Travis County Commissioners Court
August 28, 2007
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is first. This item gives residents an opportunity to address the Commissioners court on any matter not on the agenda. Any matter not on the agenda for up to a full three minutes. First up we have ms. Dick and then ellen roddy. Then we've got frances mack mcintyre. We'll have three there and there will be plenty of elbow room if you will all take a seat. Ms. Dick?
>> yes, sir. Good morning to the court this morning and good morning public.
>> good morning.
>> I want to talk this morning about my son, roosevelt hutch ins, junior, and I would like to also congratulate our new police chief on his job title, mr. Art acevedo. I know I'm not pronouncing your name correctly, but I will learn how to pronounce it correctly. Twok Austin and welcome on your new job title.
>> acevedo.
>> all right. Thank you. I was getting all types of reports and this and that on this record. I would like to get with you so I can get my name cleared because I'm not guilty of these crimes. I had a complete clean record and I will tell you my story when we meet. And I would also like to know how did this officer, mr. Standish, badge number 2102, arrest loose velt hutch injunior on may 14th, 1993. And is he was already incarcerated rightner in Travis County -- right here in Travis County jail on the same date. I need closure. My is still in prison because of this false arrest. I just want an investigation, please. Help me, help me, please. And I would also like to know why is this officer -- this is roosevelt. I would like to know why did the officer claim that I backed up and struck his girlfriend's car. And this is my car, she came up and crashed into me. And I was cleared of the tickets and everything. Went to court, the judge cleared me and everything. But yet still is got on my police record. And they removed my license and I have five children, taking care of five children. I was a truck driver, a school bus driver. I've always worked and I've always went to school, rightner in Austin, Travis County, because I'm an Austinite. I was born and raised right here. My mother worked for the the bush family and it was mr. George who learned me how to read and write and I'm very proud of myself. I would like to get everything cleared up under my name because this is disrespectful to me because I did not do any of this.
>> [ buzzer sounds ] this is where I just obtained my driver's license after 14 years that come from that car wreck that that police officer put on my record. And I just got it January 3rd, 2007. Thank you, sir. I need help. I need help, chief. Thank you.
>> thank you. Frances mcintyre is the second -- I'll actually call you out of order.
>> judge Biscoe and Commissioners, I'm frances mcentire, co-president of the league of women voeters of Austin and I am here today to talk to you about an item that's not now in the budget, but one that the league thinks is budget related and should be reported to the citizens with public comment and taken by the Commissioners court. Two years ago the league began a study of the business incentives, specifically tax abates and tax -- abatements and rebates that the city of Austin and Travis County has offered to new and growing businesses. We do support limited tax abatements or tax rebates as an incentive to encourage economic development in the city. We also appreciate the criteria that the county and the city use in determining which businesses are offered incentives. The reason I'm here today is because these tax abatements and rebates are not reflected in the county budget. They are not money out of pocket, so to speak. They are, however, potential income for the county that is abated, which is indeed money out of the taxpayers pocket. We understand that the calculations of these costs -- in the calculations of these costs, the county is supposed to recoup the costs and in the end make a profit. While we are suggesting -- what we are suggesting is that the county have a public accounting on a yearly basis of the costs and allow for public comment. Perhaps the times to do that might be when the budget is discussed. Some of the items that we think the accounting should contain are the incentive amount granted to the business, the number of job agreed upon by the business and the number of people actually hired. The cost of the infrastructure such as road, transportation or drainage improvements connected with the business. These costs may be reflected in the budget, but they should be brought forth with this presentation. The cost of any associated fee waivers. In other words, all the costs nar associated with new be businesses. Our suggestions are in the interest of transparency, even though we know that information is available to the public upon request, we feel that a regular public reporting of the information would serve the citizens of Travis County who ultimately are the ones who are affected by these decisions. Thank you. I have copies of this if you would like them.
>> we would like a copy of that if you will give us one copy, we can take that one and make copies for the court.
>> I've got several.
>> it's a wonderful project. Thank you, thank you. We take great pride in our studies because we feel like we do them very thoroughly.
>> mr. Roddy is next and he will be be followed by scott johnson.
>> good morning. I'm allen roddy, just to give a little resume. I moved here when I was six years old and my father retired from the army back in 1960. I bought on lot on edge water drive back in 1963, had a house there in '64. So I've been part of the community for 45 years here. I first learned about the naming of our new branch library by the west bank community library district in August 3rd in the newspapers like the rest of our neighbors. I called up the library saying that I thought the library should be named in honor of some of the men and women who are dying for our liberties. And they told me, well, the name's already been decided on. Well, I started looking into the process and I got copies of the agenda and meetings, and apparently this district does not even have a written policy for naming public buildings. And I think when people give tax money, that the public should have some input. It looks like that they decided on someone big, quote unquote, back in December, but that name was not released back then. It was never put out on any of their fund-raising proceed shurz that they -- brochures that they mailed out. And even if their agenda they have to discuss the naming of the branch and portions therefore and to take action to adopt a naming policy. Well, I think it's pretty sloppy democracy not to have a naming policy in place, but hey, we're still going to be naming this. And I finally got attachments for the minutes of the meetings, and apparently there is a partisan politician on the fund-raising committee that submitted this name. I would ask that the county attorney look at it. I want to know why they feel that a politician's wife is more worthy than being honored than the 33,000 killed and wounded veterans that we have currently. And why a rich socialite should be honored instead of our military families or our gold star mothers. Since we're fighting for democracy overseas, I think we ought to be practicing it here in Travis County. There was no public input solicited to name this. All they did was go around asking for money. But when it dime naming this, it was done in back rooms. The library district has their monthly meetings at 8:30 on Wednesday mornings. I'm going to go tomorrow morning, but if they really cared about participation from the taxpayers, they would have it at 6:00 in the evening. The library is open until 8:00 p.m. Every night anyway, why not have it at 6:00? And I just -- apparently the library district is upset that I put an american flag and a plywood flag that says honor our troops on their four by four post. They tore it down the Monday after I put it up on Sunday afternoon. Tuesday morning I put it back up. And laura bush saw it, it apparently upset the people at the library. They filed an incident report with the Travis County sheriff's for criminal mischief. I say if putting up an american flag is considered criminal mischief, then we're in trouble. I want to know why as a taxpayer I'm paying for the westlake hills library system. I think the unnornt incorporated -- unincorporated areas should have their own system. And I ask you if any other public facilities come up to be named, consider honoring our service people who are dying for our liberties. Thank you.
>> thank you. Mr. Johnson is next.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners. My name is scott johnson. Over the last six weeks I've been conducting a review of the major air quality programs looking particularly at the effectiveness of the programs as well as the tar getting of funds to those programs in the region. Right now many of you know that the epa will be designating a new ozone standard that will be more restrictive than the current standard which we're barely meeting now. So it's time for us to look more seriously at the efforts that are being undertaken. And while we are making efforts, the scrutiny from year to year in my opinion has been lacking. Six pages were sent to you all, except a couple of you via e-mail, I'll send those out to you later on today. Let me focus on the ones that pertain to the county for the jurisdiction that the county has sitting on certain governmental or non-governmental boards. Small business outreach position is needed within Austin. The region can get grants from the tceq to upgrade diesel construction equipment. We're not vying very effectively for those grants. This position is proposed to be halftime, 20 to 25 hours. It would also take supplement the enforcement of some existing rules that are under the early action compact that aren't currently being implemented fully by the tceq. It's expected to cost 30 to $35,000 annually. I am asking that the city of Austin help to fund the majority of this program and some to come from the county, either with new money or redirected money from current contractual obligations that the county has no air quality. Has for air quality. Secondly, I've asked the folks at campo to look at the ozone action day program to see if that is impactful. It that educating, is that giving people enough information to make decisions on what they do, exercisewise going outside on those days that are predicted high ozone days n a nutshell the system we have is simply a watch system. You're notified prior the day before if tomorrow is supposed to be a high ozone day, but we never know if it in fact is until the end of the day. Other cities have a two-tier system where there's a watch the day before and a warning notification. Currently campo appropriates $50,000 per year to help fund this program, which is not a fact driven program, but the funds are allocated mainly to the clean air force of Travis County, of which you are both a partner and funding partner. And third the vehicle inspection and maintenance policeman is twhawn the county plays a pivotal role and they support funding wise the low income repair and assistance program. This program is vital to helping people upgrade their vehicles. This particular program has been expanded and the expansion of the program allows people to scrap their vehicles if they're old enough by increasing the stipend significantly.
>> [ buzzer sounds ] I'd be happy to answer any questions about these or if I could be invited to come back at a later date when you finalize your budget, that would be extremely helpful.
>> thank you, mr. Johnson. Now, sylvia and jerome, you're here on number 2, right?
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> all right. Nen let's come forward. Sylvia lopez and jerome guerrero. I forgot we don't have a two-opportunity rule here.
>> judge and Commissioners, my name is sylvia lopez and I'm the hub program coordinator. We're here to thrng to come before you -- it's always exciting to come before and talk about a new program that we have developed. U.t. System has always been at the forefront of bonding and attacking that issue. They did, I believe, a year or two years ago designate an individual to be the bonding and technical assistance program coordinator. And he's had his work cut out for him. Back in may of 2005, he did develop a series of workshops to assist contractors in bonding, and we were a partner in that. And this year they have a second series of training classes which started last week and u.t. System once again asked us to be a financial partner this year, and we were able to find the money in our budget to be a financial partner and we were proud of that. It was a collaboration -- it is a collaboration between the public sector agencies, the community organizations ane surety industry. And jerome -- this is jerome guerrero. He's a hub specialist. He's going to read to you the curriculum.
>> the program started off with a percentage of completion accounting method, which was instructed by a sur public accountant that specializes in construction industry accounting. The second part of the curriculum will be a quick books instruction and that is also being taught by a certified quick books instructor from the city of Austin. The next one is a credit fix, because again credit is a big problem when some of these small to mid sized construction companies try to get bonding if their credit rating is not good, they will have problems getting bonding and surety insurance. So there's going to be a session on credit fix. The final one is a bonding one on one. And that is what he started off with. That is where he brings in contractors meeting with agented and representatives of the surety and bonding industry and instructing them on how to present themselves, what materials they need to bring and basically getting their book, their accounting methods in order so that they can apply for a higher bonding and surety level.
>> thank you for explaining that. The issue, and I'm going to summarize, the challenges that subcontractors face are inadequate financial statements, inadequate training of job be costs, credit challenges and the lack of working capital for projects. So we believe this curriculum will address those issues that the contractors face. This training will accommodate 18 participants or small contractors. Travis County did recommend two and one of the two are participating. I just want to close by saying that we do appreciate our local contractors and we hope that they continue to take advantage of the opportunities for the -- to take their business to the next level and thank to u.t. System.
>> let me ask you this: we're not posted for further fleshing out for discussing this issue, but I'm still concerned about things that were done earlier with that disparity study. And I hope that this is connecting the dots with the disparity study that we have gotten. I guess some information has kind of been on the situation that we've been spending money on to make sure that those programs had been the person that you have described there. So I'm kind of concerned about that. I really don't know exactly where we are on that. Let me know, let my staff know where we are in that particular study and then where are the dots going to connect as far as what you're doing here in that particular study that we've already spent money on.
>> all right. We will do that.
>> great.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, August 29, 2007, 18:30 AM