Travis County Commissioners Court
June 26, 2007
Item 19
19. Discuss and take appropriate action regarding the following: 1. Proposal to locate the new Travis County regional period of time medical examiners center on county owned property and associated issues; and b real estate issues concerning the current medical examiner's building at 1213 sabine street. (this -- there is a notation that 19 b may be taken in executive session under consultation with attorney. And the that's the real property exception to the open meetings act. Namely because there are questions regarding our current contract with the city of Austin, regarding our current facility on the brackenridge complex site. Okay?
>> that's fine. Good morning, I'm alicia perez executive manager for administrative operations. About 18 months ago, this court started a process of improvement at the medical examiner's office. As a result of that, we have three new doctors, we have a distinguished medical examiner who is known far and wide throughout the country for his skills and scholarship and we have also completed remodeling at the current medical examiner's office to accommodate a fourth doctor, historically we have for the last five years or so, we have had only three doctors. We have built an office for a fourth doctor, I believe that that doctor will be with us in a short period of time. So for the first time in -- in Travis County history, we will have four medical examiners serving the public. As part of that plan, the court -- the court had granted in the fy '07 budget $75,000 to look at planning for new medical examiner's office. We serve a 45 county area and in fact Travis County acts as the medical examiner for central Texas. The $75,000 was for -- for looking at the possibility of -- of building a new medical examiner's office that would accommodate the current an the growing needs. Part of the other goal of the court was to achieve national association medical examiner's accreditation. And we have -- in February we came to the court and -- to talk about or to update you on the improvements to the current office and at that time the court directed us to look at county-owned properties as a possibility for situating a new medical examiner's office. Leslie strickland is here. She is a project manager, danny hobby who is now the executive manager over medical examiner and of course our medical examiner, dr. David dolinack is here with us. We all participated in the evaluation of the properties. Again this was at the direction of the court. I'm going to turn it over to leslie or danny to talk about the evaluation process and the properties that we looked at that were county owned. That was the directive.
>> on your backup, exhibit 8 there's a spread sheet that shows that six properties that were evaluated and visited. The -- the criteria that we looked at for each property were its size, it's topography, whether it was flat or hilly. Whether it had lots of trees on it or not. Those -- that along with topography reflects elements of cost in building on such a site. Whether utilities were available to the site. What -- what the neighboring land uses were. What the -- what the situation was concerning city of Austin limits and zoning, meaning whether it was in the city limits or in the e.t.j. Or not. And the distance from the courthouse and downtown area since the medical examiner's have to come to court to testify and make other trips to -- to county offices for conducting county business. The six sites were located at follows, number one at 7800 old manor road. A triangle green field site on springdale between 183 and 290 adjacent to the county-owned star flight facility. Site number 2, 9301 johnny morris road, the existing t.n.r. Satellite 1 location. Which has buildings and site improvements on it currently. That site to use it for a new use would require a building demolition and site remediation. The current function on that site is the t.n.r. East side service center, which is moving to a new site and that site is currently for sale. The third site was at 10700 f.m. 969, this site has been known by the name turkey farm. Farm. It's a raw site that's currently being developed now for the t.n.r. East side service center which is a nine building complex. Site number 4 is located at 7811 burleson manor road. This is the location of the callier law enforcement center, the sheriff's east command center and crime lab and the purchasing warehouse. This site was formerly known as the gore property. Site number 5 located at 16424 hamilton pool road. This is the former t.n.r. Satellite 2 location. It is no longer used for that function, but is partly used by the sheriff's office for vehicle parking and by t.n.r. For some parks department offices. This is a multi-building complex and has a 2304 square foot one story building and 21,322 square foot vehicle maintenance shop. To use that site some of the existing buildings would need to be modified.
>> just a correction on number 5. It's -- it's t.n.r. Satellite 3. Not satellite 2 on the spread sheet.
>> oh, okay.
>> former t.n.r. Satellite 3.
>> it used to be satellite 2 before redistricting.
>> I think it was still satellite 3 before --
>> no.
>> it was 2.
>> that's the one right there by the bridge, right.
>> I'm talking about hamilton pool road.
>> you are talking about -- but that was not satellite -- that was not satellite 2 at the time.
>> it was 3.
>> it was 3.
>> that's what I'm saying.
>> it was 3 at the time.
>> okay. Which it is now.
>> and the 6th site county owned site is located at 8656 state highway 71 west. This is a piece of land adjacent to the current precinct 3 office building.
>> let me ask this question. Who -- I see in the backup here the facilities management did you all make these recommendations? Did you make these recommendations?
>> we --
>> what's being proposed today, did facilities management make the recommendations?
>> the facility management and in conjunction with the medical examiner and after we look at all of this area and -- and as you look at the -- at the neighbors that are very important that you know the neighbors that were not putting anything on residential or rural area. According to the site number 1 and the criteria we had from the --
>> the first -- roger, answer the question please.
>> huh? I think that we did based on --
>> the question is did -- who made these recommendations.
>> facility management and in conjunction with the medical examiner.
>> with the direction of the court to look at only these six sites. If you told us look at all sites -- don't locate in a particular area, that's what we would have done.
>> it wasn't to recommend that -- see, I have four of these sites in precinct 1. What we are talking about is we are talking about, not only the medical examiner, we are talking about dealing with -- a lot of other things forensic, we are talking about the whole nine yards. Which is being conducted here on sabine street now. We talked about moving into precinct 1. It's 4 here, two of them in precinct 3. Of course we have -- you mentioned johnny morris, for example. We have the folks have kind of put up with the star flight hangar being there all of that. Now you are going to, you know, proposing if you are recommending that --
>> no.
>> you know so that's what I am saying --
>> let me --
>> let me finish, please.
>> let me --
>> let me finish, please. If you are trying to recommend that -- that the old manor road site where it's the stoplight hangar is, another quality of life issue as far as precinct 1 is concerned this is what we have to add. I'm just trying to put my arms around this as far as what you are doing, what you are suggesting here. And -- and trying to make sure that the folks in my community know what you guys are recommending. So that's where I'm coming from. Looked at county owned property, saying well of course -- looking right off johnny morris road, l.b.j. High school and -- and right over there close to these -- he close to these residential areas, l.b.j. Neighborhood association, delco center, star flight, things like that, we have neighborhoods over there. Just like everywhere. In this community. And -- I think that we had a real -- real easy discussion in executive session about this same issue not too long ago. Of course that time it was discussed that, you know, precinct 1 not -- because we discussed it. Pretty easy. I think the folks need to know what's going on here. If you are going to take credit for what you are recommending, own up to it, go from there. But I do know that -- that there are maybe possibilities that -- that we can, you know, continue here at the site there located. An issue, if you are talking about froarn sick operations where you have bodies being told there day and night, folk having to deal with it. Just the knowledge of it kind of upsets folks in the neighborhood. I wanted to lay out perfectly clear of the six sites that you have before us here today, four of them are in precinct 1. This deck is kind of stacked as far as I'm concerned. But again I'm supposed to say what I'm supposed to say because -- folks are hollering and screaming all right about the quality of life and -- and what they expect from the government when it comes to dealing with life history.
>> speaker: going to continue to say that and speak in behalf of the community. You did when you are -- what you are supposed to do with your recommendation. I would like to have the opportunity to air this out. I do feel that they are choices with what you have put fort.
>>
>> [indiscernible] recognized --
>> I'm danny hobby, the executive manager over emergency services. And -- and let me just if I can lay it out this way as far as -- as far as where we were coming from. There's no hiding, no trying to to come forward in trying to do anything other than simply look at county-owned sites. The charge from this court was to ask facilities to identify county owned sites for the possibility of a new medical examiner. Facility. We were called. I got together with the doctor, we got in a vehicle with roger, we orient out and we looked at the sites that we wanted us to look at. At that particular time, Commissionerrer, we weren't looking at precinct 1, 2, 3, simply all of the county owned sites. So we did that. We looked at the sites. Of course the doctor was in particular looking at all of the sites because of what it meant to in regards to his operations. When we were in the car there wasn't any discussion of precincts or neighborhoods or any of those political elements. Simply looking at the sites that we were asked to look at from an operational point of view. So we did that. Of the sites that we looked at, I will let the doctor speak from an operational side. When we look at all of the sites, the ones that fit from an operational standpoint of view was the star flight location off of springdale road. There were reasons why from an operational points of view. When we were then asked of the six locations, operationally which one would fit best for us, again there was no discussion in regards to whose expect it is in, in regards to all of the political elements of it, we know that -- that that would come into play, that's where it is today, that's why we came here today. Was to support facilities in fulfilling the charge that the court gave us and that is go look at county owned sites. We looked at it from an operational point only. Realizing there's a lot of other work that needs to be done, Commissionerrer. We gave you, what you asked us to do, of those six sites which one operationally fit we felt like the needs of the medical examiner's office, that happened to be the one on -- the one on springdale road. That's all there is to it, Commissioner. I'm not today saying that has to be the site. I'm saying we did what we were asked to do.
>> roger, then dr. , then back to Commissioner Davis. Anything else, roger? I guess that met whatever cite tear I don't know set forth. Criteria set forth. This has been a hot bed issue. Trying to deal with the medical examiner situation. You must recall that it's going to continue to be hot bed issues as long as you -- you know, these kind of recommendations, folks to look at this backup. My god what is going on down there at Commissioners court. You know, they have no idea that these things even have been discussed, even talked about, thank goodness coming out publicly. We have several things to deal with. Other than this. So my whole point is that it's still premised on who made the recommendation. Doctor, did you make the recommendation?
>> as far as the six sites to choose from?
>> pardon me?
>> as far as the six sites we evaluated?
>> no, as far as the site that's being looked at, number one, which is off johnny morris, which is off of --
>> springdale.
>> springdale old manor road actually near off springdale over there behind the high school and jefferson and stuff like that.
>> the star flight --
>> pardon me.
>> the location adjacent to star flight.
>> yes, that's the area that I'm talking about.
>> did you make the recommendation?
>> yes, I did.
>> that's what I wanted to hear. Who actually made the recommendation.
>> the court asked them in fairness, in fairness.
>> I know.
>> the court asked them to look at county-owned properties and see if any of them would work. Now, they have brought back their response to that challenge. So the question for us is whether we want county owned land that we already own, that's the chief advantage if it's large enough, or whether we want to continue this search, which would mean going and looking at other properties, other sites that the county does not own but might be able to acquire. Now, dr. Dolenack just got here, he wouldn't know these properties from anywhere else. You simply take a listing of county owned property, start there, carried him to visit those properties. These six that are county owned I guess -- they all have minuses and pluses.
>> right.
>> but the one is right next to star flight. But to -- so that's y'all's report. You did follow what we asked you to do.
>> correct.
>> but the question for us now is whether we want to continue this search and look at other possible sites and 95% chance that they be owned by others, so in addition to finding an appropriate site, the question is whether we can acquire it. Because typically we would not condemn in order to locate a county facility like this, we would want to find a motivated seller. We don't have to accept these sites, Commissioner.
>> I know.
>> the question is whether we will continue to search. Normally we wouldn't continue the search by saying don't look at precinct 1. We would say look county-wide come back with a list of potential sites. But there may well be other sites in -- you know, west of 35 that become available if we start looking. Now last time we looked downtown, we saw some other sites, ones that we sort of targeted we really could not acquire. The one that we kind of looked at is right where the double tree hotel is next to wendy's across from the erwin center next to the graveyard, which in my view was a good site.
>> [laughter], but others disagreed so we kind of backed off of that. In corners to staff they did what we asked them to do. We don't have to accept their recommendation. We can continue to search. Whether we come back to this or not really depends on what we see elsewhere. That's privately owned, right?
>> and the cost. That always comes into play.
>> of course. That's part of the due diligence that we would do, isn't it, in trying to find a site. I would think that transportation is another important issue that would affect this decision, accessibility and so -- I think we still have a little bit more work to do on it. But I think this is a good start.
>> we need about six acre.
>> no what happened to the possibility of the brackenridge situation? Seton? Is that still some options that still imis exist with the city of Austin, the children's hospital, locate at robert mueller, would they make space available there.
>> Commissioner, I think -- in fact there was an article in the paper over
>> [multiple voices] I think those are still option. The university of Texas I think is still an option. Again we are in the early stages here Commissioner. You need to understand there are several options that we want to look at.
>> I just want you to understand that what I just highlighted earlier, I don't want to go back through it again. But the folks that just are in disarray in my community because we are getting so much stuff that is not acceptable anywhere else.
>> yes, sir, but that's an excellent suggestion that we will follow up on that.
>> you need to understand that.
>> they also need to understand when the Commissioners court gives direction, we expect them to follow it. When we give direction, there's five of us, the majority of the court decides a direction that's what they are supposed to do. The ones that I am looking at out here answer to all five of us, the four that are here today, the other one. I don't think it's fair to blame them if they come back with a recommendation that one finds completely unacceptable. I think it then becomes that one person's responsibility to persuade the other four of us that the recommendation is not a good one and not take it out on the staff.
>> I wasn't taking it out on the staff there.
>> well, if you review this tape you will see that you have. Anything else on this item today?
>> like you said four --
>> Commissioner Daugherty?
>> I said it in executive session, I said it whenever I walked in on y'all not knowing what you were doing, and I will say it in court today, I hope that when we find a location that this can be in precinct 3. I hope that we can find a place to put this facility in precinct 3. Thank you.
>> it would be all right if it's in precinct 4.
>> anywhere in the county is fine with me. Anything further? Let's take a week, mull over this, have it back on the court's agenda for further direction. Instead of next week, let's do July 10th, because next week is a heavy one because we have delayed some stuff until then.
>> I would like to just say in conclusion to my comments earlier, I was not getting at staff, I was trying to get to the bottom of the recommendation and I have to pursue it the way I pursue it, that's to get the things laid on the table as we have done, so those questions I think were very necessary to make sure that we get to the bottom point of this issue. So that was your recommendation, but I had to dig it out to find out how that developed, thank.
>> judge, would you like to us look at other properties, I think --
>> those will be the directions on July 10th. We may get the whole court here for that.
>> hopefully we can avoid similar treatment next time.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, June 27, 2007 8:59 PM