Travis County Commissioners Court
September 12, 2006
Item 4
Number 4. Consider and take appropriate action on the following requests regarding the Travis County 2006 combined charities campaign: this year we do have a new chairman. Let's welcome him first.
>> first of all, I want you to know that I'm excited about this campaign and it's going to be the best ever. I know that you have been the chair over the last couple of years and I had set a goal to at least do one dollar more than -- than you. [laughter] I would like to make a comment about dr. Bayardo. I was just informed that he has been the highest individual donor for the last --
>> every year.
>> every since it's been going on. So I'm going to talk with him about continuing on with the contributions [laughter] but we -- we are here and I've got two able bodied knowledgeable people who have been part of this campaign that's going to be by my side the whole way, that's ms. Burke, ms. Mathias, also I have been informed by you, judge Biscoe, that you will assist me throughout this --
>> in fact I think that I committed the entire Commissioners court.
>> okay. That's even better.
>> [laughter] but we are here to ask you to consider taking -- giving us permission to have the county print our brochures and -- and forms.
>> okay. As chair of the combined charities campaign, you do not become Travis County judge. [laughter]
>> what --
>> number a, 4 a is authorization to print materials for our 2006 campaign; mr. Chairman? Any comments on that one?
>> [indiscernible]
>> no.
>> how many do -- are we printing?
>> 5100.
>> yes, sir.
>> how many do we print last year?
>> about the same.
>> you figure about the same number. This has been the county's contribution. That's why I move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion? Any reason we should not do this, mr. Chairman?
>> there's no reason why you shouldn't do it.
>> where does 51 hunting. Do we give it to retirees.
>> some. We usually print about 10% more, people lose them, need extra copies. Also having its put a copy of the booklet and other forms on the intranet so that we don't have to print more.
>> can it be e-mailed.
>> they doesn't necessarily have to be Travis County employees to help out, do they?
>> a lot of people don't have e-mail.
>> right.
>> it's kind of good to have a hard document you can refer to from time to time if you want to.
>> well, we do a pretty good job of using all of them.
>> we do use all of them, yes.
>> so we sort of evolved to this number, worked our way to it. But I guess we can be mindful of -- that's the problem. The problem with e-mails, when you do this, this is a whole lot to read in one e-mail then if you are like me, you delete it at some points. So in the future if you want to refer back to it, either hunt one down or --
>> what the rough cost of 5100, what's our cost, do we have any idea of what -- [multiple voices]
>> if it's in kind, we costed that out, a few years back, I can't recall what it was, though. To be honest.
>> I'm with the sheriff, thinking this is an easy gig. We need to ask some pretty tough questions here.
>> [laughter]
>> if you ask them too tough I'm going to resign.
>> any more discussion? We can get that cost for you? You do them in house, a whole lot cheaper than taking them to a printer. So -- so we sort of avoid that cost. But we incur it ourselves. This is our contribution. We can get that number and get it to you, okay? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. B, inclusion of the four (4) unaffiliated charities in the 2006 campaign; unaffiliated charity?
>> going to be a charitable, right now we are going through the city of Austin to do the approval of our charities and the individuals that did theirs, the requirement is in your backup there, it says certification of compliance signed by the c.e.o., most recent form 990, if an organization have received revenue in the year preceding the current campaign totaling more than $100,000 or more, they must have an audit by an independent cpa, and organization fundraising administrative percentage cannot exceed 25%. Travis County sheriff's offense, Travis County brown santa, their paperwork has been looked over and they meet all of the requirements, the sheriff memorial, benolvent society, zachery scott theater, capital area food bank of Texas. We are asking those to be approved.
>> historically we have kind of piggybacked the city of Austin, they have done the up front work. Rather than have agencies do that work we have sort of accepted theirs. All of these have met all of the requirements. Historically you meet the requirements, we include your employees to decide whether to donate or not. Move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Next item is not so easy. It is inclusion of two (2) charities affiliated with community shares to be included in the 2006 campaign. And the rope these are set out -- the reason these are set out separately is that unlike the four non-profits in 4 b, these do not meet all of the requirements. There is one that stands out specifically and it is basically that they do not have a -- an up to date audit, right?
>> that's correct.
>> and to be honest, they are a little smaller than a lot of the others. But that's the problem.
>> judge --
>> okay. The executive director for the disability assistance of central Texas is here. And I don't know if anyone is here from the Texas --
>> john [indiscernible]
>> I just wanted to let you know that they are here.
>> why don't we let them come forth, then, say a few words. I can say that I know both individuals and members of both of these corporations -- okay. Give us your name and the -- and the non-profit that you are associated with, we will be happy to get your comments.
>> yes, judge. [indiscernible] executive director of Texas inmate families association.
>> good morning, I'm norman kieke, can disability assistance of central Texas.
>> a little bit about your agency and why you want to be part of this and I guess if you would address the audit for us.
>> we have been a member of [indiscernible] Texas shares and now community shares of Texas for three years. Our last audit was in 2003 and so we were in the campaigns for 2004 and 2005. For this year, we were slightly over the -- over the requirements of being under 100,000. In January, with -- with the expenses that we have as a membership organization, for families of incarcerated, we did not have the funds for an expensive audit. Being slightly over the amount. Our major -- we have money for grants, the old story. That operating expenses are low. Subsequent to that, there was through community shares an auditor identified who would be willing to do audits for a lot less, but then we had missed the deadline with -- with the -- we do help families considerably from Travis County with the travis state jail, with the story book project, working with the vendors, keeping books for their children that go to the children. We have a chapter here, we help families, 5,000 families from Travis County that are in -- in tdcj and the 2500 that -- that are returning to -- to Travis County through the parole. We understand that -- that, you know, we understand the issue and we are in the process of getting a -- an audit right nowotny that we have figured out a way to do it.
>> I believe that I can say that from the Travis County community justice center perspective, I know ms. Burn and her group have been available for us to work with them and they have worked since it's been there.
>> right.
>> so if you -- under $100,000 in annual revenue the audit requirement doesn't apply.
>> that's correct.
>> once our budget is more than one thousand dollars in a year then you have to do the audit.
>> right, ours was 112,000 for last year.
>> good morning, thank you for this opportunity and I would like to thank the staff, also, for getting us to this point. I appreciate your understanding. We are a little bit larger financially as an agency, although we are struggling a little bit financially, we are grant rich but struggling with our fundraising. We are sort of an agency in transition. Our main disability of stacks it's a little over four years old. We have almost a 50 year history here with cerebral palsy, we dropped out of the united cerebral palsy policy for a couple of reasons, to keep our membership fee money here in Austin for program services, but also to continue expanding the services that we provide for people with all disabilities. You could name any disability and find it in our client population. Our services including independent living, capital metro contract, supported employment services for the most difficult portion of the population to serve. So greeters the home depot, lows, menu cleaners at chilly's, we serve people like that in our employment program. Also the only agency providing services for this population of people with multiple and significant disabilities that provides long-term supports and that's a -- that's a service that is very difficult to get funded in the public domain. So we are struggling with our name change. Gaping some ground on that. Gaining some ground on that but still indeed struggling. We do understand the issue of course. We had audits up until 2002 with a couple of forms, [indiscernible] and chapel and montmayor & associates. Still in touch with those groups trying to figure out a way to get back in the main stream. She's mentioned that through community shares of Texas are funding coalition there may be an opportunity for a more reasonable financial commitment for getting this audit done. We do have site visits from the funding sources, the u.s. Department of education was in our offense last month for about three days, including a financial review. They don't call it an audit, but they do site visits. Our title 20 funding we go through site visits with that also with the easter seals we have a subcontract with easter seals, twice a year they review our financial operations for their assurances, also. So we really appreciate your opportunity. This campaign would be a great opportunity for us to -- to get a little bit of additional funding through the Travis County campaign as well as to continue expanding our visibility with people that don't know anything about disability assistance.
>> so the combined charities money comes from where? They do their fundraising, central Texas residents.
>> well, the combined charities are federal, state, county and city.
>> private sector combined charities also.
>> okay. They campaign for individual contributions, too, though?
>> right, it's offered to federal employees, state employees and local government employees. So the campaigns run at all level of government as well as in the private sector.
>> well, I can say that I have worked with norman there and his agency for at least what, four or five or six years.
>> as often as I can get you. [laughter]
>> and you do a fantastic job.
>> let me ask something, is the rope that we have to sign-off on this, I mean, I really whenever it comes time for us to determine what moneys were given, we had the book. You can go through the book and you can specifically check if you want to give moneys to go to certain places. But if you don't do a specific check off, does that mean that it just goes into a pop, then that pot is divvied up amongst all of the people that -- that we qualify, is that the reason that we are having --
>> yes.
>> because otherwise [multiple voices]
>> get it in the book, though.
>> that's what I mean, the reason we have to approve you to get the book because if there's not a specific person that says I wanted to go through the disabilities assistance of central Texas, then there's a pot of money that nobody specifically said we want our money to go to any specific place. Then it gets divvied up amongst all of the people that are in the book; is that the reason that we have to sign-off on it?
>> the reason we have to sign-off on it for them to be eligible to county employees to donate to them as part of this campaign.
>> that's true. It would be spread among all of the federations and all of the charities. Also, you -- you assure I guess employees that if these charities are in the book, that if they give money to them, they are in fact a non-profit organization and they are vinyl financially and they do what they say they are going to do.
>> okay.
>> we have also heard in terms of some of the guidelines for fill land philany so that 60 or 75% of the money goes back to telemarketers. This is to assure that there are nationally standardized acceptable levels for fundraising and/or administrative expenses, both of these organizations fit within that. It's really great to meet those kinds of standards.
>> we have always been under the 25%, because we are providing direct services to families.
>> fundraising cap in the campaign for us is how much? Administrative cost capped.
>> 25%.
>> 25%.
>> okay.
>> make -- some time ago we were looking at [indiscernible] Commissioner Daugherty but they wanted to go to whatever, cancer or then at one time we didn't even have sickle cell, we ended up bringing sickle cell on board because it wasn't an entry for that to happen. Of course which is, you know, another choice you can use or choose from as far as having those things of where you would like to specifically place your money. So there are several choices I think that, you know, we can do -- determine exactly where we like our contributions to target and focus on. But anyway that's basically what I wanted to say as far as what Commissioners court had brought up. Commissioner Daugherty brought up.
>> in addition to having a good familiarity, it's like a working familiarity.
>> I move approval to be added.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you very much.
>> we appreciate that very much. We are both getting our audits done. Thank you so much.
>> thank you. D is what we call the power grab item. That is authorization for sheriff greg hamilton, campaign chairperson, to send e-mails about the 2006 campaign directly to county employees.
>> judge, I want you to know that was a suggestion from the seasoned members of the charitable campaign. They think that it would work better if I had the opportunity to be able to send out.
>> I move approval.
>> second.
>> I agree. The thing is if the message is in the middle of a whole lot of other messages the county employees it gets lost. From time to time it's important I think for the chairperson to send an e-mail directly to employee where the only thing in that e-mail is about combined charities. So this is in that spirit.
>> I'm glad that you understand that this is no the a power grab [laughter]
>> if I got an e-mail from the sheriff I would pay attention.
>> if you really want to do a good job of this, you need to take a lot of people out to lunch.
>> I will just make that one of my charitable gifts.
>> sheriff, it wasn't that the judge was not a good chairperson at all. He was a great chairperson on this combined charities.
>> he was term limited.
>> so I don't think nobody is knocking you on that.
>> I tried to encourage him to do at least one more year, but it didn't work.
>> well, I was not voted out, the committee just quietly went around me and chose another chairperson. Any more discussion of the motion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you all very much. Good luck, we look forward to working with you.
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, September 13, 2006 10:11 AM