Travis County Commissioners Court
June 20, 2006
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next and this item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda for up to three minutes. And charles we'll take you second today if you don't mind me giving councilmember raul alvarez he's leaving city council real soon, let's brown nose him on the way out.
>> good morning, thank you for allowing us -- Juneteenth wanted to permit this last week, but councilmember alvarez was so busy cleaning out his drawers in his office, he said that he would come in next week, we appreciate that. This is from the Juneteenth committee thanking mr. Alvarez for his six years of service actually to the Juneteenth committee. The city of Austin is a large, large, large bureaucracy, there's a lot of fine work, but there used to be -- if I dialed a number, I could always guarantee, any numbers, mr. Alvarez's office as one that picked up the phone, it was such a breath of fresh air. After I would ask him what I wanted, he would call back and ask were you happy. Oh, my goodness the man asked me was I happy. >> [laughter] to put on a Juneteenth commemoration each year. We have used the city of Austin and Travis County employee Juneteenth festivities. You do know that we use quite a bit of the city of Austin facilities from the park we had the meters hooded, different permits that were waived for us. Insurance just different things, security, we used Travis County security as well as city of Austin security. It was just such a fine event. As of 6:00, this evening, he is still a councilmember, so I'm not through yet, mr. Alvarez, but this is the plaque that we wanted to presents to mr. Alvarez for being such a great support to the Juneteenth committee throughout all of the years, also to each one of our offices of Travis County offices to be so accessible. So may I read that plaque from the Juneteenth committee? It reads: the Travis County Juneteenth committee presents this -- this certificate of appreciation to raul alvarez, Austin city council member, place 2, and acknowledging your commitment and support of the annual Travis County and city of Austin employees Juneteenth celebration. Particularly your outstanding public service to the -- to the Travis County community. Presented, this would have been last week, presented this 13th day of June, 2006, at the Travis County Commissioners -- in the Travis County Commissioners courtroom. It's signed sheryl brown and sue spears, Juneteenth co-chairpersons. Mr. Alvarez had a few things that he might want to say.
>> I certainly appreciate the recognition, I think she said they have a few hours left as a city council member and -- and but -- but as you said, we -- the office has been vacated, so if you dial that 2264 number, I don't know that you will actually get an answer right about now. But we are in good hands with the new folks that are coming in, mike martinez in place 2, sheryl cole in place 6, of course councilmember mccracken reeelected, mayor wynn was reelected. The inauguration is this evening. Certainly want to invite everybody there. I want to serve the community, it's a real prism to serve the community, this authority -- privilege, this authority over the tax dollars, really want to try to take this as seriously as possible, because it means a lot in terms of how we invest these resources, how we address critical community needs, it's been a pleasure serving with the court on various issues, the community action network with several of the Commissioners and judge Biscoe as well. And before I was on the city council, because it was just great to know that there's so many people who care about the community and who are out there really just working real hard to make this a better place and improve the quality of life. These cultural celebrations like Juneteenth are very, very important in terms of -- of showing that our community cares about -- these ethnic diversity, all of these different celebrations. Traditions, in various segments of the community, it's been great working with the Juneteenth committee as well as the cinco de mayo celebrations with Commissioner Gomez and -- and our district clerk. These are very, very successful events. It's been great to work with so many different -- different segments of our community. We appreciate you taking time from the agenda, it's been an honor to work with you, we will continue to be active, so you will still see me out and about, won't see me on channel 6 until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning anymore. So thank you, judge, thank you Commissioners certainly thank to you the community.
>> >> [ applause ]
>> I will still be calling on you, still some unresolved issue that's we still have out there. I'm going to still call on you for your expertise in those subject matters. So don't -- don't run off too far.
>> you know, I mean, housing and gentrification are still at the top of my list of issues to try to tackle. You can't tackle these issues, you know, with -- with just one -- one strategy or one program and so I -- you will certainly see me out and about, especially trying to pass these city bonds in support of affordable housing, I know that the Commissioners court actually used bond funding for affordable housing, but this will be the first time the city actually does it. I think that it just shows the level of priority that these sorts of issues are -- are taking or becoming, you know, in our community and again I will be -- I will be very committed to continue to work to make this a better place.
>> thank you for your service.
>> good luck to you.
>> I does ask mr. Alvarez after 6:00 p.m. What would he be doing. He said that he had the resume that is prepared and I told him regardless of what judge Biscoe says, there's not an opening in his office. >> [laughter] we do thank you all for your time.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> darla williams is next.
>> thank you ms. Brown.
>> good morning, I'm charles >> [indiscernible] with t.n.r., we want to talk about our beautiful banner, the Lake Travis parks annual cleanup. I think you know what happened Saturday. We had torrential rains. In all of the rains our undying volunteers were helping us to clean. We are proud of our partnership with lcra and keep Austin beautiful. Here to represent lcra is mike can I brownly. I will hand out the t-shirts while they talk about the rest of the clean up.
>> I'm with keep Austin beautiful, we want to thank you for your support of this event. It was the 21st year, 300 people preregisterred, about 170 braved the elements to make it out and those that did come had a wonderful time. Everybody was wet, but they were happy to do their part to keep our parks clean and beautiful. We also had as another element of the event, we had the -- the txdot come out. It was the don't mess with Texas rod tour, so they had games and prizes and again we want to thank you for your continued support of this event.
>> thank you.
>> good morning, judge and Commissioners, my name is mike brownly, I represent the lcra, lower colorado river authority. Excuse me. And I would just like to take just a moment this morning to thank not only all of the supporters that have worked with the cleanup this year and previous years, but to also take a special opportunity to thank the Travis County and Travis County parks and the relationship that we all have with each other, particularly with lcra and what a wonderful partnership and what successes we have and continue to have and we certainly do -- do appreciate that opportunity to work with Travis County parks. It's been a success and we look forward to many more cleanups and other projects. Thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> thanks, john.
>> that's all that we've got. Thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> thank you all very much.
>> thank you.
>> christian smith.
>> I'm christian smith from the planning and budget office. I would like to introduce our newest analyst, katy peterson. 11 years ago we were here introducing a new analyst from a graduate program in Texas and in public administration, mandy miller, he stayed 11 years, grew with the office. He's accepted a management position in general probation. And it's a good opportunity for him. We are sorry to see him go. But in the interim we have also had a look around and said we have a very senior group of analysts and perhaps this is a good time to hire what we have lovingly called a newby, we went through an extensive recruiting process and a variety of individuals in the office were involved in screening over a couple hundred resumes and katy peterson came to the top for reason that's will be revealed as she continues to work and serve Travis County and the citizens and help to craft our budget and other related efforts. So -- so katy comes to us with -- as a graduate of mount holyoke, returned to Texas getting her master's in public administration, is going to be a wonderful addition as we all grow together.
>> welcome aboard.
>> welcome.
>> thank you.
>> do you have anything that you would like to say?
>> I'm just happy to be here and I'm looking forward to working with you in the future.
>> great. >> [laughter]
>> thank you.
>> welcome. Thank you, chris.
>> mccracken: looking forward to working with you, ms. Peterson. Councilmember alvarez brought his photographer with him. And he would like to take a much valued picture with the Commissioners court. So should we come down front? Okay.
>> scott urdol is next.
>> hello, Commissioners, thank you for your time.
>> good morning.
>> I wanted to come here today to thank you guys for allowing the bluffs to present the facts in our case. Regarding the marley way and open way and -- and the way that allowed us to -- to express our dignity, our rights and the safety of our neighborhood. I understand that -- that, you know, you guys are forced to balance needs of your constituents and it made it a -- I guess what could have became very contentious. I don't know how long it goes, I know it took a lot of time. Since then I've had the opportunity to watch you guys on tv numerous times, I don't think that I ever appreciated what you guys actually do. Probably really wasn't even aware of it. So to watch you guys on tv and go over issues of such importance, it really made me feel humble that you took time out to give us a fair shake. I also wanted to personally thank Gerald Daugherty for being a man of his word. I believe he did negotiate a little bit behind the scenes to make sure that this worked out. We put a lot of faith in him, he came through. He did what he said. And we really appreciate that. Judge Biscoe, I'm just completely impressed with you. I watch you in different meetings, I don't know how one person could keep track of so many details, so much stuff going on at one time. You have got quite a brain sir to just be on top of all that. Everybody else, I do believe that you were able to weed through some of the unimportant issues I guess. And get down to the heart of the matter. And -- and I'm sure that you hear a lot of fluff for lack of a better word. I feel that you kind of separated the enough from the fact and got to the heart of the matter. So -- so we really appreciate it. So far out there the update is road -- appears to be working fine just as it was designed and I don't think we will be seeing any problems in the future. Also I would like to thank the staff. I think that you have got some wonderful people working for you. Ana bolin, david gear, joe gieselman. I don't know if -- if people get a chance to come down here and thank them. But they are put in a difficult spot. They are put in a, you know they need to interpret the rules, there's an idea of neutrality, I guess, it makes them kind of have to weigh both sides and I'm not necessarily sure I agree with the goals of trying to craft a compromise instead of interpreting the rules, I understand that's what they are asked to do, they do it in a very professional, hard working, honest manner. You guys should -- everybody in the county should be proud that they do the work that they do. I just wanted to thank you for your time, thank you for helping us out.
>> thank you, scott.
>> thank you.
>> anybody else for citizens communication, whether you signed in or not? Then the consent items are next.
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 21, 2006 10:26 AM