Travis County Commissioners Court
March 28, 2006
Item 37
We have our health and human services staff here with us, so let's go directly into item number 37. And if I could just pass those down while Davis is passing his out. The county judge had a couple of ideas yesterday, and there's an extra copy here for -- extra two copies, david, for the four of y'all out there. And number 37 is to consider and take appropriate action on the following planning requirements for community development block grant funding from h.u.d. A, potential projects and project direction. B, citizens participation plan. That's b. C, setting of public hearings to receive public comments on April 11, 17, 20, 24, 26, 27, all those of April, and may 2nd, 2006. And d would be other related issues. Afternoon.
>> good afternoon, judge, Commissioners. Sherri fleming, executive manager for Travis County health and human services and veterans service. And we are here again to continue our process of walking you through our preparation to receive the allocation from the housing and urban development department for the community development block grant funds that we have been deemed eligible for. We have a brief presentation for you to set the context of the citizen plan that you will be approving, so we will go immediately into that. The mission of cdbg -- I thought we were having some technical problems. Basically cdbg is intended for activities that address decent housing, suitable living environment, economic opportunity for persons of low and moderate income in the unincorporated areas of Travis County. Upon approval of our consolidated plan, Travis County will have a federally mandated responsibility for community development needs of low and moderate income families in those unincorporated areas. I think we've provided you with an additional copy of the time line that might be a little bit easier to read. Cdbg funding comes to us with a very stringent -- with very stringent regulations. In order to receive the allocations, substantial research assessment, planning and public participation activities must first be implemented. After our consolidated plan is submitted we will then go into putting together processes to comply with the performance reporting that is required for this grant. The time line that you have before you illustrates the major milestones that we anticipate must be accomplished in order for us to meet the August deadline. One of the first steps in that time line it the citizen participation plan that we have submitted for your review and we'll discuss in more detail in just a minute. The eligible cdbg activities, we've depicted there in the pie chart, but basically cannot be used to carry out regular responsibilities of government or used for operating and maintenance expenses, emergency expenses or given to religious bodies or religious facilities. We certainly want to reduce as much as possible the administrative cost of this program, but you can see that 20% of the funding is designated for administration and planning for use and disbursement of the funding. There's another 15% that can be used for public services and basically in that category that would include public facilities and services including labor and supplies for social service activities that are brand new or significantly increase the level of service and construction or rehabilitation of public facilities such as homeless shelters. And then the final 65% would be development activities and examples of those such as roads, wastewater systems, housing activities, nonprofit activities related to neighborhood revitalization projects, energy conservation, economic development activities by governments, nonprofits or for profit businesses. So those are some of the examples of what projects would meet the regulations. Last week and throughout the last week we received from you comments regarding your interest as we move forward in attempting to identify the needs in our community and looking at projects that might qualify for the expenditure of these funds. What we've heard from you thus far is that you would like to see us be innovative and not to replicate investments that you're already involved in to build capacity for ves increased or expanded services, treat cdbg as one time money or use it in phases. To use needs assessment, to drive the projects, for example, those that have been done by the community action network, sustainability indicators or others in our community. To consider economically disenfranchised areas for colonias as a priority. You have also asked us to be shawr to look at addressing water and wastewater issues including septic tanks and lack of running water in certain areas throughout the county. Our rehabilitation of buildings for a.d.a. Accessibility such as construction of wheelchair ramps, consider projects that would ensure that the money will be spent in a timely manner. To look at housing opportunities for low income families and then services that might impact the elderly. So these have been kind of a summary of the comments that you provided us thus far. I know that the judge has just provided some comments, to I’ll stop and give him an opportunity to discuss his if he would like.
>> well, thank you, ms. Fleming. [ laughter ] what I did was look at the list of eligible categories from the backup, and I try to list a bit more specific stuff. What I missed here that I think we need to be mindful of is the whole mental health deal. As I was thinking, I cannot recall a homeless shelter in an unincorporated area, can you?
>> not off the top of my head, no?
>> so I kind of left that off. So the expansion of rural health centers to meet needs of indigent children and senior citizens. And unmet means either we could take in something for the first time or change something that already exists. I don't know that I have anything more specific in mind for that, but I know that's an area of need. Expand innovative initiatives to provide public health services to address chronic diseases identified in the basic needs assessment which was identified in one of the c.a.n. Assessment as well as part of the Travis County health assessment. Chronic illnesses basically is a thing there and also public health. Expand energy, conservation projects for seniors and low and moderate income residents and really our weatherrization is real good, roofing, foundation, some of the more substantial conservation projects will be very important. And when I think about senior citizens, some have septic system needs. Others have needs like roof, foundation, windows, all of that fits under the energy conservation strategy of Austin energy. And also the Travis County weatherization program to my knowledge. Transportation for seniors and low and moderate income residents who are not now served by carts and capital metro. That's a big need to surface not only for the evacuees, but also in meetings that I’ve had with senior citizens. They all claim that they really have a hard time getting to doctor's appointments. And apparently carts does not cover all of these. I thought carts was a lot more comprehensive, but I guess carts has a service area too, right?
>> because of urbanization in the area, it has kind of knocked out a lot of service that carts can deliver.
>> the last meetings I’ve had, everybody has complained about this. And when I asked them, it's because I was complaining about somebody going here and then over there. Their thing is they can meet at one location if necessary, if they know transportation will be there. So that's the way to pick that up. Moving more quickly, assist with construction of water and wastewater improvements for economically distressed areas of Travis County. I added when other funding is not available. In my view we ought to maximize other funding to the extent that we can. Construct public works projects that address basic infrastructure needs such as substandard roads, drainage improvements, sidewalks, etcetera. Eligible activities when other funding is not available. On some of these that we learned from north ridge acres is if you reach out and try to touch some of the other agencies with funding, try to work within their guidelines, it's amazing how much they can help you. But then we will have cdbg money available to assist because very few of them will fund the project 100%.
>> judge, isn't that what's happened up in Williamson county? They were accessing cdbg dollars, so we've seen that's a very good example.
>> right, very good example. And on that one too we may be looking at still trying to raise $150,000. Which will get up to about 1.4, 1.3 million, I think. 1.8 million. So it's amazing how much these things cost once you get in there and try to do them right.
>> judge, I guess my question is if Travis County is getting the cdbg money, then do you mean if we find a project we make application to capco and tdhca for another grant to deal with that project?
>> the cost of these projects can get to be substantial. So what I’m suggesting -- in a whole lot of cases if you go out and john doe needs a septic system, it may be what we need to put in place is a cluster of systems or maybe we need to give them a water and wastewater system where they plug on to some utility system. So -- but you'll address it on a case-by-case basis. In that case I would look around and try to figure out what other federal funding is available, state funding is available for the same kind of project. And then try to access that. But if it's not there, it's not there.
>> I guess my question is the fact that we're getting cdbg money, doesn't that keep us from applying for more cdbg grants?
>> not unless the amount has increased substantially. $2.4 million is a lot of money, but I have in mind doing more than one project a year.
>> I wonder what that means.
>> it means we would pursue other funding to augment this. The state programs on north ridge were not cdbg. Just Williamson county is. So 90% of that is non-community block development. Williamson county we went to them and said, look, half of this or more than half of this subdivision is in Williamson county. They looked around and the community block development money is what available. It addresses issues such as thvment.
>> other than cdbg.
>> judge, if I make comment just on that point, we are encouraged to partner with other jurisdictions who have cdbg money, so if we're working on a joint project, each of us can ante up a certain portion of our cdbg money to address that project. They're also federal grants now that because we are a cdbg recipient, we are now eligible to apply for those different pots of money. So there is opportunity for other funds to be accessed now that we're a part of the cdbg process.
>> one of their first questions is what are you bringing to the table? So if we're bringing our cdbg money there, we've got a lot more leverage.
>> judge, coy have you go back to venture very first one for one moment here. When we talk about the rural health centers, the medical component of that has been transferred over to the hospital district. Do you mean the unmet public health needs? Because public health remained with Travis County, but medical needs of the medically indigent, all that stuff got shifted along with tax base and the facility over to the hospital district.
>> one and two may easily be put together.
>> it's more than meet unmet needs, it's more unmet public health needs because public health remains with Travis County as being our responsibility.
>> one and two may be read together. Here's my difference.
>> I see, that one and two. I was looking at one and two --
>> the one right below.
>> I get it know r. Now.
>> we can expand our facility with cdbg money ksz , but you wouldn't want to do it unless you had a program in it. But if you had an area to put some public health stuff.
>> got it.
>> okay. Moving on real quickly, improve housing obtained through tax foreclosures. And I’ve got in mind multi-family. We started working on it one time with the city of Austin looking at st. John's and some other places. We never really moved on that, but it's one area where we may be able to do some good and meet housing needs. Workforce development fund pilot initiative to provide remedial education to high school dropouts and provide job placement assistance. Second part of that pilot initiative to train ex-offenders. Recruit employers to hire them and provide job placement assistance have got to be residents of unincorporated areas that meet these. As far as I know, we do it with the city of Austin in project rio, but probably mostly in the city of Austin. And so it may be just a matter of expanding a piece of it into unincorporated areas of Travis County. The goal there is to try to make productive citizens out of some of those with the sort of stigma that has caused employers to reject them. The other thing that I didn't put here is mental health, especially on the housing component. It seems to me that if we move and expedite the release of mental health client, they need a stable housing situation and we need to try to partner with all of the others, including Austin Travis County mhmr and try to -- if there's any kind of housing in uncorporated areas that need improvement on for mental health clients, I think it will be something that we can look at. We will be providing a piece -- we won't have to go out there and take the lead on it, but we benefit because getting mental health clients released is just part of them. And I think in community will do something for the crisis services, but the question then is what do we do from keeping it from that level and what do we do after we stabilize them and make them fit for the free world? Something hoos got to be out there. So those are my ideas. The other thing is I am still left with the impression that what hood h.u.d. Wants to know is what programs do you have in mind? And then we pull from our list there. And what we prioritize is fine with me. I think we need to leave the impression, we've got a whole lot of need here and we can well spend this money.
>> judge, I thank you for this. And I know that the last time we reviewed and discussed this particular issue, you requested that we by Thursday send you a list a list of the things that we thought we could include in this particular project that we felt very strongly about and also felt that the cdbg funds would cover. A lot of these things here are some of the things that I know that we've submitted. And the emergency assistance program that I know we're using, we get a lot of calls for senior citizens. Some of the things that I mentioned in my list of a lot of things that we had submitted to go forward as far as today discussing concern. And even in the colonias situation, there are some innovative things that can be done in these depressed economic areas along with the disability as far as ramps and a lot of other things that were mentioned in all that correspondence that I’ve moved to make sure they get the attention. I see the judge has since hit on a lot of these things and it's all encompassed here in this particular recommendation that he's made, but I tried to get my stuff in there in a timely manner on Thursday, and a lot of the things in here are the same suggestions and we seem to be in the same mindset on a lot of these things, which is good. And as far as the needs coming from this community, as far as the things I’ve been hearing from the poorest of the poor, and that have continued to ask us for assistance. And lord knows we want to help everybody that we possibly can, but the funds haven't been able to really extend this type of service to the community. So again, I applaud you for what you brought forward this morning, this afternoon.
>> and help me. We have a list that harvey had put together?
>> yes, judge.
>> I only missed our deadline by four days, so I’m getting better. [ laughter ]
>> we do appreciate the court for submitting your ideas.
>> I missed my deadline by four days! [ laughter ]
>> did we get an answer to the question about how does annexation fit into any and all of this in terms of taking what we say start as an eligible project? Let's use good old north ridge because it's unincorporated Travis County right now, but miracles can happen, it could get annexed. How does some of this stuff get complicated or not complicated? Do they let you finish what you started or what?
>> christie moffett, Travis County health and human services and veteran services. There's a lot of anti-displacement regulations that we're kind of trying to go through, and also seek some clarification from h.u.d. To make sure that we give you the correct answer. And so we are in the process of getting that information together and getting clarification to give to you.
>> very good. I think as we go down the list, annexation is going to be an issue out there, and because of state law you've got to be on a three-year horizon list. So anyway...
>> areas like creedmore are getting their grants as well, cdbg grants. So we would be able to -- if there was a possibility to contract with them, partner with them on projects as well.
>> and I just want to finish up this part by saying that these comments that we gather from you don't commit you in any way to any particular project. It just gives us an opportunity as staff to share with your constituents some of the areas that you have interest, and so that is purely what we want to do is be able to communicate that these are some of the things that have come up as interest of the court as we listen to the needs and ideas of your constituents. So I’m going to pass you over now to meg who is going to talk with you about the next slide on how the projects are going to be prioritized.
>> I want to just kind of walk you quickly through the flow chart. We made this to try to give you a better context of how after we've collected all these project ideas how this is going to work. And this is all of course regulated and generally all counties do this the same way where you have a scoring may trick. So I wanted to take the opportunity to walk you through it. Basically you've already given us a lot of ideas for both the general guidelines and specific projects, and then we're also going to be getting some suggestions in public hearings and surveying in doing the needs assessment. All those ideas are going to go to the list of possible projects which will then be reviewed as far as the feasibility of how well they really match hud's national objectives, the regulations and the eligible activities. And we're actually thinking at this point it might be a good time to bring the cdbg committee that was formed with the different departments to sort of review and have a review process. That committee might eventually turn into an advisory form or we might form a cdbg advisory board to review some of the projects for eligibility. After that it goes into the scoring matrix. We haven't yet identified the specific categories that are going to go into that matrix, but some of the thing are going to be if it meets the overarching investment strategies that you've identified, benefits, low to moderate income residents. If it leverages other funding the project impact should be considered and also if it really addresses the priorities that we identify in the needs assessment through the consolidated planning process. So all of those things will be assigned points and ranked. And then it should be pretty clear what comes out as the priority projects. And this will be done every year with a yearly action plan. Another thing to note is that other considerations that we might want to think about while prioritizing projects is that some projects, because of the nature of the construction, have a lot of administrative overhead due to extra certifications and assurances. So whapses is they may be prohibitive, especially in our early years of the grant, due to how much that would cost us administratively to execute those kind of projects. And if we're getting about $2.5 million we don't want to spend $100,000 figuring out how to do one project. So it's that kind of an issue that we want to make sure and use the funds very wisely in that way. So they might be good projects, but they may not make as much fiscal sense early on with the current allocation we're receiving.
>> let me stop you for a second there because I want to make sure I’m hearing what I thought I heard and not something else. When we talked about going through the scoring matrix, I still want to make sure for the next Commissioners court that there is still a flexibility left to the Commissioners court to decide what its projects are that they want to choose. This is not like going through our pqrs, whatever, related to purchasing and you win the matrix an that's who is going to be doing that particular road project. There seems to be -- it seems like there still needs to be, even if you come up with like the top three ranked projects, the ability for a Commissioners court to say, do you know what, number two seems more pressing. It's like they all meet the eligibility of saying these are really cool projects, but to leave it to the discretion of the court to say you know that's the one we need to move on on this one or that's the one we need to move on that one as opposed to there's some formula. There's got to be some discretion and thought and other considerations that come in because some stuff always comes up that just makes your matrix not work right.
>> right. I think that's an excellent point.
>> you weren't wanting to take politics out of this, were you? [ laughter ]
>> that is an excellent point, Commissioner Sonleitner. What we would anticipate is that we would take the projects through the scoring mechanism and you would certainly have those that rank highest, but we would present you with a list of everything that is submitted as a project. And so the court, much as it does during the budget process, has the flexibility to follow its rankings or to go completely off of its rankings to consider projects to go forward for funding. So yes.
>> and I don't want to disregard the scoring matrix because I think that will be important, but I know as we go through campo as we look for various projects, if you make the cut to be the top 10 projects, you've already accomplished quite a bit, but that does leave the discretion then to which of the top 10 projects. There are still projects that ranked 11 through 31 or whatever it is. Those kind of do fall off the map. It's a blended strategy is all I’m saying.
>> right. And the only caveat would be that a project off the matrix would have to meet the h.u.d. Guidelines for us, absolutely.
>> thank you.
>> I think christie is going to go into now the actual citizen participation plan that we will need -- we will need you to give notice of action for next -- for your next Commissioners court session.
>> okay. This is the participation plan, outlines the notification procedures by which the residents, public agencies and other interested parties will be notified at public hearings and if the opportunity is available and the public can comment on their needs, plan use of funds also performance of all cdbg funded projects. And so in just a bulletted format, what you have is basically this is some participation plans that says we're going to post public notices of hearings. At least 14 days prior to the date of the hearing in multiple locations within the precincts. And local newspapers, other publications, radio stations and other service agencies serving people with those needs. Also, the plan identifies that we'll hold public hearings at three important points during the grant process. The first in making sure the participants are able to put in their input of needs and also to review the consolidated plan and then finally to review and comment on our performance of our cdbg funds. The initial meetings at the Commissioners court will be held in the traditional public hearing format and while hearings in each of the precincts will be in a structured format as an information session with facilitated discussion and decision making regarding participant needs. And finally Travis County will document and report all public comments in its final consolidated submission. All public comments will be considered when feasible and beneficial, preceding final approval of the Travis County Commissioners court. I do have a couple of amendments on the draft that you received on Thursday. And if you can take a look at page 4 under section e, response to public comments, the second sentence in the first paragraph that begins with at the end of that week, we actually would like to take that out completely.
>> which page am I on?
>> page 4.
>> you're looking now at the consolidated plan.
>> should be in your backup.
>> and what the sentence states is -- on page 4 of 9, section e, the second sentence in the first paragraph, at the end of that week a public hearing will be held at the regularly scheduled Tuesday voting session of the Commissioners court we're asking that that be taken out. We are going to be posting the plan on the website and we'll be allowing for comments in that manner, and that falls within the regulations that h.u.d. Provides for us. The ear change that we would like to add is we confirmed some of the dates and availability from some of the community centers and other sites we're going to be holding public hearings. And so we've provided a copy for you of the dates and times that we have confirmed in terms of availability. The most noticeable change within that is we've had to add a Saturday meeting on April 22nd, and we want to make sure that that's okay and can have conversations regarding that if we need to, but in terms of trying to coordinate schedules, the Saturday April 22nd at the Travis County community center of Pflugerville, that's when we're going to be able to within that two-week time frame hold a public hearing.
>> not a problem. We're not posted on the agenda to consider the 22nd. I mean, it didn't say and any updates. It's not on here, judge. It would have to be reposted if that's a date you're intending to put out there. Under c. I don't know if there was an updated agenda.
>> I missed that. What are you saying?
>> the precinct 2 public hearing we would not be able to approve that is what you're saying?
>> we'll have to put that back on.
>> okay.
>> just checks these dates and see, just run a clean list with all of them. I’d do just a new comprehensive list under other next week if we don't have any other human services items.
>> the two dates are being knocked out completely, so I think that would be a better way to do it.
>> under item d then, we wanted to have you review a potential add for advertising the public hearings. Would we not be able to do that in light of those date changes? And what we would need approval is on the format and we would need your approval to go forward to place the ads.
>> is this the ad the public is invited to participate?
>> that's the draft.
>> where are you placing that?
>> we will be using purchasing to place those ads, so it would be the chronicle. I would anticipate the newspapers in the individual unincorporated areas.
>> suburban papers?
>> exactly.
>> I think it's okay. We're correcting these dates today.
>> yes. We actually had a correction to come in today,. We also need to add to this ad the two dates reflecting the public hearings here at the Commissioners court. So we will be making that change. But if you could approve the form and authorize us to place the ad with the changes that we've identified, and that would be adding -- I think the other dates are correct with the exception of the one that said you can approve today. I’m not sure how that would impact the ad.
>> the ad is more of an administrative thing.
>> did the center folks think that 7:00 was a better time to start than earlier?
>> just in looking at how some of the other counties had done this before, 7:00 seemed to be a time that was fairly consistent. Usually somewhere between 6 and 7:00.
>> you need that much time to get to some of these places.
>> especially Jonestown. You can't get from downtown to Jonestown in less than an hour and 15 minutes.
>> I was thinking that most of the people that come to those centers are usually seniors. It's fine with me, though. So we need words that attract people.
>> free donuts. [ laughter ]
>> I would have to say that the auditor would say that we cannot purchase donuts with Travis County funding.
>> they're not good for you anyway. [ laughter ] free orange slices.
>> what about holes, donut holes? [ laughter ]
>> orange and white day, anything longhorn. All right, judge.
>> it would be our interest to have the public understand what the purpose of the funds are and have them understand that we are requesting their input. We certainly could word smith it a bit. Bit. --
>> if he were here, he would say free federal money.
>> and if it would be allowable, perhaps we could come up with an additional flyer that we could post at places where people from low to moderate income frequent that might grab their attention. And just post it in an eight and a half by 11 format.
>> so this would not be our only means of advertising. This would be published in a publication. We would have fliers. Many of your staff have already offered the opportunity for us for them to post some fliers for us at locations that they are familiar with that they feel would be appropriate to have your constituents also receive notice of our meetings.
>> okay.
>> okay. Well, we've done what we needed to today, which was to discuss with you the citizen participation plan. It will be posted on the Travis County website. It would also be available for e-mailing. Anybody who would like to pick up a copy can contact our office. At Travis County health and human services, 854-4100. And we can provide a hard copy or e-mail version of it. It will also be downloadable from the Travis County website. On next Tuesday we will be asking the court to formally approve the citizen participation plan and that will launch us into the public hearing process with the first public hearing being April 11th here at Commissioners court during your regularly posted Commissioners court meeting.
>> [one moment, please, for change in captioners] any person who would like to receive a hard copy of our citizens participation plan or have it e-mailed to them, could call that number, they would be connected with the appropriate staff to make that happen.
>> we can also make sure that it's out to all of the community centers as well.
>> under item d on today's agenda, we would request your approval to post the ad announcing the public meetings for our cdbg funding. Post or advertise?
>> advertise and post.
>> do we have an advertising budget?
>> yes, we do.
>> in the budget that you approved last week, it had a line item for advertising, yes.
>> so move.
>> second.
>> that covers d?
>> yes.
>> posting and advertising?
>> yes.
>> discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. So -- we will see it back on with the correct dates. C back on with the correct dates. Also I believe item b regarding the citizen participation plan back on on next Tuesday for your approval. And I believe that covers us for next week.
>> what days are you looking at for the Commissioners court public hearing?
>> April 11th and may 2nd.
>> all right, do you have in mind there the regular Tuesday meeting?
>> that's correct.
>> okay. What do we need to do on b?
>> b is the citizens participation plan. We discussed it with you today. We post it for seven days and request your approval next Tuesday.
>> same [indiscernible]
>> excuse me.
>> same for a next week?
>> a I believe we're done unless there's additional direction of what the court would like to give us.
>> I am right what we want to do is indicate to the feds generally what we have in mind.
>> you are correct, sir.
>> price tags on them, know more specifically if we had funding for next year, what we would prioritize.
>> yes, sir.
>> the other thing is do they [indiscernible] require the public comments that are made at the different public hearings?
>> yes, all of those are collected and sent to us.
>> yes, those will be attached to our final documents. So it will be a pretty lengthy document when we are done.
>> okay.
>> okay. Anything else? Thank you all very much, we will see you next week, keep up the good work.
>> thank you all very much.
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, March 29, 2006 10:48 AM