Travis County Commissioners Court
June 6, 2006
Citizens Communication
Citizens Communication is next and a few citizens did sign in. This fum is to -- item is to give citizens an opportunity to address anything not on the agenda for up to three minutes. Jennifer gale, (indiscernible) is second.
>> good morning, Commissioner Margaret Gomez, Commissioner Gerald Daugherty, my own Commissioner Ron Davis. Karen Sonleitner, the only Commissioner at the gay pride parade Saturday. And our own judge Sam Biscoe. Good morning. It's time to celebrate our 230th birthday here in the united states of america and we can do this by going to our republican convention last week, our libertarian convention this week in houston and the travis -- Texas democratic convention in fort worth.
>> I知 still having trouble with norma in the hot checks division, our county attorney, she apologized for grabbing me in the hallway and turning me around. I still haven't had an apology from the security in the courthouse for handcuffing me. In terms of recycling we need to use reusables, plastic cups that we can reuse and wash over and over again. We should have a law where you can simply sanitize it so people cannot continue to fill up our landfill so that we're not having to recycle. Styrofoam doesn't decompose, so let's have a law against styrofoam here in Travis County. I was very unhappy with the votes that I received in the last election. The "austin american-statesman" never interviewed me at all, nothing. In the six months of the election. The Austin chronicle, nothing. They haven't interviewed me in years. So when people say they're waiting for something to come out in the newspaper, you're not going to get anything in the newspaper about city of Austin elections. They simply aren't reporting it. The minority papers, nothing from them either. However, we had top positions one and two open government that was created by citizens, and they can be contested. Any qualified voter in the city of Austin and Travis County that was eligible for this election, any qualified voter, whether you voted or not, can go over to the Travis County crowd and make the complaint to a judge, saying that our city council lied on the election language. That's 233.001. 233 in the state election code. So anyone can open up the state election code 233 and that's why I知 asking this Travis County Commissioner court to go ahead and do that, make that filing, because they lied and there was a temporary injunction that was made, granted, because they lied. I briefly wanted to say on the immigrants coming into the united states that we shouldn't look at them as immigrants because they're not here to stay, they're here to make a few dollars, send a few dollars home and then return. They're not might grants because they're not coming here and coming back and they're not -- they're not immigrating here. So I am suggesting that we refer them as refugees. That they're here to escape the tyranny, the economic and the physical, the arrest -- being arrested against their will in these countries and we should give them refugee status. Thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> morning. I am harris harold. I live in southeast Travis County. And like the overwhelming majority of my neighbors, I strongly oppose thetology of state highway 71 east and u.s. 183 south. These roads do need to be upgraded to handle increasing traffic loads. Those upgrades are being paid for with our hard earned tax dollars that we pay every week with our gas taxes. It can be used to pay for these roads as well as pass-through financing. We're already paying for the improvements on 71 east, so why should we also be charged tolls? That's double taxation. It has come to my attention that ctrma is planning to toll existing bridges in southeast Travis County. The intersection of highway 183 south and 71 east has been free for 40 years. The underpass at montopolis has been free for just as long. I知 calling on the court to deal with this matter. Campo and ctrma must understand that we won't be taken for granted. Please resolve these issues and let the public know where you stand. Please put this on the ballot and give citizens a chance to vote for free roads in Travis County. Thank you. Greg hamilton is next. Sheriff, how you doing?
>> doing fine. Good morning, judge and Commissioners. I am just here to advise the court of a new program that -- initiative that the sheriff's office is about to embark on. It's violence awareness prevention campaign, and we are really excited about this. We have teamed up with Travis County's domestic violence taskforce, safe place, we're working with Austin graphics, the women's advocacy, justice initiative and many other organizations. We're having a big press conference tomorrow to kick off this initiative. One of the things we're going to do is with the safe place, Travis County sheriff's office and safe place, we will be putting on a train the trainer. We will use a curriculum from the center of disease control and prevention. It's called choose respect. It's a national curriculum that's been used around the country. It's going to be a three, one-day training teaming up law enforcement and school staff to put on this training in the schools. We have worked with Austin fwrafks. They have -- graphics. They have put together, gave us about 3500 dollars' worth of services in wrapping one of our cars with the different -- with the poster that we're going to be using that sharon matthews designed free of charge. We're really excited about this initiative. We are seeing more and more teen violence throughout not only Travis County, but throughout the country. Some of the other things that we're going to do, we're going to put this car that we have wrapped with our logo, we're going to put it in the maldz, we're going to -- in the malls, we're going to do psa that you will see in a few minutes. We're going to have those in movie theaters. We're working with billboard companies to put this up. We're serious about addressing this and trying to prevent teen violence. And today one of our spokes men, we were able to contact ms. Carolyn mosley, whose daughter was atralla. She lives in dallas, Texas now. She has not been the spokesman on any campaign. And she thought about it for awhile before she decided to do this, and she's going to be here for the press conference tomorrow and she's going to be the spokesman for this particular campaign. And I would like for her to say a few words.
>> good morning. I知 carolyn mosley and I am spokesman for this because I wish it would have been in place and taken care of when my daughter was living, and she probably would have gotten a lot more help than she did. And the learning and the teaching of the staff and different people are all learning about it, being able to look and see different things that children are going through and having them know that there's somewhere for them to go and get some assistance and somewhere for them to get some help. And for the parents to know that there's someone else out there that's going to be able to help them and to know that the sheriff's department is behind them 100%. I知 all for it. Because we've got to know where we feel safe and we've got to know somebody's out there that's going to be able to help us. And if there's just one organization that can help one other person, I知 all for it.
>> thank you for your comments. Sheriff, let me ask you this: is this particular program also going to be instituted into all the schools here? Are there going to be targeted instances? How will that work? That was a real tragic situation. And of course the community is still concerned and still outraged about this type of violence taking place in our school systems. So the question is will this program be instituted into the schools?
>> that's the purpose of this program is to be instituted into the schools. We plan on -- we have put together a plan. We plan on getting all of the superintendents in the Travis County area sitting down with them and visiting with them because we're going to have to have a commitment in order to get the law enforcement and the school staff involved in this. And one of the things that we want to identify is probably the sro's in the schools and get this program presented out there. I致e already talked with chief pat fuller over at aisd and I知 talked with dr. Forgione on this, and I am familiar with several of the superintendents around Travis County, and hopefully we will also get this incorporated with the other contiguous counties to get them involved and get them to be a part of this particular program.
>> also, the school has given me thul authority to come in and do things like this for the students to help the students and the teachers and the staff.
>> I知 glad, because I heard you mention it, but I wanted the public to specifically hear the purpose. And that is to get in the school system and get in there because no one should have to have to go through what ms. Mosley has gone through, no parent.
>> one of the things I would like to do is applaud ms. Mosley for stepping out and putting a face with this issue. I think it has more meaning by doing so. And one of the other things I壇 like to say is that this is -- Travis County sheriff's office has brought this to the forefront, but there are many other organizations that have come on board to assist us such as the Austin graphics and sherri matthews and a lot of other organizations have come forth and put their money where their mouth is. We're working with capital metro to put the sign on the side of the buses over there. We're trying to get the word out and trying to touch as many people as possible. I would like to applaud kelly page, who just came on over at Travis County sheriff's department and have been out there hitting the bricks, so to speak, getting this program up and running. And I just applaud kelly page for stepping out there doing this. Also, I would like for you all to see this particular psa. That had, could you play it? Very short.
>> did you know that one in five females has been physically or sexually abused by a partner? If you think you're in an abusive dating relationship, get help immediately. Abuse comes in many forms, emotional and verbal abuse can be just as damaging and controlling as physical abuse. Know a friend who needs your help? Don't be silent about dating violence.
>> I would like to tell you that that psa was done by Travis County's media. This program, we know that we have individuals that are qualified and equipped within this department, and the individuals you have seen, the kids are kids from here in Travis County that put that on. I am so proud to be part of this initiative and hopefully will save some lives.
>> mr. Howard and phillip dick is next.
>> good morning. My name is robert howard and I知 an Austinite and I have concerns about several of today's agenda items. I want to take this opportunity to briefly comment on them. Item 17 is a public hearing for the purpose of accepting or rejecting txdot's proposed design of 290 east. To my knowledge neither campo, ctrma or txdot has actually published the upgraded 290 design. So I don't know how the public can actually comment on it intelligently or how you can vote on it yourselves without that information. To vote on it when it's not even a complete design would be a sham in my opinion. Item 14, consider a public private partnership where Travis County taxpayers will subsidize new road developments located far out from existing development. Traditionally developers pay 100% of this kind of road construction. So I urge the court not to put in place a 50% subsidy and instead that money should be used for fixing substandard roads and bottle necks within the heart of Travis County. Raising property taxes to pay for roads with zero traffic today is not something that I would advise. Item 15 is about the pass-through toll program. My preference is to take advantage of the suggestion from campo that a 1.6 cents per gallon tax increase will raise as much money as any and all of the tolling plans that have been floating around. But if that's not the case, then let's at least be sure that any toalging arrangement is not permanent. To my knowledge 19 other cities and counties have taken advantage of pass-through financing at this point, so it's not a brand new thing. Also, item 15 has an a and b section. I assume the second might be taken into executive session, but I would like for you guys to consider if this should be in executive session or not. And if it does, I would like a clear explanation of why secret discussions are necessary. This is an important issue and deserves to be in the public as much as possible. Then finally, item 39 contemplates -- apparently contemplates hiring a pr firm. I oppose spending taxpayer money to advertise whatever toll road plan you guys come up with. Let the public decide rather than try to spend taxpayer money to do a sales job. That's what I would prefer. And that concludes my comments. Thank you.
>> let me ask something. Robert, what does 1.6 cents additional sales tax generate revenuewise?
>> you can look up that number from the campo staff report. I don't have it in front of me. We have that number from campo staffer who did that analysis.
>> robert, I知 telling you that that 1.6 cents is everything from 1.6 cents to 50 cents to 75 cents. I don't blame you for not knowing what that figure is, but I知 going to tell you as a campo board member, I致e got about as much -- take as much credence in 1.6 cents equate to go the toll dollars generated as I do being able to end the war tomorrow. Number one, we don't have the information, and if somebody can't give me what 1.6 cents generates -- because no one can tell me what the toll revenue will generate. And it's not in the campo plan.
>> that's true. We don't have the information on what the tolls will cost and that's information that the public is eager to hear and has not been apprised of as yet. That's correct.
>> I have a question. Are you not aware that seven bond projects were specifically put on the November elections specifically, full knowledge that they were public-private partnerships so that what going to be required by the developer and the regional add on would simply be done at the same time. Those projects were all advertised and full knowledge to everyone that those were public-private partnerships, and you're acting like you didn't know that. Did you not know that?
>> no, I have my own opinion about that kind of activity, that's all.
>> but they were put on the election that way and the voters overwhelmingly said yes to do those public-private partnerships. So are you advocating that we should ignore the voters?
>> I知 giving you my opinion about those kind of public-private partnerships. I don't think that's the best use of the money. That is my opinion as a citizen. Am I not allowed to have a position in america and state it in a public?
>> you can state it in public, but in terms of following through on the wishes of the voters, the voters have also had their say on this, so I値l take that as a minority opinion, but the voters have already said.
>> thank you, mr. Howard. You do have a right to come down here and spend three minutes and give your opinion. Speaking of opinions and three minutes,...
>> good morning, everybody. My name is ms. Phillipa (indiscernible). I知 here about my innocent son who has been abused in prison. And I have went to -- I went to the unit to check on my son, and the phone was hung up in my face. As soon as they find out who I am, the phone will get hung up in my face. I never receive any information about my son. What I did was take the Travis County sheriff's department's information over to the appeals court to show them that my son is actually innocent of the 15-year drug possession case because he was incourse rated in Travis County -- incarcerated in Travis County on the same dates that they claim that he did the 15-year drug possession case. I took it over there and filed it on may the 15th, 2006. I called back over there on Friday to see if any of the appeal judges have signed his habeas corpus writ. I was told that all of the documents, instead of submitting them to the judges, they were put off into a file called miscellaneous. And I wanted to know why because there would prove my son's innocence. And I told them, I know that this is a big cover up. It is. It's a deep cover up because no one wants to admit what really happened to my child. But you see, paperwork is one thing. But I was there to pick him up. He has a witness. This never -- this 15-year drug possession case never occurred. The information that you received, drug Biscoe, and I received, you know, through your department, it was another man that was involved in the arrest with my son. They were arrested at the same time. But you see, I didn't think that that file was necessary to help prove -- to prove my son's innocence. I just went and got information from my son's file. When I observed the information in that file of anthony jerome walton that was arrested with my son on the same date, January 10th, 1993, well, he was in judge wisser's court. When judge perkins found owe -- owe because my son was in judge perkins' court. When the judge found out that both boys were involved into the January 10th drug deal, he sentenced anthony to two years in, and gave my son a six-month sentence. And and he has 331 written up over the 299th district court. So the 299th district court, judge wisser in there, never sentenced either one of the boys to state prison. And I have submitted my services and volunteered my work to the naacp and we are working on it and we have already examined the information and all of the proof, and my son is actually innocent and I would appreciate it if -- I don't know if mr. Gary johnson over the prison system is still in office or not, but -- okay. I would appreciate it if he would transfer my son immediately from off of that unit to save his life because his life is in danger from guards threatening mihm. Thank you.
>> thank you. Lillian simmons? Let's make sure that the testimony regards matters not on the agenda today.
>> judge and Commissioners, I would like to say that there's some more important -- I知 lillian summons. I would like to say there are some very important items in this agenda today. 15, about the toll -- state highway tolling, and these items were not properly advertised. I heard about it at the last minute by chance. These should have been better advertised, and it should have been -- you should schedule a special public hearing at night when most people can attend because I know that many, many people are opposed to the tolls and they would like to speak up in a night hearing where we can attend when it's not during business hours. They are trying to run through these tolls without listening to what the people are trying to tell you. Do you believe in representative government? I知 through.
>> thank you very much. Nancy fairchild? By the way, the pass-through item is posted specifically for 2:00 o'clock for the Commissioners court to receive a briefing, and the time was put on the agenda to give residents an opportunity to come at a time certain and not wait around for the item.
>> I cannot be here at 2:00 o'clock because it's during business hours.
>> it's for a staff briefing anyway. It will be televised and run probably for the next seven to 10 days for those who cannot attend today. It's really for a staff briefing more than a decision or anything. It's for us to get from staff and legal counsel an update on exactly what the law involves, what other counties are doing, what kind of contract txdot requires, background information, more than anything else. So the only action is for us to be informed. And if we have asks questions, ask those, try to get informed more than anything else.
>> okay. Please take into account that there are a lot of people who would like to speak at a public hearing in the evening.
>> certainly. Ms. Fairchild? After ms. Fairchild, mrs. Anderson. Please come forth now. There are five chairs there.
>> good morning. I知 here addressing item 15 against the conversion of freeways in Travis County to toll roads. My first choice in road financing would be to have accountability for taxpayers' gas tax revenue, stop the waste and mismanagement at that level and then use that money for what it was meant for, improving our existing freeways and roads. I致e recently heard about pass-through toalg, and while I don't fully understand it yet, I know that pass-through would be better for taxpayers than campo and ctrma's toll plan. The big problem I see with the currently proposed toll plan is that it can't stand on its own legs. Every year the cost of building roads goes up. The cost of building toll roads is at least three times the cost of ordinary roads. And for some reason our roads cost more to build than most other state's roads. The economic feasibility study conducted by campo and the one currently being taken by ctrma are both done by urs, a toll survey company that you can google on the net. You will find that urs has one of the most disturbing records of inflating traffic forecasts in the industry. They have produced inaccurate forecasts for toll roads in florida, costing taxpayers millions. Forbes magazine put them down in 2001 and the seattle weekly says their prokes are little better than fantasy. Whoever spent taxpayer money on urs studies should be taken to task. In other words, they say what their clients want them to say. Are you going to use the urs studies from a known, unreliable company to set fiscal policy on the toll road plan? Predicting unlimited growth and prosperity to convince investors to buy these roads is dishonest. Our country is facing many problems and will not be able to continue its present rate of growth without something giving. Many people, even in this room, feel the foreboding. It's never right to waste public revenue, but now especially is not the time to be extravagant with taxpayer money. Toll roads will drain the taxpayer money and for additional toll plans that will prove unaffordable for taxpayers. Knowing all this, please vote for either pass-through tolling for Travis County or even better, to give us what we've paid for, our freeways. Also, I just heard that there's a public meeting tonight at l.b.j. To discuss item 17. How and when was this pub la sized? Thousands of drivers use that road everyday. The toll bureaucrats are not giving the public notice or information to participate in this decision. Thank you.
>> I hear what you're saying, but I want you to hear what I知 saying also. I致e heard several speakers come up here and say that I support tolls. I do not support tolls, never have, never will, but that's not the point. I think the point of a lot of this stuff is there will be some disclosure on a lot of these things that we have looked at, and I think hopefully during the course of the day as we go through the agenda items, a lot of things can be fleshed out. An example you've got of the pass-through financing. It's something I hadn't heard of either. Folks requested to be here, so I hope that you will listen to exactly what is going to be disclosed to the court today, and I think the judge said it earlier. Listen to -- it will be on the agenda and be televised. Again, I think when you accuse the court of tolling, toll plans and things like that -- and I don't support it and I never will. I want to make sure you understand that. Thank you.
>> mary anderson. [one moment, please, for change in captioners]
>> thank you very much for at least considering that as an issue that we can have in November to vote on. I live in central Austin and I have close friends and family that live in east Travis County. And like the overwhelming majority of those people and their neighbors, I strongly oppose the tolling of southeast -- of sh 71 east, south 183 and 290 east. These roads do need to be upgraded to handle increased traffic roads, but those up upgrades are being paid for with our hard earned dollars that we pay every week. I am speaking of gas taxes that go to pay for these, and we would like for you to consider pass-through financing rather than tolls. We are already paying for the improvement of 71 east. Why should we also be charged tolls? That's double taxation and we can't pay that. It has come to my attention ctrma is planning to toll existing bridges in southeast Travis County. The intersection of highway 183 south and 71 east has been free for 40 years. The underpass at montopolis has been free for just as long. We can't tolerate taking our existing roads and converting them to toll ways. Those people that live over in that area, they're very poor. They're low income. And that's going to be really hard on those people. The citizens demand that you exercise leadership with these issues. I知 calling on the court to deal with this matter. Campo and ctrma need to understand through our your agency that we can't be taken for granted. Please resolve these issues and let the public know where you stand. And I thank you very much.
>> thank you, judge, Commissioners. My name is jack gullerhorn. I知 here in my capacity as a resident of Travis County and also as the exalted chair of the greg neighborhood association. I知 here to urge your consideration of a couple of items that deal with transportation infrastructure, and I apologize for not being able to stay for the discussion you're going to have later on on item number 14. So I appreciate this time. There are two projects in particular that I want to urge your focus on. One is the cameron road county road that exists -- the portion of it that goes from what is now greg lane to 130, which we've talked about before. And the second one is one of the public-private partnership opportunities, which is howard lane 2. Any nption infrastructure in our area -- and this includes both precinct 1 and two, are critically needed. It's really not a question of if you build it they will come, it is a question of you telling people and the city telling people and the planners telling people for a long time this is where you've got to go. We know that this area is being developed and is intentionally being developed because this is a desired development zone. The policy has been to push development in this area, and those of us who live out there, our position has been that the infrastructure as much as possible should be put into place before we have zillions of people living out there. I think we have lost a lot of that fight in our area. As you know, there are lots of developments now being site planned and looked at with thousands of homes coming online in the foreseeable future in that particular area, but I will tell you a couple other things. As you know, samsung is being expanded less than a mile from the intersection of what will be howard lane and cameron road. Wells branch is going to cut through to cameron less than a file from what will be the intersection of greg lane -- of cameron road and howard lane. 130 opening at the end of this year or early next year, we're told, with intersections at 130 and also parmer, which are on both sides of what will be howard lane. What to do? From our standpoint there are three priorities that we hope you will consider. The first is howard one was funded under the bond election. We appreciate the fact that joe and his staff are working very diligently to move forward with that. I would like for you to expedite howard one. It's not designed to be concluded until 2008 is I believe the current timetable. That's desperately going to be needed. It is the extension of howard lane one and we're going to have a very large amount of traffic. I won't try to get into my traffic forecasting. That part of cameron road basically from greg lane a thousand feet north of greg lane to 130 needs to be fixed. We did not end up with that on the bond issue. I understand that. If there's some way we can get that project underway, we know the traffic is going to be horrendous on that road, we're asking you to consider that. Thirdly is the delicate question of the public-private partnership of howard lane 2. And I understand the dynamics and I understand some of the politics of that, but we know that the development is going to occur out there. If there is any way that it's possible to move forward on that project, and when robert was up here earlier talking about not spending money on projects that are southwest parkway type of projects I take it or something like that, which is build it and maybe have something happen, this isn't that. We desperately need that infrastructure for that portion of howard lane to be built. And as you know, the city picks up a piece of that as we're doing it. Thank you. I apologize for talking about an agenda item that you have, but I wanted to bring all these to your attention because I think it's very critical.
>> if you would for me get maybe joe to know about these, the tnr executive manager.
>> I will. And I continue to work with his staff on a regular basis, Commissioner.
>> and let me reiterate to the folks that are here, as far as me not supporting tolls on existing roads, I want to continue to say that. Somewhere there's a misunderstanding about that. And I want to make sure that the folks as we go through this process. The folks understand that as we understand this process.
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, June 7, 2006 12:54 PM