that we know, that if there were a way to say, well, the response to this -- to a typical kind of problem in either, you know, public or private sector is to treat it this way, if there was some way to come back and say we considered your issue and it seems from a security standpoint that this is the best approach, if we had the opportunity to say, well, that's fine and good except for, you know, what do we do -- I don't want to use too many examples, but let's say, for example, I got really clear instructions on how to establish a -- some sort of perimeter on a crime scene. What do I do about the customers who need to go? I mean in other words, I need -- I can preserve a crime scene and I can hold everybody there that's under my control, but what do I do about customers? So it isn't just a matter of one comment and a single answer back, I believe it has been a dialogue. As long as this committee reflects a back and forth communication, I think we'll get what we need. I feel for the court in not wanting to have a huge committee that needs, you know, a convention center to meet. I don't think we will make progress fast enough if we try to do it that way. But the other option is, instead of inviting input and then charging the committee themselves with being responsible for providing feedback and adjustment and more feedback to the plan, that what you might want to do is appoint one user whose responsibility it is to be the representative for all the other user groups in county government. That person would have to go out to the other office and talk to them and make a list of what their concerns were and that would be given to the kefplt once again, I would encourage to you charge the committee with that back and forth dialogue. So that we know, oh, well it got addressed and this would be the best solution to it. So that then we can judge, okay, that's easy, I can put that in. Or, well, I can do that part, but it raises another question what do I do about this. That kind of dialogue so we really don't spend our money unwisely and that we get something that makes sense in the field.
>> any idea who that one user should be?
>> well, you know we're happy to volunteer. And I think the tax office would also be happy to share that with us. But, of course, we're only one person in a different building. But maybe that's what you need. Maybe you need one person in a different building who has now got that perspective. So I知 volunteering to help. I think we can find other people too who could fill in for me if for some reason I got swamped and couldn't do something.
>> move appointment of these eight and that we ask the committee to find an appropriate user to be on the committee. Who is chair of this committee, by the way?
>> we hope it's going to be the sheriff. I don't think that's been determined.
>> sheriff is not on here yet. Sheriff was smart enough to recommend a whole lot of other people. Commissioners court is giving a special invitation for don bailey to be on this committee. Who is the chair, do we know?
>> [inaudible].
>> ask our sheriff's office chair to get not only don bailey to serve but also a user.
>> I volunteer.
>> now, dana, we can have this back on next week to appoint the user because we need it back on next week to look at the charge. Now, I did get a couple of e-mails from people regarding possible language for an appropriate charge, but to be honest I have not been able to carefully review that, add my own. I suggested the rest of the court -- should we get the language to who?
>> i'll take it.
>> i'll do that the same thing. Let's get the language to you by Friday at 5:00? Friday at 12?
>> I think christian has already started to hack some language out.
>> christian was one of the ones I got it tpro. Hopefully next week we'll have the charge there, plus add whatever new members to the committee we want to have. You may want to give that some thought and just send them your thoughts in an e-mail. Maybe give some thought to a consumer who does security work.
>> absolutely. Absolutely. We may not be appropriate. We just have -- we just feel some responsibility since we've called some things to your attention to be a part of the solution as well. But you don't have to use it.
>> this is one of those committees that may have to meet quarterly throughout the year.
>> if not more often. As the need arises, we will have meetings. Surely at the beginning we'll have to meet minimum monthly if not weekly until we get things ironed out and getting everybody on the same sheet of music. I think just because someone is not on the committee, that doesn't mean that someone can't still give feedback and input. There are a lot of viable stakeholders here on this -- in the community that are going to be affected by these security plans so we want to make sure everybody has an opportunity to, you know, say what's on their mind and give us some direction.
>> we've got the experts in security, but I also want to make sure the people who work in the buildings, collective, day in day out, their perspective is covered, but also as dana said, there are other users who are the ones coming from the outside who are only temporary visitors within that building. And they can be three very different perspectives.
>> sure can. Customers' perspective is different from an employee's perspective. Dr. Nagy may be better than the county clerk to serve on this committee. I don't know.
>> we can talk about that.
>> motion to approve the eight or nine listed. Give special invitations to chief bailey and a user to be identified later on. Between now and next Tuesday. Maybe we ought to call dr. Nagy or -- are we looking for the department heads or just somebody in the department?
>> I think you're going to want somebody who knows enough about the administrative operations to understand work flow, type of customers that come in, budget.
>> hours of operation.
>> yeah, hours of operation. So somebody at least familiar with the overall operation.
>> don't tell them where the recommendation comes from, but include that language.
>> and we'll bring back the charge next week as well.
>> charge is coming back. Second. Any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> we applaud you for taking this step. It's an excellent piece of work.
>> thanks, dana.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, July 20, 2005 11:18 AM