Travis County Commissioners Court
August 9, 2005
Item 24
24. Consider and take appropriate action on the appointment of a Travis County committee on security issues, including members and an appropriate charge. I think that we pretty much discussed the membership last week. Unless we have gotten -- did you -- thanks but no thanks from certain employees. Which it's conceivable that even reasonable employees might decline this opportunity. But -- is everybody on board?
>> we had one decline, judge. I gave you a memo in that regard. And when we met yesterday in our kind of inaugural meeting, the -- the group offered some names of substitutes, if you care to consider them. The other document that you got is -- our proposed charge. And it was -- the -- the primary discussion for the group yesterday. I will give you a little bit of background as I understand it. At least in my knowledge the security committee was first proposed in -- as an idea to my knowledge by christian smith. Then sheriff hamilton came to you as a group and recommended that and then you have reacted by -- by naming these candidates and for the record I will mention them again. It's chuck watt, lloyd evans, roger el khoury, walter la groen, benny cureton, michael hemby, pete baldwin, contend break hale. I have taken the opportunity to include josie methias from my office to serve as staff support. You may at some point as a group appoint a prettier committee, but you won't appoint one that's more engaged and competent. Just in our short time yesterday together, we discovered that a lot of work has already been done by these separate departments and individuals toward providing a cat-wide approach to security issues. That work, we will utilize that work as we progress along the lines of our charge. And so I’m very pleased to be a part of this group and would offer for your consideration our purpose and charge. Would you like for me to read that or -- would you like -- would you like to read it, judge? I --
>> just kind of walk us through it, I guess, thank you.
>> we patterned it a little bit on some of the other committees that the Commissioners court appointed. It simply says the prurp, the Travis County Commissioners court -- the purpose the Travis County Commissioners court will take a system-wide approach to address security issues including emergency preparedness, response and recovery throughout Travis County facilities. The security committee will assist the Commissioners court to improve the security of all who work in or visit a Travis County facility by ... I will stop there and point out in our choice of words we, for instance, used recovery as opposed to business continuity. The discussion led us to believe that business continuity is actually the business of the individual department, the committee can help fashion some policies and some -- some procedures perhaps in terms of addressing that, but we don't want to take on the responsibility of the individual departments. The first -- the first item would be by focusing initial improvements on low and no cost options. And this, of course, is -- is -- is part of the reason I think this group is so engaged. We are aware of the lack of funding on -- on all levels, but we are aware of and prepared to offer as much as we can to improve our security at no cost to our -- or low cost. Number two, would be developing comprehensive plans that cover policies, procedures, personnel and equipment. And here again, we don't -- we don't pretend or would not ever assume that we would take over the responsibility of any individual department. But from the standpoint of approaching the security as a county-wide function, we feel like that we can offer some review and policies along these lines of policies, procedures, personnel and equipment. Number 3 providing coordinated training for employees. Here again we don't feel like this group would necessarily do the training, but there is so much available in the different departments that can be geared toward short noontime sack lunch kinds of presentations or in service training for employees and we want to be sure and -- and make sure that -- that security is -- is considered in those areas. The next one would be by reviewing and prioritizing the request for security related equipment. And personnel. Kind of in a short time frame in regards to doing that for this year's budget. What we have done is we have asked a subcommittee of our committee to use the vulnerability assessment and site survey document that is -- that is provided to us by the -- by the federal government from the standpoint of comparing those criteria to the request that had been made by the different departments this year and they will come back to our larger committee later in the week and make some recommendations and hopefully we'll be able to participate with you next Monday when you -- when you discuss the security county-wide security issues. Finally, we will -- assist you hopefully by developing and encouraging the cooperation between groups that are involved in security response and recovery. Of course we -- we take a much wider view of this in terms of our responsibility because there are several departments in the county that participate in either the response and recovery to issues and then of course there are agencies outside county government. That can -- that can participate and be a big help. So with this wording we hope that we have covered those things that you have indicated we should have an interest in. And certainly looking forward to any -- any changes or amendments that you would offer before you adopt it.
>> okay. So we need to add any other points?
>> I might think of something later that we left out, this is comprehensive right now.
>> absolutely. Yeah. Certainly all that we could handle. At the moment.
>> how do we give departments with security concerns an opportunity to -- to present to the committee?
>> I think one of the things that you will find is that -- about how the security is an ongoing issue. Like health and wellness. Think what you will find is the committee will be proposing security issues and encouraging employees and department -- department heads from across the county to bring their concerns to us. Possibly more active, but more -- not more active but more organized approach in term ofs of our subcommittee members going out and do threat assessment it is, security surveys, helping departments to identify things they can do without cost. Then help identify those things that can be utilized and purchased. One of the things that -- that a big discussion yesterday is the importance of -- of it's involvement in our ability to maintain compatibility with different departments and bringing those things to one place. I think that will be a natural benefit of the committee.
>> okay. On the membership, if -- if -- ms. Spears declined, there's a couple of other recommendations in the backup, I guess it would help to have cscd on there, wouldn't it?
>> yes, sir.
>> in view of the number of employees they have, plus the number of probationiers they deal with, the number of Travis County locations they work out of. I do know they have had some security concerns expressed over the last few years. If mr. Ron is willing to serve, seems that would be the logical voice, a big department with a lot of security issues.
>> I think doyne said, though, that the group may not be the prettiest, but they are the -- I think roach is pretty. [laughter]
>> that would sure help our group. [laughter]
>> I think -- because I think they are two pretty ladies. That sounds like robert. [laughter]
>> judge, I would like to see rosy asked first. I think that is -- that is a really good suggestion because they are also co-located many times with our j.p.'s and constables so you would have a clearer vision of what some of his issues are. Also, in addition to ms. Hale and certainly josies as being staff, I would like to see more of a female perspective on here, there are differing security issues in terms of perceptions that differ. I would like to see that expanded in terms of the female presence. I think rosy would be wonderful and cecilia as the backup if we can't do it.
>> judge, would you like to contact her or would you prefer that I do that? And extend to her your invitation to participate?
>> if you could, I appreciate it.
>> okay. I will do that.
>> I have been rejected too many times [laughter]
>> I will report back to you. We didn't rehearse our presentation today and not all of my committee joined us at the table. But I want you to note that others are here. And how much I appreciate being -- participating with them in this effort. Thank you very much.
>> thank you all very much. Anything else? Move we approve the charge and the membership.
>> second.
>> and if mr. Ron will accept it, this matter doesn't need to be back on the agenda probably until the end of the budget process I take it, right?
>> [inaudible - no mic] we do plan to participate. [inaudible - no mic]
>> executive session.
>> okay.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, August 9, 2005 8:51 PM