Travis County Commissioners Court
August 29, 2006
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next. Phillip a. Dick is first and valerie bristol is second, former county Commissioner and top Travis County vip. You.
>> good morning. I am here this morning, as you know, about my son, roosevelt hutchins, junior. He's still incarcerated and I'm his mom and I'm still fighting for him although we are on the verge of taking care of the business. And I am so happy, I don't know what to do. My new vice-president and i, ms. Kathy urdy, went and visited with ms. Dawna dukes' office on Friday, thank you mr. Ron Davis, and we went to talk with her and to put out -- lay out some of our ideas from our group, which is this name, parents uf concerned inmates being abused in Texas prisons, jails and youth facilities, and we are officially registered with the secretary of state now. I can proudly announce that. And we are also -- we also have our tax id number. You know we have to pay. But at any rate, I went to the newspaper so that mr. Wooit would aon -- mr. Wyatt would announce our meeting at the dewity center when we speak out about the conditions of the prisons. And we have yz ideas of how we think it should be resolved for the prisoners getting their mail or being punished for crimes that they didn't do while they are in in that disciplinary court, we all made suggestions to see what can be brought to the legislature to kind of resolve these problems. I have a letter from my son that I pulled out of the mailbox just the other day and I was reading it, and these people, the sergeants, guards or whatever, they are so disrespectful, they have here where they wanted to know my son, my son's mother's name because I have been really raising a ruckus about my innocent son. And it says here, also, momma, sergeant dar si said he's going to have your office burned down. Now, what type of representative is that over the prison inmates? He shouldn't make statements like that. To me that's like a threat to to want to do some harm to me. I'm not even on the inside. You can imagine what the inmates have to do if the citizens have to go through it. So I would appreciate it if we could begin to work on areas of racism and see if we are eliminated from out of the prisons, but from around the world. Thank you.
>> when is that meeting?
>> September the 8, 2006. Thank you.
>> I'm valerie bristol speaking on behalf of the nature conservancy. We're a partner with you in the balcones canyon land plan, and we've been in engage understand this long process of trying to decide issues having to do with the water treatment plant. I don't know a thing about water treatment plants, but the important thing for me is, number one, that it not be built under any circumstance in the bull creek watershed. As this discussion has brought forward the need for us to all continue to look at our management of our properties. These lands were very narrowly defined when the balcones was passed. We were constrained by the financial resources that this massive community has provided, but that still had limentz. And because of that the land should be managed very, very well so that we don't lose habitat under our management. So while the discussion goes forward on the water treatment plants and its location, let's all recommit to providing necessary resources to meet the biological needs and the scientific needs of these properties so that we're in compliance with our permit, both the city very much needs to do a lot of work in that area, and we thank you for your support through the years of this incredible achievement and let's remember it is an incredible achievement that this community through its jurisdictions and through its private groups have set aside these magnificent properties for generations to come. It will be a great tribute to everyone who was a part of it that these are here. So my main point, bull creek no, good management yes, and we wish you the best as you study and make your decision. Thank you very much.
>> anybody else for citizen communication? Please come forward. Citizen communication, any item on the agenda.
>> gus pena, more fund sg needed for social service agencies. A lot of need out there, not enough funding. Just turn on the tv, go out on the treats and you will see the need out thrvment regarding the Travis County health district board, they asked the Commissioners court to approve the highest rate before the rollback could be called. The Commissioners court was correct to call for more details. Be cognizant that as more people are diagnosed with mental health issues, more funding will be needed for those in need. We need to thank dave evans with the outstanding yob they're doing. Keep up the good work. We are seeing an increase of patients both city side and county side health clinics. I'm glad ms. Flemg and david lurie is over here. With maybe we need some expanded hours to see the overflow of patients. A lot more patients are being seen at the clinics. Maybe expanded hours are needed. As I informed the city council, please try to continue to support more funding for youth and senior citizen initial sieves that are the most precious segments of our population. Keep the kids active and off the streets. It's very important. This summer was very, very dangerous and hazardous regarding gangs and their increase. Irregardless of how you feel -- I tell this to everybody watching. Irregardless of how you feel about the war in iraq and afghanistan, please support the military personnel over there. They're going a duty that a lot of us did in previous wars. They don't want to be out there, but they're serving their country. Please support them and pray for them. Please continue to acknowledge the good job that our capital metro drivers are doing under these hazardous situations. I appreciate them. I ride the bus as well as lucio. I'd like to thank the bus driver and my son needs somebody else other than dad to provide support for him in school. When too many have too much and too many have too little, we will never have a sustainable society. Ron Davis, thank you very much for your comments about east Austin. We've been dumped on. I live on east fifth street, whe a tank farm in the front, we had a slaughter house,, we had a mattress making company in front of us, brick making company in front of us. We've been there, done that. Lord knows what we've had in your system.
>> my name is trek english with the northeast action group and I'm here today to talk to you today about the the vote that you took. I believe that your primary duty is to protect the people, and you did just that in 2001 when you started on this solid waste ordinance journey. And however, what I do not understand is after going through hoops and all kinds of strategy for the last five years, which included performance based contracts, odor studies and on and on, in one sweeping vote in 10 minutes you decided in executive session to go ahead and grant the expansion. I don't understand that. If you were going to do that, why didn't you do that five years ago and save us a lot of our time and our lives. We thought that you wanted to come to an understanding as to what could be happening with the northeast landfills, and instead you chose to ignore it and allow them to go up 75 feet sight unseen. They've gone up approximately 30 feet every 10 years. If you want them to stay -- and they have capacity until 2012. If you want them to stay three years yrks on earth would you give them 75 feet. Why would you give them 75 feet? That is just unbelievable. On top of the fact that you are going to widen 290 to 10 lanes, at the same time that you're going to have this huge amount of waste coming through. They stood right there when you were in executive session and said we will have no problem filling that 75 feet by 2015, which means they will start tomorrow. They'll start bringing in as much garbage as they can to fill it in. It's space worth millions of dollars k why on earth where they leave it behind? If you believe that, then I guess we'll have to talk about some swamp land in florida or something that you want to buy because that's what they're going to do, they're going foil it. And we are going to be recipients of this vote because it's not going to be business as usual, it's going to be worse. The fact that you want them gone by 2015 swun thing, but the fact that you gave them a huge extension in between that is unbelievable. It's like if your son said to you, okay, I'm going to quit smoking in two years, but in the meantime allow me to smoke two packs a day. What kind of a parent would you be in that's -- wouldyou be? That's what I'm saying right now. It's going to kill us.
>> thank you, ms. English.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 12:28 PM