Travis County Commissioners Court
May 16, 2006
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next. This is designed to give residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda. Two residents have signed in, joyce thorenson number one and jennifer gale number two.
>> good morning, judge boys psycho and Commissioners. I知 good morning, just Biscoe and Commissioners, I知 joyce [indiscernible], president of the neighborhood association, thank you for put tuscany way on the agenda. We have supported these items for a number of years and are happy to see they are being considered. I have come to citizens communication on a related matter. Our association sponsored a petition entitled u.s. 290 east intersection design springdale road crossover. The petition reads as follows: number 1, I am against a north-south crossover at the intersection of springdale road and highway 290 east. Number 2, I support retaining the neighborhood collector designation of springdale road. Number 3, I support the existing highway 290 east design. A north-south crossover at the intersection of tuscany way and around the -- and a turn around at arterial a. Number 4, I have read and understand the statements above. Number 5, I am a resident of the walnut place neighborhood over the age of 18. As of last night, we had 187 signatures out of an estimated 231 people. Over 80% of walnut place residents signed this petition. We are not finished collecting signatures, but I have a copy of the signed petitions with me to give you now. We will be presenting this petition at campo and txdot. On a personal note, I live at the intersection of springdale road and cottonwood drive. At certain times of the day the noise of passing cars and trucks, some with boom boxes, make my yard valueless as a living space. There are 23 residential driveways on springdale road north of u.s. 290. There are 37 residences along that same stretch of road. Most of these properties have deed restrictions that prohibit any use other than residential use. If springdale road is upgraded to an arterial and a crossover built to accommodate cut through traffic in trucks, it will constitute a taking of the use and value of my home and many of the other homes along springdale. Whether springdale is two lanes or four lanes, is really irrelevant. The noise of constant traffic is not compatible with any neighborhood and I am asking you to stand by your earlier decisions to designate springdale north of u.s. 290 as a neighborhood collector. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> [indiscernible] make sure that you get a copy of that -- the manager, joe gieselman -- transportation, natural resources.
>> make sure that joe gieselman gets a copy.
>> can I ask you one question. Have you polled your neighborhood with regards to how they feel about the toll road plan?
>> I have not.
>> would you -- would you also do that with your -- they are interlinked here because you're talking about -- you're talking about transportation and we need to know that.
>> as we understand it, I mean, this will -- this particular plan has been in place since 2000. According to your documents you will be looking at today. So -- so it's really not a -- the toll road is really not changing the intersection plans.
>> no, I知 not -- I know that.
>> okay.
>> but what I need to know from your neighborhood is are you supportive of the toll road plan? Just -- just, you know, ask that or I don't know --
>> back of the room [indiscernible] [inaudible - no mic] we have no interest on the toll road in our neighborhood because we are at the end of the [indiscernible]
>> I know all of that. Joyce, all that I want you to ask them, all I can do is ask of question of you, would you mind polling your people? I just need to know not as it regards to your road and the toll road. I want to know how your neighborhood feels about the toll road plan that has been adopted by campo. If you would just give me that information.
>> I値l do that. I don't believe we will be going house to house again like we have with this, but I will do the best I can.
>> thank you.
>> jennifer gale is next.
>> good morning, Commissioners. Gerald Daugherty, Commissioner Sonleitner and Commissioner Ron Davis, judge Sam Biscoe. The election on Saturday is over, but not quite. I知 going to go making a complaint against the -- the -- the election results. I received a nearly 215% increase over my last run for mayor. Garnering 3,560 votes. I would like to thank jeff ward at klbj and bicycleaustin.info for their help and all of my volunteers for helping out. I知 -- I知 rather -- I知 unhappy that stanley knee is leaving the city of Austin. Hard to believe as that may be. Because nearly 10 years ago, he continued the -- the attack on the homeless by not allowing them to sleep and by giving them tickets. And then once in 2000 when it was redacted, sleeping or making preparations to sleep and clean laying down the bedding for the purpose of sleeping was taken out of the law, he continued to do that. He continued to not have enough officers, now we have over 26 people dead on our highways, because they are not making people uphold the law. Now he wants to step down and head to afghanistan. Here he is violating our constitutional rights, yet he wants to go to another country where we are trying to teach them constitutional rights. I find that abhorrent. Our mayor, in a court injunction, a temporary injunction, ordered by judge stephen yelenowsky on March 2006, all and any and the phrase all private citizens e-mails to any public official is misleading, which means to lie in the legal thesaurus because significant exceptions apply. So they -- the judge had them rewrite the language, they where he wrote the language, they came up with language that says in real time including e-mails or electronic communications, between private citizens and public officials. That is another lie. And I came out against -- on jeff ward's show saying that we need to continue to make sure that this injunction is made permanent or that we -- another election is held concerning proposition 1 and proposition 2 because the people are not being given the facts. That means it puts all city council members in jeopardy of losing their jobs, according to article 12, general provisions, under section 2, officers, et cetera, in proper acts off -- I値l finish up quickly here city officers and employing are prohibited from using city resources, equipment or money for election campaigning when they did when they also continued to have the lawyers fight and in -- the state law also says that in 255.003, that's a class a misdemeanor to use public funds. I知 asking that the -- that the -- that the Travis County intervene, that they -- that they adjoin -- join this injunction and that the members of the Austin city council be removed. As per the city charter of the city of Austin. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> next is the team of susan hewlitt, Margaret owens and lorena sanchez.
>> hi, everyone. I知 with the real estate council of Austin, I知 here just to invite the community to attend a special event tomorrow night. It's the gartner bets, 11th annual, gardner-betts art show and silent auction. This year it will be held at a little bit different location. 111 congress building. We have 60 pieces of wonderful art. I知 not sure if you can see the one behind us or not, maybe I can hold this up, this is a picture of a piece done by a resident at gardner-betts that will be up for auction tomorrow night. It's a community event, everyone is welcome, from 5:30 to 7:30.
>> as susan pointed out, this is our 11th year with this event. It has been a very wonderful collaboration between the real estate council of Austin and Travis County juvenile probation department. The funds that are -- that are going to be derived from this particular event will rollover to next year and will fund art enrichment to include painting, choir, drumming, lots of different things because without this particular effort we would not have these programs in place for our kids because it proves to be an avenue for them to -- to offer themselves relief from whatever issues that are -- that they are engaged in. So we invite the entire community to come out and join us for this wonderful occasion where we celebrate their art. So please join us tomorrow at 5:30 at 111 congress. It will -- I think bids are -- on the art will end at 7:00 and we will start up at 5:30. So come on over. It going to be a really good time.
>> is this where the chamber used to be -- [multiple voices]
>> yes, wells fargo building.
>> there's complimentary parking. At the entrance on brazos.
>> the one congress garage, free parking which is great.
>> I have had the pleasure of attending this particular event for a number of years and it is stunning and amazing the talent of the young people who are involved in this program. And as Margaret owens who everybody knows Margaret, it all goes back into the program and in terms of where this started, this started as a grant program and when the grant ran out, the real estate council stepped up to the plate and became kind of our big brothers, big sisters on this in terms of helping ramrod this program through and the art is all fully framed, it's beautiful, they take the work of the young people and make it something very, very special. So with their help on this, so I encourage everybody to come on out. I致e got a good number of the art pieces that I have bought up in my office. I also have quite a few of them up at the Pflugerville tax office because we had some bare walls up there, I needed to put art up there, also, to make it wonderful, but it's a great, great opportunity.
>> anybody else? Everybody is invited. And encouraged to attend.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you. Anybody else for citizens communication?
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, May 17, 2006 10:30 AM