Travis County Commissioners Court
November 7, 2006
Item 29
Number 29 is to discussion feasibility of position to perform public next, intergovernmental relation and legislative duties for Travis County. We did get input from various county managers which either they sent them directly to the court or my office did yesterday. I have looked at this as basically covering three distinct areas and with a fourth one being pretty much as needed. One is a legislative which may be a little bit more urgent because we are losing ann dinkler is moving to other duties and spittle after December 3--and responsibilities after December 3 and after the legislature gets to townlve we will have to cover what she has been doing for us during the sessions. The other thing is intergovernmental. What I had in mind about that is trying to improve our working relationship with lcra, city of Austin, other governmental entities. The interlocal agreements and various other projects of common interest comes the mind. I guess my thinking on that, it is clear, I think, that it would help to have somebody out there sort of pushing that for us. I have in mind various tif propose thalce we have heard about over--proposals that we have heard about over the last two or three years, some more recently than that that. We got a lot of this stuff at the last hour. On some of it, I don't they that we really have an opportunity to research it, think about exactly what the public benefit is, all the other specificsspecifics, issue--specifics, issue whatever warnings, caveats we think are important. I mean, I see this person helping with that. The other one is really what we call public information which I guess I had in mind something a little bit more sophisticated than calling a number and asking a question and getting an answer. I kind of had in mind somebody that would help the court and the county get out information about significant programs, servicesservices in the emergency services area from same to time. We see information being released. Typically what comes from the county is what is released in the Commissioners court room. The caveat is if you don't get the right person in the position the may not help having the position filled, in which case we would continue to did as we have in the past. I don't know that any great harm has resulted but I don't know that any great benefit resulted either. We have sort of made do. I'm certainly happy to keep doing that except I think on some of these pieces we need to be a little more systematic because the circumstances require it, especially the legislature coming to town. What I have learned, and I'll be quiet after this, you know, when you get out word to people, when you invite people to come and provide input 12 months in advance, we are not good about taking advantage of that opportunity. And if there's a person out there kind of pushing and cajoling and encouraging, et cetera, we have to get better cooperation, I think. The other thing, when we respond to requests from various departments about legislation that we should be for or against, you know, it often comes sort of at the last minute. I don't know that we have done a bad job of responding in the past, but I'm left with the impression that with a little bit more time maybe we would have done a better job.
>> judge, this public information officer, I remember during the budget cycle that this discussion did come up a little bit as far as having a person anchored to look at how a lot of the public information for the county, and of course we discussed during that time, even the article made mention of it. I know I hollered a little bit about it. But if this pio, will there be something similar to maybe what the city of Austin has on bored at this time? Or will there be much of a deviation? I see that the legislative and a whole lot of other stuff is kind of all inter intertwined in a lot of this stuff. But is there a distinction that would be, that would be qualified to separate this out as far as what all the overall duties and responsibilities of that particular pio. I'm just trying to get a real grip on it outside of what we, you know, discussed some time ago in the budget process.
>> I think the city of Austin has a position called intergovernmental liaison, and that's the person that does most of that kind of work. I prefer that kind of title to a pio. I think, I'm not very comfortable with pio. I think intergovernmental liaison kind of says that there's a a little bit more substance, substantive connection with other people in other entities. The real communications, the development of information that is public, obviously. And then that person also works the legislature on issues. And basically, it's some really substantive stuff done, substantive work done. I would be more comfortable with an intergovernmental liaison.
>> liaison.
>> fine with me. I think the you are part of this is really the legislative piece--urgent is the legislative piece. Whatever governmental liaison really would be a 12 months out of a year position, whether the legislature is in town or not.
>> right.
>> I listed these three because those were the three areas that I think we need better coverage on. If we were to take the public information part out, would not bother me. But I think there would be plenty of legislative duties and intergovernmental work.
>> the other thing, I guess this person, if it were the intergovernmental specialist they would coordinate and work with pam and shield for the specific legislative things we would need.
>> and all of the county people.
>> and the county departments.
>> right.
>> coordinate all of those county departments. Then communication with each of our offices. Because I think one of the fears that I have, and I don't want it to ever happen I don't want the Commissioners court members to be insulated by any of these positions from the public. Because, I can tell you, when you go out there, you need to know those issues and you need to explain them to the ordinary person. And you need to know. You need to have all that information.
>> uh-huh.
>> the other thing that comes to mind, though, I know that some, one of the e-mails I got was addressing the public safety need for getting information out about what is occurring in terms of public safety. During flooding or, you know other real serious things that occur. The league of women voters always asks a question of candidates, how we can make it more possible to coordinate, collaborate with other entities in terms of funding of some of these things that are needed. I wonder since we have an interlogel with the city of Austin on e ms and star flight, why can't we also coordinate with the city of Austin on their inter intergovernmental relations person.
>> I'm not sure they would define cord neigh the same way you have in mind.
>> trying to address their question. They always ask, how can you how can the county and the city, for instance, coordinate, collaborate and the whole idea is to cut costs. And not let everybody have their own.
>> but communicate also.
>> of course of obviously.
>> and it's the communication part that seems to come at the 11th hour.
>> yeah.
>> and in terms of the same person, appropriately the city of Austin is advocating on behalf of the city of Austin. And at times, even in the legislative process, sometimes we all have different goals and we're looking out for different kind of things. So the idea that somehow the same person could do it, a lot of times we're on the same page, a lot of times we're not. Especially struck by the fact that the city took a contrary position to us related to rev caps and price caps collaboration, cooperation, communication, sluling, but the idea of some--absolutely, but the idea of somehow the same person, I don't see that as being possible. We're operating under different sections of the lold government code. But it's a good thing to talk about. To me, I am interested and intrigued by the executive manager's recommendations because that's kind of the direction I was thinking of. There are different skill sets related to somebody being a government relations specialist and this kind of governmental versus pio. And I'm with you in terms of I don't think it ought to be a pio kind of thing. And the idea that you need to have some kind of staff. There could be a tremendous amount of time, and was since this was embedded in our office, related to simply trying to get things done, be at certain kind of meetings, and then the technical requirements of getting this stuff disseminated. So if you've got the idea that it's going to be one person, I think you are underestimating what was going on in our office related to what needed to occur, which also included physically getting these letters written and signed by all of us and run over to the legislature. The idea that your one person ought to be doing some stuff that is very administrative related to ought to be handled by a clerk or somebody to assist in trying to get this stuff off. So I'd like to hear a little bit more from the executive managers as to ya' ll's thought process.
>> we thought there were two mainly functions, one is the information distribution. Just a simple getting out a release to the press on a policy that the court, let's just take this morning, the substantive road. It would be had helpful at that moment to have someone say okay, my duty is to get out a blurb on this policy, explain it to people, tell them that there's a meeting coming up on the 21st, make sure it's distributed to the right people, including our other governmental partners in that. That would be one of the functions. That whole role of getting the information out about what we do here at the county and it happens every week. That would be helpful to have that function available available. As well as in a time of crisis where you have big flood event going on or something else. The media looks for someone, a spokesperson for the Commissioners court, what the going on. To have a person identified, I am that person, is helpful in those moments where people are scrambling around doing other things. But then the other function is the legislative and let's say actually governmental affairs and it's not limited just to the legislature. You have the federal government making laws that affect us. And you have all these other government entities, be it the lcra or city of Austin or other entity, working, that have some issue crossing over the boundary that may affect what we do here at the county. And this person should be aware of that, if nothing else, and bring those to the court's attention, be able to monitor the agendas and say did you know that the city has drafted a policy that may affect what you're doing here at the county. Being able to monitor that and make the court aware of that. Then billed these things up whereas we see the horizon and things start bubbling to the surface, there's no surprise. That we are able to discuss these issues with our other governments before it gets to the point where we've taken positions that are at odds. That is very important. Then also working then with the legislature. And it's short but it's fast and very intense d?m. And it's nice to have a quarter back that can say, okay, here is all the information. I need tnr to analyze this bill, get it back to me before tomorrow at eight o'clock because this committee meets and we need to have a response. Things are happening so fast fast. And it takes, it probably is more than a one-person job. You have the key person keeping his eye on the policy issues so that you have someone else actually working the paper, getting it back and forth. So we do view this as a more than a one-person operation. We also think, though, that the function needs to be placed at a high level within the county government so that the function speaks on behalf of the court. Unless there's some executive intent on the part of the Commissioners court to have this function, we don't think that you should have it. Because this person is a very important spokesperson, and that spokesperson should represent your viewpoints. And that the why we recommend that the court hire the director and that this function be housed in the principal policy office of the county, which we view to be the county judge's office, on behalf of the Commissioners court. Not in a tnr, not in a p b o or something like that. We think this function is clearly a policy, executive policy position, and that the why it ought to be housed where we are recommending it. We do understand that this, our recommendation is not something that probably get done between now and January January. At best, we thought you would be able to fill a position called a government specialspecial--relation specialist that would work with bop cam and we departments would supplement that with our staff. Than would get us through the next session of the legislature. Over time you would be able to implement the full lve full scope of what we are recommending in the memo.
>> I would certainly include my office staff to assist with the county part of it, because it calls for coordinating county departments. And the copying and, you know, getting the letters written, as you mention. I really want to, it's necessary that I know what the going on so that I can then talk to constituents about what we have done here here. So what about space? Talking about housing up here. I guess we're not that far down the road yet. But--
>> we talked about that as well.
>> that's what comes to mind immediatelyyeah. We thought right--
>> yeah. We thought right now there are two offices up in alicia alicia's space that are housed with the emergency services. We believe at some point you're going to package that and probably take it somewhere else within the county structure, that those offices probably would be ideal for this function. Close, on the fifth floor, close to your offices so there's good discussions going on.
>> it's my opinion that the pio thing is something that's going to take more time to talk about. You hit the mail on the head when you said earlier, our major thrust has got to be what we are going to do legislative-wise. I think the smartest thing for us to do is to sit down with our paid lobbist at this stage. I think that we perhaps need to bring cuc into this thing thing. I mean, if we are paying organizations like 22 grand to belong to it, I don't know what we pay tac. There are people that we pay that are county watchdog, if you will, about the kind of things that we know that we need. Perhaps there are some people in the office that can just be runners, so to speak. I mean, I will tell you that I don't, I mean, my office doesn't have the time to take on what Commissioner Sonleitner's office did last session with ann, nor are we probably the office to do that because we are quite frankly not seasoned at this stage enough to really do that. Can we assist? Sure. But at this stage, I mean, we're within 60 days of the legislature coming back into town. The most prudent thing, I would thinkrb would be for us to--i would think, would be for us to sit down with our lobbyist and say which direction, how much help are you really going to be able to give us to get us through this legislative session. I mean, that's really the deal. Then we, you know, really appropriate the time to get in here, get the executive managers. I did read all the comments, there are a lot of good comments. Regardless of what you call them. I mean, you know, obviously, it would be nice to look at having something like that kind of person. Now, whether or not you want to spend six figures on you know, having a spin person that somebody is going to attack us for something what you have got is somebody there that the able to get in front of the camera and tell us what, you know, we want to hear, I don't want to have to deal with that. But I do think it takes us some time to walk through this. But I do know that our lobby group is amenable to sitting down with us. Because I have asked. And say, might you give us some ideas about how you really could help us get through this session. Because at this stage, I mean, nobody wants to have to react to something in 30 or 45 days. Especially during, you know, the holiday season. But I do think that we need to be, you know, really mind mindful that this thing is within 60 days. Quite frankly, as we all know, if you haven't gotten something in the pipe by even now, coming up with doing something legislative legislative-wise is going to be pretty difficult to get done anyway. But this is a subject matter that we have got to put a lot more time into than what I think we have at this stage.
>> and that's the thing that Gerald and I had discussed earlier. The goal could be to lay it out as the three-person function but at least related to the government relation, if there is not pime to get somebody on bored--time to get somebody on board on the county payroll, you ask bob and chris whether we can contract for that particular service during this legislative session with the goal of moving toward bringing this in house, but in the meantime, ask bob and chris to hire somebody to handle that and to do it as a contract salary, supplement the existing contract that we've got, and that may be the most, the quickest way to get on board somebody, and they can find the right person who fits into the mix and fits within the needs.
>> judge, what's the (inaudible)
>> I have two things in mind am one is we have a work decision so we may as well post that with bob and chris on exactly what they need. Second, in my view, what we need is somebody to carry the ball on the Travis County end I don't know to what extent you bring in a new person from the outside who can effectively do that immediately. You know, we have probably 8 8-10 county departments that each session have a variety of pieces of legislation that either they think we ought to oppose or that we ought to be over there supporting. And so I guess I wonder to what extend somebody from the outside can help us. And the Commissioner too, assistance was importantant because ms. Ms--dinkler was here. She was here and new the defendants and what they were ib cleaned to do and not to do--inclined to do and not to do. That's what I have to give some thought. Plus I think we have to ask them that question. You know, objectively, would it be better for us to try to get somebody in the county to help with that, or do you think you can get somebody and we can contract to purchase that person as time. During this session or during the session and 30, 45 days thereafter. That's a big question, and I can go wherever the facts take us. But I am mindful that in my view the big problem is that we have multiple elected officials, multiple appointed officials, who get actively involved in the legislative process. And at some point they come and ask the court to take a formal position for or against. And I'm thinking that each of us can probably brainstorm five minutes and come up with the of five, six, receive--with the name of five, six, seven county individuals that do that. The question is how can we get them to come to us before January 1 instead of April 1 when the legislature is really getting serious about working. But I can hold off on that discussion until November 16 16. I think that's what we're talking about. The other thing is we may as well on the 21st put down a follow-up discussion on the intergovernmental person. If we are thinking about doing that, maybe give that some thought. Pull out the public information piece. If you do the governmental liaison piece right, you really do some public information anyway.
>> that would be my preference.
>> yeah.
>> I think it would really really get all of those issues that we really need to address at the legislative session.
>> judge, most of the duties or some of the duties that I expect to see from a public information officer, in other words, there are some things that joe brought up this morning, and other from the sheriff's department and stuff like that. I have no problems about some of those things. I think the idea that the judge brought up has merit. Of course it's been discussed in the past. I don't want to see that mossel--muzeled or crumpled so it doesn't have a chance to breathe. I am keeping in mind that some of duties and responsibilities of that so-called pio is embedded into whatever direction we go. I think it's very well--
>> if it's this person, they can did that too. But it calls for a lot of close communication with other entities and to delve deeply into the issues that we can understand.
>> I just urge everybody to please figure out where we want to land because ann is being asked on a daily if not weekly basis to attend meetings. It's like we are respectfully saying, we are not the ones doing this function any longer. We have got things to do to get or office shut down.
>> okay.
>> thank you.
>> we'll have this back, on the work session, and I'll put it back on November 21 for us to have any appropriate follow-up discussion.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, November 7, 2006 10:11 PM