Travis County Commissioners Court
February 7, 2006
Item 31
Anyone here on 31? What if I take another week on it. I was a little bit confused myself, we were dealing with -- with two Travis County historical commission projects, one of them we basically had an earmark of $4,000, that was the one in manor, Texas not this one. On this one, there's supposed to be an in-kind contribution, which -- which the project believes it can generate. But the question for -- for both of them, I guess for this one before us, is exactly how do we implement it, whether there's a contract required, we sort of treat the historical commission as part of Travis County. But in this case the historical commission would be working with community residents in order to implement it and I guess they will be providing the in kind services. Right?
>> yes, sir.
>> so -- so have we worked that out.
>> I just got a call yesterday afternoon from the auditor's office saying I needed to come and listen to this item because some of the terms of the grant talk about a competitive solicitation which we would be glad to assist, oversee like we normally do. I do sign-off on the historical commission's contracts, so that's why I’m here. Mr. Hutchinson is with the historical commission and I’m not sure if he can shed some light on us and if normally these go through p.b.o., I thought. To come before court. So I -- you know, I --
>> if you don't have any objection --
>> I don't know who put the item on the commission's agenda.
>> I did. The county judge did. Is there a plan?
>> yes, sir. Barry hutchinson, Travis County historical commission chair. You are correct in -- in that there are two grants pending, one is this grant has been awarded by historical commission as just waiting to be signed to -- to be accepted so that we can begin a survey project in east Austin. The other in manor has been applied for and -- we should hear something from -- from historical commission expecting this month. So that's the one that's still pending but it's probable. As far as the -- the grant for the east Austin survey, that is to be, as we are understanding, this is our first attempt at working through these -- these certified local government grants, those moneys would be appropriated or -- or initial moneys would be paid for through the county and reimbursed and the other part of the grant would be reimbursible -- I mean would be in kind by offering by the community members.
>> two big issues. One is whether the county will agree to -- to really advance the $4,000 to implement this and then get reimbursed by the state.
>> that's correct.
>> two is that a -- big question is how do -- what is the record keeping protocol to satisfy the state's requirement that there be a $3,000 in kind contribution, 33 -- 3, 3500, typically we required some kind of invoicing before we advance cash to implement. So the last couple of days we were trying to work that out, but actually the contract that I got covers this one. Not the manor situation where we earmarked the money. This one doesn't involve any cash. It will simply involve Travis County advancing the money but making sure that there's appropriate record keeping for us to get reimbursed and for us to -- to satisfy the state's requirement that the in kind contributions are made. Seems to me that it probably makes a lot more sense for me to try to work with our folk and get it done. P.b.o. Did say basically it has no problem and it approves it. And --
>> [indiscernible]
>> yeah? Right. I have been working with the auditor trying to figure out what we can do and I didn't realize myself that on a lot of this we treat the historical commission just like we would another county department.
>> yes, sir.
>> mr. -- what was his name that passed away?
>> lloyd advance.
>> mr. Advance was -- mr. Vance was the one working with ms. Hankins who was president, we chatted and basically gave the project a green light. Just before implementation we lost -- we lost boyd vance who passed away. So the contract from the state came a few days ago. Let's try to do that, figure a way to get it done, a way to give the court written backup. But I am glad -- are you the new president?
>> yes, sir.
>> okay. Let's do that, make sure that we have everything in place with this. Okay?
>> okay.
>> thank you.
>> thanks for coming down.
>> we will have this one on next week.
>> if there are other questions, I should be sure to address, please let me know. The thing about -- I think that the state -- attached to the contract was paperwork that they required and so we need to make sure that we have somebody on board to complete that. And I think the auditor's preference is that we have somebody at the county to complete that rather than -- rather than community volunteers.
>> for the reimbursement costs.
>> right.
>> to make sure that that paper is in order. As far as meeting their requirements.
>> absolutely.
>> okay. So we got two big question marks really. One is the reimbursement part. The other thing is documentation of the in-kind contribution. The state has sort of end entwined them. My guess is they would want to see strong evidence before they release the 4,000 bucks. But this project has been in the works for two or three years, so ... Okay, we will have it back on then.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, February 8, 2006 10:44 AM