Travis County Commissioners Court
April 24, 2007
Item 3
Number 9 is to review and approve requests regarding grant proposals, applications, contracts and permissions to continue. And -- and a, 3 a, I said 9, didn't i? Actually it's 3. 3 a grant application to the Texas state department of health services. For the sheriff's department to fund one senior planner, research position. To coordinate the development of a strategic plan for the collaboration and targeting of under age and college age drinking and driving.
>> again, your honor, members of the court,
>> [indiscernible] with the Travis County sheriff's office. This is the request for renewal of a -- of a grant fund that we received fairly late in the cycle for this year. The program actually only kicked off in February. For the first year we are only a couple of months into it. We are still in the formative planning stages, which is a focus of this. The main criteria for -- from the grant and for the state's consideration, these are federal pass through dollars, is to really take a good look at all efforts in Travis County to combat driving while intoxicated, under age drinking as well as binge drinking, which is something that has not been focused on very strongly in all communities across the state of Texas. Again, the status currently is that we are still in the formative stages. In fact my staff are currently meeting with -- with the consultant that we hope to have on board soon. Helps guide this, that is a requirement of the grant. This would be for -- for a request for renewal of your two funding of a five year process.
>> I had just a couple of questions on this. One is my usual beef on the performance measures. Again looking at the grant summary sheet, the difference between the applicable department measures and the measures for the grant. In the text you have great measures regarding property damage, injury, public intoxication and I believe those are on page 91, bates stamp mark. But I don't see them in the summary sheet as far as the performance measures internal to the departments. It does have the number of dwi related deaths. If '08, what's projected in '09, the number of dwai dwi offi imagine we are already tracking property damage and injuries as well.
>> in anticipating your question, part of my recommendation on that is -- this is a little bit different in that that measure really is to focus on the impact on the sheriff's office. As it is structured. This position is really a little more global in that for the first time we are really looking at everyone in Travis County. The Austin police department, Travis County sheriff's office as well as all entities, some that do treatment. So a little more global. My recommendation to my staff was -- was I wanted them to talk about it in the narrative and knowing that the preference is to have it in there, but that would be how it affects the sheriff's office. Again, this is a little bit more of a hybrid grant. I kind of gave the orders to not put that in there, but that we would certainly be willing to discuss that. We hope that once the strategic plan is developed, we can then develop core performance measures for the entire community. Some are capturing certain things, others are not. We don't have a lot of consensus throughout the entire county as to what to capture at this point. Part of that process is to make that happen. We actually have our first training for what's called the epidemiological work group this Thursday to try to get everyone on board and my hope would be that after that is developed and our plan is formalized, we can come back to the court and present that plan for not only what we are capturing, but as well as where we need to go.
>> that's great news. Because I know that there are many different entities who are working on this problem of underage drinking and dwi generally in our communities, which is rather high. It's the highest in the state.
>> we are still about -- about fifth. And that's just driven by population. I don't know that -- despite problems and certain efforts to combat this population in some of the larger counties, we will always put them numerically ahead of us.
>> that's good news.
>> that's good news for us.
>> okay. And that perhaps, too, should be part of our measure is per capita dwi.
>> and again that -- those are things that we want this work group to focus on. It is -- the work group is a little bit different in that the state and the feds really want us to take a more global approach. Include some players in it that traditionally may not have been. We have got a lot of non-profits out there who do provide services for being plugged into this group. It's not your traditional government looking because I think the focus is this is not just a government problem. This is a community problem so we want to make sure that we get all of the players involved. We hope to come back to you with probably a whole lot of statistical data, as well as a plan on what the recommendation in the community is on how to focus on this and combat these issues.
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> absolutely.
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> statistics they just revealed in washington state concerning some of the same things that you are saying, not only alcohol related but drug related stuff. It's all across the board. Not just locally here, all across the nation that we are having to look at this.
>> again, that's why we are very appreciative of this funding opportunity from the federal government passed through to the state.
>> also, although this is -- this item is on consent, the task force, I got to say your numbers from the audit from that task force are great. Your metric is exactly what it should be. Then your results are just incredible from -- from 285 auto thefts in 2002 to 177 in 2005.
>> any more questions on 3 a? Move approval? Discussion. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> 3 c is grants application to the office of the attorney general to continue the family violence victim outreach program. In the Travis County attorney's office.
>> good morning.
>> I'm jennifer
>> [indiscernible]
>> there may be a question or two. Again, this is on the performance measure aspect of it. Looking at the grant summary sheet, if applicable department measures, I was curious what measures the department is going to look to, to measure how we are doing. As we add these -- add this f.t.e.?
>> well, this -- this is a renewal grant application and the 1.0 f.t.e. Victim counselor has been in place since the fall of '05 now, fall of '06, pardon me. There are two -- two measures, one is output, then the other is outcome.
>> we are measuring the quantity of work that the worker performance, then we are also looking more at the quality of work, how we are measuring the quality of work is -- is we are trying to demonstrate with the protective order applicants that come in, do they have an increase in the knowledge of what a protective order is, what it covers, so that the other measure that we are measuring is do they feel safer, do they have -- do they have more strategies sort of in their back pocket, if you will, about how to keep safer, like calling for a close patrol of the police if and when they need it. Those sorts of things that would come out during the normal course of an interview with the protective order applicant. Now we are measuring those so that we can show the impact of the grant funding, more importantly the safety of a family violence survivor.
>> is that captured in the grant required measurement, evaluating quality number of victims reporting the desired outcome?
>> on page 2 of this -- of this narrative, it's noted. But yes it is a requirement of the grant.
>> should that -- should that performance measure that's required by the grant be moved into the column for performance measures applicable to the department?
>> that is a question -- I mean I don't know the answer to that because -- because --
>> is that something that we want to keep doing irrespective of whether we get the grant or not?
>> I would think so. I don't see -- I think that evaluating our customer service and our service delivery is important for the integrity of our services and for the community as a service. And I don't see that ending if the grant should end.
>> then I would suggest that it be moved also into the performance measures applicable to the department. As well as those measures for the grant so we don't see it go away just because the grant
>> [indiscernible]
>> I will bring that back. I think that's a good idea.
>> that was the only question that I had.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you very much.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, April 25, 2007, 8:34 AM