Travis County Commissioners Court
October 11, 2005
Item 26
26. Consider and take appropriate action to: a. Enter into an interlocal agreement with the city of Austin and other transportation agencies for cost participation in a mobility plan study (phase 2 toll study); and b. Appoint a member to the steering committee, and a proxy. We previously decided to participate in this effort and to contribute $25,000. Since we last discussed it, it really has -- I think become more a campo and partners study than city of Austin, with the city of Austin being one of the main partners, is that an accurate characterization, joe.
>> yes, sir.
>> I think that's important. So the interlocal should be a no brainer. We have just been waiting to receive it. I was told as late as yesterday, though, that there were one or two changes that would be made. Do you know what those changes are?
>> I believe the scope of work is still to be finalized.
>> [indiscernible]
>> go ahead.
>> I guess my concern is that well I guess if the scope of work is still yet to be finalized I guess that may take care of the question. But going through that I -- this has been on our radar screen for a while, looking for beginning and completion dates, all of this other kind of stuff is really not a part of this. And -- and if someone is going to do a study, it just appears to me that -- that there has to be some time frame they need to work within. The beginning date, completion date. And I don't know if that -- if that is the scope of work that's still part of what we are doing here or what they will be doing, it just appears to me that someone ought to be discussing that. You know, how long is it going to take? Seeing that we are partners with several other -- other folks, the city of Austin, Williamson county, Travis County, city of Round Rock, folks like that. So it's kind of -- has that question been posed in that --
>> I have asked, I have called but I was not able to get an answer to that question. I知 sure that when they contract to have this study done that there will be a term in the contract for the -- for the scope of work. I was just not able to find out how many months a -- the consultant will have to finish his study.
>> you have got several people on board. I guess somewhere along the line there has to be an answer I guess.
>> yes. As soon as I get that answer, I will pass that on to you.
>> the steering committee made up representatives from the different entities and they are supposed to guide this. In addition to the steering committee, at -- at a working level, there should be a technical committee where the governmental entity is -- entities participating will basically provide technical staff. So like the designee from Travis County, one is supposed to sit on the steering committee and -- and the -- look like Commissioner limmer from Williamson county, hays, judge powers, representative krusee is supposed to be on there, representative strama, two legislators, [indiscernible] from txdot, a Travis County representative and councilmember mccracken thinks that he and betty dunkerly will represent the city of Austin, they are supposed to make that decision Thursday of this week. So the steering committee is supposed to have a lot of say-so about the scope of work as well as the completion date. But there will be a -- they will be in a policy making decision and the technical committee is supposed to basically make sure that the consultant's carry out the work. Cyd myers is supposed to serve like the project manager and in the end it's supposed to be presented to campo and the participants and we are ultimately making the call. About the myriad of the study and what we do in response. So --
>> we've kind of been looking at this for the last six months. We've prepared it slowly. I know that the campo looked at a scope of work and tweaked it. It must have been at least 90 days ago. And all of the participating entities had an opportunity to review that as well as provide input before making a financial commitment. Now, there is a sort of preliminary scope of work, pages 1 through 4. I知 assuming at some point that will be put in final form. We will have an opportunity to look at that I know before the consultant signs the contract. They've got $354,000 here, which can be a lot of money to get a whole lot of substantive work, beneficial work done if we do it properly. And our contribution is 25,000.
>> my understanding is that all of the listed parties have budgeted for their participation in the agreement, but none of the entities have yet signed the interlocal agreement. They're all scheduled to review and approve either this week or within the next two weeks.
>> maybe we should give tentative approval to the tentative documents today and indicate that when the final document is prepared the Commissioners court would like an opportunity to review and act on it.
>> is there anything you would like to convey to the city of Austin at this point because it's still in the process of being developed and this would probably be the appropriate time to make your comments as opposed to once the final draft comes back. I suspect that all the entities are looking at the scope at this point and trying to decide what is actually going on and how they feel about the questions being asked.
>> I don't have any. I gave mine to campo. I understand if we have recommendations that we ought to send them to campo and trma. So I don't have any.
>> would you, joe? Would you have anything to add to the scope?
>> it just appears that some of the questions being asked are somewhat leading questions, I guess is the best way to put it. I知 not sure I壇 pay a consultant this type of money to answer those kind of questions. The kind of presumption is the answers you already know and is it a matter of having the consultant try to verify the answer. And that's somewhat a waste of money in my opinion. It's going to be a -- if it's going to be a study, there ought to be some serious research being done about legitimate questions. And not try to lead the consultant to a predetermined conclusion. So I知 concerned about the scope and the leading nature of the scope at this point.
>> do we need to take another week? Let you and your staff take a look at this?
>> I壇 be happy to give you my comments.
>> in the meantime I will find out today who you should give your comments to in addition to the Commissioners court between now and next Tuesday. I don't know -- I wasn't really left with the impression that serious work would be done on this scope between now and then. My thinking was that the agreements would be in place, then the steering committee and technical staff would meet with the consultants and finalize it at that point. But if we have comments to give as early as next week, then I think we ought to do it.
>> so your role is --
>> I think I just found a role here. I壇 be happy to do that on behalf of the court.
>> I think there's no way to get around you and some of your staff serving on the technical advisory committee. To you see what I知 saying? I see the steering committee as meeting once a month, but the technical advisory committee may be working a lot more closely with the consultant. The consultant has been selected. The city of Austin did that months and months ago. And I know they have done some work; I don't know how much. But a technical advisory committee from the participating governmental entities is crucial.
>> so joe, is that enough time for you to come up with some answers or some suggestions to address some of the elements within the scope of work of the interlocal?
>> I can certainly -- I think part of what I知 trying to get my hands around is what the Commissioners court would want out of this study. And perhaps I should visit with you individually to answer that better. I知 looking at it purely from a technical view, but there may be specific interests that you want wanting answers about the toll study that I知 not aware of. So I want to make sure ha the Commissioners court gets out of the study what you want out of the study because it can be scoped and rescoped to do that.
>> then what do we want out of it for the region?
>> there's a lot of issues imbedded in this. And there's a lot of agencies participating in it, so it seems like -- and the other thing, I guess we have to be careful of is feature creep or scope creep where you have more questions than you have money to pay for. All those things need to be in balance f you're going to pay $350,000, you need something in is scope to answer that. If you lead the consultant into an open-ended question you can add up a bunch of money real quick.
>> that's why I look forward to the work of the technical advisory committee. , somewhere it appears to me that the other elected officials, according to those who may be participating in this study, there may be just that type of scrutiny on scope of work that may come back that may alter this thing. And as you stated, judge -- joe, that would maybe escalate the cost of this particular project as it exists today and then maybe it exists after that scrutiny has been applied. So I知 interested in seeing also what the folks in hays county and Williamson county and the city of Austin and ctr and all these other folks of saying -- and if we've gone to look at it from a regional perspective, we're all still part of the region. Travis County is a part of that region also. So it would be good to see exactly what we put on the table. So I just think it needs to be looked at a little more.
>> you'll contact individual members of the court for their input?
>> yes, I will.
>> we'll have it back on next week.
>> thank you, joe.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Wednesday, October 11, 2005 4:42 PM