Travis County Commissioners Court
September 13, 2005
Item 4
Now a special item and then we'll get to the budget. Number 4 is to consider and take appropriate action on Travis County assistance to persons affected by hurricane katrina, including, a is request from the state of mississippi for county surplus vehicles and heavy equipment to assist with the recovery, rescue and restoration in areas affected by hurricane katrina. And b is update on efforts to connect evacuees with local agencies for housing, employment and other health and human services. And why don't we take a first.
>> I知 bonnie boyd from the purchasing office. I知 passing out a list right now of 13 vehicles that have been identified by our fixed assets and our fleet management people as usable and donatable to the state of mississippi. Cyd has been in contact with mr. Don mccain, who is the fleet director with the department of public safety with the highway patrol in jackson, mississippi. We don't have anything back from them yet. We were just able to fix that list to them late yesterday afternoon. They are reviewing it and will respond back to us as to what they can use and when they can use it.
>> so if they send back basically a list of these items that they can use, how do we deliver the items there?
>> that's what mike is here to talk about.
>> judge, Commissioners, from the sheriff's office and talking to purchasing, we would certainly be willing. We still have standing fema orders and we can work through the fema process, which unfortunately we've become fairly well versed in, to assist them. We don't know the situation, whether they would wish to come retrieve the vehicles, but should it be that we need to ferry the vehicles, the sheriff's office would be conducive to doing that for them.
>> judge, I also had a call from a private citizen. He's the person that first alerted me to this situation. And he had mentioned that they might be able to provide transportation. So we still haven't worked out all the logistical details yet, but we've got the sheriff for backup. If need be.
>> so now we're waiting on the mississippi officials to let us know whether any of these items can be of use to them.
>> yes.
>> you need today an order from the court authorizing donation of these items if they wish to receive them basically?
>> yes. Need to declare these items as surplus and authorize us to donate them when the time is appropriate.
>> these items are retired inventory for Travis County?
>> yes. They were ready to be in auction. We actually pulled them out of the auction inventory.
>> and is it true that in fact we do not get a huge sum of money at these auctions, but the law irz ires the auctions sometimes to require the cost and sometimes we donate them.
>> the law donates us the sale and it also allows us to donate to other governmental entities. So this is our option. We average about $2,000 on vehicles when we go to auction.
>> okay. Move that we donate the -- from this list the vehicles that the mississippi officials notify us that they would like to receive and use.
>> second.
>> discussion? Is there a timetable on that? We hope to find out as soon as possible.
>> yes, sir, we're waiting to hear back from them.
>> you'll let us know as soon as that's accepted by the officials of mississippi?
>> part of my motion is to affect delivery unless it costs us a huge sum of money. If we have to take them there and we have a way to do that, then the motion is basically to get it done. Is that okay?
>> thank you.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Now, b, a bit more comprehensive.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners. I知 the executive manager for health and human services and veteran services. I first want to start by extending my thanks and appreciation both to health and human services staff and other staff of the county who have really rallied to help provide services at the convention center and now at the givens reactional center for hurricane katrina evacuees. The response to our request last Tuesday before you was really recognized and honored by our sister departments and we truly thank them for supporting us in this effort. In terms of the week behind us, health and human services has been able to efficiently manage assistance to the hurricane evacuees and also continue county functions uninterrupted. So we would have you know that all of the services to our constituents are continuing at the same level that you would expect. As of Monday morning, there were approximately 1,270 evacuees still in the convention center. Let me talk a little bit about numbers because we hear different numbers in the media, so let me talk a little bit about why those numbers are a little different. There is a count of the number of people who sleep at the convention center, there is a count of the number of people who eat lunch at the convention center, and then there was an original count of the people that our community agreed to accept in terms of sheltering. And so all of us are somewhat struggling with making those numbers mesh. The other thing is that we have some folks who started out at the convention center, but may have left and found their own housing, but are returning for services in some way. So all of those factors impact the count that you hear. But our best estimate is that there was approximately 4200 evacuees in our community, at the convention center and then potentially another 2,000 in our communities, in hotels, being sheltered by our residents, in nearby surrounding communities who have now come forward to connect with the red cross in Travis County. So all of these things would impact the count. We also -- we have a number of services that have been set up at the convention center and I think you all have received a list of the services that were set up. Yesterday there was a work fair, a job fair hosted by goodwill and work source, and the executive director of work source is here if you have any specific questions for her.
>> I have a specific question if you want to come up to the table because I知 going to ask them. Thanks.
>> I can stop now and let you --
>> no. Go ahead and finish with your presentation because I think you have some significant information that really need to be spread. I don't want to cut you short.
>> thank you, Commissioner. There have been significant services provided at the convention center all in an effort to connect the evacuees with some semblance of reality, and certainly we know housing and employment are the most important things to have them get their lives back on track. And so the work fair yesterday was a significant part of that. Other roles and initiatives that Travis County has been involved in include designing and distributing intake and referral forms. We've been going information and -- doing information and referral to agencies that could not have a presence at the convention center. We've been very active in coordination and communication between agencies and with the city of Austin. We've been helping with crowd control, assisting clients with accessing services and facilitating meeting so that on a daily basis we're able to make adjustments in our systems so that we continue to be responsive to the needs of the evacuees at the convention center. We have been also working -- we opened a career center at palm square actually and we have since closed that because we had a little problem with people wanting to walk there, but we did make those services available. And we've also been able to mobilize a food distribution process through all of our community centers for those folks in the community who either have been housed with our residents or who now have housing because of the efforts at the convention center, but still need just a little bit of help before they are totally self-sufficient. Some of the challenges that we continue to see and expect to continue to see for a while is we're finding that there are evacuees continuing to come to Austin. And what we're hearing is that apparently the systems that we've put in place have moved things along somewhat faster than other communities, so for that reason we have had folks wanting to come in and meet with fema here, meet with red cross here, so we're doing the best that we can to be responsive to that.
>> are we tracking where they're coming from? In other words, we have the san antonio evacuees, we have the ones in dallas, we have the ones in harris county, houston. Are we tracking where that influx of evacuees are coming from?
>> if they're using an address that they're going to be returning to, then my guess is that fema has that address. If they are using an address in the Austin or Travis County area, that would be the address that we would have regardless of where they came from. Because the evacuees are having to provide fema with a post office box or a bank routing number so that their benefits can be routed to them. And so it would depend on what their housing arrangement is whether or not we would have the address where they came from or the address where they're currently living at this moment. Okay? The availability of jobs, and I know shirley will be able to talk about that, the availability of affordable housing. And we had a conversation yesterday with the Austin housing authority, and there is some planning underway to potentially have a regional housing fair. We've had somewhat of a local Austin-Travis County housing fair, but now a regional housing fair may be in order. And we've actually had calls in from the Round Rock area and other sister counties saying that they do have housing stock available and would be interested in making it available to evacuees. Of course, continuing our food distribution, we saw a pickup in that after the job fair yesterday. We have folks who went to the convention yesterday for the palm square and then -- convention center yesterday for the job fair and then went to palm square for the food facilities. That's basically an update of where we are. We will be coming to you each week to let you know what the status of our work is with the evacuees, but there's been a tremendous outpouring of support from the community and just a tremendous team made up of the city of Austin employees, the Travis County employees and our social services agencies in our communities, so the response has been magnificent. And I値l turn it over to --
>> before you turn it over to shirley, let me back up a little bit. Yesterday I called you specifically to ask questions, especially this approach as far as housing is concerned. What project are we making looking in that regional approach sfag r. As far as other municipalities in Travis County, other than Austin, that we may afford opportunities of persons that are willing to participate in an effort to have these persons located into a housing initiative, wherever it may be? Where are we on that? I asked you that yesterday.
>> what I have heard from paul hilgers with the city of Austin is that planning is underway to take an inventory of the available housing stock outside of the Austin area, but within Travis County, but then also in the areas such as Williamson county and some of our surrounding counties that may have remaining housing property that might be available and accessible to the evacuees. Some of our surrounding counties did have a few evacuees in their area, so some of that housing stock may not continue to be available. We will be planning around that in the next few weeks.
>> all right. And that other question, follow-up question that I posed to you yesterday --
>> the medical?
>> not only the medical, but also making this available -- see, over at givens reaction center, I was looking at the operation, per se, talking to some of these evacuees and also talking to staff over at givens recreation. Looking at what fema is doing as far as the needs being met and I guess two months' stipend, looking at the money that's made available through the red cross to make sure that there are housing initiatives met with the stipends that some of these folks are receiving. My question then at that time, there was no -- it appeared to be a disconnect where the housing initiatives that are on the table already are not made available to the persons that are going to the red cross facility off of east 12th, 3700 block of east 12th at the givens reaction center. -- recreation center. So my challenge is to -- in speaking with the red cross officials and making sure that that disconnect is not there because we would love to have the housing initiative that's available because these folks that are coming here now for red cross are actually the persons that are housed out of the convention center, so they need location possibilities and that information is not available to the red cross at that particular setting. So my question to you is how are we going to transport available information that we have and are accumulating via city, county, whatever, to get it to this location where it will be readily available for the red cross as they approve questions for stipends of approval for housing needs. That's my question to you.
>> I shared that concern with paul hilgers with the --
>> what did he say?
>> he indicated that initially it was a staffing issue, but that they were uniquely aware of the need for housing personnel to be available at givens and that they were definitely working on it. On that end in also looking into some of our providers such as the Austin tennis council. It's my hope to call them today to see if they might be able to assist us with that as well. I think that have been targeted at the convention center have been really focused on the fact that that is not an ideal living situation for those individuals. And so a lot of our resources have been targeted at that area, but paul assured me that he was uniquely aware of that situation and would be trying to address it as quickly as his resources allow.
>> also in that regard and water and wastewater we come to close -- and as we come to closure in that regard, I want to have the availability of information. I think it's there, but it's a matter of getting to the source of the information. So in this meeting, this item concludes, I知 going to come back to you on the -- with your phone number, stuff like that, people out there that are looking at this will actually have access to this information that we're discussing here today.
>> and certainly agencies and organizations who are still looking for ways to help are encouraged to contact the united way's volunteer bank. The united way is actually sponsoring a meeting this morning to kind of check in on where we are with the assistance, what things are needed, and to see what resources remain available for us to tap into. So that's one way. In addition, city staff have been receiving those phone calls, and so I would suggest that those organizations who still want to help contact health and human services with the city of Austin. I don't have that number right in my head right now, but health and human services through the city of Austin has been coordinating the help at the convention center and also other tasks that folks have been wanting to do to assist the evacuees.
>> and before we go to this other person for the employment phase of this item in the agenda, can you tell me -- there were evacuees that I spoke to about medical needs. And I know there was -- there is -- if there's a shortage of medical -- I guess monies that's necessary. The red cross is supposed to do that also, but there was some persons that I did speak to yesterday, for example, that -- evacuees that are not -- appear to not be getting all of that attention that -- has that been addressed as far as the medical concerns? I知 speaking of the place on east 12th, givens recreation.
>> certainly when the evacuees first came into our area, one of the things that was a part of their welcome was medical triage and analysis of their basic needs, which included medical. There has been on-site at the convention center medical personnel. There is a trailer, a full-size trailer of cvs pharmacy staff there providing medications. If folks are needing prescriptions, eyeglasses, those types of things, and they are accessing red cross services at givens, then the appropriate funding is being provided to them to replace those items.
>> thank you. Well, this person was diabetic and they said they needed something immediately. So I said, hey, let's get with them.
>> there's nursing staff at givens to work with folks who have medical needs and then to ensure that the appropriate prescriptions are in place or the funding, either one, for them to receive any medications or other things that they need to manage a medical condition.
>> thank you.
>> ms. Knox?
>> I知 shirley knox, executive director of work source. First I want to compliment the city staff as well as the county staff and our community partners for all the work and dedication and compassion that all of our staffs have shown during the last several weeks. We did have a job fair in conjunction with goodwill yesterday at the convention center. We had over 700 attendees. We did also have our business community really step up and there were 150 employers there. We have a list of those employers if you're interested. We will also if necessary --
>> Travis County was one of the 150. I made sure of that.
>> also, if it's of my any assistance, if there are qualified individuals that can be of assistance to Travis County that have relocated temporarily here from that region, we do have funds we did receive, $1.2 million in national emergency grant funds that we'll be utilizing over the next several months to assist these individuals. Those funds can be utilized for pemp employment in public service employment projects such as disaster relief supporting shelter operations.
>> how does that work? I didn't mean to cut you off. How does that work?
>> how does it work?
>> in other words, you said receive $1.2 million for temporary da, da, da. How does that tie into public service?
>> well, an individual that is displaced and basically is treated as a dislocated worker here, they're eligible for unemployment insurance or emergency unemployment insurance, first of all. And next they can register for work with our career centers and register as an individual that has been displaced and falls into one of the categories which is basically most of the evacuees from that region, and then eligible individuals if they have the callfications, you -- qualifications, we could subsidize the county to hire someone for temporary placement with you as far as assisting with certain operations. That's one of the eligible factors.
>> well, looking at -- and I asked hr -- and I hope somebody is here from hr. Anyway, hrmd, because from what I understand, I requested to see how many vacancies may be available for Travis County. And from what I understand, there's about 128 vacancies on the current list. And that received funding. So what you're suggesting, if those persons that apply -- I was at the convention center yesterday and I did notice Travis County and I did pose a question to you, are we really receiving applicants from persons that are there. And the answer was yes, along with many of the other folks that was there at the work source and providing employment opportunities. But then the question did come to me, well, how many vacancies do we have for Travis County? And of course, I found out we had 128. And I知 just wondering would this kind of temporary situation fit in with what we have available?
>> the positions that are applicable to the relief system, yes. Your general positions, we could do training if you needed on the job training, but no. If there were in an area that was not directly related to relief for this population, then no. But if they need temporary assistance during the process.
>> the question to me -- go ahead.
>> I was going to say, in terms of the next steps, commission we are, we would certainly look at that. My staff will be getting together to look at long-term planning in terms of how we continue to support these individuals in our community for as long as we need to, and certainly as appropriate within county policy. And so this would be one of the things that my staff could certainly look at to identify if there are continuing projects related to disaster relieve that we might benefit from some expertise that might be available to us from that community. So my staff can certainly work with work source to determine if we have such projects available to take advantage of this special funding.
>> also, hrmd also. They're the ones that I need to hear from. And thank you for that, ms. Fleming, but hrmd, I知 looking at them and saying, wait, how can this fit into what we're doing?
>> Travis County was represented at the job fair yesterday afternoon. You had mentioned the vacancies here in Travis County. Routinely we post our vacancies weekly. We have a number of approximately 130 vacant positions that are posted. Applications were received yesterday, and based on the needs that were represented in our posted positions, so the applications received, we're in the process of screening those now to make those referrals to the departments with those vacant positions that they're recruiting for. So we will continue of course to work with workforce as well as health and human services on any employment placement related activities that we might be able to help facilitate.
>> so if there were evacuees who were employed in one of the affected areas who's here, then they may have a shot at emergency unemployment insurance?
>> they are eligible.
>> we just need to send them to one of the centers.
>> I have a handout that I致e left there on the table as well as supplied to health and human services and to the community action network and areas that give the numbers. We don't technically file unemployment insurance. We can help facilitate it. We definitely help them in their job search, which is the ultimate goal for them. So they do need to go to one of the centers eventually so they can register for, one, the national emergency training funds, if they are eligible as far as if they want to get training or they need child care assistance, transportation, other factors. So they do need to come to the centers and register. And they can also do that work online through work in Texas. On work in Texas we are posting all the jobs from the career fair as well as the other jobs that came in. We ran out of capacity at the job fair yesterday, so other employers that are interested are also encouraged to post their jobs with work in Texas so that individuals both from our community as well as the affected population can access that information and apply for those jobs.
>> okay.
>> I do have --
>> anything else, ms. Knox?
>> we do have a satellite center across the street. We tried the palm square and as sherri noted that didn't work out as well. We are collaborating with child inc. Also as far as the child care center across the street to try and help them make that available. We are on site as well?
>> across the street from the convention center?
>> across the street at second and trinity.
>> and we do have a satellite location also within the convention center. And we do -- we are handing out employment guides to give all the information on all of our centers and interviewing to the individuals that are affected and encouraging them to go to one of the career centers. We will hold another job fair if necessary. We're trying to give them a little bit thyme to get the rest of their lives in order. And the employers are interested in doing another one if necessary, but we do have 15 a year anyway that are open to any of these individuals as well as the community. And I think that's pretty much it.
>> do you have a website that you can publicly state at this time?
>> it's www.worksourceaustin.com.
>> the other thing I think is real important is that the focus was actually on hiring people. Employers with jobs that they were looking for people to fill. Not an academic exercise or an exercise on how to interview on what to wear. So I thought that was real important. That was stressed at the beginning and the employers apparently bought into it.
>> and we do have those types of seminars on an ongoing basis every week if individuals need assistance, if they need help in brushing up on interview skills. We encourage them to come to the centers.
>> thank you for coming down. Steve?
>> judge, Commissioners, I壇 like to speak to you today about an opportunity that we may have to help some hurricane evacuees and help Travis County at the same time. There was a fund called the county records management fund, and in that fund we're enjoying a surplus of $174,000. This is as a result of the way that the fy '06 budget played out and a larger than expected revenue stream in that fund. We've kept that fund at a little higher level of reserve as a result of not knowing how the off site storage records contract was going to play out. We thought we might need more of that money. As it turns out we think that we may not. And what I知 proposing is that we do the next thing that we would usually have in line to do with this money if we had extra, and that is to continue a long running project of microfilming district clerk civil case files. We have about 10,000 boxes of these files in storage, and this is an ongoing project. And what I知 proposing to Commissioners court is that we hire two temporary full-time employees with full benefits from the hurricane evacuees to continue this project.
>> two temporary persons to handle that?
>> yes.
>> is this a full year?
>> it would be full year. Total cost for this would be $75,268. That includes two staff members plus all the supplies required. We have the space, we have the equipment. It's fairly turnkey.
>> steve, at that deal yesterday did you -- were you there present?
>> no, I was not.
>> when we were going through the application process?
>> no. I thought I better pitch this to Commissioners court first.
>> this is real work that needs to be done, will get done by somebody. This is an opportunity to hire two evacuees if we can find them.
>> yes, sir. We've been doing this project for 15 years. At times if we've had a surplus we have contracted for this service as well. We have the expertise we can train. We would prefer experienced people, but we can train as well.
>> and that's a turnkey number including the amount from the state?
>> it is.
>> what happens if somebody comes, a citizen comes and says, I壇 like to have that -- I壇 vic to have that job? Is this specifically for the evacuees? So this is going to be slated as such? If somebody sees this posted or whatever, what happens when somebody comes to you and says, I live here and I致e been trying to get a job. What are you going to say?
>> I think I壇 like to defer that to legal. Do I -- I don't know whether I have the ability to do a set aside like that. I know that these are extraordinary circumstances and we'd like to help. That's my best answer.
>> we did have the Texas employment commission legal counsel who spoke at length yesterday, including distribution of a tape and a presentation. He spoke 30 minutes. But his position is that you could hold out certain jobs for the evacuee pool of applicants, that that was legal. And so it's not quite the same as walking out and grabbing somebody, but you can kind of target your audience, which is exactly what done yesterday. But I can share that information with legal or whoever wishes to see it. It's pretty informative. I had not seen some of those issues for years, but it touches on exactly what he's saying.
>> I was really hoping that these would be eligible for evacuees since they're temporary positions. And I can't tell yet whether they would turn into full-time, permanent employment. That would be based more on the fy '07 budget rather than the '06. It is possible that, but it's too early to tell.
>> we were looking at it for one year.
>> approval for one year, yes.
>> there are legal standards that we have to make sure we comply with. Pete? Anything new and different?
>> just a couple of quick issues from the state of Texas conference call is the push is on to try to start closing down shelters, move into permanent housing. The ultimate goal is by October 1st to have the majority of the shelter operations closed down. No one is going to be kicked out or forced out, but they're really pushing, finding either relocation, which is completely paid for, and/or the housing segment of it. So that push is going on. I have also spoken with the county auditor yesterday. We're going to go ahead and try to pull together a meeting later this week, the first of next week to discuss expenses and reimbursements, get all the departments involved so that way we're all on the same playing field as when we start this entire process. And that was really about it. I will reiterate one other thing that sherri said earlier about the number fluctuation and that we're still not certain on those because as of yesterday the city of houston found over 10,000 undocumented evacuees that had never registered with their center there. And so we know there are still pockets of them out there and that outreach is still going on to try to locate and make sure they get into the system so they can be part of the benefits.
>> pete, last week there were a number of folks, county staff who, based on sherri's call for assistance, wound up spending part or all of their workday over in the convention center being part of this effort. Do we need to make sure that -- is that something that is going to be logged in as counting toward the direct relief effort and do we need to make a special effort to get the word out to the impacted departments to code timesheets appropriately for at least the possibility of turning that stuff in?
>> we've asked any effort based upon assisting, sheltering, medical, anything to do with assisting the hurricane evacuees, to keep that, track that time, expenses, anything involved. As I talked with the county auditor yesterday and we were both a little concerned about the fact is that some of the rules change as you go downstream on what is eligible and what is not. But it is so much better to go ahead and capture everything up front and have that available instead of trying to go back and recreate it.
>> judge?
>> yes, sir.
>> pete, in an effort -- I mentioned last week that I attended a meeting on east 11th street with several group leaders, ministers, persons who brought forth a lot of attention to work with individual families to try to find them housing and a whole lot of other needs that's out there in the community. And in response to that we brought along the latest and greatest with what the county is doing working with the city of Austin as a combined effort, we shared all of this information with the persons that were in the meeting last week, but there is still a grassroots effort to make sure that we can do all of these things as far as -- especially, pete, I guess you brought up making sure about a deadline. We have all of these persons in housing situations other than the convention center, which is a way to go, but I壇 like to maybe mention one of the grassroots organizationed that was there and also a link to their e-mail because they are asking for volunteers to do just what pete has suggested and what we've been suggesting, that is, finding individual housing, finding housing situation to accommodate the evacuees. So that particular link is mrloftontalkshow@bcglobal.ne t. And that's mr. Lofton talk show at sbc global.net. And this is a grassroots effort to make sure we get the housing and other needs to the evacuees. It's called community action development and assistance corporation. So that organization that's in place there, if we did e-mail them, this organization, thank you again for e-mailing that from the county's perspective and also hand delivered by one of your staff person to the particular leaders who are also trying to assist in this. So we are needing as much help as we possibly can to make sure that we accommodate them as much as possible. And judge, I guess as far as the opinion from the Texas workforce commission that has stated that we can -- we tried to get a legal opinion on that to make sure that what they were suggesting is the same thing that we can do it. But steve brought up another thing as far as assisting employment opportunities for the evacuees.
>> I think steve ought to chat with the county attorney's office. I値l give him the information that I receive later today.
>> okay. Thanks, judge.
>> my concern is still -- we kind of talked about it last week. It is not real clear what fema will reimburse and will not. As you start hearing rumors out there and discussions, one of the latest things that we heard is that they will not be reimbursing personnel costs. I don't know if that means on your regular payroll or if you've got your people working extra hours to do that, they won't reimburse that. But having said that, last week you indicated in response to my question did we expect county offices to stay within their budget. And you indicated yes. That county department should not just assume you spend whatever you want because team ma is going to reimburse that because we don't have that kind of understanding yet from fema. So I think departments should be real careful that whatever ending fund balance they said they were going to turn back and the budget office has figured in the revenue estimate, if there are significant changes in that, they really need to come to court so that you know that. Because unfortunately 15, 16 days from now we'll be closing our books, budgets have to be balanced and we can't be posting a big receivable out there saying fema is going to pay us, unless we have some legal documentation that indeed they have an obligation to do that. So we need to keep track, but we also have to be careful that we are not making an incorrect assumption that whatever we spend will automatically be reimbursed by fema and then have a disappointing reaction if they don't. It's hard for me to contemplate being a numbers person in government that fema has any concept of what this entire thing is costing, and can say categorically we're going to pay for this or that as these things start coming in. We need to be careful.
>> okay. We'll have this item back on next week in case we need it.
>> excuse me, judge. I did have a phone number. You asked earlier for a phone number, if I may. To volunteer, the red cross is 929-1225. And work through the city of Austin, 974-2200. Thank you.
>> thank y'all for doing this.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, September 14, 2005 9:23 AM