Travis County Commissioners Court
August 21, 2007
Item 40
Number 40, consider and take appropriate action on appointment of a representative from the corrections division of the county sheriff's office to the Travis County vehicle users committee. Look like this committee has a whole lot of people on it already. Not every department represented. Commissioner, what did you have in mind in terms of how we select a person?
>> really have in mind I guess -- I spoke with the sheriff and he -- I talked with him over the lunch hour. Alex was here earlier.
>> he's still here. Come on up.
>> and they had brought this up during the budget hearing and, of course, at that time we decided to put it on the agenda because they didn't have any representation from the corrections area of the Travis County sheriff's office. So after discussing it over the lunch hour with the sheriff, he said listen, I'm in full support of this -- sheriff hamilton indicated that to me today, but I felt like I didn't know how the correction officers wanted to handle this item as far as who they were seeing so I thought it appropriate the person brought it up in the budget hearing would be here to see how they would like to move forward with it. If the court decided to approve it. Addition to the vehicle user committee.
>> any idea about who the court should appoint?
>> we would lead that up to our major or captain to decide. Who the representative from the corrections bureau would be.
>> any comments on this?
>> no, sir. We just welcome all members to
>> [inaudible] perhaps would be recognized.
>> mr. Davis -- your motion is --
>> is to move approval --
>> a slot on the committee as management of the corrections department to name that person.
>> exactly.
>> second.
>> okay. And Commissioner eckhardt has a question or comment.
>> do we have any representation --
>> [inaudible] do we have any representation currently for law enforcement?
>> yes, we it?
>> lieutenant mills.
>> and so -- and that slot is to represent law enforcement generally or just the sheriff's department?
>> all the constables are represented. We have the sheriff's department department. Basically it's a pretty open committee. Every department that has vehicles or equipment is welcome to join.
>> so there's a sheriff's department representative and a constables representative?
>> five. Each constable has a representative. There's no real structure or limitation to the committee so adding one more is not going to -- it's basically to represent your needs and it doesn't make any binding decisions, it's purely advisory.
>> I may want to send a short speech about team work, et cetera. Make sure our members -- each is not trying to take care of himself and his department.
>> good luck.
>> [laughter]
>> yeah, good luck.
>> but joyce, what about the van this they had? That never got ordered or is this a question for purchasing or anybody else?
>> I'd be happy to answer it for you. There's a 40-passenger prisoner bus we've been looking at purchasing. It was budgeted for f.y. '07. Working with the sheriff's department, we prioritize a lot of things trying to work through a lot of issues and stuff. Patrol cars have always been number one things with them. It takes quite an effort to get parole cars ordered, all the equipment and stuff and we've been working strongly on that. And we just haven't been working on the buses soon on in the budget year. We have been working on, I've been working on it since may. There is a contract with freightliner chassis that we can buy the bus through and the a.d.a. Bus will also be through that contract. There was sitting on my desk the other day when you all were having this conversation and since it has been working there's probably a
>> [inaudible] hopeful getting issued for the prisoner bus and the a.d.a. Bus. There are three vans, cargo vans that have been ordered. The vans are here waiting for the inserts to come in and they are in the process of being purchased. We bring them in, we'll install it into the vans and get it up and rolling for them. Hopefully it won't be but maybe three or four weeks out on the inserts. The 40-passenger prisoner bus, hopefully from the time of order we'll get probably in about two months they are saying because they have the chassis available at this time. A a.d.a. Bus may be a little longer.
>> that other old bus hold up?
>> as long as we keep jump starting it.
>> and the problem is if it breaks down in the middle of a neighborhood, you know, then we're in real --
>> that is not a good deal. I understand and we'll work with them and try to see what we can do to work on it to alleviate that. I thought we had some protection, some switches on the buses that would isolate the batteries so they wouldn't run down, but if they are not working properly, we'll check into it.
>> will the addition of corrections representative on the committee -- first, is there an imbalance between the various priorities of patrol cars versus
>> [inaudible]? Or is that a question you prefer not to answer? Let's say hypothetically there was one
>> [inaudible].
>> possibly. They could get out. I wasn't aware of any of this. I have been since made aware of it and I probably would hav have been more in tune with it earlier on if representative on a vehicle committee and I could have been asking the right questions to the fleet coordinator of the sheriff's department and get the ball rolling a little sooner.
>> there is a timing issue that we need to try to address. If in fact we ought to expect delivery a year later, then it's pretty easy to get a year ahead or to catch up. If we pay on delivery. But if we have to pay in advance, it's a different matter. You start ordering 50 to 100 cars and buses and vans on top of that, it's a fairly substantial investment. But if we know delivery will be nine to 12 months later, see what I'm saying? We ought to place the order as soon as possible, but even at that it may be many months before we get it. So if we know we need these cars in October, then at some point we can really get a year ahead. You see what I'm saying? Especially if we pay for them after delivery. And so I mean I think that we can put our heads together and try to work through it. You know, it's easy for us to put the pressure on somebody else, but it seems at some point we ought to try to figure the status quo and what steps we can take to improve it. I did know that delivery is not overnight. But I did not know that what happens for these law enforcement vehicles is not a regular car and so there's got to be like a special time, right, to convert whatever machines there are that makes cars to start making law enforcement vehicles.
>> correct.
>> I mean we ought to know what the reasonable expected delivery date is. Then we ought to plan accordingly. Whatever that is, we really can plan to each year have cars delivered in a timely manner early in the year even if we have to one year double what we need. But there's a big question about do we really pay at the time that we order or do we pay at the time that we receive them. And I'm hoping we pay when we receive the vehicles.
>> we do.
>> that's good news there. Fascinating area here nor the fleet committee. Much good work to be done. Did we vote on that motion?
>> no, not yet.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you, Commissioners, judge.
>> thank you all very much.
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, August 22, 2007, 18:30 AM