Travis County Commissioners Court
October 16, 2007
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next. And citizen spitaro has signed in. We have a semi proclamation that we will probably have back on for consent next week.
>> we got caught up in doing county work and didn't get our agenda item properly posted.
>> this is a grand week, though.
>> this is accounts payable week. I wanted to recognize the people in the county that handle accounts payable. You know for a government accounts payable is not just processing operation, it's an audit to make sure that public funds are spent appropriately according to what you have decided, what our contracts are, what other provisions of the law. So these people are looking at things more than just processing. And I just in terms of volume, jose is sitting next to me, jose palacios is the chief auditing and accounts payable reports to him. He's going to briefly introduce our staff here. Just to give a feel for volume. I have to say I'm very proud of this division. We will process basically about 141,000 invoices a year, which results in about 40,000 operating checks, that doesn't include payroll and results in over half a million general ledger entries. So the volume is extremely high and we're handling that because of really the work of our people. We are in the middle of closing right now. Hopefully we're going to be closing on Friday. And entered into closing with three people short in this division so the rest of them really have done a yeoman's job of stepping in, doing more work than they do normally, they work hard normally, as well as our two administrative assistants jumped right in to help process and audit the invoices at year end and get ready to close. I would like to publicly thank this group, hard working. They are behind the scenes, you usually don't see them. You see jose, but not these people. I would like jose to introduce our staff.
>> okay. To start with I have mary crawford oversees the accounts payable pepper out here. Then we have our associate auditor ii --
>> when you introduce them, come forward so we can see who you are. Everybody is interested to know who they are.
>>
>> [multiple voices]
>> le blanc is an associate auditor two. Mary reyna, associate auditor 2, also. Gloria rios, associate auditor 1, with us for over 25 years. Newest members are holly huff been here for close to two years with us and our newest member, brent tristan whitmeyer, just knewly here about a month with us, special honors also go for jackie and jolene not able to be here with us.
>> too shy to be on camera.
>> thank you so much.se ]
>> can we just have the proclamation on consent next week?
>> sure.
>> that would be fine.
>> you want me to read it today.
>> if you would.
>> under citizens communication?
>> thank you.
>> that way we know if he have an accounts payable problem we know who to call on.
>> we will -- everybody in the county knows who you are now.
>> everyone in the county knows who you are now.
>> it reads whereas there are approximately 300,000 accounts payable professionals who work in the united states and support the american system by processing and paying invoices and employee travel and entertainment reimbursements dealing with vendor disputes and discrepancies, issuing 1099's and 1042 s's, earnings ad withholding federal employment taxes and dealing with a myriad of other payment related issues, whereas accounts payable professionals at Travis County play a key role in maintaining Travis County's economic health, carrying out such diverse tasks as keeping our bills paid, providing appropriate information to the various taxing authorities at both the state and federal levels and reimbursing our employees for expenses paid, and whereas accounts payable departments toil behind the scenes to keep our organizations running smoothly, complying with a myriad of federal and state wage and tax laws and accounts payable professionals have become increasingly proactive in educating both the business communities and the public at large, about the increasingly complex payment systems and issues while astutely trying to guard their organizations against fraud at all levels and next week we'll just proclaim this week accounts payable week.
>> thankl for your hard work.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> keeping us honest. Anybody else for citizens communication to address the court on any matter not on the agenda for up to a full three minutes. Have a seat, give us your name, we would be happy to get your comments.
>> Commissioners court, citizens of Austin, citizens of Travis County, my name is barbara terrell and I'm just here because I was here on September 11th and I had a proposed rule and at that time you guys were adopting, making changes and I also e-mailed a copy of that rule to --
>> the county judge.
>> yes, yes.
>> didn't want to say your name. But I received a response back from you saying that I'll see if I can get it adopted but I didn't hear anything back after that. What happened?
>> it did not get adopted.
>> was it submitted to -- to the budget office?
>> not formally. What you are asking us to do is comply with the law and not violate the law. Which we ought to do every day anyway. Now --
>> comply with the law but not violate the law.
>> what did your rule ask us to do?
>> I have it right here. I have a copy of it in the e-mail. After I talked to you on the 11th, I was followed by one of your -- the guy that just left and he just told me to submit it and I did and here's what it says. Ill gotten gain, Travis County holds its employees, including elected officials to high moral standards, the Travis County budget will only include money received as a result of honest transactions. So it was proposed rule number 20, income received from bribes, kick backs, fraud, moral turpitude and other ill gotten gain cannot be included as part of the projected or actual budget figures for any fiscal year. Money found to be received from these means must be returned as soon as practicable. And then I said thank you for considering it and I got that response saying that, ms. Terrell, I am just reviewing this language, I will see if I can get it adopted. When I contacted the budget office they said it was -- they said it was never submitted. Submitted.
>> my response in the e-mail was pretty much the same as my response to your testimony in court in September and today. We ought to comply with the law. There should be no ill gotten gain proceeds to come to Travis County. If they come to our attention, we ought to refer them either to the county attorney's office, the district attorney's office or some federal authority. That we should do every day. I am not sure that should be in the budget rules anyway. My letter was a nice way of saying thanks --
>> you sent me a letter.
>> e-mail, thanks we'll consider this. And I did.
>> you did? Okay.
>> right.
>> well, thank you for considering that.
>> you reminded us to comply with thely and do the right thing, and thank you. We ought to do that every day. However, a reminder every now and then is probably good. That's the good
>> [beeping] of your coming to us.
>> does that mean that my time is up?
>> you have -- please take two more minutes since I probably took half of yours.
>> I believe last time you were here you had a specific instance that you were trying to address, so if that -- if there was ill gotten gain there already is law to prevent that. It's far stiffer than a budget rule.
>> because that's the funny thing because when I have submitted information to Commissioners, I've submitted an affidavit to Margaret Gomez as to -- what appears to be a bad situation with the j.p. In her precinct, also there's one in precinct -- former one in precinct 3 and that would the ill gotten gain. Nothing was ever done about these judges. When I was filling out my application for the sheriff's office, it shows, that's right, something should be done because it has the penal code that I was supposed to initial when I applied for the sheriff's office about government records being falsified. So that was the case and I did go to -- go to david escomilla's office, but I see in my packet for the sheriff's office it has penal code, anything belonging to the government for information, including a court record. I'm supposed to initial this to show that I'm not falsifying my employment application. But the judge's falsifying their little court documents I don't see where they were prosecuted.
>> but the judges are elected they work for voters, we don't supervise them.
>> I thought you were doing the right thing in Travis County, here it is 3701.
>> we complaint tell the judges how to operate the j.p.'s offices are the sheriff. The sheriff is elected by Travis County voters the same as we. The sheriff answers to them. The problem that you brought us last time was in the Austin police department problem, right? And --
>> you guys sign an agreement, your memorandum of understanding with the Austin police department, their family violation protection team. You are a part of that. You sign the document that certain things would happen, you will operate in a certain way. When I came to you on September 11th it was about the fact that they were able to exploit the -- the bad judges in your Travis County.
>> but your rule dealt with proceeds for money received and initially you were talking about grant funds. But each time you come, you lay out four or five other matters that involve not the Commissioners court but other offices.
>> that you received the grant to do certain things, you didn't do it and -- and
>> [indiscernible] exploited, knew about -- so -- that was money individually I guess received by the judges or t e an fdsoud that you would do a certain thing that was ctrt meraumf understanding, you guys signed it.
>> we audit those internally, typically there's an outside audit. If the state funding, the audit requirement is there. If it's federal funding there are audit requirements there. There are audits all over the place. Typically we rely on professional auditors or accounting folk with experience to do these audits and if there are problems to call them to our attention. There have been cases where there have been problems and we have referred those to the appropriate authorities. Either the county attorney or the district attorney's office. Luckily it only happens every now and then. Typically it's the handling of cash. It's not proceeds. It's cash in different offices that normally your cash comes to a certain place we have got three or four people dealing with it, accounting for it, you know, to try to prevent a theft is what you're talking about more than anything else. That's our biggest problem here. The matter that you mentioned in terms of grants we have to make sure that we meet grant requirements or keep auditing. If there are specific questions about specific grants, we can look into those, but as to the child protective services or domestic relations.
>> family violence protection team which Travis County is a part of.
>> if there is a specific complaint then we can have that looked into. It doesn't take a budget rule to do that. All it takes is a specific complaint. We need specifics.
>> I have brought specifics to your Commissioners.
>> but it dealt with your individual case, which -- right? It was your individual case with that --
>> which made me realize that there was a problem.
>> with that agency.
>> okay.
>> okay. Citizens communication gives you an opportunity to share with us any information that you would like for up to three minutes and you have got two left. How is that?
>> I'm just going to close up by saying I guess the next thing that I'll do, I'll just do another affidavit, just encompassing, have all of the evidence from the different judges in --
>> on this particular issue?
>> on the ill gotten gain from your judges, the way that I've been to Commissioners court giving you documents, e-mailed you about what's going on, and the last time I was here you -- you wanted me to go to the police department when you were a part of the agreement. I'll just ask -- I think that I'll just ask the department of justice to extend their investigation to include Travis County because you are a part of that agreement, too. Thank you.
>> dealing with the specifics is far more useful than a budget rule. There are already rules that are far more powerful in preventing that than a budget rule.
>> thank you.
>> if I could get your slip.
>> okay.
>> you want me to walk up there and hand it to you?
>> please. Citizens communication form, we make those part of the official record. Thank you. Anybody else for citizens communication to address the court on any matter not on the agenda?
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, October 17, 2007, 18:30 AM