Travis County Commissioners Court
October 4, 2005
Item 6
Item 6, receive update and take appropriate action on Travis County assistance to persons affected by hurricane katrina.
>> I can be brief on that. Just a reminder to the court that your waiver of the residency policy continues until November the 8th. T-ts department's intent to provide you a comprehensive report on October 18th and hopefully at that time we will be able to share with you whether we recommend that it continues past that date or if we feel comfortable having that November 8th date come and have that policy waiver expire.
>> so far except for the food pantry, am I right to conclude that few evacuees have taken advantage of that waiver?
>> yes, you are correct. And that would be due to the fact that they currently have red cross vouchers for rent and many should be receiving their fema assistance now. So by the time we feel like, you know, if there should become a crunch, it will be at a time when we would surely consider these folks residents of our community.
>> and I think some of these also providing assistance and budgeting, the limited amount of money they have so they can make it really stretch as much as possible.
>> yes, we are engaging folks with our social work team, as many as we can get into our existing schedule so that residents who are new to our community feel that they have some support and connection to resources, not only those that we can provide but those that are available across the community.
>> okay. Did you --
>> just one question. Have we been able to track the amount of -- I think Commissioner Daugherty had this question before too, but track the amount of expenditures that Travis County has experienced to date on serving the katrina evacuees? Has that -- how are we going to come about this is what it really end up costing Travis County. Not that we're going to get reimbursed, I’m just looking for what really Travis County has done. We've done a heck of a lot with a lot of volunteers out there in the community volunteer a lot and put a lot of time in this, but as far as actual moneys that we know we have expended and whether it be personnel overtime or a whole bunch of other things. Has there been any running of the numbers to say this is what Travis County put on the table to assist in this particular challenge?
>> I think the pay cycle where the documentation would hit would have been just this last one that we've just completed. And so I would imagine that surely by the 18th when we give you a more comprehensive report we will be able to tell you how much staff time we invested along those lines, but I think that documentation probably just went in this last week.
>> we have everything -- all expenses, our personnel time, equipment, everything else that was associated with the assistance of the katrina evacuees have been coded with a single code. We have not gathered up all of that simply because one reason we've had each of the departments holding on to their expenses making sure they coded them, but we have not yet had the applicant briefing by fema because we had rita right there. So I mean we're doing -- you know, we're further behind than what we normally would be, but we should be able to give you a good solid number within the next couple of weeks without any problem. What we will be submitting as eligible expenses.
>> okay, thank you.
>> so we need these back on then?
>> I would put them on, judge, in the event there is something we need to discuss. If not, we can let you know that we can pass on them.
>> okay.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, October 5, 2005 8:54 AM