Travis County Commissioners Court
August 15, 2006
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is first, this item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda. I see ms. Dick is here. Would you please come forward. Commissioner Sonleitner.
>> thanks, y'all. What I have to present to the court is after give lace check that I picked -- equivalency check from Travis County extension, 245,565.36. What this represents is the value of the work that was donated by our master gardeners who are volunteers here in Travis County. And just wanted to throw a couple of fun facts in here. We have 168 certified master gardener volunteers in Travis County. They volunteered more than 13,000 hours during 2005 and the value of that is the check that you just saw there. They have been involved in free educational programs on gardening offered around the county. They have had plant clinics at different festivals. They help man the phone desk at the extension office, answering over 4,000 calls and they have put in an assist -- and assisted on landscapes at many of our county facilities, including the extension office itself. And they were responsible for the installation at the precinct 2 communities center and tax center up in Pflugerville. They have also designed, installed, therapeutic gardens in many sites across the community including the south Austin senior activity center, doug's house, the live oak church gardens, bannockburn baptist church gardens and pecan springs elementary. They assist on speaker -- I just wanted to acknowledge our volunteers, there was a very nice reception for them Thursday and I said that I would present the check to the court on behalf of their equivalency volunteer hours. We say thank you to them. I say thank you on behalf of the full court.
>> let's give them a round of applause. [ applause ]
>> phillip dick is next.
>> good morning, I am here today. I have a complaint. It's about the Texas gas company. We -- I have had some other friends of mine to get with me and we have been comparing bills. My bill is -- is -- this says June the 6th. And they have charged me 214.63 for the month of June. And the month of July they have charged me $40.77. And have made my entire gas bill almost $300, 200 something dollars. These are summer months. I do not use, you know, my gas in the summertime like this. And I have been trying to work with the -- you know, gas company and the representatives to try to get this cleared up. But they -- they insist that, you know, my bill is this high and I know that it isn't. I would like to, you know, see if we could have people to investigate if there is anyone that could investigate this, you know, incident for me. And for other people. I am -- also here to complain about my car and my driver's license being taken from me by the department of public safety. Now, I am not guilty of those tickets. The judge dismissed those tickets from -- from my case and I am not guilty of this car wreck right here. This is my 1985 park avenue buick. And the police officers fringle, what ever you want to call it, she plowed into my car. The claim when he made his report is that I backed out of my driveway unsafely and struck her car as she was coming down the street. Well, that's just not a true fact. And my license have been suspended. And I went to the city of Austin and I spoke with mr. -- mr. Catrell and mr. Rude garza, this was the letter that they gave me. But then it claims that -- that the city of Austin isn't liable for any damages and that -- that I -- everything, you know, the whole case has been closed. Well, I don't think that that's fair towards me. Because I am not the culprit of this car wreck. And I don't feel that I should be punished for -- for something that I did not do and my license be taken from me and I won the -- the -- you know, in court where the judge dismissed the cause of me being the -- you know, of the car wreck. Those charges was dismissed. I'm wondering how did a report wind up at the highway department to put a lien or something on my license to keep from me obtaining them when the city manager has written this letter claiming that I can receive my license. I don't understand this at all. The lady that was on my desk at the highway department was so confused when she told me oh, I just don't know. She told me that she could reinstate my license with the money that I gave her, but she couldn't issue them to me. I thought that this was very weird. Why would I pay $100 to have my license reinstated and still can't receive them. She says it was because some lawyer or something put a lien or something like that on my license. And I wanted to know why, when the cause and the case was dismissed. I also have where -- where they have put a criminal record on me. None of this is true. They have go investigated -- they have investigated this, the city of Austin have investigated this, these are not true charges under my name. I feel like racial profiling is running not only up under my name and through my -- it's running through my family as well. Because I have a son who is incarcerated, you all already know, he is innocent, also, it has been proven that he is nrnt of those charges. You can -- he is innocent of those charges, you cannot be two places at once committing the same time and being incarcerate understand the Travis County jail. That is a fact. This is a fact, also. I am not guilty of any of these criminal charges on this document here. They claim that I have been to state prison for five years. Judge you you and the fan necessarily no for yourself. I have not been incarcerated five years for anything. Those claim that I'm a burglar, they claim that my name is not phillip, they claim that I am using an alias name. They said that I was out there trying to get my i.d. Card and this -- this police officer, he squared off at me, I was in line, and he pulled his gun and he said halt, you are under arrest. You are a fugitive from justice. You are an alias. I thought that he was talking to all of the other people --
>> you're out of time.
>> but he was talking to me an every sprouted and I was the only one in line, I said who me, how can I be a fugitive, sir, I haven't ever left Austin, Texas, I haven't ever been anywhere. At that point another officer was nice enough to come and straighten out the thing and bring me down to the -- I just wanted to bring you all up on these issues that so that you can be aware that I'm not the only one going through this gas crisis, not the only one that's being racial profiled. Thank you.
>> thank you. John white. Good morning.
>> good morning, judge, members of the Commissioners court, I'm john white, the last time that I was here, john kuhl was introducing me, I have the pleasure this morning of bringing a new staff member to introduce to you. What -- I have here adell noel our new project quality manager in the natural resources environmental quality division. Adell comes to us from tceq where she's been for about 12 years, most recently in their air quality planning and implementation division. I wanted you folks to meet her and to know that we are both going to be working with you on air quality issues.
>> very good. Welcome.
>> welcome.
>> thank you.
>> looking forward to working with you.
>> very pleased to be here.
>> when are you going to bring us some rain? [laughter]
>> I think that's pete's job. [laughter]
>> yeah.
>> welcome on board, though. Good to have you.
>> thank you.
>> you will have more to say next time [laughter]
>> probably.
>> anybody else for citizens communication? Whether you signed in or not? 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:
Tuesday, August 16, 2006 12:08 PM