Travis County Commissioners Court
October 16, 2007
Executive Session
Now it's time to go into executive session. 14 c we will take in and that is the recommendation of assignment as special assistant to the Commissioners court of the executive manager we we discussed this morning am this will be under the personnel and legal consultation. Beg your pardon?
>> sorry to interrupt.
>> that was the t 1 that we need to discuss. And there is another discussion item, right? First thing this afternoon. 29 is to, by the way, that was legal consultation and personnel matters exceptions. 29, receive briefing from county attorney regarding Travis County code chapter 10, administrative leave with pay policy. There is a draft that was circulated, consultation with attorney exceptions to the open meetings act. 30, consider and take appropriate action on an offer to sell land, parcel numbers 5, 45 e and 6, needed for right-of-way in the 2005 bond program, howard lane east 1, roadway improvement project located in precinct 1, consultation with attorney and real property exceptions. 31, consider and take appropriate action regarding potential purchase of real estate along airport boulevard, consultation with attorney and real property. Why don't we hold the bfi item until this afternoon. This one may take a while. 32 we will not announce. We will take that up this afternoon. 33, receive briefing from county attorney and take appropriate action in robin vaughn versus jane noble, dana debeanuvoir, crit of wes lake hills, mark urdahl and jane rogers. 34, receive briefing from county attorney and take appropriate action on the following. A, construction related erosion event hays county, some ed environmenting impacts on hampton pool and other natural resources in Travis County. And b, settlement agreement proposed by Texas commission on environmental quality. That will be consultation with attorney exception. 35 we poe this morning. 3, receive breaching from county attorney and take appropriate action concerning extension of administrative leave with pay for juvenile probation employee, slot number 243, consultation with attorney and personnel matters exceptions to the open meetings act. We will discuss these matters in executive session but return to open court before taking any action.
we have returned from executive session and we will recess until 1:30 this afternoon. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote with Commissioner Daugherty temporarily away.
Now, this morning we started our executive session discussion and actually covered a few of the items, but not all of them. We did not cover 14-c, a matter involving the special assignment for our executive manager of planning and budget -- budget and planning when he leaves. And we need to get legal advice on that, so that's the consultation with attorney exception. 29 we did not discuss, the matter involving administrative leave with pay. There's a draft policy for consideration. Attorney attorney. We did discuss 30. There will be a motion on that one. We did discuss 31. Did not discuss 32, the matter involving bfi. The draft agreement with bfi waste systems of north america and giles holding lp. And b that have is response from executive director at the Texas commission on environmental quality, tceq, to propose amendment to tceq municipal solid waste permit number 1447 bfi sunset farms landfill. That will be under the consultation with attorney exception to the open meetings act. And the only other item that we did not discuss, but need to take into executive session is number 34, the matter involving the hays county erosion problem , associated water quality and environmental impacts on hamilton pool and other natural resources in Travis County. And the settlement agreement proposed by the tceq. And we'll discuss 34 a and b under consultation with attorney. We'll discuss these items in executive session, but will return to court before taking any action. And when we come back we'll take action on the items we discussed this morning as well as this afternoon.
Let's call back to order the Travis County Commissioners court. We did get legal advice. Probably no action required today. We will bring this up at the appropriate time. Let's indicate the court's intention to use mr. Smith in a special assistant to the Commissioners court capacity after we have hired a new executive manager of budget and planning. After that person has begun work I guess, and become accustomed to the budget process and needs no further assistance from mr. Smith. Is that okay. Without objection, it will just be directions and an expression of intention from the Commissioners court. And as he serves in had a capacity, it will not be after retirement, it will be basically in lieu of retirement. The intention is that he will continue as a Travis County employee. That is okay, mr. Smith? We will bring that back up at the appropriate time in the future. Number 29 is a matter involving the administrative leave with pay policy. I suggest that we have had back on the court's agenda on October 30, 2007. My motion today is that Commissioner eckhardt and I serve as a subcommittee of the Commissioners court and meet with the account county attorney's office, human resources and a representative from the audit tor's office to look at proposed changes to our current policy and to come back to the court with specific recommendations about changes that we should make.
>> second.
>> discussion? After in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Number 30 is a matter involving the tract of land we need for the howard lane east roadway improvement project and specifically this is for parcel numbers 5, 5 e and 6. I move that we accept the offer to sell this land to Travis County for the sum of $83,174.
>> second.
>> discussion? All in favor. That passes by unanimous vote. 31 we did get an update on. Any action required today? We'll have it back on at the appropriate time in the future, which may be next week. Staff is working and the consultants were not able to join us today. I understand they have a report to give us. So we'll check with them and if they are ready by next week, then we'll have it back on.
>> I think roger said he needed two weeks.
>> I'll check with roger to make sure. Let's say one or two.
>> okay.
>> we'll let roger, roger, let me know. I'm make sure I do this tomorrow morning and put it back on.
>> okay.
>> 32 is matter involving bfi. I move that we substitute for the whereas clause number 4, which involves the key word there being incompatible land use, and substitute the language that says whereas Travis County briefs that the conditioned operation of the landfill or a solid waste transfer station, or let's aid, or recycling facility would no longer be a compatible use after November 1, 2015, in the neighborhood in which the property is utilized, that we make that change in whereas clause number 4 and otherwise approve the draft document for release to the public. And if this motion passes, that the public be advised this document will be available first thing tomorrow morning, which is about 9:30. Assuming mr. Hiller gets here his regular time, about 9:20. And that may be delivered by e-mail or they may be pick up hard copies at the county attorneys office or at the office of any member of the Commissioners court assuming we will have those available tomorrow morning. Will we be able to e-mail those out also?
>> I forwarded a pdf version to each of your offices.
>> okay, john hiller of the account --county attorney's office or any member of the Commissioners court to get a copy? Second.
>> discussion? All in favor. Let the record show that Commissioner Gomez, Commissioner Daugherty and user truly voting against. Let's give mr. Hiller a special thanks for his hard work and dedication on this volatile and controversial item. Also the public would be aware this will be on the Commissioners court agenda next Tuesday for public comment. We will have it back on the Commissioners court agenda on October 30 we are working against a November 4 deadline. So after those two public comment opportunities, we will probably finalize a document for submission, finalize a document. The November 4th deadline is driven by tceq, right? Okay. Any other comments on it? Number 33 is a matter involving robin vaughn versus a whole lot of others. This involves the election out at west lake. No action required by us. It was an informative meeting more than anything else. There is litigation pending that is going to trial very soon. 34 involves the erosion event in hays county and basically pollution that impacted a stream as well as walnut creek and walnut pool in Travis County. I move that we authorize the county attorney to prepare an appropriate temporary restraining order and/or temporary injunction where basically we seek to enjoin the owners of the property, contractors and every other responsible parties, motor to discharge any pollutants from the project into Travis County, and especially into hamilton pool and Lake Travis and other bodies of water. That we have this matter on the court's agenda next Tuesday for appropriate action.
>> second.
>> that the appropriate parties be listed as defendants, and for the public, our concern here is the sediment and nutrients that are polluting the streams and water and, in our view, the potential for additional damage and pollution is so great that something must be done immediately.
>> judge, I definitely agree with this. Something I think we need to do, we cannot tell or predict when the next rain is going to come and stuff like that. I think a lot of this stuff is contingent and happening and predicated on that type of pollution in that area, hamilton pool and also Lake Travis. I think it's something we ought to move forward immediately. I support this.
>> seconded by Commissioner Daugherty. Any other comments? All in favor. That passes by unanimous vote. We did not discuss item 35. 36 is a request for administrative leave with pay for a juvenile probation, former juvenile probation employee in slot number 3243. Move that we approve an additional ten days as requested. Is there a second?
>> second.
>> second by Commissioner Gomez and Commissioner Daugherty. Discussion? All in favor. That passes by unanimous vote. That does it for the Commissioners court today.
>> move adjourn.
>> second.
>> all in favor. That passes by unanimous vote.
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 12:51 PM