Travis County Commissioners Court
September 6, 2005
Item 4
We have a special item in number 4, that is to consider and take appropriate action on the assistance Travis County residents may give to persons affected by hurricane katrina, including a waiver of the Travis County residency requirement to allow evacuees to access appropriate social services programs. Maybe we ought to take these one at a time. We did notice that the state of Texas is waiving residency for some of the state programs. Pete and I participated in an hour and a 15 minute conference phone call on labor day, where it was made clear that there would be 100% reimbursement, of legitimate expenditures in behalf of -- of the victims of -- of hurricane katrina, so -- so my guess is that if Travis County documents what it does, for these out of county residents affected by hurricane katrina, then there is a strong probability of being reimbursed that it not -- they did not say when, but they did say that fema case workers would be available to offer necessary assistance, et cetera. My guess is that if the -- if the different locations providing assistance are doing so systematically, pretty soon they will be referring some of those folks to case workers and places where the assistance is a bit more formal. The other thing I guess is after the emergency, day to day assistance expires, some of these residents may well become more like permanent residents of Travis County. In the interim, though, I知 thinking that -- that we ought to try to enable them to access Travis County social services, especially if we can get reimbursed.
>> my name is pete baldwin, with the emergency services coordinator, interim acting emergency management director. Whatever. I wanted to give you.
>> that's a long, lofty title.
>> what I want to do real quickly is give you a brief overview from the state perspective from the conference call yesterday, there have been some updates that went on with that, then we will turn it over to the -- to the rest of them talking about specifics related to this agenda item. Currently, we have 172 shelters recognized shelters opened in the state of Texas. We have end counts tered a little over 75,000 evacuees, we expect there's at least that many, probably up to 100,000 housed in hotels or motels that there is an effort to try to locate and get registered. I guess one of the major functions yesterday, the only evacuees that we are bringing into the state of Texas at this time, that we are actually doing some air operations into el paso, amarillo and lubbock. The major hubs, houston, san antonio, Austin, dallas/fort worth, have all been shut off from receiving any additional at this stage of the game. There are what we consider or call rogue buses or flights or private charter. They do show up periodically, but any scheduled additional evacuees have been cut off from any of these at this stage of the game. Currently at the Austin convention center as of last night, there were approximately 3,405 people. This is down from -- from the day before, and that has to do with people finding other places to go or stay or some people adopting families to stay with them. I guess the two major things that I want to bring out from the conversation that was held yesterday, I will back up and say that all 50 states have -- have opened up, have -- have offered to shelter evacuees, not just -- not just those surrounding there, but -- but everybody has opened up and said we will take whatever you send us. Two major things that happened yesterday regarding reimbursement. One is, it is still at 100%, the reimbursement fact sheet will be e-mailed out to us today or tomorrow, more cleaning defining what eligible expenses are. But also they have worked a deal with fema now where there will actually be debit cards issued to the evacuees where they will actually have some cash or be able to use a debit card just like, you know, a regular credit card. It will be based upon them registering with red cross and fema and processing through there. That range is anywhere from approximately $5,500 up to about 26,000. The 26,000 on the high end is -- is usually for home repair. If there's a home repair. But at least it's a start to get something going. Also the other thing that I think is very innovative and -- and a good step forward is today we will get a one-800 number for the evacuees. For travel vouchers.
>>
>> [one moment please for change in captioners]
>>
>> ...but currently since they have not gotten on their own where they could use maybe this -- this debit card, even have access to this 1-800 number, the persons that are housing the persons that have been displaced here in Austin, they need commodities such as mattresses, fans, air conditioning window units, and because we are overwhelmed with the increase in numbers of their household that was a nominal situation, but how is -- or is there a fit?
>> we have run across this over all the state. In some smaller cities around Travis County they are housing and sheltering small numbers of groups of people. What we try to do is make sure, number one, get registered. They need to register with the red cross and fema so we can get them into the system to have access to this debit card system. So we've got to get them registered. As far as being able to go through the shelter operation as it stands now and get those additional commodities they are needing for individual households, that's probably not a good fit. What we need to do is tie them back into good will or one of those where a lot of these donations are being distributed from. So there are ways that we can assist in that and I知 sure that sherry and them can address that even further.
>> okay.
>> can we just touch base on the fact that hotel, motel expenses are also covered and reimbursable, but there is a procedure that you need to go through?
>> yes, sir. Those -- any expense that is related to the sheltering or care of evacuees will be 100% reimbursed. And so therefore if someone were in a hotel, they will have these debit cards which they can utilize those, but also if any of our county has picked up any of that cost, we need to document that, and I know sherry and I have talked about that this the sheriff's office and weekend talk about documenting all costs as we go along and that would be a recommendation to any department that is involved with any evacuee assistance is to be sure and document your costs and then we will try to collect those.
>> what's that 800 number?
>> we do not have it yet. We'll get it today at the 1:00 conference call.
>> what about the one they gave out on Monday? Try this one, 1-800-621-3362.
>> 3362?
>> 621-3362. That should be the fema registration number. You can also go online to www.fema.governor.
>> that is the registration lean, though the 1-800 for the voucher is the one that will be given out today. Thank you.
>> those residents that have been assisting and I know some churches and small groups have been assisting, it would be good for those people to know how to contact fema and get the reimbursement process underway.
>> judge, the ones that are having overwhelming hardship in single residences that had family members there and they are really having these persons in so they can go ahead and call these numbers to get some kind of relief because they will call and say Commissioner, you know, da, da, da.
>> I知 sure they will ask how much money did you have in the bank back home and if that's substantial, but if you are without and can't access whatever you had, I don't know why you wouldn't be eligible. But they stress on its a sort of case-by-case situation. But they believe that virtually all of the evacuees will be eligible. And various questions came up what about the person who identified relatives and blah, blah, blah, the person needs to get there, the bus ticket, and I assume the airplane too unless -- would be reimburse I believe. The thing you got to front it up front. If you can wait and get the voucher, they can process that and they can get that in their hands. It's amazing how they worked it and there must have been 50 cities and county representatives on the conference phone call that I participated in.
>> did we get clarity related to this is all talking about stuff that's happening on our home territory and expenditures happening here, there are still folks that are saying, well, gee, we would like to go to louisiana, mississippi, alabama, wherever, to assist. Have we been invited -- when I satisfy "we," governmental forces been invited to those states to please assist because they are needing personnel?
>> there have been several specific requests made, not a general all call, but there have been several specific requests. The first one that came out was for medical that came out, and we did send a contingency of folks down there to work with the medical. I do know the sheriff's department has received a request through the emergency management assistance compact, and they will be looking at trying to get down and provide some assistance to those folks also. But what happens is we wait for the request to come because we need to know what they need. If they just say we need water rescue, we don't know if they need swift water, still water, if they need helicopter, what. So we look for them to say we need four doctors, six nurses, 30 paramedics, whatever. And then that way we can go ahead and backfill and provide that. But we always like to see that request come in through the state. That way we know it's an official. And I will make this comment, I asked the question specifically since governor perry got all 254 counties declared under this presidential disaster declaration, we're not required on a local basis to file a disaster declaration. So we are covered under all 254 counties.
>> I guess the part 2 of that is this: there was a great deal made on the coverage this weekend about who needs to make the ask. And so I知 just making sure that there's clarity that when you talk about -- was it emac, is that the same as fema making the ask, because I don't want to get caught up in this bureaucracy stuff that has already hampered things here, that the appropriate person did not bless the request and therefore there's any question about reimbursement. I知 just making sure we're all using the same language and have clarity.
>> emac is the emergency management assistance compact signed by a number of states. Those go through our state office, which means that they are official requests. So once we get those. Now fema made the initial request early on for medical personnel. And once they make those, then those -- we also activated task force 1, but when that is activated, that becomes a state asset and that is carried through their dollar. But those requests -- that's why we said we don't want to get into the habit of sending off everywhere, but once that request is made and it comes through emac -- which is funneled through the state, we consider that a legitimate request and put that into the point where we will be seeking reimbursement.
>> pete, and I guess maybe someone else at the table can also address this, as far as the housing need, which is substantial, it has not really been fleshed out, of course the way persons are living with the makeshift, the medical and screening process as far as what is urgently needed under the medical prescription, blah, blah, blah, on down the line, as far as getting these persons screened properly for medical taepgs, but at the end of the day, to actually get the persons to actual housing situation where they can fit into the arena of being made whole, my question is, will the vouchers be directly tied in with money that will be made available for persons to actually get into a setting of having a house or apartment or whatever it is necessary? Because let's face it, we're talking about about long term or the long haul as far as this is concerned. So I知 just posing the question what about the housing needs where persons can become independently housed to get them out of the convention center or to get them out of a setting where they are currently, and what are we doing about that?
>> if I could, Commissioners, judge, I could talk a little about the human resources that are being pulled together. Maybe that will address some of your concerns. Sherri fleming, executive manager for health and human services. City staff along with county staff and nonprofit agencies met on yesterday to pull together a plan for a resource center that opened up this morning at the convention center. Also available there will be the social security administration to address those recipients that may have missed their checks for this month, they have a mechanism in place to be able to reissue those checks so those folks could this week have that money in hand to make any decisions they might need to make. There will also be work source staff available to assist residents in applying for emergency unemployment benefits related to disasters and things of that nature. There will also be legal aid representatives there, just to name another one, to assist families in accessing things through fema. So all of those will be there in addition to resources from our community. It will be helpful for us to note that when the evacuees came into our community, they were immediately screened for health needs, mental health needs, disability needs and those more chronic needs were addressed initially, and then the resource center will now be doing a different needs assessment now that we have, you know, addressed the basic needs to determine some of the things that you're asking about, Commissioner Davis. Those folks who maybe have relatives that they are trying to contact or those folks who have particular needs that we might be able to connect them up with here in our community. So those things are going on as we speak. The resource center will be open for as long as necessary to address those things. In terms of what we have been asked to assist with, health and human services has been asked to provide staff for that resource center so that we can help do the initial assessments and hopefully route people to the correct agencies that might be able to help. And so we will be doing that. We would also ask with the court's authorization to all upon other sister departments who might have social workers or case management staff who might be able to assist us. Health and human services is a little stressed this week in that we have services for our county residents that they can only apply for at the first -- the first business week of the month. And so we have those needs for our residents as well as the first week of our air check program. So we would appreciate assistance in providing services to the convention center and we have someone on our staff that will be coordinating that. In addition, we have a few policy changes that we would ask the court to suspend on a temporary basis. And I just would like to say that things are changing in terms of needs pretty much on a daily basis so we're trying to attack the broad things that we know will help, and hopefully if some need changes, we may have to come back to you in the next few weeks to ask for something different. But what we're recommending today is limited time suspension of certain county policies, and if I could move into that now -- okay. All right. The first would be staff's recommendation to suspend for approximately two months, which would be from today through November 8th, the residency requirement for health and human services programs. Currently we have a policy that requires 60-day residency for anyone who accesses services through health and human services. So we would ask that you would suspend that policy for this period of time and also suspend the contract requirement for our social services contract providers so that they may also assist with dollars that they receive from Travis County.
>> for?
>> for the evacuees, yes, sir.
>> move approval.
>> second that, judge.
>> discussion? All in favor say aye? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> because there is the potential of some of this being reimbursed, are we going to somehow track all of that so we can get the appropriate request.
>> we have made the adjustments to our data system so we can track as the reason for assistance hurricane evacuees, crisis --
>> k-a-t-r 05. On all hurricane katrina expenditures by Travis County, and we may want to -- do we want to share that with the contract agencies?
>> I think you're going to need that because first of all looks like some normal rules will be suspended. The other is that when we ask for reimbursement, we're going to have to document it. To the extent you can, I would do that, any department that spends money on that, put that project number on. And then the county will be able to figure out what in fact we have spent from just mechanical parts. If offices are out of budget, they would still have to come get money. You're not authorizing spending money they do not have, I assume, or you will make some sort of an emergency --
>> that's just sort of funding. If line items are at zero, either they can -- they can department transfer or come to us and make the case for another allocation.
>> and currently these expenditures will flow through our normal emergency assistance identified line items, and currently those line items are not at zero.
>> judge --
>> payroll should have that number on it too. You've got people devoted because if we think fema may reimburse, they are going to want that documentation.
>> and the code on the time she'd.
>> in the past we have had fema reimbursements, when it's been large, it's difficult after the fact to reconstruct. If we can put those numbers right up front for payroll and purchases. And for cyd to bypass purchasing procedures, what do you need them to declare an emergency or is the state's enough?
>> I think the state's enough.
>> okay. So that's okay.
>> okay. We took the vote. We didn't need to get legal advice, did we?
>> the next policy we would request suspension, and this will speak specifically to the concern that Commissioner Davis had voiced earlier would be related to income requirements. We realize that there are significant numbers of residents who are sheltering evacuees in their homes and may have need for additional food items or other things we might be able to provide through the community centers. So we would ask that the court for this limited period of time, from today's date through November 8th, suspend for persons who can demonstrate that they are sheltering evacuees from the identified areas the 30-day income requirement. And that income requirement basically would have these persons provide their income to us, but not have to meet our current income guidelines to be eligible for assistance.
>> do we need to know what the fema guideline is as to income during the same period? We're talking about beginning with the date of the hurricane forward, and I guess that would be today is what, seven or eight days from the day of the hurricane?
>> exactly.
>> you're talking 37, 38 days from the hurricane, if any, right?
>> what we were requesting from the time you made the decision. What we were following was the state has done September and October, which is a 60-day period when certain policies have been suspended in order to assist evacuees. So we were following basically that same rule of thumb. 60 days from the time that we have a change authorized.
>> but do we need to look at -- okay. I understand. Do we need to look at what the state and/or fema are considering to waive the income requirement?
>> the state has authorized staff to accept verbal --
>> all I知 looking for is we will do what the state approves.
>> exactly. That's exactly --
>> discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> okay, I believe that covers the policy changes. I had initially e-mailed the court on Friday, and as I mentioned to you, things are changing rapidly. We find that we will not need to make any changes to our prescription assistance because there are prescription services available at this time.
>> let me ask you -- thank you for -- thank all of you for your involvement and judge, thank you for having this on the agenda today also as we look at the outreach. However, I would like to know at this time have there been an effort to place what we have discussed here today per se as far as on the Travis County -- whatever that website we have out there for Travis County for folks that are listening to this today, but by chance may not have gathered all the information that they need to have to make this -- make those folks whole again. The 1-800 number that the judge mentioned, the other type of assistance program, the outreach that we're doing, has this basically been a part of the channel 17 Travis County information that would be I think pretty important to the residents that are looking at us today and need access to that information?
>> yes, sir. That will be our next stop once we leave here to make sure we can put up the appropriate information. We would also want to point out as well that the capital area food bank is working with partners throughout the community to provide additional food supplies, and we have accepted those additional food supplies across our community center network so that those persons who may be sheltering or who may be in hotels could also access food supplies through our seven community centers. So we will also have that information up on our website. Now, those policies are your most liberal policies so there's really no need to make any changes and we're actually talking about bags of food that we would give to people after we collect some basic demographic information.
>> judge, does that need to be a directive or does that have to come in the form of a motion to get this information --
>> you're doing that already?
>> yes. And the food bank is not charging us any --
>> channel 17, the 1-800 number, the fema website, all this other kind of stuff you had mentioned earlier.
>> we could put it on channel 17. For those interested in finding it out. Commissioner Davis moves that. Discussion? That's to put all the information. There's another piece about tonight. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. If I could just interject that bambi at the red cross, number is 928-4271, says the red cross needs 100 volunteers from 4:00 to midnight, 4:00 to midnight tonight or this evening and tonight, and you have to call her and get registered and get signed up. 928-4271. And this is for food distribution and food service. And they will give you the particulars if you call that number. I guess we ought to stick that on 17 today also. [inaudible].
>> that will be fine.
>> just a few other human services comments just for the benefit of those who may be listening to us. The only shelter is at the Austin convention center. The burger center has been closed and those persons who were sheltered there were moved to the Austin convention center. The delco center had been previously identified but never opened. So the only official shelter is at the Austin convention center. We've also been asked to reiterate as much as we can the importance of evacuees in our community registering with the red cross. That will be your point of entry into the services that have been made available through various sources. And the resource center will be open at the convention center from 9:00 to 6:00 each day for as long as those services are needed. There are phones, a bank of phones that have been stalled at the convention center for folks who need to make calls. There are also computers there for people to check for missing relatives or for people to list themselves so that their relatives may locate them. So all of those services are available at the convention center.
>> I got an inquiry from -- about the need for services for mental health clients. Last Friday. Is there a particular person that these individuals can be referred to or is that at the resource center too?
>> mhmr staff are available at the resource center as well. As well as our agencies whose mission it is to work with folks with mental health challenges.
>> is there a number at the resource center?
>> hi, I値l get you a specific name and phone number.
>> that would help because, I mean, I知 visualizing hundreds of folks at the resource center and mental health kind of short there, I don't know that they will be able to --
>> that is one of the things they assess for.
>> judge, I want to add too there are tremendous lessons to be learned in every community. We weren't the one it hit, these are ways that we can shore up and test and validate what emergency planning that we've got going here, and I think the smoothness of it all really is to give kudos to the petes of this world, also [inaudible], the sheriff's office, health and human services, I mean I知 so glad that we put together the ctec, the radio system. Things that were really issues if something happened in this community, we've now moved steps ahead. But I know as I知 going into budget markup tomorrow that there are some things left over related to disaster recovery, making sure our own paper records are safeguarded and how do we back up some of this stuff, and to have all of our law enforcement folks regardless of patch on the centralized dispatch system and make sure we can keep track of our folk. There's good lessons to be learned, but like the mayor has said, I have never been so proud to be from Austin, Travis County, state of Texas in my entire life. I think this is really showing the heart and soul of this community in an amazing and generous way.
>> did we give you a chance to finish?
>> my final thought would be that if our sister departments who might be listening would contact andrea at 854-4102 to identify what staff you might have available, we are specifically interested in social workers, folks who might have case management skills or case managers, caseworkers, and then we'll need some clerical support. So if you have staff who can pull a shift, please let us know so we can -- we're working on schedules to provide coverage at the convention center.
>> and sherry, and thank everyone again for your presentation this morning. I壇 like again to thank the judge for having this on this morning, but let's say someone is going to call my office, there's no doubt about it again on what we're doing here today. And they will probably be calling all of these offices here that's on the Commissioners court. Is there any way possible -- this information that you have discussed with us today in detail could be given to each office on the Commissioners court whereby we will be able to respond to the residents or whomever calls appropriately and accurately based on what we have here before us today.
>> absolutely. We will make sure that each of your offices has this information and has the appropriate phone numbers to refer individuals to. And just to reiterate that if there are persons who are in hotels who are evacuees, we would encourage them to seek out services through the convention center. Those evacuees who will be he living with family members, we would ask them to seek out services through the county sites. Because at this time the convention center resource center is not set up to handle Travis County residents who might have needs related to sheltering. And so we have agreed to kind of take the lead on those families who might already be residents but have need for additional food items or those things that we have available, blankets and clothing and things of that nature.
>> from what I understand, that the [inaudible] location facility is the one that will be receiving some of the commodities if persons giving would like to continue to give in that regard. This was brought the my attention and I guess that's still the case, still taking it to the convention center to take it out there.
>> that's correct. And actually city staff have strongly asked that donations not be brought to the convention center but that they go to the freescale site, and they have a fairly efficient system to get those back to the convention center. They would ask that residents who ten to provide donations will do so at that site.
>> actually I need to add a caveat. They've asked for a moratorium for a couple of days on donations because the response was so overwhelming, they have a lot of stuff at freescale and they need time to get it sorted. Cash donations certainly are always welcome with red cross, but they've asked for about a 48-hour moratorium on people bringing stuff out to freescale so they can get it sorted out. Because they had an overwhelming response.
>> thank you. Let me read b and c and we'll just have a general discussion. B is ratification of donation of retired sheriff's office uniforms to law enforcement agencies in areas affected by hurricane katrina. Do we still need this item? Last week we were told there was a request for uniforms and we happen to have some in the warehouse that we retired some time ago and the request here is that we donate those to law enforcement agencies in the gulf coast area.
>> that's correct.
>> that's correct, your honor. Michael with the sheriff's office. We have already worked with purchasing over the weekend. Those items are loaded and ready to go at this time.
>> this is to ratify that decision. Move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. C is ratification of expenditure of county resources out of county by sheriff's office to assist with public safety and search, rescue and recovery mission in response to hurricane katrina in gulf coast area.
>> again, michael with the Travis County sheriff's office was your honor, court, prior to the storm coming in we had concerns about where it might hit whether that be Texas or anywhere on our country. A team assembled to do preliminary work, we currently have fema approval for a mission deployment. We are currently awaiting from the louisiana -- state of louisiana a target location to take the team into. We've staged through the weekend and I applaud not only the sheriff's office but other county agencies who pitched in with help and assistance in getting that team together. They are staged and ready to go. We are simply awaiting a location from that state to get us in and assist in any way that we can.
>> this will be a reimburse believe expense?
>> that's correct, your honor. We received the fema number and that would make it a reimburse I believe expense.
>> so you're just waiting on word of where and when and how, et cetera.
>> correct. We have put our individuals who are the first entry team on this, have been advised to stay close and monitor pagers certainly. We had hoped to be leaving sooner than later and trying to work every channel that we have in the affected states to get us into assist. We still hear the cries for assistance from our brothers and sisters and not only law enforcement but just the general public out there.
>> we'll have enough law enforcement personnel remaining in Travis County to promote and secure public safety.
>> we will.
>> and I also would like to add that I致e been meeting with the command staff of Austin police department on Sunday and Monday, and we are assisting them over at the Austin convention center. There's -- there were several incidents that occurred over at the superdome and also at the -- whatever dome -- astrodome in houston, and one of the biggest issues was security. And initially we had set it out as overtime, but we have rethought that process and we are assigning people that are on duty to reduce the number of hours of overtime that Travis County would have to pay out. We have 12 officers over there that will be there around the clock. Initially we were going to do two 12-hour shifts, but we have changed that up and we're doing three 8--hour shifts. Austin police department has 24 officers that will be working around the clock and they also have hired private security to work also. So the Austin convention center is secure and Travis County sheriff's department is assisting over there.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion of c? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Other issues regarding hurricane katrina. Let's let the sheriff was office finish.
>> no other issues.
>> going on at the convention center, we're going to be coding those time sheets.
>> yes, ma'am, that's all in place.
>> you heard our discussion earlier today with the auditor.
>> yes, sir.
>> mr. Geiselman has a related issue.
>> I知 just wondering whether the sheriff's department needs any equipment and response. Heavy equipment a that might assist in the rescue or the recovery.
>> I can address that somewhat for joe that we have been in consultation with t.n.r. For several days now and they've been very generous with assistance, generator capability, getting vehicles up and running and moving through it, spare parts. Our spent was with an initial team going into this area that they could send information back as to for a follow-up team whether there were any specific additional needs on heavy equipment. I think that at this point for the national response they are looking still a search and rescue and to try to assist the citizens simply watch your t.v. If you are looking at debris removal, there will certainlying calls for assistance in the months to come for that.
>> so joe, you only have roads, bridges and parks to worry about in the immediate future. Thank you.
>> I would like to add one more deal. Travis County sheriff's office is also teaming up with chipotle in raising monetary donations to give to the hurricane katrina victims. And that will be going on from Tuesday through Friday.
>> okay. So I guess -- [inaudible] leaving here there will be a sense of self-sufficiency so it won't tax on the existing situation where you are going now.
>> that is correct.
>> is that correct?
>> that is correct.
>> minimize the impact on those folks that are trying to -- that we're going to assist.
>> correct, your honor, or Commissioner. We are certainly intent we do not want to take away from any resources from either first responders or citizens in that area. Our employees have pitched in and we have told them they need to carry enough food and fool for several days.
>> be self-sufficient. Thanks.
>> also the Texas department of public safety assisted us in using within of their 18 wheelers to load up the trucks and take all of the equipment in.
>> thank you.
>> thank you all very much. Anything else on item 4?
>> yes, judge, thank you. I致e been asked to clarify the action that you all took on the income. When -- when the court just took action authorizing us to measure income in the same way the state does, what that means is that we will be looking at the income of the evacuees. And not the income of the persons providing the shelter.
>> okay. You're speaking specifically of those persons living are relatives or folks in the community.
>> absolutely.
>> so the income of the evacuees who are living with those persons.
>> exactly. And we will have documentation that they can sign in our office in either providing us with their verbal account of their income or signing what we call a statement of no income indicating they don't have income. But I was asked to clarify that we are specifically looking at the income of the evacuees.
>> but we would use standards consistent with what the state and fema are doing.
>> that's correct. And that's the time limited portion of our policy adjustment, yes.
>> full discussions and actions today were intended to deal with evacuees.
>> absolutely.
>> okay.
>> sherry, is there a general number that somebody could call where they could ask any question about anything that has to do with katrina? Is there an Austin number or an 8-hundred number.
>> I don't have the 800 number here, but I do have a website that we can share. And then residents can look for later on today on our -- on channel 17 we will have all of those numbers verified and up. But right now the website is www.austinhelps katrina.org. And that website has the links to fema, red cross, any other services. Information for missing family members. All of those links are part of that website.
>> Austinhelpskatrina.org.
>> Austinhelpskatrina organize. And the red cross 866 number is 866-438-4636. 866-438-4636.
>> that's the american red cross.
>> that is the american red cross.
>> thank you.
>> thank you very much.
>> item number 4?
>> judge, just speaking with mike and I understood from a prior conversation that the sheriff's department is considering using some of their employees personal travel trailers. Under the personal policies code, the personal items are not covered under the risk fund. For clarity purposes, we would like to ask the court to waive that exclusion and to allow us to cover personal travel trailers used in this evacuation and rescue mission so that the risk fund could cover if there was any damage or liability incurred due to their use. We would also ask that those trailers be only road worthy inspected carrying a current inspection sticker or be inspected by the fleet manager for road worthiness.
>> I might address part of the issue certainly as Commissioner Davis indicated, we are expected to be totally self-sufficient in this and are not in a position to pose -- if people think we're going over there to top hotel rooms, that is not the case. Generally the liability on coverage, insurance coverage on a travel trailer goes with the owner of the vehicle. And that we are -- we would not be utilizing personal vehicles to tow these in this situation.
>> we would be using county vehicles?
>> correct, your honor.
>> so your point is that the county coverage during this exercise --
>> that's correct.
>> -- of the county and personal vehicles, and I guess the county employees in them.
>> that's right. If it's official county sanctioned operation, then the risk fund would cover all aspects except personally owned vehicles or equipment. We're asking that you waive that exclusion that appears in the personnel policies and procedures.
>> this would be while they are performing activities related to the -- related to hurricane katrina.
>> that's correct.
>> so if you are doing something that has absolutely nothing to do with hurricane katrina, this would not cover you.
>> that's right.
>> you had a few examples that required us to go through that exercise. Move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion of that? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank you all very much.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, September 7, 2005 10:24 AM