Travis County Commissioners Court
January 2, 2007
Item 19
19. Consider and take appropriate action on request to appoint a committee to develop a comprehensive policy regarding public-private partnership proposals for multifamily housing developments.
>> mr. Davis, good morning, harvey Davis, manager for the housing finance corporation and this -- if you recall, several weeks ago, we had the -- we had a discussion, a nice discussion on south park apartments and there was a discussion about -- about -- I had made the recommendation that -- that I felt that we needed a policy to consider these public/private partnership proposals and what I wanted to do was suggest that the court appoint a committee that would develop a comprehensive policy that would better guide consideration of these types of proposals. My suggestion is that the committee consist of people from the housing authority. Some outside people, outside people that are -- that have familiarity with tax credit programs, how they work, what makes sense in a policy, what doesn't make sense as far as making them work, for the -- for the developer, for the -- for the government entities. And -- and so -- so I think -- I think Commissioner Gomez had expressed an interest of being on that committee. So that's --
>> but I thought that we were going to have a committee to address affordable housing and then the -- this policy would develop from there. Because that -- I was interested in serving on the committee addressing affordable housing and all that that entails and then a policy would come from that.
>> and that committee to address the affordable housing to --
>> to address what affordable housing is. That's one of the things that I had in mind. Let's define affordable housing for this area and all that that entails and then come up with a policy to address this. Because that's why I said that I was interested in serving on the committee for affordable housing.
>> this is a lot more narrow than that.
>> yeah.
>> I guess with that -- if I recall correctly, we ran into a real bumpy road when we were dealing with the private/public partnership as far as looking at ways where's we could also grant -- whereby we could also grant exempted revenue bonds. But
>> [indiscernible] revenue bonds to a private entity but of course we had public involvement. But the bottom line in all of this was how were we going to end up addressing a lot of things as far as services to the poor? And of course looking at that, it just appeared that -- that there need to be a policy because at this juncture, all of the other folks that we have been dealing with in the past have had sufficient amenities to address the poor in the housing initiatives that they bring to the -- bring to the Travis County housing finance corporation. So we looked at that and of course there was a lot of ambiguity, I feel in fact when we end up looking at the -- particularly the housing finance corporation who actually was the entity in this thing, they actually had the proposal, of course it was real short and narrow of providing the needs for the poor. Even though they were getting tax exempt revenue bonds to finance the project, which actually means that they take the property off the tax roll. So -- so a lot of money off the tax roll and that of affects all of the jurisdictions. If you are going to do that, what do we get in exchange for taking property off the tax roll? So -- so we don't really have a policy --
>> no, not yet. But my understanding was that if we had the committee to address affordable housing, then -- which is an interest that I have, which is why I volunteered to be on the committee, then from all of that discussion with people who are also interested in affordable housing would come a policy about these public private partnerships.
>> so your idea at the committee is that the committee would develop a -- an overall affordable housing strategy for the county and the housing authority as one --
>> whatever, however it comes, it develops, and I know that there are several people in this community, that are interested in affordable housing from the county's perspective, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to do that. Then from that discussion would come any ideas for policies.
>> I read your charge. But exactly what do you have in mind from this item?
>> what I had in mind is that -- is that in the -- in the south park project, and other considerations that the housing authority is -- is a -- developing and has developed, that -- and -- and they are developing affordable housing projects in which -- in which what they bring to the table is property tax exemptions and they -- nobody -- the county or the housing authority does not have a policy that tells the developers or tells the citizens you know what are we getting in exchange for granting property tax exemptions. And that -- that that -- that my recommendation, my concern is that -- that we need to have a policy that -- that says what we expect in exchange for granting property tax exemption for an affordable housing project.
>> to attempt to put the committee together, which is really what we are asking for today, let's identify as -- as to how we are going to put the committee together, then we will charge the committee.
>> who is on a committee to a great extent will turn on what you do with the charges.
>> I think --
>> I do think we ought to do what you say. That's a different item, though. It's a lot broader. But -- but this -- this flow frommed from a little -- flowed from a little fraction between Travis County, the housing authority and a newly created corporation. I thought this idea was really to help us put in place policies and guidelines so we would know in the future which standards we will use to determine from the Commissioner -- from the Commissioners court perspective what we are looking for, they have advanced notice of that if they want a policy I guess there would be some general provision. My question would be have we chatted with them about this charge? Them meaning the housing authority?
>> only in -- only in notifying -- sending them this agenda backup and having chatted with them during the south park -- prior to the south park consideration. My --
>> would it make sense today then for the Commissioners court to indicate exactly what we would like for the charge to be, then we touch base with them and see if they agree.
>> it should would.
>> you have listed here Travis County strategic finance corporation, but the boards are the same still, right? So I mean putting -- listing both entities is fine, we should understand you are talking about the same five members I think? Serving on both board like we do on the corporation and Commissioners.
>> well, of course the board of strategic is different than the board of the housing finance corporation.
>> but is the board of strategic the same as the housing authority of Travis County?
>> not exactly because the strategic has two board members, two additional board members that the court appointed.
>> okay.
>> so they have more board members than the housing authority.
>> more people to notify about this.
>> but, judge, I agree with what you are saying. In other words, there needs to be a standard. I think that's the bottom line. A policy, standard, whatever you want to call it. Because right now we are in limbo when these kind of things come up and they are going to continue to cause friction, especially if I see properties coming off the tax roll and in exchange for the poor folks that they are providing affordable housing to aren't getting the services like after school care, all of those, utility, all of these other amenities that poor folks ought to get from the money that we are taking off the tax roll to provide those services to the poor anyway. So they do need to come one a standard. Whatever you want to call it, policy standard or whatever.
>> I think the committee can help arrive at that point.
>> you are speaking of a separate committee to essentially do a needs assessment and come up a definition of affordable housing for our community.
>> the need is there. But I guess how do we get to having a policy so we will know how to address those needs? And I know that people have approached me about affordable housing, it's more of a -- of I guess an update on the price of housing and what affordable housing really is. You know for a -- for families. And -- more than likely it's multi-family housing. Not quite ready to go to homeowner. Although there are programs there. But I think it's -- it's more like a -- like an inventory of the kinds of things that are available here in this area in terms of -- what is affordable. It seems like there could be overlap in the -- I think -- I agree with the judge that these two -- these two proposed committees do have different charges with an overlap perhaps on the bullet that you have under charge 1 conducting the survey of best practices for public/private housing partnerships in Texas. There might be something there as far as, you know, that would aid in this second -- the goals of this second committee as well. But for this, I think we are just looking at straight standards and much more -- more business oriented transparency sort of issue of standards and benchmarks in regard to be able to be provided by that I'm sorry property tax exemptions.
>> well, you list 8 specific issues. If the committee addresses those, and comes up with a recommended comprehensive policy, if the -- it would be immensely helpful.
>> yes.
>> our agenda item further now rules it down to -- to proposals for multi-family housing developments. And that was intentional. In your wording. Right?
>> right.
>> because that's where the little friction has been. That was my understanding that in terms of how we would deal with -- receive proposals from these two bodies in the future, proposals for multi-family housing developments, they would look at the different issues here, recommend policy that's should guide us, and our dealings would be a whole lot smoother.
>> right.
>> in the future. That's what you had in mind. And --
>> well, a little bit more in that -- in that -- I have in mind trying to invite the housing authority people to participate in the committee and with the idea that -- that the housing authority and the county would eventually adopt the same policy. The housing authority on south park had to come here only because the county had to approve their public hearing. They could have gone to the city and had the city approve the public hearing and not have come to the county. Also at the newer project, this was a 4% tax credit and tax exempt bond project and they had to come to the county for the tax exempt bond public hearing part of it. But if they do a development with 9% tax credits, then they wouldn't have to come to the county to-- to get permission because there wouldn't be a public hearing process in it. So -- so that's why it would be good for one of the reasons why it would be good for everyone to have the same policy, in my opinion.
>> but you don't -- don't you think that the logical next step is for us to check with both of them, find out if they are interested in pursuing something like this?
>> yes. And -- and it might be good if somebody from the Commissioners court talked with -- with some -- with their board president and expressed the --
>> desire.
>> -- desire that we all get together.
>> together.
>> right
>> [multiple voices]
>> we had a meeting here not too long ago with these same folks in my office, harvey you were there, those other folks were there, too. They did indicate that there was a void that needs to be something, where we won't run into these types of situations. There was just -- they were just as concerned as we are to have everything go through on a smooth transition, but without policy they -- they were not, you know -- it was a need for policy. And -- and that was the -- the gist of that, had he had no objections, they had no objections last I talked to them with not going forward with some kind of policy initiative. Everyone would be on the same page, know what everyone is doing. Didn't seem to be a problem then. But judge I would like to see it go forward.
>> judge?
>> yes, sir.
>> I think clearly what we need to do is -- is -- volunteers from the court, I think we need to have two court members to work with harvey. The fact that strategic and the housing authority understands that we would like to see this. I don't think it's going to be very hard to -- prod people to come into the toll and those I mean if we take a couple of people from the strategic, couple of people from the housing. Harvey, two of us, then that nucleus works with okay let's open up, who are the other people that we need to bring in so we can then set that committee up and bring it back to the court saying here are the 10 people that we have identified that will participate. Then the court gives the -- the sort of the Marching orders if you will as to what we need to have in place so that we can handle these things. I would think we could move this thing forward if we could find a couple of people from the court to work with harvey.
>> I will work with him.
>> I have already been working with harvey.
>> I will work with him
>> [multiple voices]
>> I hear what you are saying. I don't mind doing it. I'm trying to tell you that it's something that we have been working on for a while, trying to put a lasso around this thing. Nothing new today. Nothing new today.
>> [multiple voices] I'm going to continue to work with Commissioner -- with harvey Davis and anybody else that want to work with us to put a lasso around the thing. But it's a run away train.
>> I understand it. What I'm trying to do is get to something more definitive this morning so that harvey goes okay, if it's Commissioner Davis and Commissioner Gomez to work with harvey and to approach the strategic and the housing authorities, who are you all going to have as part of this, then that nucleus works with how are we going to identify the other people, then I think we can move it forward.
>> sure.
>> I don't mind --
>> sounds great to me.
>> with this particular recommendation --
>> that would be my --
>> if that's the will of the court, I don't mind going forward with that.
>> my motion would be that Commissioner Gomez and Commissioner Davis act with harvey Davis in approaching the strategic and the housing authority to -- to identify who they are going to have as part of this. That nucleus then sits down and says how do we reach out and what other folks are we going to have as part of this committee. They bring that back to the court saying here is the committee, now let's listen to the court with regards to -- to what you all would like to see us accomplish and I think that we all know where we are trying to head there.
>> okay. That's the motion.
>> seconded.
>> seconded by Commissioner Gomez and do you -- do you intend for members of this court to look at the 8 issues that mr. Davis has put forward and figure out whether we think these 8 should be supplemented or reduce ed?
>> absolutely.
>> all right.
>> and the next time we discuss this item, basically we will try to refine the charge. We may as well discuss that with these other two bodies. Do they have the same chairperson?
>> I don't believe they do. Mr. Moya is the chair of the housing authority. I'm not sure who is the chair of the strategic.
>> okay.
>> any more discussion? Any discussion of the motion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. On the issue of affordable housing more generally speaking, maybe what we want to do is put an item on the agenda sometime soon, look at that. Now this community has generated a whole lot of reports on affordable housing. But I do believe maybe that information needs to be updated but in the past it always struck me that many of the recommendations were -- were praise worthy. The problem -- we gave them praise. But the problem is that we stopped that and so we felt short on the ism -- we fell short on the implementation. It may be if we put a committee in place, the step would be to pull the best recommendation from the other reports and try to figure out how those ought to be supplemented and acted upon. But our thrust would be intention would be to act on whatever we come up with, right?
>> sure.
>> okay. Mr. Davis, thanks for -- for bringing this issue to our attention so early in 2007.
>> you're welcome.
>> thank you, harvey.
>> thank you for your work.
>> you will let us know when to put on this committee.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, January 2, 2007 6:14 PM