Travis County Commissioners Court
February 20, 2007
Item 31
31. Is to consider and take appropriate action regarding toll road fees charged to county vehicles. We did get backup on joe geiselm geiselman. Joe.
>> let me see there's quite a bit to this. Budget being no small issue. The policies are varied depending on the road and the agency that the ministering the toll road. For instance a general general-- general--policy, the transportation code does exempt authorized emergency vehicles and the law actually dewhat that islaw--defines what that is. The way the bonds were sold for state highway 45 north, sh 130 and loop one north, further restricted the policy. The way that's being interpreted right now by the transportation commission is that basically you have to be an emergency vehicle in service.
>> license, sirens.
>> now they have taken that back and say you don't have to have lights and sirens on but have you to have the sheriff verify that you were actually doing something on duty before your fee is waive the. Which put the burden on the local government, actually on the sheriff, every time somebody uses the toll road that he has to verify, yes, that guy was on duty, doing such and such. So it's almost unworkable policy policy. But the bottom line is they are going to be charging on four emergency vehicles unless they are in pursuit, basically, on those three roadways. Now, on 183 a, which is the rma toll road, they are saying that as long as it's a marked vehicle they will be able to use it for free. They will not be charged. So you really have a whole variety of different policies right now. There is a law pending that will clear this up but that will have to be passed by the legislature which basically says if you have a light bar on, you're exempt. That the just that the--that's just for emergency vehicles. You still have the rest of the county fleet that some one has to make a determination whether or not the county fleet will use toll roads or not if they are allowed to use toll roads, how will the county budget for that, who will will--add minister the budget, and on and on. So it's a fairly significant issue. It could probably be as significant as your cell phone policy, somewhat the same thing. Who get a cell phone, how much do they get to use it, who budgets for it, who controls it. I think at this point I would recommend that you form perhaps a task force that the composed of danny hobby, christian smith, susan spitaro, sid grimes, sheriff hamen ton, and myself, allow us to disstill this for you and bring back a recommendation to the court. Because all those individuals will have some different view of how this should be structured, certainly from budget control or budget authorization, how much money are we talking about. Susan would certainly be interested in how are we going to control, you know, when these voices start coming in in, how are we going to verify. And the user groups like verive hamilton, how are we going to verify how one of the deputies is actually on duty when using the facility. Then under a blanket policy, do you want the county employees to be using toll roads or not. When we asked that question --
>> I think the answer is no unless you need to use a toll facility to perform the duties. Now, you know, if you have important county business that requires to you get to a destination asap, that's one thing. But if you are just trying to get from a to b doing regular work stuff, same reason in my own car, if I have time to get to b, probably going to take the free road. If I’m in a rush to get somewhere, I really want to avoid traffic, then I’ll pay.
>> it's clearly a business decision just like when cell phones came on. You can use a land line, wait until you get back to your office to call. But it's certainly improved business efficiency to use cell phones.
>> use the county way the same way you would use your own. If most people apply that standard, we would still have a toll bill to pay. But it would be a whole lot lower than it would otherwise, I think. I never thought that just because the roads were there the county vehicles would use them all the time. When I went out to resident, I would say there will be a free road. Take it where you want to go. Use that. At the same time I’m thinking if have you to take the airport in ten minutes you would not take the 30 minute route, not if there's a ten minute route. Would I expect tt employees to do the same--county employees to do the same thing. Except it should be on county business.
>> any time you use the county vehicle, it should be on county business.
>> isn't the motion good enough ?
>> if you talk with them about serving on the committee, you all want to come back with a recommended standard for policy, makes sense to me. So yes.
>> my motion would be to let joe put together a subcommittee of the people that he has made note of and bring back a policy.
>> if they cannot serve, we will recommend a high-level official in their respective departments.
>> all right. That's good.
>> discussion? All in favor. That passes by unanimous vote with a reluctant Commissioner eckhardt joining the rest of us.
>> reluctant only because we are engaged in the same budgeting considerations as every family that lives north and east of the toll roads engaged in right now as well. Do I pay for a toll tax or do i, you I know, knuckle under and say I’m going to take the feeder roads except in rare circumstances in which case I will just pay the flat toll.
>> yeah.
>> you sound a little like our kind of judge now, Commissioner Commissioner--a little like our county judge now, Commissioner.
>> that is, I mean, I can hear it in your voice. It is a tough deal.
>> now.
>> particularly in light of how much we have already contributed toward the building of this whole thing.
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.
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, February 21, 2007 2:08 PM