Travis County Commissioners Court
August 1, 2006
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next. And several sit sebz have signed -- citizens have signed in. This item is to give residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda for up three minutes. And we have marcello deforier. Followed by mr. Fearpz. Mr. Mr. Fernandez.
>> good morning. Most of you already recognized me before because I was here with the kennedy ridge project. I am their lulac representative. Of course, my understanding is the roads have been finished, now all we have to do is get them up speed bumps put in there, because they're hot rodders new. But that's another thing. I've come here to inform the court that the league of united latin american citizens known as lulac has named me the district 7 districter here. Also appointed chair for the newly apostponemented lieu -- appointed lulac national taskforce, which will be having attorneys throughout the united states taking part in whatever action lulac takes plus helping the community, provide lawyers for them. At the same time I'd like to introduce the names of our deputy director. Gavino fernandez is my deputy director. Deputy director for the youth is janette hernandez. Deputy director if the young adults is going to be rebecca acuna. And they represent different segments of the community on behalf of district 7. We'll also be supporting the newly redistricting map presented to the court by lulac district 7. The court mantated that the -- the supreme court mandate led to the voting right violence in district 23. Consequently there was a ripple effect and many of the other counties were also affected. And according to the 2000 census, the minority community has the right to seven district because of the numbers, so we're supporting plan a for it, although the court is going to decide by the third which map they're going to go, and most likely we might even challenge if they go in a way where we will not have equal representation. That's one thing. Also, we're going to be looking into the durp suits in east Austin -- dump sites in east Austin that have been occurring. East Austin gets all the duchz anyway, so we're going to be looking into that. We'll also be looking into low income housing issues in east Austin. We'll be looking at how the court system treats our community. We'll be looking at i-35 corridor and how it will affect our community and the use of the roads that we have paid for with our tacks. We will be looking into day care centers and our schools. Also lulac is planning to have a mega voting registration throughout the united states. Hopefully we'll be able to register as many people as we can. And this is a project done by lulac. Lulac being a national organization with over 400,000 members. This 84 we decided we're going -- this year we decided we're goapg to make a big effort to get as many voters registered. We look forward to working with you if we can and we appreciate this time.
>> thank you.
>> good morning.
>> let me say something to you. I'd like to number one congratulate you on your new patchy fog and all of you that have moved up the ranks. We're going to have a big ribbon cutting ceremony out at kennedy ridge.
>> we promised a lot. It's on the stove.
>> it's a long struggle, but we're going to celebrate a little bit there after awhile because it's been a tough project and I'd like to that can the Commissioners court members and also the community and everybody involved in this if doing such an outstanding job. We want to get in tuch touch with y'all.
>> you're the one who has been in frnt. Although the court has been supportive, I want to thank you for your time andest and efb else who put time into this because a lot of people don't understand the struggle kennedy riblg has gone through and is still going through right now until we get everything smootzed out -- smoothed out and running the way it should be. It's a beautiful community now and we invite efb who has a chance to come down and visit us.
>> thank you.
>> good morning.
>> while mr. Fernandez is beginning to speak, ms. Ybarra is already here. Nancy wardlaw please come forward.
>> good morning. My name is ga veeb know, feashz -- gavino fernandez. And this is part of a tour we're making to all government bodies within district 7 area for lulac, which covers 7 counties. So we have our plate full in record to issues in representing people in these counties that are members of lulac or the population in jeb. And I -- in general. And I want to echo these issues and which we will be concentrating and working on and bringing a more equitable quality of life for our sit sebz here in Travis County and the rest of the counties. We also will be looking and have formed an exploratory committee, if you will, from lulac on single member district for Austin. Austin is the only government that does not have municipal representation, and the only distribution for representation that we do have in this community are mandated by some other entity, ie Commissioners court or the state, state representative, district of the state, aisd is the schools. So the city of Austin need to come online as Austin continues to grow. We'll also be focusing real heavily on the growth on the 130 corridor and we look electronically in working with the court and spefgly Commissioner Gomez as this growth expands in that area pause there are a lot of poom in that area that -- people in that area that we want to make hur they're involved in that process that is gopg to be taking place. And we welcome the opportunity to take on these challenges and working with you as lulac members. Thank you very much.
>> thank you. Are mr. And mrs. Ward lyhere? And gus pena is after ms. Ybarra.
>> good morning. Today I come before you as a public servant of Travis County. I want to commend you -- (indiscernible). My concern is affordable housing. Please focus in on the issue of affordable housing for Travis County. The numbers for the homeless is not 4,000 as estimated in the press. Several folks have been studying the homeless postponelation, myself -- population, myself as a reporter for the advocate, which is a homeless newspaper. We estimate there is 7,000 homeless. For every homeless that we know of, there's two that we do not know about because of either pride or they do not go looking for the services that are out there for them. It's just the way they were raised. So my concern is please focus on homeless and affordable housing. I didn't see you last week.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioner. Gus pena. I'd like to thank the previous speaker in regarding affordable housing, but I'll go one step further. As I've said here for the past 20 years, have a clear-cut definition of what affordable housing is. We have people coming in from california and they can afford $350,000, and the have not's cannot even afford a 75,000-dollar home. Get that definition cloar cut in any kind of report that you have. I'm not goik to pe to items on the agenda, but item number 25, I'm glad that you have a mobile crisis team able to do outreach to the individuals that have mental health problems. As I said before on this issue last year, this year and the city council, sometimes it's best to go to the individual that have these health issues and don't expect them to come to you because a lot of them won't come to the service providers. A lot of the poor, needy have been left out of the equation of housing, so when we look at the item about the cdbg funding, remain cognizant of the fact that a lot of these people aren't making but about $15,000 a year and not able to afford this new definition of affordable housing. So have a clear-cut definition so they can be able to afford affordable housing themselves. We have been in contact with the secretary of h.u.d. And secretary of veterans affairs regarding vet rabz needs, transitional housing. Veterans who have been wounded and near to death, and they have families. We need transitional housing for homeless families. We have for single male and female, but not for families. Appeared I would wish that somebody here in the county and also at the city of Austin remember that fact that we -- this is needed out there. And again, as I said, the military veterans need a exreps sieve job training -- comprehensive training, health care and housing. We will discuss this further with the community. I'll leave you by saying this and I've said it before, a society's worth is measured by its treatment of the less fortunate. We're not doing too good of a job. The gap widens between the have's and have not's. And I remember in east Austin we had our own tank farm before springdale was an issue. A company that spriewed contaminants. It's not right. The united states is the richest country in the world and we have all this poverty and homeless. I thank you to in the taking a month vacation like the city council did. The mayor and I spoke about that already. I'm not disrespecting anybody, I'm just saying let's be there for the public and we're prepared to sfoa budget terry issues both here and the city council. Again to the gentlemen who are here before, thank you for the hard work you do and continue the manner. May the already bless you.
>> for the record, my name is robin schneider, the director for campaign for the environment. Judge, I apologize for not meeting with you yesterday. I also wasn't here last week. Again, I was in Williamson county dealing with the landfill issues there. But really we had in idea that the letter to capcog was even dpoang going tocome up and what the language was phoning to say. Contrary to what I was told by one of the aides here, we did not fet --get that language until Tuesday, the day you were voting on it. And I want to say that some compromises are necessary. I always say you compromise on -- you compromise not on your principles, but on the time frame of things. Unfortunately what you voted on last week, which is conformance, a conditional conformance with our regional solid waste plan, if they get out by 2015 just doesn't gel with how landfills are permitted in this state. They are permitted based on a capacity and juried shape, not on the basis of a dead liep. Deadline. Bfi have a control over it how much waste they take in and how long a landfill can last. I urge you to reconsider the language and to follow all the reasons laid out for the robes why they -- the reason why they should not be in conformance in general and to stick by these reasons. You will be more consistent with what I believe the city is goik to do. Their commission has taken a stand against expansion at both landfills. I think you will be more consistent with what the people want. And in this case the people have spoken pretty clearly. In precinct 1 we had three meeting last summer where there was unanimous opposition to a deal that would extend -- that would allow bfi to expand another 75 feet. Also, it's not just voters in precinct 1. I know that you folk have gotten calls and small from voters in our precinct about this issue. It is a wide pred feeling that these landfills need to go. They need to fib out what they have permitted and then they need to go. It would not have been acceptable compromise to say we'll have one nuclear power plant, but it will close in 2050 instead of 2060. It would not be acceptable to say we'll have civil right for housing and jobs, but not for education. Some exrmses are just -- compromises are just not right. Sometimes elected officials have to be cowrnl us and do -- courageous and go against the will of the people that are expecting their will, whether it's pause of ignorance or fear, but this is a time when you should be represented the will of the people and you should stand with the people. I believe you will be standing with the city and you will have a stronger case because you won't be undermining your opposition to the waste management expansion by potentially supporting the bfi expansion. Don't back yourself into another contract negotiation. Stand with the people who come down here week after week, year after year trying to defend their property and their quality of life. They deserve your respect and your support.
>> thank you, robin. And for the record, I did -- I didn't support that expansion and still don't, the spank for bfi or wmi. That's for the record.
>> anybody else for sit accepts communication, whether -- citizens communication, whether you signed in or not in not?
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:
Tuesday, August 1, 2006 7:14 PM